Meadowcity (15 page)

Sorin’s heart jumped a beat when he noticed that another man already stood outside the gate, and he wasn’t alone either.  The man held in his hand a thick leather cord that was most certainly connected to the neck of a sinewy mountain lion.

Closing his agape mouth, he turned to Falx, an obvious question on his face.  The tall man grunted and nodded to the man holding the lion.

“It’s Ripon, sir, a pleasure to meet you,” the man said.

“Ripon,” Sorin acknowledged him with a nod, squashing the instinct to reach out his hand as his stomach coiled into a tight ball.  He fought the instinct to turn back inside the door.

Noting the Governor’s clear unease, Ripon continued, “This here’s Starling, and she won’t bite your hand off—unless I told her to anyway,” he grinned.

Sorin stared down at the creature, barely moving as it sat at Ripon’s feet.  Its eyes though, tracked him.

“Well, yes, I’d appreciate you didn’t,” Sorin managed.  His heart was still racing, and he hoped the beast couldn’t sense it.  He wiped his hands on the insides of his fur pockets, which now seemed too warm.

“So, you can see why we had to meet out here.  I caught her about two months ago outside the city on my way back from Meadow’,” he gestured behind him with his free hand at the surrounding mountainside.  Sorin didn’t take his eyes off the lion.

“I was coming east up the mountain, and I found her down by the lake, head almost in the water.  I spotted her from the path, but she didn’t even move.  I came down from the ridge and got a little closer, but she just lay there,” Ripon looked down at the fearsome lion with something like admiration.

“Now, I’ve seen some fierce beasts on the trail.  But she was sick.  Too weak to get up and slash my throat like I could tell she wanted to.  She just stared at me, trying to just move her paws, but they barely scuffed the dirt.”

“If I’d been a hunter, I might ‘ave put her out of her misery right there.  But I thought, what if I made her better?  Would she still want to kill me?”

Sorin finally looked up at Ripon, but the man was looking down at Starling.  He thought it strange that one of these beasts could have a name.

“Well it looks like you succeeded,” Sorin said.

Ripon nodded, and Falx gave him a look.

“I’ve trained her to hunt, and she follows all sorts of commands.  It was hard training her once she got better, when she got her strength back—we had a few mishaps,” he pointed to a long scar down his neck, now healed.

“But when Falx asked me to become a Scout,” he grinned at Sorin, “I thought it might help.”

Sorin raised his eyebrows.  Trained beasts on their side.  Falx was grinning at him.  There was
a lot
it could do to help.

Chapter Seventeen
 

Sylvia rested uneasily while Ven and then Flint went on watch.  She remained in a half-sleep until Flint took over, her mind too cloudy to let her sleep properly.  She remembered hearing Ven waking Flint to take over watch, and then she must have drifted further into sleep.

Unformed thoughts of Riftcity swirled around her mind like flies around a carcass, unable to leave it alone.  Half-dreams of explosions ripping apart rock, mixed with the sneer of a hunter caressing the head of a lion plagued her.

So when Flint placed his hand on her shoulder to wake her, naturally, her instincts kicked in.  Her free hand shot out and yanked him down by the arm.  Completely unsuspecting, Flint fell forward and toppled onto the ground.  Meanwhile, Sylvia brought her spear to his throat in a swift movement before she even knew what she was doing.

It all happened in an instant.  Sylvia blinked, focusing her eyes on him. 

“Flint?”  She looked into his dark grey eyes, filled with terror. 

She flushed and immediately let go of his shirt.  She was kneeling over him, and so she held her hand to help him get up.

“I’m sorry, I—”

“Don’t worry about it, I shouldn’t have grabbed you.  I mean, I know you don’t want to do watch but...”  He cracked a smile, brushing the dirt off his hands.

Syliva gave him a quick smile, her cheeks no doubt still red from embarrassment.  She hoped she hadn’t hurt him or anything throwing him onto the ground like that.

“Bad dreams?” he crouched down to sit next to her.

She nodded, biting her lips.

“Me too,” he said simply, looking off into the woods.

It was properly dark now, but the light of the soon-to-be rising sun was just peeking above the horizon.  Sylvia sighed, thinking of what Flint’s bad dreams were probably about.

“Look Flint, I know you’re worried about your sister, but we’re going to get her.”

His eyes widened in surprise.  He opened his mouth and then cleared his throat, but Sylvia continued.

“I know you want to rescue her, but you have to promise me something.”  She ran her hands down her leggings, smoothing the silky leather.  “You can’t do anything stupid.”

He snorted.  Ven rolled over in his sleep, but Sylvia could see he was still asleep.

She went on, quieter, “If you do something stupid,” she said slowly, “you’ll get us all caught. If you really want to rescue her, we need to stick to the plan—get the layout, get in, figure out what’s going on, and then get out.”

“So where does Ember fit in?”

“We’ll just have to figure that out once we’re in.  But don’t go running off, and please, just don’t do anything stupid.”

Flint shrugged, looking off to the side.  “Alright, alright.  But it’s my city—you should listen to me when we’re inside.”

“Alright.”

“Well alright then.  We have a deal.”

Flint stuck out his hand to her, and she grasped it once.  Looking at Flint’s face, the healing wound stood out in bright red contrast on his right cheek.

“Get to bed,” she chided softly.

“Don’t have to tell me twice,” he rose and slunk back over to his log.

Sylvia let out a long steady breath.  She felt lighter somehow.  Her bad dreams had worried her into such a terrible state, but now she felt like a weight had lifted from her chest.

The decision to rescue Ember had long been brewing.  By coming to Meadowcity, Flint had done them a great service—they would not have been prepared for Skycity’s attack any other way.  The least she could do was help him find his sister. 
We’ll have to see what the city is like first though,
she told herself.

Sylvia’s hand crept up to her throat where the glass bead from Sonia lay on its cord.  As she watched the sun rise through the forest, she wondered what Gero and the council were planning, and how they could possibly begin to protect Meadowcity.

Chapter Eighteen
 

“Flint, scoot back a little,” Sylvia breathed. 

The three of them were flat on their stomachs near the edge of the drop off, a stiff wind coming up from the rift.  Below them lay Riftcity.  Sylvia had a compact telescope to her eye as she surveyed the gatehouse, far down at the thinnest point of the rift.

Riftcity’s West face was across from them, the East face directly below.  Flint was right about the bridges—not a single stone bridge crossed the rift.

They had been surveying for some time, and watched as new bridges were erected out of rope and wood.  They couldn’t be permanent, but it was clear that the men from Skycity didn’t care.  They had merely wanted to cripple Riftcity by taking away their feeling of safety.

Skycity’s men—
guards?—fighters?—
Syliva wasn’t sure what to call them—were everywhere.  There was a whole group of them manning the gatehouse, accompanied by at least two lions.  The fearsome cats had leads around their necks, and wore thick leather collars.  The handlers seemed very in control, but they themselves looked just as dangerous as the animals they commanded.  One man towered above the rest, his grisly beard visible even from this distance.  His thick arms gestured boldly to the other men, making Sylvia think he must be in charge in some way.

She lowered the telescope from her eye.  The sleek instrument was something she really only used occasionally to scout out new passages, and she was glad she had slipped it into her pack before leaving home.  She passed it to her right, where Ven took it without a word.  Her chin a mere inch from the ground, she tried to keep a low profile on the edge of the ravine.  The chalky scent of the limestone permeated the air, only to be whisked away in a breeze from the rift.

Flint puffed impatiently on her left. 

Immediately Sylvia thought of his sister.

“I didn’t see her,” she said gently, having asked Flint what she looked like this morning on their way to the city. 

Flint remained silent, his eyes squinting at the city below them, though it was impossible to make anyone out from this height, and they could only see the opposing side of the city anyway.

Ven’s hand crossed in front of Sylvia’s face, handing the telescope to Flint.  He took it eagerly, raising it to an eye in an instant.  Sylvia looked down as well, thinking.  The idea now was to go back into the woods and look for Flint’s tunnel.  Since he had been blundering around in the dark on his exit, Sylvia hoped there would be signs that could lead them back there.  She just hoped the Skycity men hadn’t found the tunnel first.

Once they found it, they would sneak into Flint’s villa, where hopefully they would find Ember, or some trace of her. Sylvia hoped she would know something about Skycity’s intentions.  Once they figured out what Skycity was doing there, they could return to Meadowcity and sort this whole mess out.  If they couldn’t find Ember...Sylvia didn’t want to think about what it would do to Flint.  Having just lost his father, and his mother gone since they were kids, Flint was desperate to find her.

Sylvia sighed and placed her hands flat on the ground by her shoulders.  Slowly she pushed herself up and back, staying low, walking her feet back without lifting her hips so as not to be seen.  The limestone crunched under her boots as she worked her way a few more feet back from the cliff before rising into a crouch. Ven joined her in the same way, and after a moment, Flint closed the small telescope and scooted away from the cliff edge too.

Still crouched low, they headed for the tree line, eager to be away from the possible sight of the gatehouse.  Sylvia knew they probably couldn’t see them from this distance, but they still had her on edge until they reached the safety of the trees.  Sylvia smacked her hands on her leggings, trying to rid her palms of the chalky stone dust.

“Here’s the plan,” she said as soon as they got into the thick of the wood.  “We’re sticking together to search.”

Flint raised his eyebrows but remained silent.

“Skycity might have those guards in the woods with their little
pets,
and we’ll be better in a group,” she saw Flint and Ven nod.

Sylvia crouched down and took up a stick, drawing in the dirt at her feet.  She drew a long ‘V’ for the city, and circled the narrowest point indicating the gatehouse.  She looked up at Flint, who was crouching by her, looking at the dirt, his face totally blank.  She glanced at the red wound marring his face, suddenly wondering how wounded the rest of Riftcity’s citizens were.

She drew an uneven circle representing the woods. 

“We’re going to walk a zig-zag, starting down at the bottom where we are now.” 

She turned to Flint, “The tunnel, what do you think the end looked like?”

He reached up and ran a calloused hand over his short hair, looking off into the trees.  He shrugged and brought his grey eyes to meet hers. 

“I don’t know,” he said, shaking his head slightly.  “It was probably rock though—I think I remember grabbing onto something when I finally came out of the dark.”

Sylvia nodded absently, returning to look at her drawing.  Suddenly she stood, kicking the map with her boot and wiping it away. 

“Let’s look for some rocks then,” she said with a grin, hiding her trembling hands as she went to pick up her pack from where they left their things under a thick bush.

They walked deeper into the woods, eyes searching for any rock groupings.  At first they came across a group of stones, the dirty white rocks seeming to grow out of the ground right along with the bushes and vines nearly covering them.  Sylvia and Flint walked around the stones, while Ven kept watch.  But the stones were just stones.  No secret openings or tunnels, so they moved on.

The morning sun shone dimly through the trees as they reached their first stopping point of their zig zag at the edge of Sylvia’s appointed circle.  Sylvia was in the lead, and she turned, pointing Ven and Flint into the next line of the pattern.

Wordlessly they followed her directions.  They continued on, walking line after zig-zagged line through the woods, intent on finding the tunnel. 
At least we have a plan
she thought, thinking back to when they had wasted so much time looking for a place to cross the river on their journey.  Sylvia held her long knife at her side, but her other hand crept up to her neck to the necklace Sonia had given her.

She grasped the glass bead, hanging right at her throat, thinking of her sister.  A smile came to her, thinking of the little girl’s delight in giving Sylvia the gift.  Sylvia’s eyes roved the forest around them, spotting another rock grouping.  It was practically identical to the few that they had come across in the last half hour, and she tried not to get her hopes up. 

Ven stood watch as Sylvia and Flint each circled the moss covered rocks.  Sylvia found nothing, but she heard Flint call out from the other side of the rocks.

Sylvia circled swiftly around the stones, but there was no opening.  Instead, he was looking in the other direction, pointing at a strange stone some fifty paces away.

“I remember that!” he said excitedly, his grey eyes lighting up.

Ven came to join them, still clutching his loaded bow and looking around at the rest of the forest. 

“What’s going on?”

“I remember that rock,” Flint said, pointing again to a stark white stone, an angular point jutting out of the ground.

“Well that’s a start,” Ven said. 

He looked at Sylvia, who nodded, and the three of them headed to what Sylvia agreed was a memorable stone.  As they approached it she could see that it was no taller than she, a triangular stone just standing in the middle of the trees.  Flint reached the stone, planting himself and turning in a circle, scanning the forest.  He spun in a circle a second time, slower, eyes narrowed.

Sylvia frowned, and began to look around herself; maybe she could spot Flint’s careless trajectory through the forest.

“What’s that?” Ven asked, just as Sylvia spotted it.

Something shiny was glinting in the sun at the top of another stone formation just north of them.  Sylvia and Ven exchanged a look, and they began to head towards it.

They paced quickly over to it, this time Sylvia’s breath caught in her chest as she lengthened her stride.  There was definitely something glass atop the stones, and as they reached it, they all fanned out around it, searching.  Sylvia alternated her gaze between the forest around them, and the stones, their massive bulk the size of a villa.  Why else would there be a glass marker on the top of these stones?  Her heart raced.

“It’s here!” Flint called out, and Sylvia took a sharp breath, following his voice halfway around the stones.  Ven and Sylvia met up with Flint where two stones met, dark green moss covering their faces.  Between them, the entrance to the tunnel was camouflaged by the shadows and moss; Sylvia didn’t think she would have noticed it if they hadn’t had the clue from the glass marking on top.

Then maybe Skycity doesn’t know about it
, Sylvia hoped.  Flint made to head through the entrance, but Sylvia grabbed the back of his shirt, drawing him back.

“Hold on a second there Flint.  Is there any light in there?” she asked him pointedly.

He shrugged, his eyes darting to the entrance, nearly bouncing on the balls of his feet.

“Let’s not do anything
stupid,
” she said, raising her eyebrows with meaning, “like stumbling through an unguarded tunnel in the dark.”

Flint opened his mouth, and then closed it.  He furrowed his eyebrows and looked at Sylvia.  She hoped he was remembering their bargain.

“I’ve got some lamps,” she offered as she took her pack off her shoulders, “so just give me a minute.”  Setting the pack on the ground, she dove her hand in searching until she felt one glass ball, then another.  She drew them out and held them up each in one hand for Ven and Flint to see, grinning.

She put them on the ground and started searching for her firestarter. The orbs on the ground were open on one end, so that when the coil inside it was lit, it could have air to burn.  She didn’t often use them on the trail, since she didn’t walk at night—
until recently,
she thought bitterly— and hadn’t wanted to use them then since it would have drawn attention.

She quickly cleared a space on the ground so nothing else would catch fire.  In a practiced motion, she lit both orbs, and handed one to Ven, who cradled it in his hand, open end up.

After safely tucking away her firestarter, she took the other orb, the glass insulating her hand from the heat.  Her eyes rose to meet Ven and Flint’s, and the three of them headed in between the moss covered stones and into the tunnel.