I knew it was the girl. I couldn’t leave her alone with Rhorken. She was too frightened and somehow I made her feel a little less scared. My desire to protect her was inexplicable, but it persisted nonetheless.
An hour later, I returned to camp to find Rhorken had unloaded three sleeping pads and collected a pile of limbs to fuel the rather large fire he’d made. I set down the rabbits I’d caught–rather proud that there were three–and began to clean the first with the knife at my hip.
It was a simple enough process, with practice. A few shallow cuts just under the fur, a slice here and there where the skin refused to release from the body, and I had a skinned rabbit proudly displayed in my hands. I set aside the pelt when I was done. She would need warmer clothes, if she was going to make it all the way to our destination–wherever that was–so it was best to start a collection of furs.
“That’s quite a skill you have.” Rhorken commented, but I didn’t know if he referred to the ease with which I cleaned the carcass or the number I’d managed to catch.
“My father taught me,” I replied, and pulled a limb from Rhorken’s pile. They weren’t the best of spits, but I made due and set the clean carcass to hang just above the flames. I realized then that Rhorken was alone.
“Where is she?” I asked tensely. My shoulders pressed back and my fists tightened–If anything happened to her–prepared for whatever action I might need to take in the next few seconds.
“Still on the cart, boy. Calm down.” His lips almost seemed to curve into a smile, but maybe it was just my imagination.
I let it go, pulled the rag out of my pocket, and wiped the blood off my hands. I hurried over to the cart and, true to his word, she was there. Her eyes opened immediately, her gaze falling upon my outstretched hand, and I gently helped her to the ground. She barely came up to my shoulders, though I found myself amazed that she could stand at all on her narrow legs and ankles.
“You should warm up and get something to eat. There’s rabbit cooking on the fire.”
I caught them for you.
She walked with me to the fire, sat down on one of the two empty sleeping pads, and waited. She was in desperate need of a good meal, and it pleased me to see that her posture relaxed in the warmth of the fire. Her eyes glazed as she stared at the meat above the flames, and she swallowed in anticipation.
“Remind me to get you to fetch her from now on.” I smiled at the thought of Rhorken struggling with her. It didn’t surprise me that she was less intimidated by my small, thin body than she was by Rhorken’s massive frame.
While Rhorken rotated the spits beside the fire, I noticed a copper bracelet on his wrist, carved with detail. Lagodonian men never wore jewelry, but perhaps that was more because they couldn’t afford it. Father’s ring was one of the only pieces I’d seen. On reflex, my hand fell to the pocket where I’d placed it only that morning.
I need to find a safe place to keep this until my fingers are big enough to wear it.
“Where are we?” I asked in the quiet; I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get some answers.
“Somewhere south of Tilia. We’ll reach it within an hour or two tomorrow.”
That’s why he waited so long to make camp.
He must have hoped we’d reach the village so we could stay at its inn. He hadn’t intended to camp out at all.
“Will you take others from the village?”
“Perhaps. Depends on the children.” I glanced over at the girl and wondered what the two of us had in common. Aside from our malnutrition and general, soiled appearance, we were as different as two children could be. Maybe the desperation of our parents?
“Why did you select us?”
“You chose to come, as did the girl. She had no one else. You came to save your mother.”
Sure I did.
I was racked with shame, not because I had made the wrong decision, but because I knew I had done it for a poor reason. I should have been focused on my mother, on helping her to stay alive, but instead I focused on myself, my stomach, and my future.
For the girl, it troubled me to think she’d been completely alone. No parents? No siblings? No one? I, on the other hand, would hopefully have two happy, healthy parents thanks to Rhorken’s payment, even if I didn’t know if I would ever see them again.
“But why me? Why not one of the others?”
Without pretense or hesitation, he replied, “You have the Spark.”
What?
With his shimmering pendant in his hand, he continued. “It goes like this. Everyone in the world has a Spark, a light inside them that guides them, keeps them alive. But some people have Sparks that are bigger–or brighter. Their Sparks help them to catch fish, control water, or manipulate fire.”
I sat in silence and thought of what he said.
Was it a tall tale?
He looked like he believed it.
How could Rhorken see my Spark when I didn’t even know it was there? What exactly is it, for that matter?
My adolescent mind raced thinking of all the possibilities
. Could I make it rain during a drought? Could I manipulate the wind?
Certainly I didn’t have any kind of abilities in terms of fishing or, if I did, it would surely be wasted, courtesy of my repulsion of the practice.
By the time my brain slowed down, Rhorken handed me a leg and gave another to the girl. I bit into it, surprised by my own hunger. I hadn’t eaten any meat besides fish in weeks, and the goose had been left behind. It seemed like a long time ago.
Juice ran down my chin, and I picked every morsel of meat off the bone. It was the largest meal I had ever eaten in one sitting. Warm, fed, and free; I was content.
A boy can’t ask for much more than that.
~~~~~~~~~~
I awoke to a firm hand on my shoulder. It was barely dawn, and the chill in the air seemed to amplify the pain I felt from sleeping on the solid ground. Despite that, I slept more soundly than at home. I had freedom from the thoughts and emotions that usually made it so hard to stay asleep for long.
“We’re leaving. Load your things.” Rhorken instructed.
I stood, stretched, and noticed the girl, already in the cart and ready to get moving again. I picked up my bow and quiver, rolled up our sleeping pads, and joined her. I wasn’t looking forward to another day in the shaky cart, but I took some solace in the fact that we’d likely stop for some time at the village ahead.
We arrived at Tilia about an hour later. It was smaller than Lagodon, but it had an inn of its own and several travelers on the road, which made it seem far busier. The occasional building had two stories, a luxury no one from my village could afford, and the roads were even paved with wide, flat stones, for ease of travel. The people had done well for some time; it was hard to think that we were only a slow day’s ride away from my family, where they could never hope to be so prosperous.
“How long are we going to stop?”
“Just for a short while. Can you keep watch of the cart ‘til I get back?” I nodded in reply before he tied the horses to a tree and tromped into the village on foot.
“What’s your name?” I asked the girl. It seemed odd that I still hadn’t learned it, more than a day into our adventure together.
“Khea Fisher.” Her voice was smooth and sweet. I hadn’t expected that; I hadn’t expected a reply at all–and now that I had one–I wasn’t sure how to continue. “And you’re Lark. Like the bird.” she added, smiling a half-cocked smile.
“Yes,
like the bird
.” My mother’s love of birds had been no secret during my childhood. Khea’s statement made me think back to her and I could only hope she was well. This trip to our mystery destination would have all been a waste otherwise.
“We’re going to Hubli. There’s a school there to train people to join the military.”
Well at least Rhorken told one of us where we were headed.
The thought of school was strange for me. Only a few children in the village had the time in a day to go to school. I learned how to hunt–something that helped us survive; we would have never made it if I learned to read instead. On the other hand, the idea of joining the army wasn’t entirely repulsive. I would have a living and make a way for myself. It wouldn’t be so bad. For her, though…
“So Rhorken wants
you
to join the army?” I asked, incredulous.
“There are worse things than that.”
How can she say that?
She spoke as if she was wise to the world, as if her years had taught her more. Reminded of her age, I asked, “How many summers do you have?”
“Twelve. You?”
“Fourteen.”
Only twelve summers?
What was Rhorken thinking to take her away from the village to a school that trained children to join the military? She should have stayed home.
“Do you really think there’s such a thing as the Spark? Like Rhorken said?” she asked.
“I don’t know. I’ve never heard of it.”
“There’s something he’s not telling us.” I felt the same way.
“Do you think he means to harm us?” The thought of her in danger made my skin crawl. I must have sat like that for a while because she came to sit next to me, shoulder to shoulder.
“I don’t think so, but it’s hard to tell.” she said a little quieter after she’d been there a while. When I looked over, she had a small grin, a strange sight considering her trepidation from the day before.
What had changed for her?
Rhorken had only been gone an hour when I saw him walk back to the cart alone. He gave us a quick glance to make sure we were still there, untied the horses and moved us back towards the road.
“No children who want to be soldiers in this village?” I called out to him.
“They chose to stay,” he replied. It comforted me mildly to think that Rhorken didn’t forcibly take children from their families. I chose, and Khea had never had a reasonable alternative. It made me feel better about the situation.
And now I know Khea’s right. He’s too easy.
Rhorken navigated the horses along the narrow trail headed to the next village. I let my mind wander and considered what school would be like. What sorts of things would we learn? What kinds of people would I meet? Whatever the future held for me, I swore I would make the most of it. Whatever it took to be the best, I would find a way. It was the only way to make leaving Lagodon–and my mother–worth it.
The rest of the day passed like the one before it. Bouncing and jarring down the road, eating some hard cheese and bread, and watching the woods become thicker as we moved towards the capital. I was excited at the prospect of hunting in this part of the Creekmont. A thick forest like that would have some animals large enough to make it challenging for me.
Ten days we traveled back and forth, along paths that thinned in the continually denser patches of forest, and sometimes where no trails existed at all. We stopped at what seemed to be every village along the way to Hubli for recruits, none of which ever joined. I began to wonder if Khea and I were just too stupid to realize we were being tricked, or if everyone else was simply too happy and too content to leave home.
Each night, Khea and Rhorken would set up camp while I went out to catch dinner. I stuck to small game; it was easier to haul, quicker to cook and–more importantly–more fun to track. After the first week or so, I had enough pelts dried and scrubbed to fashion a small fur wrap for Khea. It looked pretty rough, tied together with small strips of leather, but it would keep her warmer than what she’d had before. It must have meant a lot to her, for she seemed to wear it with pride.
On the eleventh or twelfth day, maybe later than that, we reached Nyssa, a village that survived off the lumber trade. Rhorken arranged a room for us in the Piney Elms Inn, and claimed the only bed.
Of course
. It was simple, with plain wood floors and log walls. The Common Room was full of travelers, with a range of thoughts on their minds such as:
Where are we going after this?
or,
Let’s stay here a while.
Others worried over money, or thieves, or their loved ones.
The inn-keep was a large, older woman who wore a wrap to cover her hair and an apron splattered with bits of food. Her thoughts went to several small children when she saw us, and the grief that welled up along with the memory told me they had died. She looked at Khea with glistening eyes, and I realized how similar she must look to a blonde girl from her memories. The rose-cheeked woman would do everything in her power to make sure Khea was looked after while we were here. Powerful grief was a feeling I had hoped to never encounter after my father, but it seemed there was no escape from it. My mood darkened as I considered what it would be like to lose a child.
Despite her appearance, the woman could make a serious roast pig, drizzled in a sweet plum sauce with a side of potatoes. I hadn’t eaten so well in my whole life. The gloom of the inn-keep’s memories kept me quiet during dinner and, though she also seemed equally appreciative of the large, delicious meal, Khea seemed to mirror my disposition. If Rhorken kept this up, he was bound to have to roll us both to the capital, and the steady supply of food put any thoughts of running home out of my mind for good.
The inn-keep arranged for us to both have hot baths and washed our clothes for us. The warmth of the water on my skin radiated deep into my bones; I’d never had a hot bath before. The dirt and grime from hunting and sleeping outside were washed away in a few refreshing minutes of bubbles and heat.
Back in the room, in fresh clothes borrowed from the inn-keep, I asked Rhorken, “Why did you pay for us to stay here? To have baths?”
“Tomorrow we’ll arrive at the capital, and you’ll start a new life. I didn’t want you to get there with your old life still clinging to you. You’ll have a fresh start.”
It was the nicest thing anyone had ever done for me. Not only did he save Mother from death, and Father from despair, he wanted to give me a new life, one where I could thrive. He even made sure I started out on the right foot. There were no words to express my gratitude. I felt my suspicions about Rhorken begin to subside.
Khea came in after her bath, hair brushed straight and her face washed. She almost looked like a different person entirely with the clothes she’d been given. I could tell they belonged to the daughter the inn-keep lost. Her skin was actually rather light, to match her blue eyes; for the first time since I’d met her, she smiled.