The Girl Born of Smoke (30 page)

The air was still as the sun continued to
dip lower in the sky and they set off walking through the brambles.
With a quick glance over her shoulder, she saw the snow-capped
cliffs they had come from, lit up in reddish-brown hues by the
setting sun. The temperature seemed to drop the instant the sun
slipped behind the distant clouds and she shivered
involuntarily.

With a heavy sigh, Djerr moved closer to her
so their shoulders touched. “It’s going to be another cold night,”
he said unhappily. Tarana nodded absentmindedly and stopped
suddenly, jerking him backwards. Alarmed, he looked around and
seeing nothing, stared at her. “What’s wrong?”

She took her hand back from Djerr’s grasp
and touched her forehead. “I have an idea,” she said slowly,
sitting down and crossing her legs in front of her. “Last night,
when I reached out through the ground to bring out the water, I
could feel all the living things around me. If I tried that again,
just reaching out for something living, maybe I could find some
other people, maybe even a little town.”

Without waiting to see his reaction, she lay
down on her back, spreading her limbs in all directions. The sky
had grown dark and a few stars were starting to glimmer above them.
She closed her eyes and sent a trickle of energy from each limb,
speeding out into the ground. Ignoring the small packets of warmth
and energy that came from bugs and worms, she kept reaching as far
and as fast as she could.

Trying to skim the surface of the ground,
she felt a slightly larger animal digging, tickling her thin stream
of power. She could feel her own reserve of energy quickly
depleting, so she strained harder, branching out her reach. She
felt her body stiffening, her back arching slightly as she reached
the limit of what she could handle. Still she pushed a little
further, her reach jerking awkwardly forward.

Realizing her energy was about to come
snapping back to her body, she remembered one of the first things
Rupert had ever taught her. Relax your body, let your power come
freely, don’t force it. She repeated these words softly to herself
and let her body slowly relax without loosening her reach. With a
soft sigh, she spread her reach slightly farther in every
direction. Gasping suddenly, she sat upright. Djerr was kneeling
beside her, his head cocked as she sat up.

Her body ached with the effort and her heart
was racing, but she pulled out her piece of metal excitedly as she
gulped in the cold night air. “We’ve got to head that way, Djerr,”
she said, still breathing hard and pointing a shaky hand back
toward the cliffs, although much further to the left than where
they had climbed down.

In the darkness, neither could see what lay
ahead, where she pointed, but they had spent enough time studying
their surroundings to remember what it looked like. The base of the
jagged cliffs zig-zagged in and out, hiding great areas from view.
It was possible there could be a town hidden inside, they both
pondered in silence.

“What’d you see?” he asked excitedly,
helping her to her feet.

She stood unsteadily, bent over with her
hands on her knees. “I didn’t see anything, exactly,” she
explained. “It’s more like feeling. Anyway, there is a huge mass of
energy over there. A big group of people, basically.” She slowly
unfolded her body and took a slow step forward. “Well, a big group
of something living, anyway. Probably people.”

She felt Djerr slide her arm over his
shoulders so he could help her. She held the metal in her other
hand, watching it glint in the pale moonlight. “If we head back
this way and follow the cliffs, we’ll run into them.” She furrowed
her forehead. “I don’t understand, it was such a huge group of
people and they were all moving in one direction. It was like…a
herd of people. I hope they were people, anyway.” Doubt began to
creep into her voice, but she struggled forward.

“I’m sure you’re right,” Djerr said
confidently. “What else could it be, besides a bunch of people? We
haven’t seen any other animals out here except little birds and
stuff. Don’t worry, Tara.”

She smiled thinly and suddenly realized how
desperately hungry she felt. Imagining the flaky pockets of bread
filled with vegetables and creamy sauce she used to eat in Kain,
she let her mind wander as they walked silently through the muddy
wasteland. Every time she felt too tired to keep walking, she
silently reminded herself that she was probably too hungry to
sleep, so she might as well carry on.

As the moon climbed up behind them then
crept behind the nearly invisible cliffs, they were left in
complete darkness and reluctantly had to stop for the night as
Tarana couldn’t even manage enough energy to form another ball of
light. Shivering violently, neither even attempted to sleep as they
sat on the frozen ground, waiting for the sun to rise again, but at
some point she jerked awake and realized she had drifted off
unintentionally.

Blinking the sleep from her eyes, she
glanced around in the pre-dawn light and saw the cliffs towering up
higher than ever in front of them, but still no trace of any
people. Djerr sat next to her, his head buried in his arms, clearly
asleep. Gently shaking him awake, he looked blearily at her and she
saw how weary his face looked.

“G’morning,” he mumbled, slowly flexing his
frozen fingers. They both slowly stood and although she no longer
felt hungry, her body was weak and shaky. She wiggled her toes in
her boots, unable to feel them. As they traveled forward, they
refrained from talking to save energy. When the sun was at its
highest, the ground grew rocky beneath them and they were
face-to-face with the cliffs.

They followed the wall and as it dipped out
of view. Djerr looked down at the ground and smiled. “Look.” He
gestured down and tiredly dropping her gaze to the ground, Tarana
saw the dusty ground was imprinted with dozens of footprints. She
gave a small smile back at Djerr, knowing she should feel excited,
but wasn’t quite able to work up the energy.

They followed the makeshift trail along the
base of the cliff, working their way further into the tall
corridors that opened up around corners. Turning around another
corner, they suddenly heard voices bouncing off the walls around
them, echoing into a senseless murmur. Djerr began walking faster
and Tarana struggled to keep up with him.

Around several more corners, they finally
found a thin line of people walking past them, trudging across the
dusty ground. The cliff walls rose high above them on both sides,
shrouding the entire area in shadow. The two paused for a moment,
watching the group continue on unaware of their presence.

Djerr stepped forward and gave a short shout
and waved when several of the people turned his way. A couple of
the travelers gave unsure waves back to him as he walked closer,
Tarana a step behind. As they grew closer, they could see the worn,
dusty look etched on all the people’s faces. From the oldest to the
youngest, they all looked unbelievably tired and unhappy.

One of the women stopped as Djerr and Tarana
approached, her expression looking almost hopeful. As the two
approached her, she sighed and her expression darkened, but she
didn’t turn away. She looked several years older than Roxanne,
Tarana decided, although it was difficult to tell since the dust
only deepened the lines on her face.

“For a moment there, I thought you might be
my own children,” the woman said sadly to Djerr and Tarana. Her
voice was quiet and Tarana wasn’t sure if she was actually speaking
to them or not. Her gray eyes looked past the two, but then seemed
to focus back on them. “You poor children,” she continued, “have
you a mother or father left?” It had been a very long time since
Tarana considered herself a child, but she noticed that she and
Djerr were much smaller than most of the others passing them
by.

Tarana shook her head. “No, we’re on our
own,” she admitted truthfully.

The woman sighed again. “So many children
are. And so many parents are without their children. My own two are
gone, killed in the attacks. I held their dying bodies, yet I look
for them still.”

Struck by the woman’s terrible sadness,
Tarana swallowed hard and gestured at the people passing by. “Where
are you all traveling to?”

The woman shrugged. “They say the griffins
haven’t crossed the mountains yet. It may still be safe in this
corner of the world for awhile longer.” Trying to hide her alarm,
Tarana glanced quickly at Djerr and saw his eyes widen slightly.
The woman seemed not to notice and continued, “My late husband’s
brother lives in a town over this way. I am hoping he might have a
little room to spare. I only met him once, on our wedding day, but
I have nowhere else to turn. I hear the mountain towns are all
swarming with refugees. In this land of little, there is almost
nothing to share, nowhere to stay, but it is better than simply
waiting to die. Do you have relatives here?”

Djerr shook his head. “All we have is each
other now, but we’re the same as you. We didn’t just want to wait
to die, so we started walking.”

The woman nodded, looking mournful. “Please,
if you might, join with me. You are both so thin and you remind me
of my own. I have enough food to share and perhaps my late
husband’s brother could help you. It is worth a try, better than
begging from strangers.”

The thought of food made Tarana’s mouth
begin to water, but she hesitated. Although she wanted to keep her
distance from people, she knew they couldn’t survive forever on
water alone. With a quick glance to Djerr, she nodded. “Alright,
we’ll come with you. I’m sorry we had to meet each other like
this,” she said awkwardly. “We’ll try not to be too much of a
burden or anything.”

“Nonsense,” she replied, reaching around to
her backpack and pulling out a couple rolls and some dried strips
of meat. “Here, eat some. You look as if you are about to drop from
hunger.”

They tore eagerly into the food, taking
large bites and barely chewing. As the food sat like a hard lump in
her stomach, Tarana slowed her eating and wondered if her body knew
what to do with food anymore. It sat uncomfortably inside her, but
at least she was no longer hungry, she thought to herself. Her body
still ached with exhaustion, but the constant urge to eat was no
longer present. Trudging further into the maze of cliffs, they
followed the well-worn path of footprints with the other travelers
around them.

The woman introduced herself as Becky and
told the two about the town she was from, her family, and paused
occasionally to allow Tarana or Djerr to offer information about
themselves, but never pressed them on the subject. For that, Tarana
was thankful. Although anxious to hear about why there were so many
refugees and what the griffins were doing, she remained silent.

Becky also explained that the path they took
through the cliffs was a winding, but easy to travel pass through
the mountains. It exited near one of the largest towns on that side
of the mountains and from there, roads led to all the other smaller
towns. Most refugees, she added, were probably stopping in that
first major town, but she was traveling to one of the more remote
towns, where they were more likely to find work and housing.

Late that afternoon, Becky announced they
should reach their destination, the town of Shae’lin, the next day.
By the time the sun set, they were still surrounded by cliffs, but
the narrow valley had begun to open up. Small groups of similar
travelers were gathered around fires around them, but it was
strangely quiet, far different than the boisterous shouting and
laughter of the army. The stars had begun to show above them when
they finally got their own fire going and settled down for the
night. Although Becky had plenty of food to share, she only had one
blanket, so they awkwardly huddled under it while they ate.

As they lay down to sleep, Tarana between
Becky and Djerr with Djerr’s arm over her stomach, she tried
uncomfortably to sleep. As exhausted as she felt, the rocky ground
felt unusually hard underneath her and her hip ached, but she tried
not to shift around so as not to wake the others. Breathing deeply,
she tried to force her body to relax and go to sleep. Gradually,
after far too long lying awake, her body complied and she fell into
an uncomfortable sleep.

“So, you finally found yourself out of that
mess,” Rupert’s voice grated in her ears before she had even opened
her eyes. Sighing, she rubbed her eyes and slowly opened them. His
skinny frame, cloaked in the same heavy brown cloaks as usual, was
bent over as he crouched down beside her. Offering her a bony hand,
he helped her up and she sat down across from him. “I was beginning
to wonder if you would survive many more days without food to
replenish that energy you were depleting so quickly.”

She shrugged, not sure if she was being
complimented or criticized. “Well, it worked out fine.”

He raised an eyebrow. “An
interesting definition of ‘fine’ you have. Now we had better work
quickly. You need a lot more sleep to regain your energy. Food
helps, but it’s useless without sleep as well, you know. Of course,
sleep is useless without food!” He chuckled to himself, then
continued, launching into a lecture about the importance of food
and sleep. Thinking he seemed in an unusually good mood, she yawned
and laid her head down on her arms, lost in thought as her mind
wandered. After several moments, he gave her a sharp look.
“Are you listening?” he finally asked
impatiently.

She lifted her head from her arms and
focused on him. “I don't understand,” she said slowly. “All this
stuff that you've been teaching me, it contradicts the rules of
magic. You say that I need to touch something to affect it, that I
need to push something in order to move it. Then how do you explain
this?” She absentmindedly picked up a rock at the far end of the
cave and tossed it toward herself, but then deflected it away. “How
can I move something without touching it?”