Arul sat on the bank of the river and prepared a supply of arrows; a skill learnt from his father during long winter nights in Sailem. He had long since run out of iron arrowheads, so as he journeyed he’d kept an eye out for suitable stones, chipping them into sharp points. It gave his arrows more penetrating power than plain bamboo.
Useful against enemy soldiers.
He inserted the arrowheads into little splits he had cut into the bamboo shafts, then using hemp twine he bound them tightly. As Keeran watched, Arul opened a tiny leather pouch, the pungent smell of sap wafting out as he smeared the sticky glue onto the arrow’s rear-end. Then he carefully stuck trimmed duck feathers on, a useful leftover from the previous night’s dinner.
Only twenty more to go.
Arul tilted his head and listened to Navira singing, her voice weaving itself into the sound of the river. She sung of a bird in the mountains flying away from its home and becoming lost, her voice rising and falling softly until she abruptly stopped, stifling a sob.
Wiping away a tear, Arul thought of Sailem and felt terribly homesick, his stomach knotting. Everything down here felt alien. The smells, the light, the air. He began to understand why mountain folk didn’t like to spend time in the lowlands.
In the late afternoon the land was bathed in a warm golden glow, a gentle breeze moving through the trees. Keeran was fast asleep on the grass, a faint smile on his lips.
Navira suddenly stood up. ‘Arul! Can you feel that?’
Arul stopped binding an arrowhead and looked at her blankly. ‘Feel what?’ His head swivelled to Jaya, now staring at the far bank, his ears alert.
Navira gestured for Arul to touch the river-mud. ‘Some kind of vibration.’ Arul put his ear to the ground and closed his eyes. At first, he heard nothing but the gurgling of water, but moments later he felt the ground shaking, raising his head as Jaya started growling.
‘Horsemen!’ Arul said in a terse voice. ‘Quick! Under the bridge!’
Keeran woke with a start and blinked. ‘Who’s under the bridge?’
Navira was the first to duck her head and crawl below the bridge, Keeran yawning behind her, the sloping mud-bank giving them enough space to crowd in with a bit of jostling. Arul called Jaya to sit between them, stroking the wolf to calm him. They waited in the damp hiding spot, the tension building like lightning.
Then Jaya’s pointy ears swivelled towards the opposite end of the bridge.
Something was approaching fast.
They heard the thunder of horses at full gallop rising over the sound of the river, the ground shaking with their approach. The horsemen didn’t slow for the bridge. They flew over it, hooves pounding over the wooden planks in a deafening rumble, the riders shouting to each other above the racket.
They’re speaking in the dialect of Ailas! They’re our cavalry, and they’re fleeing from something.
Arul counted at least half a dozen horse passing overhead. Then came long swooshing sounds. Dozens of arrows whistled overhead before splashing into the water on both sides of the bridge, some of them piercing the wooden planks with loud thunks.
The teens heard a loud shriek, looking on in horror as a rider tumbled off the bridge and splashed into the river, sending up a huge spray of water. The arrow sticking out of him wasn’t a crude hunting type. It was a heavy iron-tipped war arrow.
The kind soldiers used.
Navira stifled a scream as she saw the soldier die. ‘He’s one of ours! Look at his uniform!’ Arul stared at the body floating down the river, the man’s head cloth unravelling like a yellow ribbon.
What makes Royal Cavalry flee like this?
The teens didn’t dare move until all of the horses passed, the galloping quickly receding towards the south like a moving storm front. ‘What should we do now?’ Navira whispered, her voice squeaky.
But Arul could already hear the sounds of the pursuing cavalry closing fast. ‘Stay still!’ He hissed. ‘Here they come!
‘Who’s coming?’ Keeran shrieked.
‘The enemy, you idiot!’
The riders flew across the bridge in hot pursuit of the Ailas cavalry, thundering away into the distance. Some minutes later and further behind, a column of slower moving horses clopped across the bridge.
To Arul’s horror, they came to a halt.
A couple of riders dismounted midway on the bridge, chattering excitedly about the corpse drifting downstream. Their companions halted on both sides of the river, their manner confident and leisurely. The teens heard the soldiers dismounting and stretching, groaning loudly, their bodies cramped from long hours in the saddle.
The bridge was now in enemy hands.
Minutes passed, the teens hardly daring to breathe. Then Arul froze when he saw he had left an arrowhead on the riverbank. One of the enemy soldiers stood next to it, surveying the river. From his hidden position, Arul could only make out the man’s dusty leather sandals, brown and cracked with age.
The cavalryman shifted his feet, kicking the arrowhead accidentally. He reached down to pick it up.
Oh no…
His jaw unbearably tight, Arul prayed that the soldier wouldn’t look towards them. He didn’t, instead taking the arrowhead back to his companions and talking in a low voice. As he huddled in the shadows, Arul saw the enemy fanning out on either side of the bridge, looking through the grass for more arrows. They gave up the search eventually, preferring to stand in groups, drinking from their freshly refilled waterskins. Arul listened to the strange dialect, but could barely understand it.
We must have had a common ancestral language once. One people. Yet here we are killing each other.
He looked at his friends and silently mouthed, ‘They’re the same army we saw up in the Brown Hills. From the Kingdom of Korkai.’ Navira and Keeran nodded their understanding, shrinking further into the shadows. These troops wouldn’t be interested in taking prisoners.
Arul curled his fists into balls, panic rising from his gut.
We’re trapped!
The hours passed with unbearable slowness as the invaders continued to keep watch on the forest bridge. The teens could hear the soldiers gather wood and build a fire, laying their bedrolls out around it. While sentries paced over the bridge, other soldiers conversed softly, their weapons never far.
The shadows lengthened as the sun began to settle in the west, the water turning deep red. Under the bridge, the teens relieved their cramps by straightening their legs and arms from time to time. Jaya on the other hand, seemed quite contented, staring at the flowing river with great interest. The light faded as night fell, the soldiers lighting torches made of dried rushes, placing them on tall poles along the bridge. Outside the pools of firelight, it was a dark and moonless night.
Perfect for moving unseen.
Arul put his hand on Keeran’s shoulder. ‘Let’s wait until they fall asleep.’
‘What about the sentries?’ Navira whispered. ‘They never sleep!’
‘But they’ll only be two of them awake. Much better chances for us,’ Arul murmured, raising his hand to touch the wooden planks above his head, feeling the footsteps of the sentries as they walked up and down. Moments later, the two soldiers crossed the bridge to the far side, where judging by the smell, a meal was being prepared. Arul realised that they hadn’t eaten anything all day. He slouched uncomfortably and drifted to sleep, his rumbling stomach disturbing the quiet.
Arul woke from dozing with a start, blinking in confusion as he remembered where he was.
Then he wanted to forget where he was.
Keeran and Navira were still asleep, but Jaya raised his head just as voices sounded on the far side of the bridge. ‘Have you seen a boy and his companions in this jungle, Commander?’ The voice was calm and faintly threatening in a manner that made Arul shiver.
A gruff voice answered. ‘We’ve secured this bridge. No one else is here.’
‘Keep looking. If you capture any children, do not kill them. Send word to us and we will come with gold for you.’ The voice paused. ‘The new Headman in Sailem village gave us detailed descriptions of the children, although he asked for a very handsome payment. Perhaps we should have tortured him and saved the gold.’ The stranger laughed mirthlessly.
‘We will keep looking as you wish,’ the gruff voice said, a slight hint of fear obvious in his tone. After that, there was nothing more to be heard except for the nervous murmurings of the soldiers.
Why are they looking for us? That other voice didn’t seem like a Korkai soldier. He seemed worse, somehow.
Deep into the night, the sentries stopped pacing the bridge, preferring to stand around the campfire. At a touch from Arul, Navira and Keeran woke and removed their sandals, tying them around their necks, their eyes bright with fear.
‘Now!’ Arul whispered, leaving the cover of the bridge and crawling downstream along the riverbank. Ignoring their cramped legs, the teens headed for the nearest cover of reeds, swaying tall and dark along the riverbank.
They groped their way through the gloom and the mud, at one point disturbing a bullfrog, watching it leap into the river with a loud plop. They froze and listened hard. Low voices floated across the water, occasionally interrupted by deep laughter. Arul waved Navira and Keeran forward, then resumed his crawl through the reeds, mud sticking to him like glue.
If we disturb a sleeping bird, we’re finished.
Jaya flatly refused to walk through the mud, and instead slunk onto the riverbank, crossing the dirt road and melting into the forest. They crept through the shallow water until they rounded a slight bend in the river. In complete darkness they stood and walked into the cover of the forest, Keeran leaning on his knees and letting out a huge sigh.
The trees rustled like a thousand rasping insects, a cool breeze springing from the north as distant stormclouds flashed lightning. From the forest, Arul glanced upstream to the bridge. The soldiers from Korkai were hunched in their cloaks, peering into the dark with nervous faces as their fires blew out in the rising wind.