Layla, p.10
Layla, page 10
“Well now,” Xylepher said to the others. “What’s done is done! I think we should find our wizard.”
The little people snuffed out the fire and washed their dishes in the sea. They packed up, quietly glancing at Abbi with frowns and concerned faces. Xylepher shielded his eyes from the sun and surveyed the vista one last time, perhaps to see if Elisa would miraculously show herself. When they were ready to trek into the woods, Abbi stood, picked up the shield, and waited. She’d have to follow. What else was there for her to do?
They took a trail that ran parallel to the beach. Abbi stepped off the path repeatedly to survey the coastline, hoping to at least find Elisa’s body. It would be better than never knowing what had happened to her.
They traveled half a day and then the trail veered inland. Abbi stopped. She couldn’t pull herself away from the coast. If she were in denial, then so be it, but if Elisa were alive, she’d be abandoning her for good. How could she do that?
“Do you even know where you’re going?” Abbi asked, shifting the weight of the buckler from one shoulder to the other.
The band of Xylonites stopped also and looked back at her, and then turned to Xylepher. The soldier grunted. “No,” he admitted.
“Well then, I think we should go back,” Abbi affirmed.
“Go back?”
“Yes. We made campfires on the beach. Were your wizard nearby, he would have seen them. He would know where you were. Maybe not who you are, but he would know someone was on his beach. Wouldn’t he be curious about that?”
“You think Silvio is back there?” one man asked and scratched his beard.
“It’s as good a chance as any,” Abbi reasoned. “Better than wandering into the woods when you don’t know where you’re going.”
“All right then.” Xylepher tossed his arms in the air. “As you wish. We’ll go back. I hope you’re right or we have wasted half a day.”
“Better to waste half a day than weeks wandering in a woodland you aren’t familiar with.”
As soon as they ventured in the opposite direction, Abbi skirted off the trail and walked along the beach, still searching; still walking out into the waves whenever she sighted an object in the water. She had heard stories of bodies washing up on beaches far from where the poor victims had last been seen. Perhaps that, too, happened to Elisa.
Because she inspected every pile of driftwood and every inch of the shoreline, the Xylonites were soon far ahead of her. She didn’t hurry. She would comb the beach as if her life depended on it. As if Elisa’s life depended on it. In the distance, she could see the little people returning to their campsite, throwing off their packs and making a fire. And then she saw a tall, robed figure among them. He had long silver hair and a beard that floated in the breeze. His voice carried on the wind, but she couldn’t understand a word. The Xylonites quickly snuffed the fire out again and hurried into the woods while the figure stood there watching her. Xylepher stood by his side. They didn’t call out to her. They just stared.
Abbi gave up her search and walked toward them. Before she reached the campsite, though, the robed man extended his staff, and a stream of green light hissed toward her. Abbi held up the shield, creating a barrier before the magic touched her.
“Who are you?” the bearded fellow asked. His green eyes shone brightly against the dullness of his weathered face. He looked to be at least a hundred years old, what with all the wrinkles. His eyebrows were as white as the sand she stood on and were so bushy they stretched over his eyes as if it were a sun visor shielding his eyes. His beard, thin and silky, framed his narrow face and his mustache came to points on each side of his mouth down past his chin. So angry was the look on his face. Abbi wondered why she had bothered to try to find him.
Why hadn’t Xylepher told him who she was? Abbi grimaced and looked at the little soldier standing next to the wizard, his chin up, his eyes foreboding.
“I’m the one who guided these people safely to these shores!” Abbi’s tone was as hospitable as the old man’s question. “Didn’t he tell you? Our raft capsized, and everyone would have drowned were it not for me!” she added with one hand on her hip, the other still defending her stance with the shield. She glared more at Xylepher than the wrinkled old man.
“Bah! Saved?” He shook his finger at her. “You abandoned your own. Left her to die! Saved, my staff!”
Guilt rushed through her like hot lead, and her eyes filled. “I looked for her. I swear I would have saved her if I could have.”
The wizard grunted and turned to Xylepher. “Go!”
The little man pivoted quickly around and raced off.
Once Xylepher disappeared into the woods, the old man squinted at Abbi and spoke in an accusing voice. “I saw you last night. I know what you did.”
Abbi lowered the shield. “I did nothing wrong.”
“Not wrong. Not intelligent either, but then, what intelligence do you humans have?”
Abbi would not argue with him. She wasn’t in the mood for this conversation. She could scan the beach right now, looking for Elisa.
“If you had half a brain, you would have seen me,” he added.
“Oh, so you were here last night? And you didn’t help pull the little people out of the water?”
“No.” He lowered his staff, and his voice as well. “You had that under control. Besides, I was too busy pulling your friend out of the water.”
Abbi’s jaw dropped. “You saved Elisa? Where is she? Is she alive?”
He furrowed his bushy white eyebrows, a look of sorrow crossed his face, and he glared at her. “The question we should answer is who you are?”
Abbi let out an exasperated sigh. “My name is Abbi and I come from a different world. If you’re Silvio, the wizard that used to live in an old oak tree, my boyfriend is the one who liberated you. And that girl you saved is my friend, and I need to see her.”
Silvio grunted angrily. “Not sure if I should believe you. Your boyfriend? What’s your boyfriend’s name?”
“His name is Ian Wilson!”
The wizard grunted again. His white mane quivered when he shook his head. “I thought so. That rascal! Why didn’t he come with you?”
“It’s a long story. Please let me see Elisa!”
Perhaps the wizard had tired of quarreling because he turned around and walked away, leaving nothing for Abbi to do but follow him and hope he’d lead her to Elisa.
Brad’s Journey
BRAD FOLLOWED HIS GUIDE through the long and dusty landscape toward the foothills. Ivar bounced through the meadow well ahead of him, his movements graceful like an antelope. The boy’s dark hair skated in the breeze as he leaped over hidden ravines and brushed through the grass. Brad lacked the same poise. The prairie was not the choicest terrain to run a marathon, for the ground was pitted, and Brad tripped whenever he came to a gully. His ankles twisted as he trudged over the rugged ground, and the pollen in the pasture made him sneeze. Ivar had twice the speed and agility as he did and after half an hour of running after the Kaempern child, Brad was tired.
“Hey!” Brad stopped to catch his breath and to sneeze again. “Wait up!”
Ivar, well ahead of Brad, turned and waited while Brad stumbled through the grassland to meet him, wiping his nose, and rubbing his eyes.
“You’re too slow.” Ivar observed when Brad finally caught up.
“I’m used to sidewalks,” Brad said, and wiped the sweat off his brow.
Ivar gave him a questioning glance. “What are sidewalks?”
Brad would have explained if he had any breath left. Ivar didn’t wait for an answer but pointed to the hills. “We must climb next. Up that way.”
“Okay. Just let me catch my breath.”
Ivar waited only a second before he resumed the journey. Brad followed. He had forgotten the hardships that came along with realm travel. These foothills, in fact, were the same foothills where the Kaemperns had captured him and Ian and made them prisoners, reminding him he had left the village in a less-than-friendly relationship.
“Hey, how are your people now? Do you think they’ll accept me this time?” His pace slowed as they ascended the hills into the scrub cedars.
“What do you mean? You were here before?”
“Couple of years ago when I was a kid, yeah. They didn’t like me then.”
“Why? What did you do?”
“Nothing really. It’s more what they thought I did. Or maybe it was a misunderstanding. Anyway, I’m different now. I’m grown up. Do you think they’ll understand?”
“Sure.” Ivar hopped over a wash. “We’re asking for help to find your sister. No one cares about what you did a couple of years ago.”
He said that with such confidence, Brad wondered if Ivar was indeed a spokesperson for the Kaemperns or not.
The night grew long and yet they seemed to have only begun their ascent. Stepping over the white, gravelly terrain proved just as difficult as the pitted soil of the prairie. With every step upward, Brad slid backward twice, and on the inclines, he had to crawl and grab the hillside with his hands to gain any ground, yet Ivar still leaped ahead, bouncing from one boulder to another. When Brad collapsed on the ground for the third time, Ivar jumped from the rock he stood on and sat down with him. “I don’t think we can make it to Kaempern tonight. You’re too soft. We’ll have to camp here.”
“Soft? Man, I just traveled from a different world, fought a dragon, and hacked away at a huge rock to get here. Who are you calling soft?” Brad scraped off the pebbles that had made an imprint on his palms. He wondered what his knees looked like if they were bleeding or not. Too proud to roll up his pant legs, he dusted off his jeans instead and pretended he felt no pain.
“You.” Ivar obviously would not argue, nor did he try to build a fire or do anything to make Brad comfortable. Instead, he lay in the dirt and shut his eyes.
“Just like that, you’re going to sleep? Shouldn’t we cook something? I mean, I’m hungry and it’s getting cold,” Brad complained.
In response, the boy sat up, pulled a leather pouch from his belt, and dug out a handful of nuts and berries. “No fire! This fruit will keep you fed until we get to the village.”
How could Brad have forgotten the stingy diet of the Realm inhabitants? Perhaps he had romanticized this otherworld existence a bit too much. He tossed the handful of morsels in his mouth and just before he swallowed, Ivar spoke.
“Chew it slow. It will fill you up if you chew your food. You don’t know when you will get any more. Make that last!”
Brad let the sweet, seedy flavor linger in his mouth. The fruit stuck to his teeth; the sweetness coated his tongue before he finally swallowed the mix. After that, his eyes grew heavy, and he fell asleep.
Ivar woke him at dawn. Brad jumped up, ready to meet the day. As the sun rose, they climbed into the foothills where the landscape leveled out and cedar trees offered shade. By mid-morning, they had reached the towering fir trees. Ivar walked slower than the day before, to Brad’s relief, as Brad’s legs melted like rubber and muscles he hadn’t used in a long time—if ever—were screaming to be recognized. As tired as he was, he knew if he stopped to rest, he’d never get up again.
“Aren’t we almost there?” he asked between breaths.
“Almost.”
“Sure, hope your friends have something cooking. Those berries were good, but I could use a solid meal.” By late afternoon, they arrived in the thick of the woods. The aroma of campfires and roasted meat made him drool. He perked up with a fresh wave of energy as though the smells themselves offered sustenance. Ivar also moved quicker along the trail which meandered through tall ferns and berry bushes. When Brad saw people moving about, he fell back, hesitant to continue. The leather they wore, the fur, the weaponry of the Kaemperns triggered memories he had forgotten. These were the people that sent him away years ago. They shunned him, called him a thief. Even though he proved himself later in the battle of Alcove Forest, he still felt inept around them, and doubted he’d be accepted.
“You go on ahead,” Brad said and shrunk back behind the trunk of a Cedar tree. “Tell them you’ve got a friend that needs help.”
“What? Why? Come with me,” Ivar waved him on.
“No. I’ll come later. After you give them warning.”
Ivar shrugged and ran down the footpath to a cluster of yurts. Brad watched from his hideaway in the woods while Ivar gestured excitedly. Men dressed in buckskin with leggings wrapped around their legs and fox tails tied to their belts stopped to listen. Women dressed in earth-colored linen wiped their hands with their aprons and paid attention to Ivar’s rantings. The boy pointed toward where Brad hid. Everyone looked his way.
“Shoot!” Brad whispered and crouched under the ferns, hoping no one saw him.
Moments later, someone came up from behind him. A firm hand took his arm and lifted him up. “Why are you hiding, boy?” the man asked. Brad brushed dirt off his clothes and looked up. “I don’t know, really. I guess I should just come out in the open, shouldn’t I?”
The man laughed. He had dark skin, salt and pepper whiskers, and bright blue eyes. The leather he wore appeared freshly tanned and smelled like the outdoors. The jewel around his neck glistened green in the firelight, reminding Brad of the dragon’s eye that shone like emeralds in that dark tunnel where he and Ian could easily have perished.
Ivar and the other men joined them. “Is that you, Brad?” someone asked.
Brad smiled when he recognized his friend. “Gregors!”
“You know this lad?” the man with the whiskers asked.
“I sure do. That’s the kid that helped us free Ian’s girlfriend from the pirates.”
The man seemed shocked. His eyes flew wide open, and he leaned forward, looking Brad in the eyes, his filled with expectancy.
“You know my son?”
“Um, who’s your son?”
“Ian! Ian Wilson. I’m Alex, his dad!”
“Yeah, I know him! Oh wow! Mr. Wilson! Nice to meet you!” Brad reached out to shake his hand. “I came to ask for your help cause Abbi and my sister are here and Ian’s off trying to find them and get them back home. This kid Ivar showed up right when we got here and said you guys could help. We had to fight a dragon to get here, so I was pretty darn scared and didn’t think it’s going to be all that easy to get back. I thought we should get some help from you guys.”
“Ian’s here? Where? Which way did he go?”
“Ivar thought the girls probably followed the Xylonites to a place called Band-Aid Forest.”
“Bandene,” Ivar corrected.
“So, Ian took off. He didn’t want to spend the time to get here. Said we only had a couple of days to get back before the portal seals up. Me, I thought it’d be smarter to get you guys.”
Alex quickly turned to Gregors. “Tell Amleth about this. Gather your soldiers.”
Gregors jogged back to the village.
“Hey, we’re all okay. Got banged up a little, but Ivar put a dab of healing water on Ian’s wounds and he’s up for the walk, I’m sure. More than me, probably.”
“There’s danger in Alcove Forest. War’s been brewing on the mainland for days now. It’s not safe for anyone to be wandering those woods.”
“Yeah, that’s kind of what Ivar was saying.”
The surrounding men scattered, rushing off to their yurts in the woods—one room shelters constructed from lattice frames and covered with hide—summoning others as they passed them by. Brad trailed behind, wondering if anyone would feed him before they left.
“I’m going to tell my father,” Ivar said, and he dashed away too.
“Hey!” Brad called after him.
Alarm raised the entire village to action. Even women and children seemed to heed the warning. They gathered bows and arrows from the walls of their yurts.
“Excuse me,” Brad said to a woman passing by. “Do you think there’s a place I could grab a sandwich or something?”
She gave him a puzzled look.
“Food?” He gestured to his mouth, and she laughed.
“Yes, of course!” Her face lit up, and she took his hand, led him to a yurt, and invited him inside her humble abode. The house was furnished with two chairs and a large table that filled the center of the room. Embers glowed in the adobe fireplace along the western wall. A pot on the grill bubbled with stew. Men in leather dressed much like Alex sat around the fire preparing weapons for battle. The woman dished out a bowl of stew for Brad and set it at the table.
“You’ve come a long way?” she asked.
“I’ll say,” Brad answered. “Thanks.”
When he had finished, he pointed to a dagger a man had been honing.
“I’ve got me a nice sword that Mr. Wilson made back in Seattle. Maybe I could borrow one of those daggers, too?”
The man nodded and handed Brad a knife. A fine piece of art with a blade as sharp as a razor. On its bone handle was carved a bear and a coyote in fine detail.
“Wow Thanks! I’m impressed with your weapons!” Brad held the blade up to the candle on the table. “Real nice.”
“Didn’t use to have these,” the man explained. “Until Alex came around and showed us how to craft them. Now the entire village is armed.”
“I’ve heard tell about Ian’s dad. He’s exceptional. Funny, I live in the same town he lived in, and I have never met him until today. The sword on my hip is one he made back in Seattle.”
“Seattle? Ah yes, Alex talked about the place he lived in before coming here. A timely visit for it wasn’t long after his arrival that Vilfred died. I loved Vilfred as our sage, rest his soul, but Alex is forward thinking. Now that we’ve had peace with the Meneks for almost a year, things are looking up for us. That is, if the Taikans don’t attack. We’re ready for them, though.”
“I heard they’re taking over Alcove Forest.”
“There’s been ships in the water over there. We know they’ve infiltrated the place, but they haven’t settled. When they harvest trees, that’s when we need to worry. Their aim is to surround Alisubbo and take it by land. The queen had no luck in the water. Her whole naval fleet was wiped out earlier this year. That’s why they’re targeting Alcove Forest. To cut down trees and build ships.”
