Otherworld: A Son of Two Realms

Chapter 66: "Wayward and Hungry"

       

"Keep up!" Mercer shouted against the wind.

Jack was going to shout back a retort but his foot landed ankle-deep in another muck puddle and his cursed instead. Even in the brilliant light of Guildron's night sky, the damp moorland outside Rivermill was a minefield of mud and grime. Sharp gusts of wind blew across the gently sloping hills, making speech impossible. Even the bell tolls had faded into the ever-present howl.

"How much further?" Jack shouted, his words only traveling a few feet.

"Not much," Mercer shouted back. In the wind, they kept sentences as short as possible.

Alba didn't talk at all. She kept her arms wrapped around her body and her face down, away from the gust. Jack wanted to ask her about the Crimson Trout but there was no talking in the wind. And she didn't look like she would have answered.

"There!" Mercer pointed to a solitary cabin. A short pin beside the cabin held a half dozen sheep, huddled together like a handful of cotton balls.

Just as Jack was losing feeling in his face, they reached the cabin's porch and Mercer pounded on the door. There was a heavy scraping of wood against wood and a man opened the door opened. His face was a shadow against the cabin's roaring fire but he quickly stepped aside and gestured them in.

As soon as the door closed, Jack feared that he'd gone deaf. But then he realized it was just the sound of silence after walking a mile in the screaming wind.

"Wasn't expecting you until morning," the man said, lifting a heavy beam over the door.

"We had to leave early," Mercer said. "These two started a ruckus."

The man grunted. "You can't take Jack Ward anywhere without starting a ruckus."

Jack turned away from the fire and saw the man smiling wide beneath a bushy black beard. "Saunder?"

The fisherman's tired eyes brightened. "I'd heard you came back."

"How did you...why are you here? What happened?"

"You escaped." Alba's voice was soft and cautious.

Saunder knew the question that followed. He stopped smiling. "Aye. But me and Archer were separated. I don't know where he was taken."

Alba's eyes fell and she turned to the fire, absently warming her hands.

"Cera's bombardment threw the city into chaos," Saunder continued, when he wasn't sure what else he could say. "I was able to escape in the confusion."

"And now you work for the Resistance?" Jack said.

"Well I couldn't very well go back to Perdan. Talon offered to set me up here, tending sheep and a few crops and, when need be, harboring wayward travelers like yourselves."

"Wayward and hungry," Mercer said. "Not to be rude, or anything."

"Of course." Saunder motioned to his table and they sat while he busied himself in the kitchen. Alba joined them, but kept looking into the fire. Jack understood. Staring into firelight made everything else fade away.

"I assume you're continuing on to Bashir?" Saunder said, heating a pot of water and grabbing garlic bulb. "Be cautious. The brigands are more restless than usual."

"When are brigands ever restful?" Mercer said. Jack looked up at the word brigand and Mercer explained, "After Wayland surrendered, Cera's army merged with the King's. But there were still a few thousand leftovers and most of them ended up in Bashir. There's a salt mine nearby that pays handsomely for muscle. Brigands spends days in the dark and come to Bashir with purses overflowing."

"The only reason the city has burned to the ground is Lord Mayor Haringer." Saunder dropped a handful of greens into the water and stirred. "He keeps the peace as our grandfathers did."

"Meaning?" Jack said.

Mercer laughed. "Let's just say there's a lot of one-handed thieves in Bashir."

"And he has even less patience for the Resistance." Saunder stirred in the garlic and a pinch of salt. "How many have we lost to that madman?"

"Prisoners who go into the Lord Mayor's mansion don't come out." Mercer leaned in close, like he was telling Jack a ghost story. "And the bodies are never seen again. They say Haringer's basement is a morgue. A playground for his...experiments."

Jack changed the subject before dread could overtake him. "So how are we going to sneak into the city?"

"We're going to walk through the front gate. Discreetly, of course."

"You have a sick sense of humor," Saunder said, ladling the broth into wooden cups.

They ate in silence. It wasn't uncomfortable or forced. They were simply hungry.

Alba's gaze had shifted to the floor and her eyelids fluttered at the edge of sleep. She spooned broth into her mouth with mechanical repetition. Jack hadn't realized how exhausted she really was.

"I laid some furs by the fire," Saunder said, collecting their empty bowls. "I'll keep watch outside and make sure none of my sheep blow away."

He wrapped a heavy hooded cloak around his body and went out into the howl. As soon as the door shut, Alba slid out of her chair and rolled into one of the furs. She was asleep before her head touched the floor.

"I've never seen anyone attack a man like her," Mercer said. "It's like she was fighting the entire Brigand army."

"I don't think it was the Brigands," Jack said.

"Why do you say that?"

"Alba believed Talon's prophecy. That's how she ended up in the White Palace. But now she knows the truth. She lost her brother and two years of her life for that prophecy."

"And what do you know of the truth?"

The sting in his words caught Jack off guard. "I didn't come here to save Guildron. I'm not here now to save Guildron."

"You know, that's the funny thing about prophecies. You don't have to believe in them for them to be true. Talon told everyone you'd come to Guildron."

"And then I left."

"And now you're back."

Not this again, Jack thought. "I came back because Cera kidnapped my friend. I am not the hero that Talon preaches about."

"Perhaps. Though, I imagine that true heroes don't go around proclaiming themselves as one." Mercer stood, adjusting his robes. "Tomorrow, we will go to Bashir and, if all goes smoothly, to the Resistance. Alba will be safe but you will have a path to chose."

"I'm just trying to get home."

Beneath the shadow of hood, Jack saw Mercer smile. "Aren't we all?"