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Teth crept silently through the trees away from Dasen. She knew this stretch of forest and the water that bordered it better than the streets of the village where she had been raised. She leapt across the overgrown roots of one mammoth cedar to the fallen trunk of another then walked up its expanse to avoid the brush that was slowly consuming it. That left her on top of a lichen-covered rock ten feet above the forest floor. The sun streamed through a crack in the canopy above onto that very spot, and she paused for a minute to enjoy its warmth. She watched the stream running by through the bare trunks of the pines, heard the rush of a falls, drew in the rich smells of the forest, and relished being home.
She considered how the Order had conspired to deliver her here. All the events of the past few days could only be the Order at work. It was giving her a chance to show Dasen what she could do, to prove to him that she was more than some girl, to give him some sense of her life prior to his arrival and why it was important. After a life spent feeling battered, abused, and forgotten by that divine power, she closed her eyes and said the first sincere prayer she had managed since the one outside the burning smithy had gone unanswered.
The serenity was broken by the thump of feet, breaking of sticks, swish of branches, and increased animal chatter that could only be Dasen walking back to the camp. Teth laughed quietly to herself. He was so hopeless that he didn’t even know what he was doing wrong. She was confident that they were safe for now, but he would have to learn to walk quietly soon enough. On the other side of the river, those heavy footfalls, a single broken stick, the warning call of squirrels could be the difference between escape and capture. Teth had played this game with the villagers, with the blasted forest masters, so many times it was simply part of her nature now. She hid without thinking, rolled her feet reflexively, planned her path strides ahead, used her every sense to know her surroundings. But now she had to teach all that to Dasen in just a few days. She decided to start as soon as she got back to camp. Perhaps he could learn something before they started their trip that evening.
With that thought, she walked carefully onto a branch that stretched from the rock out toward the stream. From there she climbed down to another, following it to its trunk where more stretched out like streets from a roundabout. She ducked and wove between branches moving from one to another until she was standing a few feet above a pool of still water. The stream was wider here, slower moving and deeper. At the upstream end, the water fell five feet off a ledge of rock, drowning out the sounds of the forest. On the other, a series of boulders blocked half the stream, creating the pool below and forcing the water to rush through the narrow opening they allowed.
Teth turned her eyes and ears to the forest around her. She was certain that Dasen had walked back to the shelter and even more so that he could not sneak up on her, but she was serious about cutting his eyes out if he tried. The thought made her think about how he had looked standing naked in the stream. She had honestly not been able to see anything but had enjoyed seeing him so flustered. He was certainly not much of a specimen, especially compared to the hearty men she had known her entire life. He was thin, underdeveloped, soft. His skin looked like it had never seen the sun. He barely even had hair on his chest. Still, he had been there for her. He had cared for her, saved her from the river, comforted her, carried her to the shelter, given her water and food. He had been kind, compassionate, and brave in the face of the worst the Order could deal out. In that moment, she could not think of a single person she would rather have with her in this mess, despite and because of all those failings. Besides, she told herself, it was so easy to get him riled, to keep him off-balance. And she laughed at the thought of his bewildered expressions, his indignation, and failed reprisals.
Finally, she looked up at the sun. It was already a few hours past its apex. Her stomach was rumbling, and she couldn’t expect Dasen to clean and cook those birds – she’d be surprised if he managed another fire. With a sigh, she stripped off her clothes and dropped them behind a rock at the edge of the pool. When she was naked, she took a deep breath and leapt into the water. It wrapped around her in a sudden freezing embrace that nearly stole her breath. Her feet hit the bottom of the pool, and she shot up gasping. The water in the deepest part of the pool only came to the middle of her chest and here it was just above her stomach. Still it was freezing cold. She dunked herself a few times to acclimate herself then walked carefully across the smooth rocks to a shallow area where she could use the soap.
As she lathered her body, scrubbing away the blood from her arms and hands with sand from the stream bottom, she watched the falls a few feet away. It was not much of a waterfall, no more than a sheet of water cascading off of a rock overhang, but it provided the perfect complement to the scene. With a backdrop of fifty foot pines and snow topped purple crags, it was more beautiful than anything made by man could ever hope to be. It made her think of the perfection of nature, how the Order could craft such magnificent art with its slow, relentless cycles. Man could only debase that beauty, could never hope to match it. The day they had come out of these forests and built their houses and towers and walls was the day they had turned their backs on the Order.
Teth threw the bar of soap toward her clothes then dipped her head into the water. She emerged feeling renewed, clean, and fresh. She began walking toward the edge of the pool then froze. She lowered herself down into the water and listened, trying to hear through the rush from the falls. She heard it again, a branch snapping, sticks breaking, loud enough to hear over the water’s roar.
She cursed. Dasen better have a hell of a good reason to be out there. She searched the near bank but there was no sign of movement. Still the clamor continued. From the other side, she realized in shock. Someone or something was hacking its way through the forest on the other side of the stream, and it was certainly not Dasen. Besides being on the wrong side of the steam, there were too many sounds for one person to be making. Whatever was making that clamor, there were several of them, and they were almost upon her.
Teth did the only thing she had time to do. Keeping herself low, she bounded through the water to a space between two rocks. The water there was still over her waist, and she had to pull herself out with one hand on either stone. When she was high enough, she planted a foot on one rock and launched herself behind the other. She landed with a crackling thump on her clothes and rolled once before she arrested her momentum. Panting, trembling, dripping wet, and naked, she eased herself around the rock to peer out at the stream. An infant pine growing in the gap between the boulders hid her from the stream. Her body was at a slight downward angle. The stones obscured her from either side. It wasn’t the best hiding place. She knew that she should stay behind the stone, but she had to know what was happening. Her eyes focused just in time to see the first shadowy figures moving through the trees.
Ever so slowly, Teth dropped onto her belly, feeling the pine needles that had gathered between the boulders stabbing her in a thousand places along the length of her body. She quickly threw her shirt over her head. It was brown and should provide enough camouflage to complete the blind. Holding the collar up over her eyes, she watched a dozen men emerge from the forest at the opposite end of the pool where the water flowed out. They hacked their way through the trees with broad swords then almost threw themselves at the water and drank deeply.
Teth tried to disappear. The men were on the other side of the stream but only twenty paces from where she hid. Her white body lying naked on the brown earth felt horribly exposed. She could only imagine it standing out like a beacon. Thoughts of what these men might do if they found her raced through her mind and made her stomach churn. As if sensing her thoughts, one of the men looked up from the stream. He stared at the falls then scanned the opposite bank with sharp, dark eyes. Those eyes paused. Teth’s heart nearly stopped. He was looking right at her. She held
her breath and waited for him to call to his fellows, waited for him to point in recognition.
Seconds passed. For an eternity he stared, but he made no call, did not point in recognition. He looked back toward the falls then turned to his fellows. Teth let out her breath and thanked the Holy Order for yet another mercy. The prayer was quickly replaced by a curse. So they are searching for us, she thought. A dozen men on an organized search. How many of these bandits can there be? And how can I warn Dasen? It was only a matter of time before they found the path, saw Dasen’s obvious trail leading to the shelter. Then he was as good as captured, and she was trapped naked behind a rock, completely worthless. She cursed herself for her miscalculation.
Yet as Teth continued to watch the men, her speculation changed. To start, these men did not look anything like the ones from the village. They were, if anything, small. None of them looked taller than her. They appeared to be well built, strong, and sure, but their frames were small. Further, they wore what looked like uniforms. Every one of them was dressed the same, dark-red shirts and loose black pants that were caught up and tied at the ankle. Their jet-black hair was tightly wound into a single long braid that ran well down their backs, and their skin was dark as if they had deep tans. Teth had never seen men like these, but she could only imagine that such uniformity suggested that they were part of a military unit. She had never seen soldiers beyond the district forest masters, so she could not make any judgment about their origins, but these men felt foreign, even more so than the men in the village.
Adding finally to her doubts, these men did not seem to be hunting. They did not search the ground for tracks, did not strain to hear their quarry, did not have dogs to sniff out a trail. As Teth watched, they spread out along the stream in both directions – causing her no end of stress as several of them disappeared from her view – then came back together and had a heated discussion. But that discussion seemed focused on the stream. They are deciding where to cross, Teth realized. But why such effort? The stream’s not deep. They could wade across it at almost any point. Maybe they don’t like getting wet. In any case, they finally seemed to decide on an area just upstream from the falls where the water was wide and shallow. They gathered there for a final discussion then split into two groups. Ten of them waded across the stream, where Teth lost sight of them. The others ran back into the forest on the other side.
Having ten men searching on her side of the stream increased Teth’s discomfort immeasurably. When she was sure all them were out of sight, she silently slipped into her clothes. With at least that protection, she felt better. You’re a boy, she told herself. If they believe that, the greatest danger is past, but you have to believe it. She drew a deep breath and peeked around the side of the rock that hid her from view. She saw nothing. Straining with her ears, she heard the sound of swords striking branches. What kind of hunters use swords to clear branches? How do they hope to catch anyone while making all that noise? Even Dasen would hear them coming and have time to hide.
It didn’t make any sense, but they were moving north, away from her, so she did not linger on it. With a sigh of relief, she scanned the trees again. She could not account for all the men now. They could be anywhere. Her best protection would be to be above them. Slinking like a snake, she crept to the top of the rock that had hidden her. From there, she could climb into a tree and follow the branches away. As she reached the top of the boulder, was reaching for the branch two feet above, just before she came to her feet and made the leap, she saw the shadows. The forest along the opposite bank was alive; men swarmed through the forest and bubbled out of the trees in a breathtaking multitude.
Teth rolled instantly off the rock back into the cleft where she had been hidden. She watched silently, head pressed into the bracken as the first column of soldiers emerged from the trees, fell to their knees to drink, then regrouped and marched in formation across the stream. They were followed by more and more, a seemingly constant procession. When she recovered sufficiently from her shock, she managed to count. She estimated that nearly a thousand men crossed the stream before her in row after row until she thought they would never end. She tried to note everything she could about them, but the more she watched the less sense she could make of them. They all wore the same clothes, had the same style of hair, and the same general height and build as the first men who crossed. They carried long-bladed spears and stout shields that had been painted black. Sagging packs hung from their backs. Along the sides and between the units were men leading horses. Armor was conspicuously tied to their mounts – large helmets, round breastplates, and tall black shields – along with stout spears. They held curved swords above their heads as they crossed to keep them from the water. Finally, at the front of each column was a flag bearer with a round, deep-red banner with a black dot in the middle – Teth had never seen the crest but noted it for Dasen.
Countless fears flowed through Teth as she watched the men cross. This was an army. Was it an invasion? But from where? Or were these soldiers from the Kingdoms come to rescue Ipid? That thought was so enticing that she even considered showing herself, offering to guide them. But how could an army from the Kingdoms have responded so soon? Why would they be on this side of the river? Besides, these men looked nothing like any she had ever seen, no trader, caravan, official, minstrel, anyone who had visited Randor’s Pass. But where else could they be from? There was nothing but mountains, impassible to all who had tried, to the west.
Then it struck her and everything suddenly fell into place. Everyone assumed that there was nothing on the other side of the Clouded Range, but what if they were wrong? What if there were whole countries over there? What if they found a way across? What if they invaded the East? Local legends said that the Exiles had traveled across the bridge in Randor’s Pass when they were cast from the world. Could this be them returning with an army?
The last was a step too far for Teth’s mind. Even the Church taught that the Exiles were mere legends, stories created to symbolize what happened when people turned from the Order, of the chaos they could cause. No, it was much simpler to believe that this was an army like any other. Men bent on conquering other men, just like in the books she had read of the times before the unification of the Kingdoms when the dukes had fought their constant wars. Teth’s world had not known a war in the eighty years since the original Chancellor Kavich had defeated the last of those dukes and unified the country. Liandrin and The Empire had fought wars since then against Pindarian secession, but even the most recent of those had been before she was born and had taken place a thousand miles away. The very thought of war was foreign, terrifying, and incomprehensible. Teth spent the hour it took the men to cross the stream considering it but could not get her head around it.
When, finally, the last of the men, a unit of about fifty soldiers leading tall horses – their extravagant regalia suggested officers – disappear into the forest to the east, she was numb with doubt and fear. The only thing she could decide was that she and Dasen had to get out of there. If an invasion was taking place, it was impossible to tell how many men would come marching out of the forest and what path they would take. Their only hope was to get ahead of the forces and find safety as far from the battles as possible. She listened to the last of the men fading to the south and watched. She doubted that there would be stragglers given the discipline with which the men had crossed, but she still waited a long time before she considered leaving her hiding place.
Finally, Teth braced herself, slipped back onto the rock, and, with a last scan of her surrounding, pulled herself up into the tree. She retraced her path until she arrived back at the spot where the deer trail ended at the stream. She stood on a low branch watching, listening and was about to jump down and run to the shelter when a wave of calm rushed over her. She felt all her fear, anger, doubt pulled away. A smile crept onto her lips. She wondered what it
was that had made her so worried. Then it all came back. And her fear doubled for the feeling of having had it sucked away. Her eyes flew open and were drawn again to the far side of the stream.
She looked just in time to see a man emerge from the trees. But had he come from the trees? Behind him was a black disk that blocked her view of those trees. Then it was gone. Or had it ever existed? She blinked hard then focused on the figure who stood where it had been. Shrouded in a heavy robe with deep cowl, she could see nothing of him but she knew to fear him. Her breath caught. Her heart skipped, and she prayed that he keep staring at the water at his feet, that his eyes not creep up to where she crouched on a branch thirty feet away.
Then something even more terrible appeared. It fell from the sky, folding great bat-like wings, to land in the middle of the flowing water. The creature, for there was no other word for it, was black all over, hairless as far as Teth could tell, built like a man, except that it had huge bat wings and a head like a snake. It stood at least seven feet tall, but its body was thin, legs and arms long, sinewy. Its feet were obscured by the running water, but its arms ended in double-thumbed claws. The creature’s head wove back and forth on a long neck that rose from slumped shoulders. For a second, it looked like it would strike the hooded man before it, then it dropped into an awkward bow.
The robed figure gestured the thing up. It rose from the water dripping and brought its head close to the hood. “. . . strong indeed . . . dangerous . . . used the power nearby . . . searching . . . not returned,” the man said. He spoke softly so that Teth could not make out every word. Still, she had heard enough to recognize that his words were like none that she had ever heard. She could understand them, but she did not know them. Dasen had said something similar about the creature from the forest. She had dismissed it as part of his obvious shock, but it had been true. She did not know how, but it was true.
The creature in the water seemed to answer, but its words were a series of hisses and growls that made no sense to Teth. Apparently the hooded man knew them. His voice became harsh, commanding. “I don’t care what you have to do! I want him! You have more than enough tal’ ladorim. By the time the sun is up tomorrow, I want him brought to me. Do you understand? He is too dangerous to be left uncontrolled!”
A short reply from the creature followed. It bowed again, even lower this time. Teth watched it stretch its body prostrate in the water, studied the unbelievable thing, and wondered again if the Exiles really had returned. A second later, the creature rose from the water and leapt into the sky. With two powerful stokes of its wings that buffeted Teth with rank musk, the thing was aloft, flying west toward the mountains. At the same time, she felt another wave of calm claim her. Her worries bled away, and she watched the creature fly off without concern. A second later, she clenched her teeth as emotions swept over her, leaving her paralyzed with fear, doubt, and anger. When she regained her balance, she brought her eyes back to the hooded man. He was gone.
Teth cursed. She had not seen which way he had gone. He could be anywhere, and she had no way of knowing. What she did know was that that man was searching for Dasen, that he had creatures like the one she had killed and that thing in the river to help. And that meant they were in trouble, that they needed to be gone before that thing returned. Still, she could not make herself leave her haven without some assurance that the hooded man had gone.
Minutes passed like hours until Teth’s impatience finally overcame her fear. He wouldn’t be waiting for me, she told herself. If he knew that I was here, he would take me. She had to risk it.
Bracing herself for the worst, she slipped down from the tree and landed on the trail. She held her knife in her hand and crouched to fight, but nothing happened. She searched the trees with eyes and ears. Nothing. Finally, with a sigh of relief, she ran toward the shelter.