Jarek shifted his gaze to Burns. “What’s that all about?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, who is it that you’re fighting and why?”
Burns shook her head. “That’s a conversation you need to have with the commander. I just blow things up.”
Chapter 31: Jarek
“Commander, might I have a word with you?” Jarek had waited until after the meal and watched for a time when West seemed to be unoccupied.
“What’s on your mind?”
He scuffed his feet on the stone cavern floor as he put his thoughts in order. “If I might say so, you’ve asked me—or rather your people have asked me—a lot of questions. I have done my best so far to answer honestly. And I assure you that I will continue to do so. But I would appreciate perhaps a bit more candor on your part. I don’t understand what it is that I have stepped into. Who are you fighting and why? What have I got to do with any of this?”
The commander gestured toward a vacant section of the cavern. “Fair questions. I will tell you what I can.” She eased herself down into a squatting position and motioned for Jarek to sit. “I’ll start at the beginning. We,” she waved her arm gesturing toward the band in the cavern, “are humans. We fight with other humans.” She paused and scratched at the hair on her temple. “I know, it sounds pointless, this fighting thing. And we do not do it lightly. The human land, Caravast, as it’s called, is ruled by King Wyndred. It is against his forces that we fight.”
The information set off alarms in Jarek’s head. So these were rebels, trying to overthrow the government. And now he was a part of it. “If I may be so bold, why do you fight the king?”
“Long story. But let me finish my previous thought first. Humans have not always been the only race in the larger world, which we call Kronos. Our best information is that, at least at some time in the past, other races than humans also inhabited the world—ogres and elves mainly. They lived in their own areas, and today no one around these parts knows whether they even still exist. The last anyone heard of them, as far as I can tell, was about two hundred years ago after the great war. Since then, the boundaries of our land are impenetrable, which means that we cannot travel beyond our borders.”
The mention of other races and the association with other lands struck a chord—perhaps the children had ended up in those areas. Unfortunately, Jarek knew that the commander would not be able to shed any light on that. He nodded without speaking.
“Which brings me back to your question, why we fight the king.” She paused, staring down and scraping the floor surface of the cavern with a stick which she used as a pointer. “Before the great war, the human race could be described in polite terms as warlike. In fact, we were far worse than that. We were brutal—cruel and greedy beyond description. We sought dominion over all. And that brought us to the brink of extinction.” She shook her head, her gaze never leaving the ground.
“There aren’t any good descriptions or explanations for how the great war began or how it ended. Only that great numbers of dead piled upon one another. When it concluded, the lands of the three main races were disconnected—sundered. Between the lands, a fading—a sort of barrier—appeared. And so it has remained since then. After that, our people changed. We became farmers and hunter-gatherers. We focused on living and making our lives better. And with this change, we lived in peace for the past two centuries.”
Jarek reached up and rubbed one of his floppy ears. “And what changed? After all, from what you say, the lands are still disconnected. But now, rather than peace, you fight with one another?” It came out sounding accusatory, which was not his intention.
West smiled and glanced at him. “Well said. Yes, we fight each other. And not a day goes by that it doesn’t rend my soul. But this brings us back to the king. Wyndred rules the human lands. Systematically, he has torn apart the structure of our society. He has pulled our people from their farms and the gathering pursuits and forced them into his army.”
“Why? If there are only humans in this land and the king rules the land, why does he need everyone to be in the army, unless, of course, it’s to fight rebels?”
The commander laughed. “No. We, as rebels, were not in existence when the king started this fight. His sight seems focused elsewhere. He forced a large number of citizens into service in the mines. But, oddly, there is nothing in the mines that warrants great numbers of laborers. Yes, we get ore as well as precious metals for coinage. But we’ve always had plenty of those materials. Why the sudden mining effort? Our best information is that he seeks crystals. As far as I know, he hasn’t found much in that regard. So, trying to put it all together, we believe that he has turned his gaze to the elven and ogre lands. Up until now, we have been content to be a distraction. If he is kept busy engaging us, he might not have the full resources to focus on other races, especially if he has no way to get there.”
A knot formed in Jarek’s stomach. He could see a larger picture emerging.
West continued, verifying what the Azyrean already suspected. “Your arrival and tales of travel using beams and crystals, well, changes things. You traveled across great distances and barriers that, by our way of thinking, should have been impassable. And yet here you are.”
“Yes, I see your point. But what is it that you want? I have no idea how anyone might travel to these other lands. And even if I did, why would you want to know? I thought the whole idea was to prevent the king from doing just that.”
The commander hung her head again. When she spoke, the words came out slowly and softly. “Jarek, it gives me no pleasure to tell you this. You are right, neither I nor my band here have any interest in traveling. In fact, we are not at all interested in your crystals or your beams, at least not for our own sake.” She paused and looked at him, fire in her eyes.
“But make no mistake, I believe that you have the secret to travel locked in your mind somewhere. And Wyndred would spare no effort extracting it. The king can be, how should I say this, very persuasive. And he does not care about how much pain he inflicts. He would, without a thought, drain your mind dry and then kill you. I wish I could tell you that I keep you here for your own good, but that would be a lie. I keep you here so that he cannot learn what I believe you know. And be sure of this, if it came to it, I would see you dead before I allowed you to fall into his hands.”
Jarek could see the pain in her eyes. But he could also see that she told the truth. “Well, I confess that this is not comforting news. But I appreciate your honesty.”
She reached out and touched his shoulder. “Jarek, truly we mean you no harm. And I pledge that we will treat you well, respect you, and help you as we can. But we simply cannot allow you to be used by King Wyndred.”
Chapter 32: Jarek
Jarek found himself in a gathering of what seemed to be a small, rather special group of rebels. He had no idea what this was about, other than the revelation he had gotten during his last discussion with the rebel leader.
West was not one for pretentious behavior. They sat in a circle on the ground. Apparently, amenities such as tables and chairs were a rarity in the rebels’ world. She sat among the group as if she occupied no special status and spoke without standing. “Thanks for coming, everyone. There are some things we need to discuss.” She stared at the documents in the center, as if lost in thought, before turning her attention to the group. “First, just so we’re all on the same page here, some introductions. For those who don’t already know, this is Jarek Whit.” She gazed at him for a moment. “Jarek, I think you know Captain Virgil and Burns.” She gestured toward an attractive female with long blonde hair. “This is CeCe Millard, who coordinates our intelligence networks. And the young fellow there is Cornell Bandauer, obtainer of unobtainable goods.” She chuckled.
“Just Corny is fine.” The young man looked to be about the same age as Burns. His shaggy brown hair covered most of his ears and he was thin and wiry, and Jarek imagined how this fellow might get
around unseen. He had a harmless and unobtrusive look to him. No one would give him a second glance.
As a moment of silence descended, West’s gaze wandered to each of the faces in the group. When she spoke, her words came out with a touch of weariness. “I guess all of you heard Jarek’s comments and explanations about moonbeams and such. I'm not going to go into details, however, I think we can all agree that the game has changed. Given his apparent ability to travel as he has done, we must now consider the possibility that Wyndred is attempting to discover a means of escaping the bounds of our lands. Up until now, we didn’t have a clue why he was interested in crystals. But with Jarek’s arrival, it seems clear to me.”
She paused and took a deep breath. “There is more that may have escaped you. Our history speaks of other lands on our world—lands populated by elves and ogres. We have long known this. But now we must accept that there are also other worlds and that travel between these worlds is possible. How? We don’t yet know. But Jarek did it. And if he can do it, others can as well. That means that Wyndred is no longer constrained just to our world. There is an entire universe of worlds out there that, should he discover the secrets of travel, are his for the taking. We cannot allow this to happen.”
The group had fallen deathly silent. Jarek, for his part, sat stunned. He had never considered that whatever infighting is taking place here could spill over into other worlds… and possibly even Pangrove.
West jabbed her pointer into the center of a map. “Starting now, things change. We cannot hope to defeat Wyndred. Up until this point, we’ve been satisfied in distracting him. But now I know we must defeat him and we cannot do this alone. I propose that we consider trying to find the travel solution ourselves and form alliances with the ogres and elves. After all, they have more to lose than we do. And, I might add, we do have one advantage. We actually have someone in our midst who has traveled.” She gestured toward Jarek.
“Beginning tomorrow, our priority has to be figuring out the travel. Burns, you continue to work with Jarek. Corny, you make sure they get everything they need. Virgil, our patrols will focus on support for resource acquisition and protection. CeCe, let’s activate your sources and find out what we can about the king’s success in finding crystals. Any questions?” She paused and once more looked around. “No? Okay, then, get some rest. We begin tomorrow.”
The group stood as one and began to disperse. As Jarek started over toward his sleeping pad, he caught part of a conversation between West and Virgil. The commander shook her head and gazed toward the cave entrance. “I don’t buy the coincidence angle. We’ve heard it too many times.”
Virgil’s response came in muted and broken. “I’m sure... not certain... strange….”
Jarek turned to watch West move in closer to Virgil and emphasize her points with a finger on his chest. “No one, absolutely no one, but you and me. Understand?”
Chapter 33: Jarek
As the meeting broke up and people went different ways, the young woman he had just met approached.
“Hi. I’m CeCe Millard. I haven’t actually had a chance to meet you yet.” She extended her hand.
“Honored.” Jarek reached out and shook her hand. Interesting ritual—the greeting. He’d have to remember that one.
“So, you really did travel from another world?” Her gazed rested easily on his face.
“I suppose, based on what I see here and what I knew at home.” Jarek started to go into more detail but he could sense that it would be wasted.
“And you have no idea how you did it?” The comment came out as casual, off-handed.
“I guess that’s what I’m supposed to be working on.” He chuckled.
“You working with Burns? She’s smart with that kind of stuff.”
He nodded. Jarek cursed his bashfulness and felt somewhat embarrassed by this woman. She was quite attractive—for a human, that is.
She glanced around the room and then back at him. “I’m going to activate some of my sources to see if we can begin putting pieces together. I’ll make sure that you have everything I uncover, and, if you can do the same with me, it’ll go easier. That way, we can perhaps get the entire picture.”
He shrugged. “Sure.” Although he wasn’t sure. West had not said anything to him about working with anyone else. On the other hand, the commander had spoken openly to the entire group, so he assumed that they all knew everything.
◆◆◆
As the hour grew late Jarek found himself too wound up to sleep. He tried to put everything into perspective, all of the changes in his life that had occurred over the last few days. But nothing really made sense. All he knew was that he seemed to be at the center of something far more dangerous than kids and moonbeams. He wondered in passing about the fate of the two children. He wondered if, even hoped, they had made it back home. If not, well, he refused to think about that.
He plopped down beside Burns. “You mind if I ask you some questions?”
The spikey haired young woman grinned. “Fire away.”
“When I first encountered this band, I thought Virgil was in charge. After all, he was leading the people out there. And he does seem very, I don’t know, knowledgeable about this sort of thing—leading and soldiering and such. How come West is in charge?” What he didn’t really want to ask was why a female was running things. That would not have been the case in Pangrove.
Burns shrugged. “Yeah, Virgil’s a smart guy about military stuff. He was one of the king’s captains who came over to our side. He runs the operations outside. But West, she’s got the history. I think her father started the whole thing. He organized a lot of the farmers and laborers in the beginning. They fought the nobles and the king’s forces for a while before the commander’s father was killed. I wasn’t around then, but she was just a kid when that happened, at least that’s the way I heard it. Things kind of died out for a while but as Wyndred kept pulling people either into his army or throwing them into the mines, she started things back up again. You might say it’s personal with her.”
“Yes, I can imagine. That must have been some years ago. If she was a kid then and she’s a bit older now, you know….”
The young woman laughed. “I know what you mean. I guess it has been a few years, come to think of it. I’ve just been with this bunch for a year, well, coming up on a year next month. And I don’t have much to do with anything but the explosives and stuff. All that fighting, that’s not my thing.”
Jarek thought about that last comment. Fighting didn’t seem like his thing either. But he felt as though he was being pulled along in some fast-moving river with no control over where he went or what happened to him.
Chapter 34: Marzi
Marzi held the batch of ferns with both hands. “What do I do with these?” She turned to see Ryshara setting the eggs on a small table.
Rys pointed toward a small pot on the stove. “When the water boils, drop them in, but only for about a minute. They must be hot but not overcooked. We want them to be a little crunchy.” She pulled three wooden plates from a shelf.
The water steamed, and small bubbles made their way to the surface along the outside. Marzi knew enough about cooking, though, to wait for a full, rolling boil. As she waited, her mind wandered back to Rintaur’s revelation. She wanted to ask Rys about it but couldn’t figure out what to ask. After all, he was right. This place, this Twilight Bough, had but a single moon. Sometimes it was in the sky, sometimes not. What more was there to know? She’d ridden a green moonbeam to another world. The significance was not lost on her. She could not simply walk home.
The boiling water brought her back to the moment. “Okay, its boiling.”
She dropped the ferns into the hot water and a waft of pungent but pleasant aroma greeted Marzi. She grabbed a large spoon that hung above the pot and stirred the mix.
“I will be right back.” Rys made her way through the door at the back of the kitchen area and returned a moment later with a small handful o
f dried meat. “Venison.” She grabbed a small board and placed it on the stand beside the eggs. Dropping the meat onto the board, she retrieved a knife and began dicing it. “The ferns should be ready. Go ahead and pull them out.” She handed Marzi the three wooden plates.
Marzi portioned out the ferns equally and handed the three plates back to Rys.
Ryshara took them one at a time and arranged them on the board beside the meat. She cracked an egg onto each plate of ferns, allowing it to sink down into the plant fronds, cooking as it did so. She then scooped up a small bit of diced meat and sprinkled it on top of the concoction. “And there we have it—dinner.”
◆◆◆
To her surprise, Marzi enjoyed the meal. The combination of ferns, eggs, and meat tasted delicious. And while the two other individuals at the table were not her family, it felt good to sit and share food with them, almost like normal.
Lothran nodded as he chewed. “Very good.”
After a few moments of silence, Rys’s father stopped eating and glanced up. “Marzi, tomorrow you will go into the forest with Ryshara to begin your training. You must promise to abide by her instructions.” He paused and then added, “You must agree not to run off alone.”
Tears threatened Marzi. She wanted to be home. She tried to answer but had no voice. She nodded her head and stared at her plate. The food suddenly tasted bitter.
◆◆◆
As he had done the previous evening, Lapis ranged ahead, returning to the pair occasionally as if to check on them before bounding out again. Ryshara set a grueling pace, and Marzi struggled to keep up. Sweat rolled down the side of her head. Her dirty, sweat-stained clothing clung to her body. “Can we slow down a little?”
Rys stopped, turned, and nodded. “Yes, sorry,” and wandered over to a large tree. Sitting back against the trunk, she passed a drinking skin to Marzi. “Here, drink.” Taking out a large folded leaf, she extracted a strip of dried meat and handed it to Marzi as well. “We will be in the area in about thirty minutes. There we will gather ferns, wild onions and, if we are lucky, some shrooms. On the way home, we can stop by the stream where I found you and hook some fish for dinner.”
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