Escana (19 page)

'They're
gone, and they won't stop until they're back in Escana, you can
approach me.'

A
clear melodious voice rang across the road, almost as if the air
itself had spoken. 'I'm afraid your desire to find me has once again
clouded your perceptions, we are not alone.'

The
voice seemed to have jumped behind him, startling Jimmy, who
instinctively leapt out of the bushes. Cover blown.

The
sound of bow arms tightening sent him scrambling towards Thom, who
was already heading in his direction.

The
arrow whistled past his head and seemed to dip in flight, Thom let
out a howl of pain as the head skewered his calf. His horse bolted at
the sound, leaving a cloud of dust and two prone targets.

'You
are not to travel beyond the river, your quarry will have crossed it
by the time you arrive. If I find you have limped your way there I
will consider it a most unwanted transgression.'

Thom
growled at the voice amongst the trees between his teeth but
otherwise kept silent.

They
both lay there for a time, waiting for death to cut through the
breeze, yet it never came. A quiet unease had settled, punctuated by
oblivious birdsong.

Thom
raised his head, eyeing Jimmy with a withering glare. 'Get over here.
Slowly.'

He
edged towards Thom with caution, finding his old fears about the man
rising to form a lump in his throat.

The
Warden tore the sleeve from his shirt and fashioned a crude
tourniquet. He stared at the arrow, sweat beading on his brow. Jimmy
thought his frustration looked like an old hound discovering a game
leg for the first time. He drew alongside Thom and took note of the
wound.

'I
know your Dad taught you a bit about medicine, this is just a
standard battlefield injury, pull the arrow out and help me walk back
to Escana,' Thom said, sweat breaking out over his brow.

Jimmy
knew that this wasn't a request. In spite of Thom making light of it,
the calf had been pierced deeply and pulling it out may do more harm
than good.

As
if reading his thoughts, Thom's voice went up a notch. 'Pull the damn
thing out or I'll do it myself.'

Jimmy's
shaking hands took grip of it and a deep breath calmed them. With a
clean jerk, he tore it out.

Blood
trickled down Thom's lip as he bit into it to stifle a scream, he
started to pick himself up from the road only to collapse back onto
it.

Jimmy
offered him his shoulder and Thom struggled to come to his feet, a
baffled look on his face.

'Many
people aren't able to stand after such a deep injury, you shouldn't
be walking at all.'

Thom
spat on the ground. 'You think I don't know that? It's not that
that's worrying me boy, I can't feel it at all. My whole leg has
stopped working, that bastard got me good, he would though.'

Jimmy
noticed that Thom's entire right leg had gone limp, shock had nothing
to do with it.

'Give
me my sword boy, you go look for the horse, I'll start heading back.'

He
handed the large sword to Thom and let him stand under his own power,
he knew words would be pointless against such a stubborn man.

Thom
rose with a grunt of pain and started hobbling back towards Escana.
Jimmy joined him, patiently waiting for him to realise the limits of
his own strength.

The
hours passed silently and Thom's breathing grew more laboured, at
first he cursed Jimmy for not scouting ahead, complaining that the
horse would be lost and it would be on his head. The wound soon took
the fighting spirit out of him and around dusk he came to a quivering
halt.

'I
think I may need to rest,' he muttered hoarsely.

As
Thom pitched head first onto the road Jimmy leapt forward to cushion
the fall, he had expected this some time ago.

He
rolled Thom to the side of the road and found there was nothing more
he could do for him. Gazing silently into the darkening branches, he
realised he was still waiting for the final arrow to come.

S
he
awoke to the touch of a hand on her shoulder and recoiled in shock
before realising how weakened she was. Letting out a cry, she focused
her watering eyes on Jakob's face.

He
had a pained expression painted there, the reaction to his touch had
shocked him as much as he had her. Slowly righting herself against
the trunk, she sucked in a few breaths and waited for him to speak.

'You
never did tell me how badly he hurt you. Now that I know, we need to
get you some help.'

She
looked away from him then, somehow ashamed at the sympathy in his
tone. The skyline spoke of early dawn. They were in the same place as
she last remembered, he had stopped travelling altogether when she
collapsed. 'Why did you not just leave me here?'

A
bitter smile crossed his lips. 'You'd have just wandered off and been
caught and killed for confessing your crimes, remember?'

She
blanched at that, it seemed an age since she had retaliated with
those words, her head in a state of numb shock.

Gathering
her wits about her, she took a moment before she composed herself.
All the while Jakob stood quietly observing, as if expecting her
questions.

'I've
never strayed off the main road, where do we go from here?'

He
started pacing back and forth, gesturing with his hands. 'I've only
been here once before, the river lies a day's walk east of here. If
the Warden hasn't caught our trail the journey will be manageable. If
the hounds are on our tail then we're doomed from the onset like you
said and most likely won't make it that far.'

She
felt it then, there was no stinging rebuke in his words, but the
guilt she felt at leading him to his death because of her own ravaged
body swallowed her up.

'I'm
sorry,' she whispered, almost inaudibly. The words didn't seem
enough.

He
stopped mid-stride at that. 'You're not to blame. It was going to
happen eventually when I discovered what he was doing to you.'

As
rehearsed as his words sounded, Ella believed them. It had been the
look in Jakob's eyes that she had noticed before anything else. She
had considered it simple jealousy initially, but the level of
contempt behind it grew each time she had seen him. Each time Solomon
was by her side. What may have started off as jealousy had escalated
far beyond that. Still, perhaps it was too early to come to such
conclusions. A few words here and a knowing look there could win many
a heart yet mean nothing.

She
forced herself to stand, leaning gingerly against the trunk for
support and waving away Jakob's aid. If she couldn't do this under
her own power then there was reason enough to convince him not to
leave her here.

He
was watching her intently, trying to gauge just how much of a
recovery she could have made in such a short time, it was scant
distraction from the pain she felt lance through her insides upon
standing. Wincing, she started walking forward, confidence growing
with every step. She was less damaged than she had thought, a lot of
the blood must have come from surface wounds. Jakob tossed the last
of the makeshift bandages over and turned his back to her, affording
her a little privacy with put-on chivalry.

'You've
already seen me naked, what difference does it make that you don't
now?'

She
watched the back of Jakob's shoulders roll into a shrug. 'I couldn't
avoid it last time, I can now. I choose to respect your privacy, is
that so strange a thing?'

Ella
let out something between a laugh and a snort, either way it hurt. 'I
don't care how you see me, you've seen everything already.'

'Well
I do care,' Jakob replied, resolutely facing the tree.

She
didn't bother responding to him, he was trying to win her over for
some reason. This was going to be a long day.

They
approached the river with caution. Any pursuit would either be
careening towards the bridge or following them upstream to this very
point. He scouted the area and motioned to Ella. 'There doesn't
appear to be anyone here.'

Ella
looked at him incredulously. 'How are we supposed to get past the
river?' She gazed into the current, the darkening navy flow swept
past her at quite a pace. She couldn't swim and doubted he could ford
that without being caught by the currents.

He
hadn't seemed to have noticed it, instead he was searching the banks
and heading downstream as if in a trance.

'Am
I going to get an answer, Jakob?'

It
was then she spotted him starting to walk across the face of the
water.

She
made her way to the bank in disbelief and spotted the silver glow
running straight to him. 'What is this?'

Jakob
beckoned her forward, punching under the surface of the water. 'It's
solid, like it was forged from some sort of metal, yet seems stronger
than any masonry.'

Ella
tentatively put a foot out and dipped it into the water. It was firm
yet hollow, as if someone had forged a bridge out of iron but with
none of the weight. 'This is... bizarre. I don't trust it.' The
current threatened to take her footing but she stood firm, pain
momentarily forgotten at seeing such a strange construction, it was
as wide as the main road and spanned the whole river.

'It's
very old,' Jakob remarked as they crossed. 'Nobody I've asked knows
what it is or who built it. I doubt most people even know it exists.
Nobody that would be following us, that's for sure.'

Ella
looked sceptical as they reached the shore, how did he know all this?
'Won't our scent lead them to this place?'

'Not
before the sky darkens too much for them to see where we could have
gone. That is assuming they're not right behind us.' He took his
boots off and let the water slop out of them. 'If we camp a few miles
east of here I think our scent will have gone by the time they head
back up to the bridge and round.'

They couldn't risk a fire that
night for fear of giving away their location. Even at this distance
from the river the smoke could still be spotted by the keenest eyes.
They remained quietly surprised that their supposed pursuers hadn't
caught up with them, yet couldn't dare to hope.

The
cool air buffeted the tree branches they sheltered in and chilled
them to the bone. Between chattering teeth, Jakob finally demanded
explanations. 'You almost made it sound like you were my possession
yesterday. Why?'

Ella
shrugged, staring off into middle distance.

'You're
not going to answer?'

She
turned with deliberate slowness, the pain had been making Jakob
increasingly intolerable as the day progressed.'You heard what I said
last time, if you can't understand then that's your problem.'

He
refused to be baited this time. 'Why are you so adamant that I will
treat you like you're something to possess?'

So
he's
finally
demanded
answers,
took
his
time
once
again
.
'I'm adamant about it because everyone I've ever known has been more
or less the same. Sure some are more blatant about it than others,
but that just makes them more honest. They're not afraid to show
their true feelings, their true selves, they don't wrap it up in
pretty meaningless words and call it something it isn't. That's
something Solomon was very good at.'

She
watched Jakob try to keep his cool, but felt it slipping from him at
a rapid rate.

'The
same Solomon that had a different phony face for each group of people
he met. He was certainly good with meaningless words.'

Ella
remained impassive. 'I didn't really care how Solomon treated others,
he showed his true self to me.'

He
almost laughed at hearing this. 'In case you didn't notice, he would
have killed you if I hadn't have been there. I saved you from him,
even you admit that, yet all you've done this entire journey is speak
of him like a fond absentee.'

Ella
pulled the blanket closer to her. 'He was true to himself with me
right to the end, maybe it was I who deserved death, not him.'

Jakob
looked dumbfounded by that. 'So you're saying if I wanted to kill
you, you'd do nothing to stop me because you probably deserve it?'

She
nodded.

'What
if I wanted to possess all that was yours, would you do anything to
stop me?

Shake
of the head.
So
this
is
how
it
was
going
to
go.

'What
if I decided to do nothing at all? What would you do then?'

She
looked at him for a moment, trying to gauge if he was being
rhetorical or not. 'I'd think you were denying your true nature, in
an attempt to convince me otherwise.'

She
could tell from the look on his face that he still didn't get it and
probably never would, she cut him off before he could respond.