by Chris Africa
Lyear grabbed the pack and rifled through it like a child unwrapping a Harvest Fest gift. He pulled out a little wooden box and opened it. His face relaxed a little as he looked on the contents. His eyes shot to the sides, and he shoved it back in his pack.
"Are you satisfied?" she asked.
Lyear pulled on his tunic, then his boots.
"I'm going with you, you know. This time you can't stop me," Nita said.
His eyes flicked to her hand, and he shrugged. "Suit yourself. But you’ll have to keep up. I’m not waiting for you."
30: The Fine Boat
Chassy gawked at his pouch, now an enormous sack tugging him into the current. His side of the raft was definitely sinking. He hoisted the pouch as far to the center of the raft as he could, and the raft became uniformly overcome with water.
"What is that?" Andrev shouted, lifting his face out of the water. "Get rid of it! It's going to sink us!"
"I can't. We might need it. It's Vornole's pouch!" He would almost have been tempted to toss the darn thing if he had been able to let go with either hand.
The raft hit a rock, spiked out of the water, spun around, and sped toward the bank. It jammed on top of a reed bed and stopped.
Chassy clung to the rudder post, waiting for the next jolt to send them spinning back out into the current. After a few minutes, he stood on shaky legs. Andrev remained on his stomach, his fingers wrapped so tightly in the bindings that his knuckles were blue. Or maybe they were blue from the cold. Either way, it took Chassy several minutes to pry his hands loose. He wished Andrev would pull himself together. Apparently, the ability to keep calm in the face of disaster could not be learned from a book.
"Come—on—" he grunted, freeing the last fingers. "I think we can get to shore from here, if we stick to the reeds."
"I don't want to go in the water," Andrev moaned. His face was definitely the wrong color.
Chassy scooted off the edge of the raft and felt for the riverbed with his feet, gradually lowering himself until he touched solid ground. Then he slung the soggy sack over his shoulder and reached for Andrev's hands.
"Come on, Andrev, you can stand up here. It's not even dangerous." He tugged at Andrev's hands, but Andrev's limp weight was too much for Chassy’s exhausted muscles.
"I can't." Andrev’s voice cracked.
"Do you want me to leave you here? I can't carry you and these packs. Just roll off of the edge. You can touch the bottom easily. You're taller than me."
When there was no answer, he tried pulling the raft a little closer to the banks, but the reeds were so thick he could barely shove his own body through them. The raft didn't budge.
"Andrev, we have to move on. If you don't get off that raft, I'm going to dump you off," Chassy said.
It was harsh, and he wasn't sure he could easily tip Andrev into the river, but it seemed to work. Andrev crept to his knees, head down, hair dragging on the raft. He backed up to the edge. He dipped first one leg, then the other, in the water, lay down flat, and lowered himself over the edge. Chassy reached out a steadying arm as Andrev released the raft altogether and stood in the water shivering.
"Alright, let's get out of this cold water and dry off," Chassy said, breathing easier.
Pulling Andrev's reluctant body through the reeds was no small feat. Andrev must have been dragging his feet; he kept falling forward, almost dipping his head in the water and taking Chassy down with him each time. They finally reached shore and collapsed shivering in the mud. The water lapped at Chassy's feet, but he was too exhausted to move further. The raft stared at him from the reeds, and Chassy was glad now they had run ashore. Several of the bindings were loose, and one of the logs was actually starting to float away from the rest of the raft.
Sometime later, a peal of thunder shook him awake. Andrev was already sitting up, looking around miserably.
"There's going to be a storm," he said. "We should look for shelter."
Not that it really mattered, since they were still soaked to the bone, Chassy thought, taking stock of their surroundings. The woods rose up behind them on either side of the river for as far as they could see—not far, considering that the river twisted out of their sight both north and south. The raft remained stuck in the reeds, but it was gently rocking its way back into the current.
"Do you think we should pull the raft up?" Chassy asked.
"I'm not getting back on that thing. Let's see if we can find a big tree in the woods to hide under. We need to decide what to do next," Andrev said.
They found a suitable tree a little distance from the river. The hollow underneath its massive branches was large enough for them to stretch out side by side and protected enough to build a small fire. When they had warmed up a bit, Chassy dragged his oversized sack over by the fire and started removing items. First, the full-sized sword and scabbard. The blade was sharper than the one William had given him, and the hilt was more ornate.
"Well, at least we have a weapon now. One of us needs to be able to fight," he said. But he wasn't sure either of them could use it effectively.
"Are those butterflies?" Andrev reached for the sword.
The engraving did appear to be a flurry of delicately carved butterflies in various stages of flight. Chassy handed it over and turned his attention to the other objects in his pouch, which made a lot more sense now that they were a normal size.
Besides the two normal-sized gold coins, Chassy pulled out a cook pot—now large enough to be useful and heavy enough to quickly become a burden—as well as several unmarked vials of colorful powders and strange animal parts that looked like they belonged in Pookana's shop. The thimble was now large enough to fit a finger, though he couldn’t see what use he would ever have for it. The symbol on the stone turned out to be a leafless tree touched with silver filigree, and the brown thread was actually a very nondescript rope. The silver ring he slipped onto several different fingers before finding one that fit. It didn't seem to do anything. The book was now large enough to read; Andrev snatched it away, and Chassy let him keep it, relieved to have him acting normal again.
"It's a book of wizards' spells!" He fell into the book, oblivious to Chassy hanging over his shoulder. Andrev skimmed through the pages so quickly Chassy barely had time to catch the titles: levitation, love potions, even a spell for temporarily changing a person's skin color.
"How do you read so fast?" Chassy asked, but Andrev ignored him. Finally, he tugged the book out of Andrev's hand. "Okay, have you figured out yet how I make them small again?”
"Dry them out and don't use them," Andrev said, indicating a page in the book that he had been marking with his finger. "When they are completely dry and you are finished using them, they'll shrink."
"So if I want to keep the sword large, I just...?"
"Wear it."
Thunder cracked again, closer this time, followed by the soft patter of rain around them. Chassy was not as much of a reader as Andrev, but if anytime was good for reading books, it was now. Andrev had already opened Jebbita Sprach, and soon they were both leaning close over the small fire, intent on their reading.
"I'm sorry," Andrev said all of a sudden.
"What?" Chassy didn't know which was stranger—Andrev interrupting his own reading, or Andrev apologizing.
"I'm sorry for the way I behaved on the raft. I was just—" He hesitated.
"I understand, really," Chassy said. It was almost embarrassing to see Andrev like this.
"I was scared. I never felt like that before, so out of control. This trip is really taking a toll on me," Andrev explained.
"You were pretty green," Chassy said. He grinned, and Andrev gave him an embarrassed smile. "It's alright. It was a bad time for both of us. I only got off the raft because I was more afraid to be on than off."
Andrev rubbed his chin. "You know, if my mother could see me now, she'd hold me down and shave me."
"She'd take a razor to both of us, likely," Chassy laughed. Andrev was looking p
retty bad. Even before the raft incident, his flat, smooth hair had been collecting sticks and leaves. Now he was unrecognizable. Chassy cringed to think of his own appearance. After all this, a razor would be the obvious choice to clean it all up.
After half a day of waiting for the rain to stop, Chassy decided they were losing too much time. The fire smoldered, and little rivers of water had started running down through the area where they crouched.
On the banks, the mud was so slippery that Chassy nearly plunged back into the chilly water several times. Finally, they cut thick walking sticks, which they planted firmly in the mud with each step. The pouch couldn't be made dry, so it remained large and heavy.
Chassy's spell book contained a number of spells to help travelers stay dry, but all of them required ingredients they didn't have—oil from some vine they'd never heard of, the skin of a fish they weren't likely to catch in this fast-flowing river.
"Maybe this is skin of the redtail salmon," Chassy said, holding up one of the unmarked vials from his pack. It did look like a red scaled skin.
"Or maybe it's a skin from another fish, or even some kind of lizard," Andrev said. "You might accidentally turn one of us into a fish, kill us both—or at best, waste something that we might need later."
So they remained cold and wet all day. When the sky became too dark for them to see properly, they found another tree with sleeping space underneath and started a fire using needles and branches that they scavenged from under the trees. It was enough to take the edge off the chill, but when the sky brightened and they awoke, their clothes were still soggy.
For three days, they traveled the river's edge, until they came to a clearing. Before stepping out, they waited in the tree line a while. There was a bridge and what looked like the ruins of a building just this side of it. The grass appeared to have been trampled by a large herd of animals, and the smell of charred wood hung heavy in the damp air.
"Is that a guard tower?" Chassy wished they had William's farsight tube with them.
Andrev shrugged. "Maybe. It looks like a road starts here. Or they could be toll collectors for the queen."
It soon became apparent that the building on this side of the bridge had actually burned down—recently, too, from the look of it.
"What do you suppose happened here?" Chassy asked, lifting a pair of soggy breeches with the tip of his sword.
"Well, not an accident, obviously, unless the men wearing these clothes just decided to undress while the place burned down," Andrev said. "Half-giants would have just smashed everything. Maybe Northmen, maybe someone else."
"The ground is all trampled here, like a lot of horses passed by," Chassy said. "If it was Northmen, it was a really big group."
He stood on the edge of the bridge and peered to the other side. "I suppose we have to cross here, but I just hope we don't meet whoever or whatever did this."
They crossed in the center of the bridge. Another burned structure was on the opposite side, with more clothes and discarded weapons.
"Maybe we should be practicing our weapons whenever we stop, like we used to do with William," Chassy eyed the useless weapons stacked in the rubble. "We never know who we're going to meet up with."
"I don't have a bo any more, and there aren't any among these weapons. I don't know how to use anything else," Andrev said.
"Maybe you can carve your own," Chassy said.
They searched the nearby woods for a fallen branch, thick and straight enough to carve into a bo. When they found one, Andrev stripped the bark and clumsily began the process of shaping and smoothing it.
"I can't get this smooth," he complained, scrubbing at a knot. "It's awfully heavy, too. I don't think this is the right wood, but it's as good as it's going to get."
"Andrev, your hands are bleeding." Chassy pulled Andrev's hands away from the bo. His palm and several fingers were blistered and in one spot the skin had cracked open.
Andrev jerked his hand away. "Want to practice?"
"But your hand—"
"It will heal," Andrev said.
Chassy nodded and chose a thick stick for himself to serve as a practice sword. After they had exhausted themselves practicing, and both were bruised and bleeding, they collapsed against a tree to eat. Chassy looked around at the trees. Light shone through the branches above them.
"How long do you think it's going to take us to get to Death's End?" he asked.
"Another six decans at least. I don't think it's going to be very easy to get over those mountains," Andrev said.
Chassy blew out his cheeks. "Do you think there's any chance we'll ever find Lyear again? He must be decans ahead of us by now."
"I don't know," Andrev said. "But now I wish we'd gone for the horses instead of the raft. Deek's Sails! What were we thinking?"
"William did say we could take a raft if we couldn't find a boat," Chassy said. But in retrospect, it did seem a little foolish to have bought anything from Mad Deek. He grinned and mimicked the shipbuilder. "It's a great boat! You'll see!"
Andrev did not laugh.
"And where is William now? The man is a liar. It wouldn't surprise me if he was lying about the raft, too."
Chassy trusted William and wasn't particularly worried about the merchant's safety. William could take care of himself, if he was still alive, but he did worry about who or what was behind the disappearance. Did this have to do with his secret smuggling operation William was involved in? The amulet? Or something else of which Chassy was completely unaware?
This whole journey had been a disaster. Nita was missing, they were being chased by giants and Northmen, and now William was missing. They were supposed to be able to do magic, but couldn't, and the pendant—he fingered it under his shirt—hadn't been useful at all. In fact, thinking back on the visions he had had, he wasn't sure they were visions at all. Maybe he was just sick or overtaxed by the journey.
"What's that?" Andrev asked, stopping.
Chassy froze. The pendant was outside his tunic, and he was rolling it in his fingers.
"What is that?"
"It's a pendant," Chassy said. He tried to slip it back inside his tunic, but Andrev caught his hand.
"I've never seen that before. Where did you get it?"
Should I tell him? Chassy wondered.
Telling Andrev about the pendant would be admitting to having deceived him since they started the journey. It wasn't exactly a lie, more like an omission, but he knew Andrev and Nita wouldn't see it that way. But Andrev’s curiosity was relentless.
So Chassy related his story about meeting the goddess, leaving out the visions. At first he thought Andrev might not believe him, and he had to admit, the story seemed odd. He tried to relate the warmth of Dulisa's touch, the tenderness in her voice, but he couldn't capture the feelings in words. He couldn't even remember exactly what she looked like. Despite this seeming inability to adequately describe the experience, Andrev's eyes grew wide.
"Let me see it," he said, when Chassy was finished.
Chassy hesitated, then pulled it over his head. Andrev held it up in front of him. They were standing in a shady area; the pendant glowed softly.
"It's perfect," Andrev whispered. "Chassy, do you know what this means?"
"What?"
"The dryads have been protecting us," Andrev said. "That's why the Northmen didn't follow us. It's probably the only reason we were able to find so many dry branches while we were resting under the trees."
Chassy had thought about the Northmen, and he had seen a dryad, after all, but the dry branches— "Andrev, it took us an hour to collect enough material for a puny fire," he said.
"But the ground was saturated," Andrev said. He looked around. "We’re definitely being looked after."
"Could I have my pendant back?" Chassy asked nervously. Dulisa had given it to him and him alone. Tell no one, she had said. One rule, and he had broken it.
Andrev handed it over reluctantly.
"Well, let's get going.
Protected or not, the dryads aren't going to whisk us off to Death's End," Chassy said.
"Why don’t you just call Dulisa? I mean, this is sort of a time of need," Andrev said.
"I kind of thought she meant that I should call during… an emergency or something," Chassy said.
"You mean like when we were attacked multiple times in the Blackwood?" Anger tinged Andrev's voice. "Or when we were fleeing for our lives through the streets of Sunoa and my sister disappeared?"
"We did okay for ourselves. And we had William’s crew with us." But the truth was, Chassy hadn't even considered the pendant in the Blackwood or in Sunoa. He hadn't thought much about the goddess' words at all. Guilt exploded in his chest.
Andrev didn't give him the opportunity to wallow in his guilt. "This is a time of need. We're so far behind Lyear that we'll never catch up. Nita and William are both missing, and as soon as we leave the cover of these trees we're on our own again. No more dryads watching over us."
When they left the trees, the mountains would begin. How would they get across?
"Alright," Chassy said. "Alright, I'll try to use it."
How was he supposed to call a goddess? Was it like talking to a person?
"Dulisa? If you can hear us, we need your help," he said, feeling a little silly. He’d never spoken to the gods outside of the circle like this. When nothing seemed to happen, he repeated it a little more loudly. Maybe she wouldn't respond because he had told Andrev.
"Maybe you have to touch the pendant," Andrev said.
"I am. It's right against my skin."
"No, I mean take it out and hold it up in your hand," Andrev said. "Maybe she has to be able to see it… or something."
A woman's laugh welled up around them, deep and woodsy. Chassy turned in a circle, trying to find the source. Dulisa stepped from the trees in front of him. As the first time he saw her, a golden glow surrounded her. Birds and butterflies flitted within her aura, a chipmunk perched on her shoulder. The blue faces of her dryad children peered from behind trees.
Chassy went to his knees and found that Andrev was already on the ground beside him.
