Ch. 14
Dimitrius shook me awake, which was becoming a regular thing. I got up, drowsy but feeling better than when I woke up the day before on the floor of a shack. New clothes were at the foot of my bed. There was a t-shirt, a heavy gray sweater, and a pair of blue jeans.
“How did you get these?”
“The guy I originally sold them to gave them to me. I hope they fit; I wasn’t sure what size you wear.”
I put them on, gladly getting rid of my old dirty clothes. The pants fit; the sweater was a bit big. I threw the dirty clothes in a corner near the door.
“Keep the jacket, we’ll be going north today.”
I put the jacket back on, but that was the only thing I kept.
“But first we need to go see the leader of the Terror Bringers, and see if we can’t fulfill that promise you made.”
“I can’t talk to them, you should; you already know them.”
“I’m not from Earth, and let me say that I told them the same stories I told the Hurdeen.”
An hour later we were walking up the steps of that large black building with the bell tower that I saw from the skywalk the day before. The inside was even more formidable than the outside. A large staircase stood in front of us, black railings and red steps. The walls were all covered with the same blood red plush carpeting that covered the floor. It was eerily quiet; each footstep sent a muffled echo throughout the hall. A door stood on either side of the stairs, but we went up to the second floor. There was only one door here, guarded by a Terror Bringer. He stood aside when he saw Dimitrius, another reason to worry about his dealings in Impiral. Personally I would be ashamed that people known as Terror Bringers were alright with me coming and going to their leader.
We went down a long hallway and came to double doors. He knocked and a man stuck his face through a gap in the door.
“Whatchu want?”
“Here to see the leader.” Dimitrius said calmly.
“Ah, Dimi, well of course you can come in, but who’s your friend?”
“This is Bessie, she’s with me.”
The man opened the door, “Real nice to meet you, miss.”
I nodded and tried a smile, but I think it came out as more of a snarl.
I was now in the leader’s office, in it stood a large bare desk with a green couch facing it. A man sat at the desk, he had facial hair, not really a full beard, more like he hadn’t shaved in a few days. He wore the black uniform, with nothing to show that he was the leader. He stood up and told us to have a seat on the couch. He wasn’t terrible looking at all; in fact he looked rather nice.
“This is leader Caib, Bessie.” Dimitrius said as if showing a little kid a giraffe for the first time.
“Nice to meet you sir.” I said. I immediately wished I hadn’t been so nice, seeing as he was inadvertently the reason I was even there.
“What seems to be the business today, Dimitrius?” Caib asked tiredly.
“It’s actually Bessie’s business today, sir.”
“You’re not going to se—”
“Just Bessie, sir!” Dimitrius suddenly shouted.
There was an awkward moment where Caib frowned threateningly at Dimitrius, evidently not used to being interrupted. “Well then let’s hear what you have to say, Miss Bessie.” His voice spit poison.
Leave it to Dimitrius to anger an invading leader right before you ask that leader not to invade. “Sir, I need to ask you to reconsider invading Hurdeen.” I said quickly, avoiding eye contact at all cost.
He looked me over for a good long time before speaking. “You said your name was Bessie? An Earth name, are you a Dimitrian? I know those nuts like changing their names for when they go to Earth.”
“No.”
“So you . . . oh, I know who you are. It’s true; who would have thought it was even possible. I thought only one could fit in that machine of yours.”
“Yes.” Dimitrius said.
“I guess it broke.”
“That’s true.”
“And you can’t get home.”
I didn’t answer, I was finally brave enough to look him in the eyes, and I didn’t look away.
“This is interesting, isn’t it Dimitrius?”
“Yes sir.” He was reduced to staring at the floor; I took the bravery for both of us.
“So are you going to stop the invasion?”
“No.” He sat back, waiting for my response.
“What is the reasoning behind it?”
“I want to rule Hurdeen, is there something wrong with that?”
“Yes, invading anybody is wrong.”
“I don’t see it that way. Wouldn’t it be nice for everyone to be under the same authority? Trade routes without hindrance, a unified government, and even – don’t faint – one leader not that mess of a council that Hurdeen has.”
“All that sounds good in theory, but your theory varies greatly from mine. A military state is no place for freewill.”
He leaned in as close as he could over the desk, “Bessie, you’ve now seen Impiral, and what do you see? There are no fights, no mess, and no awful Dimitrians – no offence Dimitrius.”
“None taken, I can’t stand them myself.”
“This isn’t right, and you know it.” I held my ground.
“Bessie you need to see it from my point of view, if you –”
“See this from Hurdeen’s point of you, but you can’t because all you do is sit here and give orders. You have no idea what those words mean when followed through!” I yelled.
Instead of glowering at me like he did Dimitrius when interrupted, he simply stared with a mysterious smile on his face. “You think so? Why don’t we make this interesting?”
“What do you mean?”
“I promise not to invade Hurdeen, if you do not leave Voratiot.”
That didn’t sound good; in order to get home I needed to get back to Hurdeen. I was at a loss for words, and looked to Dimitrius for support. He was still too preoccupied with his shoes to help me.
“No deal, if you do not stop the invasion then I will destroy every Terror Bringer in Voratiot.” This sounded really stupid, even with the confidence backing my words; I just hoped Caib really did believe all those stories.
He did not look worried, “What is your power exactly?”
“I can . . . um . . . I can’t tell you.”
“That’s what I thought.” Caib whispered, “It’s time for you to get out of my office. And remember Bessie, if you leave – no more Hurdeen. Have a good day.”
Dimitrius walked straight out of the office, I was about to follow, but turned back to Caib feeling extra dangerous. “If you choose not to listen to anything like you’ve clearly done your whole life, then remember one thing: This world was meant for the brave and the good, your time will only last so long. If you invade Hurdeen, they will fight back.”
“The invasion rests on you now.”
“You could have helped me back there.” I said to Dimitrius as we walked back to the hotel a few minutes later.
“What was I supposed to say?”
“Anything, it would have been better than just sitting there letting me get all his force.”
“Look what you’ve done, you did something you didn’t think you could do – talk to the leader of the Terror Bringers.”
I ignored him, I had a feeling that everything just got a lot worse. And now to add to it I couldn’t leave Voratiot. At least I felt braver than I ever did before, that had to be good. If I could just sneak out of the city then I could warn everyone in Hurdeen to escape before they came, but what good would that do? When they went back home they would be in Voratiot. Unless they didn’t go back, that would take some convincing but it was possible. I let that thought fade away until I thought up an alternative.
“So what are we supposed to do now?” I asked after we were safely within the hotel room.
“We go north, lucky for us that ar
ea is still in Voratiot. We need to go and get that fuel and that missing part, both of which are available there.”
Without another word we snacked on the bread, saving most of it for the trip, and headed out with all of our things, which was not much. Dimitrius checked out of the room at the front desk and we were off to the North.
We took the skywalk, which I had to pretend was new to me. It was a long stretch just to get to the last exit, all the way at the other end of the city, near the large bay. There we went into a building that looked like a small train station, and then I heard the whistle and realized that in fact it was a train station.
“They have trains here?” I asked after Dimitrius handed me a ticket he bought from a booth at the entrance. It was a little piece of paper that had those unrecognizable symbols on them.
“Oh, yes, interesting huh.” He seemed to be hiding something, but I didn’t think much of it at that moment.
The train was small, only three cars, but it looked very much like the ones on Earth. We took a seat in the very back. There were about fifteen rows of hard metal benches in each car. The overall look was something akin to pictures of nineteenth century train cars that I had seen, except less comfortable. Of course I don’t know how comfortable those trains were from the pictures. The train started and soon we were out of Impiral, coasting through barren lands with the occasional dead tree. I was instantly glad I got to walk through boring fields and not this.
We were sitting alone with only one other person in the car, all the way in the front. We felt it easy to talk without being overheard. There was no talking at first; we spent the first part of the ride looking out the window keeping to ourselves. The train slowed to its first stop twenty minutes in. It was a small station, just a covered walkway in the middle of nowhere. I looked closer and saw what could have been a village in the distance. The buildings didn’t look any different than they did in Sorm, but nicer. Nobody got on in our car, and soon we were back at full speed, about thirty miles per hour if I had to guess.
Two stops later the man in the front got off, again in the middle of nowhere. There was no heat on the train, and it began getting really cold. After a while I noticed snow falling, and then we were in a full on snow storm. It was nice to look at, but I had the sinking feeling that we would have to travel by foot in the snow when we got off. Dimitrius told me that ours would be the next stop after taking off from yet another tiny station.
“Is it going to be an actual town, or the middle of nowhere?”
“At first the middle of nowhere, but we will get to a town after a short walk.”
“How short?”
“A mile or two.”
That day was turning out to be the worst one yet. When we got off the train we were met with an ice cold wind that whipped right through my sweater. I zipped up my jacket and it helped a little but I was still freezing. Unfortunately I had left my gloves at the hotel; they were fingerless, but better than nothing. We started from the station, another covered walkway, into the snow. It was only a few inches, but with so much falling, it was bound to get deeper. There was nothing in sight and I had to continually promise myself that two miles was a lot shorter a distance then I thought. It wasn’t. It took forever to get anywhere. I could see – when I was brave enough to lift my head – a mountain in the distance, its top disappearing in the low clouds. We were going straight to it.
As soon as we went two miles – or twenty in my recollection – we stumbled upon a small village almost invisible in the current conditions. Dimitrius led the way straight to a small wood house, he knocked. A woman answered the door. They talked for a minute, I was too busy freezing to care what was said, and then she let us in. It was so nice to be inside, a fire (in a wood house!) burned in the corner. I sat in front of it warming myself as all the snow melted off onto the floor. The woman brought me a cup of tea with loose leaves and began talking with Dimitrius somewhere behind me.
“I ran out a few days ago, haven’t had a chance to get more with all the snow we’ve been getting.” She said.
“Do you know if anybody here has any?”
“Not to my knowledge, if you want any you are going to have to go up the mountain.”
“What?!” I said once my brain thawed enough to understand what was said.
“Yes, go up the mountain, it’s not that bad, there’s a path.”
“But the snow, you said yourself that you couldn’t make it.” Dimitrius said.
“I said I didn’t have a chance to go, I could if I really wanted to, but I don’t, not in this weather.”
“Alright, how about that part I need.”
“Mackie might have one; he’s the one we call if anything’s broken. He can fix anything and has parts for all kinds of things.”
“Where can we find him?”
“He’s in the house next to the mountain path.”
“Thank you very much, we’ll be going now, come on Bessie.”
I hated having to go back outside, especially since I was just beginning to get warm. The village was so small that it took us only seconds to locate the house. The mountain loomed in front of us, and I wanted very much to not have to climb it in the snow.
“Were you talking about the fuel being up the mountain?” I asked.
“Yes, the man who bottles it and sells it lives up there.”
He knocked on the door. A man in his mid twenties opened the door; he wore long pajamas that looked straight out of one of those pictures of the old trains. He let us in, and again I went straight to the fire. The room was filled with all sorts of tools and gadgets on the walls, most of which I had never seen before, and did not believe had any purpose to them at all.
“We are looking for a fuel stopper, one that can handle marsh oil.”
The man thought for a second, scratching his small goatee, “I think I have one of those. They actually come in high demand in the summer, since we are the only suppliers of marsh oil.” He rummaged through a crate, pulling out a white rectangular object with a chord poking out the side.
I took one look at the thing and jumped up, memories filling my mind of the last time I saw one. Dimitrius gave the guy the rest of his loaf of bread for it and put it in an inside pocked of his cloak. We thanked him and left. I could barely suppress my enthusiasm, managing to keep it in until the door was closed.
“I’ve seen one of those!” I cried at the start of the mountain path. My excitement about the fuel stopper made me temporarily forget how cold it was.
“Where did you see one of these?”
“My dad found one a few weeks before I was taken. That was the first time I heard the Technology.”
“And you say that was weeks before being taken?”
“Yes, is that strange, does the fuel not last that long without a stopper?”
“This thing is basically a gas cap. When it fell off the engine knew something was wrong and the Technology went into safety mode, meaning that only a few more trips can be made on it before the system shuts down completely until a new one can be found. That was all just another way that I could make sure that I was the only one who could use it. People who didn’t know about the safety mode would conclude that they broke it or it died because something vital was missing. In the letter MIggins wrote me he said that he thought the missing piece was an important part of the engine. The strange thing is I don’t get why Miggins waited for several weeks before going back to Earth to get someone, assuming that the first time you heard it, the time the fuel stopper came off, was just a practice run.”
“Who knows, maybe he tried to fix it himself.”
The mountain path was actually very gradual, but that means it took a long time to get to the top. The good feelings I got from seeing the stopper were not as strong as when I saw the picture my dad showed me. This time I got excited mainly because I had seen one before, not solely from seeing it like last time.
&nbs
p; “Dimitrius, something strange happened when my dad showed me the fuel stopper the first time. It was only a picture yet I got really excited, and when he put it away it felt like something was taken away from me. It was really weird.”
He laughed, “It is strange how that works. I first noticed that effect when I brought food over from Hurdeen into your world. Some guy saw me eating it and came up to me trying to buy it from me. It was scary to be honest how the guy reacted. I assume, and can only assume, that it has something to do with your unconscious brain. When that guy saw the food, or when you saw the fuel stopper, your minds knew it was so different, so out of your world that they told you it was something worth having, worth investigating.”
“Then why don’t I have that all the time here, and why didn’t that guy do the same to you.”
“He could have felt that way about me. As for you, I think that since you are here, and everything is out of your world, that it overwhelmed your mind. Making it feel like nothing was really all that different because everything was. Again you can’t take too much stock in my hypothesis, it could be completely wrong.”
“It sounds like a good explanation to me.”
The path grew steep, and the conversation ended there. There were a few minutes where we were practically climbing up a vertical ledge. My hands were practically screaming to be covered, what with the rough rocks and freezing temperatures, but I had nothing for them. It took longer than I want to recall, but we did get to the top before freezing to death, though it took at least an hour. We huddled together for the last ten minutes, but I couldn’t tell a difference.
It turns out that the mountain is actually an extinct volcano. There was a large crater at the top, filled with ice. Ten or so natural stone pillars stuck up above the ice, and I was immediately captivated by what was on top of each. The gray light coming down was enough to perfectly illuminate ten tall people that were dancing on the pillars. They wore what looked flowing clothes made of ice, and they twirled and twisted in place, their hands in the air moving as if through water. Their faces were perfect, as if created by a computer for a movie. They all had their eyes closed. They were focusing their attention elsewhere.
“Remember that dancer in Impiral? She took her moves from the Ice Dancers. I’ve never seen so many at one time before.” Dimitrius said.
“Are they people?” I had to ask, there was so much doubt in me.
“Who knows, they are too tall to be any humans I’ve ever seen, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t.”
They were tall, all about the same height, looking to be at least nine feet tall. I wanted to stay there and watch them, feeling the immersion in their dance that the dancer in Impiral failed to achieve. Dimitrius, who appeared to be used to them, continued on to a small house on the edge of the crater. I followed; my need for warmth outweighed my want to watch the dancers.
We were let in by an old man. The house was actually a lab, with tanks half filled with strange liquids taking up several tables. A fire roared at the other end of the room in a fireplace. I went to it and warmed myself while Dimitrius did the talking.
“We need Marsh oil.” Dimitrius said.
“Ah, yes, marsh oil.” The man went around looking for some.
I looked out a small window and watched the ice dancers. Despite having their eyes closed they were in complete unison with each other. I was captivated once again, but how could I not be? There was something so pure, so right with what they were doing. I got caught up looking at their arms, their legs, moving to an unknown beat, maybe a nonexistent beat.
“You ready, Bessie?”
“What?”
I came back to reality with a jolt. Dimitrius was standing behind me holding a large jar of green liquid I took to be marsh oil. “You’ve been staring out that window for ten minutes, let’s go.”
We left and headed back around the crater. I couldn’t account for the last ten minutes at all. Had I really been watching them for that long? I stole a glance at the closest one; it was so much more calming outside with it. I just wanted . . . one . . . more . . . look . . .
“Bessie, let’s go its freezing.”
“What?”
I came back with more of a strain. I felt as though I had been jarred awake. “How are they doing it? Why are they so mesmerizing?”
“Well they have to eat don’t they?”
“What?!”
“Yeah, they get people hooked and then swoop in for the kill.”
“They’re cannibals?”
“If they’re humans, yes.”
“If not?”
“Then they’re not cannibals.”
So much of the admiration I had for them vanished in a flash. I didn’t take another look at those dancers, now feeling that I could be food with just a glance. The path down wasn’t as bad on the way up. It took about half the time. We spent a few minutes warming up at the house that we stopped at, and then it was back outside.
Next thing I know we are on the platform waiting for the train back to Impiral. It was lightly snowing; the clouds were dense, dark. It was hard to believe it was only evening. The glow of gas lamps were the only source of illumination. It was so cold I didn’t know how I would last another minute, let alone however long the train would take to get there. A man came up and stood on the same side of the platform. That was a good sign. Sure enough the train came five minutes later. We took our seats in the middle car of the train this time. It wasn’t exactly warm onboard, but there was no wind or snow, so that was a start. There were a few other people in that car, so we talked in hushed tones in the back.
“Can we talk about religion now?” I asked once we were on our way.
“What do you want to know?”
“Is it similar to those on Earth? I know a little bit, but not much.”
“It is similar, but even those religions differ greatly from one another.”
“True.”
“But here is a brief overview. There were two leading families in this area.”
“I know about them fighting over power. I wondered if there were traditions, heroes, saints, and things like that.”
“Not really, this is a simple religion, for simple people. For the most part there are no religious leaders except for the occasional church, but those priests aren’t used very much. Churches are used mainly for individual worship. No saints, there is to be nothing in between the people and whichever god they look to.”
“What do you believe?”
“I’ve always been critical of the religion here. But when I went to Earth, I really liked the ones I saw.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know I just did. Maybe they were just new and exciting to me.”
“I’ve been wondering, are there any known places besides Voratiot and Hurdeen?”
“No, nobody explores. And there are hindrances. There’s the bay to the east, mountains to the north, desert to the west, and the ocean to the south. But I always wanted to . . .”
He suddenly stopped, looking behind us. I looked back and saw the man who was on the platform with us staring our way. He did not let up when we looked back. Dimitrius grabbed my arm and brought me close, whispering in my ear.
“He’s a Terror Bringer.”
“How can you tell?”
“You see that symbols on his hat, those are the initials for Terror Bringer.”
He wore a winter hat, not like the ones that were worn in the city, so I hadn’t noticed it before. “Why is he here?”
“I don’t know, but I want you to go into the first car. Just walk straight to the front and don’t look back.”
I did as I was told. Halfway through the car I heard someone get up behind me. I tried to keep my head facing forward, but it was very hard. Dimitrius was greeting the man, and then – bang! I looked back. Dimitrius was on the ground and the man was running straight at me. I had no time to thin
k; I ran straight for the door and got through it just in time, slamming it in his face behind me. I was outside in between the two cars. The door to the first car was locked – no time, I had to react. I jumped onto the ladder next to the door and went up to the roof.
I didn’t hear the man behind me, not that I could have come to think of it the train was so loud. I felt just a little safer. The wind was brutal, rushing straight through me as I was on my knees, too afraid to stand. The train rattled beneath me, every little curve and I was certain I would fall right off. I made my way to the other end of the car. The view was great if in a better circumstance. I couldn’t see much with snow flying in my face, but I could tell we were heading through a mountain pass, everything white from snow, dark from nearing night. I began to worry that I would have to stay up there when I saw the man climb onto the top where I had done the same.
I tried to stand. The train hit a turn and I collapsed onto my stomach, grabbing anything I could to keep from flying off. My hands were frozen, but I couldn’t worry about that at the moment. Once on a straight path I stood, inching backward, forgetting completely that I was already on the edge. I looked back, and without enough time to realize how stupid it was, I jumped to the last car. I slipped and barely held on.
I looked up; the man was walking straight to me, as if it was that easy to walk along the top of a train. I crawled back, my only hope was to get to the very back and get in that car. I was halfway there, so close, but I had to look back. He was right there. I flipped to the front and crawled backward with him bearing down. He pulled out a dagger and held it up, about to come down with my finishing blow.
“What do you want?!” I screeched, hysterical.
He didn’t say a thing. I came to the edge of the car, not the back edge but the side; I hadn’t been looking where I was going. I looked down at the speeding ground, trying quickly to figure out what my best chance of survival was, the dagger, or the ground. I looked up again; the dagger was coming down, straight at me.
“Aaaaagh!”
Dimitrius came out of nowhere to tackle the assailant. The dagger fell and was wiped from the train, into the growing darkness. The two of them wrestled, I could only see a mess of cloth and the occasional hand, punching and clawing. And then, to my scream into the screech of brakes, one of the bodies disappeared over the edge. My immediate reaction was to jump onto the one left.
“What are you doing? It’s me!”
“Oh, sorry.”
I helped Dimitrius up to his knees. We were both too tired to talk, we just sat. The train came to a stop at the next station and we went back down to our seats. Nobody was left in the car. I didn’t care where they were, they didn’t help me. It took time for me to stop shaking, long after I was warmed up. How could that have happened? Why did it happen? Who was that guy? When I felt up to it, after getting over a bout of nausea, I asked my savior those questions.
“I have an idea, but I hope it’s not so.” He said, already far more calm than I was.
“What do you think?”
“I’ll tell you later.”
“Tell me now.”
“Bessie, I want you to know that that was a fluke, nobody is after you.”
I hadn’t thought anybody was after me, but I certainly did after he said that. I know he didn’t want me to worry, but I really wanted to know what he thought. I could tell he had an idea of what was going on.
He saw me shaking and put his arm around me. I buried my face in his cloak, wanting to just get over that scared feeling. The cloak smelled good. I felt protected there next to him, and found myself falling asleep.
The train came to its final stop and I was shaken awake, gently this time. We got off and went into the night. He kept his arm around me as we meandered through the city, across the skywalk, and down the familiar street back to the hotel. It was all a blur of city lights and murmuring people.
Dimitrius paid for another night at the same place. I got into bed as soon as we were in the room, but I couldn’t get to sleep. I heard Dimitrius walking around, getting ready for bed himself. It wasn’t until sometime later that I finally dozed off. I was full of all the exhaustion of a day of freezing cold, people eaters, and almost being killed.