“What do we have here?” she asks with a grim expression.
James is slightly surprised to find the archer is a woman, a young one at that. She couldn’t be more than seventeen or eighteen. Dressed in greens and browns, she blends in well with the forest, her long auburn hair tied in a ponytail. No telling how long she had been in the vicinity before making her presence known.
“My name is James,” he replies. “A wanderer.”
“Spy of the Empire no doubt,” she says. “I should just kill you right where you stand.” She pulls the bowstring back a fraction of an inch.
“I’m not a spy!” he asserts, trying to prevent the arrow from being released.
“No one wanders these woods in times like these unless they’re up to no good,” she says.
“Believe me,” he says, “I am no servant of the Empire.” He glances briefly over to where their camp lies. The horses are visible where they’re tied but there’s no sign of Jiron. Scanning the woods behind the woman, he sees him working his way quietly through the trees to get around behind her.
“What business do you have here then?” she asks.
“Merely trying to get back to my home in Cardri,” he tells her.
“Perhaps,” she says.
Jiron is closing the distance quickly, now no more than ten feet behind her. James sees one of his knives in his hand as he sneaks up behind her.
“One more step,” she says loudly, cocking her head to the side, “and I’ll kill your friend.” When Jiron comes to a halt, she glances back to him. Nodding to James, she says, “Go over and stand by your friend. Now!”
Jiron doesn’t resheathe his knife but does what she says and makes his way over to stand next to James.
“So, two wanderers,” she states.
“We are no friends of the Empire, you can rest assured lady,” Jiron says to her. “In fact, we’re trying to escape from them.” He gives her a serious look and then continues, “We all need to be getting out of here. A large force has been tailing us since yesterday and could be in the area at any time.”
“I saw the force you mentioned earlier,” she tells them. “It went past earlier as it made its way south.”
As James stands there with the arrow pointing menacingly at him, he begins to once more feel the tingling of magic being worked in the area. “Jiron,” he says nervously. “I feel it again.”
“Where?” he asks looking around, the danger from the woman now ignored.
“I’m not sure, but it’s getting stronger,” he replies. “They may be heading back.”
Jiron moves to return to the horses when the woman says, “Stay right there! I don’t know what kind of trick you’re playing here, but it’s not going to work.”
“This isn’t a trick,” insists James, fear growing in his voice. “A mage of some power is out there, and he is drawing near.”
“You expect me to believe that?” she asks. “I don’t think so.”
Further down the mountain, the sound of a large number of individuals can be heard as they forge their way through the brush. She glances down and her eyes widen when she makes out the unmistakable sight of Empire soldiers heading their way.
Seeing them too, James says, “Now do you believe us?”
Nodding her head, she relaxes her bow and quickly replaces her arrow in the quiver behind her shoulder. As James and Jiron begin running toward the horses, she says, “Leave them!” When they both look at her, she continues, “They’ll just slow you down in the forest. Follow me.” She then slings her bow behind her shoulder as she turns and begins running through the trees.
Jiron looks to him and James only shrugs. Breaking into a run, they follow her as she races through the undergrowth. “Where are we going?” asks James when they finally catch up to her.
“I know a trail that will take us through the mountains,” she tells them. “It comes out near the fortress of Kern on the Cardri-Empire border.”
“How long will it take?” Jiron asks.
“About three days perhaps longer,” she replies. “Longer still if we can’t shake the pursuit.”
The sound of their pursuers gradually diminishes as she takes them further up into the higher elevations. They all remain quiet as they work to navigate the sometimes steep and narrow way. Boulders and fallen trees have to be circumvented and at times scaled in order to continue.
They come to a cliff face with a small trickle of water running down its side. Turning to them, she says, “We have to climb up to the top of this.” Indicating a section of the wall, she adds, “Start here, it affords the best hand and footholds than anywhere else.”
She reaches out and takes hold of a crack and begins the ascent. When she’s gone about ten feet, Jiron looks to James and asks, “You want to go next?”
“You better, I might end up falling and I wouldn’t want to knock you down in the process.”
“It’s only about thirty feet,” states Jiron. “You can make it.”
Looking dubious at the prospect, he steps to the wall and begins following her with Jiron’s help. Once James has gone far enough to allow him room, Jiron steps to the wall and begins his ascent.
When James is halfway up, he hears her voice from where she’s standing at the top of the cliff, “Hurry up.”
“Do you see anyone coming?” Jiron shouts up to her.
She looks out for a moment then replies, “No. All I can see is the tops of the trees. They could be just right below and I wouldn’t know it.”
“Great!” he hears Jiron grunt below him.
As he reaches the top he sees her hand reaching down to help him up the rest of the way. Taking it, he’s soon up over the edge and lying on the top. Arms and legs shaking from the ordeal, he just lies there a few moments until he sees Jiron’s head crest over the top.
She reaches down to help him as well, but he just shakes his head as he makes the rest of the way on his own.
“We can have a short break here,” she tells them as Jiron gains the top.
James sits up and reaches into his belt pouch where he pulls out the pitiful remnants of what use to be rations, oh so long ago. Grimacing, he takes a bite out of the stale fare and looks up to see her grinning at him. “What’s so funny?” he asks.
“Just your expression when you bit into that,” she explains with a slight laugh. She pulls out some jerked beef and hands him several strips. “Here, you can have some of mine.” When she sees Jiron’s hungry looks, she gives him some as well.
“So what are you doing out here?” Jiron asks as he takes the offered food. He keeps a constant lookout for any approaching soldiers, but it looks like for the moment they may have lost them.
Her expression turns grim as she says, “Surviving. I used to live in Mountainside before the soldiers came. Fortunately I was out hunting in the mountains when they showed up and was spared the ravages they inflicted on my family and friends.”
“That’s too bad about your family,” James says.
“Yes. I miss them dearly but we can’t live in the past,” she says wistfully. “Now I stay up here where they can’t find me. Been doing alright so far, though I hope they get pushed back into the Empire so I can go home. If there’s even a home to return to.”
“We were just through there and it looks like most of it is still standing,” explains Jiron. “Some of the buildings were burned down by the fire, but most of them appeared in good condition.”
“Strange thing about that fire,” she says. “It just started up out of nothing. I was in the forest that day and there wasn’t any lightning or such to spark it. Though I heard a whole lot of soldiers got burnt in it. That was good news.”
Jiron glances at James who just shakes his head. He doesn’t want her to know more about them than is absolutely necessary. “So you just stay in the woods?” he asks. “How are you able to manage?”
Giving him an annoyed expression, she asks in reply, “What? Do you think I’m some helpless little girl who can’t take care of herself?”
“We’ll, no,” he replies. “It’s just that…”
“It’s just that I’m a girl,” she finishes for him. “If I were a man, would you even ask such a question?”
Face reddening, he looks to Jiron for help but finds him smiling, enjoying the predicament he’s gotten himself into. “No, it’s not that at all. Where I come from, women are considered equal to men in all things. What I was getting at was that the soldiers might’ve discovered you, or something.”
“I don’t let them ‘discover’ me,” she informs him. She gets up and says, “I think it’s time to go.” Without even waiting for a reply, she moves out through the woods at a quick pace. James and Jiron have to scramble to catch up with her.
James glances to Jiron who only gives him an amused smile.
That night when they stop for the night, James is about ready to die. The pace she kept the rest of the day had been unrelenting. No stops and he had to practically run in order to keep up with her. When she announced here is where they would be spending the night, he just collapses.
Coming over to him, she asks, “Tired?”
Nodding, he says breathlessly, “Yeah. Not used to so much climbing. Plus the air is thinner up here.”
“The sun’s going to be down soon and we don’t have time to rest,” she tells him. “You need to collect enough firewood to last through the night while I get dinner.” While stringing her bow, she adds, “It gets very cold up here when the sun’s down.” Once her bow is ready, she moves away from him and disappears in the trees.
Jiron comes over and gives him a hand up. He looks to where she disappeared in the trees and says, “I like her.”
James gives him a grin and says, “You like all the girls.”
Shaking his head, he says, “Not like that. But we better get busy if we’ll have a fire going and enough wood collected before she returns.”
Groaning, James gets his already stiffening legs moving again as he begins gathering small branches and sticks. When he has an armful, he returns and deposits it in camp where Jiron goes about lighting a fire. Four more trips are required before Jiron determines they have enough to last through the night.
About that time, she returns with two small animals and proceeds to clean and dress them for the fire.
While she’s doing that, James asks her, “You never even told us your name.”
She looks up from the rabbits and says, “Aleya.”
Jiron comes over to her and says, “I’m Jiron.”
A quick nod and then she returns her attention back to the animals.
Jiron just stands there not sure what to do, a simple nod was not the reply he expected. There’s just something about her that both annoys and attracts him. Finally realizing he’d been standing there like an idiot, he goes over and sits near James across the fire from her.
“How much further is this fortress?” James asks her.
“Another two days,” she replies. She points to an imposing ridge to the west and says, “We should reach that ridge by tomorrow night. It’s all downhill from there on.”
A deep valley separates them and their destination. The ridge is quite high and steep, higher in fact than where they sit now. James looks at the prospect of trying to climb it with trepidation.
She notices how his face has fallen as he stares out across the valley. “Don’t worry,” she tells him with a reassuring smile, “it’s not going to be that bad. There’s an old stairway that was cut into the ridge a long time ago which leads all the way to the top.”
“A stairway?” Jiron asks.
“A series of steps that wind their way up to the top,” she explains. “From there you can see the Fortress of Kern nestled in the hills below, which sits at Cardri’s southern border. An old road leads down from the top of the ridge and comes out somewhere near Kern. Never actually had the occasion to cross the ridge before. From there you two can go on your way.”
“What about you?” Jiron asks.
“I’ll go back to where you found me,” she replies. “Not much else for me now.” Having finished dressing the animals, she impales them upon sticks and hands them to Jiron and James. “You boys can do the cooking, if you don’t mind.”
“No, we don’t mind,” Jiron says as he takes the sticks from her and hands one to James.
James takes the stick and tries to hide the amused grin that’s threatening to spread across his face. Jiron seemed just a little too eager to do as she requested, not to mention the speed with which he’d gotten up from where he’d been sitting once he knew she needed something. Even if that something was taking the animals from her for roasting.
As the flames begin licking the carcasses and the fat drips with a sizzle to their ravenous heat, she eyes them speculatively. “Just what does the Empire want with you guys anyway?” she asks.
“What do you mean?” James asks her with a sidelong glance to Jiron.
“That was no mere patrol that chased us up into the mountains,” she explains. “They had already gone past, but then returned and entered the trees just where you happened to be. How do you explain that?”
“Just a lucky guess?” stammers James.
The look she gives him says she doesn’t believe it was ‘a lucky guess’. “They knew right where you were,” she continues.
“They did, didn’t they?” says James suddenly thinking. If the warrior priest is using the same technique with a mirror or other magical device to keep track of us, we’re in serious trouble. He glances to Jiron and can tell he’s having the same thought.
“Now, come on,” she demands. “What’s going on?”
James pauses as he considers what, if anything, she deserves to know. “It’s true, the Empire wants us in a bad way. We’ve recently spent some time deep within its borders and caused some trouble.”
Jiron chuckles and adds, “You got that right.”
“You see, a friend of ours had been captured during the fall of the City of Light and we went to retrieve him,” James explains. “Ended up killing a few soldiers and destroyed some buildings. Now we have a mage or something behind us who’s trying to prevent us from reaching Cardri.”
“I see,” she says.
They watch her for awhile to see what, if any, her reaction may be to what he had just said. After sitting quietly in contemplation for several minutes, she glances to Jiron and says, “You better turn that, it’s starting to blacken.”
Realizing he’s been staring at her and not paying any attention to the animal he’s roasting, he pulls it off the fire and examines it. The charred sections aren’t too extensive so he just turns the stick and begins roasting the other side. He catches her looking at him and he blushes slightly.
Seeing his friend blush surprises James. He’s never seen him flustered or embarrassed in the presence of a woman before, always has been cool and collected.
Later that evening when they begin settling down for sleep, James offers to take first watch. He notices that she keeps a knife in her hand as she lies down to sleep. Most likely in case either one of them try to force their attentions on her during the night.
James can’t help but thinking about the army behind them. He doesn’t believe they gave up on them, but there has been no sign of them since they initially fled into the forest. He would have thought they would have caught up to them by now. Not even the faintest trace of the tingle which indicates magic in the area has come to him.
He walks around the camp to keep awake, occasionally throwing another log on the fire to keep the cold of night at bay as best he can. During his second trip around the camp, he sees Jiron get up from where he’d been lying and come over to him.
Jiron indicates for them to move away from camp with a nod of his head and they move out away from the camp so they won’t wake Aleya. When the darkness of night envelopes them, Jiron stops and asks, “Do you think that warrior priest behind us is still there?”
“I don’t know,” replies James. “I haven’t felt anything since we fled into the mountains. Usually I can always feel something whenever one of them is around, at least I did when around Abula-Mazki. Why?”
“It just doesn’t feel right,” he says. “All the other times they’ve pressed with great vigilance, but not this time.”
“I know, it’s got me worried too,” admits James. “But whatever the reason, I’m just thankful they’re not trying to kill us right now.”
“True,” he agrees. “Can you find out where they are with that mirror thing you do?”
“Not now,” he explains. “I wouldn’t dare. If by chance they had lost us in the forest, then all I would be doing is sending a beacon telling them exactly where we are. Besides, in the trees it’s hard to locate anything the way I do it.”
“Alright,” he says, somewhat disappointed.
“Go back to sleep,” James tells him. “I’ll be getting you up soon enough.”
Jiron nods as he returns to his blanket on the ground.
The following morning she again sets a quick pace. “I’d like to reach the beginning of the stairs before nightfall,” she explains.
“Why?” James asks her.
“There’s a good spot there to make camp and that will ensure we’ll be well rested when we begin the climb tomorrow,” she tells him. “It’s a long ways up.”
Jiron grins when James gives out with a groan, pats him on the back and then hurries after Aleya as she disappears between the trees.
James follows his friend and they quickly catch up with her. The downward slope leading to the floor of the valley is gradual and he finds it quite easy to navigate. At one point during the morning, they begin coming across blocks of stone that look to have at one time been part of a structure.
“There are ruins throughout this valley,” she remarks after passing several clusters of them. “Sometime way in the past there used to be a city here.”
“Wonder what happened to it?” James asks.
“Who knows?” she replies.
The path they’ve been following slowly begins to resemble a road of sorts, though it’s completely overgrown with vegetation. If it wasn’t for the fact it runs straight and is relatively level, he wouldn’t even have know it existed.
As they continue progressing further into the valley, the ruins become more pronounced. Aside from the moss covered stones they at first had encountered, they now begin to come across pieces of statues and other sculptures whose features have been worn away by time.
One large statue of what might once have been a man had long ago fallen across the road. They have to scramble over it in order to continue.
“This road we’re on leads directly to the beginning of the stairs,” she tells them.
At one point they must’ve reached what used to be the city center of that long ago town. From out of the vegetation on the side of the road, broken walls can be seen. None are very high but the number of them suggests this had been a populated place at one time. In what could’ve been the courtyard of a building of importance, they find what has to be the remains of a once exquisitely crafted fountain. It doesn’t look so much as worn with time as being smashed to bits with hammers or something similar. James wonders what could’ve happened here. Within what would’ve been several city blocks of the courtyard, other evidence corroborates the theory that this area was destroyed intentionally rather than by time.
About midday, she calls for a lunch break near a fallen column.
Glad for the rest, James settles down on the column while they have a quick bite. The rest break is all too short before she once more gets them moving. A little after noon they reach the bottom of the valley.
In the distance ahead of them, the stairs begin to be visible. At first a jagged line going up the side of the ridge, then as they move closer, they are better able to make out the individual steps.
It isn’t long before the road begins going up the other side of the valley. “It isn’t that far now,” she tells them. “About another couple of hours and then we’ll be able to rest before the big climb tomorrow.”
“Good,” huffs James. Going uphill is decidedly less easy than going down. He maintains the pace she sets and by the time they get to the campsite, his legs are feeling quite numb and it’s all he can do just to keep putting one in front of the other.
Jiron on the other hand seems completely unaffected by the rigorous pace set by Aleya. When they come to a small ring of stones which has served as a fire pit in the recent past, Jiron sets to collecting wood for the fire while James collapses on the ground. Aleya again goes in search of dinner.
After collecting enough wood to last through the night, Jiron builds a fire in the fire ring. They have a good sized blaze going before long and they sit and wait for the return of Aleya. From where their camp lies, they’re able to see the beginnings of the steps leading up to the top of the ridge. It must have taken some doing to carve them out of the side of the mountain like that. A level space had been cleared before the steps, seven tall spires of stone stand as sentinels.
The light slowly begins fading as the sun falls further behind the ridge to the west. After a half hour they begin to worry about her. “She should’ve been back by now,” Jiron says, concern in his voice.
“Yeah, she’s never taken this long,” agrees James.
Standing up, Jiron calls out. “Aleya!” When no answer is forthcoming, he says, “I’m going to go search for her.”
“I’ll go with you,” James says as he gets to his feet.
With Jiron in the lead, they head out of the camp, following the same general direction that Aleya had taken. Her footprints are readily visible in the soft dirt and they’re able to follow them quickly.
“ Help!” they hear her cry from up ahead.
“That’s her!” exclaims Jiron. Knife in hand, he rushes forward with careless abandon, James right behind.
“Aleya!” he cries out as he races through the brush ahead of them.
A large log has fallen across the game trail that she had been following and without even slowing, Jiron vaults over it.
Aaaiiiiiiiieeeee!
James comes to a quick halt when he hears Jiron cry out. Coming to the log, he picks up a rock from off the ground and cautiously peers over the top. A steep ravine falls away on the other side and he sees Jiron picking himself up off the ground from where he landed after sailing over the log. Several new scrapes and cuts are testament to the haphazard way in which he landed on the far side.
Just beneath the log, he sees Aleya lying upside down on the edge of the ravine, her bow lying below her down on the bottom. From the angle she’s laying, it looks like her foot has gotten wedged in between some roots and hanging upside down like that, has been unable to free it.
“What happened?” James asks as he cautiously makes his way over the log.
Looking rather embarrassed, she says, “I was climbing over the log when my foot slipped in between these roots and I lost my balance and fell.”
Jiron comes up from the bottom and supports her shoulders while James works her foot out from between the roots. As her foot slips free, Jiron helps her to stand.
Testing it with her weight, she says, “I don’t think it’s broken.” They help her back up to the top after which, Jiron returns to the bottom of the raving to retrieve her bow. When he returns it to her, she gives him a smile and says, “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” he replies.
“You didn’t hurt yourself when you flew over the top did you?” she asks.
“No,” he says.
“We thought you were in trouble,” explains James.
“I appreciate you coming to find me,” she says.
The light is starting to fade so she returns with them to the camp where they have another meal of cold, stale rations. Still, it’s better than nothing.