Red Prince

by Jared Garrett

  “The berries?” Lakhoni remembered his desperate run with Alronna down the slope of Sinhael. Eating the fruits Hilana had given them to keep their energy up. “Those small red ones?”

  Hilana nodded. “The panote.” She reached into a pocket with a few fingers. “They can help us keep going.” She pulled a small handful out and held them cupped.

  “I remember those,” Alronna said. She visibly shuddered. “They’re terrible.”

  Simra and Alronna wrapped a tight vine bandage around Hilana’s side, pulling it tight. “Sorry, but this has to be tight.” Simra chewed on her lower lip. “Anything to slow the bleeding.”

  “I can breathe,” Hilana said. “It is fine.” She popped a berry into her mouth and chewed. “Water.”

  Alronna helped the wounded Zhimana woman drink.

  Lakhoni took a few berries and handed them to Lamorun, who chewed and swallowed them quickly. “Let’s move. I remember Betta said the pure water was in the high place of death and birth.”

  “Pure water. Water Pure. This is the same thing, right?” Alronna took much of Hilana’s weight as the injured woman struggled to her feet. “Besides, we’re already in a high place.”

  “We must have to get higher,” Lakhoni said. “But I don’t know what death and birth mean.”

  “Wait,” Hilana said. She planted her feet and scoured their surroundings. “He wasn’t trying to get away up here.” She licked dry lips. Her words came slowly, a little slurred. But still strong. “He was looking for something.”

  Simra stared at Lakhoni, unmoving, totally silent. “What is it?” he asked. She didn’t respond. She was looking right at him, but it looked like she wasn’t even seeing him. “Simra?”

  “I just remembered.” Simra helped Alronna with Hilana, her focus returning. “Illiana said something so strange, I had dismissed it. But…” she trailed off. “Where was Gadnar looking?”

  Hilana pointed with her chin. “There.”

  “The waterfall?” Lakhoni and Lamorun followed the women back toward the edge and closer to the mountain, where the eternally falling water seemed to be a living, roaring thing.

  “Lakhoni, do you remember?” Simra studied the waterfall, looking up. “Illiana said it was in the high place too. But she also said it was behind the curtain in the fire mountain.”

  “The curtain?” Lakhoni didn’t remember hearing the strange word. “What’s that?”

  “It’s a covering for a window or door.” Simra’s mouth dropped open as her eyes roamed up the streams of falling water. “Kind of like that waterfall.”

  “The waterfall?” Lakhoni cocked his head. “It’s a curtain?”

  “He was pulling me toward the rocks there,” Hilana said. Her voice was a little stronger now. The berries had to be working.

  Lakhoni pulled one of Lamorun’s arms across his shoulders to brace his brother and they all converged at the slick, dark stones of the mountain. White, frothy water crashed from far above, splashing all the nearby stone. Green moss grew thick on the stone faces that were turned away from the waterfall.

  “Did he find what he was looking for?” Alronna propped Hilana up as they leaned closer to the mountain side. She had to shout to be heard over the waterfall.

  “I don’t think so.” Hilana popped another berry in her mouth and drank deeply from her water skin.

  Simra, the only one of them not holding another person up, leaned over the edge of the cliff whose face dropped down to wherever the river was below. She looked up, squinting against the water.

  “Does anyone see anything?” Lakhoni stepped backward, Lamorun still with him. He tried to take the entirety of the mountain side in. If he focused for long enough, he felt like he could see where the water was falling from at least a hundred paces above them.

  They all looked at each other, expressions bleak.

  “Maybe we should go up.” Alronna pointed upward with her chin, her arms busy helping Hilana stay upright. “If the waterfall is a curtain, there’s a lot more of it up there.”

  “Good idea,” Lakhoni said.

  Simra nodded. “Maybe there’s a path.” She led the slow hike downward, back toward the village of Gadnar’s followers.

  Lakhoni and Lamorun hung back, letting Alronna and Hilana take up the middle. “How’s your side?” Lakhoni spared a glance at his brother’s face. Lamorun was breathing hard, but his stride was strong and he didn’t lean much on Lakhoni.

  “Aside from the hole in it,” Lamorun said, “it is perfectly fine.” Lamorun cocked his head and pulled to a stop. “Hold. Do you see that?” He pointed to the group’s left, up the mountain slope.

  Lakhoni called to the women and followed Lamorun’s finger, scouring the mountain side. He saw it. An unusually long, even line in the stone and dirt. “Yes.”

  “Might be a path,” Simra said. She extended her hands. “You four wait. I’ll see if I can find where it starts, if it actually is a path.”

  Lakhoni found a place for Lamorun to sit on a mossy stone. Hilana and Alronna joined them. Hilana was still pale, but her eyes seemed clearer.

  “Brother,” Lamorun said, “do you really think this Water Pure is real? That it has power?”

  Frowning as he watched Simra poke around the rocks, then clamber up and around block-like stones that lined the mountainside, Lakhoni shrugged. “I don’t know. There’s more to all of this than what we are seeing. I want it to be real.”

  “But if it’s real,” Alronna said, “then the gods and the totems and all that other stuff are real.”

  “I killed real, monstrous lizards,” Hilana said. “We’re not imagining all of this.”

  “I found it!” Simra called out from a little ways up the mountain. “But it doesn’t start down there. You have to climb to get to it.”

  Lakhoni and Alronna helped their charges stand and carefully climb over the rough rocks. The black stone was porous and scraped any careless skin that brushed against it. Simra and Alronna worked together to help Hilana up.

  Lakhoni stood on the path that had been nearly invisible from below. It was narrow like a game trail and hugged the mountainside. It angled up as it led back toward the waterfall. Simra led the way again, the tall mountain to their right and the slope down on the left. One ill-placed foot and Lakhoni knew the fall would be painful and end badly. He glanced behind and, in the gray light that filtered through the clouds, caught sight of a few of the village homes of the people who had attacked them. Lombizo had called them the Mapiri. He hoped they would come to their senses once Gadnar was dealt with. Maybe when their murderous lord never returned, they would understand how stupid they had been.

  Lamorun’s breath became more labored as the ascent became steeper. Hilana’s steps grew smaller until they were shuffles. She ate more berries and drank water, but the energy they provided seemed to fade quicker each time.

  “Simra,” Lakhoni called. He had to work to keep his breathing even. The pain of climbing, even on the path smoothed into the rock, was wearing on him. His injured leg felt like it wanted to fall off. But at least he wasn’t bleeding internally like Hilana and Lamorun. “What do you see up there?”

  She turned, hands fidgeting with her long braid. “The waterfall isn’t far off, but the trail has a switchback just ahead.”

  Heavy frustration threatened to pull Lakhoni to his knees. Lamorun and Hilana were going to bleed to death on this cursed mountain. They would spend the last few minutes of their lives laboring up a mountain that wanted to scrape their skin off their bones.

  But this was the only chance. Illiana and Mozde weren’t the only ones who had spoken as if the Water Pure were real. It had to be up here somewhere. “Let’s rest at the turn,” Lakhoni said. “We can check out the waterfall. Maybe we’ll see something.”

  They found a wide stone, its edges somewhat softened by moss, for Lamorun and Hilana to rest on. As Simra and Alronna picked their way across the rocks to inspect the mountain near the waterfall, Lakhoni made sure his br
other and Hilana got water and ate more berries. He found a piece of cured hapcha in the bag he wore tightly against his chest. He tore the piece of meat in two and handed it out.

  Lamorun chewed slowly. He traded his attention from where Simra and Alronna were climbing across the mountain side to Hilana, then back. “You will not die on this mountain.” Lamorun said it quietly, his words meant for Hilana.

  “We will see, club leg.” Hilana forced the mouthful of meat down with a drink of water.

  Lakhoni gave them some space, filling water skins at one of the springs that trickled from between the stones of the mountain. He did his best to not appear to be listening.

  “I will not allow it,” Lamorun said.

  “I do not need your permission to bleed to death here,” Hilana shot back. But there was no anger in her voice. She sounded amused.

  “Nonetheless, I won’t permit it.” Lamorun’s words grew quieter. Lakhoni cast a quick glance and caught sight of his brother looking into Hilana’s eyes. “We have more to do in this life, crazy woman.”

  “My people spoke of halls of light and plenty after this life,” Hilana said. “It does not sound like a bad place.”

  “It is not this life,” Lamorun replied. “And it is this life I choose. For bo—”

  “Nothing.” Simra’s voice broke through the conversation. She and Alronna rejoined the path. “It’s just a waterfall. That’s all.”

  “We looked behind it too,” Alronna said. She drew up, her eyebrows raised as she took in the sight of Lamorun and Hilana’s serious faces turned to each other. “Nothing there.”

  “So we go up,” Lakhoni said. He handed Simra a water skin. She drank deeply.

  “How much farther?” Hilana asked, breaking her gaze from Lamorun’s. “How do we know if we have failed?” She coughed and wiped her mouth. A smear of blood appeared on the back of her hand.

  “We will not fail,” Lakhoni said. He took Simra’s hand and soaked in her perfect brown eyes. The golden flecks were hard to see in the gray light. “We go until we find it.”

  “Then we move now.” Lamorun lifted his cudgel from where Lakhoni had leaned it against the stones of the mountain. He used it to lever himself to his feet. “Time is wasting.”

  Alronna helped Hilana to her feet and they proceeded up the mountain, leaving the cliff ledge they had fought Gadnar on far below. By the time it disappeared from sight completely, they were at least a hundred paces above it and had taken another switchback, leading back toward the waterfall.

  “Lakhoni, help Alronna.” Lamorun pulled his arm free of Lakhoni’s grasp. “I am fine.” He used his cudgel as a cane. “Hilana is getting weaker.”

  “You need help,” Lakhoni said. “He got you too.”

  Lamorun pushed Lakhoni forward. “Do as I say. Keep her moving.”

  There was iron in Lamorun’s voice and Lakhoni chose not to argue. Besides, Lamorun wasn’t slowing. His breath came harder and the bandage at his side was soaked through, despite the stitches Simra had put in. Lakhoni tapped Alronna’s shoulder. “Take her other side.” He lifted Hilana’s left arm and pulled it across his shoulders. She shuffled forward as he and Alronna carried most of her weight.

  “Don’t fall down the mountain.” Hilana’s words were soft and slurred. But she was aware enough to see that Lakhoni was mostly off the narrow path, picking his own way across the stones.

  “I won’t. You stay awake.” The smoothness of the path had helped Lakhoni keep his mind off the pain of his leg, but now it began to throb powerfully again. He did his best to center and breathe the pain away, but it was too strong and Hilana’s head lolled and Lamorun was behind him and might fall over at any moment. “Tell me about the Zhimana.”

  “What?” Hilana sounded confused.

  Lakhoni jostled her. “Come on. Stay alert. Tell me about your people. Tell me again why you hated the tree-dwellers. What did you call them?”

  “The Ehtzen.” Hilana coughed and cleared her throat. Red speckled her chin. “They hated us, so we hated them.”

  Lakhoni kept her talking, with Alronna asking questions when he couldn’t think of anything for a moment. Simra led the slow way ahead. As they walked, Lakhoni looked up and realized they had climbed much more than he’d thought. A familiar, sharp smell hit his nostrils. Sulfur? Why did he smell that here?

  “The path ends.” Simra turned, her expression stricken. “No switchback. Nothing. It just stops.” She had to shout to be heard. The path had brought them within ten paces of the waterfall’s cascading torrent.

  Lakhoni glanced up and found he could see where the water fell from. It looked to be a river another hundred paces up the mountain. It must be a mountain river, flowing from inside the mountain or perhaps from the other side of it.

  “Let’s rest here,” Alronna said. She and Lakhoni led Hilana to a rock and helped her sit.

  “Simra,” Lakhoni called. “Will you see if there’s anything you can do for them?” He took Alronna’s arm. “We’ll go see if we can find anything at the waterfall.” He watched as Lamorun lowered himself carefully next to Hilana. Both were pale. Hilana’s eyes fluttered and she coughed again, several times.

  They were going to fail. They were chasing a legend and it was going to leave his brother and Hilana dead on this mountain. And Lakhoni would find Gadnar and kill him. Slowly. Painfully.

  Simra caught Lakhoni’s gaze and must have seen something in his expression. She took his arms and slid her hands up to his face, warm against his cheeks. She held his eyes. “Don’t give up hope. We’re going to find it.”

  “You sounded different down there.” Lakhoni cupped her cheeks and brushed a thumb across one of her eyebrows. “They’re dying. I don’t think—” The words caught in his throat. He forced the tightness down. “I can’t lose him. Not again. And Hilana deserves more than this.”

  Simra’s soft eyes held his still. She kissed him, her lips soft and warm. Heat filled him. She pulled away. “We will not let them die. Have hope.”

  “How?” The word felt like it would crack his chest open.

  “I don’t know.” Simra raised her chin. For a moment, she looked regal, like a queen. Or a goddess. “Just choose to have hope.”

  Her deep brown eyes felt like they would swallow him if he let go. There was peace and warmth and rest there. A future.

  “Now would be good,” Alronna said.

  Lakhoni glanced at Alronna, who stood just off the path.

  “Are you coming?” she asked.

  He nodded. “Sorry. Let’s go.”

  Simra gave his hands a squeeze and let him go. She bent to Hilana and spoke quietly.

  Alronna led the way across the treacherous mountain, Lakhoni following. Her steps were sure and strong. She didn’t look at all like the scared, broken girl he’d found in Zyronilxa. She still fought clumsily with the Sword, but she stood straight and proud.

  They stopped at the waterfall, keeping their distance, fearful of the torrents tumbling past that could catch them and carry them down.

  “What do you think we’re looking for?” Alronna said. Her eyes roamed the rocks to the side of the waterfall.

  “I don’t know,” Lakhoni shouted back. “Illiana said behind the curtain. So could it be behind the waterfall?”

  “If it were, how would we see it?” Alronna flapped her hands out and down, frustrated. “This is truly insane.”

  “I’ll get closer.” Lakhoni picked his way around his sister. “Hold onto me.”

  “Be careful,” Alronna said.

  Lakhoni gripped the stones nearby and sidled closer to the waterfall. “We’re past being careful!” He tried to peer past the waterfall to see what might be behind it, but all was dark back there. He needed a better angle. Alronna’s hand gripped the waistband of his breeches. He called over his shoulder. “I’m getting closer.”

  “Lakhoni! You’re going to fall.” He could barely hear her over the crashing water. Her grip tightened and he felt pressure, as if s
he were trying to pull him back.

  “Just hold on!” Taking small steps, holding tightly to the rock, Lakhoni got closer to the fall. He was instantly soaking wet and his shoulder was buffeted by the very edge of the falling torrent. Alronna’s grip on his breeches stayed firm. He squinted and hugged the rock, trying to see into the shadows behind the waterfall. After long seconds, his eyes adjusted.

  Blank, smooth stone. That was all. The waterfall filled every sense but couldn’t drive the sour frustration away. How were all those people so wrong? Or was there another waterfall somewhere else?

  But this was where Gadnar had come. And Alronna’s instincts and dreams had led them the right way across the entire land.

  Exhaustion battled the fury that built in his core. They had failed. And Lamorun and Hilana were near death. Hilana might have already died back on the path.

  No. Simra was right. Decide. Just choose.

  Lakhoni shuffled a little closer to the waterfall and cast his eyes up and down. Still blank stone. He blinked against the cold water that splattered on his face as he looked up.

  His right foot slipped. For a sick, terrifying moment, Lakhoni felt his grip loosen on the stones and the waterfall pulled him away from the mountain. He scrambled for something to grab with his fingers.

  A strong pull on his breeches. His fingers found a lip and he held on with all of his strength.

  He pulled his feet back onto the stone and swallowed a mouthful of waterfall, his heart hammering. He blinked against the falling water, trying to clear his vision.

  A strange little tree caught his eye. How was a tree growing right under a waterfall?

  He shifted and it was gone.

  What?

  Lakhoni moved a finger’s width back to where he had been and saw the tree again. Not an actual tree. A carving. In a stone not far above his head. A perfectly carved tree.

  He fixed the position of the stone in his mind, making sure he knew exactly where it was. A rock shaped like a man’s face was just above it. A gap below it. He sidled back toward his sister. Her hand pulled him carefully as he moved.

  “You almost fell!” Alronna’s voice was an angry shout.