Battle Cry (10 page)

Down the gang plank came a tall woman whose hair was as red as fire but her skin looked like gold pieces. She wore an odd assemblage of clothing: a long skirt slid all the way up to her hips to show her shapely thighs, and a beaded and puffy shirt that hung off both of her shoulders to expose her broad collarbones. Long hoops dangled from her ears and there was a sword tucked into the broad belt that held her skirt to her wide hips.

“My name is Myra. It’s been a long time since I saw anyone on the shores.”

Reena shook all over, but she held her voice steady. “My name is Reena. I come from the woods outside of Aretula. I’m an Outlaw, all of us are. We’ve traveled a great distance but have further to go it seems. Nobody told us about the water; we must cross it — we must find Olympus.”

Myra’s eyebrows arched up so high they almost touched her hairline. “Why must you find Olympus? Why is it important to you?”

Reena said, “I can only tell you that it is a personal mission. I must fulfill it; I’m on a quest.”

Myra tilted her head to one side, making her hoops jingle and jangle. “A quest is it? Well, never let it be said that Myra and her band did not help someone on a quest to find their way through. Have you ever seen Olympus?”

“No, I haven’t. None of us have. Please, do you know of it? Does it still stand to this day?”

Myra nodded. “Yes, across the section of water — about three days hence. It still stands, yes and it stands true. But why would I take criminals to the city of light?”

Tears began to fall down Reena’s face. “We’re only criminals because the Governor forces us to be. I promise you, none among us will create havoc in the city. And we are not staying. I only wish to speak to the rulers there; I have the sword and it is my duty, it is my quest to ask a favor of the ruler of Olympus.”

Myra’s eyes fell to the sword and she took a quick step back, her breath going inward in a quick kiss. “By the gods! That is the sword of Olympus! It has been missing for many years! How did you come about it? Did you steal it?”

Anger flared up and Reena could not squash it. She also could not keep the words that came up in her throat from coming out of her mouth. “No, I fought for my own life and in doing so I won the sword. I got it from a madman, one suffering from a sickness he obtained in the desert, or at least I think he got it in the desert, but I’m also pretty sure that he had part of it within him when he left Olympus. He said he was a murderer, and he was on our side of the waters, so I have no doubt that he was in Olympus as well.”

Myra’s eyebrows knitted together, “That sword was stolen. It was removed from the case where it has rested for centuries. There is a legend that says that that must happen, but nobody said that it would wind up in the hands of a mere child. How old are you?”

Reena said, a trifle defensively. “I’m sixteen. But I’ve already fought in the Arena as a gladiator, I’ve gathered my tribe and I’ve begun a quest that is taking me all the way through the desert, the desert that they say nobody can pass. I’m here and I’m asking for passage to Olympus, so what difference does my age make?”

Myra actually laughed at that, her smile revealed broken teeth but it did not detract from her beauty at all. “Yes, this is true. When I was sixteen I already had command of my own ship. Isn’t she a beauty?” She tilted her head towards the ship and Reena looked at it.

“Yes she is beautiful. Why do people call things ‘her’? One of the nomads said the desert was a ‘her’ as well.”

Myra said, “I imagine it’s because some things, like women, are both beautiful and deadly.”

Reena asked, “Please, I’m not sure what I can trade you for passage for me and my tribe but whatever I have — other than the sword which I must keep — I will give you.”

Myra looked down at Reena’s feet and a long smile tilted her cheekbones up even higher. “I could use a good pair of boots.”

And with that, the bargain was struck.

Reena took the boots off and shook them out and handed them to Myra who held them with a careless hand. “You may all board and I will take you to Olympus — I will see to it that you get there as safe and sound as possible. There are storms brewing out in the middle of the water. I will try to avoid them as much as possible. I’m assuming that none of you have ever ridden on a boat before?”

The entire tribe shook its head. The people gathered at the railings of the ship, and looked down at them and waved. A few even snickered at that admission. Myra waved, and her people often said, “I don’t do coddling so if any of you get seasick, you must deal with it yourselves.”

“What is seasick?” Deal asked the question that everybody was wondering.

Myra had not seen Deal before, but when he stepped out from behind his father; she looked over at him and her face paled underneath her tan. Her mouth sagged open and she choked out, “Blake? Blake, is that you or am I befuddled by a ghost?”

Deal said, “I’m sorry, you must be befuddled by a ghost. My name is Deal. I come from the same woods that the rest of us do; I am an Outlaw just like the rest of us are. I don’t know Blake.”

Myra regained her composure so quickly that it was almost as if she had never lost it. She waved an imperious hand at the young boy and said, “Of course you don’t. How could you? Blake was born in Olympus, and stolen away many years ago. It’s a story not worth telling — at least not anymore.”

Reena had a feeling that she was lying. That she had a story that was way beyond worth telling. She was not about to talk about it though and that was easy to see. Reena was not going to press her either; she was offering them passage to Olympus and she was just grateful to be going.

**

The next day she was doubting that gratitude. Most of the tribe was seasick. With the notable exception of Deal who took to life on the boat as if he’d been born to it, most of them were dealing with upset stomachs and nausea that would not end.

At one point Lucas even exhorted her to go ahead and kill him now. His exact words were, “I don’t care if I ever see Olympus, I just want off this damn boat.”

Those who were not seasick were up on the top decks, hanging off the railings and staring down, hoping for a glimpse of the fabulous key creatures that Myra and her crew swore were down there. She had them all convinced that giant striped white and black leviathans were all around the waters.

Reena was fairly certain that she was lying; she also said there were creatures there that had something called tentacles. She said they could suck a man off of a boat and take him down before he could even so much as scream. She said these were all old creatures — creatures from before the Great War who had somehow managed to survive in the deepest depths of the ocean, sustaining themselves and sustaining their offspring.

As they stood on the rail now, Myra said, “If you look hard enough you can tell which way the wind is blowing from the way the waves rise. It is hard to believe that once upon a time there was nothing left in these oceans, but the creatures that were far far below the depths.

“It wasn’t so long ago either. Once upon a time and not so long ago, almost all the life was dead. She had green stuff floating below. That was seaweed. It’s what a lot of the animals eat, and at one point it was poisonous so the fish within died. They had no choice, but to die.”

Reena said, “Nobody ever said that the people who used to inhabit the earth were smart, or compassionate.”

Myra slanted her a look, “Do you not think that they were?”

“How could they have been? They allowed a war that killed everything in its path.”

“Yes, but how many did that? How many were just victims who got caught up in the blasts? Haven’t you ever thought of it that way?”

No, actually she had not. “My father says that it was all governments. That’s why it’s important for people to maintain their freedom. That’s why we live in the woods, because if we lived in the city we would have to do as the Governor ordered and the Governor is a madman.”

“Most men in power are.”

“Is the man who rules Olympus a madman as well?”

“No… Then again the person who rules Olympus is a woman.”

Reena’s mouth fell open. “Are you serious? But women have no value, women are…”

Myra asked, “Were you not a gladiator? Do you feel that you have no value?”

Reena stuttered out, “Of course I have value. Yes I was a gladiator but even gladiators don’t have any worth, not really. What I mean is that where I come from women have to listen to the men unless of course they get very very rich and have their own money and that doesn’t happen too often.”

Myra said, “Fortunately things in Olympus are very different. Then again Olympus has stood for many many years. It has always been the city in which people strive to be enlightened. Don’t get me wrong; there are some who are not. There are criminals in Olympus and there are those who do things that go against all the laws. I don’t want you to think that there aren’t. Don’t take yourself a pretty picture and expect to go over there and have it met.”

Reena asked, “What happens to criminals in Olympus?”

“They are either jailed or executed.”

“So they execute people in Olympus as well?” Reena could not keep the disappointment out of her tone.

“Of course they do, sometimes there is no choice. Sometimes even here on the ships people are executed.”

Reena looked at her, “On the ships? Is there more than one?”

“Of course. Why do you ask?”

“If there are ships, then why doesn’t anyone come to our side of the world?”

“Because nobody thinks that anything exists on the other side of the desert. Besides, everybody knows that to go through the desert one will be stricken with the sickness. A long time ago, many years ago people used to try to get through, but they always died; they never came back anyway.”

“They went to where we live.”

“Perhaps so. But after Barkley was sent West, nobody else was ever sent.”

“Nobody else was ever sent? What does that mean?”

“It used to be that rather than execute people who were criminals they were sent West. The ships would take them across the water and drop them at the edge of the desert. It was better than death, or at least it was a choice. Like I said the ones who went never came back. But after Barkley was sent West, it was decided that the way should be closed and that is when the great land bridge was removed.”

Reena was confused; it made no sense at all. She had never heard of the land bridge and she said so. Myra replied, “At one time. You could walk across, or so they say. I don’t believe it but you hear the stories and upon occasion, when the tides are right you can see these… Well, they call them the spine of the old ancestors. It looks like a spine really, it’s a bunch of tiny islands, some of them no more than a foot or so across. Supposedly it’s what’s left of the land bridge.”

Reena said, “Will you tell me about the ruler of Olympus?”

Myra said, “I can’t. I’ve never met her. I only know of her from stories. It seems that she runs the city well. There is some hunger of course; there are always people who are unhappy, but she does the best she can. She is not a dictator but rather a leader. Other than that I don’t know what to tell you. I have to go anyway, they need me to help steer the ship.”

Reena watched the tall woman who called herself a pirate walk along the deck of her ship. The things she had just told her were even more fantastical than the stories of giant creatures swimming below the waters. How could a woman rule an entire city? How could a bridge have existed? One that would span across an entire sea?

**

It was a four-day trip across the waters and Reena was up top when she finally saw land in the distance. She stared at it, slightly overwhelmed by it all. It was green — greener than any land she had ever seen. The trees were tall and full, and the birds circled the sandy beach. The grass grew high and lush and there was fine mist of fog rolling in off the ocean.

She strained toward the land, eager to be off the boat and onto land again even though Myra swore up and down that anyone who ever loved the land again after being aboard a ship was either a fool or mad.

She did not care if she was mad; she wanted to put her feet on something that did not pitch and roll beneath her every time she turned around. Her whole body longed for the ground below her feet.

They were here, finally! Half a day’s walk from this shore lay Olympus! Her heart clenched like a closing fist, what if all of this was for nothing? Then what?

It would not be for nothing…

**

Leaving the sandy beaches behind, they struck out through the well maintained and traveled road that led through the surrounding landscapes and toward the city itself. As soon as they broke free from the beach and the outer ring of trees they could see it: standing tall and beautiful against the blue sky.

The tall spires of the buildings were decorated with pennants that flapped and waved in the breeze. There was not the smell of incidents that they had begun to associate with cities, and while they could smell the fecund soil below them they could not smell the overflowing gutter system as they drew closer.

There were walls around the city, and as they drew nearer to them they all began to worry. Myra had said that Olympus welcomed all travelers as long as they had reason to be there. But what reason would they use? Would they say that they were demanding an audience with the ruler?