They began to walk on through the forest that was a graveyard, and continued without conversation until the evening. As darkness fell, Flora called a halt.
“Let’s get a bite of food and settle in for the night,” she said as she rustled through their backpacks, and pressed food into Kendel’s hands.
Kendel let his consciousness leave his body, and he searched the nearby area for any hints of danger while he mechanically ate, until he realized Flora was speaking.
“I said, we should have brought an extra sheet for sleeping,” Flora told him. “But you weren’t paying attention.”
“I was out of my body, checking for threats,” Kendel answered. “There’s nothing around us.”
They soon settled into sleeping, Flora with her back turned to Kendel as her breathing grew slow and regular, and he thought about her wish for an extra sleeping cover, undoubtedly because she would have preferred to sleep at a greater distance from him. He gave a sigh of disappointment and wondered why he hadn’t told Flora he loved her.
But she hadn’t told him she loved him either, he reminded himself. Of course, there’d been no perfect time for them to say such things to each other. They’d only been together recently for less than three days, and before that they both had focused on his budding romance with Liza during their time together.
And she was Flora Greene, a movie star, he reminded himself, someone who had millions of people who swore they loved her, though they’d never met her. Perhaps a declaration of love meant something different to her, he mused.
Except he knew that it didn’t. He knew her well enough to know that she had a heart, a good heart, that was like everyone else’s, capable of loving and of enjoying being loved in a sincere way. He’d shown her his love, he felt, without ever using the words. And now the hope that he could tell her, and that she would say the same thing in return, was gone. Gone until they could overcome a whole lifetime of challenges, leading up to fighting against superhuman monsters called Dons.
If the ghost of Impiraght hadn’t taken Flora’s love away, would there be a difference, he wondered. They’d still be on the same quest to achieve multiple goals – finding Agata, reaching the wizard, restoring his vision, rescuing Miriam, and beyond all of that, fighting the Dons. But the difference was inside Kendel’s heart, knowing that now his love for Flora couldn’t be reciprocated by the strong-willed girl at his side.
Would she even have chosen to have come back to Miriam’s world if she hadn’t loved him, he wondered. He could offer to take her back to the modern world; it was only a day’s hike away back at the cave in the Kisatchie Thrusts.
He fell asleep, troubled and saddened. But when he awoke, he heard the sounds of birds greeting the dawn, a variety of songs and calls bringing the promise of a new day that gladdened his heart. Once he got to Miriam and set her free, he was sure that the future would seem brighter, the path to success would look more sure, and Flora’s love would, well, perhaps seem to be a more obtainable goal.
He reached out a hand to find her, to give her a gentle shake to awaken her, only to find that the spot next to him was empty, and the ground cloth was cool where she should have been. He shot up into a sitting position.
“Trying to cop a feel?” Flora’s voice sounded playful, and her toe nudged Kendel’s leg. “I’m right here.”
Kendel smiled. “I didn’t even have time to worry.”
“Flora,” he decided to make his offer, to gamble on her answer, “if you don’t want to be here with me, if you don’t want to face everything that’s ahead, we can go back to the cave, and I’ll take you back to the modern world.”
“Kendel, do you think the only reason I’m here is because I was in love with you?” she immediately sensed his motives in making the astonishing offer. “I love this land, with magic and adventure and goddesses. I feel like I made as much of a promise as you did to come back to help. Miriam brought us both here because she needed us.
“And since I’m traveling with the boy who has superpowers, I think I’m going to be fine,” she concluded. “So don’t make a pity play. Let’s just get going.”
They ate breakfast as they walked, and an hour along the way, as they dodged around trees, and descended over rocks, Flora came to a stop.
“There’s a ring of rocks and a pile of charcoal,” she said. “It’s the camping place you told me to look for.”
“The place near the spring, where the magical healing water comes from,” Kendel comprehended. “Let’s look for a grotto, to see if we can find the spring.”
“There’s a small stream here. Let’s follow it,” Flora observed. She took Kendel by the sleeve and began to lead him away from the river, following the rivulet into the surrounding hills. “How far away is the spring?” she asked.
“I was never there; I don’t know,” Kendel answered.
“Let’s hope this isn’t a wild goose chase,” Flora groused, but continued to move forward.
“Here! This is the place,” Flora said excitedly, five minutes later.
“What does it look like?” Kendel asked.
There’s a cliff, with a shallow opening, and water bubbling up in a small pool. Here, let me get one of those bottles out of your pack and we’ll fill it,” she told him. “You sit here,” she led him to a large, rounded rock and placed him there.
“How does this work? Do you drink it?” she asked.
“I never asked,” Kendel answered. “Probably drink; maybe soak?” he suggested.
“I’m going to soak my feet in the water. I’ve got some blisters,” she said. “We should have bought better socks,” she added as he heard her give a small grunt.
“It’s warm water,” she said, “not cold! I thought it would be chilly. It feels good.
“You stay there a minute longer,” she told him seconds later. He heard sounds of movement. “I’m going to give myself a sponge bath while we’re here. I won’t take more than a couple of minutes,” she promised.
Kendel grunted his assent, and sat back as he heard splashing sounds.
An insect buzzed annoyingly near his ear and he swatted at it but missed. The sound continued, making him crane his neck away from the source of the irritation, but it continued, and he swatted again with one hand, then both hands.
The annoyance continued, and as Kendel prepared to stand up suddenly to switch his location, he belatedly realized that the distraction was not a noise just outside his ear, but a sensation inside his own head. He was feeling an effect that was not troubling him in the physical world, but in the spiritual one.
He barely heard Flora splashing water, and he was faintly aware that she gave a soulful sigh of satisfaction as she washed herself in the warm, beneficial waters of the spring. He focused mostly though on preparing and then releasing his own consciousness to explore the world around him, hoping that he could locate the cause of the irritant.
As soon as he rose from his body, he felt a strong sense of evil. There was an evil entity, and even though it was clearly only one entity, it gave off a psychic wave of evil presence that felt worse than the whole flock of harpies had felt just a few days earlier. It was stupefying in the way it warped his sense of the world. And it was close.
Kendel instinctively pulled his awareness in close to himself, focused it on locating Flora’s physical location, then he followed his spirit to her.
“Flora! There’s something out here near us – something evil!” He reached out and grabbed her, then abruptly pulled her towards himself and up against his body with one hand, while the other hand held the Sword of Justice, whose grip grew warm against his palm.
“Kendel? What? Ouch!” she exclaimed, shocked by the suddenly manhandling she suffered.
And then the evil was gone. Within a pair of seconds it faded dramatically away and became undetectable.
“It’s gone,” Kendel loosened his grip on Flora as he tried to probe the world around them.
“Kendel, move your hand!” Flora spoke
sternly, interrupting his concentration. He belatedly realized where he had was holding her and he jerked it away as if from an open fire.
“I’m sorry,” he stammered. “There was something nearby that was evil, very, very evil. I wanted to protect you.”
Flora shrugged herself out of her position pinned against Kendel, then hastily pulled her clothes back on, struggling to fit them over her wet body.
“What do you think it was?” Flora asked when she was dressed and had her pack on her back, a bottle of the spring water packed away.
“I couldn’t tell. I’m not very good at this really. I learned to do it accidentally,” he explained. “But that, whatever it was, felt really bad.”
Flora tugged at his sleeve and they began to walk back towards the river.
“Well, we got what we came for, and that water does seem special. I feel better than after a day at the gym and the spa,” Flora offered.
They walked back to the vicinity of the riverbank, then Kendel told Flora to try to find a place where stones were just beneath the surface.
“There’s some boot prints in the mud here. Is this it? Oh it is – I see the stones now,” Flora exclaimed. “We want to cross to the other side, right?”
“Yes,” Kendel agreed. “Would you carry both our packs across the river so that they’ll be dry and waiting for us when I cross over? And would you take my clothes too?” he asked. “I fell in right away last time, and I just want to be prepared,” he offered.
“You’re a pessimist,” Flora snorted. “I’ll take the packs over and be right back.” He listened to the sound of her feet splashing in the running water as he removed his boots, then his shirt, and finally his pants.
“Okay, nature boy,” Flora confronted him on her return. “I’ll take your clothes. How do we get you started?”
“Can you find a stick that I can use as a staff?” Kendel asked. “I should have gotten one as soon as we came out of the cave; I don’t know what I was thinking.”
Flora rummaged through the forest and returned with a suitable piece of wood minutes later, then led Kendel to the first stone. He stepped into the water and found his balance, then reached forward with the staff to find the next stone.
“A little further ahead, now to the right,” Flora guided him, and he found the stone, then warily stepped onto it. The pair slowly proceeded to cross the river in such a fashion without incident.
When he reached the opposite side of the river he turned and faced the water as he began to speak.
“Fontaine rescued me the last time. She’s a water nymph, and I don’t really understand what that means, if she’s made out of water, or can breathe the water, or just lives in the water,” he offered.
“Fontaine! I’m back!” he called to the river from the bank.
“Are you expecting her to come to you?” Flora asked.
“No, her work is done. She was assigned to help me; maybe I was a chore, a punishment,” he laughed at himself. “Fontaine, you’ve been a bad girl, so now you’ll have to help the blind man through the wilderness,” He mockingly said.
They made camp early that evening and slept without incident. The next day, they intercepted the road in the mid-morning, and their travels became easier.
Chapter 31
“We don’t have any money,” Flora noted around noon on the day they began walking on the road. “How are we going to buy meals or rooms at the inn?”
“I only know one way,” Kendel said. “We have to ask Shaiss.”
“The goddess of punishment will give you money?” Flora asked skeptically.
“In a way,” Kendel answered. “She showed me where to steal some from last time,” he grinned at the irony.
“She told you to steal?” Flora asked in astonishment.
“It was her way to punish the man I took the money from,” Kendel explained. “Maybe she has someone like that waiting to be robbed on the road ahead.”
“Can you ask her?” Flora suggested.
“I will when we get to a city with a temple,” Kendel replied.
“Do you need to wait? Could you just ask now? Say a quick prayer to her?” Flora pushed him.
“I could, but there’s no rush, is there?” Kendel asked, slightly annoyed at the flurry of questions, and slightly annoyed to have no good reason to refuse Flora’s request.
“I just want us to be prepared; if we’re going to not have money because she refuses, it’s better to know sooner rather than later. That way we can come up with plan B,” his companion said.
“Okay. Okay,” Kendel said in a slightly petulant tone as he stopped walking, causing his sleeve to slip out of Flora’s grasp as she took another step forward.
He dropped to his knees to pray.
“You could have at least gone to the side of the road,” Flora said haughtily.
“I’m not blocking any traffic, am I? There’s not anyone else coming, is there?” Kendel quarreled.
He ignored her and focused on his prayer.
“My goddess, Shaiss, I have done as you’ve asked,” he began. “Instructed,” he corrected himself. “I have done as you instructed. I have gone back to the other world and found Flora, and she is here now. We are going to do the things you want done. We will find Agata and Parker and send them back to meet the others from Sunob at Prince Lumen’s. We will go to the wizard and find out how to set Miriam free, and how to restore my vision.
“Can you help us by providing money for us, so that we can have food and places to stay, or for other reasons?” he asked.
That’s it? You’ve been back for days, and there’s been no thanks for providing guides or finding the place for you to pass between worlds? Shaiss answered immediately, as if she had been waiting for an opportunity to scold Kendel.
And now you want something, so you’re coming to me? She pointed out. How convenient it must be to have a goddess to just order to serve you.
If you’d said thank you to me earlier, I might have helped you out of that problem in Impiraght, Shaiss taunted him. But you just relied on your own imperfect self and now you will suffer the consequences if the girl meets a better man and chooses him instead of you.
“Will that happen?” Kendel was aghast at the thought. “Is she going to pick someone else? Is there someone for her ahead?”
You’ll have to find out. Many things are possible. If this whole affair was easy and predictable, I wouldn’t have to rely on frail tools like you, would I? Shaiss asked.
Kendel wanted to turn to Flora, to look at her, both to check on her – hearing that she might fall in love with another man, as well as to give her an expression that would show how much he was suffering in the conversation because she had insisted on it.
There is a place ahead where you will find some money, as it happens. I anticipated your need in advance and have made plans for you, Shaiss spoke, regaining Kendel’s attention. There will be a nobleman who is being robbed by a gang of thieves at a bridge over a river. With your powers, you can rescue the nobleman and dispatch the thieves, then take their plunder as your own.
I can’t make it any easier for you than that, can I? Shaiss asked.
Kendel thought about an impertinent reply but resolved not to risk the goddess’s ire.
“Thank you, my goddess. We will be glad to carry out this service on your behalf,” he answered.
“I will go to your temple and give you thanks when we reach a city,” he promised. He hoped that was a suitable way to end the prayer. He wanted to end his conversation with Shaiss, the sooner the better.
So be it. I will expect you, Shaiss replied. And be alert; some things are not what they seem.
He puckered his lips for a moment, then exhaled noisily, before he awkwardly rose to his feet.
Flora came to his side. “Well?” she asked.
“We’re going to come upon a robbery at a bridge, and we’ll rescue the victim and then keep the robbers’ plunder,” he told her the least amount of information h
e could politely.
“We’re going to break up a robbery and confiscate the cash?” Flora asked skeptically.
“At a bridge,” Kendel confirmed.
“Is it close?” Flora asked. “What else did she say?”
“She didn’t tell me how far it would be. She told me,” he paused, before he tried to shock her by announcing that Shaiss had blamed him for the situation that had removed her love for him.
“What?” Flora was left hanging, eager to know the next nugget of information.
“Nothing. She’s mad because I didn’t say thank you right away when we got back here from our world,” he let his bitterness creep into his tone, only to then hear thunder overhead.
“Well, let’s get going and find this crime scene we need to take care of,” Flora sensed Kendel wasn’t going to say any more unless she wheedled, and she wasn’t inclined to do so. She had the information she sought.
They walked until nightfall, passing occasional hamlets where four, five or six farmhouses were relatively close to one another, while the landscape was gently rolling hills. They spent the night on the ground in a patch of forest, and the next day pulled on ponchos early as they walked on in a dreary, rainy landscape.
Flora was leading Kendel in the middle of the afternoon, neither of them having much to say in the conditions, when Kendel’s ears heard a distant scream.
“Did you hear that?” he asked.
“I didn’t hear anything,” Flora answered.
“I thought there was a shout, but I don’t hear anything else now,” he concluded he had imagined the sound, when a group cheer sounded in the distance.
“That was a happy sound,” Flora commented. “Is that what you heard before?”
“No, it was a scream, like pain or fear,” Kendel tried to analyze his memory of the shout, but could come up with no additional recollections.
Two minutes later there was another scream, one which both of them heard distinctly, and Flora instinctively increased her pace, pulling the willing Kendel along with her.
The Blinded Journey Page 21
