by Garry Ocean
Not changing her tone, the girl continued, “You, Big Man who had come here using the secret paths of the Departed Gods, think that you are here by accident and desperately want to go back.”
“…You, Whisperer, who spent all your life trying to figure out the mystery of the Forest, but in fact are afraid of knowing the truth,”
“…You, the Guardian’s daughter, desperately searching for your half-brother, but in reality following the call of your ancestors from the past centuries,”
“…You, the Warrior, ready to sacrifice his life in the name of his Duty, but not believing in the Duty with your whole heart,”
“…You all are connected to each other with thin threads of destiny. You are holding the key to the future of the World surrounding us. Set out at dawn. Now is the best time to do what you want to do. The Forest is asleep. It is very tired.”
*****
The large oval table decorated with the intricate mosaic was entirely covered with piles of half-unrolled scrolls. The Supreme Guardian’s headache was becoming unbearable. Even the concoction of the herbs from the Near Forrest was not helping it any longer. He just finished the regular council with the Guardians. Just like in all other meetings before this one, they couldn’t reach any agreement or come to any clear conclusion. The Supreme One remembered the Judge’s words, “The unfolding situation is not optimistic.”
He breathed deeply several times trying to contain hid anger. His hatred-filled eyes looked at the pile of scrolls in front of him. He even raised his arm in an attempt to sweep everything off the table down onto the floor, but stopped himself in time. Among the countless reports, intelligence data and complaints that the Judge brought to him every day, there were some that deserved his attention. He realized that titanic work was behind some of those reports, and sometimes even agents’ lives had been sacrificed.
The Supreme One collected his thoughts, “So, what do we have at this point?” He started to count on his fingers.
“First, panic. All right, I think we can handle the panic. The flying beasts are of course something new, but sooner or later they will come down to the ground. The Watchman and Alchemist seem to have developed a plan of attack for them. As I understand, the main thing is not to let them multiply. Ewww,” the Supreme One shook his body in disgust. He never went to the places that were destroyed by the flying creatures to see them for himself, he was very busy here. But the slimy substance that the Alchemist brought with him in a glass jar would bring up nothing but disgust, to say the least, in any normal person.
“I need to tell the Treasurer not to delay and allocate the money to build mobile fire throwers. Or whatever the Alchemist calls them. So this is clear now. The most important thing is to eliminate the causes of panic, and then the Judge will do the rest,” the Supreme One smirked. “This is something he excels at, no one can take that away from him.”
“Second,” he counted the index finger, “The steppe dwellers, everything is a lot more complicated here.”
The Supreme One rummaged through the scrolls of reports, looking for something, “Here it is!” This was a report from his personal agent, a very valuable agent, or better to say – priceless. Only the Supreme One knew him in person, no one else had a clue about who he was. And even the Supreme One saw him for the last time about fifteen years ago, if not more. “Yes, exactly, Cleo was just born at that time, so it’s more than fifteen years, how time flies!” The Supreme One sighed, and mumbled, “A very curious report.”
This agent was working as a scribe under Tyn-Karantyn and was aware of many secrets of the High Ghurt. The Supreme One looked the report over again. The Rapid Waters ended its run in the farthest steppe from the City, called the Southern Steppe. This is where, according to the legend, the first steppe dwellers came from, raised on the milk of the sacred mare named Lao-Tyn. This is where the Heart of the High Ghurt still was. No matter how hard the City and the White Rocks tried to get to it, the distance and vastness of the steppe spreading around it made it impossible. From the data that spies collected drop by drop starting from the time of Archie the Wise it looked like there was a large and flourishing oasis here. How large it was in size was still unknown, the data were contradictory on that. But it was definitely comparable to the area that is now occupied by the Great City.
The agent’s report that the Supreme One was holding in his hands now said that the Heart of the High Ghurt was massively attacked by the Forest creatures. It was not entirely clear how they got there. But it’s not the most important thing now. The message said that the large area was contaminated by the Forest and the steppe dwellers and would most probably leave it soon. The word “leave” was underlined several times.
The Supreme One was deep in thought. He had no reason not to trust his agent. On the contrary, the agent was always sending fully credible reports, even though they were very rare. No matter how impossible those reports looked, they always were verified with time. The Supreme One rubbed his temples.
“But for the Ghurt to leave its sacred land? This is completely unheard of. Oh, the Departed take them, “unheard” of is a gross understatement. This is simply impossible!” the Supreme One did not even notice that he had been pacing the room for quite some time now. He returned to his armchair, and drummed his fingers on the table. What could have happened there? His head was spinning. He didn’t want to know the answer.
“Yes, we have underestimated the Forest. They call us the Guardians for nothing!” he frowned bitterly. “If this is true and the Ghurt leaves its sacred land, it would mean only one thing: The War. The big war!”
The steppe dwellers had been eyeing the Middle Lands for a long time, since the very time when Archie the Wise had displaced them from there in a battle. But until now they were driven by ambition, greed, and anger. Now it is a matter of life and death for them. If they lose their only fertile Sacred Land, they will never be able to survive.
The Supreme One straightened his shoulders, “Something to talk about with the Watchman today and with the Treasurer.”
He allowed himself a little smirk. The Treasurer liked to instruct the Watchman on how to conduct war properly. Not a single meeting of theirs skipped this. The Treasurer was particularly good telling stories about his long-gone youth, when he was bravely killing steppe dwellers and other robbers, even though everyone knew that the Treasurer had never left the City limits and was afraid of any type of weapons from childhood.
“So, what else?” the Supreme One counted his third finger. “Towers.”
He frowned so hard his brows connected. “Cleo! Naughty girl! What should I do? Had she been still a little girl, I’d just spank her, and that’s it! But now…” the Supreme One shrugged his shoulders helplessly. Then, as if catching himself in this unfitting weakness, he smiled. “But still, she is great, that girl! Saved over three thousand people, not waiting for anyone’s approval and taking full responsibility. Just like her mother!” The Supreme One coughed into his fist. “Well, we’ll talk with her about that! When she comes back, I’ll show her how not to overstep her authority!” The Supreme One even banged the table in feigned anger.
Then he continued thinking out loud, “Towers. No matter how you look at it, we have failed here too. There are credible reports about the three closest ones. All three have been destroyed by the Forest. Only those three thousand refugees got saved and evacuated. In all cases, there were lots of deserters. To the Watchman’s credit, only the volunteers ran. Now we can only hope that the remaining seven towers are still standing.”
“Do you really believe that yourself?” the Supreme One sighed bitterly. “And what should we do now? This is a collapse. The total collapse of a centuries long system. Now I understand that I should have listened to the timid, barely heard voices that were saying we needed a reformation, closing the gap between the residents of the City and Near Forest. And now what? Their faith in the Guardians is undermined, if not completely lost. Oh! This terrible headache!” The Supr
eme One unbuttoned the collar suffocating him.
At that moment, someone knocked on the door and without waiting for permission, an out of breath Judge ran into the room. “It’s Cleo!” he shouted, breathing heavily.
“What about her?” the Supreme One rose from his seat.
“She crossed to the other side!” the Judge finally managed to control his breathing. “My source tells me that they set out toward the Forest!”
“They?” having calmed down a little, the Supreme One sat down again. The most important thing is that she is alive. “With whom?”
“The Alvar and three hunters.”
The Supreme One half-closed his eyes. The Judge was still saying something but the Supreme One didn’t listen to him.
“So it’s not a myth then?” he asked himself for a millionth time. These legends and the premonition his late wife, Cleo’s mother, had before her death are true? Finally the Supreme One opened his eyes and said quietly, “Whatever happens, happens.”
He didn’t like the look the Judge gave him thinking that he didn’t see it.
Chapter 9
Nick caught himself thinking that he was experiencing déjà vu. In front of him, the sloths were moving heavily, slowly stomping their clawed paws. In the cart, among the many bags with various things that Lola had put together for their journey. Sith was walking at the cart’s side, whistling something to himself and whipping the sloths from time to time with a long twig. He would glance at Whisperer sleeping occasionally. The cart’s wheels were croaking rhythmically, making everyone sleepy.
The big difference was the landscape. Nick could not recognize the road they had taken just a couple of months before, when Whisperer, Sith, Ron, Valu, and he were traveling toward the ferry. He had a feeling that the entire flora, extremely scarce even at that time, was shaved off from the face of the planet by a giant razor. All around them, there was a lifeless rocky desert with rare and bare hills.
They met not a single beast during their day long journey. Sometimes they saw dirty green “blots” as Nick called them when he noticed them and Whisperer would make them do a detour, going around them as far as possible.
The blots were of different sizes and reminded Nick of thick jelly that splashed all over the place. Sometimes they connected to each other with their arms, extended like tentacles, covering large areas. If you look at them for a long time, you could notice that the mass was alive. Sometimes it was disturbed by slight ripples and the entire surface then started to rhythmically burst and pop. Then it seemed that the blot was breathing. Once Nick, out of curiosity, threw a large rock into it. The rock made a slurping sound on landing and half-sank into the mass, with the top half staying afloat. For some time, nothing happened. Then the jelly began to envelope the rock on all sides until it swallowed it completely. Nick asked Whisperer what that disgusting stuff was. Whisperer only responded with something like, “We will find out only when it takes root.” Nick, who already got used to such evasive answers from Whisperer, did not ask any further.
Cleo, who had outright rejected the offer to ride in the cart, was walking to the right of it. Gunn-Terr kept pace a little to the side of her. Everyone was silent. From the time they left the village, the travelers exchanged a dozen of words at the most. Even Sith was silent. Nick, who was prepared to listen to Sith’s mumblings all the way, started to look at the boy with concern.
Before they left, Niya came up to every one of them separately to tell them something. Perhaps it was Niya’s message that depressed Sith so much. Nick was about to say something encouraging to the boy, when he noticed that Sith started to whistle something to himself. It seemed that the boy was gradually getting back into his usual good mood. So what did she really say to him, in the end? But of course Nick couldn’t ask him that, directly. If the boy wanted to, he’d tell him.
Nick had to admit that Niya was a very special girl. When talking to her, all people were always behaving like they were not themselves. Nick couldn’t quite understand if they were embarrassed, hypnotized, or shy. Even Whisperer behaved differently around her, as if he was lost or something. And Nick was smitten, too. He had so many questions he wanted to ask of her, and what happened? He started to talk, stumbled and wanted to start over. And she just looked at him with her huge eyes in such a way that he felt stupid, like a little boy to whom an adult had been trying to explain something very basic for at least an hour.
“Your path, the Man from Faraway, is long and thorny,” she said quietly. At the time, Nick could swear her lips did not move and were closed so tight they became white. “Now you are just making the first steps. Go forward and do not stop.”
Nick was listening to her voice like a charmed snake. It seemed that it sounded right in his head, “Do not let your conscious cloud your reason, and your reason cloud your conscious.”
“That was all she said,” Nick thought and smirked at himself. “You can take it anyway you want.” Although, there was something else because a little later, when they were loading the cart, Niya asked him if she could hold Gray. The little animal was happy to go into her arms. Niya whispered something, burring her face in his fur. Then she held him tight on her chest, rocking the little animal like a baby. At that moment, she looked like a little girl playing with her baby doll. Then she returned the animal to Nick unwillingly, saying something like “you will be a lot more useful with him.”
And then Nick remembered Gunn-Terr’s face when Niya came up to him and he smiled. His face, always expressionless, went green when the girl took him by his arm. And Cleo, she was chatting with Niya for some time, just like old girlfriends. And then Cleo gave Nick a strange look, that was both interested and curious, as if she saw Nick for the first time. There was something else in her look, but Nick couldn’t tell what. Who knows what those girls have on their mind? He thought.
*****
The fire was smoldering, not really giving any warmth or light. They only started it to warm up some food. Whisperer said that the wood and brushwood they took from the village needed to be used in rations. In the village, Nick was dumbfounded to have observed Sith layering the bottom of the cart with dry brushwood and hay. But now he realized that the old man was right, as always. On their way, they so far saw neither a small tree nor even a low bush.
To camp for the night, they selected a small rocky hill, also completely devoid of anything green. They couldn’t find anything else taller in the area, so that hill had to do.
Everyone was sitting around the smoldering fire. Cleo set her head on her bent knees and seems to be dozing off. The journey clearly exhausted her. But being as stubborn as she was, the girl refused to lie down in the cart even then. Gunn-Terr was sitting next to Cleo, having lent his shoulder to her as if unintentionally. It was just a little more comfortable for Cleo. Sith was concentrating on chewing a dry piece of bread, giving Nick short secretive looks. The boy was clearly bored by the long silence and was waiting for a reason to strike a conversation with Nick. Whisperer was looking at the fire in deep thought, from time to time stirring up the embers with a stick.
The hill was not high but it opened up the view of the entire valley for the companions. The Dominia was hanging over their heads, as always, showering everything around it with its emerald light. It reminded Nick of White Nights in St. Petersburg on Earth. The polar nights were so light that some people had trouble sleeping at night. However, on this planet the Dominia, in perigee at that moment, was even stronger than the Earth’s satellite. Had it not been for its dim emerald color, the nights would have been just as lit as the days.
Nick was looking around with interest. As it turned out, there were a lot more blots than it seemed when they were moving along the valley. The blots were easy to spot because of a light phosphoric glow they were emitting, while the thick greenish evaporation above them completed this dystopian picture. Nick looked to the side where he thought the Near Forest was supposed to be and toward which they were moving. The horizon on that side
was completely covered with the green haze. Nick felt a little uneasy.
As if reading his mind, the Whisperer broke silence for the first time that night, “We’ll have to walk really fast tomorrow. The bald spots are very hungry at this time. Do you see how they glow?”
The old man pointed toward the horizon and continued, “But that’s understandable, they need to grow. Looks like they are starting to gobble up each other. Here they are still asleep, saving their strength. And there…” he nodded his head in a vague direction, adding, “Don’t even try to approach them anymore.”
Then the old man stroked sleepy Cleo’s hair and said, “Dear, go to the cart, it will be much more comfortable for you.”
Surprisingly, the girl got up and obediently went toward the sloths. Gunn-Terr gave the old man a grateful look. Then he got up, showing with his entire demeanor that his mind was already made up, and said, “You all should also get some sleep, I’ll take the first watch shift.”
“Well, that we can do easily!” Sith smiled cunningly, putting the remaining part of his bread into the bag. “As Valu says, to eat and to sleep are the best things anyone can dream about. Just don’t forget to give some grass to the sloths to eat, otherwise they will go to the blots, sure bet.” He gave a big yawn and, already dozing off, mumbled, “Wake me up for the next shift.”
“And watch out for the fog not to get too close to us!” Whisperer decided to follow suit in giving into Gunn-Terr commands. “Tomorrow will be a hard day, the Departed save us!” He mumbled something else, trying to make himself comfortable near the fire.
Nick spread his body on the rocky ground. As it happens, he couldn’t fall asleep. This evergreen dusk was getting on his nerves. The valley around them, the hills, the sleeping companions around the glowing fire – everything seemed lifeless and staged like in a cheap movie. The humid air saturated with the flammable mixture of ammonia and sulfuretted hydrogen. The strong odor was irritating his nose and he couldn’t stop sneezing. “I need to make myself fall asleep. This planet is exhausting,” Nick thought.
