“What kind of worlds do you think we can journey to?” It was a conversation we had multiple times a day, but I never grew tired of dreaming with her.
“Maybe one that will be just like this, only without humans.” I smiled.
“But some of them are good.”
“Not the ones that follow us.”
“Those are O’Baarni. Some of them are good. Some of them are not. Just like humans.” She nodded as if she had just told me that the sky was blue and the moon was green.
“All of them want to kill us, so I will conclude that they are not good.”
“Am I human, O’Baarni, or Elven?” She had never asked this question, so I paused for a few seconds to think of an answer that was close enough to the truth.
“Which would you prefer to be?”
“Elven!” She smiled so wide that her green eyes closed with the effort.
“Why?” I wanted to keep her talking while I focused on reaching our destination. O’Baarni were the most obvious threat that my daughter knew of, but I was more frightened of the monster I made a deal with those many years ago. I did not know where the dragon lurked, but I knew she hunted me as well. If we reached the cave in time I doubted that she would be able to follow.
“We are a kind people and help each other.”
“It wasn’t always that way.”
“Oh I know, you’ve told me before that we used to be mean. But that isn’t the case any longer.” She inhaled and seemed distracted for a second. “There is a mango tree over there,” she pointed up the slope. “And it has a beehive in it. We should get some mangos and honey!”
“We don’t have time.” I sighed when her face fell. I almost pointed out that the reason we needed to hurry was that she had pulled down my hood, but I realized that I had made that point clear enough when I slapped her. “Once we travel to the other world, we will have plenty of time for collecting honey. Remember how we slept in my old cottage in Relyara’s valley?”
“Yes.” She smiled again. “Will we have orchards and a garden in our new home?”
“Yes, just like that place; we will find a home next to the river so we can fish and raise livestock. There will be plenty of time for collecting honey.” She tightened her grip on my hand with excitement but then she lost her smile.
“Will there be other children there? Boys and girls my age?”
“It depends.”
“On what?”
“There might not even be humans or Elvens on the new world.”
“Can’t we choose? We should only go to a place where we can make friends.”
“They might not want to be our friends.” I laughed lightly at her words.
“Everyone wants to be my friend, Mother. Remember those human children? They loved me.”
“Oh yes I remember them. Do you recall how angry I was with you?” It had been five or six years ago and we were camped on the outskirts of a human settlement of a few thousand. I was planning a way to steal supplies and perhaps take a hostage to extract news, but Vaiarathe slipped away. I found her after a frantic half-hour of search playing with a group of human children. There were no adults around so I was able to avoid killing anyone.
“It was worth it though. You never obeyed your parents.” She stuck her tongue out at me and I didn’t know if I should get angry or laugh at her.
“Who told you I never obeyed my parents?”
“Nyarathe. Then I asked Relyara and she confirmed.” Her smile was so smug that I did indeed laugh. Surely the Dead Gods were paying me back for the trouble I gave my parents.
“My parents were fools. I hope you don’t think the same of me.”
“No. Of course not, Mother.” The smile fell from her lips and she looked pensive. “I do wish you would listen to me about—”
“No more today, Vaiarathe!” I growled at her. “I don’t want to hear you speak anymore of him. Just give me today please? Your stunt with my hood has created a dangerous situation and you should be thankful I am not angrier with you.”
“Fine.” She spat the word and then looked away. I knew she was mad at me, but I was displeased with her as well. She still maintained the grip of our locked fingers so I suspected that she was not very upset.
I let her walk in silence for another hour before we came to a deep stream that cut across the path. Here we refilled our water skins, drank until our stomachs were full, and then ate the last of our rations from Relyara. The salted meat and dried fruit had lasted us for many more months than I expected, but we had been lucky with hunting. Perhaps fortune wasn’t entirely to blame. Vaiarathe had become a skilled hunter over the years and the last boar I watched her hunt was killed with a single throw of the spear I lent her. We had feasted that night and done our best to smoke more of the meat for a few days before we continued on our journey.
“May I see the map?” she asked after we finished eating. I was packing up the remainder of my supplies and debating the strategy of following the stream upward to thwart our trackers. I left little evidence of my passing but I knew the O’Baarni were only sending their best trackers after me. They did not seem to have sensitive noses, so I often bought us time by taking rivers, climbing trees, or pushing through storms.
“Here.” I unfolded the thick parchment that Relyara gave us and handed it to Vaiarathe.
“I wonder if this creek leads to the entrance. Look at the lines.” She pointed to the detailed drawing that Relyara’s scouts provided. “If the water continues to cut into the mountain it may be right at the entrance. See how the trail bends around?” I nodded at her observations of the map and studied our surroundings.
“Even if I am wrong, we will probably only be a few hundred feet away. If we stay in the water then we will be harder to track,” she continued and I could tell that she was seeking my approval
“I agree with your assessment. Good job, Daughter.” She tried to hide her smile. “I will let you lead us then. Are you up for the task?”
“Yes, Mother!” She hastily folded up the map and handed it back to me. I put the paper back in its correct place and then finished strapping everything else into the sack.
“Take the spear as a walking stick.” I handed her the weapon and looked for an appropriate length of wood that I could use. After a few feet of wading through the stream behind Vaiarathe I found a thick piece of jungle driftwood.
“Do you think that there are sharks in the water?” she whispered over her shoulder after we hit a deep part of the river that brought the water up to her chest.
“Maybe just small ones. I would be more worried about water vipers.”
“I am not concerned. I just want to see a shark. Siltia and Wenrathe had a drawing in one of their books.” Nyarathe’s children had spent many precious days with Vaiarathe. They had grown close and their friendship, as well as being reunited with my sister again, made our departure difficult.
“Careful of the water ahead. It is moving quicker and appears to be deeper,” I cautioned.
“I am fine, Mother.” She blew a stream of water out of her mouth with a playful smile. The air was hot and humid but the chill water was melted snow from the top of the mountain range. We tried to keep as dry as possible when we traveled to preserve our clothes, but the refreshing dip felt wonderful.
Vaiarathe was swimming now but the water only came up to my neck. A waterfall cascaded into the river ahead and before I could advise my daughter on the correct method of climbing the boulders that made up the waterfall she sprung from the current, landing lightly on the top of the falls. The leap was over thirty feet and I closed my open mouth before she could turn back and smile at me in triumph. I may have been able to make that kind of a leap if I had started on solid ground, but she had been floating moments before attempting the jump. It was as if the water itself flung her gently from its embrace.
She sat down on the edge of the falls and waited for me to climb the face. The sides of the creek were cut like a gorge now and though the sky above us was open, I didn’t believe there would be much of a risk of the dragon finding us unless she swooped directly overhead. That only left me the O’Baarni to worry about until we reached the Radicle.
“Do you hear anything?” I asked her when I reached the top of the falls.
“Just the creatures of the jungle.” She shrugged her shoulders and I adjusted the lay of her hood on her auburn hair. Her movement reminded me of Kaiyer and for a few brief seconds I allowed myself to hope that the girl was right in her predictions that her father was still alive.
“Would you call this a pool, a pond, or a lake?” She gestured behind her to the standing body of water that dammed up before the falls.
“A big pool or a small pond. Lakes are much larger,” I confirmed.
“We should walk around it.”
“We’ll have to swim. There are no trails to the sides.” The pool was cut like a deep bowl into the stone basin of the jungle floor.
“I will go first.” Vaiarathe jumped into the water with the spear in her hand. I followed after her and focused on the mouth of the small river that fed the pool about two hundred yards in the distance.
The pond was surprisingly deep, but the water was clear and I could see ten feet through the blue depths. This place was peaceful and if our situation were different I would have enjoyed camping here for a few weeks. With a supply of fresh water, the jungle fruits, and the plentiful amount of small game here we could have lived quite happily. I had considered someplace cooler for our new homestead on whatever world we would inhabit, but perhaps a tropical setting such as this jungle would be more fun.
Something moved under the current of the pool beneath Vaiarathe. It was large, long and swam in a sideways motion like a snake. My daughter was focused on the end of the pool and while she swam with long, powerful strokes that quickly carried her skipping across the surface of the water, the large creature under her was faster and I could see it twist toward her.
“Beneath you!” I screamed out a warning, but the girl choked and then disappeared under the water before she heard me.
I called her name and then dove under the water with a curse. I didn’t know what the creature was, but I guessed it was much too large for my daughter to wrestle with while underwater. If the thing had teeth, it was possible that it bit her and was dragging her deep into the depths of the pool.
I could see nothing through the blood. I kicked hard and swam to her. My mind spun with terror. She was dead, or soon would be. There was too much blood.
The creature struggled beneath me. It was a water viper, they normally grew to four feet in length, but this one was easily twenty and the reptile’s body was as thick as my own chest. The bottom half of its tail coiled around my daughter’s small torso and its maw was positioned only a few feet over the top of her head. My spear was trapped between her hip and the monster, so Vaiarathe could not bring the weapon into play. The only thing preventing the creature from ripping her beautiful head from her shoulders was her one tiny arm pushing its nose away.
I had a short bow latched to my pack, but it would be useless under the water. I did have a long dagger at my hip, so I pulled it free and drove it into the scales where it wrapped around the girl. The blade punched deep and I was able to yank it vertically to ensure the deepest of cuts. Most animals gave up as soon as they encountered any sort of resistance from their prey, but this monster only seemed to tighten its constriction around Vaiarathe in response to my attack.
I cut again and again with the blade but the fucking beast wouldn’t let go of her. It spun in the water and I lost my hold on the dagger buried in its flesh. The water was so thick and red now that I couldn’t see anything in front of me and my panicked attempts to keep up with the twisting pair grew even more frantic. I was lost and floating down in an endless sea of crimson. The twists and thrashing of the water stopped suddenly and I couldn’t figure out where they were in the opaque depths. I was running out of air. Vaiarathe had smaller lungs and had likely taken a shallower breath. If she was not bleeding out she was drowning.
I almost screamed into the water. The Dead Gods were cruel to take her from me when we were so close to our freedom. I had protected her from O’Baarni killers, the unyielding hate of the environment, and the most diabolical creature in all of creation. Yet this was how she would pass from this world. I should have taken the lead. It should have been me locked in the deathly coil of the monster while she swam to freedom.
A hand gripped my shoulder and pulled me. I saw my daughter’s smiling face underwater. I almost gasped with relief. We surfaced from the bloody pool with a symphonic pair of relieved sighs.
“Are you okay?” The water was a muddy red and I could not see any part of her body that was submerged.
“I tried to tell him that we weren’t food, but he didn’t listen!” She was gasping for breath and I wrapped my arms around her while we treaded water.
“Are you injured?” I realized my voice was halfway between a panicked scream and an insane screech so I forced myself to relax. If the girl was talking and treading water she was probably going to be fine.
Unless the viper got its poison into her.
“He bit me to pull me down, but I’m okay now.” She pushed away from me and kicked toward our previous destination. I noticed she held something long and ivory in her left hand, but I couldn’t clearly see what it was until we escaped the dizzying scent of the coppery blood.