Tranquility

by David Gay-Perret

  Chapter 14

  GLAIDE could barely stay on his feet, and his head was spinning. Through a veil of confusion, he watched the young woman close the eyes of the corpses, unconcerned about getting blood on her clothes. Then, she left the house, stopping beside him to put her arm around him and help him move away.

  “Let’s go,” she said simply. Glaide let her lead him away. He couldn’t bring himself to speak. Honestly, it was all he could do just to put one foot in front of the other. What he had seen was such an incredible shock, and bit by bit, he felt the same feeling of despair that he’d experienced in that village south of Zakorth invade his mind. How could he fight against this? How many men, women, and children had experienced the same horrors that he’d just seen? How many would experience the same kind of attack from the monsters roaming Galadria today, or were experiencing such a thing at this very moment?

  As if she could read the dark thoughts filling his head, Mehrika looked at him and offered up a gentle smile. Glaide found hope and a will to go on in gazing at the face of the young woman, just as he had when he’d looked at the small boy he’d saved. An idea imposed itself forcefully in his mind: Mehrika had become mute because of a vision like the one he’d just seen, the difference being that she’d had no one to give her hope. “She suppressed her memories to protect herself from the pain, just as I tried to do,” thought the young man. “That was a mistake, though, and it weighed on her so heavily that she lost her ability to speak. I can’t let that happen to me; it’s imperative that I confront my fears and conquer them.”

  Deep within him, he hoped against hope that, whatever his destiny may be, he’d always have someone with him to restore his hope. And if not, he hoped that when the time came, he’d have the inner strength to defeat despair himself.

  He remained there for almost an hour, staring off into space as he slowly sorted things through in his mind, gradually coming to understand much that he had never really comprehended before—though he remained unable to say any of it aloud. Mehrika began to get tired from supporting so much of his weight, and soon she stopped to catch her breath, and the young man sat down.

  The two were still within the forest, but Glaide could see the edge of it approaching in the distance. Still in a state of shock, he wondered idly if it would be better to spend the night on the plains or within the shelter of the trees. The question seemed so important that he spent several minutes contemplating the pros and cons. Suddenly, though, he got up and headed towards the forest’s edge. His decision was made. He wanted to see the stars. He moved quickly, though his steps seemed oddly mechanical. Mehrika ran to catch up to him, and the two stepped out into the last rays of the sun. The young man sucked in a deep breath of fresh air, which helped to dissipate the fog filling his mind. A smile etched its way across his face. He turned, and realized that his companion was terribly worried about him. He had to admit that his willpower, in which he had always had complete faith, and whose strength had been proven so many times before, had nearly abandoned him...

  “I think we need to talk tonight,” the girl declared, her voice soft. Glaide nodded. It was about time that he get some of his questions answered, and what he’d experienced that day would certainly help him understand the woman he was accompanying better.

  “We shouldn’t light a fire; our enemies are too close, and they might spot it,” the boy said in reply. Mehrika couldn’t hold in her sigh of relief, followed by a smile at hearing her companion’s voice. “It would take more than that to beat me,” Glaide thought to himself, a tinge of pride accompanying the thought.

  The two settled in near a tree stump; the young woman used the stump as a seat, while her companion chose to settle down on the grass, leaning against his traveling bag. They ate quickly, though neither of them were particularly hungry. Truth be told, Glaide was impatient to hear what his companion had to say.

  “Where do I start?” Mehrika began with a sigh. “When I think of everything you’ve told me, about your friends, your master, about you, yourself... I have not had as many things happen in my life as you have, so there should be little to tell, and yet, I can’t for the life of me decide where I should start...”

  “Perhaps you should start at the beginning of our story—the place where we met? Zakorth. How did you wind up in Zakorth?”

  “Zakorth,” she repeated. She closed her eyes for a moment, as if to see it again in her mind’s eye. Glaide fixed his own gaze on the sky above, though all of his attention remained focused on Mehrika.

  “This is how my story begins,” she said softly. “A while ago, and I can’t say how long ago, as I lost all sense of days and weeks during my captivity, I was taken from near my village. My attackers were well organized; they were waiting for me. I had made a habit of going for walks beyond the borders of the forest, and there, one day, I was attacked and taken by a group of noruks and dark elves.”

  “Taken? But wh...” Glaide didn’t finish the phrase, however. Even as he went to ask the question, he realized that the reason behind her kidnapping was of little importance. After everything that had happened that day, he had come to realize that why something happened meant nothing; the event itself was what mattered. He would certainly learn the why of the matter when they reached the village, anyway. For the moment, the only thing that really mattered was what she had experienced. After all, it was by fighting her memories that she had defeated her muteness, not by discovering the reason for their existence. What did it matter why she’d been taken, whether she’d figured that out or if she still was in the dark about it? Ultimately, it made no great difference. The part that was real was what had happened because of it.

  As if she understood what her companion was thinking, she ignored his interruption.

  “In the beginning, I wondered why so many would come for someone as defenseless and weak as I am. I guess really, that was not to make it easier for them to take me, but to make sure they they took me alive. And that is when the real nightmare began.”

  “You mean when you set out for the village?” Glaide asked gently. The girl nodded. For a moment, the boy wondered if she would even be able to retell what happened, but when she finally spoke, her voice was clear as a bell.

  “I don’t know how long it took for us to reach the city, but what I do know is that after only two days, I was already hoping against hope that that would happen as soon as possible.”

  “Though you knew that it would be a prison for you?” Glaide spoke, turning his head to see the face of his companion. Her eyes stared deeply into his own as she replied.

  “You don’t understand. The journey was far worse than being a prisoner in that place. Every day, we came across little villages and hamlets, and every day, I was forced to observe massacres. I always had front row seats to see my captors killing and destroying, and there was nothing I could do! Glaide, can you imagine that what you and your master saw once became a daily occurrence for me? Bodies torn apart, cries of suffering, and blood... so much blood...”

  The girl’s words hit the young man like a blow to the stomach, knocking the wind out of him. He knew just how deeply the scene of the burnt village had shocked him, and it was completely impossible for him to imagine having that repeated before him, day after day. He couldn’t hold back a shiver of horror.

  “So that is why you stopped talking,” he murmured.

  “To prevent myself from going mad, I had to close my mind off to everything happening around me. I took refuge behind a fortress of indifference, and I lost the ability to speak so much as a word.” Glaide realized then just how much strength the girl had proven herself to have by breaking out of that armor.

  “So, like I said,” she continued, “my captivity in Zakorth was much easier to survive. Actually, the hardest part then was to know that I was alone within the only stronghold in all of the Known Lands that belonged to our enemy. The problem, as you no doubt noticed, is that the village itself is so much less dangerous than its surroundings. I o
ften thought of trying to escape, but the idea of trying to pass through Zakorth’s territory discouraged me every time.”

  “But when you ran into me, just as I was leaving the tavern, you were in the middle of trying to flee, weren’t you?” The memory brought a small smile to the lips of the young woman.

  “You’re right, I was. I had finally made up my mind; I was running because they’d tried to tie me up, and I was fleeing my guards. I figured what difference did it make what I found outside of the city? It couldn’t be much worse than what was happening inside. And when I think that you practically set off a revolution all by yourself! In a few hours, you freed the slaves, destroyed a tavern, killed some thirty citizens, and you saved me...” She laughed then. Glaide smiled, too, thinking to himself that even in his own eyes, the whole scenario seemed unbelievable.

  “I have to admit, even I went to Zakorth reluctantly,” the adolescent declared. “I was terrified at the idea of what I might find there, but my desire to find out where my friends were was stronger. And I have to say that in the end, I wound up with good memories from my time there. I made new friends among the barbarians, dwarves, and elves, and we managed to create a good bit of mayhem! I remember thinking, too, that for the first time, my master was wrong. Zakorth was not the horrible place he’d described to me.”

  “Erm, on that point, we don’t agree. My opinion of the place is much more like that of your master’s.”

  “Really?” the boy replied in surprise. “What makes you say that? Didn’t you just tell me that your time in the village was nothing compared to the journey there?”

  “Yes, and that’s true. However, much of what happens there is invisible on the surface. Once when you were talking, you said that Kezthrem had declared Zakorth to be a staging grounds for many atrocities, and even if you didn’t see them happening, he was not wrong. Think of the slaves that you freed: how many were sold before them, and how many are there at this moment? How many have suffered, and will suffer? Your actions saved a few, but that is but a drop in the bucket compared to the number of lives that village has taken.”

  Her declaration left Glaide without words. Mehrika was right; his breach of that place had gone well, but in truth he couldn’t claim to know the place based on just that limited experience.

  “There are dark elves there, and the things they wreak...” continued the young woman. “Those creatures are both cruel and mad, and because they do their work in hiding, it is impossible to know just what they really do without seeing it for yourself.”

  Glaide didn’t have to ask the question that rose up at those words; he knew that his companion had experienced that very thing. The words Kezthrem had spoken when the adolescent had suggested spying on Zakorth resonated in his head: “There, you would find only death, slavery, and more horrors than you could ever imagine.” An idea crossed his mind, then. Contrary to what he had just concluded, his master had actually been right about the enemy village. After all, Mehrika had just confirmed his words.

  “Perhaps he actually was in Zakorth once?” thought Glaide. “And why not? My master has been to so many places and done so many things that that wouldn’t be surprising at all...”

  “I understand what you and Kezthrem mean,” the young man declared finally.

  “You know, Glaide,” his companion murmured then, resting a hand on his shoulder, “even if your actions were futile compared to all of the evil perpetrated in Zakorth, that makes them no less worthy of praise. If each time one decides to do something, they abandon the thought because it seems insignificant, nothing will ever change. And then again, you made allies among all of the peoples, and thanks to what you saw, you can break the image Zakorth has built up for itself, and which protects it better than any army ever could.” Glaide made no response, his gaze remaining fixed on the sky. After a few moments, Mehrika spoke again, her tones muted.

  “Can I ask you a question?”

  “I’m listening.”

  “You’ve told me many things about yourself, but you’ve never spoken of where you come from. And the fact that you were astonished by how surprising my features were to everyone we’ve crossed paths with has made me curious. To be honest, I expected you to react like them. So, where do you come from?”

  The boy smiled in reply and, as he got up to stretch his legs a bit, he gave his reply.

  “From another world.”

  He spent the rest of the evening talking about his own past. For once, however, his usual reticence on the subject was gone. He’d come to accept that part of his past.

  Finally, far into the night, the two went to sleep, happy after the long conversation they’d shared.

  Chapter 15

  THE two travelers headed off again shortly after sunrise. Glaide studied his map carefully to try to determine exactly where they were, but as he’d expected, it was impossible. There wasn’t enough detail to the cartography to get any real clue. Towards the east, the lines on the map were clearly meant to be representative only, not remotely accurate. He couldn’t even estimate how far they’d traveled after fleeing Zakorth, because he wasn’t sure how many days they’d been traveling. All the two could do was continue on their way. Mehrika assured the adolescent, though, that she’d recognize their surroundings when they got a bit closer, and that she’d be able to guide them to their final destination. The boy couldn’t help but worry that if they arrived just a bit too far to the north or south, the young woman would be of little help, however; she couldn’t possibly know the entire forest of the elves by heart, and if she didn’t recognize their surroundings, they’d have to pick a direction at random, and hope for the best.

  The day passed without any events of note. The orks and other monsters in the area were keeping a low profile, though Glaide reminded himself that it was just a matter of time before Baras caught his trail and took up the chase once again. The idea didn’t exactly fill him with cheer, especially if he wanted to have any hope of finding his friends again. Having his adversaries at his heels would complicate that plan considerably. Strangely enough, though, he found himself viewing those thoughts with a certain amount of detachment. The future seemed hazy, uncertain, and not the least bit attractive, while the present was implicitly enjoyable. He was traveling with a charming companion, and each day brought with it its own share of fun and entertainment. Once again, he had the impression that he was truly experiencing the journey and the world around him like he never had before—and yet, at the same time, he felt like everything he’d experienced since leaving Zakorth had passed by like in a dream. Their lack of any way to mark time certainly didn’t help matters in that respect.

  The two travelers spent almost the entire the day chatting, making it quite a bit different from the trek he’d experienced at Kezthrem’s side; though it had seemed like they spoke a lot, that man had a natural taciturnity that had made it common for the master and the disciple to spend hours in silent meditation. With Mehrika, the opposite was true: one of the two was almost always recounting something that had come to mind, and if they weren’t, it was only because they’d temporarily run out of things to say. In the end, the day passed with long discussions, broken up by short silences, while the time with Kezthrem had held the opposite: long silences, broken up by short conversations.

  As the day was drawing to a close, and Glaide was just finishing sharing a few anecdotes about his training—in particular, the one about how his master woke him in the middle of the night with a sword to the throat, which amused the young woman so that she frequently broke into laughter—they noted a dark stain across the horizon.

  “Do you know what that is?” Glaide asked purposefully.

  “Perhaps,” mused Mehrika. “If it is what I think it is, I’ll have good news for you...”

  “And what would that be?”

  “I want to be sure first,” she proclaimed, before taking off at a run. Glaide, surprised as he was by her reaction, still didn’t miss a beat, and quickly took off after he
r. The dark structure soon revealed itself to be a pile of rocks. From the looks of it, it wasn’t a natural formation, but a man-made one. The two travelers found themselves before a hill with steep sides and a narrow base, with the stones at the top forming a refuge of sorts, almost like the cave the two had spent the night before in.

  “So, is it what you were hoping it would be?” asked the adolescent, out of breath after climbing up the hill. In response, the young woman threw herself into his arms. “Huh? But... what...?” the boy stuttered, embarrassed. Finally, he decided to return the hug. When the girl lifted her gaze to his, he saw that her eyes were welling up with unshed tears.

  “We’re here,” she said. “This place was built by my people to act as a refuge for travelers. It was meant to be a safe, easy-to-defend shelter.” She struggled to continue, filled with emotion as she was. “Tomorrow...” she choked out. “Tomorrow...” Then, she buried her head in his chest, just as she had the night she’d conquered her memories and found her tongue again.

  “We’re almost there,” Glaide thought with a smile. “Tomorrow, we’ll reach our destination.” Normally, such a thought would make him start thinking about what was to come—what he’d have to do after this. This journey was nothing like the others, though, and all he felt now was a sense of joy and tranquility.

  “Right, let’s eat,” Mehrika declared, beaming all the while. As she set to work, she hummed away, filling the air with tunes unlike any the young man had ever heard before. He helped her gather some wood to cook their meal while the sun slowly disappeared. Neither of them was too concerned about being spotted by their enemies; tonight, there was no room in their hearts for worry, and they threw caution to the wind.