Kaya walked away from the tents toward the far end of the outer wall. She tried not to think about the bodies buried under the sand. With the men approaching, she picked up her pace.
Connor and Andrew understood as much as they could about what was to come, and they fell in line behind the Wanderer.
Walking around the towering rubble, Andrew half expected to see the inner wall, but all they could see was sand and tumbleweeds.
“I thought there would be more left,” he said to Connor.
“I know. I can’t see anything that even looks like a building.”
“Well maybe in a few days there will be a whole city right where we’re walking,” Andrew said optimistically.
The two walked on in silence, straining their eyes to see any sign of the things they had come to expect from reading the diary.
The terrain behind the wall was more of an endless field than anything else. The soft sand of the open desert had turned to pebbles and rocks, and there were little clumps of grassy looking weeds all around them. The field gradually began to incline, the rocks became harder to avoid, and the mountains made everything feel small in comparison.
At two o’clock in the morning, Kaya stopped. They had been walking since before sunset, and since the objective was to try and keep a steady pace all the way up to the top, she gave them a little extra time to rest.
In less than an hour, the men were standing around looking at her.
“At this pace, we’ll make it there by sunset tomorrow,” she thought.
Slowly but surely, the unmarked path became more and more difficult. Just before sunrise, they found themselves climbing a steep rock face that crumbled under every step.
“Hey, quit with the rock shower would ya?!” Andrew called up the slope to Connor.
“I’m sorry, I can’t help it. This isn’t even rock! It just falls apart when you touch it. Grab onto this big clump of grass when you get up here, it’s pretty sturdy.”
“Can you hear the river?” Andrew shouted over the cascade of rocks and the sound of water in the distance.
“It’s gotta be just over this patch of rock if we can ever climb up it!” Connor yelled, sliding backward and showering Andrew in more pebbles and dirt.
Andrew coughed and shielded his eyes. When the dust had cleared, he called up, “I thought this would be easy. How did he even get up there?”
After a lot of climbing up and sliding backward, they finally stood at the top of a small granite rock face. They were sweaty, and Andrew was particularly filthy.
Kaya smiled at the sight of them. She knew the slippery slope was going to be a challenge, not for her, but for the Travelers. Unless you knew the trick of it, the climb could be exhausting and frustrating.
With dirt streaked faces and sand colored hair, Connor and Andrew stared in amazement at the Cups. The raging river poured past them, kicking up white water rapids in the middle and dangerous looking eddies all along the shore.
“Wow! Would you look at that,” Andrew said to Connor.
“Look at the color. Look at those rapids! How are we gonna cross this thing?” Connor asked, with nervous excitement.
They were both looking around when off to their left they saw their guide standing on a rope over the middle of the river. He was holding onto two ropes, one over each shoulder and in just a few seconds, he had crossed the entire river.
“I guess that’s how,” Andrew said.
“I hope that’s as easy as he’s making it look,” Connor said, tightening the small food pack on his back.
“Me too,” said Andrew, tightening his small pack and making sure his waterskin was securely fastened.
“Who’s going first?” Connor asked.
“After the rock shower you just gave me, I think you can follow me this time. I’m not following you and your nine toes anywhere I don’t have to.”
“That’s fine by me, but if you hear a really big splash guess what?”
“What?”
“You’re the first one going in the Chamber.”
“Just hold on and follow me,” Andrew said, stepping in front of Connor and making his way to the rope bridge.
Kaya was already across when Andrew made his way onto the bridge. She watched anxiously, hoping there wouldn’t be an accident.
Andrew was about ten feet out when Connor started onto the rope. It began shaking so violently, they almost fell off.
“Get off before you kill me!” Andrew yelled over the roar of the river.
“Sorry! I didn’t know it would do that,” Connor said, stepping off the rope. The bridge slowly quieted down, and Andrew gradually stopped swinging back and forth.
“I’ll wait here until you’re all the way over.”
With a huge sigh of relief, Andrew slowly made his way across. It wasn’t nearly as easy as their guide made it look, and after what seemed like an hour, he finally put his feet back on solid ground.
He watched anxiously as Connor started his crossing. He wobbled back and forth, struggling to keep the bottom rope steady. Andrew tried to yell advice to him, but the raging river made it impossible to hear.
Watching Connor’s hands moving along the ropes made Andrew curious. He followed the thick lines away from the river until they passed over his head.
When he turned around, his feet slipped out from underneath him as if he was standing on ice. He watched helplessly as his toes came up to eye level and he landed hard on his back.
He slid a few feet down the slope and stopped. Stunned and disoriented, he watched the tiny rocks and sand tumble down the steep slope, past the trunk of a twisted, thorny tree until they fell into an abyss.
Kaya watched as Andrew’s feet began to kick and push at the ground. He panicked trying to pull himself back from the edge of the slope.
As soon as Andrew was off the slope and away from the ledge, he sprang to his feet. He was terrified, and he started backing up until he bumped right into Connor.
“Hey watch out!” Connor yelled, teetered on the edge of the bank before finally catching his balance.
“What are you doing Andrew?! You almost knocked me into the river!”
Andrew reached up to help Connor away from the river, but Andrew’s hands were trembling, and Connor just stepped past him.
“What’s gotten into you? You could have killed me!”
“I, I, I almost fe…fe…fell in,” he stammered.
“What are you talking about? I saw you cross the river just fine! You would have backed right into the river if you hadn’t almost pushed me in!”
Connor took off his waterskin and poured it over Andrew’s head, saying, “Get a hold of yourself before you get hurt.”
Andrew felt the warm water run down his face and back. His eyes came back into focus, and the panic slowly slipped away.
Connor turned, looking at the ropes and gave a long whistle, “I wonder how he did that?”
Andrew stepped next to him, and said, “I’m sorry about all that. I slipped on the slope right there, and I think I would have gone over the edge if I hadn’t gotten lucky.”
Connor looked down at the slope, then at the thorny tree and finally at the nothingness that came after them. “Is that where your dad...?”
“It has to be. I almost went in myself, that’s what scared me to death.”
“Wow! That is scary.”
Connor paused, then motioned to the bridge, asking, “How do you suppose he got the ropes up there?”
Andrew looked at the ropes strung across the pit and over the back of it. But the back of the pit was a sheer wall, there was no way to reach it.
“I have no idea,” he said. “Where is our rope?”
“What rope?” Connor asked.
“You know, the rope we need to climb down into the pit. The rope we need to lower ourselves down to the Chamber. You know, the rope!”
“Oh, that rope. The last time I saw it was at base camp. Didn’t you grab it?”
“Well, that’s just great!! Now how am I supposed to get my dad out of the pit?!”
“How am I supposed to know? Why didn’t you bring it?”
“Why didn’t I bring it? It was your job to bring the stupid rope! How are we even going to get down to the Chamber?”
“I don’t know. We left in such a hurry, and Mr. Miller didn’t tell me to take it,” Connor explained with his head hung low. “I guess I forgot.”
Andrew turned to Kaya and yelled over the sound of the river, “Hey mister, do you have any rope because my stupid friend here forgot ours?”
Kaya almost answered before she caught herself. “Don’t get involved,” she thought. “Just lead the way, keep your mouth shut or you won’t make it home.” She bit her lip, turned on her heels and led on.
When Kaya turned her back, Andrew yelled, “What’s wrong with you! Can’t you see we need help?!”
Connor put his hand on Andrew’s shoulder, but before he could get a word out Andrew pushed his hand off, saying, “Get away from me.”
Connor stepped over to the river and started filling his waterskin. The speed of the water pushed the little bubbles coming out of it downstream before they broke the surface.
“What are we gonna do? I don’t think we should go on,” Andrew said.
Connor put the stopper in his waterskin and stood up. They were face to face when Connor looked down at Andrew, and said, “I’m sorry about the rope. It was an honest mistake. That guy over there,” he said, gesturing to their guide, “he’s not going to help us. It’s not what he does. Everything from here on out is up to you and me.
I’m sorry about not being able to go down into the pit, but seriously, even if we did have the rope what were you going to carry his bones back in? You didn’t even bring a spare bag. Besides, if we’re still alive after this he’ll either be resting comfortably in the Kingdom, or you can make an extra trip back up here and pick him up. As for me, I’m following that guy.
We’ll figure out a way into the Chamber without the rope. Mr. Miller said it wasn’t more than a good jump. We don’t really need the rope to get to the Chamber, you needed it to go get your dad.”
Andrew’s face was red, and he wanted to scream at the top of his voice. He couldn’t think straight, and he couldn’t figure out how it had come to this. Most of his reasoning, his justification for coming out here was to bring back the remains of his father. Taking a deep breath, he tried to calm down.
“I’m going to keep going Andrew,” Connor said, stepping around him. “If you’re coming, I suggest you fill up your waterskin and hurry up.”
Connor walked off, and Andrew was alone by the river. The only thing he could hear was the sound of the rushing water and the thoughts racing through his head. The early morning sun was shining on his face, warning him how hot it was about to get. He took another deep breath and let it out slowly.
“Nothing has changed,” he said to himself. “When this is all over I’ll come back with the rope and do what I came here to do. Nothing has changed.”
Andrew knelt next to the raging river and filled his empty waterskin with cold water. When the bubbles stopped, he lifted the heavy bag out of the water, corked it and put it over his shoulder. He took another deep breath and walked over to the edge of the slope leading down to the pit.
“I’ll be back for you,” he called into the abyss. “You’ll see. I’ll be back.”
Taking one last deep breath, he let it out slowly, then he did what he had been doing for as long as he could remember. He put one foot in front of the other and tried not to count the minutes and hours until the end of the journey. The sound of the river faded away until the only thing he could hear was his own footsteps.
As the day dragged on it got blisteringly hot. Kaya wondered how the men could stand walking around in the heat without a Shadow Cloak, but it was irrelevant. She knew they would be at the Chamber tonight, then all she had to do was ‘sit watch’ for a week, and she was free to go. She wasn’t supposed to concern herself with what happened at the Chamber. She wasn’t supposed to care if the men lived or died. She wasn’t supposed to do anything but get them there alive. The rest was up to them.
Regardless of the outcome, she had a Promise to keep. “The Promise is simple enough,” she thought. “Every woman of the village will wander the desert from the age of eighteen to twenty-three. We guide the Travelers to their destination and watch for the Signs. That’s it. That’s all I have to do, and I’m not going to mess it up on my very first try!”
She wondered what would happen to the larger man when he stepped through the doorway tonight. She wondered if he could answer the questions, she wondered if he even knew about the questions. She wondered how the other man would react if his friend died. There was so much she had never seen and only heard of. She kept thinking how relieved she would be when this was over.
Kaya stopped in the early afternoon to give the men a short break. They were still a few hours from the second crossing, but given the temperature, she thought it was for the best. Waiting for the men, she thought back through the last twenty-four hours and tried to recognize anything that could be a Sign.
She whispered them to herself the way she always did, “Shadow falls face to face. Two and two make three. A waking dream recalls. Touch the moon. The answers are given. Three become two become one. The sky above reflects the valley below.”
“I’m not even tired,” Connor said to Andrew as they finished their break under the blazing sun.
“I wish I could say the same thing. These hills are killing me. It’s just one after another and the sun is relentless.” He took a long drink and wiped his mouth. “How high up do you think we are?”
“We’re pretty high. I don’t know how far we’ve come, but I know it’s not as hot here as it is in the desert. Look,” he said, pointing to the horizon, “you can see the ocean from here.”
Andrew stood up and looked out over the desert. “It looks like it’s a million miles away.”
Kaya couldn’t imagine anything she had seen over the past twenty-four hours qualified as one of the Signs, and she was getting impatient to leave. After thirty minutes, she hit two rocks together to get their attention, then set off for the next crossing.
By four o’clock, they were ready to cross the Cups a second time. Kaya went first.
“Look at that,” Andrew said when Kaya was halfway across the river. “The rope hardly even moves when he’s on it. It barely even sags.”
Connor smiled and elbowed Andrew, saying, “Yeah, for such a big guy he sure is light on his feet.”
Andrew chuckled, but in the back of his mind, it did seem odd.
“I’m going next,” said Andrew.
“Fine by me.”
When their guide had crossed the river, Andrew took to the ropes. He wobbled more than he wanted to, especially at the middle, but he never lost his footing. He was very thankful for the hand ropes and within a few minutes, he was safely across.
Connor struggled, almost falling in twice.
“That was graceful,” Andrew said over the sound of the water as Connor hopped down off the ropes.
“I thought I was gonna get wet for a minute there.”
“Speaking of getting wet,” Andrew said, “let’s fill up our waterskins before we go.”
“Good idea. Looks like we’d better hurry, our faithful guide is already leaving!”
The sun had dipped below the mountains, leaving the Wanderer and her two Travelers in the cool shadows. Kaya knew it would be nearly impossible for her uncoordinated Travelers to attempt the final crossing in the pitch black of a moonless night, so she maintained an unforgiving pace.
Just before the cloudless sky turned black, they came to the last crossing.
“What, that’s it?! I could practically jump across,” Connor scoffed.
“Let’s just get this done before my legs fall off!” Andrew moaned wearily.
The Cups was only twenty feet across and just before twilight disappeared, they were safely across.
Kaya halted the march as soon as they were across the river, allowing the men to take their last break. She leaned against one of the giant boulders that seemed to have appeared from nowhere. It had been an exhausting hike, and she was glad they were close to the end. Everyone had made it safely across the river, which meant the trip had been a success. And now, in the final hours, before the men entered the Chamber, she could relax.
Looking up at the night sky and listening to the men talk, she snacked on dried fruit and nuts from her pack.
“We’ve got to be close now,” Connor said.
Andrew collapsed on a small boulder. With a great sigh, he said, “I would love to rest here until tomorrow.”
“Like I said, we’ve got to be close. I hope it’s not too hard to find the Chamber in the dark.”
Andrew touched his nose to see how bad his sunburn was. He took a sharp breath and pulled his finger away. “I think that guy can find it blindfolded. Can you see this sunburn?” he asked, pointing his nose in Connor’s direction.
Connor shook his head.
“I feel a little sick to my stomach.”
“Drink your water or you’re gonna get sicker,” Connor advised, pouring some water over the back of his sunburned neck.
They sat and relaxed as much as they could. Connor was nervous and couldn’t seem to stop talking. Andrew was only half listening until he fell asleep. When Connor looked over at Andrew and saw he was asleep, he decided to do the same.
Since they had safely made their final crossing, Kaya knew they were in no hurry. It was cooler than usual because of the altitude, and she took advantage of the downtime by walking a few hundred yards away to change her shirt behind a boulder. Taking off the Shadow Cloak, she stretched her arms wide. It was nice to have it off after wearing it for so long. It wasn’t heavy, but it was a little awkward when climbing. It made her top-heavy.
She massaged her shoulders where the straps rubbed and looked up at the crystal-clear sky. She found all the familiar constellations while she sipped at her water. Finally, she pulled on a heavier shirt and sat down to rest her eyes.
Kaya woke up with a panicked jolt. She glanced at the stars and instantly knew it was long after midnight. Her cloak was still off, and she was practically sitting out in the open. Chastising herself for her failure, she quickly got to her feet and put her cloak back on. With a renewed sense of urgency, she walked back to the men and was relieved to find them fast asleep.
She picked up two rocks and knocked them together. Neither Traveler moved. She tried again, but they were both out cold.
“This is like trying to wake up my brothers,” she thought.
Not wanting to bang rocks together all night, she walked over to Andrew and kicked his feet. The tips of his shoes swayed back and forth, but the sunburned, exhausted Traveler only stirred and mumbled. Kaya opened her waterskin and poured some onto Andrew’s chest. He rolled over and pulled his arms in.
Kaya dumped all her water onto Andrew’s head.
“Are we there yet?!” he asked. “Where am I?” He sat up and rubbed his eyes. Looking up at Kaya he asked, “What time is it?”
Kaya ignored him and walked to the river where she refilled her water.
When she returned Andrew had woken up Connor, but the two were obviously groggy. She figured they would wake up on the walk to the Chamber, so she started leading them into the darkness.
Andrew walked next to Connor as they followed their guide for the last time.
“How are you doing? Are you ready for this?”
“Who knows? I guess I’m ready. It sure is dark tonight. I can hardly see a thing.”
“I know. I can hardly see our guide. Where did he go anyway?” Andrew asked.
“He’s right up ahead,” Connor said, pointing into the darkness. “Ouch! Stupid rocks! You know it was sand for weeks, and now when I can hardly see anything, there are rocks everywhere.”
Sidestepping a rock the size of his head, Andrew fell in line behind Connor. Outcrops of mountainside and boulders bigger than a house loomed out of the darkness as they walked up steep, rocky slopes and narrow paths.
Twenty minutes later Kaya stopped. Connor almost walked right into her and Andrew bumped into Connor’s back.
“Sorry. Why did you stop?”
Connor looked over his shoulder, and said, “I think we’re there.”