Loria

by Gunnar Hedman

  “Really? And what was so bad about that?” asked Allur.

  “Everything!” she said, laughing. “It’s this that life is about.”

  “If you say so. I don’t have any experience of that, myself.”

  “Not, that,” she quietly said to herself.

  “When can we stop and take a break?” whined Gondar behind them. “I’m really beginning to be tired.”

  “I actually don’t know,” said Allur, straightening his back at the same time as he suppressed a yawn.

  “This reminds me of when we were escaping through the monster forest and every minute was worth its weight in gold,” said Zania, “with the difference that then it was our legs that got tired, not our bums.”

  “Over there is a high spot,” said Bediz, pointing to the west, “from where we’ll be able to see whether we’re being followed.”

  “Does it matter?” asked Anderika. “Isn’t it better to keep going and maintain our lead instead of losing time in a detour?”

  “No, I agree with Bediz,” said Kark. “If they’re after us, it’s good if we know it, so that we’ll have the chance to adopt countermeasures.”

  Eventually, after following a barely drivable winding road, they arrived at the top of the rise, where they could gain a good overview of the grand panorama spreading out around them. In the north, they could make out the dark contours of the Blackwarj Forest, and to the south, beyond a patchwork of fields, was the glistening town of Gildar, from where any eventual pursuers would be following them.

  “I knew it,” Bediz hissed, between his teeth, after having peered through the binoculars he’d brought out from under his cape.

  “What?” asked Kark.

  “Over there,” he replied, as he handed her the binoculars.

  It took her a few moments to make out what he had seen, a little grey dust cloud that slowly approached across the plain.

  “Do you think it’s soldiers?” she asked.

  “Without question, and they’re going to be tracking us like bloodhounds.”

  “Couldn’t we wait in ambush and overpower them?” Neiger asked.

  “No, that would be a waste of time, since there’s so many of them and they’re armed. Our only chance to escape them is to get to the Blackwarj Forest.”

  “I don’t like that idea,” said Kark. “Oblej and Irridi especially warned us about the forest and said that we should keep away from it.”

  “I feel the same way, but if we keep going in this direction, then I guarantee that they’ll catch up to us and, what’s worse, we have no other choice. It’s of course risky to enter the forest, which is said to harbour so many remarkable creatures, but at least there we’ll have a chance. It’s also said that one who enters the forest with an open and friendly mind may be received in an entirely different way than someone who enters with a hidden agenda.”

  “Alright, then, there’s obviously no other choice. We’ll just have to take your suggestion and hope for the best.”

  CHAPTER 18

  As they descended the steep ridge, they caught a glimpse of the forest in the distance, so that once they had reached the main road they set off at full speed. Three hours later, they arrived at the edge of the forest, the dust from their wagon wheels still settling in whirls all around them, and turned off into the yard of a large log building, which was a roadside inn. A huge sign with its name, “Forest edge,” stood beside the door. They had hardly pulled up outside, their horses panting and snorting, when several persons emerged to stare at them with suspicion.

  “Don’t just stand there staring!” Bediz shouted at them. “We’re here on an important and urgent mission and must immediately requisition supplies and equipment.”

  Since people generally have a tendency to follow orders, especially from someone with a loud, commanding voice, they rushed forward to assist them. As they did, Bediz reached an agreement with the innkeeper that in exchange for their horses and wagons, they would receive cash and food.

  “Hurry up!” Bediz urged his companions, wildly waving his arms, as they filled the backpacks. “It won’t be until we’ve gone a good distance into the forest that we’ll be able to feel safe from the soldiers.”

  In the quivering heat, the ground smelling of the heat and with no breeze to cool them, they hurried off to cross a grassy meadow that lay baking in the early evening sun. A sign saying, “Border zone – enter with caution,” slowed them a little, but then they hurried off again and were soon engulfed by the dense vegetation. The trail they were following was so narrow and the branches so low that they were forced to bend forward in order to make any process. After some time, the forest broadened somewhat and they could finally walk upright without any problem. When it had finally become so dark that they could hardly make out the trail ahead, they decided to halt and make a fire in small, shielded clearing.

  “Do you think we’re safe from the soldiers, yet?” asked Anderika.

  “Yes, at least for now, since they wouldn’t dare try to follow us during the night,” said Bediz.

  Once they’d eaten and discussed things over the fire, Zania turned to Bediz to ask him how he’d received his large scar.

  “Why do you want to know that?”

  “No special reason, just curious.”

  “Well, OK, then. I got it ten years ago, while making an arrest, when I was young and inexperienced. After a long chase, we had finally encircled a wanted fugitive. Just as I was going to handcuff him, he drew a long knife and attacked me wildly. Luckily, my reflexes were quick enough so that I managed to pull my head back enough to avoid getting killed.”

  “So terrible!”

  “Maybe, but it’s the kind of thing you have to expect when you take this kind of job. Afterwards, I was always much more careful and, as luck would have it, I’ve managed to avoid any further major injuries.”

  He spoke for a while, telling them stories from his career, and then became curious about their backgrounds. Just how the converter had affected his mind was difficult for them to say, but, since he was now so loyal, they decided to open their hearts to him. As they told about their lives and experiences, he listened so intensely that his eyes looked like they were about to fall out of their sockets as they grew in amazement. His own life had been so simple and ordered, so that hearing so many incredible stories at the same time seemed to overwhelm him so much that they started to think that they should have only told him some things, for now. Now that they’d told him everything, he’d just have to digest it all, whether he wanted to or not. Soon they were unable to stay awake any longer – it had been an exhausting day – so they spread out their bedding on the ground to sleep, with Allur taking the first watch.

  When half his watch had passed, his eyes weighed so heavily that before long he had fallen asleep, only to be awakened by a cracking branch. He was just going to put more wood on the fire when the hair on the back of his neck stood up at what sounded like crying and sighing somewhere in the dark woods. It eventually ceased, so that when it was time to hand over the watch to Neiger, his exhausted brain had already suppressed what he’d heard earlier.

  When the Gildarian commander Otturk reached the border hamlet with his troops and understood that the escapees had entered the forest, he erupted in anger. If he didn’t succeed in recapturing them, the fairy clan would pour their outrage on him. The least that would happen would be that he’d lose his position, and the worst, well, he didn’t even want to contemplate that.

  His wrath only increased when he learned that one of his own officers had betrayed him and was helping the enemy. The doomed man was going to have endless reasons to regret what he’d done once they had captured him. He was well aware of the stories about the forest’s creatures, but if the escapees had been courageous enough to enter, he wasn’t going to be less so. He could certainly afford to sacrifice a troop of soldiers, which should certainly be enough to succeed in the mission. Now, though, it was too late and would be too foolish to enter the
forest and expose his men to the dangers there, so he decided that his officers would spend the night in the inn, and the soldiers would sleep in their tents in the meadow.

  “At dawn, you’ll set out with twenty-four men to catch them!” he ordered a young captain called Iljan. “I want Captain Bediz alive, but it doesn’t matter about the others.”

  “It will be my pleasure,” said Iljan, saluting, at the same time as he cursed his bad luck.

  The sun was just rising in the east, and the morning fog lying like a thin veil over the meadow, as they set off into the forest. All that Otturk could do now was wait, and hope. At the head of the line was Iljan, tall and heavy, wearing a feathered helmet and a shining breastplate. Then his soldiers followed in a long line, each with heavy packs, swords, spears and shields. At first they moved tensely, constantly ready to draw their weapons against a presumed enemy, but in the absence of any danger they eventually began to relax, to the point that when they stopped for a break a few hours later, their spirits had lifted considerably. Iljan, who at first had thought the mission was crazy, now thought that the forest was perhaps not so dangerous after all. If they could manage to capture the fugitives in the next few hours, they should be able to return before dark and cash in the reward that Otturk had promised, including his promotion to colonel.

  As they set off once more, Iljan felt pleased and satisfied at first, but soon he began to feel that they were being watched, and the forest was becoming more and more threatening. The trail eventually climbed slightly and, in the distance, beyond the forest-clad valley, they caught a glimpse of grass-covered hills. Once out of the dense forest, everything would certainly feel easier, he thought. He was just about to begin chanting a marching song when he heard a piercing shriek and was horrified to see some of his soldiers become entwined and swallowed by the foliage. He and his men tried to defend themselves with their swords, but quickly saw that any further resistance would be useless, so he ordered them to retreat. When the long, forced march through the forest had become overwhelming, there were only eight survivors – Iljan was not one of them – who had managed to escape to safety and who, now, gasping from fatigue, threw themselves down in a grassy meadow to rest.

  When the survivors had recovered enough to take inventory of their situation, they concluded that the escapees, judging by their tracks, had not been in any hurry and that the evil spirits in the forest had attacked only them. None of them had any great desire to return, however, so they considered that the only alternative they had was to continue onward, come what may.

  Unaware of the troop’s fate, the so-called escapees had risen early that morning and pressed further into the forest. After fording a difficult stream, they sat recovering in the warming sunshine streaming down from a brilliant, cloudless sky.

  “Oh, how wonderful it is here,” exclaimed Zania. “I just cannot understand why they say this forest is so awful.”

  “There’s still a long way to go, though,” cautioned Kark, “so it’s still best not to shout too much.”

  “Bediz, do you know where we are?” asked Allur.

  “No idea,” he answered, “but if we can keep going at this pace we should be out of the forest in a few days.”

  They walked on, listening to birdsong and enjoying the pleasant fragrances wafting from the dense flowery bushes surrounding them. There was something else in the air, too, which was both worrisome, yet attractive, at the same time. At one point, Kark could have sworn that a moss-covered stone was watching them, but convinced himself that he must have been imagining it. They climbed a narrow path up the east side of the valley, winding along between rocks and stumps, then stopped for lunch at a bubbling stream. Gondar waded into the green-blue water to wash himself, and screamed.

  “What happened?” asked Allur, who arrived first.

  “A gnarled dark hand grabbed my ankle and tried to pull me down, but then a lightning bolt came out of nowhere and made it release me!” he gasped, agitated and disturbed.

  “Is it possible that it was just a tree branch or something that you managed to step on?”

  “Absolutely not!” he burst out, offended. “I know what I saw.”

  “OK, I believe you. We’re just going to have to be even more careful as we go on, and always play it on the safe side, until we figure everything out.”

  As evening fell, they began to watch out for a likely campsite. They had just left the path when, to their surprise, they caught a glimpse of a light from the mountains in the north. Since they didn’t know what it was, they decided to spend the night where they were, in a shallow, sheltered hollow. As they made camp, the silent, brooding forest stirred their fantasies, but once they had a fire going and roasted two partridges that Bediz and Kark had managed to shoot they felt reassured.

  The sun was climbing hot over the horizon as Caver awoke, yawning and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. The fire had gone out, so he shivered a little as he took in their surroundings. He was just going to wake the others when he heard a branch snap and saw, to his surprise, a dark figure disappearing into the murky forest.

  “That was strange,” he said to the others once he’d described it to them.

  “Should we try to follow it?” asked Gondar.

  “No, I don’t think that would be wise,” said Kark. “This evening we can set up a trap and, if it’s still following us, we’ll be able to see what sort of joker we have to deal with.”

  After hiking on for another full day, they set up camp in a meadow, next to the edge of the forest, so it would only be possible to creep up on them unseen from one direction. Caver and Bediz hid themselves in the forest, and the others covered them in branches and moss, as camouflage. Then they drew a fishing line along the edge of the forest and up to the campfire and prepared themselves to receive the mythical figure.

  The sunset was pink for some time until nightfall hid the forested landscape. While Kark had the first watch, the others tried to sleep, but had little success, since they were so wound up with anticipation. Then, once Neiger had relieved Kark and was just reaching to put a piece of wood on the fire, his heart skipped a beat as he suddenly felt a tug on the line. He carefully woke the others, and when everyone was ready, they grabbed burning branches from the fire and ran screaming into the edge of the forest. The creature, wearing dark clothes and its face covered behind a hood, would undoubtedly have escaped if Bediz and Caver hadn’t been in the way to block its path. Combining their forces, they overpowered the creature, but when they whisked off its hood, they were surprised to see a beautiful woman, blue-eyed and dark-haired, glaring angrily at them. As they dragged her through the forest to the fire, she spewed a steady stream of guttural sounds at them. Kark turned on the transponder and, once it had warmed up, asked her who she was. The woman seemed startled to be spoken to in her own language, but quickly regained her balance and answered defiantly by asking them a question.

  “What right do you have to question me?”

  “You’re spying on us.”

  “I am Enaiga,” she answered, sullenly, with downcast eyes.

  “I see, and why are you following us?”

  “To know who you are.”

  “Then it’s good that we got to meet each other and talk about it. If one may ask, where do you live?”

  “In the forest.”

  “I guess I could’ve figured that out on my own, so, where exactly?”

  “Over there,” she answered, pointing into the darkness of the forest.

  “That wasn’t much of an answer,” said Kark, grunting.

  “I don’t know what you want to know?”

  “Well, to begin with, I want to know why you’re following us?”

  “But I already told you that,” she answered, sulking. “Let me go!”

  “That’s what you think. No, you’re going to have to stay here until you have told us everything, so, if you ever want to be released, you’d better cooperate.”

  In addition to the circumstance
s of their meeting, there was something in her voice and in her distant gaze that made them unwilling to rely on her. They kept her well bound, though, and they were so exhausted that they decided to try to get some sleep and continue their interrogation in the morning.

  Allur, whose watch it was in the hours before dawn, was staring sleepily into the crackling fire when, to his great surprise, Xingezing came flying into view and, with vibrating wings, landed beside him. Her gaze was so intensive and questioning that he asked her with a whisper if she could understand what he said.

  “Yes, I do, Allur,” he heard her say, “but, if we don’t want to waken the others, it’s best if we don’t talk.”

  “Then how come we can understand each other?”

  “Via telepathy,” she answered.

  “But why have you waited until now, and not earlier, to talk with us?”

  “Because I can only speak while free, and with someone who is receptive and on the same wavelength as me.”

  “And I am now?”

  “Apparently.”

  “Where have you been since you left us?”

  “Why do you ask? Have you missed me?”

  “Yes, actually,” he answered, blushing.

  “So sweet of you,” she said, sending him a wave of light that filled him with inner warmth. “I have been near you the whole time. As far as the Riverlands, all managed fairly well, but of course I helped you a bit with the monster and then, when you set off over the bacterial sea, I was forced to change the balloon’s course so that you would arrive at the Blue Islands, instead of the mainland.”

  “A-hah! Was it you who did that?”

  “Yes, but the most difficult of all has been protecting you from all the dangers in the Blackwarj Forest, so that now almost all of my powers have been used up.”