Chapter 15: Forest Maze
Night came before long. Bugs swarmed around as they tried to find their habitat that was now gone. The land started to cool when the sun passed below the horizon. Soon the temperature would fall just as it did in the Rough Region. The carts rolled across the sand leaving long trails behind them. Most of the trails were then replaced by the footprints of all the soldiers walking behind them. Their rhythmic marching was the only sound, save for the occasional shout of Turff, or the grunt of a horse.
Mith had dozed off in the evening and awoke to find everything completely dark. The temperature had dropped and now she shivered uncontrollably. She turned over and groaned as her body ached from sleeping on the hard wood of the cart. She looked around, trying to figure out where everyone else was. To her left she could hear Mitchum’s heavy breathing, he was asleep. She listened for Ludus in the corner but could not hear anything.
“Ludus, Pssst, Ludus.”
No answer, she called again.
“What is your problem, I’m right here.” A sour voice said in the corner.
Mith rolled her eyes, “Fine, you could have answered. What are you doing?”
“Catching a fish, what does it look like I’m doing?”
“Watch your attitude, I was just asking.”
“Ask someone else then.” There was a noise as Ludus shifted positions.
“You need to be more agreeable, we’re going to the palace. Doesn’t that sound fun?”
“Fun? Absolutely, leaving all my frozen family and friends to come and live someplace I’ve never been is so much fun.”
Mith crawled over to Ludus, “Shut your mouth. And be quiet, Mitchum is sleeping. Stop being so negative, you know perfectly well that they will all be better in the end.”
Ludus got to his knees and put his face directly in front of Mith’s. “Actually, I do not know anything perfectly well. And stop living in some world where everything turns out great in the end. That world does not exist. Maows was supposedly keeping things from all of us to be protective. The only thing he managed to do was keep us unprepared for life.”
“You take that back, Maows is great. I’m sure he will change his ways once he comes back, he just needed a reason to.”
Ludus looked to Mith in disbelief, “What are you talking about? When he comes back, where did he go? A vacation? I’ll bet it was nice. You have to stop living in some shrouded world of perfection. You believe everything the exact same way I do, the only difference is you think that if you believe something hard enough it has to happen. That if you cover the plain truth that is right in front of your eyes it may change. Well guess what Hardel? That is never going to happen.”
Mith stared into Ludus’s eyes as best she could in the dark. She had no comeback for what he had said, it was the truth. She never realized she made it so obvious to other people.
“What?” Ludus asked as he stared right back into Mith’s eyes. “What is it? Nothing to say Hardel?” He waited for a response but there was none. “Never start an argument unless you have no way to lose.” Ludus sat back down in his corner and closed his eyes.
Mith sat for a while longer and tried to find Ludus in the dark, but he was completely hidden. She then went back to the edge of the cart, and for the first time noticed that it had stopped at some point during her chat with Ludus. She looked out at a fire close by. Several guards crowded around the fire, warming their hands and eating soup from metal bowls just like she had earlier. As she watched them more fires sprang to life all around, each with five to six people huddled close. By the end of ten minutes about thirty fires were lit all around. She looked behind her and could see inside the cart by the fire’s light. Ludus was curled up in the corner with his back to Mith. Mitchum was sprawled out along the left side of the cart, his head almost to the edge. Putting the argument out of sight in her mind in a way that only she could, Mith asked Ludus if he wanted to take a look around while everyone was eating. At first Ludus wondered if she was joking, but upon seeing the seriousness in her face he agreed.
They carefully got out of the cart, making sure not to wake Mitchum, and walked up to the first fire and sat down in an opening between two guards. They sat silently at first, just wanting to hear the conversations that went. The group they sat with consisted of three men and two women, all about the age of twenty-five. After introducing themselves they picked up the conversation as they had left it when Mith and Ludus arrived.
One of the men threw his hands in the air. “So I said to him, I said, ‘you watch it, that’s just a cadet’.”
The other four laughed. Mith looked to Ludus confused, he returned the look.
“That’s great, Vir, just great.” One of the women said, still laughing.
“I know, right, he had no idea what I was talking about.” Vir laughed.
“That makes two of us.” Ludus whispered to Mith.
The two kids sat and listened for a while longer. Each of the others around the fire told jokes that the others found extremely amusing. Neither Mith nor Ludus understood any of them. All the jokes contained many words that they were unaccustomed to. Ludus felt that he was the butt of several jokes, but he was not entirely sure. It did not take long for them to decide to find a different fire to warm themselves by. They got up and said goodbye, then went around the other fires.
Most of the fires had a full set of people around them, so they continued until they were in the very back. There they found one with only two guards by it. They sat down in the sand between them and were immediately introduced to Bern and Lapp, two men in their mid twenties. Bern was thin and short, while Lapp was much taller and much bigger. Both had long black hair. They seemed very pleased to have new company. They too continued a conversation that had been started earlier.
“So Lapp, as I was saying, Turff seems to be off his somewhat bejeweled ‘made from Merchant’ rocker if you ask me.” Bern whispered as if Turff might hear them from so far away.
“I know what you mean, Berny, I know what you mean.” Lapp had a voice that was much higher than expected.
“Hey, little tikes, you say you are from that town we was in this morning?” Bern asked.
Mith nodded. Bern gave them a sad look and then changed the subject. “Once, when we were back home in the mountains we had a whole village disappear without a trace. Me and Lapp here were sad for days until we figured out there was no village there in the first place. What a relief, I tell ya.”
Ludus suddenly wished he had sat down at any fire besides that one. Mith smiled kindly but was thinking the same thing. Bern and Lapp left the fire for a moment to take their bowls up to the wash cart. Ludus tried to get up but Mith pulled him back down for fear that they would seem rude. They returned before too long. Bern sat right next to Mith and Lapp sat beside Ludus, giving them no room to escape.
“How did you make friends with Mitchum anyhow?” Bern asked, trying to sound casual.
Mith answered: “We ran into him in the Rough Region, he was—”
“The Rough, why in all of Parli would he be in the rough?” Bern cut in. “That fella in the Rough, that makes me laugh.” Bern laughed to prove his point. “He has more money and sense then to be in the rough, ain’t that right, Lapp?”
“Yes sir it is.” Lapp muttered. He was staring into the fire as if it held dark secrets that only he knew about.
Ludus chimed in: “He has money? How much?”
Bern reached over Mith and Ludus and hit Lapp on the arm. “How much would you say, Lapp, how much?”
“No idea.” Lapp answered.
“Lapp is right, just about that much. Maybe more money, since his family is the biggest land rippers on the island.”
“The biggest what?” Ludus asked.
“Land ripper, you’ve gotsta have heard of the Quinn’s, who hasn’t? They about a hundred years ago bought up the biggest plot o’ land ever and rents it to everybody. Then they went in and taxed the
livers till they gave back the land and moved away. The land is precious ya see. At least that’s what they say. They rent the land to people and then tell them it is sacred land, and that they can only live there if they pay handsomely. It doesn’t really make sense that people keep rentin, but that’s the nature of things I guess.”
Mith was shocked, “That’s terrible, now I see why he left.”
“Oh, that’s not why he left. He left because his parents died and left him the whole thing. He didn’t want it so he gave the land to the leader of his full o’ trees village. His family was so mad that they ran him out a there. I even heard he had a girlfriend he had to leave.”
“Why did he not just stay and fight.” Mith asked.
“Stay and fight what? His family! You must be jokin’, he is the youngest of thirteen or so, he is not about to fight nine older siblings just to stay put, no way. He got out a there and came to the Royal Region instead, the palace is the place to be. Then he became a guard.”
“Why then did he stop being a guard?” Ludus inquired.
Lapp answered this one; he did not take his eyes from the fire as he spoke. “He was thought to have been an accomplice to Oldo. Oldo had a plan to kill the then prince and change parts of Parli for the better.”
“What parts?”
Lapp looked from the fire and into Ludus’s eyes. “You’re from one, friend. Neither liked the idea of towns teaching what they wanted to, they both fought for a unified Parli where every region had to teach the same things. The only difference is that Mitchum just talked, while Oldo acted . . . foolishly.”
“The funny thing is,” Bern added, “Is that Mitchum is the one that turned in Oldo and his plans. But that couldn’t stop people from believin’ that he was a part a the plan himself. So he got fired while Oldo was sent to jail.”
“Wow,” Ludus sighed, “You do something good and you still get in trouble for it.”
“Exactly.” Bern agreed.
Mith asked: “When did this all happen?”
Lapp thought for a minute, “About ten years ago.”
Ludus shook his head, “How does somebody get over something like that? Were they friends, Mitchum and Oldo?”
“The best of friends and that is what made it all the more difficult.” Lapp answered.
“How do you two know all this?” Ludus asked.
“We were trained under Mitchum about ten years ago, we was young then.” Lapp said, “You get to know someone on night watches, more than you ever wanted to. We kept up to date with the trial and thought it was incredibly hard to say good bye to him. It was nice to see him again.”
“Why don’t you go up and talk to him.”
“Oh, we may tomorrow. But for now it is night, and we will have to continue early tomorrow. So we better get some sleep now.” Lapp yawned and fell back into the cold sand.
“May we sleep here? There is no fire near the cart.” Mith implored.
“Yes, indeed, not a problem.” Lapp replied.
The four each found a spot that was not too uncomfortable and tried to fall asleep. Bern and Lapp fell asleep almost instantly. Mith and Ludus, who were used too much warmer climates, found it very hard to get to sleep. They lay awake with their eyes closed listening to the crackle of flames and far off conversations. Soon the conversations died away and all that was left was the feeling of complete security mixed with a feeling of dread from the frigid air. The stars stared down at them from light years away. Each twinkling its entire self in the night sky. Ludus inched closer to the fire and was soon only inches from the rocks set around it to keep it contained. Ashes fell all around him, hitting his pants and his shirt, and occasionally his skin. But he did not mind, he was slowly entering the world of sleep. And that was all that mattered to him.
A whistle blew several times, each in a different location, each time getting louder. The last one woke Mith with a start. She opened her eyes to the early dawn, where only a small amount of light was penetrating the darkness. All the fires were out and she shivered in the morning air. Looking around she noted how everyone was already awake and ready. Lapp was sitting beside her.
“I did not want to wake you until I had to.” He said, smiling.
“Thank you.” Mith yawned.
Mith looked for Ludus, who was still fast asleep. One hand on the rocks surrounding the now deceased fire and the other pushed under the sand. She pushed him over to his stomach, but he still did not wake. She clapped in his face and still he did not awake. Finally she pulled his hair and he awoke. He slowly opened his eyes and saw Mith sitting over him. Ludus sat up and looked around, rubbing his eyes. He got to his feet but still had a frown on his face from lack of sleep.
The rocks were collected and put into heavy brown bags which were then put into a cart. Sand was then kicked up over where the fires had been. In a few moments the troop started marching once again. Bern and Lapp took up the rear while Mith and Ludus followed behind. Mith walked briskly, keeping in time with the march. Ludus straggled behind, not fully aware as to what was happening. Orders from Turff were channeled back to them by those in front. Mith did not hear entirely what they were saying but she did catch snippets. From what she did hear she deduced that they were not far from the palace, and that they all had to stick together or else. She did not hear after that part and had no idea what the ‘or else’ was referring to.
After about a half an hour of walking shouts were heard from the front. More shouts were heard, each getting louder and more excited. At first she could not tell what they were saying, and then it made sense.
“Trees, Trees!”
Mith jumped, trying to see past the people in front of her. She could just see the tops of trees in the distance. Joy overtook her. She knew this was the Royal Region. It was hard for her to keep a very wide grin off of her face, not like she tried. Mith turned back to see if Ludus was as excited. The grin vanished. Ludus was over one hundred yards back, trudging along. She ran back to him, extremely annoyed.
“What do you think you’re doing? Get up there with the rest of us.” Mith yelled as she approached Ludus.
“I’m tired.” Ludus whined. “I usually get to sleep dusk till dawn, not middle of the night to almost dawn. It’s been days since I had a good sleep, it’s catching up to me.”
“Well, we’d better catch up to them before we lose them. Turff said we need to stay together.”
“Oh, relax will ya. How are we going to get lost? There are tons of them and their all wearing b—”
He suddenly stopped talking. Nobody was in front of them, no matter how far they looked. All they could see was a dense coating of trees and then nothing.
“Look what you did, they already changed regions.” Mith almost yelled, now running to get to the trees.
Ludus ran after her, “But wait, how did they disappear so fast, what’s going on?”
“I don’t know, just shut up and keep running.”
They ran at full speed to the trees. Ludus was finally fully awake now. Once to the trees they stopped. A sign nearby read: Royal Region: The true birthplace of Parli. Together they crossed into the trees and immediately felt the difference. The cold morning air of the Bay Region turned to pleasantly warm air of the Royal Region. The trees swayed and moved as they pleased and Ludus almost swore that one had a face. Green leaves scattered the ground, each with perfect color. Mith could tell that the troop had been there, most of the leaves were crushed. They walked in the direction of the crushed leaves until they came to a clearing. The clearing led to a path that curved into the trees in both directions.
“Which way?” Mith wondered aloud.
Ludus started to the left and Mith followed. Soon the path led them into even thicker woods. A whispering could be heard here, as if the trees were talking to each other high above. Mith and Ludus knew that would have normally scared them, but something kept them calm. The only explanation that came to mind for Mith was that the Royal R
egion was the only region still fully magical. It was all new to them, being in a magical region. The air felt different, the smells were different, even the way they walked was different.
A fork appeared in the road up ahead, each way looked equally inviting. They stopped at the intersection and peered down as far as they could. There was no difference, yet somehow Mith felt that the left path was better.
“Let’s take the left.” Mith said to Ludus, already heading in that direction.
“Wait a minute; I think the right looks better. Look, there are crushed leaves on the right. They had to of gone that way.”
Mith shook her head, “I don’t know; I don’t like the look of that. I do not know what it is but I think the left path is better. I have a bad feeling about the right.”
“I have a good feeling about the right, so what are we going to do?”
Mith was about to agree and choose the right path just to please Ludus, but then something happened. Later in life she would say that it was the magic inside her interacting with the magic in the air. She looked down the path to the right and felt a strong sense of dread. It was moving closer. Pretty soon the feeling was so strong that she stumbled backward. Ludus looked on, unconcerned. Mith grabbed Ludus and told him that they needed to run down the left side as fast as possible, but Ludus had no feeling of dread and thought Mith was insane. As she was trying to get Ludus to move a man appeared coming down the path to the right. He wore black shirt with a multi colored jacket and purple pants that were too big for him. He looked as though he was one of the guards, but Mith was almost certain that none of the guards wore such an ugly jacket. He had shoulder length black hair and a look of loathing. Mith thought it was odd that he did not look absolutely splendid to be in a place so magical. Even Mith, with her feeling of dread, found it hard to be mad at Ludus for not moving.
“Hello there.” The man called as he got nearer. He put his hand out to be shaken but neither shook it.
“Who are you, are you a guard?” Ludus asked.
“Why yes I am, I got lost and cannot find my way back to the palace.”
“Same here.” Ludus announced, “We can’t find it either.”
“Then why don’t we look together.” The man spoke with a suave sophistication.
“Sounds good to me. How about you, Mith?”
Mith did not want to agree, she thought the man had ulterior motives of some sort. She agreed however, since this man must have some experience with the forest.
“Alright.” She muttered.
The three of them went down the path to the left, seeing as how the man had come from the right and not found anything. The path seemed to extend out indefinitely. The man let Mith and Ludus take the lead.
“So how long have you been looking for the palace?” Ludus inquired.
“An hour or so, I was on my post at the gate when I heard a noise and decided to investigate. Then I got lost. I think there is something about this forest that’s strange, like it’s a maze or something.”
“And nobody told you it was a maze when they told you to man the gate? Or maybe when you got the job as a guard? Or maybe when you came to the palace in the first place to become a guard?” Mith asked suspiciously.
The man smiled at her, “Perhaps they did, I am not one for listening to instructions. It is my Ijnus’s pride as it were.”
“You’re what?”
“My weakness, darling.”
Mith did not take her eyes off the stranger for one minute, she was extremely suspicious. The three came to another fork in the road. It looked exactly the same as the last one. The stranger decided to take the left path stating that they would have to get to the palace eventually. This path seemed almost identical to the last one, but who can really tell in a forest the size of that one. The strange whispering that was going on high above seemed to grow louder and more excited. Ludus looked all around trying to find out where the voices were coming from. For the second time he thought he saw a face on a tree. Not a face like his, but wood in the shape of eyes. And a mouth that stretched across the trunk, with lips of bark. He took to the center of the path, as far away as he could from the trees on both sides. Before long they came to another fork in the road, similar to the last two.
“This just goes on forever doesn’t it?” The man said, more to himself than to the kids.
“Maybe we missed it somewhere. If you retraced your steps you might find it.” Ludus supposed.
“No, no, I already tried that. I ended up running into you two. I have an idea, why don’t we split up. You two take the left path and I’ll take the right. That way we will have to find it. And once one of us finds it we will come back here and wait for the other. What do you say?”
Ludus agreed for the both of them. The stranger put out his hand for Ludus to shake it and he did. He noticed a small grey shape on the man’s wrist, a tattoo of sorts. After that they set off. Mith and Ludus down the left path and the stranger down the right path. They walked for only a minute before large golden gates sprang up before them. The gates rose fifty feet in the air at least, and were filled with articulate designs. Five total, five faces, one for each founding member of Parli. Through the gates a long road could be seen leading up to a magnificent palace. It looked as if it were made entirely of marble, with gold plating atop each of five spires. Slowly they made their way up to the gates. A man shouted from somewhere above.
“I see them, they are here.” He shouted from his post atop the left gate.
The gates slowly opened without a sound and the two kids stepped through. The gates then closed behind them as Mitchum ran up the road to greet them.
“What happened to you two, we thought Oldo got you.” Mitchum looked like a wreck from worry. He fell to his knees and hugged them both.
“We just got lost is all.” Ludus apologized, “It was my fault.”
“No need to worry, you’re here now.”
Mith and Ludus were a little surprised to see Mitchum so worried. It pleased them to see that he cared so much. They started to recount what happened when they remembered the stranger they met.
“We met someone on the way. He was a guard who was on post. He got lost and ran into us; he should be back at the last fork in the road.” Mith told Mitchum.
“A guard? All the guards are on duty.”
Mith looked to Ludus, they both were confused. “He said he was a guard, we traveled with him for a while, though we kept finding more forks in the road. He had on a multicolored jacket.”
“Mith, there is only one fork in the road. And besides, no guard has worn a jacket like that since I was here.” Mitchum said.
“No, there were several forks.” Ludus assured him.
“The forest is magical, only those who do not mean harm for the palace can find it. If not it will send you back to the same place over and over.”
Mith was now a little scared, “We don’t mean any harm to the palace.”
“I know, but that man must have. Do not go back for him.”
“What, do you think he is working for Oldo?” Ludus asked.
Mitchum nodded.