Finding The Soul Bridge (The Soul Fire Saga Book 1) (6 page)

“Like a beaten wife to a drunken husband,” blurted Thist.

“No.” said Kelvin. “It’s nothing like that.”

Kelvin steered the old horses around a wide bend in the road, his mind working overtime. He knew that he had to tell the other two boys something, without telling them anything. He was embarrassed for his own life story but he couldn’t just keep quiet. “Not even that glamorous, I didn’t have a real reason to leave despite having no reason to stay. It feels like at last I have a purpose, even though it’s not at all clear.”

“Well,” said Jem. “Let's clear that up over dinner.”

Thist spun around. “Dinner!”

The boys rode on, the road twisting and turning as they headed toward the mountains in the distance. The meadow was becoming thick and shrubby with larger trees, but no real forest. Lions were seen occasionally in these parts, but they tended to follow the herds of deer, elk and garret.

They spoke of everything and more as the day turned to twilight. The sun had shed its cloud cover and was about to wink out behind the mountains, the clouds around growing heavy golden rings as the sun turned orange. Birds of all kinds flew here and about, catching the early evening insects. Kelvin glanced at the sun. “We’ll sleep at Jack’s tavern tomorrow night, but for now I suggest we gather up some firewood.”

The run down horses stopped the wagon far easier than they could start it. Kelvin hopped out and untacked the horses. He led them to a tree where he tied them up and gave them some old grain from a sack in the wagon. Jem and Thist ventured into the bush to find what scant fire wood it would allow. Thist seemed to struggle finding anything of value but some dry grass for kindling and the odd twig, while Jem returned with his arms full of wood. “Look under the big shrubs and a quarter of the way up the trees you’ll find good wood Thist!” shouted Jem.

Between the three of them they had a good fire going with a surprising amount of backup wood. Kelvin had draped a large tarp over the side of the wagon so that the bottom formed a cosy lodging; open on the side where the fire was built. “You seem to have thought of everything, Kelvin.” said Jem.

“I’ve travelled some when my father used to haul from Fineburg, so I learned a few tricks.” said Kelvin.

Thist gave Kelvin an inquiring glance, “You’ve been to Fineburg?”

Kelvin nodded. “The last time was about six years ago, I remember it was a long journey.”

Where is your father now?” asked Jem.

Kelvin looked towards the sunset on the horizon, “He went to Fineburg about three years ago and never returned, and nobody knows what happened.”

Far in the distance a lion growled. Jem and Thist exchanged glances with Kelvin who just smiled and said, “Well boys? Prepare yourselves for an interesting night.”

“Yes.” mumbled Jem. “With lions on my mind I might stop thinking about home.”

“How long is this adventure going to take us, Kelvin?” asked Jem.

“I’d say two weeks there, one day for business, and two weeks back. If all goes very well... but in all likelihood, three weeks either way.”

Thist snorted, “Better check the cans, Steve!”

Jem looked at Thist as if he had seen a ghost.

Kelvin gasped and looked at him, “The what? The who?

Thist looked up at Kelvin and said, “What, who spoke?”

“Dumbass!” said Jem. “Whatever you meant by whatever you said, we didn’t get it?”

“No,” said Kelvin. “Your mate, Thist, is being a freak show. Do you hear voices in your head sometimes, Thist?”

“Sometimes,” said Thist as he sat up and rubbed his temples. “I hear them more often lately, but usually only when I have a fever.”

“Everyone in the world gets fever voices, but you spoke in someone else’s voice.” said Jem.

“Hey I don’t know what is happening to me but I’m getting nightmares.”

A lion growled in the distance. “It’s going to be an interesting night with the lions.” said Kelvin.

The three boys didn’t sleep much as the sound of the lion’s growling came closer and they could hear their footsteps around the wagon tent. Thist dozed off just a few times only to be woken by Jem or Kelvin every time he moaned in his sleep. In the morning they could still hear the lions milling about in their camp and Kelvin slowly peered out of a small slit in the tarp. “How bad is it?” asked Jem.

“It is bad.” said Kelvin. “They feasted on the horses.”

Jem felt defeated. Thist looked at Kelvin without saying anything. The mood in the wagon tent was palpable. The three boys were trapped in a wagon tent tomb unless some miracle happened.

“What are we going to do now Kelvin?” asked Jem.

Kelvin peeked out at the lions. “It’s simple.” said Kelvin. “These lions are so full that we could just walk right past them.”

“You are mad.” said Jem.

“No!” said Kelvin. “I am not; all we have to do is grab all of our stuff from the wagon and walk very slowly past the lions. If we make sudden movements then they will attack us. But we have to stick together very closely.”

“You are mad.” said Thist.

“Look here.” said Kelvin. “If we just stay here, then in a day from now the lions will still be here and they will be hungry again, it’s better that we go now.”

Jem peered out at the lions through the slit in the tarp. All he could see were a few fat lions napping next to the horse carcasses.

“Show me.” said Jem. “If you are right then you should be able to walk around them, alone. A group will make no difference either way.”

“Yes.” said Thist. “If you walk around the group of lions and come back without a scratch then we will come out.”

Kelvin climbed out of the wagon tent slowly. He moved like a chameleon on a twig, his feet making no sound as he stealthed his way around the group of lions. There were seven lions and each one raised its head and looked at Kelvin. As long as he left the carcasses alone and move slowly he would be fine. When he got back to the wagon, Kelvin lifted the tarp and said. “Come, we have a lot of distance to cover on foot.”

“Won’t the lions follow us?” asked Jem.

“Not yet.” said Kelvin. There are some rocky hills up ahead. The lions won’t follow us there.”

10

The hagget wiped its face. Its affliction would be void for ninety days as the potion worked its magic. The plan had gone well so far. The one called Kelvin had been a fortunate addition to the two would-be adventurers. It was not in an ideal situation but time was against it and it had to act. The three could not take the easy road to Fineburg, there were errands along the way and the mission would fail without them.

“I have to make them lose that infernal horse cart.” It thought.

The hagget could not let itself be known to the boys and staying hidden while still guiding them off track would be difficult. It would have to be resourceful and use the land and its creatures to do its bidding. It whistled a soft tune to a pride of lions nearby.

Lions never respond to whistling or calling but this sound was a siren and the lions were like puppets to the hagget. As the lions came, the hagget felt relief for having its terrible affliction. The affliction gave it a smell that the lions would avoid. It could walk through a pride of hungry lions and they would dismiss it as inedible.

11

Thist’s head rang like a temple gong; he held his cranium where he had just banged it on the cave entrance. He tried to curse but stuttered incoherently. Jem grabbed his arm. “Pay attention you clumsy ass.”

Thist had become a bit of a group liability, not sleeping, daydreaming and getting distracted all the time. “What has gotten into you?”

“I don’t know.” mumbled Thist his eyes shut tightly, his hand rubbing his head, “It’s these stupid dreams I’m having. They don't stop, the voices don’t stop screaming and if I wake up they’re still there like a thorn under your fingernail. My head hurts so much, why doesn’t it bleed, at least then you can show some sympathy?”

“Come on, sit down and have some water.” said Jem.

The boys sat down and enjoyed some water together. The cave they had been sheltering in was dank. It was dark to the back, as if it carried on without an end. Kelvin gazed out of the cave mouth, hands in his trouser pockets. “I love this rain, I’m going out for a rain-shower!” said Kelvin as he started to undress. It had been raining for two days. Not a light drizzle like the land was used to but an inclement downpour. It was the sort of rain that should last a couple of minutes with thunder, but this was a flood producing monsoon. Kelvin stepped out into the heavy rain. There was hardly any light despite it being the middle of the day.

Jem and Thist had found an ancient pile of firewood under a blanket of dust. The cave was ageless as the fire they built revealed depictions of grotesque monsters on the cave walls. The crackling of the fire echoed deep into the cave, begging an answer to how deep it went.

Jem studied the cave paintings. Many of them were painted with numerals under them. They seemed to be animals of unknown origin or just an artist’s rich imagination. The paintings stretched from the floor of the cave, up the walls to the ceiling and then carried on over to the other side.

Jem tried to cheer up his friend. “Thist, come and looked at these drawings, what do you think they are doing? Look at where the animals are, and then look at where the people are. It looks as if they are ambushing those animals, but only to guide them into that trap over there.”

Kelvin came over. He had dressed but his hair was still wet. “Yes look at those figures in the corner, it looks like they are the blockers.”

“How was your rain shower Kelvin?” said Jem.

“Revitalizing.” said Kelvin.

Thist held his head with two hands, “Yes those are blockers, and this guy here is the leader. That one over there is the chief and…I wonder. Can you see a faded one over there?” Thist pointed to a faded patch on the wall with damp seepage.

Kelvin and Jem stepped closer to inspect the wall. “It is faded.” said Kelvin.

“That is a pity.” said Jem. “This looks like a well-organized battle, with few people and a lot of dangerous animals, but by the looks of things, I think the animals are going to meet their end.” Jem studied the drawings as if taking careful note of the whereabouts and purpose of every hunter. “This is a very well thought out plan, if you consider the way these old cave dwellers have developed their hunting plan so as never to lose one of their own.”

“I want to explore the rest of this cave, if we can, we’ve got nothing else to do anyway.” said Jem. “We may as well keep ourselves busy while we wait for the rain to abate.”

Jem and Thist had made some crude torches for exploring the cave.

Thist's chronic distraction had allowed him a good head injury.

"How’s your head?” asked Jem.

“I’ll live.” said Thist with an evil smile. “I bet I’ll bump it on the same place soon just to be consistent with the law of ironic happenings.”

“At least you still have your sense of humour
Thist.” said Jem.

Kelvin nodded, he admired Thist's ability to make sweet out of sour.

“We’re going to need some more firewood, if this rain doesn’t stop soon. We might have to stay another night.” said Kelvin. “Jem, why don’t the two of us go and see if there is more interesting stuff down this tube?” He pointed down the cave.

“Yes.” agreed Jem. “Let’s grab some of those torches we made and head on down.”

Thist would rather damn himself than be left behind. Being left alone made the voices in his head scream louder and he needed the distraction. “I’m coming too.” said Thist. He slung his bag over his shoulder and followed the other two. They always carried their bags so as to prevent scavengers from pilfering them.

As the darkness gave way to dim torchlight the adventuring trio saw the remnant lingering of an old mine tunnel, cart wheel marks on the ground, chisel and pick axe marks on the walls. “There must have been an ore seam here.” said Kelvin. “The miners must have cut this away for their mining purposes.”

“What ore?” asked Jem.

Kelvin shrugged “Mostly Tathan ore I guess, it could even be precious stones, I don't know. What do you think Thist?”

Thist didn’t respond.

Thist was just plodding down the tunnel between the other two like a mindless one. Kelvin turned to face him and Thist walked right into him. He noticed Thist’s eyes were rolled up into his head, his whites showing, so he slapped him. Thist staggered back and dropped his torch, he looked at Jem and back at Kelvin and let out a deep throated gurgle, like a confused helpless wail. The echo repeated in all directions before Thist collapsed to his knees. He sat on his legs, his arms lying loose to the ground, his head lolling forward and then he fell to the ground. Kelvin glanced at Jem who looked shocked at Kelvin and then in unison they grabbed Thist and tried to revive him. Kelvin slapped his cheek while Jem propped up his head and called to him. The echoes interfered with the general coherence of speech and both Jem and Kelvin felt a strong feeling of helplessness. “He’s alive!” cried Jem. “His heart beats and he breathes but what is wrong with him?”

Thist’s eyes shot open, they glowed, like sunlight, a voice emanated from his mouth that was clearly not his own, in a dialect from long ago. Then it was gone. His eyes shut. His face went slack.

Kelvin’s mouth hung open. He could not believe what he had just felt. He could sense thoughts of other people; he could not read minds as such but thoughts he could sense as they happened, albeit roughly. Jem saw that he was disturbed and just blurted. “What? What?”

“I’ve never met anybody with more people inside them than one.” he shook a finger at Thist, “There are strange things going on inside our friend, there are strange people in him, very strange.”

Thist’s torchlight flickered out leaving a smoking ember, Jem and Kelvin's torches were failing too.

“Blast this stupid quest!” cried Jem. “I’m not getting stuck in a dark cave with a strange conglomerate of people in one body, with no light.”

“Calm down, Jem.” said Kelvin “They're all good people.”

“How many and how do you know? I’ve seen more strange things in the last week than I’ve seen in the rest of my life.” wailed Jem as a sense of panic started to well up in him. “I’ve had worse luck in the last three days on this stupid road than I’ve had in my life, and now my best friend is a thousand people.”

“Calm down Jem, it’s not thousands of people.” said Kelvin.” I don't know how many people exactly are in Thist, but they're all good.”

Jem tried to consolidate the torches to bring some light on the matter; the torches flickered and then turned as bright as before for a brief moment allowing Jem and Kelvin to see vast detail. Up on a high ledge Kelvin saw a wide necked jar made of ornate glass, he jumped up and grabbed it. The torches returned to their pathetic dying flicker. Jem was silent for a long moment; his mind was working itself into a panic. Kelvin seemed unfazed for the time being like he had some understanding of these supernatural phenomena that happened one after the other.

Jem’s mind reached a breaking point, “Aaahhhh! What is going on?” said Jem.

Kelvin waited for the subsequent echoes to soften. “Jem!” he said in a calm but stern voice, “Calm down, it seems that there is purpose and balance at work here. I cannot explain much but I can feel things and there is nothing to worry about, if there is I will tell you.” He opened the jar, levelled it with his nose and sniffed, a putrid odour assaulted his nose and he gagged, coughed and took a moment to catch his breath.

Jem had calmed down to an untrusting sulk, “What is it? What does it matter? I feel a little hopeless, I want to go home. We shouldn’t have gone on this stupid trip. I miss my people.”

“Well.” choked Kelvin. “It smells like unwashed undergarments but I’m sure it's flammable, give me a dead torch.”

Kelvin dipped the torch into the wide jar and brought forth a gooey substance. A touch from a flame gave a quick ‘woof’ sound and a bright light emanated from a small flame. Kelvin grinned and Jem mumbled, “Well that's some strange good luck if ever I've had any.”

“What are you on about?” asked Thist. “What am I doing lying in pig’s filth?”

“You're not lying in pig’s filth. It’s the smell of
ancient
torch oil, and you've been sleeping for about five minutes, it must be your head injury making you confused. What do you remember?”

“I remember telling you twice to get the jar on the ledge up there next to the quiver of arrows.” said Thist rubbing his head.

Jem shook his head and groaned. “This is getting far too weird, Kelvin, he was unconscious but he remembers.”

Kelvin raised his light to the niche where he had found the jar and sure enough there was a quiver of arrows lying under a layer of old dust. Neither of the boys had a bow, so they opted to leave the quiver where they had found it.

Kelvin put a hand on Jem’s shoulder, “Now listen here my friend, being stuck in this cave with the rain and everything is just giving us a bit of cabin fever. Let’s stay busy, we can explore a bit and then we can go back. Remember, after the rain, comes the sun. Let's move on, we can talk as we go. I get the feeling that this tunnel wants to go on forever and I'm sure there are other interesting things along the way that could help our supplies.”

“What gives you that idea?” asked Jem as they started to move further down the tunnel.

“Well that ledge was purpose cut.” said Kelvin. “I assume for stashing supplies for tunnel workers and there might be other stashes with interesting stuff.”

Jem sighed. “Right, but this torch oil makes a bright flame, let’s save our torches and burn one at a time.”

Thist’s mood improved as they walked, humming a soft tune that resonated well in the echoing cave and feeding back in harmony. “What’s with the quiver of arrows?” asked Thist. “I’m not sure if miners need weapons, surely we should have found a pick or an axe or a shovel on that ledge?”

“That is an intriguing question.” said Kelvin. “I would imagine that you would store only things that you needed in such a place, like torch oil. But a quiver of arrows seems out of place.”

The boys walked on, their footsteps sounded eerie on the echoing tunnel floor. Thist kept on humming his tune. Jem and Kelvin did not mind as the sound was pleasing. While they walked through the tunnel, Kelvin would raise and lower the torch as they scanned the walls, ceilings and floor. The floor was soft and easy to walk on as a layer of dust had settled on the floor and the dampness of the cave had caused it to accrete
into crumbling clumps. They passed several small shelves along the way. The boys would stop at each one and inspect the shelf for treasures and thus the trip had turned into an exciting treasure hunt. Each shelf yielded nothing save for empty jars and the occasional dry torch, a single flint which they kept and more quivers of arrows which they left.

Thist had inspected the edges of each shelf, and found that each shelf had a numeral carved on the side of it. The boys had squinted at the strange markings that they found on the shelves but could not decipher any clear meaning or intent. After about an hour’s walk they came across a fork in the tunnel. “What now Kelvin?” asked Jem.

“Well, I don't know. It seems that these people, whoever they were, were certainly prepared, you know, leaving torches and oil and flint all over the place. Maybe there are markings at the entrances.”

“Don’t forget the arrows, what was with the arrows?” asked Thist, while rubbing his left temple. “Why don’t you just check the map?”

Jem, who was scouting the threshold spun around. “What?  You know we don’t have a map.”

“Hey!” exclaimed Thist. “I know I’ve got some issues but I have eyes. Look for yourselves.” He pointed at some glyphs on the cave wall.

Jem and Kelvin looked to where Thist was pointing. There they saw an engraved map on the wall between the two tunnels, almost too obvious to notice. The map revealed a labyrinth, extending through the ground with multiple entrances. There were different symbols along the way, all ancient and meaningless to all who didn’t understand the obsolete text.

“You know it’s interesting?” said Kelvin. “Thist seems to notice things in the dark very well and Jem seems to notice things better in the day light, I thought Jem would notice this kind of thing first.”

The three studied the engravings for a long time before Kelvin suggested that the symbol that was never repeated indicated their current position. “If we're here and we want to end up in Fineburg, then we must follow this route. We exit here and if this drawing has a correct scale then we could cover a large bit of ground using the tunnels, supplies permitting.”