Authors: Usman Ijaz
He watched Leah before him, turning in her
saddle every once in a while to make sure he still followed, and realized that
for the moment she was now tied to them. She had thrown her lot in with them,
for good or ill. Connor thought of this, and reflected that it wasn’t too late
for her to leave them, before she too ended up another death in their wake. As
Michael had.
We seem to have death waiting for us around every corner
.
The thought rose like a bubble. He didn’t like to think too much of Michael,
despite the fact that the man had saved his life. Thinking of Michael was too
sad, and it made him wish that things were simple, that the world wasn’t the
harsh, convoluted warren that it was.
Connor turned in his saddle once more and looked
back the way they had come, but still there was no sign of Adrian or Alexis.
They came to a bend in the road, at the edge of
a thin copse of trees, and there they reined in their horses and waited.
3
Alexis handed eight gold
sesterces
over
to the innkeeper in exchange for the reigns to a gray gelding that looked much
past its prime. His pouch felt almost empty - the few remaining gold
sesterces
,
a small number of silver marks, and a few silver pennies were all that he had
left in there. And he had only held onto that much through convincing the
innkeeper that the horse was not worth ten gold sesterces, much less eight. But
prices truly had gone up, it seemed, and it seemed futile to spend the whole
day arguing with the man. He watched as the innkeeper satisfied his curiosity
of Grandal currency by biting the coins and then weighing them on a small
scale. Alexis turned from the man and led the saddled horse to where Adrian
waited. The saddle had been one thing the innkeeper had agreed to throw in with
the horse. It was in suitable condition, if he forgave the torn patches of
leather and the faded hue to it. All in all, it looked as well as the horse,
which was to say it looked like it had seen better days.
Alexis could think of a hundred other things to
have spent the money on, but the truth was none of them were as important as
getting a horse. With Michael’s black mare and Leah's spotted gelding, they had
two. This would make three, and now when Leah left them they would still have
two horses to carry them to Gale.
Alexis studied Adrian in sidelong glances as he tied
their saddle bags. The boy looked tired, a weariness that went bone deep. He
stared at the opposing door, and his stare seemed to be a thousand miles away.
He looked as though something essential had been drained out of him, but Alexis
couldn’t deny that he didn’t feel the same. The events in Sune had shaped them
all in some form. Nonetheless, he didn’t like seeing the boy in this state.
“Would you mind getting the blanket rolls,
Adrian?”
Adrian looked from him to the blankets, wide
eyes looking lost. He bent and picked up the rolled blankets and walked over to
stand beside him. Alexis took the blanket rolls and tied them behind the
saddle. He cinched the straps and made sure they wouldn’t come undone. When he
looked up, he saw the innkeeper watching them. Alexis hoped the man believed
the story of their old horse having died on the road. It would certainly
explain the saddlebags they carried with them. He prayed the man wasn’t too
curious about them.
He led the horse out of the stables and Adrian
followed at his side. They walked the horse out of town. Alexis noticed Adrian
keeping his face down among the townsfolk, eyes hidden, and felt a profound
pride and sadness for the boy. To have the knowledge that one wrong look could mean
death for yourself and your friends seemed too heavy a burden for a child to
carry. But then this whole mission seemed too much to demand from a mere child.
Duty binds us tighter than any chain
, he thought firmly.
He must do
what he must, and I must finish what I was given to
.
For all his desire to be on the road and leave
the town behind, Alexis stopped at the road leading east. Adrian stopped and
looked up at him. Alexis looked to the town behind them, to the road before
them. He realized then that he didn’t want to travel down that road. Traveling
down that road would mean carrying Connor and Leah with them into whatever
other danger they walked into. Traveling down that road would make it easier
for those who searched for them to mark them. His gaze shifted to Adrian, and
he saw the same understanding in the boy’s silent face. For a few moments they
only looked at one another. Alexis began to wonder if it wasn’t better to go
back the way they had come and find another route to Gale.
Adrian decided him.
“It would take too long,” the boy said in a
painful whisper.
Alexis nodded, though the same thought had rung
in his head several times. Yet he still couldn’t help but wish they could spare
those two up ahead and travel a bit more covertly. His duty was to protect
Adrian, and he truly had no desire to drag others into any danger that awaited
them.
Alexis shook his head slightly as he climbed
into the saddle. He offered an arm to Adrian and pulled the boy up behind him.
They were soon heading east along the road, and Adrian soon had his scarf
raised around the lower half of his face from the dust in the air.
They met Connor and Leah a few miles from the
town, and there they all halted and conferred for a moment.
“I think it’s best if we part ways here,” Alexis
told Leah.
The girl looked at him in disbelief, and then
her brow furrowed in refusal . “No.”
Alexis looked at her in disbelief. “What do you
mean ‘no’? I’m trying to help you get out of danger.”
“Perhaps,” Leah said stiffly, “but it is my
choice.”
“I never said anything about a choice!” Alexis
told her. “I’m thankful to you for the help you gave us, and if you want
recompense then seek me out in Gale, but I can’t let you travel with us
anymore. It jeopardizes both us and you!”
Her face turned to stone at the mention of
payment. “I do not need your money, Alexis. And I do not need your permission.
I want to travel with you, and so I will.”
Alexis looked at her as though she were daft.
“Why?”
Leah drew a deep breath. “Because you will need
someone to tell your tale.”
“Quit your idiocy!” Alexis hissed at her. “I
should have known that was all you were after, a story to cement your post.”
“I saved your life, or do you forget? It is a
small thing to ask in return, to accompany you and witness your journey.”
“What do you know of our journey?” Alexis asked
bitterly.
“I know that you are wanted for murder, and I
know that Adrian is an Ascillian. It matters little where you are going, what I
have seen so far tells me you will have quite the tale indeed.”
“We don’t have a tale!” Alexis shouted at her.
“We are trying to reach Gale alive, and our chances are far better without you
to mark us!”
Leah stared at him boldly for a long time. Then
she turned and leapt back into her saddle, waiting. Alexis groaned aloud - the
girl would simply not leave. He looked to the two boys, who had watched the
whole argument with dazed eyes. “You two can ride together,” he told them
wearily as he climbed back onto his own horse. “It will put less strain on the
horse.”
Once they were all mounted and waiting, Alexis
took out the rolled parchment he had purchased in the town. The map detailed
parts of the nearby country, and named the roads that spider webbed across the
land. He’d bought it to erase the need to ask for directions and mark
themselves in the minds of strangers. He stared at the map and the land that it
labeled. He shook his head in wonderment. “This map has Asgar labeled. How old
is it?”
“Where?” Leah demanded as she rode over to see
for herself. Without thinking Alexis moved the map from her view, then relented
and let her see it.
“We are still in Mareth,” she pointed out. “Yet
this map shows that the city is not too far from us. It is clearly wrong. You
should have let me chosen the map.”
Alexis bit back his annoyance at her. Not
everyone was schooled in history in a royal palace, he reminded himself.
“Mareth consists of much that used to be Asgar, as do some of the other
neighboring countries. After the Mad Emperor’s reign, Asgar was divided among
many nobles and kings. It’s why you won’t even find the country labeled on any
current maps.”
Connor had moved his horse closer, as well.
Adrian leaned forward from behind him and stared at the map, and when Alexis
met his eyes he saw a fierce longing there.
“Can we go there, Alexis?” the boy asked in a
soft voice.
“It’s out of our way,” Alexis told him.
“Please. I want to see it.”
Alexis hated the position Adrian had put him in,
for he knew that if it were the home of his ancestors he too would wish to see
it, but it would put them off their course.
But then again, maybe it’s for
the best. How much longer before we’re stopped on the road? Might it not be safer
to go where no one expects us to?
He met Adrian’s hopeful gaze, and nodded.
The boy smiled wearily, one of the first Alexis had seen from him in quite some
time.
They started on the road once more, but when the
land to the south-east began to resemble a sea frozen in motion, full of small
rises and dips, they left the road and began to travel cross country.
The quiet ride afforded Alexis the time to
think. He kept a keen watch, and the rolled blankets tied behind him would
allow him to reach the guns quickly enough. He led their small company across
the undulating land.
Landerly
, he thought with a sorrow that wrenched
his heart.
Why did you do it? Why put us all through this?
Had the sight
of gray eyes been enough for the man to betray someone who had regarded him as
an uncle? Was the world really that fickle? Alexis dreaded the answers to these
questions.
At least now you know for a certainty that Hamar and Owain are
dead.
He realized then how strong his desire had been to hear a different
answer. That while all the time he’d been asking for news of Legionnaires, he
had been secretly pleased that he had heard nothing affirmative. Now he knew
for certain, and it only weighed more heavily on him.
It should be one of
them here in my place. But I ran ... and they died.
It was the sound of
those final gun shots he had heard as they were fleeing that came to his mind.
We ran and left them to die.
The bitter thought was wrong, he knew, but he
couldn’t help but follow it and lose himself deeper in a hole of despair. They
had all had a duty, Hamar and Owain had simply died to ensure that the
remaining member of their team could carry it out, so why did he feel like a
coward?
He looked to the two boys riding to one side of
him, and wondered if the death of three fine Legionnaires had been worth it.
Quit
your stupid thinking, boy!
Owain’s irritated voice spoke up.
You know
that what happened happened to protect the boy, don't you dare go
underestimating his value!
Alexis looked away from the boys and looked
ahead. A small thought, one which he dared not dwell on, flittered across his
mind.
He had better be worth it.
Alexis emptied his mind and watched the rolling
hills all around them, the same hills that slowed their progress. He judged
they spent as much time climbing up as forward. Nonetheless, he was glad to be
off the road. He hadn’t felt safe traveling so visibly, and there was no
telling who the next stranger that passed them might be, or where the assassins
might be looking for them. He wanted to hope the assassins were behind them,
but with the trip through the woods, then the time spent on Captain Lavos’s
ship, who knew how much land the assassins had crossed.
They rode until the sun was sitting a little
lower than its perch at noon. Alexis stopped them for a break and to rest the
horses, as well. While they sat on the ground, nibbling on tough bread and
washing it down with water from the skins, Leah brought out her harp and began
to tune it.
“Do you know
Homer’s Folly
?” Connor
asked. He looked as though he had exerted great effort to simply speak those
words.
“Of course I do!” Leah exclaimed. “What true
bard would not know that tune?”
And she dove into it, fingers moving nimbly and
hardly seeming to touch the chords. For a few moments they all sat and listened
to the cheery tune carry across the hills on the breeze. Then she began to
sing, and her voice, as gentle and joyful as the notes she plucked, seemed to
give life to her words.
There was more to the song, but Alexis stopped
listening. It seemed that he couldn’t even find comfort in a song, if only
because it reminded him of what he had lost. “We have to keep moving,” he broke
into her song. God, why had any man decided to put such morose words to such a
buoyant tune?
Perhaps he knew how it would tug at lonesome hearts
.
They packed up and headed out once more. The
land began to abate of hills soon and flatten out. Alexis led them, every so
often conferring with the map to be certain they were on the right path. Behind
him Leah talked with the boys.