The Blinded Journey Page 14

  “I plan to return to Kisatchie Thrusts,” the dwarf announced. “I’ll be following this river to the southeast for a way. Are you going the same way, dear sister?” he asked.

  “Our path does run along the river in that direction,” Fontaine answered.

  “Then we can travel together for a day or two, it seems, and relive the glorious cheer of our childhood,” Dwad sounded mocking to Kendel, but his sister took the answer in stride, and they soon were on their way.

  “There’s no road here,” Waxen complained within half an hour.

  “Not for us, but there is for Fontaine,” Dwad replied. He’d been leading Kendel by the hand on a route that turned sharply left or right with constant frequency as they dodged around trees and briars and stony outcroppings. “Turnabout is fair play, I suppose,” he said.

  “How does she have a road and we don’t? We’re going to the same place, aren’t we? Where is she, anyway?” Kendel heard Waxen ask.

  “I’m just over here,” the mesmerizing voice sounded from several yards away.

  “She’s a water nymph,” Dwad answered. “She travels in or very close to the water, the river here. She couldn’t take a trip along a road unless the road was running along the bank of the stream she followed. So the land is tougher for us to follow, but the water is easy for her to follow.”

  “She stays in the water all the time? Is that why she wasn’t wearing any clothes?” Waxen asked.

  “I knew you were looking at her!” Gayl snapped angrily.

  “I couldn’t help it, could I?” Waxen said defensively. “It would be rude not to address a lady, wouldn’t it?”

  “Just get used to this, because the day after tomorrow we start entering the rough grounds,” Dwad interrupted the looming domestic battle.

  They continued on with their journey for some time more, until Gayl complained once more.

  “It’s getting too dark to see. We need to stop for the night and light a fire,” she said.

  “We can stop for the night,” Dwad agreed. “We made decent progress.

  “There’ll be no fire though,” he added as he slowed his movement, then stopped, and settled Kendel into sitting on a fallen tree.

  “No fire? Are there evil forces here in the forest?” Waxen asked.

  “Maybe; I don’t know,” Dwad replied. “I mean no fire because my sister can’t stand it. It’s a complete opposite from her nature, obviously.”

  Kendel listened to the grumbling of Gayl, and waited as Waxen and Dwad served the cold supplies that they had carried along for their meal. Afterwards, Waxen asked about setting out a watch detail.

  “It would just be you and me,” Dwad protested.

  “Brother dear, I can take a turn on watch,” Fontaine spoke up.

  “I can serve a turn too,” Kendel added.

  “What?” Waxen asked.

  “I’ll keep my ears open. I’m listening to more than I’m seeing now adays anyway,” Kendel offered. “And without a fire, you’re not going to see much more than I am anyway.”

  “The lad’s right, and we’re not going to have any trouble out here anyway,” Dwad supported Kendel. “And that makes everyone else’s shift that much shorter.”

  Kendel was given the third shift, right after Fontaine took the second shift, and he settled down to sleep as much as he could before his time came.

  “Young lord,” he awoke to a damp, cool feeling on his cheek, and when he raised a hand to brush it away, he felt Fontaine’s hand upon him.

  “Young lord, it is time for you to keep the watch. My turn is done,” the nymph told him.

  Kendel sat up and rubbed his hands on his face.

  “Thank you,” he said. “Go get your sleep while you can.”

  “Would you have a moment to talk first?” the nymph asked him.

  “Um, sure,” he agreed.

  “Let me lead you over towards the water, so that I can rest more comfortably,” she requested, and she led him by the hand across the forest floor to a spot where he sat and heard the river waters flowing very nearby.

  “My brother says that you are like us – that you are not human,” Fontaine reported. “But you have a very human look to you. Why aren’t you human?”

  “I am human,” Kendel raised his voice, then lowered it significantly. “I am human,” he repeated. “But Dwad thinks that because I came from a different world and because I handle powers, I must not be.”

  “His logic seems sound. Just because you look human on the outside,” Fontaine mused. “Afterall, I look human, don’t I? And I’m not human.”

  “I don’t know what you look like,” Kendel pointed out annoyed at the oversight by the nymph.

  “Oh, forgive me,” Fontaine’s low voice sounded sincerely contrite. “Here, give me your hand,” he felt the moist pressure of her fingers on his hand once more, and then his hand was lifted, and was suddenly atop her head.

  “This is my hair,” her hand pulled his hand down along tresses that extended below the nymph’s shoulders, down to the middle of her back. “And here is my nose,” his hand was raised up and around to her face. “Here and my cheeks, and lips, and neck, and,” her hand started to go lower, but Kendel grew panicky and withdrew his hand.

  “Did I hurt you?” she asked innocently. “I just wanted you to feel my human features.”

  “Yes, you do feel human,” Kendel hastily agreed.

  “When you’re in the water, do you still have legs?” he asked, wondering if she became a mermaid, and glad to change the topic.

  “What?” she seemed disconcerted by the question. “I’m a nymph, not a monster.”

  “Sorry,” Kendel sensed her obvious disdain for the question. “I just don’t know anything about nymphs in this world.”

  “Is that what they do in your world? How odd,” Fontaine exclaimed.

  “No, we don’t have nymphs. But we have stories about mermaids, people who live in the water and have fish tails instead of legs. But those are just stories, they aren’t true,” Kendel tried to set the record straight.

  “How long will our journey be?” Kendel asked.

  “Your journey is longer than I can discern,” the nymph said cryptically. “Tomorrow we should reach the spring where the humans will fetch their water. Then they will leave us, and you and I will travel for another three days, if we make good time.”

  “Will Dwad travel all the way with us?” Kendel asked.

  “He might. I’m not sure what his route is. We’re lucky to have him along; he knows how to travel the land better than anyone else,” Fontaine answered. “I really should spend more time trying to visit him, but I like living in the bigger rivers where there are others and more society.”

  “Other nymphs? There are other nymphs?” Kendel asked.

  “There are other humans, aren’t there? Yes, there are other nymphs, and other dwarves, and other centaurs, and all the races. This happens to be a land where the humans are more numerous,” Fontaine answered dismissively, as if Kendel was ignorant.

  He was tired of the conversation, and ready for it to be at an end.

  “I’m ready to start my shift on the watch. You can go to sleep now,” he abrupted said.

  “That’s it?” Fontaine asked. “So be it.” He heard her footsteps leave his side, and then there was just the sounds of the forest around him.

  There were birds in the forest at night, he realized. They made sounds and calls as they flew overhead among the tree branches he couldn’t see. There were insects buzzing and chirping. There was the sound of the water flowing. There was even the sound of someone snoring. But there were no sounds of danger, no snarls or screams or footsteps snapping twigs or rustling leaves.

  He felt alone.

  He missed the group from Sunob. While Waxen and Gayl were part of the group, Kendel had never actually engaged in much conversation with the married couple. He missed most of the others, especially Sir Elline and the young ladies of the court. And especially Grace.r />
  He and Grace had grown comfortable with one another. The girl had grown comfortable enough with him to break free of some of the constraints her society demanded of her. The two of them had held hands, had talked freely, had shared a bed. And now Kendel was moving away from her and wondered if he would ever see her again.

  He missed Jameson. He missed his mother. He missed Liza.

  He missed Flora.

  He’d lived for days now back in the magical lands without Flora, and a part of him was used to a life without her. But another part, deeper inside his soul, wanted desperately to be teamed with the actress again. She was smart and savvy and resourceful. She was much wiser to the ways of the world than he was. He wished she had been transported along with him when he’d been returned to Miriam’s land.

  Instead, she hadn’t, and thinking about that reinforced his dismal thoughts about the fact that he was alone. Alone and blind. Alone and subject to the orders of a daunting and cruel goddess. Alone and on a mysterious journey through the forest.

  His musings were interrupted by the sounds of the night birds in the trees overhead. They seemed to be roosting directly above the campsite, rustling their wings and murmuring to each other in low tones that hardly sounded like birds at all.

  His head snapped upward, and his senses were aroused at the thought. Perhaps they weren’t birds, but some strange type of creature. Fontaine had mentioned nymphs, dwarves, centaurs – perhaps there were other magical beings in the forest as well.

  Kendel focused on releasing his senses, as he had learned to do when he had so urgently needed to save Sir Elline from the green energy. He focused on extending his awareness upwards towards the birds; it was a display of paranoia, he knew, but he had to be sure that the birds were just birds.

  He made a sudden contact with a being on a lower branch in the tree, and he could only vaguely sense awareness in the being. Perhaps it was considering the air currents around it, or maybe something else. It must be a bird, or something equally harmless he concluded, proof that he was being paranoid. There were no harmful things in the branches overhead.

  And at that moment there came a loud snarling sound from the branches above the one where his conscious had paused, and he sensed anger and hatred and a plan to kill and destroy. Wings rustled and creatures screamed and then dropped down into Kendel’s field of consciousness as a host of monstrous entities descended with an intent to kill the group that camped on the ground.

  Kendel acted in shock. He pulled the blue and green energies free from his soul and dispersed them in a panicked reaction that took only a fraction of a second to erect a dome of energy that encompassed his party protectively.

  “What’s happening?” Fontaine’s voice spoke alertly.

  Kendel heard a pounding sound, and then multiple sounds, loud, squirm-inducing sounds as the creatures that were diving downward at high speed struck the sudden dome with full force, smashing themselves destructively. And with each creature’s death, Kendel felt a release of evil vitriol, a painful dowsing of hatred that made him begin to moan in pain from being subjected to the onslaught of dying malice.

  “What in the name of all of father’s stones is happening?” Dwad shouted. Kendel heard the dwarf unsheathe a sword.

  The pain of the attack was more than Kendel could bear.

  “Kendel, what’s happening?” Fontaine asked. He was sitting on the ground, he suddenly realized. He had fallen off his seat as he’d reacted to the results of the attack.

  “I can’t withstand any more!” he shouted.

  “What? Withstand what?” Fontaine asked. She was beside him, and her cool hands were touching him, then she was embracing him, her body protectively wrapped around his.

  “It’s over lad. There are no more. The harpies all died. You can turn off the light show; you’ve already saved our lives,” Dwad was speaking, and drawing closer. Gayl was moaning in terror somewhere close by.

  It was over, Kendel heard, and he weakly recalled the energies and withdrew his awareness to within himself again.

  “It’s dark again! I can’t see,” Gayl lamented. “Are we safe?”

  “We’re safe for now,” Dwad answered loudly, as he reached Kendel and knelt down. “You did well lad, very well indeed,” he said in a kindly tone.

  “Where did they come from?” Fontaine asked her brother.

  “That’s part of the question, isn’t it?” he answered. “Where did they come from, why did they attack us, and who sent them?”

  “Are there monsters like that in these woods usually?” Kendel asked. “What are they, do you know?”

  “They’re harpies, and they don’t usually roost anywhere around here,” Dwad answered. “They come from far in the east, in the mountains out on the other side of Headterre. I’ve never heard of them leaving the mountains before.

  “How’d you know to throw up your powers to protect us?” he asked Kendel.

  “I heard something in the trees, and I was using my senses to try to figure out what it was, when I felt their evilness,” he replied.

  “You aren’t human at all,” Fontaine interjected softly. “Sensing outside your body, producing magical powers – very impressive abilities.”

  “I just got lucky,” Kendel said. “They didn’t sound like birds when they were over us, so I decided to check, because Fontaine said there were lots of different kinds of monsters around.”

  “Everyone try to go back to sleep. I’ll keep watch until dawn. Kendel, you get some rest – you’ve earned it tonight,” Dwad told everyone.

  Chapter 20

  Kendel awoke the next morning after the attack without the benefit of much additional sleep; the pain he had felt had taken time to depart. He sat up and heard others around him moving, indicating that the day was starting.

  “They’re ugly-looking things, aren’t they?” Waxen said to someone.

  “They look even uglier when they’re alive and coming at you,” Dwad answered. “You can thank your stars you’ve got our hero over there who protected you last night. I doubt there’s been a fight of harpies so thoroughly defeated in a thousand years. Whoever sent them will be mad, or scared, or vengeful, or all of those mixed together when they realize they didn’t accomplish anything.”

  “I’d say we ought to try to move quickly today,” Dwad said. “The sooner we can get to Fontaine’s special spring, the sooner we can get these two safely back on their way to the other humans, and then you two can go off to wherever you’re bound, to do whatever you’re assigned to do.”

  Fontaine said nothing in response, nor did the others.

  Kendel awkwardly rolled up his sleeping blanket and tucked it in his pack, then waited only a minute for Fontaine to come and take him by the hand.

  “Come with me and we’ll lead the way. Knowing that I’m walking with the paramount sorcerer of the land makes me feel much more confident this morning,” she told him in her husky voice that he found so appealing.

  They all walked together through the woods, and Kendel found that they had to scramble over rocks and changes in topography with increasing frequency that required increasing effort as they progressed, and the land grew wilder. They each ate a portion of their rations for breakfast as they walked, all except Fontaine, who excused herself and left the group.

  “She’s in the river having her breakfast,” Dwad answered Kendel’s question between bites of his food. “She wouldn’t eat this terrestrial food, as she called it.”

  Around the middle of the day, they came to a stop.

  “We need to cross the river to get to the exedra where the spring waters flow,” Fontaine told them.

  “You know how much I hate to get wet,” Dwad growled.

  “There are stones across the river that are just below the surface. The crossing will be relatively dry and simple,” his sister replied. “I tried to make this as comfortable as possible for you, dear twin,” she gave a light laugh.

  “What’s an exedra?” Kendel asked.


  “That’s what I want to know,” Waxen spoke up.

  “It’s a fancy word she uses to impress you all,” Dwad answered. “I’d call it a grotto.”

  “Let’s go, shall we?” Fontaine asked, and they all went to the edge of the riverbank.

  “I don’t see any stones in the river,” Dwad complained.

  “Just watch me,” Fontaine offered, and Kendel heard the sound of light splashes in the water.

  “She made that look easy,” Gayl commented. “You make sure I don’t fall,” Kendel heard her tell her husband, and then he heard a splashing sound and a series of squeals, followed by a shout of triumph.

  “If she can do it, so can I,” Waxen declared, and suddenly there were more loud splashes in the water.

  “Well lad, how exactly are we going to get you across this puzzle?” Dwad asked.

  “Are the stones in a line? Evenly spaced?” Kendel asked.

  “They look to be, from what I’ve seen the others do,” Dwad answered.

  “Put my foot on the first step and see if I can make it,” Kendel suggested.

  Dwad guided him to the edge of the river. “Now step down two feet in front of you to the first stone, and then the second stone is two feet in front of it.”

  Kendel felt Dwad’s hands gripping his shoulders as he placed his right foot down and felt it enter the water, then land on the stone. The current was brushing against his ankles and was beginning to seep into his boots. His feet would be soaked by the time he crossed the river. He sighed inwardly.

  Dwad still held on to him as he lifted his left foot and moved it forward to where he expected to find the next stone, which fortunately happened to be just where he needed it to be. He’d left the land and felt how tenuously stretched Dwad’s grip was as Kendel stepped away from the dwarf on the shore.

  He took another step, and moved beyond Dwad’s reach, then found his footing further out in the river.

  But then, he sneezed suddenly.

  He lost his balance, and he fell into the river, just barely aware of the screams of the others in his party as they saw him fall.