Web of Deceit (22 page)

In the morning, they rose and continued following the Meliban River eastward. Rejji remembered the last time he and Mistake had been in this area and was leery of encountering Zaldoni sentries, but they saw nobody. They passed through the area where they had been kidnapped without encountering another human and Rejji began to wonder why all of the villages had been deserted.

Days passed without the sight of another person and eventually they encountered the South Fork River and could see the Giaming Mountains rising in the distance. They changed their path to follow the South Fork and the land began to rise slightly. Rejji could see the excitement rising in Mistake, as the mountains loomed larger and larger before them. Bakhai also appeared more relaxed and cheerful, as they got closer to the mountains he called home.

Rejji spotted a beautiful clearing as the shadows grew long and decided to make camp. Bakhai prepared the meal while Rejji bathed in the stream. Mistake went off for her evening walk, which she had made a daily practice, so she could connect with Fardale and report on their progress. The three Fakarans sat and talked well into the night as they discussed the coming search for the Sage of the Mountain. Eventually they all drifted off to sleep.

Bakhai was the first to notice something amiss as he sat up straight and strained his ears to listen. It was not a sound that had disturbed him, but a lack of sounds. The night animals had gone silent. He gently roused Rejji and Mistake and then eased himself into the bushes surrounding the clearing. Mistake and Rejji each went in a different direction to observe the trail passing by the clearing. Soon the sound of a single horse was clearly heard and moments later a rider came into view, illuminated by the moonlight.

“Hail the campsite,” the rider called loudly. “I seek no trouble, but would welcome the company of others. I am Brakas, formerly of the Zaldoni. Might I spend a while here?”

“Brakas,” Rejji called as he rose from cover and strode into the clearing. “You are far from home. Are you alone?”

“That I am lad,” grinned Brakas as he dismounted. “It is good to see you have survived the perils that plague our land.”

Brakas tied his horse to a tree as Mistake and Bakhai cautiously appeared. “I see you have fellow travelers,” continued Brakas. “Sorry if I have disturbed your sleep.”

“Bakhai and Mistake,” introduced Rejji. “They are my friends. We travel to the mountains to see the Sage of the Mountain. Have you information that might aid us?”

“Sage of the Mountain,” echoed Brakas as Bakhai stirred the fire to life. “I have heard such tales, but unbelievable rumors I would think.”

“He exists,” Mistake declared stubbornly. “And we will find him.”

“Well,” continued Brakas as he sat close to the fire, “what I have heard are stories about an oracle in the Bone Mountains, not the Giaming Mountains. Can’t say that the stories name him as the Sage of the Mountain, but these are all legends, lass. They are stories made to tell bored children in the villages to keep them from running off on their own.”

“It is a story that we mean to know the truth of,” Rejji said before Mistake could verbally attacked Brakas. “Why are you so far from the fortress?”

Everyone sat around the fire as the rekindled flames grew higher. Brakas removed his scabbard and laid it on the ground.

“I am no longer Zaldoni,” Brakas frowned. “The greens have joined the Jiadin, so I left. Now I seek the free tribes to unite them against the reds.”

“Klavin, Gregnic and the others are all reds now?” Rejji asked. “I never thought Wyant would join with the Jiadin. He sounded set against it.”

“All Jiadin now,” nodded Brakas. “They have ways of convincing the leaders to become followers. Wyant was never a strong leader anyway. He talked a good talk, but in the end he was weak.”

“What do you know of the Chadang?” Mistake asked.

“I spoke with Vrylok not too many days ago,” Brakas answered as he tried to appraise Mistake through the flames of the fire. “He is a strong leader and will never join the Jiadin. The blues will be the centerpiece of the resistance to the Jiadin.”

“No they won’t,” interjected Rejji. “We ran across them a few days ago. The Chadang no longer exist. I suspect it was Vrylok’s head we saw in the large tent with a torn blue scarf in its mouth.”

“This is not good,” frowned Brakas. “I was counting on the Chadang being a part of the resistance to convince the other tribes to rise up. Not good at all.”

“Why were the Chadang so far from home?” Mistake questioned.

“All the free tribes are on the move,” Brakas answered as he looked at Mistake quizzically. “None of them want the Jiadin to know where to find them, so they have become nomads and abandoned their permanent fortresses. It makes my job of finding them much harder.”

“How can you ever hope to find them all?” quizzed Rejji. “Fakara is a large country.”

“I ask others,” Brakas answered. “Vrylok showed me on a map where three other tribes might be found. When I find them, I will ask them where to look for others. I also know how the tribes think and where they might hide. I will find them all. I just hope it is in time to organize against the Jiadin.”

“Why is time a problem?” asked Rejji. “Are the Jiadin hunting all of the tribes?”

“Of course,” Brakas answered. “Grulak cannot afford to have the free tribes at his back when he attacks Khadora. He must get them to join him or he must eliminate them.”

“How can he hope to attack Khadora?” asked Rejji. “They have many armies there.”

“Grulak has allies in Khadora,” Brakas responded. “He also has tens of thousands of warriors and there are no prizes in Fakara. He wants the riches of Khadora and there is little to stand in his way.”

“What allies does he have in Khadora?” pushed Rejji.

“I don’t know the names,” Brakas responded. “What does it matter to the likes of us anyway? Unless I can rally the free tribes, there is nothing to stop the Jiadin. This talk is depressing me though, especially your news about the Chadang. What are your plans?”

“As I said,” Rejji offered, “we seek the Sage of the Mountain.”

“Where are you going to look?” asked Brakas. “Maybe I can ride with you for awhile if our paths align.”

“We are not sure where to begin,” admitted Rejji. “We had hoped to ask local villagers, but they all appear to have fled. I guess we will just go up into the mountains and look for him.”

“Well I wouldn’t mind riding with you for a ways,” offered Brakas, “but I have to go a bit north of here tomorrow. After I finish my trip, I will try to locate you and travel along with you. At least I will be able to provide you with some protection.  Traveling in Fakara is a risky proposition these days. I assume you are going to go through the pass?”

“Are there villages with people in them on the other side of the pass?” questioned Rejji.

“Yes,” responded Brakas. “There are a fair number of them. I don’t think the Jiadin have attempted crossing the Giaming Mountains at all yet, so the people would have no reason to flee.”

“Then that is where we will start,” nodded Rejji. “If the Sage is known in this area, surely the villagers will have tales of him.”

“Well that will take you a couple of days,” declared Brakas. “I should be able to complete my business by then and meet up with you. I must get some sleep now though so I can get an early start. I will be gone when you rise with the sun in the morning, so I will bid you a safe journey now.”

The Fakarans settled down to sleep as the fire slowly diminished to embers once again.

When the first rays of the sun filtered through the trees, Bakhai rekindled the fire and started preparing the morning meal. Rejji and Mistake were soon awoken to the smell of roasting rabbit and joined Bakhai at the fire.

“I see Brakas is gone already,” Rejji stated.

“Why do we want him to travel with us?” asked Mistake. “He has no interest in finding the Sage.”

“He is a good warrior,” answer Rejji. “It will be safer if he travels with us. Besides, we may find out more information about what the Jiadin are up to and what the other tribes will do in response. He knows a great deal about the tribes and their leaders.”

“And nothing about the Sage,” pouted Mistake. “I don’t care for him.”

“You don’t like him because he captured me once,” frowned Rejji. “He was only doing his job and he did it well. He means us no harm and he can be quite useful. You will see.”

The trio devoured the morning meal and headed eastward along the South Fork, as it raced down from the mountains. The air got cooler and crisper as they rose higher and occasionally they turned to look at the spreading vista below them. As darkness started to set in, Rejji hunted for a suitable clearing to build a fire. Just as the sky became black and the stars began shining brightly, he left the main trail and headed towards a clearing that was visible from the trail.

I would be careful with the fire tonight, Mistake,” Rejji said as they dismounted. “This clearing is a little tight for a fire.”

“Yes, but it is cooler tonight,” Mistake responded. “The warmth will be nice. I’ll be careful.”

Bakhai tended to the horses while Rejji scrounged up some dead wood for the fire. He had to look farther from the campsite than normal to find enough wood and by the time he returned, Mistake had a small fire going. He dropped the wood near the fire and sat with his back to a tree.

“There is a magnificent view a ways off towards the edge,” he smiled. “I have never seen so many stars before. It is very pretty.”

“We are running out of supplies,” Mistake snapped. “We need to visit a village soon. I can’t cook meals without ingredients.”

Rejji frowned and looked to Bakhai who was just shaking his head. “We will come to a village soon, Mistake,” soothed Rejji. “Probably before it is your turn to cook again.”

“There won’t be any need to cook until we get to a village,” Mistake retorted. “We will be eating the crumbs out of our sacks until then.”

“I will see what game I can find in the morning,” Bakhai said softly. “Let us eat before it cools.”

They ate in silence, which was punctuated only by the sounds of crickets chirping distantly. Rejji stole glances at his friends’ faces from time to time. Mistake’s face was a mask of gloom and Bakhai just shook his head. After the meal, Rejji staked out a place to lie down and stared up at the stars through the trees. Bakhai settled down not far away, but Mistake grumbled and stalked off into the woods.

“What is wrong with her?” Rejji whispered to Bakhai.

“She has been moody most of the day,” Bakhai answered. “I would just leave her alone for a day or two.”

“Did I do something wrong?” Rejji asked?

“You did nothing wrong,” smiled Bakhai. “She will be fine. Go to sleep.”

Mistake eventually ended up at the ledge Rejji had been describing to her before dinner. She sat and marveled at the stars for a time, mentally kicking herself for treating Rejji so poorly. She reclined on the ledge and let her eyes wander the heavens, wishing Rejji were there to stargaze with her. It was indeed beautiful, she thought. Oblivious to the cool night air, Mistake ended up falling asleep.

Mistake awoke suddenly and stared up into the sky. The huge full moon hung low in the sky, flooding the ledge with a soft moonlight. She shook her head and realized that she had slept almost the entire night on the ledge and the morning sun was only a couple of hours away at most. As the fog in her mind started to clear she heard the sound again. Yes, again, she thought, for it must have been the sound that had awakened her. It was the sound of riders.

Mistake crawled to the edge of the ledge and peered down at the trail they had ascended the day before. Four riders were climbing the trail at a fairly decent pace. They were not trying to make noise as they rode, but neither were they trying to remain silent. Their heads kept turning from side to side as if in search of something or somebody. Concerned etched into Mistake’s face as they rode through a patch of moonlight and she saw the red scarves adorning the riders.

Suddenly, the leader halted and pointed upward and Mistake’s eyes followed the path of his finger. A lump of terror formed in her throat as she saw the telltale wisps of a smoldering campfire riding gently in the still night air.

Silently, she pushed herself back from the edge. When she was sure she could rise without being seen, Mistake jumped to her feet and started racing through the forest. Mentally, she tried to calculate whether she could beat them to the campsite where Rejji and Bakhai lay sleeping. A dark frown covered her face as she tried to push herself even faster.

Bakhai was startled awake by the noise of the riders. He bolted upright to a crouch and shoved Rejji, wakening him, just as the riders appeared through the trees. Rejji’s eyes popped open and he scanned the campsite. His mind registered that Mistake was still missing, as his eyes locked on the approaching riders, their swords raised high. Rejji rolled to his sword, knowing he would not reach it in time. Just as his fingers wrapped around the hilt, he heard an inhuman scream that sounded like it had come from Bakhai.

Rejji completed his roll and came to a crouch while he tore his blade from its sheath. He looked up and saw the horses high on their hind legs and watched, as if in slow motion, the riders with red scarves tumble to the ground.

“Jiadin!” Rejji shouted as the three men regained their footing,

Rejji saw the fourth rider in the background still atop his horse, but his attention was drawn to the closer three as they charged forward. Rejji saw Bakhai swing at one of the bandits with a large dead branch as he brought his sword up to defend himself from the two bandits descending on him. He crossed swords with one of the men as the other screamed and dropped his sword, his hands going to the dagger, which had pierced his neck, as his knees buckled and his body dropped to the ground.

Mistake, smiled Rejji as the bandit he was fighting lunged at him. Rejji’s mind flashed images of the lessons he had learned with the Zaldoni, and he recognized the moves the bandit was making. He smiled inwardly as planned to utilize what he had learned at Fardale.