Cascade Rock

Part 2

On the other side of the dam, the road was muddy and uneven. Looking out from here, the tips of the pines tossed in the breeze like an emerald sea. Above, the shacks leaned perilously off the cliff edge.

"Just up there," Darl said, pointing to a platform hanging along the path above them.

Ven's legs were beginning to burn with the exertion. He cast a look back at the Rainbow Road where the angry lumbermen were marching up the flagstone, accompanied by some green-smocked city guardsmen; the city gate heaved shut behind the mob.

"We better hurry," Ven said tapping his brother and thumbing in the direction of the scene.

Darl squinted down the way.

"Bah," he said, turning and trudging on. "We have plenty of time. They'll have to go to the magistrate first, then mobilize some guards to make an arrest. It's going to take all afternoon."

"How many times has this happened to you?" Ven said, horrified. "Because you seem very familiar with the legal system around here."

"I'm a hafkin, Ven. This kind of thing happens to us all."

"Which is why it would be nice––for the sake of us all––if you'd just keep your head down for once and stay out of trouble."

"Trouble finds me, Brother. I can't help it. But don't worry about it. By the time they come for us, we'll have the map and be out of here."

"Fine, but that's the part––actually, that's one of many parts I'm not clear on. How are we getting out of here?"

"I got it covered; don't worry."

They climbed on in bristled silence.

About midway up the road after the next switchback, they came to a tall, leaning shack set so far out from the edge of the cliff a rickety plank had to bridge the gap to the front door.

"Here we are," Darl said; he stomped across the wood and threw open the door.

Inside, long shafts of sunlight shone through spaces in the wood-slat siding, striping a cluttered interior and deepening the shadowy nooks.

"Amedes!" Darl boomed. "You here?!"

A massive black furnace stood at the center of the main chamber, it's multitude of stove pipes mazing about the ceiling. Tables full of glass piping and copper coils blocked any direct course through the room. The stench of burned material permeated the air inside: wood, dung, charcoal, meat, and more exotic fumes like metal and unnamable alchemical concoctions.

"Probably at the tavern. Old Amedes likes his drink."

"Do you realize that you told the guards exactly where to find us?" Ven pondered aloud.

"When?"

"When you told them you were taking me to my kin––Amedes."

Darl's eyes searched his brow thoughtfully. "Oh, right."

Ven spoke with deliberate calm, as if to a tantruming child, "Darl, we need to get out of here."

"Well, I mean, I do live here, so they'd know to come here anyway."

Ven pinched the bridge of his nose. "Darl." He said it like a rebuke.

"Fine, just let me get the map," his brother complained and scuttled off to climb a ladder to the loft.

"Hurry!" Ven called after him.

"Don't worry," his brother's voice came from the gloom above, "I have an idea for how to get out of here without any trouble."