Windcatcher: Book I of the Stone War Chronicles (15 page)

Rohan cautiously speculated about the probability of the creature being hostile. How did they know it would not attack them? Xi’Lao ensured him that according to the old scrolls, few injuries happened—on purpose—during a hatching, but since no one had experienced an actual hatch event for centuries, she had no idea what to expect.

The rest of the squad seemed to find the object intriguing, but Raylan could not fully determine their feelings toward it. His brother had this worried look on his face during the egg discussions, but said little about the subject.

Although Xi’Lao mentioned multiple times that she just did not know more on the topic as everything was ancient history, Raylan felt she was holding back information, for some reason. He thought about confronting her about it, but in the end he decided that his time was better spent taking care of their precious cargo. Up until now, he had no reason to distrust her.

Harwin returned from dropping the wood in the wagon. Raylan saw he was limping slightly on his injured leg, but it did not look too serious.

“How’s the leg doing?” Raylan asked.

“Well enough, it doesn’t really hurt, just a bit stiff. We burned the wound closed to limit the chance of infection and it seems to have done the trick. I’ll be skipping along in no time,” Harwin said with a grin, before adding, “How about you? It looks like you are quite fond of the egg. Are you worried about it? Or just wondering what it will look like?”

Raylan closed the lid on the chest. He secured the metal clip, although it had not closed properly since he knocked the lock off. He wished he had another lock to secure it better, but they did not have any spare materials like that with them.

“Both, I think. Who wouldn’t be curious about the creature? But it’s more than worrying or wondering. I feel this warm glow in my chest, it’s strangely soothing, even in this cold, foreign land. I mean…I’m still miserable with all the cold rain, don’t get me wrong,” he said with a small smile, “but I can’t compare the feeling with anything I know. It’s almost the way you feel when you’re young, being hugged by your mother, feeling safe but in a different way.”

Raylan let out a sigh.

“It’s hard to explain.”

He had no idea why he told Harwin all of this. The old soldier would surely think he was a big softy. Raylan shook his head.

“Maybe I’m mistaken. For starters, I barely remember my mother. Let alone what it felt like being hugged by her. It’s probably just the heat of the stones and wood or something, nothing more.”

Harwin frowned.

“Your mother died young?”

Raylan’s face got gloomier for a moment, as he gave a short nod.

“She died when I was very little. A disease swept through the city, both me and my mother got very sick. Somehow, I pulled through, but my mother was too weakened. Gavin and I had some trouble adjusting after that.”

“Sorry to hear that, I didn’t know. I heard the commander had a rebellious phase when he was younger, but he never really talks about his family. We hope our loved ones will be with us forever, but reality is often much more cruel,” said Harwin. He spit on the ground, as if to insult said reality.

Harwin put a firm hand on his Raylan’s shoulder.

“Well, no matter what it is with this egg, I’m sure you’ll find out, sooner or later.”

Harwin gave a soft smile that made Raylan wonder what kind of life he must have had. He knew Harwin had served in the army for more than twenty years already, but that was about all he knew about him.

As Harwin turned to walk away, Raylan stood up, letting his curiosity lead him.

“How about you? You seem to be in a good mood a long way from home.”

Harwin looked back.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, aren’t you curious as to what the dragon will look like?”

“Damn right, I’m curious. I must admit I would probably have been very skeptical about it being a dragon, if we hadn’t been fighting a living statue less than a week ago. Now, I figure anything is possible. I’ve served in the army for almost half my life already, normal life is something very strange for me, I grow too restless. Here, out in the wilderness, in unknown territory, this is where I feel good. Besides, I am just happy this life still has so many secrets for an old hand like me to discover. That dragon being one of them. Now come on, Kevhin successfully killed and brought back a great-looking deer of some sort. Richard and Peadar prepared the meat, which means we’ll not be going hungry tonight.”

Raylan followed Harwin to the others.

That morning, they had come to a river with fresh water, which they followed throughout the day. Ca’lek had rode ahead, to scout, and found nothing that posed an immediate threat. Recognizing the need for rest, Gavin had reluctantly approved a longer stop, so there was some time to hunt and to make a real meal. It was always a risk to have a fire in enemy territory, but as they had not seen anyone since they left the clearing, Gavin felt comfortable enough to approve a shielded campfire for cooking. The fire was contained in a cooking pit, surrounded by a ring of stones. As the others prepared the camp, Kevhin and Rohan were sent hunting—while Galen kept watch on the surroundings.

As they moved further south, it slowly got warmer. It was still cold, but the rain stopped more often and ground vegetation increased, much to the pleasure of the horses.

Their little caravan followed the path at the bottom of the hill where Richard stood on the morning of his scouting, but soon found it led nowhere—after a few miles, it simply stopped. They could not risk turning back, as the enemy’s forces could be following close behind. They resolved to slowly travel south, which meant they had to cut through the forest using the horses, swords and much sweat. They were only going a few miles per day, at most; but after a couple of days, they still had not seen any enemy forces and it was not likely they were moving toward an inhabited area. Even without enemies on their heels, they still had to be careful not to run into any patrols. They also had to be ever vigilant, as the ground was treacherous to travel on; they had to be careful that none of the horses missed a step and broke a leg.

Gavin recovered well. It took two days before his headaches stopped, which did not make travel by wagon any easier. He grabbed his ribs, every now and then, but they seemed to bother him less and less.

Although the squad had little trouble functioning, each member knew his or her role, it was still good that Gavin was fully assuming the leadership role again. A strong leader meant things got done more efficiently, which was what the current situation required.

As they approached the campfire, Raylan saw Gavin, Xi’Lao and Richard standing at the back of the wagon which they had taken from the enemy camp. They looked at one of the maps they had brought with them. As he walked up to them, he heard Gavin speak.

“These are useless. No one has ever traveled this far inland on the Dark Continent and come back to tell about it. Judging from the sun, we are still traveling south by southeast, which means we are getting further away from the coast. Problem is, without any reference points, it’s impossible to tell where we are.”

Xi’Lao looked at the map, following the coastline with her finger, as Richard checked another.

“What do you suggest we do?” asked Richard.

“We can’t risk going back without knowing what we’re up against; and without knowledge of the area, we’ll just be moving around blindly. At least along the coast we’ll get a sense of how far south we have traveled. We might even be able to construct a boat and take to the water,” added Xi’Lao, as a suggestion.

Without introduction, Raylan cut into the conversion.

“That won’t do us any good.”

“What do you mean?” asked Xi’Lao, as the three of them turned around.

“None of us knows anything about boat building, and the Great Eastern Divide won’t be some calm lake water that you wish to cross. Storms might show up, even slightly rough water can be a problem if the vessel is not seaworthy.”

Xi’Lao looked back to Gavin, disappointment showed on her face, if only for a moment, before she regained her composure.

“That’s true, we hit some pretty rough weather when sailing to Aeterra, and it was not even storm season.”

“It’s not only that, but the only one that has any sailing experience is Raylan here. I wonder if we would be able to correctly handle a ship,” added Richard.

Raylan looked around the camp.

“We would have enough hands on deck, but it won’t matter without a good ship. I don’t know how to construct a seaworthy ship from scratch.”

Xi’Lao looked frustrated.

“Okay, but what can we do? We cannot keep going south. We will just get further and further away from our home,” she said.

“Well, I wanted to explain that before we were interrupted…”

Gavin gave a glance sideways to Raylan.

“I think I’ve got a solution, but it will require some planning.”

The glance reminded Raylan of how much Gavin had changed from rebellious to serious when he joined the army. While Raylan had remained an energetic boy trying to get out of any responsibility, Gavin had completely turned around. When he finally joined the army, it had given Gavin a structure that spoke to him, giving him a goal to work toward. He wanted to protect the people he held dear to his heart, and the wish to be more dependable for his father had a deep impact on the behavior of his brother during those years. Looking back, Raylan saw it provided Gavin a certain peace of mind at that age, channeling his rage about losing their mother; but at the time, he had been annoyed by the countless times Gavin had rebuked him, telling him he should help more, that he should be more serious and find something of value in his life to work for.

It had made Raylan angry more than once. He had felt abandoned by his brother and nothing he did would go right. He could do nothing worthy of praise from his brother, nothing had been good enough. The result was their bond had stretched thinner and thinner until they barely spoke for a time; the distance grew with Gavin being away a lot for army training, and Raylan eventually heading out to sea to escape the city. Being out on the sea had given Raylan time to reflect on things. When he eventually got drafted, Gavin had looked him up in the training camp. They still had very different opinions sometimes, but the gap between them eventually shrunk to a negligible crack. Though Raylan still felt the sting of disapproval during moments like this, it was more the memories of that time than the actual rebuke that bothered him.

Gavin continued.

“Before leaving on this assignment, we discussed multiple strategies with the war council. Things rarely go as planned, and I had no intention for us to get stuck on this continent without alternative routes home.”

Raylan looked at his brother.

“So, what’s the plan to get us out of here?”

“Two of the remaining pigeons we have aren’t bred in Shid’el but Azurna.”

“How does that help us?” wondered Xi’Lao.

“Azurna is one of the most eastern harbor cities in Aeterra. They’ll be closest to the Dark Continent. On a good wind, a ship could get to the western coast of the Dark Continent in three or four weeks. The idea was to have a ship ready in Azurna that can depart on short notice and get to the Dark Continent to pick us up. If it was not needed the pigeons could carry normal messages which would be relayed to the capital, but in this case we’ll sent them both out carrying the same message. As soon as they know we are cut off from returning to Aeterra over land, they’ll set sail for the most western point of the Dark Continent.”

“The western point has a rock formation call the Drowned Man’s Fork. Three giant pillars rise out of the sea, towering high above the water. It’s a landmark recognized both from land and from sea. Instructions are to put down anchor there for a moon cycle, or two, if possible. It’ll depend on the available food sources. During that time we’ve got to make our way toward the most western point over land. Once we arrive and spot the ship in the water, we’ll create a large fire with the dried herbs, to signal them in with yellow smoke. They’ll pick us up, we’ll depart right away, going back to Aeterra by ship,” continued Gavin.

“And if we don’t arrive before those two cycles have passed?” Raylan asked, while he already knew the answer.

“They’ll assume we were killed in action and return home. We’ll be on our own. That’s where the planning comes in. I need to figure out where we are, to estimate how long it will take us to get to that most western point. Trouble is that without landmarks we only have the coast to rely on. Following the coast, however, would be strategically unwise as we would limit our movement should we encounter enemy forces. Here, we can move around in all directions to escape detection.”

Xi’Lao gave it some thought and came to the same conclusion Raylan had in his head.

“So that means you want to hold course and stay away from the coast, but you’re looking for higher ground to have a better view of the coastline to determine where we are?”

“Precisely, I want to go to the higher mountains toward our east. The mountain ridges should give us a better view of the coastline. Hopefully, by seeing the coast on such a scale, we’ll be able to determine where we are. Perhaps we’ll even spot the Drowned Man’s Fork.”