by Ivan Hladni
"Sit over there and keep quiet."
He sat Dion under a tree and hid him with abundant ferns that grew next to it. He piled leaves onto Dion with his feet.
"That's to keep you as warm as possible."
At that moment Dion actually believed he was warmer and immediately became aware it would take more willpower than he had at his disposal to get up on his feet again.
"Listen to me carefully now. We don't have much time. You stay here, pretend you're a rock, and I'll drag them away towards the Old River. That will give you enough time to get out the forest and reach Upper Lorei."
Devoid of all strength in his body, Dion only nodded in reply that he understood.
"When I get far enough from your position, I'll start yelling to draw them to me. Start running when you hear me yell for the second time."
"Thank you," Dion managed a reply.
"Goodbye, boy," said Kerkio and was gone.
Dion's heart was beating so loudly that he wasn't sure if he was going to be able to hear Kerkio shouting from the distance. His ears were full of echoes of his own heart - a thud followed by a murmur, a thud and a murmur, like feet walking on sand. He kept looking from left to right in the darkness, and then he noticed movement in front of him.
He guessed they were some forty feet away from him. At first he saw shapes of only two horses, but when they came closer, he discerned shapes of both riders and a few more men who followed behind the horses.
"The noise came from here, I am sure of it," said one of the riders when they stopped only a few feet away. Dion instinctively, childishly, closed his eyes in the hope they wouldn't see him if he couldn't see them.
"Well, there's no one here now," said someone with a deeper voice, and a few men laughed.
"Better to check. You know the orders," replied the man who spoke first. He was about to say something else when a loud scream broke through the forest. It was Kerkio, crying his lungs out.
"Did I not tell you?" shouted the rider everyone had laughed at and ordered his horse forward. Everyone started running behind him, yelling something, but Dion couldn't understand what.
Dion heard Kerkio's second yell when the last of the men was passing by him and he kept listening until he couldn't hear feet or hooves. He was once again alone in the dark.
It was time to move.
He tricked his own tired body by jumping to his feet because he felt he wouldn't otherwise be able to get up. He squeezed the chest to make sure it was safe, suppressed the thoughts about his grandparents and started running north. He kept reassuring himself the village wasn't far away and his legs were grateful for that.
He wasn't sure anymore for how long he was running. The only thing he was sure about was that it was the right direction since the forest became thinner and there were more and more clearings. He crossed the clearings very carefully after he banged his shin into a tree stump in the very first clearing he came across.
The shin hurt so bad that he spent the rest of the journey looking straight down to make sure there were no more such injuries. He didn't even notice he had exited the forest until he found himself on the edge of someone's field.
Behind the field stood the houses of Upper Lorei. There was light coming out from all the houses, and even the doors of a few houses were open. People were coming in and out of the houses carrying blankets, clothes, food.
He hurried towards the village with the most serious determination to get to the nearest fire and warm his feet which felt more than half-dead already.
He came so close to the light when they noticed him that he didn't scare anyone. Two hands holding blankets passed in front of him, followed by a man with carefully trimmed gray mustache and serious eyes. The man nodded towards the house, and then continued towards a bench full of villagers from Lorei.
"Come, come. You're freezing," a woman's voice came from the doorway in front of him.
She let him into the house, and his eyes shut to hide from the abundance of light. He felt warm hands pushing him further into the house. He slowly opened his eyes and saw light-brown eyes atop chubby red cheeks watching him.
"Sit beside the fire. Warm yourself up. Food is on the way."
There were already a few people in front of the fireplace, none he personally knew. They moved a bit to make room for him, and one pushed a sizable log for Dion to sit on. He lowered the chest to the floor and barely sat down when the lady of the house gave him a hot bowl full of meaty soup, a big chunk of bread and something to wear. When the first spoonful of the hot brown elixir slid down his throat the world became perfect again.
He devoured the rest of the broth as quickly as his mouth could handle its scorching heat. He didn't even wait to swallow the last mouthful but got up and went over to the other side of the room where the old woman was busy packing up, and helped himself to two huge mugs of water.
"I see mostly women and children in the village. Where are the men?"
"They've gone to Lorei to help with the fire, because that's what we all thought it was, before the first people from Lorei appeared in the village." The woman's face grew more serious as she finished the sentence.
"Is there any other way out of this village except the Southern Road that would take us to Echa Rei?" he asked her.
"There is a path in the northwestern edge of the village which leads far into the heart of the forest, all the way to the mountains beneath Echa Rei. It's not wide and it's not used much as well - the men only use it for the occasional hunt. It's going to be difficult if we end up having to go that way."
Dion thanked the woman and was about to leave the house but stopped in the doorway.
"Do you have a piece of rope or something to tie this chest I'm carrying to my back before I leave? I can't leave it behind, and carrying it under my arms tires me more than running."
She started shaking her head, but then disappeared into another room. It didn't take long before the woman was back, carrying a dusty leather bag with more straps on it than was probably needed.
"My son used this bag when he would go into the mountains. You can tie it around your waist and chest."
She gave him the bag after she untangled the leather straps. He put the chest in the bag and after a few tries managed to tie the bag firmly on his back. He shook hands with the woman and was on his way.
The yard in front of the house was full of people warming themselves, drying clothes, talking. They talked quietly and at first Dion couldn't understand a word, but he grew angry as soon as he heard what they were talking about.
"Out of the question!" he yelled, and everyone turned to face him.
"We are not staying here, and neither should the people from Upper Lorei. It's time we all moved north towards Echa Rei. We're risking both our lives and the lives of the people of this village."
He barely finished the last sentence when the attention turned from him to something behind his back. Some even raised hands and pointed in the direction. He turned towards the forest that stood between Lorei and Upper Lorei and saw a lone horseman coming straight towards them.
In Dion's mind there was no doubt as to who this rider was since any of the enemies surely would not have come alone.
"Kerkio! Kerkio, here!" he shouted loudly. The horseman rose up in the saddle and commanded the horse to quicken the pace.
Dion grabbed the reins when the horse stopped in front of him. Kerkio was tired and held his right arm close to his body. Even in this light it was clear he was injured.
"Into the house. Quick." Dion ran towards the house and pulled the horse behind him. He was visibly worried about the man who saved his life more than once that day.
"Move. Move away," he shouted at the people moving about in front of the doorway. Kerkio dismounted and went into the house and the lady of the house brought him a bowl of food and sat next to him to take care of the wound.
"As soon as you're finished with that, you need to get out of the village. I'm going to check out if we
can use the South Road to get out of the village. Do you have any weapons in the house?"
"No," she replied.
Dion stepped out of the house, patted the horse's neck, then mounted it and rode east. He quickly left the village behind him and found himself on the empty road which ended in the crossroads with the South Road.
Dion stopped the horse near the crossroads when he noticed he was no longer alone. Sounds of a larger number of horses came from the South Road, but he wasn't sure if the sounds were coming from the north or from the south. He was only sure they were getting louder.
He hid beneath the branches of a nearby tree and hoped the horse would be silent and calm enough. He kept a close eye on the road and hoped for good news, but was ready to turn the horse at the first sign of trouble and run back to the village.
A group of around ten horsemen arrived at the crossroads from the south. Even though they stopped, more horses could be heard moving on the road. One of the horsemen at the crossroads waved a torch while looking north and the others kept an eye on the road south and the road towards Upper Lorei.
The light of the torch was not enough for Dion to recognize faces, and the horses and the riders wore no insignia, colors or flags. They could be the villagers from Upper Lorei the woman mentioned had gone to Lorei to help put out the fire, but they could easily be the pillagers. He felt he was hiding for too long and his palms started sweating. He bent in the saddle and waited for the moment to go back to the village.
"Be quiet now," he whispered to the horse and gently tugged the reins with the intention of heading back to Upper Lorei, and then a flag appeared on the crossroads, one he dared not hope for. In front of the horseman with the torch now stood a war horse from Echa Rei.
More and more horsemen appeared around the torch from the north and they lit their own torches. The crossroads was filled with more than thirty horsemen now and more were coming.
"Hey!" Dion screamed with excitement and commanded the horse towards them. They turned to face him and unsheathed their swords into the cold night.
"Friend, friend!" Dion shouted and raised one hand in the air.
"I'm from Echa Rei," he added when he was close enough so that he didn't have to shout anymore.
They recognized him immediately when his face entered the light of the torches and let him through to the commander of the group who was busy talking to one of the villagers. As soon as Dion approached him, the commander of the group stopped listening to the villager and waved for him to wait a moment.
"I am glad to see you whole," said Senteus to Dion. "Lord Arnos sent us to get you and his parents back home and to help put out the fire, but now I'm hearing a story about some pillagers."
"Yes and no," Dion answered vaguely. "Some may be pillagers and mercenaries, but they look more like an army to me. There's too many of them and they came down the South Road."
"Yes," added the villager with whom Senteus spoke a moment before. "We didn't dare even come close to the bridge, let alone enter Lorei. The entire village was already on fire when we got there, and the bridge was brimming with armed men."
"The forest is full of them as well," Dion added. "I'm probably the last one who got into the forest from Lorei. They were after us the whole time, and they could be in Upper Lorei at any moment."
The villagers grew restless upon hearing Dion's words, but Senteus silenced them quickly.
"Daedar? Letha?" asked Senteus.
"Stayed in the village. I left Daedar fighting with..." He stopped because he realized he didn't know how to describe what he saw, and because he wasn't sure if it was smart telling Senteus anything about it.
Senteus was quiet for a while, but then he continued.
"All my orders seem to be carried out. There is no fire to put out and all that is left of Arnos' family is here, safe. What do you propose we do?"
"I came here to see if the South Road was safe so we can get the people to Echa Rei. I told them to be ready when I got back."
"Good. Good," said Senteus, and then shouted "Elian!"
"Sir!" replied one of the horsemen.
"The men from Echa are to remain here and guard the crossroads until we return with the villagers. Pick the fastest one to leave for Echa and notify them of the situation. They won't be using the Great Oak just for one man."
A moment later, three horsemen split from the group. Two headed south towards Lorei as vanguard, and one stormed north. The rest of the men from Echa took their positions at the south corner of the crossroads.
"Let's go," said Dion, but Senteus stopped him before Dion had a chance to move.
"We will gather up the villagers. You need to go back to Echa Rei. Such is your father's order, and now that I know your grandparents are lost, I have no intention of arguing with you. Give him the news yourself, you know them best anyway."
Seeing that Senteus had control of the situation, Dion accepted the offer.
"I'll bring the news to Rei and make sure the city is ready to take the refugees. Whatever you do, make sure you don't forget the man by the name of Kerkio. He already saved my life twice today."
"I won't," Senteus replied.
"Go!" he ordered the rest of his men and they went down the dirt road towards Upper Lorei.
Dion glanced at the backs of the men from Echa that guarded the crossroads and then headed home.
Chapter 2 - The Fall of Echa Rei
The horse was visibly tired when Dion finally reached the city. He dismounted in front of the city gates and walked toward the nearest guard who was watching his every step.
"Oh, I didn't recognize you," said the guard. He sheathed his sword and approached Dion wearing a friendly smile. "You look tired."
Dion waved off the guard's remark.
"We have been attacked. All the southern villages are lost."
The guard's face became as serious as Dion's, and then a second guard rushed towards them from the other side of the city gates.
"What happened?" asked the second guard.
"We've been attacked, but I'm not entirely sure by whom. One of you needs to gather the other guards. Close the city gates and expect either the enemy or our men to return with the refugees. I have to go now and report the situation to lord Arnos. Do not raise the alarm until you hear from him."
The guards asked nothing more. The tired horse let the rider swing into the saddle again and they finally passed the gates and entered the city of Echa Rei. He didn't feel the relief he had hoped for when the guards closed the massive wooden gates behind him. He was alone again, riding north towards the center of the city, engulfed by sadness and the deep darkness of the night.
Reaching home appeared an impossible task but at long last he was there. The horse stopped at the front door and Dion saw light behind the window curtains so he entered without knocking.
Arnos was sitting at the table, perusing a small mountain of scrolls and papers. His back was turned towards the fireplace where a lively fire crackled. He dropped the paper he held in his hands when Dion barged in and startled him but momentarily a smile came to his face when he looked up.
"Don't just storm in..." Arnos started, still smiling, but he cut the sentence short and jumped off the three-legged stool he was sitting on. It was obvious that something was really wrong. Dion was standing in the doorway and looked at his father through a mist of tears he could no longer subdue.
"What happened?" he asked, and when Dion didn't respond, Arnos pushed away the stool and went to the door. He checked the entrance to the house, and seeing there was no one there, he pulled Dion into the house and closed the door.
"Have they put out the fire? Is everything in order with the house?"
Dion took a seat and started slowly taking the bag off his shoulders. Arnos put both his hands on the table and leaned over it. He stared intently at Dion, waiting for an answer to come.
"Dad," Dion managed to utter a word between tears and his voice brought sorrow into the room.
; "I left without them. I left them there!"
Arnos gripped the edge of the table tightly but said nothing.
"Grandma wasn't home, and I don't know where she is. Grandpa I left to fight on his own."
"Well why didn't you stay and help fight the fire?" Arnos finally said something, slightly irked, but made sure his voice was both gentle and calm.
Dion looked at him and then he realized that his father didn't understand what he was talking about.
"There is no fire," Dion said and with scorn for his own tears he wiped them away. His sense of duty had prevailed. He got up, rid himself of all the straps and threw the bag to the table. He pulled a thin strap from the buckle that held the bag closed and put one hand inside it. Arnos crouched and hid his face behind arms that still held onto the table when Daedar's chest appeared.
"There is no village," continued Dion in a quieter voice. "There is no grandma, no grandpa. There is nothing more."
Arnos let out a long sigh, and Dion began telling the story. At the mention of the pale man riding a boar, Arnos raised his head. A moment later, when he learned that the man asked about Daedar's chest, his eyes were wide open.
"What did he look like?" he asked, got up on his feet, but then added in a calmer voice: "Details. Give me details."
He waited for one detail in particular and when Dion mentioned pitch-black, bug-like eyes with no irises, he got it. A myriad of stories told by Daedar ran through Arnos' mind and he wanted not to believe in them.
"Are you sure the maps are lost for good? No one got to them?"
"I lost them in the river, I'm sure of it." Dion kept looking at his father, trying to figure out why those old maps were so important.
"We both forgot to completely close the satchel containing the maps. As soon as it fell into the river, the satchel filled with water and sank quickly. Why? Was there something important on them?"
"Yes, very important it seems, but we'll leave that talk for the morning. Now I need to get to the guards at the city gates. Stay here. Sleep if you can."
Arnos gathered his papers and scrolls from the table and put them into his bag, but also took the chest Dion brought with him and placed it in the bag with the papers.
