Chapter 8
THE night was a short one; the sun wasn’t even up yet when the elves, the last to have taken a night watch, announced that it was time to break camp. They’d made out some movement in the distance, and it would take at least another day for them to be safely out of Zakorth’s territory. Everyone had managed to get some peaceful and restorative sleep, so the group took to the road cheerfully.
The young woman walked quite close to Glaide, as if she was afraid he’d forgotten his promise. He smiled at her to ease her mind, and commented that they’d start heading east as soon as they were out of Zakorth’s territory. His declaration seemed to satisfy her, and her face took on a more cheerful air, much different from the look of fear she’d worn the day before.
As they went, he snuck a few glances at the girl, trying to find out why she was so silent, and how long she may have been captive. Besides just being curious, he wanted to help her in more ways than just by being a bodyguard for her. In the end, though, he concluded he would learn nothing unless she decided to tell him, so he’d have to be patient. He thought, too, that as soon as he had an opportunity, he ought to show her his map, and ask exactly where she wanted to head. That way, he could see how long it would take them, and plan their travels accordingly. He also figured they’d have to make it a priority to buy some other clothes for her than the dress she was wearing at the moment. The young man let his mind continue along that track, considering what they would need to do in the days to come, and he was surprised to note his own excitement.
When midday arrived, the group decided unanimously that they shouldn’t stop. They had been silent throughout the morning, and Glaide knew that his companions were thinking of only one thing: returning to those they’d left behind as quickly as possible. It was different for him, however. He passed back and forth between being happy about how successful the bid at freedom for the slaves had been, and excited about the journey he was about to take with the young woman to feeling depressed at the thought of what would come afterwards.
As Kezthrem had told him, every story has its end, and he feared the moment this little adventure would end, and he’d have to head off on the search for his friends without even the smallest clue to guide him. However, the man had also said that it was pointless to torture himself worrying about that, because there was nothing he could do about it. Besides, in the eight months Glaide had spent on Galadria, he’d learned one thing: it was pointless to plan too far into the future, because something always happened to interrupt his plans anyway.
The afternoon passed without any issues. The young man started little conversations here and there, and he always received willing replies. However, as the sun began to go down, he found it impossible to get more than vague mumbles as responses to his questions, and no one made any effort to break the silence that soon settled in around them. The young man didn’t take offense, however. He knew that his companions were carefully searching for any signs that they’d passed out of Zakorth’s territory, which they should have done by now, if his rudimentary calculations could be counted on. A bird call sounded out around them, and Glaide noticed the faces of the elves relax at the same moment.
“It’s a signal,” replied one of them. “Our brethren are here.”
“So that’s it, then?” asked one of the men. “We’re safe now?”
“Well, certainly more than we were a few hours ago,” a dwarf replied. “But you should join a group traveling towards Shinozuka as soon as you can. With just the three of you, you’re still far too vulnerable to the orks and goblins wandering about.” Glaide nodded his agreement at that.
“I can travel with you for a while,” Skelf suggested to the humans. “I’ll start heading more northwest a bit before you reach the capital, but until then, our route matches up.” The three didn’t hesitate before accepting his proposition.
“And you, Destroyer?” began an elf. “What will you do now?”
“I’ll accompany this young woman to her home,” replied Glaide. “She lives towards the east. I’m not sure how long the journey will take, but we’re in no rush.”
It seemed that the time to separate had arrived. The adolescent wanted to reassure himself that his companions would do what they could to convince their people to join the humans, but that proved unnecessary. The dwarves and elves bowed deeply towards him.
“It was an honor to cross paths with you, Destroyer. In memory of what you did to us and what you are doing for our world, we will advocate for the humans’ cause before our kind.”
“Their cause is yours as well,” replied the adolescent, “because you, too, have the right to a life here on Galadria.” The group bowed once again, wished Skelf and the men safe travels, and declared that their prayers would go with the young woman—prayers that one day, she would be able to surmount the things that she had lived through. And with that, they left. Glaide watched them for a moment, unable to get it through his head that he had been traveling with dwarves and elves, let alone that they would also now do their best to aid him in his quest.
“Right,” exclaimed Skelf then. “We should probably get going, too.” The men nodded their heads at that, then thanked the adolescent. Before they left, he had one more request for them, though.
“When you arrive at your destination, I have to ask you not to reveal who I am.”
“But why? That will bring hope back to all humans!”
“That’s true, but if they learn that the Destroyer is more than just a legend, and that he is actually walking on the surface of the Known Lands, it won’t be long before they gather an army to search for me, and Baras cannot know where to find me for now. That’s imperative. Remember that. Don’t tell the king or anyone else about me, but reveal everything you know about Zakorth without any hesitation. Don’t worry. The time will come for me to reveal my identity. Until then, please be patient.”
They grudgingly agreed to hold their tongues, and Glaide desperately hoped they would keep their word, because otherwise, it wouldn’t take long for him to be found. The humans were much better organized than the inhabitants of Zakorth, and he had no doubt that if they decided they wanted to find the Destroyer, they would find him.
“And meanwhile, Ydref and Arline are talking about me everywhere... I should have asked them not to, but at the time, I hadn’t imagined I’d be in the position I’m in.” Up until then, he’d been sheltered from all of that, because for one thing, he’d been with his master, in a difficult to find home, and secondly, he wasn’t being presented as “the Destroyer”. Today, however, he was not only claiming the title, but acting like it, too. Though to this day, there was nothing setting him apart from others besides his origin, he’d decided to be the Destroyer, because that was what the people were hoping for, so it was the best way to reunite them to fight. Skelf gave the adolescent one more slap on the back—one the boy unfortunately failed to avoid—and the blow knocked the wind out of him. While he tried to catch his breath, the barbarian said his good-byes.
“Until we meet again, my friend. I’ll be waiting for your call!” The young man couldn’t reply, as he was still working hard to catch his breath, and Skelf took his silence as a sign of the emotion he was feeling. “Don’t be sad!” he exclaimed. “We’ll see each other again, and one day, I hope to welcome you to my land.”
Glaide finally caught his breath, and laughed almost hysterically at his companion’s declaration. The latter didn’t seem to understand his reaction, but after a moment he cracked up, too, and the pair laughed together for a few minutes. Finally, the adolescent got his emotions back in check. He wished the barbarian safe travels, thinking to himself that he had perhaps found a true friend in Skelf. As the four silhouettes disappeared into the distance, the young woman stepped closer to Glaide. He looked at her, then declared, “Let’s go! It’s past time to get you home.” The young woman smiled a full, proper smile, and the boy thought that they’d already made great strides towards her one day speaking again...
Chapter 9
“RIGHT, so do you know how to ride a horse?” The girl shook her head in reply. “Well, no matter, because neither do I.” With that, he broke into laughter. The two had been traveling on their own for a few hours by then, and the boy had used the time to talk with—or rather, to—the young woman. She had replied with nods and shakes of the head, and with smiles that were becoming ever more frequent. Even though there were only two of them, Glaide walked in the front, and she stayed slightly behind him. He glanced over his shoulder regularly, though, to make sure she was okay, and that she was keeping up. When evening arrived, the young man made a fire and cooked some of the fruit the elves had gathered. With a quick glance, he noted that he had enough to feed them for several days, at least. However, he still didn’t know exactly where they were headed.
“So, do you think you can tell me where your house is? I need to calculate how long we’ll be traveling, and plan our trip a bit better.”
The young woman took the map Glaide held out to her, and for a moment, he wondered if she could even read. Soon, though, she seemed to find what she was looking for. However, instead of showing the young man, she got up and walked around the fire for a bit, as if looking for something she’d lost.
“Can I help you somehow?” the boy asked. She shook her head. After a bit, she picked up a piece of charred wood that was quite small, then settled in on a tree stump and began drawing something on the map. Glaide hoped against hope that she wasn’t messing up everything he’d noted, because the map held so much of the information he’d gleaned since he’d arrived, and he was sure his map was the most complete and correct of all the maps in the Known Lands. He felt reassured as he noticed how carefully she was wielding the piece of wood, however: she seemed to be drawing something very specific. Glaide let her work in silence, letting his gaze fall on the fire, and his thoughts on what he needed to do next. They still needed to find a village where he could buy his companion some more practical clothing for traveling. However, other than Orte-Feldir—the town he’d saved from the trolls and goblins that came surging up out of the tunnels the town had been built on top of—nothing was marked on the map towards the east.
“With a bit of luck, maybe she’ll tell me she lives in Ojilon. That would simplify things...” He didn’t think so, however. When she’d pointed toward her home, she hadn’t pointed towards the northeast or the southeast, but due east. “There must be some small villages that direction that aren’t marked on the map.” He had to admit that the slant of her eyes and color of her skin intrigued him, as well. As lovely as she was, he’d seen no one else like her on Galadria. Suddenly, he felt a tap on his shoulder; she’d finished her work. She held out the map, looking a bit nervous.
“Maybe she thinks I’ll abandon her once I see where we’re headed,” Glaide thought with a smile. The smile disappeared once he’d looked at the map, though. It took him a few minutes to spot what the young woman had drawn onto the map, and once he found it, he couldn’t hold in a cry of surprise: their destination was halfway down the forest of the elves, which made up the southern part of the Known Lands’ eastern border. The young woman had drawn a few houses up against the border of the forest to symbolize her village, and had added some extra trees in a ring around it, so that it appeared to form a clearing within the forest. Glaide wasn’t sure if that meant that she lived with the elves, or if she lived nearby. He decided to save his questions for later, however, when his companion was more likely to answer them.
“Hmm... I’d say it’ll take us about a week, then.” The young woman replied to his words with a resplendent smile, which Glaide returned. Then, he advised her to try to get some sleep, and declared that after they left the next day, they’d need to move at a good pace. She nodded, then wrapped up in the cape the ex-slaves had given her while the adolescent sat there and reflected on their travel plans.
He took a moment to think about the duration of the trip a bit more carefully. It would probably take them a bit more than a week, maybe as much as ten days, because the young woman wouldn’t likely travel as quickly as he could. They had no reason to hurry, anyway, though, and to be honest, Glaide wasn’t in any great rush to see an end to the trip. He simply wanted to help his companion however he could along the way, whether that be psychologically helping her or physically fighting for her. Besides that, he had his more selfish reasons not to want to hurry: he welcomed the idea of having company and a goal, but knew that once he reached that goal...
Well, what would come would come. He chased those thoughts out of his mind, and instead began to study the map more carefully by the glow from the fire. In a few minutes, he’d come up with a bare bones plan. As he’d thought before, there was nothing marked on the map east of where they were. They could make a detour towards the north, but he preferred to avoid that unless they had to—if they began to run out of food, or found their route blocked, for example. So, he decided on a rather simple plan in the end: they’d head in a more-or-less straight line until they reached the forest of the elves, and then the young woman could indicate more exactly where she lived from there.
Satisfied with that, Glaide decided to stay up for a little while longer anyway. Looking at the map so carefully made him want to update it, and by now, he had several things he could add! First, he marked three x’s on the map, then carefully circled them. Above them, he wrote “Orte-Feldir”, “Kalhem-Rackk”, and finally “Zakorth”. Then, he marked the temple on the border, between the forest of the elves and the mountains of the dwarves. After that, he marked his encounter with Skelf next to Zakorth. Finally, he marked a spot below Zakorth, where they had found the burnt village. The marks made him think back on his memories a bit, but instead of plunging into them, as was his wont, he was surprised to find he’d rather set them aside. For the moment, he wanted to live in the present.
Satisfied with his work, he wrapped up in his cape and lay down, using his bag as a pillow. He looked at the peaceful face of the woman asleep nearby. Sleep seemed to have brought her into a safe haven that quieted her spirit. “Even when she smiles, she looks sad,” thought the boy. “As though she were trying to forget something, but never quite managing it. She holds those memories at bay, but they are always there in the back of her mind, and refusing to face them leads nowhere. Who is she? And what about this village? Kezthrem never mentioned homes among those trees...”
It was only then that Glaide realized he had no name for his companion. He contemplated whether he should ask her to write it in the dirt with a stick, or if he should wait for her to tell him, and in the end, he decided he’d just have to be patient; when the day came that he could call her by her name, he would consider that a victory.
The two woke long after the sun. As they collected their things, Glaide announced what he had decided the evening before, the young woman nodded her agreement, and then they started on their way. The young man walked in front again. He soon began to speak, talking about anything and everything: he told her stories, commented on the events of the previous few days, amused himself trying to create poetry about the landscapes around them, or retold his adventures, which were becoming ever more numerous. However, he didn’t spend too much time on the last point, since some of those memories were painful for him, and he didn’t want to drone on about every bit of his own life.
From time to time, he’d stop talking for a few minutes to catch his breath, and then he’d begin again. He tried to keep silence at bay, though he paused and turned back on more than one occasion, checking to see that he wasn’t boring his companion. Each time, she seemed disappointed that he’d stopped talking more than anything, and her smile encouraged him to continue.
After several hours, the two heard a sound very different from the usual bird songs that they’d heard up until then. Glaide listened carefully, trying to identify it, and after a moment, he decided there must be a cart of some kind nearby. That seemed improbable, though, considering how remote the area th
ey were traveling through was, so the adolescent decided to be cautious. He grabbed the young woman’s arm, and the two warily began to draw closer to the source of the sound. In front of them, they found a steep hill. They climbed it quickly, then lay down at the top, so that they remained hidden in the tall grass.
From there, they could see a dirt road snaking through the grass not far from them. It didn’t look like it was used very often, but at the moment, a man sitting in a small cart was traveling along it. He looked like a merchant, and Glaide—always suspicious of individuals traveling alone, far from any potential places for trade—was about to suggest they avoid him until he noticed what the merchant was transporting: it looked like he was some kind of clothing merchant.
“What luck,” he thought. “If we buy traveling clothes for her now, we’ll gain a good chunk of time, and we won’t have to look for a village straight away.” That won out over his desire to be prudent. He quickly shared his thinking with the girl, and then got up, with the young woman following close behind.
So that he wouldn’t cause a disturbance or misunderstanding later, Glaide made his sword appear before approaching the man, though he left it in place, hanging from his belt. However, when the weapon appeared, the young woman moved away in shock. She stopped, petrified.
“Hey, it’s okay,” the adolescent reassured her. “This blade is meant to save human lives, not take them. As long as I can wield it, you have nothing to fear.” She hesitated, her eyes fixed on the black leather sheath. “Listen, one day, perhaps, we’ll have a chance to discuss the best way to protect ourselves, and killing others is probably not that best way, but for the moment, it is the most efficient one we have!” The young woman finally looked him in the eye again, and nodded her head ever so slightly. The young man accepted her agreement, and went to flag down the man.
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