Things Unseen: (An epic fantasy adventure series) (The Caris Chronicles Book 1) (8 page)

Around her, horses broke into a gallop. Not knowing what was happening but aware it was important, Caris pressed her knees into Indira’s sides. Her horse didn’t need much encouragement to match her speed to those around her. They broke off the road and started heading across country, following behind Crispin and Syngar who hadn’t waited for them.

Bek, cantering his sweating horse slowly, allowed everyone to pass him by. Caris noticed Bonny was no longer by her side; looking around, she spied her calming the pack and riderless horses. Caris considered pulling back to help her but saw Bek pulling alongside to give her a hand. They seemed to have everything under control, and there was an urgency that had been building within Caris all morning that couldn’t be denied.

The horses were almost spent by the time a small village became visible in the distance. Though still too far away to see people, a feeling of futility welled up within Caris and she knew they were too late. They had been cantering, as the horses couldn’t maintain a constant gallop over the uneven ground, but as they neared the town, Crispin called for them to urge one last burst of speed from their weary mounts.

Entering the village, Caris recognised the small colourful houses from her morning’s reverie. She looked toward the pale lavender house that the woman with three small children had been running past and saw a foot tangled in the remains of a faded blue skirt. She turned to the side and, leaning out from Indira, lost her morning meal as Corin quickly pulled his horse out of the way. Pulling herself upright, she looked around at the empty village. Suddenly she realised that she didn’t know where Janen was. Had he and Tilda tried to fight off the derks on their own? Before her fear had time to overwhelm her, Janen rode up and offered her a damp piece of cloth. She accepted it with relief.

Crispin led them at a slow walk through the town, Tilda by his side filling him in on what had happened. Caris rode, her eyes searching rooftops and windows for any sign of life, a hollow feeling of grief in her stomach. Reaching the southern edge of the village Caris expected Crispin to call them to dismount but with a grim face, he continued to walk his horse in a south westerly direction back toward the road they had left.

They rode in silence until the sun was high in the sky. A couple of the young men pulled some hard bread from their saddlebags and ate a small meal while still mounted, but Caris had no stomach for food.

They rode until the sun lowered toward the horizon. They had ridden far to the south before gaining the road again. When they reached it, Crispin found a shaded area close to the river.

Before dismounting, he called out, “we will rest the horses and camp here tonight.” Numbly Caris dismounted and led Indira down to the water. She only let her drink a small amount at first, but let her have some more after removing her tack, and again after giving her a good brush down. Though the day was still warm, she laid a light blanket over Indira’s back and left her untethered as she sat down by the water’s edge and applied herself to the mindless job of polishing her saddle.

The evening fires were lit quietly and a small meal prepared as no one really had much of an appetite. While eating, Caris noticed that at some time in the afternoon Bonny and Bek had caught up to them with the spare horses. After slowly eating a couple of eggs and a sausage amidst the subdued camp, she again wandered down to the water’s edge. She noticed Kalen sitting in a quiet spot crying. She considered going to lend her comfort but something about her suggested she wanted to be alone. Finding a large rock farther downstream, Caris sat down to stare at the water.

Soon after, Janen sat down beside her. They sat in silence until Caris asked, “What happened?”

“We were scouting to the south east. Tilda always tells me everything about the surrounding country and she had mentioned a village to the east. I had forgotten about it when we saw the derks in the distance cutting across our path. They were too far away to be a threat to us as long as we stayed unnoticed. So, though I was concerned about the heightened number of derks in the land, that Tilda is always worrying about, I didn’t think much of it.

Tilda and Bek immediately went into a state of emergency however. Tilda sent Bek to inform Crispin and he left at a gallop. I asked her what was wrong but she forced me to work it out for myself; it’s her way of teaching me,” he said by way of explanation.

“As she led me to surreptitiously circle behind them I realised the derks were headed straight for the village Tilda had mentioned earlier. We followed them all the way there. It was awful Caris, watching them descend on that village, knowing there was no way we could stop them. I wanted to circle in front of them to take warning to the village but Tilda wouldn’t let me. She was right, there was no way I could’ve out run them, even on Prince. But sitting by and watching them was the worst experience of my life. No one survived, not even the animals.”

He paused but continued a moment later, “entering the village after the derks had fled was so sad. It brought up all my feelings from after our village was attacked,” he said looking at her. Caris nodded in agreement, but inwardly she thought
all those feelings and more.
Briefly, she allowed herself to question the pictures she had had that morning of the village under attack. It was too far out of her understanding to make sense of and her grief was too deep for her to deal with it, so she forced the confusing questions away and went back to numbly staring at the water. After a while, Janen took her hand and they sat quietly in shared grief.

The next morning, the subdued company set out at dawn as usual. Caris had looked around for Janen at breakfast but he was already gone along with the other scouts: Tilda, Bek, Aliel, Dingael, Esteal, and Iri. The scouts travelled in pairs, two along the road, two on the other side of the river and two to the southeast, except for Tilda and Bek who now had Janen with them.

Janen had told Caris that they rotated their positions, giving the horses easier travel along the road every third day, and forcing them to ride all day in the hot sun only every third day. Though the road was the easiest route, Janen said he most preferred travelling on the other side of the river, as the trees were denser and the wildlife more abundant. Caris wished she could be with him as he learnt all about this part of the land and the different animals that lived in the tree line along the river. She wondered where he was scouting today.

Crispin kept the horses to a brisk walk, rather than the usual walk/canter rotation they usually employed. The horses were still tired after the previous day’s futile rush to save the village from derks. Caris looked around to the spare horses and noticed that the scouts had exchanged their mounts for the day. Prince was tossing his head and stepping high, not looking at all wearied after his exertions. He obviously didn’t like being kept to the back and as Caris watched, Bonny separated him from the other horses and, attaching his lead rein to her saddle, led him to the front where she rode beside Crispin. Prince settled in his new position and walked eagerly beside them, ears flickering attentively to every new sound around them.

Before they had travelled far, Garner moved his horse alongside Caris’. She was not feeling like much chatter and fortunately, he seemed to share her mood. She found she liked having him near and wondered whether he would become someone she called a friend. It was interesting to hear about his life in a town as a blacksmith, a world of which she had no experience. She liked his steady voice and the way he drew her out of herself in conversation, and it was good to hear about some of his previous experiences in The King’s Horse, giving her an idea of the kinds of things she might experience in the future.

Caris wondered how Kalen was faring this morning. She had been the most upset by the previous day’s tragedy. It was strange for Caris to see Kalen upset, as she normally wore a constant smile of contentment. Caris looked over at her and noticed her dismissing Jispri. He tried to tease her into allowing him to stay but, with a firm shake of her head, she nudged her horse and pulled away from him.

Caris readily identified with Kalen’s desire for solitude but wondered at the confidence that enabled her to demand it. Though Caris often desired to be left to her own thoughts, she was too afraid of offending people to ask them to leave her alone. She looked back to where she expected to see Jispri riding disconsolately and was surprised to see him chatting happily with Corin.

The morning passed surprisingly quickly for Caris. Finding that she had no desire to continue dwelling on the sorrow and confusion of the day before, she found herself initiating conversation with Garner who responded with immediate warmth. Eventually, their conversation circled around to what was foremost in their minds and they began to speak of the slaughtered village. Caris found herself cautiously telling him about what she had pictured in the morning before word had reached them of the impending attack.

She waited for Garner to laugh at her; though she would be embarrassed, part of her wanted the relief of having someone tell her she was being silly. Garner didn’t laugh at her, however. He listened closely until she had finished, as was his way. She waited for him to comment, but he just slowly nodded his head as if not at all surprised but not sure of how to respond. Finally, he asked, “Is this the first time something like this has happened to you?”

“Yes” Caris replied, shaken by how seriously he was taking it.

He nodded again and looked over at Kalen who was lost in her own thoughts. Finally, he said “Well, I’ve heard of other people having similar experiences; It’s not that unusual.” Caris stared at him in amazement.

“What other people? It’s certainly not a regular occurrence in my village!”

“No, no, it wouldn’t be” he replied cryptically. Caris was wondering how to pursue the conversation when he said, “I really don’t know much about it.” He glanced at Kalen again and then with a smile said, “Don’t worry about it. It’s not a bad thing.” Caris looked at him in confusion but he changed the subject and began to talk about how the horses were going to need reshoeing when they came to a town.

Finding it a subject easy to ignore, Caris rode lost in her own thoughts. She hadn’t really expected Garner to have any insight into what had happened to her, but she hadn’t really expected him to take her seriously either. She found that instead of having her worries lifted they now felt heavier and somehow more real.

She wasn’t sure even of what she was worried about. She hoped she wasn’t going mad. That would explain Garners hesitance to talk about it with her. Finally, deciding that dwelling on it wasn’t going to stop her going insane, she pushed the thoughts aside and cutting into Garner’s one sided conversation about horse shoeing expressed her curiosity about the town at the end of The King’s Road.

When the sun was halfway across the sky, Crispin called for them to stop in a cool green area under some trees. Garner quickly dismounted and again lifted Caris down from her saddle. She laughed lightly at the joke and joined the others for a quick meal of hard bread and cheese. She noticed Kalen walk over to sit next to Jispri, though still looking upset she mustered up a smile for him and a small comment too quiet for Caris to hear. It seemed enough to content Jispri and he welcomed her as warmly as ever.

After a short break, they mounted and started riding at a brisk walk. Caris was surprised to see Garner lead his horse over to her and fall in beside her again. They easily fell into conversation, disjointed as it was by the quickness of their walk. As they rode, Caris noticed that Kalen welcomed Jispri’s company and gave him her usual undivided attention.

About mid afternoon, Caris became aware of a dark smudge on the horizon in front of them. As they rode toward it, it continued to grow. So far, they had all been keeping to the left side of the road on their journey to stay under the shade of the trees lining the river, but as the afternoon progressed, the road wove in amongst the trees and the growth began to spread out farther to the east of them.

Riding amongst the trees Caris began to feel closed in. Over the last few weeks, she had seen more trees than ever before in her life, but at least they had been riding along the edge of them. Now the trees were spreading out on either side of her, blocking her view of the wide barren land that had surrounded her, her entire life. She realised with a jolt that the smudge on the horizon she had been watching earlier was actually trees. Her mind couldn’t encompass how many trees it would take to fill such an area and, with mounting fear, she realised that the road they were travelling would lead them straight into it.

Caris looked around at the rest of her companions to see if they were uneasy, but discovered they were, if anything, more relaxed and happy in the cool shade. She remembered how she had been wishing to explore amongst the trees on the opposite side of the river and realised this would be her chance to experience a new environment.
If you’re going to freak out every time you have a new experience you may as well go home right now,
she berated herself.

She could still see glimpses of the wide-open land through the brush that seemed to be pushing in on either side of the road. The knowledge that openness was so close brought her some comfort as she forced herself to focus on the varied species of plant that began to introduce itself into her surroundings. As she rode, she noticed small droppings she was unfamiliar with and decided she would spend the afternoon trying to spot a new kind of animal.

When they reined in that evening, Caris discovered that, although she hadn’t had any success in her search, she felt more relaxed than she had in days. She paused on Indira’s back momentarily for one last look around in the gathering gloom; suddenly Garner was at her side once more lifting her from her saddle. She began to think the joke was getting a bit old and hoped he wouldn’t continue it much longer.

Everyone tended to their horses and set to lighting a fire much quicker than usual and Caris noticed that the shelter of the trees meant that darkness was descending on the camp much faster. As she sat down to eat, she was relieved to see that Garner didn’t sit by her but instead sought out Kalen’s company. A slight weight lifted from her shoulders and she realised it wasn’t just the trees making her feel closed in but Garners constant presence by her side.