Chapter 18
Mia's Stand moved down the canyon, out through the widening mouth of the rocky pass onto the Plains of Rhammahadra without any event other than the darkhound attack. They never saw another coldslider, but they did see a mile long grove of aspens that had grown with their trunks tied into a single knot, about two feet off the ground, each and every one of them.
"The Old Elf magic at times works slowly here as it happened to this poplar. This isn't a grove of trees. It's single plant effected by the magic." He pointed out the trees to the party. "It takes time to use Saa or any form of force, and that time can be seconds or years."
"Then somebody did this?" Mia asked. "Kind of stupid, isn't it? What a waste of magic!"
"Well, no. Nobody did this. The magic works on its own. It moves, like an eddying pool, but mostly it doesn't do anything. But sometimes it surfaces, and when it does, it forms coldsliders or other things, or causes little problems like this." He smiled and gestured to the knotted gigantic organism. "Usually, it's harmless."
"Usually?" Mia said.
As they continued through the hills, Mia listened to Belemeriath's wild stories to pass the time. Some she may have even believed. Suddenly Finnegaff, who had remained silent for some time, broke in. "They're free. They've been discovered." He nodded small nods and peered at Carameth through squinted eyes.
Carameth returned the look. "That's right, good wizard. They're free, and I'll bet that we'll be discovered pretty soon, too."
Mia hated it when they talked about subjects that she just knew had something to do with her, yet had no idea what they were talking about. Wizards have a way of doing that, she noted. She wondered if someday she would talk like them, in mysteries driven by causes known but to her, if those around her would be in the dark as she was now, and if she would relish the effect it had on others the way that Finnegaff obviously did. "Who's they?” she asked.
"Marigaff,” Finnegaff said.
"And Aaramerielle," Carameth finished. "They've been in some considerable pain; I could feel the Nahaya. I more Aaramerielle than Marigaff, Finnegaff more Marigaff than Aaramerielle."
"It's how Nahaya works. From now on we gotta be on our guard. Belemeriath can scout, and we better post night watches."
"I'll scout! I'm a good scout!" Belemeriath buzzed around the horses, then took off across the plain to scout.
"Belemeriath, my friend!" Finnegaff spoke in normal tone. Belemeriath, now just a point of light (the form he would assume for rapid travel), approached a small swell in the land some fifty yards out. Despite the distance, he heard Finnegaff, turned and sped back the direction he had come.
"First let's decide where you're gonna scout," Finnegaff reminded his tiny yet mighty friend.
"Oh!" smiled Belemeriath. "I guess that would help."
"What happened to Aaramerielle and Marigaff?" Mia said.
"They were put to some considerable pain," Finnegaff said.
"But they used Saa. They wouldn't have done so had they not been foiled,” Carameth said.
“Yeah,” Mia said. “I felt Marigaff’s and Aaramerielle’s Saa, too, but...”
"Belemeriath," Finnegaff said. “I think south would be best."
“But, what was...” Mia began.
"Right! South!" Belemeriath put his tiny hand to his chest in salute and sped off.
"Would somebody please tell me what is going on here?" Mia was visibly upset, which caused Finnegaff little concern. Carameth, however, was greatly attentive, his look one of an eagerness to please. Mia was certainly flattered.
"Oh! I'm sorry!" he apologized. Finnegaff rolled his eyes. Carameth appeared as a little boy confessing a horrible injustice to his mother. Mia’s heart softened to the handsome elf’s innocence, taking her anxiety with it. "We Morrans can feel things that happen to those we're close to through Saa. The closer we are to them, the stronger the feeling. It's called Nahaya."
"Yeah, I know that," she replied. "How do you know Marigaff and Aaramerielle were hurt? How do you know it's them, and not someone else close to you?"
"It can be felt," Finnegaff said. "One can feel differences with Saa that are particular to a single person. That is, I know it's Marigaff because of the way it felt. It was Marigaff's Nahaya."
"Like, you get a picture, kind of like when you use Saa?"
"Well, yes and no." Carameth said. No! Not Carameth too! He's not a wizard! "It's more like a picture of feelings than of things." At least he didn’t follow his 'yes and no' with some Finnegaff-like confusing half explanation.
"Each has their own love for another," Romessee said. "Each love can be told by its type, as one loves a child different than a husband."
"Then how come I didn't feel anything?" Mia asked them. "I know Saa!"
"It's that part of Saa that's absent from you that allows you to Carry and Read the Book of Life," Finnegaff explained. "After the Reading, you'll have Nahaya like we do."
Mia nodded as if she understood. And understand she did, at least somewhat. All were focused on her. "Okay. Okay. But how do you know they're free? And what do you mean by free?"
Carameth was eager to answer. "We knew they were in pain, physical pain, with Nahaya. And it was steady for two days, I think." Finnegaff nodded in agreement. "Then they used Saa. Both of them. Several times. Then the pain ceased, or at least lessened."
Finnegaff leaned forward on his horse and plucked a mane hair and flamed it to light his pipe. Strange, Mia thought, that she never saw him load anything into the pipe, yet it was always full.
"But how do you know they didn't...they didn't..." Mia said.
"Didn't what, dear?" Finnegaff asked.
"Die?" She had been worried about just that for her two friends from the very start.
"Die?" Finnegaff laughed a low chuckle. "No. They're not dead. Marigaff wouldn't let Aaramerielle die, and she's far too stubborn herself! Believe me, I know!"
"When there is death, the Nahaya is at first very strong and hurtful, then one of great peace." Carameth had pulled his horse next to Mia's and reached out to take her hand in his, only the second time he had touched her. Mia gripped his hand firmly yet gently. "It is unfortunate that the only way one can learn of such Nahaya is to experience it a few times."
"But you're sure they're not dead," Mia asked Carameth. It was not that she doubted Finnegaff. She was stalling because she didn’t want Carameth to let go of her hand. He smiled, gave her hand a little squeeze and released. Mia looked into the beautiful elf's deep blue teardrop eyes. She wondered, not for the first time, how old he was, and that she might not want to know.
"Yes, I'm very certain. But they used Saa,” he firmed his earlier statement. “They wouldn't have done so had they not been discovered. That's why we need to be careful." Carameth turned his horse and followed Finnegaff.
Romessee pulled up next to her. Reading her emotions, the ever-present Yamasaa led her words. Yamasaa was, after all, in what she was gifted. "It's a dangerous land, sometimes. And yes, sometimes I think it's too harsh, too."
Mia shook her head in awe at the accuracy of Romessee's ability to read her, for she knew the Mumbwe's Yamasaa to be the means for her truthful yet not so comforting statement. "Yeah. That was what I was thinking."
"What's it like on your home world?" Romessee asked.
"Oh, it's not anything like this." Thinking of planet Earth, she found she missed it very little. "There's cars and lots of people, huge buildings, airplanes and stores and malls, factories, stuff like that. The air smells nicer here." She'd noticed that long ago. "And there's police and armies, and they protect people so other people don't hurt them."
"There are many armies here," Romessee said.
"Not like these armies. They have bombs that can blow up entire cities!"
Romessee didn't understand everything Mia had told her; the vocabulary on her part was lacking, as some of the comparatives Mia spoke of did not, more so could not exist on Morrah. "So these pol...pal..."
r /> "Police."
"Yes, police. They don't allow harm to come to others?"
Mia thought about gang wars, murders, drive by shootings; of people starving in the streets of the very city from where she came, the many varying subjects of just about any television news cast. Her parents had administered early childhood warnings to not accept a ride from a stranger, and later childhood warnings to stay away from dark, unpopulated areas of the city at night. She thought of drug dealers pushing dope off on elementary aged kids, and of the World Trade Center attack. She thought of what her Mumbwe friend asked: if the police of her world do not allow harm to come to others. "They try, Rom. I think they really try." Suddenly Morrah didn't seem to be such a violent place.
They camped out on the plains that evening. Mia and Romessee made a game of how fast they could set up the tent. Belemeriath reported no troubles ahead, yet Finnegaff posted watch that night anyway. Thus fared Mia's Stand for the next few days. Mia visited with Romessee, Carameth with Mia. The three were getting close. Mia found the kind Romessee pleasantly chatty (and fashion queen of Shadowlight Stand, fashion being one of Mia's favorite subjects). Carameth was...hot, was the first word to come to mind. He was beautiful, strong, smart, a perfect gentleman. Most in his favor was that he paid a great deal of attention to Mia. Oh! And don't forget that he was a prince, too! He wasn't even jealous of Belemeriath. Belemeriath, on the other hand, did a fair job of concealing that he was just a little jealous of Carameth. But only fair.
Belemeriath was a delight. Mia found that the more time she spent with the little fairy, the more she liked him. Though most certainly he could, at times, be annoying, he was indeed an amazing creature with very surprising talents. She loved the rough way he and Finnegaff played. It was as if Finnegaff barely tolerated the fairy. She could tell the wizard did in fact love him dearly.
There were a few times when Mia spoke without thinking about what she was saying and barely stopped herself from calling Finnegaff grandpa. She had grown fond of him. In fact, Mia was fond of her whole little Stand. She liked the sound of that. Mia's Stand. As of late, her natural home was but a distant, infrequent thought. Morrah was exciting to her! It held fascinating creatures, some pleasing, some repulsive. It had magic, real magic. She was important here, received a lot of attention, and though she tried to not be too transparent, she did love that part. Morrah had adventure, with surprises in its vast wilderness. And Morrah had Carameth. She looked across the small campfire Belemeriath had built at the handsome prince seated on a log, who was whittling a delicate little figurine out of wood, a pastime for which he exhibited great skill. He looked up at her, smiled one of those 'killer smiles' that burned an exciting discomfort from within.
Small fallen logs were the biggest geographical obstacles Mia's Stand had to overcome. The path they navigated followed the snaking two hundred yard-wide North Steel River, said path sometimes scarcely detectable or disappearing completely, having been intentionally designed to stay near the water wherever it was possible, which is where, it is well known, trees grow in profusion. The cover was thickest there, which is why those that had something to hide commonly took this path, those less than honest citizens that felt compelled to a hidden means of travel as they went from escapade to escapade. An alternate path, a road which in some places conjoined to become one with the trail Mia's party had chosen, ran the same general direction, offering less concealment, a road said to be of more comfort for travel yet did not host opportunity for stealth. It was for this reason of secrecy in their passage that Finnegaff selected the path meant for thieves.
Belemeriath took the undergrowth to treetops as an open invitation to show off, taking advantage of the irregularly growing flora by making obstacle courses of them. "Okay!" he said. "You see that big oak tree?" His little hand pointed as he hovered a foot to Romessee's left."Over the lowest branch, circle it three times." Both girls paid close attention. "Through the willows over there, to that big cedar." He flew to Mia and stabbed a finger in the air. "You see it? You see it?"
"Yes, I see it!" Mia was trying not to laugh.
"Then, straight up that tree to its tippy-top and over to the next tree and straight down it. And I'll even weave through the branches. Then over to Finnegaff's hat, and I'll circle it five times real close."
"I don't think so, imp," Finnegaff said.
Belemeriath continued as if his wizard friend had said nothing. "Then, Mia will hold out her hand and I'll land in it, since it was Rom's turn last time. I can do it in five seconds. Wanna bet? Wanna bet?"
Finnegaff waved a finger at the fairy. "Don't do it, fairy! I'm warning you!"
"I'm down!" Romessee had picked up the foreign phrase from Mia, the tone of her voice encouraging the game to gain momentum. She, too, ignored Finnegaff.
"Now, just wait..."
"I'm down!" Mia said.
"Belemeriath!" Finnegaff yelled, but it was too late. Twinkling into a pinpoint of light, off like a shot was Belemeriath, across the meadow to the old oak he had promised to climb.
"ONE!" the girls shouted together. Belemeriath sped around the lower branch three times so fast that it was difficult to count them. He sped to the willows, weaving among their thin, close-packed red branches at blurring speeds.
"TWO!" The girls shouted. The fairy emerged at the other side of the ten-foot wide thicket of willow. He screamed toward the cedar, turned straight up the tree, so sharp was the angle that he missed where trunk meets dirt by less than an inch. He wove about the many branches, coming so close to them that he would in fact strike one on occasion. The company could tell when he hit one, for they would hear noisy 'twacks' that left behind a small shower of bark chips spraying from a trembling branch. Not that it slowed him down at all. Not that they could see, anyway.
"THREE!" This time Carameth joined in. Belemeriath cleared the highest point of the fifty-foot cedar. He rocketed to the next tree and plunged downward. Finnegaff grabbed his hat on his head with both hands. Belemeriath sped, really sped to the bottom of the tree. He bee-lined toward Finnegaff.
"NO!" Finnegaff shouted.
"FOUR!" Shouted everybody else. Belemeriath reached Finnegaff's hat. Finnegaff, acting in his own defense, removed his hat and swatted at the speeding point of light. Finnegaff waving the hat about wildly did not stop Belemeriath from circling the cone of the hat five times from top to bottom, maintaining a distance of a mere inch. He sped to Mia.
"FIVE!" They all yelled and cheered. Carameth laughed so hard he fell from his horse (kind of on purpose). Finnegaff leaned back on his horse and laughed his nose red, his hat held in front of him as the girls cheered hooray's for their little show-off. Belemeriath stood proudly in Mia's outstretched palm, arms crossed before him, his chest puffed out in pride with his eyes closed. Suddenly his arms shot downward as he bent at the knees.
"Quiet!" he said. He twinkled into a pinpoint of light and sped off in the direction they were heading.
Finnegaff heeded his friend's warning by holding a hand into the air. All silenced.
"What's going on?" asked Mia.
"He heard something. Let's move our horses into that thicket over there." He pointed to a grove of a variety of trees with low, thick shrubs some twenty yards down wind to their left. They dismounted and led their horses off the trail far enough into the trees that there was no chance of being seen from the trail. The warm afternoon wind blew hard from the right, helping to mask sound. They stood close together in a place where they could see through the dense foliage. Mia went to say something, but Finnegaff held up a finger. They stood there silently for several minutes. Soon they could hear voices. A dozen very unfriendly looking men dressed in heavy leather or chain mail or both came in to view, staggering down the path carrying spears, swords strapped to their waists, all on foot. They spoke loudly, laughed and slapped each other on the back as they passed three one gallon clay jugs between themselves. Each drank greedily from any jug he could grab at any time. Mia stood very sti
ll. She thought she might give away their hiding place with the sound of her own pounding heart. In a minute, the band of men had crossed the clearing adjacent to their hiding place. They waited for a few minutes, by Finnegaff's suggestion, when from across the meadow flew Belemeriath.
"They're gone! They're gone!" Belemeriath said.
“They may yet pick up our trail," Finnegaff warned.
"No! No!" the fairy shook his head. "Did you see those guys? They were really drunk!" He held a tiny hand over his mouth and laughed.
"I think we might have stayed on the path and not been seen," Carameth said.
"Yes. Well, let's not take unnecessary chances. We gotta pick it up," Finnegaff said. "Slagg soldiers are used to being bombed. They're not easily fooled despite their indulgence."
"Slagg soldiers?" Mia asked.
Finnegaff nodded. "Mmm. A small detachment from the enemy's garrison."
"How do you know that?"
"Their uniforms," Carameth said. They walked their horses from the grove of trees. "They're lower ranking soldiers. Otherwise they wouldn't be so drunk."
“We gotta get outa here, friends,” Finnegaff said. “I'm certain there's more about. If they...” Finnegaff’s words were cut short by the whoosh of an arrow that missed him by only inches.
“Over there! Over there!” Belemeriath shouted. Across the meadow, the Slagg soldiers ran toward them at full speed. Another arrow whizzed by.
“RIDE!” Finnegaff cried. They brought the horses to a full run. Several more arrows were fired at them, but missed. Soon they were out of bow range.
They could hear the Slaggs yelling. Then they heard a long, drawn out howl: the battle cry of a darkhound. Mia looked behind to see a group of darkhounds running full speed across the meadow.
“Miagaff! Romessee!” Finnegaff yelled. “Take the lead!”
Mia’s heart raced. She spurred her horse past Finnegaff and ran the old mare as hard as she could. She chanced a glance at the pursuing man dogs. They were quickly gaining.