Marysvale (25 page)

“
Why didn’t they do it to
begin with?”

“
She had too much support.
If she went missing then, it would have solidified the town against
Wright and, at that time, he didn’t have total control like he does
now.”

“
You would think the Brean
would avoid the town with its securities. Aren’t they in danger
being so close?”

Jane laughed a bitter laugh. “They
should be; but they’re not.”

I was taken aback. “What about the
guards?”

“
They won’t harm them! We
even have a law against it.”

I was incredulous. “You have a law
against harming them?”

She nodded. “The town guards can repel
the assault only if the city is attacked directly—and then, only
after getting orders to do so. They are afraid that if we instigate
something, it will bring down the sevenfold curse of
Cain.”

“
How often do the Brean
invade the city?”

“
Never…Well, at least it’s
been years since it’s happened; only once or twice that I can
remember. The Brean aren’t stupid; they’ve learned that as long as
they don’t directly attack the city, they’ll be left
alone.”

“
What happens if you
retaliate without permission?”

“
Normally, you get chained
to the outside walls and left for the Brean to do what they will.
The belief is that your sacrifice will appease their
anger.”

I felt ill at the thought.

“
The townsfolk tolerate
that?”

“
The townsfolk no longer
have a choice. There isn’t anything anyone can do or say in
opposition. Wright has his personal army now who are loyal to him
and not the town. Slowly, one by one, those who opposed him were
silenced, or had an unfortunate accident. There are a lucky few who
got out while the consolidation of power was happening and joined
Mr. Shepherd’s group.”

“
And you want to go back to
that?” I asked dubiously.

“
No, but I won’t leave
without my father.”

A cool crispness saturated the air, not
cold enough to chill, but enough to bring on the dread of an
impending sunset. When the sun went down, we would plunge into a
frigid, dark night. I wasn’t ready for it—not enough time had
passed since my last cold, rain-soaked adventure. But then, I
didn’t think enough time could ever pass. I shivered at the thought
and pulled my cloak tightly around me.

Hannah saved me from dwelling on the
topic any further.

“
How far are we from
Marysvale?”

“
We’ve made good time. We’ll
probably reach it by morning.”

“
Oh.” She slumped against
Jane’s back, closed her eyes, and soon fell asleep.

Watching her sleep reminded me of my
dreams. They bothered me on many fronts. Most nagging now were the
memories floating just below the surface of my consciousness; they
were there, so close, on the tip of my mind. It was like reaching
for an object that had fallen through a crack, barely out of
reach—the tips of my fingers could touch it, but were unable to
grasp it and pull it in. I felt extremely frustrated. Still,
dwelling on it did me no good; they were beyond me, and may as well
have been a thousand miles away.

I noticed Jane looking at me
curiously.

“
What is it?” I
asked.

“
Nothing, you just looked
deep in thought.”

“
I was…trying to dredge up
memories that have been lost on a shelf for way too
long.”

“
Too much dust on them?” she
asked.

I nodded. “A nice thick layer of it.
And I seem to have misplaced the shelf, too.”

“
Give it time; they will
come.”

“
Hmm, but will it be too
late? Ever since uncovering that fragmented bit from my past, I
feel like there is something out of place with everything I’ve
learned—like my memory is telling me not to trust what I’ve been
told; but it won’t give up the explanation as to why.”

“
I haven’t misled you or
told you anything that isn’t true,” she said
defensively.

“
No, it’s not that,” I
replied quickly. “I didn’t mean it like that. Think of it like a
rock wall where the masonry work is straight and the grass and
shrubs growing by it are cut and well groomed. You find the wall
and describe it to me. But something is telling me that there is
more to it that we don’t know—that we haven’t been privy to see. On
the other side of the wall, the workmanship is poor and sloppy,
with dry weeds and thorns. The frustrating part is that I think
I’ve seen the backside of the wall, but my mind won’t let me
remember what I saw. Does that make sense?”

“
I think so,” she said. “Do
you think we’ve been deceived?”

“
No, I don’t think we were
ever supposed to have found that figurative wall in the first
place; but just in case someone stumbled by, it was built to hide
whatever’s on the other side.”

Jane thought about this for a moment,
and then asked, “When you saw the people in the forest, what do you
suppose their intentions were with the Brean?”

“
I think they were going to
do something to it. There was chanting or dancing—at least they
were waving their arms. I wish I could remember!”

“
Something wicked I should
think,” she said. “I wonder if that is what caused the Brean to
attack our homes—retribution for whatever happened back then. Can’t
you remember anything else?”

“
I heard names. One was more
important than the others, I think. I want to say he is the leader,
or a leader of some kind, but I can’t be sure about anything. They
said his name a lot.”

“
What was it?”

I looked at her hopefully and said,
“Something like, Neighbor?”

“
Mmm, doesn’t mean anything
to me.”

“
Sleigh?”

She shook her head, “No.”

“
Well, it was something like
that,” I mumbled, and we lapsed back into silence.

As the day wore on, a few clouds
darkened the sky and small animals scampered here and there. I
caught Jane occasionally stealing a glance at me, and I made a more
conscious effort to sit a little straighter in the saddle and to
appear a little more heroic than I felt.

We tried to avoid any paths, but that
remained difficult to do in some of the thicker parts of the
forest. As we drew closer to Marysvale, we occasionally passed
within sight of an abandoned farm or cabin. Some still looked
salvageable. I wondered about the people who had lived there and
what had happened to them. They weren’t pleasant thoughts, since
most of the people who had survived the attacks were riding right
next to me. I wondered if their bones still lay inside, or if they
had died in their overgrown fields, where nature had long since
claimed them back.

“
Naehume,” I
blurted.

Hannah stirred, but amazingly enough,
still slept. It looked like she had trained her arms to hang on, no
matter if she was awake or asleep.

“
What was that?” asked Jane
with a bewildered expression.

“
The name! I remember it,” I
said excitedly, though still softly enough to keep Hannah
asleep.

Jane furrowed her brow and shook her
head. “I still don’t recognize it.”

Convinced I was right, I kept prodding,
“Maybe it isn’t a given name, perhaps a title or a former
name.”

“
I’m sorry,” she said. “I
can’t think of anyone by that name.”

“
I’m sure that’s it,” I said
slightly frustrated. “I think if we can find out who he is, then
we’ll know who is behind all of this.”

“
I still think Lord Wright
is behind it; he gained the most.”

“
I’m not convinced,” I said
doubtfully.

“
You said yourself that you
can’t remember much. What if Naehume and Lord Wright are the same
person? What if he used secret names to disguise himself from being
found out?”

“
Maybe,” I conceded.
Nevertheless, something inside me didn’t like that idea. It still
felt like they were different people. Unable to remember anything
else, I again let the subject drop.

We rested at dusk, preparing ourselves
for the seemingly endless night ahead. I had an uneasy feeling,
more so than usual, and was concerned that we hadn’t seen any
Brean. It was odd to worry about such a thing when it should have
been considered good news; but somehow it felt like it had been too
easy getting here. I expected something more.

After a good rest, we continued on our
journey.

It was in the darkest, coldest hours,
right before dawn, when my expectations were met. Cresting the top
of a hill, I inhaled sharply and reined up.

“
What is it?” Jane
whispered.

Answering her own question, she said,
“We aren’t alone, are we?”

“
No,” I said
quietly.

Two dark vortexes appeared on the edge
of my extra-vision. It was growing easier to keep it open the more
I used it, and my ability to see farther had amplified some. In the
distance, beyond the range of my sight, lay Marysvale, visible only
by the evenly spaced torches burning around the top of the wall
that protected it.

“
I’d like to know how you
can see anything in this darkness,” questioned Hannah
quietly.

“
I’ll tell you later,” I
said.

“
How about now?”

“
How about
never?”

She sighed, “You promise to tell me
later?”

“
Yes.”

Addressing Jane, I asked, “Can you see
the town?”

“
Not very well. I can just
make out the torchlights. Where are the Brean and how many are
there?”

“
One is hiding in a tree and
another in some vegetation about a quarter mile from the
first.”

Both were unmoving, waiting for the
unsuspecting.

“
They’re about two miles
away from us and maybe one from the town. Where’s the
gate?”

“
There are two: one in the
north wall and one in the south.”

“
Naturally,” I sighed.
“They’ve positioned themselves directly in front of the south gate.
We either have to go through them or try the north
gate.”

“
Can’t we just go around
them?” asked Hannah.

“
Perhaps, but I can only see
these two; there may be more, farther away, out of
sight.”

“
Let’s try the north side,”
suggested Jane. “If these are the only two, we can double back when
we have safely passed by them.”

Quietly, or as quietly as the horses
would allow, we made our way to the other gate.

As we moved, a third Brean slid into my
field of vision. It too was hiding, silently waiting. Then a
fourth, and a fifth, and so on—all were unmoving and still, evenly
spaced, and ringing around what I now presumed to be the entire
town—creating a net that would be difficult at best, if not
impossible, to sneak past undetected.”

I described the scene to Jane and
Hannah, and then asked, “Do they always do this?”

“
No,” was Jane’s reply.
“It’s not uncommon to see one, perhaps even a small group, but
never like this.”

“
Will the guards let us in
if we are pursued?”

“
They will if they have
enough time to close the gates behind us.”

“
What are we going to do?”
asked Hannah.

“
I don’t know,” I said
honestly. “I suppose we can try waiting. They’ll get tired
sometime…won’t they?”

“
Perhaps. I really can’t
say,” said Jane. “Do we have another choice?”

“
We can fight.”

“
That’s not much of a
choice,” she said.

“
No,” I agreed.

“
And if they find out you’ve
hurt one of the Brean, you may as well stay out of the city because
they will most likely chain you to the outside wall.”

I shuttered at the thought.

Reading the expression on my face, Jane
said, “Then it looks like we wait.”

She slid off Smoke.

The sun rose and the day wore on. It
felt cold, though warm in the patches where the sunlight somehow
managed to creep past the stingy foliage. Autumn progressed and so
did the color of the changing leaves—green gave way quickly to
orange, red, and yellow. Frequently, a leaf would give up and float
to the ground, surrendering easily to the upcoming onslaught of
winter. Jane walked over to the packhorse, pulled a leather bag,
and said, “Come on Hannah. It’s time.”

“
Time for what?” I asked
curiously.

“
Time to change. We can’t
very well enter the city dressed like this. We need to slip our
gowns back on.”

I’d grown accustomed to seeing them in
breeches and wondered what they would look like in dresses. I
watched with interest as Jane pulled out two frocks from a
pack.