As spring gave way to verd, the season of the greening, the crops were so far along that the farmers were all planning to harvest and replant them by summer.
Karux had hoped the cry to lead the people back to the mountain would have lessened with time, but the prospect of living with the creator of the universe in his mountain home in the midst of endless blessings was just too great to forget. Only the fear of the angorym prevented them from immediately leaving for the mountain en mass. Finally a group was appointed, led by Jomel which included Karux, Arnion from Korion-Garanth, Akonti from Korion-Fugo, Sykane from Korion-Eidolon and Tephra from Korion-Spodos.
The anxious refugees at Har-Tor practically drove the six out of the stoma, so eager were they for the search to start. The six did not bring any pack animals since they intended to travel quickly and—above all—quietly, but as they neared the southern pass into the valley they slowed, casting cautious glances at the brush covered hillsides.
They first arrived at Korion-Spodos near the southern pass; at least they arrived where it was supposed to be. When the trail faded into a rock-strewn clearing, they turned to Tephra who wandered about in a daze looking for his house. Eventually he came across a low stone wall and shouted, "Those murderous beasts!"
The other five looked around curiously.
"This is it!" he said gesturing at the wasteland around them. "This is Korion-Spodos!" He bent and lifted up a fire-blackened piece of wood. It looked like a piece of firewood and still stank with the sour smell of charred wood, but the end was squared off like a rough cut ceiling beam. "This was my house!" Tephra walked in a slow circle running a hand through his hair. "Did they have to burn it all and tear down the ruins?"
"It would seem the angorym do not want anyone returning to live here," Sykane said.
"But if this was just a raid, what would they care if anyone came back?" Arnion asked.
"Unless they intended to come back and claim it for themselves," Akonti suggested.
"Perhaps this means that they do not yet have the numbers they need to occupy the valley," Sykane suggested. "If so, this bodes well if we should try to reclaim the valley."
"We will reclaim the valley," Tephra vowed. He turned to Karux. "You said you were appointed by the Most High to prepare us for a coming conflict. I want you to teach me how you fought the angoran at Korion-Garanth."
Karux nodded. "I will."
They left the remains of Korion-Spodos, heading north. They paused to catch their breath where the path branched to the west and Korion-Garanth. Karux stood staring down the trail remembering all the times he had passed this way with his father and cousins on their way to the summer pastures. It had been less than a year since he had last traveled here and though he was not surprised, it seemed somehow wrong that everything should appear exactly as he remembered it. Just on the other side of the field was the stream near which he had kissed Charissa for the first time. The trail seemed to promise a link to an unrecoverable past. He could go back to his village, but nothing would ever be the same again.
His heart ached from the longing to go home.
Jomel walked up next to Karux who staring down the trail. "Korion-Garanth is near here, isn't it?"
Karux nodded.
"You would like to go see it, wouldn't you?"
Karux nodded again.
"Shall I tell the others we will be taking a little detour?"
"No." Karux shook his head.
Jomel gave him a penetrating stare. "You want to go back, but you're afraid of what you'll find."
Karux nodded, staring at his feet.
"I understand." Jomel sighed. "Personally, I think it's best to face forward rather than continually looking back at past regrets."
"Then, perhaps we should keep moving."
-=====|==
They pushed on to Korion-Eidolon where they found a few intact buildings, though most were burnt and a few were utterly destroyed. This time Sykane, grim-faced, searched through the ruins of his village, noting the blood-sprayed walls.
On a pair of trestle tables set up in the common area, they found a mixed jumble of human bones. The bones had been picked clean and showed marks of both large teeth and knives. No one said anything but it appeared the angorym had enjoyed a large feast.
Sykane insisted they bury the remains so, being unable to tell the skeletons apart, or even to find one of the missing skulls, they wrapped them all up in a bit of cloth and buried them in a shallow grave under a large old tree. Then they piled a small cairn of rocks over the spot.
Taking a step back, Sykane gave Karux a fierce look. "I, also, would have you teach me how to kill these things. These monsters must die."
"Help me convince the others that they must prepare to fight, and I will."
-=====|==
The sun had set before they made it to the eastern pass, yet they made a point of getting out of the valley before finding a narrow gully in which to hide their camp. Each day they broke camp just before dawn, walking with few breaks and only made camp in the twilight between sunset and true night. Even so, it took two more long days of trudging up and down hills following narrow rocky paths that wound around the sides of the mountains.
They arrived at Archetor, the sacred mountain, on the afternoon of the second day after leaving the valley. Shaped like a ragged cone, it rose up to disappear into the clouds where the Most High, himself, lived.
"Right. So. Do you know where it is?" Arnion asked.
Karux looked east and west, the base of the mountain spread out for miles in each direction. "Well, actually, I didn't spend a whole lot of time looking at the mountain..." An expression of ironic skepticism spread across Jomel's face and Karux fought down a wave of panic. Had not generations of men and boys sought the path of return? How could he possibly find such a small and unlikely part of such an enormous mountain? "We camped on a sort of rise..." Desperate, Karux began looking around for anything slightly familiar. "...we started out in the morning, so the sun would have been coming from that direction..." Karux squinted up at the eastern side of the mountain. "I think we sort of headed out in this direction..." Karux started walking toward the west. "Oh wait! I remember, there was a stream!"
They walked for hours and found several streams which were mostly snow runoff. Even this late in the year, snow still covered its upper heights.
"You know, I estimate it would take us nearly a maht to circle this thing," Sykane laughed.
"I don't think we brought enough food," Tephra agreed.
Karux burned with embarrassment. He trudged ahead hardly looking up, leading them over the rocky ground, fearing the moment their patience ran out and he was declared a liar and a fraud. How could he possibly find such a place again? He had only stumbled on it by accident, and then he had fallen and nearly died. It wasn't as if he'd had a long time to study the place.
"Hey!" Akonti said, "Isn't that a strange shadow?"
Everyone looked up at the mountain. The sun was now setting in the west casting a long winding shadow along the edge of the northern face. For Karux, it was as if his eyes were opened and suddenly he was in a familiar place again.
"That's it!" He shouted and sprinted for the base of the mountain. The others followed behind, their feet pounding excitedly after him. He leaped into the melt-water-swollen stream and waded across, remembering having crossed it while the other boys had spread out trying to find fish for their supper. After that he had turned left, back toward the mountain. He ran up to a large rock and darted left and right, trying to remember which way he'd gone. The others had just caught up when he darted off to the right. He passed through a stand of trees and remembered wanting to get a better view of the surrounding landscape, and skidded to a stop.
From his current vantage point the setting sun underscored the winding path up the mountainside in dark-edged shadow. He remembered doubting it was even a path when he had first started up, but now, it was clear that the curving switch-backs led up to the clouds without interruption.
The others ran up and skidded to a halt behind him.
"Wow!"
"Well, I'll be..."
"It is real!"
"Yes, but look at the base of the path."
Karux traced the path as it wound down from the clouds, but it simply ended three or four hundred feet from the ground at a sheer cliff wall. At its base lay a pile of broken rock which Karux suspected was fairly recent.
"It's just as you said," Jomel grumbled. "The path has been closed."
"I don't suppose we can climb up that first part?" Sykane suggested.
Tephra laughed. "You know what the elders say: The Most High determines our comings and our goings, our rising up and our lying down. No man can close a path he has opened or open a path he has closed."
Karux uttered a silent prayer of thanks to the Lord of the Mountain as they started back. He couldn't help but feel the Lord of the Mountain had staged that coincidence of light and shadow solely for his benefit. If the path of return had ever been this visible before, someone would certainly have found it. Now, however, he could return vindicated and hopefully believed. There were no easy escapes for them. He could only hope they would be willing to do the work that lay ahead.
-=====|==
On the way back they arrived at the eastern pass in the late morning and spied something they had missed in the twilight on their first passage through. A pole had been set up on a hill overlooking the pass. They climbed up to get a closer look and found an angorym skull, still wrapped in desiccated strips of flesh and hair.
"I wonder who did this?" Jomel said.
"Amantis," Karux replied.
"Who?"
"Amantis. He lived with our tribe until the elders cast him out for killing a boy from another tribe."
"Sounds like a pleasant fellow," Sykane said.
"After we killed the angoran, Amantis wanted to hang the body up as a warning to the angorym. The elders forbade it. They felt it would only announce our presence to the rest of the angorym if they should venture this far south."
"It seems your elders were right," Tephra said.
Karux squinted up at the decaying head. "If only Ghett were alive to appreciate it."
"Should we take it down?" Arnion suggested.
"I think not," Jomel looked away over the Pelavale. "They've seen it. I'd rather not leave any sign that we've passed through."
"It's all his fault." Karux picked up a rock and threw it at the head, striking it so it spun to face him, its grin mocking. "All this death, all this destruction, my tribe, my aunts and uncles, my father... all dead because you thought you were more important than anyone else!"
"Is that smoke?" Tephra asked.
Everyone paused, peering out over the valley. In the distance they saw a collection of large hide tents with a steady pillar of smoke streaming up from among them.
"What do you see? I can't see that far," Jomel complained.
"I see some figures moving around among the tents" Akonti said.
"That's an angoran," Sykane added, "But those smaller figures, are those dwerka?"
"Dwerka?" Arnion asked. "Do they have anything to do with the angorym?"
"Shh!" Tephra hissed.
They paused, listening. Karux though he heard the distant ring of metal.
"That sounds like a forge," Akonti said.
Arnion turned to Karux. "Didn't Korion-Calcaion have a forge?"
Karux nodded. "This is all his fault," He muttered.
Across the valley, just visible in the distant haze of the far side, rose at least three more pillars of smoke.
"This isn't good," Jomel said. "We better go warn the others. If the forges are busy, it seems the angorym are preparing for a fight as well."
The group started down the hill, then paused and turned back to look at Karux who continued to stare at the smoke. "Karux? Are you coming?" Jomel asked.
"Yes." Karux tromped down the hill. "And I'm going to kill him."