I trusted in Diomed’s feet, his senses that he would not fall or take us into danger or would be able to avoid those things I could not see. Of course, six loose horses galloping through the Mists was not something you had to see but you would certainly feel it. Their weight and hooves impacted the ground sending shockwaves forward. I knew that, so slowed the horses to a walk after a few miles.
“Arian, how do you tell where you are going? Where we even are?” I asked in frustration. The only thing I was still sure of was that we were still on flat ground and not traveling upside down. Of course, we could be going in circles.
“You opened the dearmad way, Tobias. It can only go straight to your desired pathway. Follow it, you cannot get lost,” she announced.
“Can anyone else see it?”
“Yes. It is an arrow leading our pursuers straight to us,” she returned calmly. “But, the Faet and the Klese will be afraid to step on the path as our legends say that only the Tiʄnéræn may trod the Lost Way.”
“You’re not afraid?” I asked looking back and frowning. I thought how stupid it was announcing which way I was escaping and wished I could conceal it from all but our eyes. The path dimmed, turned violet and shimmered before us, a finger-shaped glow that pointed the way yet only was visible to us six.
I felt her soldiers slip past us in the dull mist yet they did not see us. They were mounted on the sleek horse-like creatures they called sylphs and were loping silently, fully armed with torches held high---those baton things I had seen them carry but had never seen them used. We passed them without a sound and my skin shivered at the determination they wore on their faces.
“Lyr Averon’s special Guard detail,” she whispered as they were gone. “Trackers who have crossed the Wall and returned. They will find us.” She kicked Beau into a gallop and he bolted away from me. Diomed followed as if he had caught her sense of fear and urgency.
Riding through this mist was one of the oddest experiences I had ever had. There was no up or down, no sound and no way to tell if you were moving or simply galloping in one spot. It made you doubt your senses---mostly your sense of balance because there was nothing visual to focus on. The only reality I could safely judge was Diomed and me. I could not judge by the sight of the other horses and Arianell because I could not see them most of the time, either.
Then, out of the gray mist and the meagre glow of the violet pointer, I saw the Wall. It began as a solid base of gray-flecked granite about which had its own glow, yet I could see through it---see the landscape of mountain slopes, pines and hemlocks, even rushing cataracts of white water across rounded boulders. I could smell the forests, the spray in the air and hear the crying of the hawks, the chittering of ground squirrels and blue jays.
The stones of the Wall hummed and when an animal approached it from the other side, the wall shimmered. It was as if the creature had received a mild shock. It skittered backwards and bolted away from the Wall. Yet, I saw it allow others to cross without incident as if the Wall wasn’t even there.
“Lyr Averon can control who crosses and what doesn’t. If the land needs new blood, the Wall will allow entry so that our wildlife does not become stale or inviable.”
“Will it let us pass?” I asked and she stopped Beau with a subtle shift of her seat, slipped off and approached the wall with a confidence I did not possess. Touched the barrier lightly and it coruscated about her hand, sending ripples out in all directions.
She looked startled and then afraid, threw herself upon Beau’s back and lunged him at the same spot. “Flee, Tobias!” she cried. “I have just told them where we are!”
Horse and rider went through as if sucked into a hole in the ocean. When I followed, I felt the wall scream as if in mortal pain, it closed around me trying both to repel and let me free. Fire filled my cells and made my brain stop; all I could do was sit like a leaden statue atop Diomed with my mouth open and a silent scream stretching my neck muscles.
In my head I heard Lyr Averon’s voice chant: “No flesh of beast, no fish, nor fowl nor seed be found upon this soil that will succor thee.
“No water, wine, ale or fruits of man or earth may thin thy thirst until thee take it from my hand.
“The air will weigh upon thee as if falling from the fire mountain’s heart until thy knees bend at my feet and mine hand smite thee on the heart.
“So cursed are thee by the Lyr of the Elassa.”
We were spit out by the wall. Onto a dirt road that had seen some usage by the deep wagon ruts the horses stumbled over. They managed to keep their feet and I looked up with tearing eyes at the retreating rear end of my gelding. Arianell was bent low over his neck and when I twisted in the saddle to look behind me, I saw the vague shadowy forms of the King’s Guards racing towards us but beyond the barrier on the other side of the wall. They stopped just this side of it and I could feel the iron glare of their eyes through the barrier. My lungs struggled to take in a breath and when I did, it felt as heavy as lead, unfulfilling as if some vital quality in the air was missing.
We put the wall behind us, running as if the very devil was on our heels. We did not stop until the horses were blowing. I let Arianell choose the spot where we retreated; a glade off the road in a thicket of hardhack that covered us better than an invisibility cloak nor did the mockingbird in its branches berate us. My chest heaved as I tried to catch my breath yet I could not. I could feel my eyes widen as tiny blood vessels burst and my nose began to bleed twin streams down my face.
Arian leaned over and wiped them off, her body moving up and down with the bellowing of Beau’s ribs. Diomed did the same, he caught his breath just a shade quicker. The other horses crowded close and were strangely quiet, as if they understood the gravity of the situation. When they had caught their wind and mine had slowed somewhat, she pressed my hand and asked if we were ready to go on.
“Does any of this look familiar?” She asked and I struggled to breathe and talk.
“It looks like the upper Caladienne range. Near maybe, the town of Tenesk,” I hazarded a guess.
“How far are we from your home, Tobias? To someplace safe?”
“A thousand miles from my home, Arianell. We are nearly as far away from Cayden’s Valley as we could be. It would be faster for us to ride to Tenesk and take a ship home. We are not far from the Oldlands were my father came from.” I stopped speaking, trying to breathe and she finally noticed the difficulty I was having.
“Tobias? What’s wrong?” I opened my mouth to explain when we heard the sounds of men approaching. Human men and the commander’s orders were precise and military in upper-class Erhesh. He was ordering a squad of men out to search for commoners who had ventured too close to the Border Wall and that they would not be returning to their comfortable barrack beds until they found the culprits dead or alive.
I scanned the ground for hoof prints and saw none–none of the horses were shod, thank the stars so the little track we had left on the road was negligible and not seen.
We watched them trot by, a company of the Emperor’s Hussars in their sharp, gaudy uniforms of blue wool, red accoutrements and silver buttons. Shiny swords and spit polished, every one of them looked as clean and neat as they had just rolled out for inspection. All I could see marring their excellence was a thin layer of dust on their high topped cavalry boots.
Every one of us seemed to hold our breath until they marched past and only then, did we move. I aimed Di towards the woods, slipping through the trees looking for a deer trail, anything to get off the road. We found one that went up over a small ridge and silently, we traveled where the deer went, across the ridges, down the valleys and over small streams until we were on a high ridge between the roads of the Valley, one ridge over where those traveling the lane could not see us.
The forests here were older, with larger trees and not much underbrush. The common people who eked out a living in the King’s forest were allowed to take only fallen wood and the penalty for cutting down the King’s trees was severe – the loss of a hand for the first offense and for the second, death and the seizure of all male children. If they were lucky, they were kept as servants in the mines, the unlucky ones went to the service as new recruits. Serve honorably and one could become a landed Newlander if you survived. Desert and you were nailed to the stocks in front of your unit where every soldier in your command would thrust his penknife into your belly and pull out a length of intestine until the contents were strung upon the parade grounds. Then, if you were still alive, the commanding officer would light a fire in your guts and roast them, only then letting the dogs in to feast. Stories had it that only one deserter ever made it alive to the end of the first part. I had a feeling that what they would do to me if they caught us was much worse.
Arian wanted to stop, eat and find out what ailed me. I wanted to go on because I was afraid that the Hussars would track us or worse, be waiting for us when we came down from the hills and into town.
The horses were tired and hungry. All of them snatched at leaves as we rode by and I let Di eat. When we found a pretty little meadow in the woods, Diomed stopped and pawed the ground, digging furrows in the mound of jonquils that were just popping open. I blinked. When I had entered the other side, it had been winter here. Now, it was early spring with no hint of snow hidden in the shadows beneath the pines and darker sides of the hill.
Arianell slipped off Beau and immediately he rolled, shook and started grazing. She came to my side and slid her hand up my knee. Pulled me gently off Diomed’s back, sat me in the grass and unsaddled him so he could roll and scratch his back. I laughed as he wobbled, all four feet waving in the air before he rolled over and stood up, shaking dirt and hair from his back. He sneered at me, dropped his head and started eating as if the others would leave him nothing.
Arian’s fingers left nothing unchecked and she seemed puzzled at my obvious distress. She handed me a water skin and I took a drink. The water was cold, crystal clear and fresh yet it did not quench my thirst nor did the buttery scones she fed me fill my belly. It cramped, crying out for sustenance and the more I consumed, the hungrier I grew until I was so full that I vomited it all back up.
“What did the King say to you, Tobias?” She asked and the fear in her face frightened me. I told her what Lyr Averon had said in my mind and she faltered, looking completely unsure of herself.
“We must go back,” she cried. “He has cursed you! You will not be able to eat or drink and barely breathe until you return to his feet and declare your obeisance to the High King!”
“I will not.” I managed with vomit staining my clothes and burning in my throat. “I will die before I bow to his wishes. I will not wage war upon this land nor that of my mother’s. I will not fight against my family on either side of the wall!”
With that, I lay among the flowers, turning my face into their petals and pollen, curling up into the soil and endured what I could not change. She left me alone so that I could seek my own answers but all I found was a troubled sleep.