Red Leaves and the Living Token

by Benjamin David Burrell

  The man smiled. "OK. Well lets get you to bed. And maybe you could tell me more about your friend tomorrow."

  He was glad the conversation was over. He did know how much longer he could keep it up.

  -

  Handers ran along the edge of the plaza keeping out of the light. He hoped Lord Valance and his entourage had moved on despite missing two of their soldiers. That was probably just wishful thinking though. So he planned on finding another way out of the village.

  He stopped abruptly. Someone was crossing the lighted center of the plaza. Someone else, it seemed, had business at this ungodly hour and didn't mind being noticed.

  They had covered themselves in a heavy cloak, apparently trying to make themselves look bigger. A child? It was a child, he was sure of it. Why would a child be out alone in the middle of the night?

  He watched them hurry back to the door of the inn that he'd just left. Sinesh? It had to be. She must have followed after him when he left to warn Bedic. He decided to risk exposure and called out, "Sinesh!"

  The cloak stopped and turned towards the darkness that was he was hiding in. Two little green hands pulled the hood of the cloak down. He was right! It was her!

  He stepped out of the darkness and rushed towards her. "I told you to stay in the room!"

  She frowned at him. "Where's my Grandpa?"

  "I don't know." He scolded in an angry whisper.

  "But I saw you with him." She pointed past the night gate. "Before those people came."

  "Good grief, you know how to get in the middle of trouble. Did anybody see you?"

  "No." She answered.

  "Good." He said. "Did you see them leave? Did any of them stay behind?"

  "I don't think so." She said.

  He knelt down and put his face at her level. "Listen, you're Grandpa is fine. They just wanted his help to find the Token."

  She shook her head. "No." She turned towards the mountains beyond the night gate. "They were hurting him. Because I helped him run away. They were punishing him."

  Handers felt a sudden knot of guilt welling up. Bedic had helped him twice now, and still he was reluctant to rush into the mountains to help him. He imagined that he was the reason that Valance was interested in Bedic in the first place. Valance must have been watching him when he visited Bedic’s church.

  "Do you have any family here?" He asked her. Surely he couldn't drag this little child up into what was sure to become a dangerous situation. But who could he leave her with in the middle of the night?

  "No.” She answered.

  Then again, maybe he was just looking for reasons not to go. Either way this was bad.

  "Lets go look for your Grandpa." He said.

  She reached up and took his hand. "OK."

  -

  Handers hurried up the mountain road caring Sinesh in his blackened arm. He slowed at each switchback to check up ahead. He didn't think they'd catch up to them for quite a while. But it didn’t hurt to be cautious.

  A half hour up the winding steep road, he froze. His heart started pounding in his chest. Above them, through the trees, a single torch light made a swipe in the air then vanished as quickly as it appeared.

  "Shhhh!" He whispered. "There's someone up there."

  He knew they couldn't keep going up the road without being spotted. So what did they do now? Should they hide somewhere a little further down and wait for morning? What if it wasn't Valance and they waste the night waiting?

  They had to get a closer look to confirm what it was they were dealing with. Bedic needed them now. If they waited out the night, they might loose him. He knew this, yet he couldn’t seem to convince his body to move forward. He heart was still pounding.

  Sinesh squirmed out of his arms. "Let’s go look." She put her fingers to her lips. "Shhhh!"

  She was braver than he. And that, as he thought about it, was a little shameful. He was being led through a dark forest, in the middle of the night, towards what was most likely a source of extreme danger, by a 6 year old girl.

  He shook his head and stepped past her, taking the lead. They covered the distance quickly and, to his surprise, rather silently. When they had gotten pretty close to where he thought he saw the light, he reached his hand out to stop Sinesh.

  A flash of lightning from the storm still raging at the top of the mountain lit the mountain side for a brief moment revealing one of Lord Valance's shiny black carriages about a dozen yards in front of them.

  Beyond it there was a small collection of tents. There were no fires, no lamps, no torches. Everything was dark and quiet. Apparently they were intent on not being noticed.

  There was a pretty decent chance that Bedic was in that camp. He had to think of what to do now. He hadn't really formulated much of a plan. Perhaps he should take a minute and think this out, he thought. Should they wait for morning, so they could see where he was? But then they’d be easily spotted as well.

  He glanced over at Sinesh. The thought actually crossed his mind to ask the six year old if she had any ideas. But to his horror, she was gone.

  "Sinesh!" He whispered. Wow, this little girl was so much trouble! Then he spotted her as she snuck under the carriage. He knew bringing her up her was going to be a mistake. What was he going to do now? Follow her. Again?

  He hurried through the bushes and then pushed up against the carriage that she had crawled under. He dropped down to look under it, but she wasn’t there. She had already moved on. He got up and crept around the side. There she was! She was peering in the back of another carriage. She hoped down from the bumper of one and then climbed up on the bumper another, peering in quickly before jumping down again..

  He shook his head. She had no idea what would happen if she actually got caught. He convinced himself that that was the source of her courage. If she knew what he knew, she’d be just as immobilized.

  Two soldiers came around from behind the tents, walking around the perimeter. He was too far away to call out to her to warn her. But then, it didn't look like he needed to.

  She saw them as she climbed down from one of the carriages and quickly tucked herself underneath as they passed.

  Handers stood up. What was she doing now? She had crawled out after they'd passed and was following them! Why? This wasn't going to end well for either of them, he was sure of it.

  To his surprise, she broke off before they noticed her and disappeared between the carriages. Where was she going now? After a moment, she reemerged closer to him. She was coming back! She crawled back under the same Carriage she'd left under.

  Handers grabbed her. "What are you doing!" He whispered. "They'll kill us if they see us! Do you understand that?”

  She stared up at him, dumbfounded.

  He wanted to know what she saw, if anything, but he didn't want to encourage her for running off. She seemed to have been making a habit of it.

  "He's not there." She said after a moment.

  "OK." He said.

  " But those men said some of the people went up the mountain. They took Grandpa with them." She said.

  "They did? Did they say why?" He asked.

  "Lots and lots of Petra are here too. So they have to stay down here and be quiet."

  "Petra? Great!" Handers wasn't particularly fond of the Petra. But then again, who was? Other than Rinacht, of course. He’d surprised himself when he hired Rinacht. Never thought he'd ever work with a Petra let alone take one in by choice. But then, Rinacht had seemed a little different from other Petra he'd met. Less smug. Turned out to be a mistake after all.

  The bitterness resurfaced. Rinacht had become his closest friend. The one he trusted above all others. How could he have let that happen? How had he allowed himself to end up with a Petra as his one good friend? He knew better than that! Somehow, somewhere inside him, he knew this was going to come. Not this specifically, but the betrayal. It was inevitable. But that wasn’t fair, was it?

  He simply trusted too easily. Take Moslin, look at the dam
age she'd caused him. It was hard for him to admit now, but there was a time when he had felt quite close to her too. He trusted her like he trusted Rinacht. Now it was clear. Trust was a mistake.

  And what of Bedic and Sinesh? They're her family! But he owed Bedic. If he turned on him now, he'd be just as guilty as the Rinacht and Moslin. He'd be unworthy of trust himself. As Bedic, no doubt, felt he was already.

  "Lets go around the camp and keep going up the mountain. They can't be too much further." He told her.

  -

  They'd been climbing up the road another twenty minutes, keeping close to the trees in case they needed to hide, when they heard a faint thumping sound, like the beating of an incredibly large drum, pounding out a slow, steady pulse. Boom. Boom. Boom.

  "What is that?" Sinesh asked.

  "Someone who wants others to know they're here." He answered. The thumping grew louder as they pushed up the road.

  "Should we hide?" She asked.

  "Now you want to hide?" He laughed.

  After another switch back the trees one side ended abruptly. It appeared they’d come to a sort of ridge where the mountain side beyond the road leveled then dropped down out of sight. The thumping had become so loud Handers was sure whom ever it was, was just over the ridge.

  They stepped off the road and climbed up the embankment carefully, so they could see down over the ridge without being seen. Beyond the ridge the mountain side dropped down into a small valley bowl before resuming its steep ascent to the summit still a considerable distance above them.

  To Hander’s dismay, in the valley was not empty. Two columns of Petra soldiers marched down the center of a road that wrapped around the perimeter of the small valley. A solid mass of tents and military equipment filled in the rest of the open space from one edge to the other.

  Loaded wagons and carts, twice the size of anything he'd seen and made of what looked like some kind of polished stone, were spread throughout the tents. It looked like they were still moving in supplies. And lots of them.

  Another group of stone soldiers, in regular formation, made their rotations around the perimeter. This was the second group in only a few minutes. They must be expecting someone, he thought.

  The site was pretty impressive, he had to admit. It looked more like a city than a mobile encampment. Roads where clearly cut in between the square, building sized, tents. Rows of oil lamps attached to the top of high posts lined the sides of the roads. From a distance, they looked like regular street lamps.

  In the center of the camp, he could see a complex arrangement of more rigid structures, looking like a command center of some sort. If they weren’t up in the top of the mountains, he would’ve guessed they were permanent buildings. They must’ve brought them up in pieces and assembled them here.

  People said a lot of things about the Petra, but one thing was certain, they were industrious.

  Lighting flashed, throwing a flicker of light on the intricate little city. Soldiers buzzed to and fro as though it were the middle of the day. What ever they were doing, it was urgent. No body was sleeping.

  Sinesh picked herself up and scampered down the ridge. The double column of soldiers had passed, leaving enough room to move in towards the camp without being noticed.

  Handers scrambled after her. "Sinesh wait!” He hissed as loud as he dared. The girl had absolutely no sense of danger. “We don't know if your grandpa's down there."

  He had no idea if Lord Valance had the same kind of business relations with the Petra that he had with the Botann. If he did why did he leave half his men down the hill hiding in a dark camp? So Bedic was either down in the make shift city surrounded by a million boulder sized soldiers or somewhere in the woods with Valance.

  He’d guess Valance was hiding somewhere in the trees just like they were. Watching to see what the Petra were doing. That would mean, all they'd need to do was walk around the perimeter of the camp to find Valance.

  If he came up the same road they did, he couldn't be too...

  "MOM!" Sinesh yelled. She was still a good distance in front of him. He was trying but hadn’t been able to catch up to her. He followed her glance. Sure enough, marching down a wide road between the rows of massive tents was a small group of soldiers. In the middle of those soldiers was a tall Botann woman. Moslin!

  Handers’ heart pounded with sudden intensity. It felt like he was going to collapse in a panic attack. Moslin meant... He scanned the crowd trying to see in between the soldiers.

  Lighting flashed again, and he saw a small boy peak in and out behind the front row of stone men. Was that him? Was that his son? As he hurried closer down the hill, another gap formed in between the soldiers. This time he was sure. It was Emret being wheeled down the road in his chair alongside Moslin. "Emret!" He yelled.

  What was he doing here? Was Bedic right? Was he truly being drawn by the Token? And the Petra? Why were they here and why did they have Emret and Moslin? What was going on? What if Emret was in danger? They wouldn't hurt a child, would they? Zo or not.

  He quickened his pace. "We have to get down there." Sinesh was still ahead of him, making a straight line for her mother.

  A little off to their left he noticed what appeared to be an entry station to the camp. A new column of outer perimeter guards like the ones that had just passed by were filing out of that station.

  If he understood one thing about the Petra, it was their affection for order and law. There were laws protecting parents and their children. He was a law abiding citizen. He'd done nothing wrong. They'd have to give him custody of his son. They couldn't keep a thirteen year old child captive for no reason.

  That was it then, he'd just go straight to the entry guards and explain.

  "Sinesh!" He called. She looked back, and he signaled her to veer to the left towards the entry gate. "We're not going to sneak in this time."

  She eyed him pensively, then nodded her head. “OK.”

  -

  The narrow entry checkpoint was crowded with the wide bodies of soldiers returning in a line of soldiers from their rotation. The two station guards leaned back against the gate posts, bored, only half watching.

  Handers wasn't sure the best way to approach this. He wanted to avoid startling anyone. Perhaps the best way, he thought, would be to walk straight in like he belonged there and talk to the station guards.

  He took Sinesh's hand and marched out of the trees, cut across the road, and made straight for the gate. If any of the soldiers in the line took notice, they didn't say anything and he didn't turn to look.

  When he and Sinesh finally reached the gate, the two guards looked up at them with slightly more interest than they'd shown the rest of the soldiers coming and going.

  In fact, he suspected now that the only reason they took notice of him at all was because he stopped. He could've just as easily kept on going. They must not be too concerned with security. That or the guards didn’t think the entry gate was a concern given constant flow of soldiers coming in and out.

  "Yes?" The ranking guard asked with indifference.

  Handers was a bit surprised. Who did the guard think he was? A civilian traveler?

  “I'm sorry to bother you so late, sir. We camped not too far away from here, and it seems my son has gone missing. I believe my son wandered into your camp by mistake.”

  The guard got up, obviously bothered at having to do something. He noticed Sinesh.

  “Is this your daughter?” He asked with a sudden look of suspicion.

  “No. She's... Her family's traveling with us. She was the last one to see my son.”

  The guard folded his arms, then stared them up and down. "What's wrong with your arm?"

  Handers had forgotten about his torn shirt. The sleeve over his blackened arm had ripped up the middle. Fortunately it was dark and hard to see much more than that.

  "That, oh, I had a little trouble trying to fix a broken wagon wheel," He lied.

  The guard stared at him another momen
t before turning back to the camp. "Wait here." He turned and disappeared down a road that passed behind a large tent.

  After a few minutes, a larger Petra returned with the first. His uniform indicated some sort of rank. Handers had no idea which, exactly.

  “I understand you're looking for a missing child?” The officer asked.

  “Yes. We think he wandered into your camp.” Handers explained again.

  “I see.” The officer said.

  “He's Zo.” Handers added nervously.

  “Yes, I imagine he would be. About what age?” The officer asked.

  “He's thirteen.” He answered.

  “Anything identifiable? Backpack, color of shirt?”

  Handers debated. Should he say the boy was in a wheel chair? If he did, they’d know exactly who he was talking about. But that was the plan, wasn’t it? He wished he knew why they had Emret. If they had a compelling reason would they ignore his parental rights?

  Or would it be better to mislead them into thinking he was looking for some other child? How would that help? They'd probably just turn him away right here, tell him they'd keep an eye out. He had to make it was clear that it was Emret he was looking for and that he knew they had him. Maybe this plan wasn't so great after all. His nerves started to get the better of him. He felt his hands start to shake.

  Sinesh looked up at him. Apparently, he had paused too long.

  "He's in a wheel chair," He answered.

  The Officer raised his brow. "A wheel chair? I see." He stepped around the half wall protecting the entry guards and gestured for Handers to follow him into the camp.

  "Yes, I believe we maybe able to help you." He said.

  Handers face lit up. He couldn't help but feel a little hopeful. He was so close to his son now. Although he’d never admitted, the thought had crept into his mind that he may not ever see his son again.

  Finding him had started to seem like such an impossible task. So many things had gone wrong that now he imagined everything ahead would be difficult in the extreme. No, he hadn't imagined they'd be difficult, he'd seen that they'd be difficult, over and over. The token had shown him.