Souls of Aredyrah 3 - The Taking of the Dawn (40 page)

“Why?” Whyn managed. “What is so special
about this…Oonayei?”

It is sacred ground.

“Then surely no Jecta will be allowed to step
foot there.”

Whyn felt her anger sizzle through his veins.
I cannot risk it. You should not have allowed your brother to
live. Your foolishness has opened a chasm that may swallow us
whole!

“But Reiv is nothing—no one,” Whyn said.
“What does it matter if he has led them on some ridiculous folly?
We will have them back here soon enough.”

It is written that when the two tribes meet,
they will unite against Tearia—but this will only happen if your
brother reaches Oonayei and the prophecy of Kalei is fulfilled. He
must be stopped.

“Then I will dispatch more Guard.”

No. Lyal cannot arrive with a show of force
or the Jecta will scatter like rabbits. If he cannot persuade them
to return, then a host will be waiting to see it done.

“Should Lyal be told of this?”

No need to stir his imagination. Best to
let him think you are confident in the job you are giving to
him.
She laughed cruelly.
I have enjoyed teaching him how to
please me.

Wynn nodded, but could not help but cringe.
“I will summon the Commander to assemble a group of men in the
morning,” he said stiffly. “Once Lyal has departed, the rest of the
forces will be gathered.”

A crack of pain twisted through his bones.
Now you listen to me, boy. This time your brother must be
destroyed. No evidence can remain of him. Do you
understand?

Whyn grimaced. “Yes. I—I will see it
done.”

Indeed you will. For if you do not, your
life will not be worth the living. And believe me when I tell you,
Whyn, I will see to it that you live for a very long time.

Back to ToC

Chapter 31:
Passage

T
he caravan traveled
for two more days, heading north along the mountain range. Reiv was
confident of the pass’s location, at least as confident as he could
be. Since taking this journey, he had allowed few visions to
trespass into his conscious mind, for when he did, unwelcome
memories always slipped out with them. But the one directing him to
the valley had filtered through long ago, and so he had no need to
revisit it.

He gazed upward toward the towering peaks.
With luck, they would soon provide passage to a life free of
Tearian rule. It occurred to him that had one event in his life not
happened, had his hands not been burned, he would be the oppressor
of the people following him now, not Whyn. The thought made him
more anxious than ever to leave the land of his birth behind, to
press onward through the darkness if need be, but he knew to travel
at night was foolish; the narrow pass was going to be hard enough
to find as it was. He sighed, wishing the sun would linger over
them a while longer, but it was already settling behind the
mountains, and it would not be long before it disappeared
altogether.

Reiv raised his hand, signaling for those
behind him to stop, but then he realized a wave of shouts was
making its way from the rear of the line to the front of it. He
turned to see what all the commotion was about, and spotted a Jecta
scout sprinting in his direction.

“Tearian Guards!” the scout shouted.
“Approaching from the rear.” The man came to a halt, barely able to
catch his breath.

“How many?” Reiv inquired.

“A hundred on horseback, maybe more.”

Reiv focused his eyes in the direction from
which the man had run. “How far?” he asked.

“Four leagues,” the scout replied. “Maybe
less. They had just cleared The Black when we spotted them. We have
no way of knowing if they saw us, but. . .”

“They are headed in our direction.”

“Aye. And riding fast.”

Reiv felt his alarm build. There was no
chance of hiding this many people; running was their only hope.
Could he lead them to the pass in time? And would the Guard follow
them into it if he did?

“Spread the word that unnecessary baggage is
to be tossed,” he told the scout. “Tell everyone to take only the
barest essentials. We must make a run for the pass, and
quickly.”

Brina, who had been resting in the back of
the cart, slid off and stepped toward him. “What is it?” she
asked.

“The Guard have found us,” Reiv replied. “We
must run.”

Brina’s face, already pale, went even paler.
“Run?” she asked. She ran her eyes over the caravan, then turned
them back to Reiv. “You cannot ask these people to run, not in the
shape they are in.”

“What else can I do?” Reiv said. “We cannot
simply stay and hope the Guard will pass us by!”

“I—I know, but—”

“But nothing! Now help alert the others.” He
spun to face Jensa and Gair. “Take only what you can carry. Leave
the rest.” Reiv rushed toward the horse and the transport being
pulled behind it. “Cora!” he said. “Help Torin up. Get him onto the
horse.” Torin struggled into the sitting position, shrugging Cora’s
hands away. “Gair will help me, Cora,” he insisted. “You go find
Kerrik and the girls.”

Cora took off full speed, shouting the
children’s names louder with every step she took.

Reiv ran to the transport and unhitched it,
then hurried to the cart and thrust his hands into its contents. He
yanked out a bundle wrapped in cloth and handed it to Torin.
“Nannaven gave me this,” he said. “No matter what happens, do
not
let it fall into Tearian hands.” Torin looked at the
bundle with curiosity, but asked no questions.

The caravan soon became a hysterical mob as
the message sped down the column. People dropped their bags where
they stood, screaming and running in various directions. Reiv
barked an order for them to stop, to wait and follow him to the
pass, but once word spread that the Guard was approaching, survival
circumvented all common sense.

Reiv knew he had to get the crowd under
control, and the only way he knew to do it was to start the line
moving. Gair had already helped Torin onto the horse, and Cora was
now hustling toward them with the children in tow. Brina gripped
the horse’s bridle, clinging as if for dear life.

Jensa stepped in front of Reiv. “How can I
help? What do you want me to do?” she asked.

“If the Guard reaches us, I want you to run
as hard and as fast as you can. Do not stop, not for me, not for
Kerrik, not for anyone.”

“What? No!” she sputtered. “I won’t!”

Reiv took her face in his hands. “Now you
listen to me, and you listen well. It would be better that some of
us survive than none. Kerrik and the girls are fast; they could
easily slip away. And Gair is strong; he will fight for those of us
who cannot. But you—you do not want to know what the Guard would do
with a prize like you!”

Jensa reached up and gripped Reiv’s hands. “I
won’t. Reiv, please….”

Reiv wrapped her in his arms and held her
tight. “Promise you will run,” he whispered. “Please promise, for
me.”

“I—I promise,” she said at last. “I will run.
As you say.”

“Then do it. Now.”

Reiv released her and she sprinted to the
horse, grabbing the bridle from Brina’s hand. Soon the horse was
trotting next to Jensa, Torin and the children bouncing on its
back. Gair loped behind it, Brina’s hand in his. She looked on the
verge of fainting, but Reiv knew that were she to tumble, Gair
would be there to pick her up.

Reiv serpentined toward the back, shouting
orders for people to drop unnecessary belongings and follow the
caravan’s lead. Many who had hastened in other directions soon
rejoined the group. The line began to advance more and more
quickly. Reiv stressed urgency, but as hard as they were running,
their efforts were slow compared to those of the Guard drawing
near.

Reiv regained his place up front. He glanced
at the sky. It was nearly dark, and the incline before them was
treacherous. He would have wished for more moonlight, but that
would have further alerted the Guard to their whereabouts. Even a
single torch would have signaled their position.

The people ran as one, not looking back.
Their earlier cries had long since waned. Now all that could be
heard was footsteps pounding the gravel, and the rhythm of lungs
laboring through the encroaching darkness. Reiv kept his eyes
trained toward the mountain. At some point the rocky wall to his
left had to merge westward. Where was the pass? he wondered. Had he
missed it? Or had he been wrong about it all along? “Agneis, help
me,” he whispered. “I do not know where to go!”

You must accept and understand your own
heroic path,
her voice sounded in his head.
Only then can
you inspire the changes in others that will lead to a brighter
future.

Reiv felt his annoyance flare. The goddess
had spoken those words during a time that seemed long ago, but now
they were more like a dream, a figment of his imagination. “Heroic
path indeed,” he thought. “I am no hero.” But then he recalled
Jensa calling him a savior, and though he had emphatically denied
it, perhaps it was time to accept the fact that maybe he was one.
Were it not for him knowing of the valley and encouraging the
refugees to accompany him there, they would likely be dead by now,
or enslaved by Whyn. He supposed that in that regard he had indeed
saved them, until now at least. He glanced at the shadowy throng at
his back. After all this time, after all the hardships these people
had endured, they were still following him. He could not let them
down now. He would get them through the pass, even if he did not
make it through himself.

He rounded a massive tumble of boulders and
realized, to his relief, that there was an ample widening between
the rocks. The opening looked like a wide alley between two
towering buildings, just as he had seen in the vision. Like the
labyrinth of canyon walls that had guided them to the plateau and
then into The Black, this one would hopefully take them to the
valley.

“This is it; I am sure of it,” he called to
Jensa who was still leading the horse. “Take them in. I will go
back and alert the others.”

Jensa did not slow her pace. She turned her
gaze toward the passage. “In there? But Reiv—”

“Just keep going. The valley is on the other
side.”

“But you’ll be back—before we reach it, I
mean.”

“I have to see everyone through first.” He
ran to Brina and briefly grabbed her hand. She was having trouble
breathing, and Gair was practically carrying her. “We are almost
there, Brina. Just a bit further.” She nodded, but even in the
darkness she looked as gray as ash.

“You will look after her, Gair?” Reiv
added.

“Course I will,” Gair said.

Reiv moved back to Torin and the children.
Kerrik was in first position on the horse, with Gem and Nely
squeezed in behind him. Torin’s arms encircled the children from
the rear. “No worries,” Reiv said as he trotted beside the horse.
“We are almost there. I will see you shortly.”

“Where are you going?” Kerrik cried, twisting
around to face him. “You can’t leave us!”

“I must see that everyone gets in. When the
last person is through the pass, I will meet you on the other
side.”

“But what if the Guard comes?” Kerrik asked.
“They’ll catch you!”

“They’ll do no such thing,” Cora’s panting
voice said from the other side of the horse. “Reiv knows what he’s
doing.”

“That is right, Kerrik.” Reiv craned his neck
to see around the horse. “Thank you, Cora,” he said. He gave the
horse a slap on the rump and turned and headed in the opposite
direction.

Reiv made his way down the line, assuring
everyone they would soon be through the pass. Sighs of gratitude
were expelled, but no one dared slow their pace. As Reiv watched
the last of the caravan go by, he realized how very near they were
to safety. He shifted his eyes behind them, searching for the
Guard, but he saw no sign of them.

The sky began to deepen from shades of dark
lavender to thick charcoal gray. A bank of clouds was creeping
across the stars, obscuring what little there was of the light. The
wind picked up, sending a whistle into the air. The breeze felt
strikingly cool against Reiv’s skin. Dayn had told him once that it
was much colder in the mountains, and Reiv could not help but
shiver at the thought of how much colder it could actually get. He
was not dressed for inclement weather, and neither were the
refugees who had tossed most of their baggage along the trail.

He looked over his shoulder and down the
mountainside. A line of flames was snaking up the slope. The Guard
were closing fast, and clearly they were not concerned with
detection. Their torches bathed a wide swath of landscape around
them.

The last of the caravan began to disappear
into the pass. Reiv shouted to a few men who were taking up the
rear. “Wait! We have to hide the entrance!” he said. “Help me pry
some rocks loose.”

“But won’t they see where our footprints left
off?” one asked hesitantly.

“Perhaps, but it is our only chance.”

The men looked doubtful. They glanced from
Reiv toward their families who were now melting into the
shadows.

“Listen,” Reiv said impatiently. “We do not
have much time; we must do something, otherwise the Guard will
follow us in. If we pry some rocks loose and send them onto the
trail, we might not fool them, but we can at least delay them. They
will have to move the rocks to get by, will they not? That might
give us time to hide or perhaps set up some sort of defense down
the way.”

The men finally agreed, and soon they were
all scrambling up to various locations. The first few boulders they
released were not large, but they echoed loudly through the passage
as they pounded down the slopes. Smaller rocks bounced in their
wake, sending clatters of gravel after them. Reiv winced at the
racket they were making; it would surely alert the Guard to their
whereabouts.