Chapter 26|Awakening
Shanis, wake up
The voice was so distant she could scarcely make it out. Dark. Everything was dark. She seemed to float, cold and sluggish in thick, black, air.
“Come now. Wake up.”
Was that Larris? She felt pressure on her shoulder. Someone was shaking her. Slowly, consciousness clawed its way back to the fore. She was lying face down on the cave floor. Dust clung to her cheek, and her front felt like ice. She rolled onto her back, and opened her eyes. Larris was leaning over her, so close she could feel his breath on her cheek. Worry radiated from his deep, brown eyes. Over his shoulder, she saw Hierm looking equally concerned.
“Where’s Allyn?” she mumbled.
“He’s down with Oskar and Khalyndryn,” Larris said. “Can you sit up?” He slipped a hand behind her, and gently helped her sit up. He was stronger than she had realized.
She looked around, and felt her body go cold. The cave was nothing like she remembered. The floor was dusty and uneven. The ceiling was low and jagged. There was no sign of Hyda. There was no fire, nor any remnants. Everything was different.
She rubbed her temples, squeezing her eyes closed. She opened them to find that things still had not returned to the way she had expected to find them. Had any of it even happened?
“I can stand,” she said, though she was not certain of the veracity of that statement. She tried to get her feet under her, wobbled a bit, and felt Larris’ arm around her waist. A moment later, Hierm was on her other side, clutching her right arm, trying to help support her. She waited for the ground to stop moving beneath her feet, then rose to her full height, banging her head on the low ceiling.
“Perhaps you should sit back down.” Larris placed his other hand on her shoulder and tried to push her back down.
“I’ll be fine. It’s just that the ceiling wasn’t this low when I came in earlier.”
“What?” The prince frowned and cocked his head.
“Never mind. How did you find me?”
“We almost didn’t. We looked up and down the pass for you. Finally, Khalyndryn spotted this cave. The light was such that it was almost invisible. Why did you climb up here, anyway?”
“I’ll explain later.” She turned to Hierm. “I’m surprised you were able to make the climb, what with your headache and all.”
“Don’t worry about me,” Hierm mumbled, blushing and looking away.
So he really had… Her anger at him returned in a flash, searing the cobwebs from her mind. She was about to say something cruel when a thought struck her. Why was she so angry with him? He had always carried a torch for her, while she repaid him with friendship. Close friendship, but nothing more. What did she care what he did with other girls? She had much more in common with Allyn… The remnants of her upset crumbled to dust. Allyn had not been concerned enough to come up here looking for her. Even Larris had shown more concern than Allyn had. She hated men!
“I feel well enough to climb back down,” she announced. “Let’s get moving.”
The setting sun cast long shadows in the rocky gray landscape. They settled in for the night under a deep overhang about ten paces above the path. Toward the back, they found a small pool of water, a seep spring, Oskar had called it, which had collected in an indentation in the rock. After tending the horses, they secured them in a nearby patch of coarse grass and scrub fir trees. They settled in for the night around a tiny cook fire and dined on fruit and dried meat, courtesy of Horgris and his clan.
Larris amused them with a story about a one-armed juggler and a queen’s chambermaid. Some parts were naughty enough to make even her blush, and she was grateful that no one could see her well in the dim firelight. She was surprised that a prince would know, much less tell such a bawdy story. It was good to laugh together and forget the peril they had been in just days past.
“Quiet.” Allyn whispered, raising his hands. “I hear something.” He crawled to the ledge and looked back and forth. “It sounds like men; lots of them. Somewhere to the west.”
“Oskar, douse the fire,” Larris instructed. He picked up his bow and quiver, which lay nearby, and crept to Allyn’s side. “Do you want me to go with you?”
Allyn shook his head. “I’ll take Shanis. She moves quietly, and she’s better with the bow.”
“So you keep reminding me,” Larris said. He sounded annoyed, but in the silver moonlight, Shanis saw a grin on the young man’s face. He handed the bow and quiver to Shanis. “Leave your sword here. It will just get in the way.”
She nodded, ducking her head down and slipping the strap of the quiver over her shoulder. She felt his hand on her arm, and she looked up.
“Be very careful,” Larris said. “We lost you once today, and I didn’t like it.”
The warmth in his brown eyes disarmed her. When had he ceased to be annoying? She nodded, uncertain how to reply, and followed Allyn into the semi-darkness.
“Who are they?” Shanis whispered. They had gone west, following the same path on which they had been traveling earlier in the day, until it made a sharp turn to the south. There, the right side of the trail opened up into a sheer ledge, dropping down to another pathway about fifty paces below. A band of men, at least a hundred in all, garbed in a motley assortment of furs, leathers, and various mismatched bits of chain mail and armor plates, sat in small clusters. Some ate. Most sipped from wineskins and talked in loud voices. Some distance away from the group, and directly beneath Shanis and Allyn, three men who appeared to be in charge were engaged in an animated conversation.
“Mercenaries of some sort,” Allyn whispered, his voice scarcely audible. “From where, I don’t know.” He turned an ear toward the men below them.
They lay facedown on the trail, their heads hanging slightly over the ledge. In the faint light, there was little chance of them being spotted, provided they did not draw attention to themselves. Shanis strained to hear the snatches of conversation that drifted up to them.
“We need to stop fer’ the night. We been walking since before first light.” A skinny man with long, greasy hair and a wicked scar running down his right cheek stood with his thumbs hooked into his belt. “These men ain’t the kind to be takin’ much orders, anyhow.”
“They will follow orders or they will die where they stand.” The man who spoke was a tall, lean fellow. Everything about him, from the way he spoke to the way carried himself, spoke of grace and danger. Just looking at him gave Shanis a chill. He lowered his voice, his words sounding almost like a cat purring. “We have a rendezvous three days hence. I will not be late. Our master does not abide failure.”
“Y’see, that’s the whole problem there,” the third man, a short, rat-faced fellow, spoke up. “None of us is the kind of men who hold to having a master. We’s in this for the gold, which we ain’t seen a spot of yet. Now if we…”
The tall man lashed out, cracking the speaker across the bridge of the nose with the back of his left fist. Rat Face dropped to his knees with a whimper, blood streaming between his fingers as he pressed his hands to his face. All heads turned toward the sound, turning away just as quickly. The scar-faced man took a step back, his mouth hanging slack-jawed.
“Give the order to march, and cut the throat of the first man who even so much as grumbles. You are all men without a country. Were it not for the grace of the master, you would all be long dead, frozen in the mountain passes to which you were exiled. Betray him, and you die. But I promise you, the lands of the east are fat and lazy. Serve him faithfully, and you will have all the gold you desire.”