15
Sleep came, but it didn't come easy. Dreams of the girl reaching the Temple Valley and striking down everyone there with the long dagger she had taken as a sword. Dreams of the girl dying as he screamed at her to use her magic. Dreams of the girl using her magic and turning it upon him and Tiera. Dreams upon dreams upon dreams, none of which had happy endings. He awoke in the morning awash with sweat and the covers and pillows of the bed thrown to the floor.
He washed away the sweat, wishing he could wash his mind of those dreams and the memories of his many mistakes. The sweat cleaned away, but the memories remained. He dressed, feeling more comfortable in his clothes than he had the day before, the mail shirt hanging now as it always had. Other things made him uncomfortable, now, and clean clothes and repaired mail shirts seemed trivial in comparison.
Entering the hall of the vine castle, he found Tiera sat waiting. Hers and the girl's packs set beside the double doors, a new, metal tipped spear leaning against the wall. He assumed it a gift from Irimik, or the Toad-Kin. Tiera had an air of sadness about her that didn't seem to fit the girl. She had her intense moments, her serious moments, but here, in a relative safe place, he did not expect those feelings from her and neither would he expect sadness.
"She wants to leave." Tiera glanced at the packs. "She says she won't use the magic and when she reaches the Temple Valley, she'll refuse to become their vessel. What was said last night?"
Brorzjav told her of the conversation, every part, leaving nothing out. Tiera made slow nods as he spoke and then sighed, leaning back, clutching at her hair with both hands.
"I'm not one for reassuring people." He ducked his head. Before the girl braided his hair, it would have fallen across his face, hiding his guilt. He had no way of hiding it now.
"Oh, Grey, it's not your fault. We both gave her a false idea with the training. We've not sat her down and explained it to her. Not properly." It seemed to take a great mental effort for her to stand. "She's out there now, going through her patterns. When Irimik tried to talk to her about her magic, she just shut her down."
"If she doesn't accept it, she'll get ill again. Damned fool child!" He began to storm towards the door. To rush outside and rip the long dagger from her hands. Drag her by the scruff of the neck to Irimik and stand over her as she practiced her magic. But he didn't. "I don't know what to do."
"What can we do? You know what she's like. If we don't leave with her, she'll go alone." Tiera moved to the doors, picking up her new spear. "And short of keeping watch on her day and night, or locking her away somewhere, she'll find a way. She's stubborn, like you."
"She's nowt like me." He turned back towards his room, to retrieve his pack. "We'd best be off then, afore she starts walking without us."
With his backpack strapped on, Notch at his belt and his cleaned and repaired cloak around his shoulders, he left the vine castle for the last time, finding Irimik stood upon the stairs, pipe in hand, staring at the girl as she accepted the pack passed to her by Tiera.
"I did rather hope you would all stay longer." Irimik allowed smoke to escape from the side of her mouth. "It was nice having someone to talk to. The Toad-Kin treat me with too much respect, apart from my servants, of course, but that's why I picked them as my servants."
"You could always go home. Maybe you'd be accepted there now. Things might have changed." Tiera and the girl stood waiting for him, Viriili holding the pommel of her long dagger almost as a sign of defiance.
"This is my home. These are my people. I can never leave them." She sidled next to him, linking her arm in his and looking up at him. "It was just ... nice."
"Aye. I thank you for the hospitality. I wish you well, Irimik Dragon-Kin." Unsure how to proceed, he patted her clawed hand and gave her an awkward smile.
"And you, Brorzjav Steppes dweller." She caught his patting hand and squeezed it tight. "Get her to use the power. The more she suppresses it, the worse it will be for her. Too much and one of those explosions will burn her out. You must get her to use it, whatever it takes."
"I will." He moved to descend the stairs, Irimik holding his hand until their arms outstretched.
Once her grip loosened, she turned and reentered the vine castle without looking back, a trail of pipe smoke following her. Brorzjav did look back. Only once. Despite how he acted around the Dragon-Kin, and the unknowing, tragic history they shared, he did like her and he would miss her, but he was never one for inter-species relationships. At his age, any relationships were out of the question. But he would miss her.
"She really liked you, you know?" Tiera flung her pack over her arms, tightening the straps.
"I know." Brorzjav glanced up into the hazy sky, plotted the position of the sun and worked out the direction they needed to go.
As near as he could tell, the coast of the Akaean Sea lay towards the west, another two days through the Marshes. Quick, reluctant conversations with Toad-Kin over the past couple of days had revealed the closer they got to the coast, the less fearsome creatures would be. The worst being Spore Bearers. The creatures that Irimik said his friend had become all those years ago.
It wasn't for him to care, however. His job involved protecting the girl and if she wanted to walk through a dozen Spore Bearers, then that's what she would do and he would protect her from them, or die trying. There was no other part to his job. Not anymore. He had made the mistake of acting like someone who had answers for the girl. Acting as if he cared and all that had brought was upset and feelings of guilt.
No more.
This was a job. Nothing more. If the girl wanted advice, or training, she could get it from Tiera. He had said he would get the girl to use her magic, but that was a lie. He would not. If the girl wanted to deny her magic, become ill again and explode with ever increasing invisible fury, that was her choice. Not his. He would ride the storm and pick up the pieces. He would stick a sword in things that needed killing. That was his job.
"I was thinking. When we reach the next town, or village, or city, I'm going to buy a real sword." The girl walked beside him, clutching the straps of her backpack, staring at her feet as she walked.
"You do that." The boundary to the clearing stood only a few feet away, the mists of the Hissing Marshes appearing to reach out, welcoming them back into their cold embrace.
"I've been practicing those patterns you've shown me, every day. I think I'm getting better at them. Do you think I'm ready for more complicated patterns?" She looked up at him, wrinkling her freckled nose.
"Ask Tiera. She'll be training you from now on." He caught the annoyed look from the Pony Rider and ignored it.
"But I don't want Tiera to teach me. I want you to teach me." They all stopped before the beginning of the Hissing Marshes. They all felt a little reluctant after their first foray.
"Aye? Well, if I wrote down all the things I want and all the things I don't want, you'd have two lists as tall as a mountain. I chose to train you and now I'm choosing not to. Choice has consequences and I'm not right happy with the consequences of the choices I've made." He didn't snap the words, didn't add an air of accusation. Nor did he give added, grave weight to them. He only spoke them. As a truth.
The girl didn't seem to understand. She looked at Tiera, but the Pony Rider could only shrug, gathering the girl up and placing an arm around her shoulders.
Brorzjav couldn't tell the girl. That his choice to teach her had led to her rejecting her magic and expecting to become a swordswoman instead. That was a consequence of his choices. That his choice could lead to her burning out if she didn't accept her power. That was a consequence of his choices, too. He didn't want that burden anymore.
Sometimes, he wished he could spend his remaining days at war, where his only choices were which enemy to kill, whether to sleep next to the fire or not and whether to eat the disgusting rations or not. War was simple. Children were not
-+-
As they travelled further to the west, they found solid ground more often, a slight rise in the land before reaching the coastal areas. An unusual high tide from the Akaean Sea would crash down into the Hissing Marshes, flooding the area, Brorzjav thought. The Hissing Marshes cradled in a dip in the landscape below the level of the sea, protected only by this slight rise.
They encountered nothing worse than a few snakes and one curious alligator that followed them, at a distance, for a while and then seemed to lose interest. They didn't see any more Toad-Kin, but Brorzjav felt certain those people could hide almost in plain sight, within the swampland, if they so wished.
A night spent resting upon a high mound, where they found a number of twigs and branches from dead, twisted trees, made safe by makeshift torches surrounding their camp, gave them little rest. The night sounds of the Marshes encroached upon them throughout the night making sleep difficult. A few days in the comfort of the vine castle had given them too much safety and Brorzjav almost wished that something attacked them to heighten their fears, prepare them for the unexpected.
But that first day and night had seen little danger, giving the girl time to practice the sword patterns that Brorzjav wished he had never shown her. She noticed the shift in his attitude, she wasn't stupid, but she didn't understand it. Brorzjav heard her whispers to Tiera around the campfire, saw the questioning looks flashed towards him by them both. He ignored it all.
Even now, the girl flitted between walking beside him, trying to engage him in conversation, and walking on the other side of the Pony Rider, putting space between them. Tiera would tell him to sit the girl down and talk to her about his fears, but he knew, every time he and the girl tried to talk, they would end up shouting at each other and that wouldn't help anybody.
On this second day, they found their way blocked by a large pool of stagnant water, the ever-present mists hovering above the filthy surface, hiding the danger of the place. Brorzjav tested the depth, inching forward, taking tentative steps. If Tiera had not caught him, he would have disappeared beneath the waters when the ground, beneath the surface, took a sharp fall. Using Tiera's spear to test the depth, they knew they could not pass through it unless they swam.
Swimming within these waters was not an option. Each of their packs would weigh them down, Brorzjav's, with all his weapons, more so than the others. Further across the pool, he felt certain he could see the movement of alligators. Ripples upon the water, gaps wrought into the mists, the sound of things moving through the water. They had to find a way around.