Fire And Ice (Book 1) (26 page)

             
Ruan was thoughtful for a time.  The other four remained silent, looking to Ruan to make any decisions.  “How does this help my people?  How does this help my family?  My sister was on her way back home when she was taken by the slavers to Crecy.  That was three days ago.  Can you bring her back to me?”  By the end of his speech the anger was back in his voice, he stood and started pacing to calm himself down.

             
“I am sorry for your sister, but my information will help many others.  It could give us the advantage we need.  If the Sha’elt are allied with the newcomers, then defeating them will weaken them all.”  Coran wanted to help Ruan, but he did not know what he could do.  Not against the forces of Crecy.

             
Miko added his part.  “She’al says that the followers of Sha’elt are not our greatest enemy.  Those who bring the darkness with them from across the sea will be our doom.  It is also said that we must aid the other people of the West as best we can.  Our mission is vital to that end.”

             
Coran looked to Miko in surprise.  “You know about the invaders, and what it means?”

             
“Yes, that is why I agreed to come.”

             
“What are you telling me?” a look of shock was on Ruan’s face, “who are these people you speak of?”  Then he gasped, “Are they sent by the Destroyer?”
              “We believe so, but that is one of the things I hope to find out,” Coran told him.

             
Ruan shook his head in disbelief.  “I did not know.  We always seem to be the last people to know what is happening in the world.”  Then he met Coran’s eyes with a look of determination.  “Your mission is far more important than mine.  I will help you in any way I can.”

             
“We were on our way to see Bayed.”  Miko stopped at uncomfortable looks that passed between the Karandi.  “What is it?”

             
It was Ruan who answered.  “Bayed is dead.  I do not know how.  It must have been the Shiomi from Crecy.”

             
Miko sighed in a moment of grief for his friend.  “We needed his boat to cross the narrows.”

             
“I know where it is,” Ruan informed them.  “Bayed hid it when soldiers from Crecy started burning boats all along the coast.”              

“Then take us to it,” Coran put in.  “We will cross tonight.”  There was no reason for delay, and many reasons to hurry.

              After Ruan had a brief exchange with his comrades, they started gathering up their belongings.  Ruan slung his pack and bedroll over one shoulder and came to stand by Coran.  Coran thought there was something strange in the way the Karand was looking at him, all five of them.

             
“What is it?” he finally asked.

             
“It is nothing, only...”  Ruan didn’t finish.

             
“Go on,” Coran prompted him.

             
“You are different.”

             
“I am a Midian,” Coran stated the obvious.

             
“No, not that.  Well, actually, yes.  It is difficult to explain.”

             
“Just tell me.”

             
“You are not Anagassi, yet you move like one, and look like one.”

             
Coran shrugged.  “I was trained as a warrior, maybe, that is it.”

             
“Maybe.”  He did not sound convinced.  “I would not interfere with such an important mission, but I must ask.  When you are finished with what you must do in Daes Shael, will you come back and help my people?”

             
As Ruan spoke, Coran could feel a fork in the path he had chosen.  His answer would take him down one of them.  He wanted to help the Karands, but could he commit himself to such a task?  He tried to think of what the right thing to do was, and that decided him.  “If I survive I will return.  I will help you free Crecy if I can, but I make no promises.  After that is done I must go home.”              

Ruan had a wide smile on his face.  “Good.  I think that She’al has sent you to us.”
             

             
Coran pushed the small boat off the gravel beach.  He jumped on board just as a wave lapped against his boot.  The ten foot long boat rocked in the water as he took his seat at the bow.  Miko pulled back on the oars, propelling them further from the shore.  The sun was almost below the horizon, its red-orange light radiating out from behind Ruan as he waved from the beach, Coran waved back.  A smile hid the grimace he felt.  Ruan was passionate enough about driving out the enemy, but he had no idea how.  He thought all he had to do was gather an army and charge into Crecy.  Coran had to make some pointed suggestions to hold off the enthusiast from doing anything stupid.  By the time he left the young Karand on the beach, Ruan was convinced that Coran would be leading the attack.  The real problem was that Coran was starting to feel responsible for the young man.  Then he realized that he thought of Ruan as young when he had to be older than himself.  That was a problem for later.  He had to survive long enough to do anything about it. 

             
There was another thing that bothered him about the Karands.  “Miko.”

             
“Yes?” the trader replied as he struggled with the oars.  He seemed to have a familiarity with them but out of practice.  It wasn’t long before he settled into a steady rhythm that confirmed Coran’s suspicion that Miko knew something about boats.

             
“Why is it that Ruan was so ready to trust us?  He barely knows us.”  It seemed an introduction was all that was needed.  Midians would not trust so quickly.  “And you gave your real name.”

             
Miko chuckled.  “It is true I did not know Ruan but I knew of the young men hiding in the hills.  From Bayed.  And you have to remember that my people are not very good at open deception.  Ruan would not have said what he did about the followers of Sha’elt unless he meant them.  He also knows that I would not profess to be loyal to She’al unless that were true.”

             
Coran nodded and continued to watch the shoreline shrink behind them.  The idea of a people who said what they meant was a strange one.  Honesty was a trait to be admired, but to be always honest?  He had received an education that included aspects of politics, which meant saying one thing and meaning another.  He knew he was much better with a sword than with words but he at least understood the duplicative nature of politics.  Did the Karands have nothing similar?  Or was it reserved for the ruling class, people he had yet to meet.   Then again, Miko was a trader.  A man cannot be a successful trader without some lying.

             
Coran switched places at the oars with Miko every hour.  By midnight his muscles were beginning to protest.  At least he no longer felt any weakness from his injuries. 

             
It was the lights that Coran spotted first, blinking points in the distance that continued to come closer until the shape of a ship emerged out of the night.  He pointed and Miko stopped rowing to stare. 

             
“We will run right into it if we keep going as we are,” Miko stated and reversed the direction of his rowing. 

             
The ship came closer and Coran could make out the head of a person at the railing.  He followed Miko’s lead and ducked down as far as he could get.  With their dark robes there would be nothing to distinguish them from the darkness of the water.  As long as no one looked down directly and saw the boat and decided to investigate.  He forced himself not to glance up as he heard the passage of the ship through the water.  The seconds ticked by, he expected a shout of alarm at any moment.  The shout never came. They were past, and their little boat was tossed about in the wake.  Water sprayed over them and at one point it came flowing over the side and around their feet.  Another wave hit them sending more water into the rowboat.  It was past his ankles now.

             
“Bail,” Miko told him urgently.

             
Coran cupped his hands and tossed the salty water over the side.  They had nothing better to use.  The boat’s rocking slowed as the sea calmed.  They got enough water out to start rowing again. Coran took his turn at the oars. 

             
Suddenly there was a great light from the south.  They both turned to see flames rising from the direction the ship had gone.  The fire reflected red and orange across the water.  The outline of two ships became visible, one of the ships was growing larger in his vision, the other was on fire.  Coran quickened his strokes with the oars and the new ship passed far enough behind them so they were not seen.  Coran recognized the large, sleek vessel that cut through the sea swiftly, and knew who the crew would be.  Northmen.  They must be raiding the Karandi coastlines.  They were known to do that from time to time, and not just the Karandi.  The recent tensions and restrictions of trade would only encourage their warlike tendencies.

             
“Was that what I think it was?” Miko asked, in awe of the impressive vessel.

             
“Northerners,” Coran confirmed, “the best sailors in the world.”  Anyone who had any experience at sailing couldn’t help but feel anxious at the mention of the fierce Northmen.

             
Miko could only nod as Coran returned to his rowing.  They still had a few hours until they reached the far shore.

              Coran was at the oars again.  He was ready to give up before his arms fell off when Miko pointed behind him.  He turned his head and made out the looming shore about a hundred yards away.  The sky was just beginning to brighten, so he could make out low, rocky cliffs, just like on the Crecy side.  They waited for enough light in order to avoid the rocky outcroppings.  Miko suggested finding a spot where they could hide the boat and wait out the day.  He had decided that their best course, and safest, was to travel by night and hide out during the day.  That would reduce the chance of coming across other people.  Also, they had to cross the edge of a desert, and traveling by night was preferable because of the heat.  The down side was that it would take longer doing it that way.  The days were getting longer and they would have to stop earlier to find a suitable place to wait out the day. 

             
When the next night came they began their journey in Daes Shael.  They each carried three canteens and small packs of food stuffed into a leather sack.  Coran continued to wear the brown robe, since the nights here were colder than he was used to.  They stopped for the day under an overhanging ledge in a shallow valley of rocky hills.  The heat of the day was more intense than he had imagined.  How a place could be so hot by day and so cold by night was beyond him.  It was like winter and summer changing places in the span of a day instead of a year.  Miko assured him it would take at least a week to reach the plains to the south and east.

             
Over the next couple of nights, the rocky hills were replaced by shifting sands.  Once again Coran was glad for the clothing he wore.  It protected him from the sand that was constantly being whipped up by the wind.  It was soon apparent that it would take longer than expected traveling on foot.  After five days Miko said that they were not as far along as they should be.  Their water was almost gone and it would be a few days until they reached more.

             
“We will have to turn south,” Miko decided after a long deliberation.  “There is water less than a day away, or night in our case.”

             
“Why didn’t we go that way to begin with?” Coran asked.              

“It lies along the path that people usually follow when they come into the desert.  We have been paralleling that path.”  Miko saw he still did not understand.  “There will be people there.  We will have to be careful.”

              They reached the spot just before daybreak, and just before the last of their water ran out.  Miko was right to worry.  Five men and their mounts surrounded the pool of water, which was in turn surrounded by rough-barked palm trees.  They were eating breakfast, of what he could not tell from here.  If they were locals they would have to be of the Shiomi tribe, if he remembered his lessons correctly.  They were part of the same tribe that held Crecy.  There were eight tribes in all, four followed Sha’elt, and four followed She’al. 

             
Miko found a spot to wait and watch for the men to leave.  As the sun rose, approaching its peak in the cloudless sky, it baked the sand around them and the heat in the air was oppressive.  They would not last the day without water.  They waited, but the Karands made no move to leave.  Their horses remained unsaddled and the men stayed under the shade of an open-sided tent they had erected beside the inviting water.

             
“We have to do something,” Coran announced.

             
Miko nodded reluctantly.  “Give me your canteens and pack.”  Coran looked a question.  “I am not much good with a sword and they would only hinder you.”