Treespeaker (19 page)

“We must speak, Jakan,” Hekja said as they approached. She laid a hand on his chest to take his pain. Jakan nodded, taking deep breaths as the tightness of his chest eased under her touch. With an encouraging smile, he pushed Tashi towards the door of the cottage.

“Go inside, little one. I need to speak to Hekja. I’ll be there soon.”

A small smile passed over Tashi’s pale face as she left. Jakan sighed as she shut the door. He turned to Hekja, wiping his eyes again on the handkerchief he still held scrunched in his hand. She pointed to the barn and he limped behind her. He felt physically and emotionally exhausted.

The inside of the barn smelled of hay and the horses in the stable next door. Hekja took a seat on a metal box and Jakan sat opposite her. He watched her as he leaned his crutch against a nearby pillar. She sat with her eyes shut, her hands folded in her lap. At last she looked at him.

“The time has come for you to leave us.”

Jakan narrowed his eyes at her. For three straight days she had refused to entertain any thought of him leaving.

“Leave? But you said I needed to heal. My ankle still pains me.”

Without a word, Hekja reached into her pocket and removed something in her fist. With her other hand, she set a small box in front of Jakan and beckoned him to raise his foot. Frowning, he lifted his foot, but his jaw stiffened and anger welled in his stomach. He knew what she held in her hand. As she reached towards his ankle, a glint of blue confirmed his suspicion.

“What game have you been playing, old woman?”

Hekja gazed at him, no apology in her eyes. She began to undo the strapping on his ankle with one hand. Jakan snapped forward and grabbed the healing stone from her. She didn’t even glance up, but simply used both hands to unwind the bandage. Jakan clenched the stone tight in his fist.

“Answer me! You’ve kept me here three days, saying I needed to heal, when you could have healed me on the first day. Why? Are you in league with Beldror?”

Hekja stopped unwinding and sat back, her hands on her knees. Her voice was placating, like a mother soothing a petulant child, but a glint of anger sparked in her eyes. “I didn’t heal you because the healing you needed was not to be had from the stone.”

“It’s just a bad sprain. The stone would heal it easily.”

Hekja hugged her thin arms about her shoulders, as if protecting herself from his anger. “I wasn’t speaking of your ankle.”

 “You’re making no sense.”

“Jakan…” Hekja leaned forward and took his hands in hers. He resisted the urge to snatch them away. “I could have healed your ankle in five minutes, yes. Then you would have gone on your way. But you would have never made it to Garuga.” She shook her head, obviously reading Jakan’s thoughts. “You’re a Treespeaker, bound to Arrakesh. It’s like a thread tying your soul to the forest. Yes, you found a way to travel away without breaking the thread as would normally happen, but the fact remains that the farther you go, the thinner the thread will become. And a thin thread is easily broken if you put a sudden strain on it.” She raised her eyebrows at him.

 He shook his head. He didn’t want to hear this.

“You were injured long before you fell down that hillside, Jakan. Beldror hurt you just as if he stuck a knife into you. But you pretended you were strong. You locked the pain away as if somehow, if you didn’t allow it out, it would go away. No matter how hard you tried though, it would have come out eventually. And if it happened when the thread was at its weakest…”

Jakan tilted back his head, shut his eyes and let out a long breath. Then he looked again at Hekja. “I’m sorry.”
For doubting you. For being a fool.
He held out his hand and dropped the healing stone into the palm she held out, grasping her hand in both his for a moment as he did.

The healing took, as Hekja had said, only a few minutes. As the tingling of the healing power died away, Jakan twisted his ankle around and wriggled his toes. The pain had gone. He stood and rested his weight on it with care. It was as strong as before.

He nodded his satisfaction.

Hekja flapped a hand at him. “Now sit down again while I strap it.”

 “Strap it? Why? It’s healed.”

“No one in Carlika has ever seen me use the stone. If I’ve used it, I’ve held it so that no one noticed it. They think I have magic fingers.” She smiled, her face flushing a little. “The Hudd family must think that your ankle is still at least a little sore, otherwise they too will wonder why I couldn’t heal it earlier.”

Jakan nodded. Hekja was wise to have kept the stone secret. Beldror was proof of that. He sat in silence as Hekja rebound the ankle. She had almost finished when he stayed her hand for a moment.

“But if my ankle is not healed, what reason do we give the Hudds for my leaving?”

Hekja tied the bandage, then gazed at him, her eyes gentle. “We tell them the other truth.”

“What other truth?”

“That when Beldror realises his hawk is dead, he will send something else to kill you.”

Jakan stood at the gate leading out of the courtyard, a bedroll on his back and a satchel over his shoulder. Roduph and Merida had insisted on ensuring that he had everything he could need for his journey. A change of clothes – some that Evyn had outgrown – and a coat, were carefully folded inside the bedroll. A sharp knife was tucked into Jakan’s belt and enough food for a few days lay wrapped in his satchel.

“Stay safe.” Merida planted a soft kiss on his cheek.

Roduph stood back, his arms folded. He spoke to Hekja. “I still think it’s madness for him to go by way of Dralgo Forest. Even if, as you say, the creatures in there are no danger to him, the human scum who haunt the edges of the forest are a danger to any man.”

Hekja pursed her lips and nodded. “Yes, he’ll need his wits about him, but he’s safer to go that way than through the bogs to the west. Even Carlikans, who thought they knew their way through there, have been lost without trace. He needs the forest. It will give him strength.”

Jakan gave a polite cough. He was beginning to feel like a child being discussed by his parents. Roduph chuckled and cast Jakan an apologetic look. He took a pouch from his pocket and held it out.

“Take this, too. You’ll need it.”

Jakan took the pouch and opened it. Five flat pieces of metal, imprinted with some sort of design, clinked together when he shook them.

He frowned. “What are they?”

Their laughter took him by surprise. Roduph slapped his thighs. “They’re vows. Money. You’ll need them to buy food and shelter.”

Jakan’s face burned. He pulled the drawstring on the pouch and held it back to Roduph. “No, thank you. I’ve no need for this. I’ll hunt food and find shelter where I can. You’ve given me enough.” These people were poor, hardly eking an existence out of the hinterlands of Carlika. He couldn’t take money from them. Anyway, he knew only how to barter.

Hekja stepped forward and pushed the pouch back into his hand. “Jakan isn’t used to needing the help of others,” she said, “but in this case he must accept it.” She glared at him and Jakan felt his ears going red, as they used to when he was a boy. Indeed, Hekja and Kattan had a lot in common.

“But…”

Roduph thrust his hands into his pockets and stepped back. “Jakan, at the very least, you’ll need money when you get to your destination. There are precious few rabbits to catch on the streets of Garuga.”

Jakan gave a slight smile and slipped the pouch into his pocket. “Thank you. I’d best be on my way.”

He shifted the weight of the satchel on his shoulder and regarded the Hudd family. His gaze finally settled on Tashi, whose brown eyes were bright with unshed tears. With a sob, she rushed to him and threw her arms about his waist. He knelt and hugged her close, wishing he could think of something to say to make her feel better.

“This is my fault,” she whispered after a few moments. “If I hadn’t killed the hawk, you could stay and get better.”

Shocked, Jakan took her arms and held her away from him, so that he could look at her. “No!” Tashi trembled at his terseness and he loosened his hold on her before he continued, his voice gentle. “Tashi, what you did was good and brave. Don’t ever think it was wrong. That hawk meant to harm me. Now it’s gone and I can do what I need to do. You’ve helped me.”

“But I don’t want you to go.”

He pulled her close once more. “I know. But I’ll have to come back this way, so you’ll see me again.”

Tashi stood back and looked at him. “Do you promise?”

“I promise to try my very best. After all, how will your mama manage, without me to peel her potatoes?”

Tashi giggled, then bit her lip.

Evyn took her shoulder. “Come on, Tashi. It’s time to open the cage and let him fly.”

Tashi nodded, then reached forward and kissed Jakan on the cheek. The sweet tenderness of it made his heart heavy.

He stood. One by one, he made his farewells to the Hudds. As he got to Hekja, she shook her head. “I’ll walk with you some,” she said. Her old face was pale.

***

They walked together for some time without speaking. Neither of them looked back. Jakan’s mind was a flooded stream of worries. What lay ahead? How was he to find Varyd? How would he cope with the feeling of panic that rose in him every time he looked at the almost treeless plains and hills ahead of him? What or who would Beldror send to replace Jahl and what if they found him?

He turned to Hekja and took her arm, startling her. “Will the family be safe? If Beldror sends something after me and it doesn’t find me, what will it do here? I’d never forgive myself if something happened to them.”

Hekja stopped and shook her head. “Don’t worry, Jakan. We’ve burned the hawk and we’ll get rid of any other sign that you may have been there. He’ll find no reason to harm them. We must only hope that he’ll not be able to find you.”

Soon they reached the stream. A rough road headed west. It crossed to the eastern side over a stone bridge, which arched over the water. They crossed this before Hekja stopped again and turned to him, sighing deeply as if ridding herself of unwelcome thoughts. Her sharp eyes misted over as she gazed at him.

“Here we must part, Jakan. Continue downstream and you’ll get to the river at the town of Tomaga. Go from there to Dralgo Forest, then follow the road on the northern side. It’ll take you northwest to Garuga. It’s not the quickest route, but the best for you.”

Jakan set his bundle on the ground and turned to face her. He reached out and took her shoulders, then placed a soft kiss on the top of her gray head. 

“I’ll miss you, old woman.”

“And I you.”  She reached up her hand and stroked his cheek. Her face became serious and she stared into his eyes as if searching for something. Her face had gone grey and the hand she placed on his arm gripped tight, like a woman afraid.

“Jakan, you must be careful! There are thoughts in your head that don’t belong to you!”

 “Thoughts of what?”

 “I can’t tell what they are, but there’s a voice in your mind which is not yours. It’s evil.”

Jakan searched his mind. It was futile. His own thoughts were such a jumble of grief, worry and anticipation, there was little likelihood of him picking out thoughts that did not belong to him. It surprised him that Hekja had been able to discern them.

“Are you sure it’s not Arrakesh?” he asked, knowing the answer as soon as the words left his lips.

Hekja’s face was stern. “It’s evil. You must be ready for it.”

Jakan rubbed his eyes and sighed. Then he stooped and shouldered his bundle again. “It seems there are a great many things I should be ready for. Why have you not sensed these thoughts before?”

“I don’t know.” Hekja’s eyes narrowed as she reflected. “Maybe the thoughts were buried beneath your grief and have only now surfaced enough for me to catch them. But they’re still very deep. Just be ready for them.”

Suddenly Jakan felt as if he was carrying a lot more than the bundle on his shoulder.

Hekja gave him a sympathetic smile and patted his arm. “Whatever happens, keep going until you reach your destination. May Arrakesh hold you in his hand. Now, go!” She pushed him a little and without another word, swung around and shuffled off the way they had come, following the rough path upstream.

She didn’t look back, but raised her hand in acknowledgement of his thoughts of gratitude. Jakan watched until she disappeared over a slight rise. Then he set off again downstream, feeling more alone than he had ever been before.

***

The sinking sun still held enough heat to warm Jakan’s back as he approached a break in the rocks between two hills. Here the stream coursed over large boulders, with no view of what lay beyond. He had been travelling for two days, finding shelter at night beneath a rocky overhang and finding what food he could to supplement his supply along the way. There was little time for setting snares, but he had managed to kill a rabbit with his sling on the previous night. By the time he had found enough wood for a fire though, he was beginning to think that it would have been wiser to let the rabbit run.

Normally, walking would have relaxed his mind, but apprehension about the journey, the hidden voice in his mind, and the constant worry that Beldror would send something or someone to finish what Jahl started, lay heavily on his mind. He scanned the sky often for sign of another hawk. He felt exhausted.

The sky glowed pink now and Jakan promised himself that he would stop for the night at the next rocky outcrop. This place looked a possibility.

As he passed between the rocks he gasped and shut his eyes. Before him the stream ran down a gentle incline. Up until now it had wound its way through an undulating plateau. Its banks rose steeply on either side, giving him some protection from the open space beyond. Now the banks were shallow and gave way to open grassland. He could see for miles and he felt panic rising. Out here, he counted for nothing, like a dead leaf floating on a breeze, weightless and completely controlled by the movement of the air on which it rests. He took deep breaths to calm his thudding heart. Steadying himself against the rock, he opened his eyes.

Miles and miles of grassland, littered with rocky outcrops, waved in the breeze like an endless golden lake. Trees were few and far between. In the distance, stone walls broke it into a patchwork of fields, with an occasional village or larger town dotted here and there. His spirit rose a little as he saw, in the far distance, the gray-green of Dralgo Forest. Beyond that the vista faded into the haze of the far mountains. Somewhere in that haze was Garuga.

If I died here,
Jakan wondered,
where would my spirit go? Would it fly back to Arrakesh or drift for eternity in this emptiness?
A sudden chill fingered its way down his back. He pulled the collar of his shirt closer around his neck.

As his eye followed the line of the stream, Jakan was startled to see a group of horsemen appear from behind an outcrop some distance ahead. They trotted up the incline towards him on the opposite side of the stream. Jakan darted behind the rock and peered out. He counted around thirty men. They were dressed in dark clothing and the sun caught the occasional glint of metal. They must be what Varyd had called soldiers, men who rode the countryside together with the common cause of fighting. Why would they be coming out this way?

Thinking quickly, Jakan ran back upstream for about five hundred yards. Here the bank on his side of the stream rose steeply. At the top, huge black rocks would provide the perfect place to hide and to watch. On the other side of the stream was a wide, pebbled edge, bordered with a flat, grassed area. He estimated the men, whoever they were, would be at this spot in about five minutes time. If they were thinking of camping the night, this would be the perfect place. Only the urge to make as much ground as possible before dark had stopped him from camping there himself.

Jakan scrambled to the top of the bank and settled himself between two rocks. From here, he had a clear view of the opposite bank. Within minutes, he heard the crunch of hooves on the pebbles. The leader of the group, a tall, well-built man with dark brown, shoulder-length hair and scraggy beard, rode slightly ahead of the others. He held up a hand just as he came opposite Jakan’s hiding place. All the men stopped and dismounted. They were definitely soldiers, Jakan decided. Each was armed with a sword and wore a breastplate of metal. The dust of a long journey clung to their clothes. Jakan’s heart beat hard in his chest. In his eyrie above them, he could hear every word they said.

“We’ll make camp here for the night,” the leader said. “We should be at the forest’s edge by tomorrow evening.”

Jakan swallowed hard. Forest’s edge? Why should they want to be at the forest’s edge?

Another man, slightly shorter than the first, with graying hair and beard, nodded at the order and began giving directions to the others. Within ten minutes they had pitched tents on the grassy flat and pulled food and drink from their saddlebags. Jakan watched as they settled in for the night.