by Sam Sea
“We can’t outrun them…They’ll be on top of us in less than an hour.” Les’s feeling of dizziness returned and as they moved higher, his steps became shorter, his energy pool pain as well as the pain-tolerance force completely depleted. He staggered and fell to his knee.
“These hounds… what do they like to eat?”
“What do you mean?”
“Do they feed on plants, fruits, flash…?”
“I’ve never seen them eat the flash of humans, but they can tear you apart nevertheless. Most of the time their masters throw them raw, bloody meat to feed them. They’ll eat it even better if it’s cooked and smells good.”
“I want to ask you something…” Les said as he leaned on the bark of the tree grasping for the air…”If I understood it right, you… don’t know what I told you…”
“I told you already. I am not interested in your stupid little secrets. Don’t care who you send out to kill, or what you discovered. However…” Mikka face suddenly appeared right next to his. “…your luck was that I was paid to save you, for if they paid me to make you talk, you would have no secrets left in that silly little head of yours.”
“Really?”
“Yes, so count your blessings…”
“I don’t believe it. I don’t believe you could ever be evil.”
“Believe whatever you want… Just don’t test me. We need to hurry, you say.” She picked him up then like he was a little baby and not a man an inch taller than her, with weighted certainly outmatching hers. She carried him almost as if he weighted nothing, like he was a piece of her robe. As he came around, he felt her firm body, moving with the grace of a doe.
“Don’t get comfortable, or I’ll drop you to your stupid ass.” Mikka warn him seeing his eyes opening up. Ignoring the pain, Les did not fight his face creeping into a smile.
They were keeping themselves walking inside the cover of the trees, but the trial led higher where the trees were spare and the clearance they needed to cross would certainly reveal where they were.
“Wait here…” Mikka suddenly said as she dropped him next to the tall pine tree whose branches. “I need to see what we are dealing with. Should have done it while the light was still spare.”
“They will not chase forever…If we cross over the mountain and go down the river, they cannot follow. That is the borderline of their kingdom. They have no right behind there. We can be safe then.”
“We are not crossing the mountains to the east…” Mikka told him.
“But there is nothing up north?” Les was confused. “Only more mountains, with passes leading to more mountains covered with the eternal snow and ice?”
“Yes I know…”
“We, we won’t be able to cross it… The snow will come done, become deeper, some places probably waste deep, and the cold will freeze us. Listen to me, both you and I are not dressed for the cold that inhabits those mountains. Besides, why, why are we going there?”
“It’s the shortest way to the other side.”
“But there is nothing on the other side… only more mountains and... cold and ice…”
“I do not plan to go all the way there. The place I need to take you is north of the town called Dicson…”
“I know Dicson… and I know a better way to get to it…”
“But that way is shorter. I understood I would not need more than two days walk to make it to the summit.”
“Yes, the distance is not the problem. But not if you walk in the snow, uphill. It would take us more than a week to get there, and one night in cold without the wood to lighten our fires, we would freeze…in these rags, definitely. but if we go down and follow the river, we can travel faster… Look, I see you don’t like what you hear, but it’s better that you know...I can’t go either way by myself. The only way I can go by myself is to meet… Ra.”
Suddenly Mikka was not so sure of herself. She looked up the mountain and the wind seemed to have greeted her as it dusted the first snowflakes of the season on her head.
“What is this?” she asked
“That is snow…” She doesn’t know what the snow is?
“It feels cold…”
‘Yes, it does, but it’s nothing like how it will feel when we move higher. It will feel like a needle in your eyes.” If she doesn’t know anything about the snow, maybe she came from across the seas, somewhere south where the sun is only chased away by two moons, across the sea, like in the stories of Artoran. Could it be real? Could it be all true?
“Why would anybody make a planet that is so cold…” She muttered to herself, but words were not lost to Les.
“Ask the god next time you see him…”
But Mikka was done chatting. “Wait here for me…” she said as she pulled her hood up.
“Where do you come from?” He called after her as she stepped away and in a second, she became a ghost again. With one good eye, Les tried uselessly to find her, yet, the silhouette of the trees were the only ones he could make out.
As he heard barks come awfully close and Mikka was not back yet, he pulled his body up, and decided to reach for the first branch. He knew he could not outrun the posy, not even with Mikka’s help. Maybe if he moved up, maybe they would pass him, trail after Mikka when they do not find him.
Mikka was back caring two hares in one of her hand.
“We don’t have time to eat.”
“Ever since I took you out of that prison, you’ve been a burden. Why do you even think you deserve to eat?” Mikka said as she dropped hares next to his feet.
She smothered his face with the mud, the color of the tree barks. Les knew not why but dared not ask for an explanation.
Then she gave him something to drink that soften everything inside of him to the point he cared little of what was to happen next. He just wanted more of the liquid, welcoming the fog engulfing his mind. No pain existed in that fog.
“No, that’s enough. Otherwise you’ll pass out. I’ll lift you up on that tree there. You tie yourself with this short rope once you are high in the branches, understand?”
“Yes.”
It took him a long time to do what was asked, a task that normally he could do blindfolded. Up in trees, time seemed to slip away, and he didn’t have to wait long for the first voices to be heard, and soon after he could even make out the words they were saying.
“He can’t be gone much further … I know because I broke at least one of his legs,” one of the soldiers yelled, bragging.
“Look there he is…” The other one answered seeing Mikka sitting down, covered completely by her robe.
What is she doing? Why is she waiting? Why doesn’t she try to run away? Is she going to fight them all? But there are too many! Les thought as he could count at least ten soldiers and seven hounds closing in on her.
“He did not wear that the last time I saw him…”
“Maybe he snatched it from somewhere.”
“He may be dead already.”
“Be careful people, remember the earless one!” their sergeant commanded as they positioned themselves closer around the fire.
What is she waiting for? Les thought as he thought the moment was already too late for her to unwrap herself from her robe, let loose of her flashy sword and the deadly crossbow, waiting to see how many soldiers and hounds could she slay before one of them had a piece of her. Would she bleed? Would she scream? What would he do?
Why is she still waiting?
The attacked her from all sides, tearing her cape apart. Les hugged the tree really hard, thanking good lord for not being on the ground, wondering why she had sacrificed herself for him.
“There is nothing here!”
“There was nobody here!” answered the other soldier. Only then did Les understand that no body parts were visible in the torn robe.
What magic is that?
The hounds seemed confused as well, were sniffing around torn clothes for a few seconds, and then they jumped on the hares which were h
alf cooked by the fire.
“Easy dogs!” sergeant screamed, pulling them away.
“Yes, those hares look too good for you dogs.” One of them solders was stupid enough to protest and reach for the food. The hound closest bid big chunk of hand in a single stroke, the other attacking his leg, and it took sergeant’s whip to get them both off.
“I’ll beat you so silly even the duke won’t recognize you!” he screamed at them as he whipped them harder. But it was too late. Dogs had gobbled most of the hares. What little was left was not even enough for a sergeant himself.
“See to his wounds,” he said to a solder as he bit into part of a hare’s leg still remaining. “Damn, this is good. Haven’t had a decent meal since yesterday.”
Dogs quieted down really fast, and the sergeant was just finished deboning the last bit of hare’s meat, when they started to squeal and turn around in crazy spinning, turning like mad around the ground.
He knew right away that something was wrong. He reached for the nearest dog and grabbed him by his head. It was not just that the spit started to come out of its mouth. It was the fire that lighted his belly, fire that raised up to his throat, his mouth, his eyes, brain.
Les watched as dogs spanned themselves around in madness, the foam coming out of their mouth, vomiting insides of their stomach, then blood started to come out. He knew they had been poisoned. It was never his choice of weapon, but he was trained as a black claw, and he saw it number of times before. Whatever poison it was, it worked fast and deadly. Within minutes, all dogs had hugged the ground, their tales not wiggling any more, their mouths opened with tongs out.
The sergeant who ate the hare wasn’t faring any better. The last of life had left him with marks of utter agony and disbelief deeply imprinted on his face.
“I am telling you, that is magic!” one of the soldiers screamed. “What are we to do now?”
“This was only a warning!” the oldest of them said as his chin shivered without control. “If we continue and find that black claw, we will all die…”
“We can’t find him now…all our hounds are dead!”
“We need to send the message to the duke and see what to do…I don’t want to go back and have my back lashed!”
“Would you rather die?”
“Where is Dirtim, the pigeon master?” the soldier who insisted on sending the message said.
They turned around, but could not see them anywhere. “I thought he was right behind us?”
And he was. As they made few steps backward, they found him…his body, headless. His head was found on a stick behind the trunk of a tree. Below the stick were two pigeons with their head chopped off.
“It’s magic. Black magic!”
From where Les was sitting, he could not see but only parts of Dirtim’s boots. Listening to their scared voices, he was beyond being impressed.
“We take them both back… Even pigeons. Let the duke decide if it’s magic or not. But we go, now! Before the night sets in.”
How, how did she do it? Seeing the carnage of dead dogs, and the sergeant’s body, he let the mellowness overtake him, and as he closed his eyes, he started to doubt she was an angel after all.
Ch
apter 4 - The Beer ‘n Bear Tavern
Salwas was the place of about hundred homes who were scattered around, with the most notable buildings being an old watermill, a small tavern and even smaller Vartharian shrine which also served as the villagers’ gathering center.
Travelers through the village were few, and most of them were hurrying downstream toward the Sirnia Castle, not really stopping around to rest, leaving number of tables at the tavern empty.
Les stumped around on his own, not understanding how his broken bones could carry him at all, especially without any pain - until he saw familiar wooden tables and decided to stop right below its sign that read The Beer ‘n Bear Tavern.
“My angel!” he called on to Mikka. “Let’s go to the tavern and have a pint!”
“What is a pint?” she asked quietly.
“It’s a beer, ale…a drink made of…”
“I know what ale is. But it would not be wise in your condition to drink it,” she answered, but then swiftly reconsidered it and decided to go the tavern after all. If the beer knocks him out completely, well, she can always carry him.
They chose to sit outside by the flowing water where it was easy for Mikka to watch the road as it snaked into the village, and where her back would be protected.
Two pints, dark-brown clay mugs, were served to them almost instantly, but before Les could even taste his, he noticed Mikka already finishing hers. Before the serving girl even had a time to leave, she called on to her to bring another.
“You are right… This is good ale… Thick and rich.” She said as she took the glass out of Les’s hand and emptied it halfway.
“I’ve never seen a woman drink that fast…” Les was very impressed and his dropped jaw made him muttered hardly audible sounds. “Not even the whores at Sir-”
“Yeah, you compare me again to some whore, and I’ll show you back side of my hand, prick.”
“Don’t know what a prick is…”
“A prick... That’s what you men think you have that makes you so special, all dangling between your legs… Many of you use it as your primary orientation tool.”
“Oh…” Les said as he understood at last. “We don’t say a prick here.”
“Yeah, what do you say?”
“Well, in my case, it would be referred to as a great Lorna’s python.”
Mikka chuckled. “Shut up! I’ve seen pythons, and I think yours can only look that big under some very powerful magnifying glass…”
Les laughed a bit on that comment before he remembered. “With the things they’ve done to me…”
Mikka looked at his suddenly sadden place. “You are still alive…”
“Yeah…” Les nodded his head as his stare got lost in the rushing water. “You still haven’t told me where you came from,” he asked after a long moment of silence.
But…“Let’s have another pint and be on our way…” was all he got from Mikka. “I can tell you one thing, this really is one of the best pints I had in a long, long time.” Then, out of nowhere a shadow seemed to pass over Mikka’s eyes, and they went icy cold, and Les knew that the time at the tavern was over.
Mikka stood up and looked around before taking a shiny gold coin from inside her cloak. “Would that be enough?” she said as she threw down the coin.
Les weighted the coin. “With that coin, we could eat and drink a whole day and stay overnight. I heard them talk something about baking some chicken. We can order a few of them for the road if you don’t mind spending that entire coin here.”
“Do it. I’ll wait for you at the front gate. Something about this place is making me very nervous.” Mikka instructed as she glanced up and down the road, looking around anxiously. But everything in the village seemed to be running in a slow motion, with no solider or a hound in site. Yet the frown on her face did not dissipate.
She un-hooded her head revealing her long red hair and two men who set five tables away instantly stopped their conversation and looked at her.
“Gentlemen…” she greeted them with the seductive smile as she walked toward them. They answered the same, both revealing that a few teeth they still had left were all black and yellow…
“I’ve heard you talk something of an interest to me…”
“Yes… princess…” The man with the deep scar above his chin rushed to say, then pulled back his grinning expression as she was not dressed as a princess, was actually dressed more as a monk. He didn’t know what to make of it in the end.
“You talked about finding a man who might be coming this way… “ Mikka spoke swiftly, interrupting his thoughts. “You said that he might be now already up the river, might be badly injured, might be stumping his feet, would seem like he was on a run, trying to run away…”
&
nbsp; “You heard us all the way over there talk about that…” the other man seemed curious.
“Well, yes I did - Maybe you were just a bit louder than you thought you were. Usually when you have one or two of those… pints, that can happen… So…?”
“Yes, that’s true. We are looking…” The cheek-scared man cleared his throat as he tried to draw attention to himself. “…for a friend of ours. He was in some…accident, and we need to find him to help him out. His family, you know, is worried sick about him… so we are here to help him…”
“We may offer a nice coin to anyone who can give us any sort of information concerning such a man. We have a drawing of him here, if you need to see his face…”
In the back of her eyes, she saw Les enter the tavern, held her eyes steady on the door he entered through, trying to see through it, only hearing his voice calling for the chicken. But she could see nothing, only the darkness was there. The men sitting at the table both followed her frozen stare, not understanding why she was not looking at the drawing the man placed on the table in front of her.
They both tried hard to see why she was so interested in that door, the scared one even turning his shoulders and whole head around to check exactly what exactly was she looking at. So they never saw the sword coming. One got pierced right through his heart, and as the other one turned his head back to see what the hissing noise was all about, Mikka pulled her sword out and in the same stroke slid half of his throat out, right under his Adam’s apple. She stopped herself from chopping his head off, remembering seeing kids around.
You don’t need any kids to start screaming here, she thought as the very next instance, she used her free hand to push man’s head forcefully on the table top. The gushing blood washed over the table, already sipping down, with the man using the last second of his life to try to press his hands on his throat and stop the bleeding. Then, the second passed, and his struggle was over.
Mikka took the dagger the heart-pierced man had in his belt and dropped it in the pool of blood already formed underneath the table.
