by R. J. Batla
Councilman Talco cleared his throat. “What you embark on is perilous. There is no guarantee for safety or for any kind of safe return to the East Side at all. There might not even be an East Side left to come back to. We must seek the justice we need, correct the oppression, and bring an end to the suffering that will come.” He took a breath and looked directly at me. “Jayton Baird, a majority of this rests on your shoulders. You are the key. You are the one. God be with you, son. God be with you.”
Chapter 45
After shaking hands with Councilman Talco, another group of Rangers emerged in full battle armor. “Follow us,” the leader said.
They led us through the lines of soldiers prepping for various stages of combat. It was slow going, weaving our way through, but they finally got us to a room just off the gates, and there they left us with more “good lucks".
“All right, team,” Royn said, and pointed to a bunch of random clothes in piles. “Put on plain clothes and put more in your packs – no more East Side outerwear from here on out. It’ll draw too much attention once we clear our lines. But keep as much armor as you can carry for a couple hundred miles without tiring. I have a feeling we’ll have a fight on our hands before this is over. We have to exit through a small side door in the Wall, one very few know about, that will get us past the enemy gathering at the gate.”
“Once we’re through, they’ll close off the passageway, sealing any way back in through that door. We have to go around the enemy army massing out there. We’ll make our way through the Soir forest, cross the Zuiden River, then on to the Bowl, where we’ll meet up with a Ranger named Hank, and be situated for the duration of the tournament. We have to get there before the start of the tournament or Jayton will be disqualified. But don’t worry. We have plenty of time. Any questions?”
“Yeah, I have one,” Morgan said. “Do all of us have to put on these clothes?” She picked up a drab brown shirt with her fingertips, holding it as far away as possible while cringing. As far as I could tell, it didn’t smell like poop, but I couldn’t be sure.
“I agree with the Phoenix,” Sonora said, shuffling the piles of drab garments around with her toes. “Clothes are too…constricting,” she said, doing a full body shiver.
They would be, I guess, if all you ever wore was a bathing suit.
“Unless you want to get us all killed, yes,” Royn said. “It’ll be hard enough that the various colors show on your hands and faces, but dulled with a little makeup, you guys can pass as normal East Side humans. But if you went parading around like you normally dress, we’d be found in an instant, and killed, or even worse.”
“Oh, way to be dramatic, fearless leader,” Morgan said, but nevertheless began sorting through the clothes. “If I have to wear these rags, they’re going to be tight!”
Digging around, I found a brown and green cloak with a hood on it, one piece covering the shoulders then another extending fully to the ground. “Now this is cool,” I said, slipping it on. “If this doesn’t make me look menacing, I don’t know what will.”
“About as mean as a kitten,” Gilmer said, and I pushed him for his trouble.
Leona simply concentrated and her armor changed to match the rest of our clothes.
In no time, we were all clothed and some kinda mud-looking stuff was put on my friends, bringing their various hues to a passable imitation of “normal” skin tones.
“Let’s move!” Royn said, so we quickly made our way to a stone room.
“Sweet! Rock-o-vater going up!” Troup said.
At the same time, the room shot upward so hard, I felt myself pressing to the floor. A second or two later, it screeched to a halt, somehow avoiding throwing us to the ceiling.
“Floor thirty four – Transport,” a sign read right in front of us.
“Get in, we need to hurry,” said a burly Dwarf, who nodded at Troup and beckoned us over to what looked like a bunch of mine cars lashed together. In fact, I was sure that’s what it was. With seats built in.
As soon as we were seated, he said, “Hold on,” and my head snapped back as we accelerated.
I really couldn’t see, but I could hear Katy in the background laughing. “Ha ha! Faster, faster, come on! My grandma is faster than this!”
Ten seconds later – OK maybe a minute or two – my head slammed forward as we screeched to a halt, exiting amongst windblown hair and faces.
The sign said, “Mile fifty-five Exit.”
Fifty-five miles in a few minutes. Holy crap. The Dwarf motioned us out, and said into a stone radio, “Last passengers exited. Returning to the Gate. In two minutes, close the shaft.”
Putting down the radio, the Dwarf turned around, hit a button on his car, and rocketed back the other way, sucking air behind him. Ten seconds later, rock slammed down, sealing off the tunnel and leaving us only one way out.
“Well, that was fun,” Gilmer said, his hair windblown in a thousand directions, with Katy still giggling behind him.
“All right, calm down, and follow me,” Royn said, leading us to a door, which thankfully had a rock-o-vater, because I was not looking forward to thirty four flights of stairs. This one was much slower, however, and only took three minutes. There was a ding, then Heath Goodrich said, “Ten seconds” in our ears.
A bit too loudly, I think, as everyone else jerked away from their amplistoned ear.
“Get ready – I don’t know what waits on the other side,” Royn said.
The room practically buzzed as fourteen people gathered energy, preparing for mortal combat.
The doors slid open and...nothing happened. Morgan rolled her eyes and threw her staff on her back. “How anticlimactic.”
We stepped out onto a hundred-yard-wide lawn of grass before the forest started.
“Quickly,” Josey said. “There could be sentries about.”
Quickening our step, we scooted across the distance, falling into formation behind Royn once we reached the safety of the trees. The forest was mature but not old, with enough undergrowth to support a lot of wildlife, yet trees big enough that much of the sun was blocked out. Oak, pine, and maple I picked out quickly, and underneath, some type of vine along with honeysuckle.
Ron put a finger to his ear. “Exit cleared. Radio silence for us most of the way; keep us posted of anything.”
“Roger. T-bone out.”
T-bone?
Pairing up, everyone turned south to head out.
Royn whispered loudly, “Where are you going?”
“South, just like the plan?” Katy said.
“We’re not going that way.”
“Why?” I said.
Royn said, “Because that’s the way we said we were going to go.”
“Am I the only one confused?” Anton said.
“Good Lord. We know we have traitors and spies in our midst, right?”
“Yeah?” Gilmer said.
“So why wouldn’t we change up the plan to throw them off our tail? Now, we’re heading to Clute.”
“Why wouldn’t we just go the fastest route?” Leona asked.
“It’s too obvious. Plus, if there were any spies listening before, they heard false information. Now let’s move out.”
So pairing up behind Royn, we moved out, Leona and I directly behind him, the rest grouped behind us, with Troup bringing up the rear since, with his Earth powers, he was the best equipped to sense anything trying to sneak up on us. No one spoke. This went on for hours at a very quick pace. By the time darkness started to fall, we were well on our way to Clute.
It was starting to get a little chilly, winter starting to take hold as December rolled in, but we were out of luck since a fire was out of the question. If not for radio silence, we would have grumbled about the cold camp, eating dried meat, cheese, and fruit from our stores. Royn chose a secluded spot, surrounded by trees to provide some cover.
“All right, gather around, everyone,” Royn said, barely more than a whisper as our amplistones picked up his voice
and…amplified it. “Step one: get to Clute. We have six more days of hard travel ahead of us. A little info you need a review about the West Side. Most of the land and the people are controlled by lords: dictator kings who each have their own army, finances, goals, etcetera, and each of whom are in various degrees of friendly with Easterners. They also have varying degrees of how they treat their own people. Right now, we’re in Byers’ territory. He’s neutral as long as you don’t mess with him and don’t cause trouble. He treats his subjects firmly, but fairly. We’ll be on his land the whole way to Clute, mostly forest and briars.
“Once we get there, we need to get on the train. The city is divided three ways – Byers on the South and Edom to the North. You can tell the dividing line, as on the Edom side, it’s pretty much a barroom brawl all day every day – no law unless you can fight your way out of it.”
“Who’s the third?” Anton asked.
“Pampa. And the only thing he has is the train station and the tracks. And he charges for it, too. His territory is small, look here,” Royn said, producing a map, and tracing his finger on the thin strip of Pampa land, following the train tracks. “His only asset is the train, so he looks after it like the golden goose it is. Our next stop would be Weir, who between him and Pampa, are the two friendliest.”
“Would be?” Celeste asked.
“Yes, would be, except for this little strip here that Pampa can’t seem to keep clear. Rusk keeps his troops there twenty-four seven and he demands a massive toll to let the train pass. It’s a place we might get caught, but it’s a risk we’ll have to take.”
“So why does anyone take it?” Leona asked.
“Same reason we are,” Royn replied. “It’s the quickest and safest way to get to Weir, and for us, then on to the Bowl.”
“Why don’t you just teleport us there?” Arp asked. We all looked at him. “Well, has no one actually asked that yet?”
Royn said, “Don’t you think if that was an option, we would have taken it? One, I’ve never been to the Bowl, so I can’t get us there. Two, with a jump that size, I could only take one person. And if anything had even slightly changed between jumps, the results would be bad. And three, there’s a possibility of Malstrak tracing the power for such a large jump and finding us. We could negate that, but we’d need a room with proper shielding and preparation. But yes, it would have been easier.”
Oh. Makes sense.
“So, from now till we get to Clute, stay on your guard. Once we get there, pay attention, but don’t draw attention. Let’s try to keep to ourselves. And get some rest, change watch every half hour, sleep light. Anton, you’ve got first watch. Wake Jay in thirty minutes.”
“I’ll just stay up with him – I probably wouldn’t fall asleep anyway,” I said, and Anton nodded.
“Hey, Royn, why don’t we get the Earth Senturians to build us a shelter? It would sure make it nice and warm,” Gilmer asked.
“We would,” Arp Bardwell said, putting his hand on Gilmer’s shoulder, making him shiver, “except that it would leave traces behind, and we know not if we are being tracked. Or watched.”
“Oh, good point,” Gilmer said, and started unrolling his sleeping bag.
“It’ll get down to around thirty-five degrees tonight,” Arp said, “so make sure you’re bundled up.”
“How does he know?” Gilmer said under his breath.
“Uhh…he’s from the ice race – expert on cold,” Morgan whispered back, putting her bedroll next to Gilmer’s, bringing a chuckle from Katy and Leona.
Anton and I posted up on either end of the small camp, senses tuned for something to happen, but an hour later, nothing had. We woke Marlin Ralls for his turn, and I was instantly asleep.
Chapter 46
We broke camp and set off the next day just the same: on high alert and wondering through the trees until Royn brought us to another stop. Then we ate again, set up watch again, slept, then started traveling again. That’s three agains, if you’re counting.
Walking at a brisk pace, from behind us Anton suddenly screamed, “Look out! Plate Slide!”
The ground beneath the entire group latched onto our feet and threw us backwards. SLAM! The forest ahead of us split in two, a gaping hole that would have swallowed us all. The ground sunk away fast, then the sides caved in with a huge crash, the pieces of earth colliding with a spray of dust. Anton had just saved us.
“What was that?” Katy asked panting, sliding behind Anton slightly as he released us and we all ambled forward to look at the now covered-up hole.
“A trap,” Anton said calmly. “Royn stepped on a trigger stone and the ground was spring-loaded to smash together like that. If I hadn’t heard the trigger disengage…well, it would be bad.”
“Good thing you did, Anton,” Royn said. “Now let’s get moving again. Everyone needs to be on even higher alert – clearly someone or something is here with us, or has a good idea of what we’re doing.”
So off we went again, gliding through the trees even more cautiously until about midmorning. Striding beside me, Leona suddenly whipped her head around behind us but didn’t break stride. “Royn?”
Not knowing what to expect, I palmed the grip on my sword.
“Yes?”
“How long has it been back there?” I was the only one close enough to hear them talking, but I was confused.
“Since yesterday at noon,” Royn replied, head swinging from side to side.
“Is it bad?” she whispered.
“It ain’t good, but it’s just hanging back, keeping equidistant from us.”
“What is it?”
“I don’t know.”
“What are you two talking about?” I hissed.
“We’re being followed by…something,” Leona whispered, checking back over her shoulder again. “But I don’t think Royn wants to tell everyone, right?”
“Right.”
“Why not?” I whispered, searching for anything that seemed out of place. “Shouldn’t everyone be on alert?”
It weirded me out that they could sense the thing and somehow I couldn’t. I hated not knowing. It was the whole reason humans in general were afraid of the dark. It was the unknown.
“Because we don’t know if there is a reason to be on alert – we don’t know what it is,” Leona said.
Then the wind shifted. It had been coming out of the south, but it did a one-eighty and now it was from the north. And it was cold. Very cold.
“Anyone?” Royn asked, throwing his hood on.
Celeste sniffed the air. “Storm’s a-coming. A big one. No precipitation, but it’s going to get cold. Arp?”
“It’s going to freeze. Probably get to around zero tonight, maybe to a high of forty tomorrow, then to zero again tomorrow night. Then it should warm up. Maybe.”
“How long do we have to travel today?” Royn asked.
“It’ll freeze right at dark, I think,” Arp replied.
“All right folks, double time,” Royn said, picking up the pace to almost a jog. We covered a lot more ground, all of us constantly looking up, and me looking back more than I had been – I didn’t like being followed.
An hour before dark, Arp piped up. “Royn, we’d better stop now. I was wrong, or someone altered this storm – it’s going to get to negative ten tonight, if not a little colder, and it’s going to get there fast.”
Royn nodded, and quickly found a sheltered group of trees. It didn’t do as much as I’d hoped to break the wind, which was growing colder by the second. He looked around at us, counting. “Good, the numbers are almost right,” Royn said as we all piled into the clearing. “Someone’s altered the weather. We didn’t anticipate it being this cold. We’re going to have to pair up to sleep tonight.” Leona stepped right to my side, making my heart rate jump a bit. “Otherwise we’re all going to freeze. We won’t need a watchman – nothing will be moving in this weather that at least one of us won’t be able to feel coming.”
“Celeste, Arp, and
I will be fine,” Marlin Ralls said. “Cold does not have the same effect on us as it does the rest of you. We’ll alternate the watch. Despite your reasoning, Commander, there are creatures that thrive in the cold.” With that, he walked to the edge of the camp, placing his back against a tree.
“I call Morgan!” Gilmer said, louder than he meant to, and all of us looked, then laughed as he turned red.
Except Morgan, looking at him with a raised eyebrow. “You ‘call’ me, do you?”
Gilmer immediately and wisely, back peddled. “Well, um…see, what I meant was…see, since you’re a Phoenix and always warm, see…”
Then Morgan laughed. “Fine, I’ll take mister frosty britches here.”
Katy and Anton stood close to each other, Leona and I the same, Troup and Sonora nodded at each other, Josey and Euless stepped together. I guess everyone had the same idea – no double dudes.
“That just leaves you, Royn,” Morgan said. “I put off enough heat for two of you, yes?”
“That will work,” Royn said. “Now everyone lay over here, as close together as possible, and as far under the trees as you can. Double up your sleeping bags, and both crawl in the same one. Make sure you have something over your heads. It’s going to be a long night.”
Oh, he had no idea.
We all did as we were told and I put Leona’s sleeping bag inside mine. “You first or me?” I asked.
“You. You’re bigger. It’ll be easier for me to get in than your big, clumsy self.”
“Hey, I’m not clumsy!” I said, then tripped getting in. Completely on purpose, mind you. Definitely.
She laughed and squeezed in as soon as I was settled. Oh man, she was warm! And smelled good, even though we’d been traveling all day. Pretty sure I smelled like a pig in slop, but Leona was like wind and trees and flowers. I didn’t know how I was going to get any sleep. With her. Right there. Couldn’t get much closer. Close enough to…
No. No, no, no, no. I wouldn’t do that to her. I wouldn’t hurt her. Despite the cold, it was hard to breathe and my already fast heartbeat jacked up another notch. I could hear everyone wriggling around, trying to find a comfy spot.
