Mighty Hammer Down (22 page)

"Because they are flowers," she said
as if the statement stood on its own. "Usually a man gives a woman
flowers and when we look at them, it reminds us of him and how he
went out of his way to do something nice."

"Well, personally I’d rather have
something I could keep forever. Anyway, come on we can’t stay on
this path for long. We need to get back into the woods before we
get to that rise over there. We can be seen from a great distance
after we reach that point."

"Is any of this looking like what you
saw in the dream?" Alana asked as she pushed some unruly hair over
an ear.

"No, I haven’t seen anything from the
dream in a while, but I’m familiar with these paths, so maybe
that’s affecting my memory."

"I’m still having a hard time
believing you. How do I know that you didn’t already know the path
we were on and you just said it was from a dream?"

"I can’t prove it to you, but I might
be able to when we get to Vindyrion. I have never been there before
but the dream showed me some of it. I would normally think it was
just a simple dream if we had not found that old statue on its side
in the brush. I am still having a hard time believing that a dream
could show me such a thing, but there’s no denying it now. I told
you about it before we got there."

Alana looked at him from the corner of
her eye as they walked. "Oh sure I believe you Rommus," she said
sarcastically. "And what did the dream show you of
Vindyrion?"

"It’s hard to remember, but there were
mountains. They were sharp and jagged, not like here. The sun was
setting behind them in the red sky. There was snow at the tips of
most, glowing pink from the last of the sun’s rays. The people
lived in towns for the most part, not in the cities. They had tall
boots like yours, and dressed in dark colors. I saw no faces
because they were all running away from something. I looked back to
see what it was and there was nothing but darkness. It was strange
though, it seemed darker than actual darkness could ever be. It was
like any light that would ever shine again had no chance against
it."

"Well Rommus, except for that part
about darkness, you could have heard any of that from any Vindyri;
and I have never seen any darkness like that there. I’m not
impressed yet."

"Well there’s more. There was water
nearby, loud water like a great river. I never saw it but I heard
it. There was a light that I first mistook for the sunset, but it
was in the wrong place. As I was facing the real sunset, the light
came from my right. Whenever I turned to it, it would fade and
disappear. Then men in silver robes rushed past me and entered the
darkness. Some of them bowed to me as they passed, but they hurried
along and vanished in the blackness behind me. Then all the sounds
around me bent into a new sound. It became a voice that came from
the false sunset. I couldn’t understand the words, but I knew what
it wanted from me. It wanted me to come to it."

"And because of a dream you’ve decided
to really go there? I’ll tell you Rommus, I thought you were pretty
smart, but to do what you see in a dream seems really silly to me.
None of that stuff is in Vindyrion. You make it sound like it’s
full of magic and danger. It’s just a place."

Rommus ran his fingers over the golden
sword at his hip as he walked. "So there aren’t mountains there
with snow on them? There aren’t people with high boots living in
towns and men dressed in silver?"

"Well yes, those things are real, but
don’t you think you could have dreamed all that because of what I
have told you or because of what you knew of Vindyrion
before?"

"No, I don’t. I know it sounds silly,
but it wasn’t a dream. It was something more; a vision or
something. I have never been so haunted and inspired by a dream
before. I have to go there, to the false sunset."

"Rommus, you sound ridiculous. There
is only one sunset, no matter which land you’re in. See the sun up
there through the trees? There’s only one. It hovers a hundred
miles up there above us until Oderion commands it to set in the
evening."

"Now who sounds ridiculous?" Rommus
asked her with a smile.

"What do you mean?"

I mean two things. First, that the sun
is not a hundred miles away. Second, it’s ridiculous to think
Oderion makes the sun set. But those things are yours to believe if
you choose."

"Then just how far away is the sun, if
you know so much?"

"I don’t know how far away it
is."

"Then how can you tell me I’m wrong?
Many people believe the sun is a hundred miles away."

"I’m aware of that, but they’re wrong.
Have you been in a room with a candle before?" he asked.

"Of course I have. Don’t be
silly."

"Well what happens when you get close
to the flame? What happens to your shadow behind you?"

She put her head down as she thought
for a moment. "It gets bigger. The closer you get to the flame, the
bigger your shadow gets."

"That’s right," Rommus said as he
stopped in a clearing in the woods. "It’s because light comes out
from the flame in all directions, and when you get close, you block
more and more of it, not allowing it to hit the wall behind you.
This makes your shadow bigger."

"I think I understand what you mean,
but I don’t see what a candle has to do with the sun."

"Hold out your hand like this." He
held his hand out and she did the same. "Now look at the shadow on
the ground."

She looked at the shadow of her hand
and tried to determine what point he was trying to make. "I still
don’t see what you’re getting at Rommus."

"What do you notice about the size of
the shadow?"

"Nothing, it’s just a normal
shadow."

"It’s the same size as your hand. Now
kneel down and hold it closer to the ground."

She knelt and inspected the shadow of
her hand. "It’s still the same size!" she said with the first rays
of understanding.

"Exactly. And I have seen the shadow
of men’s hammers as they worked on tall buildings and they are the
same size as the hammer. I have seen huge rocks fired from Medoran
ballistae shot high over my head, and they cast the same size
shadow no matter how high they fly."

"Well why does this mean that the sun
is not a hundred miles away?" she asked as she looked up at
him.

"If it was near us at all, the shadows
would change, just like they do in a room with a candle. My guess
is that the sun is so incredibly far away that the slight
difference in size cannot be detected. It’s something that is
difficult to prove though, since I don’t know how much a shadow
would change if the sun was only a hundred miles away. And it’s
hard to measure that anyway since shadows get blurrier as the
objects get higher."

Alana straightened her shirt as she
stood. "I don’t know. I think I understand what you mean, but I’d
need to see some hard evidence before I actually believe
it."

Rommus laughed as they started walking
once again. "But you don’t need hard evidence to prove that Oderion
magically makes the sun rise and set?"

"That’s totally different. Everyone
knows that Oderion controls the sun, moon and stars. What other
explanation is there for it?"

Rommus looked up to the sky and paused
a moment before he spoke. "There is another explanation, but I
don’t think you’re ready to hear it yet. There are many
explanations for things in the world. I think you should think
about what I said about the shadows for a while, and maybe you’ll
come up with the answer yourself."

Alana’s eyebrows wrinkled up at him as
they walked. "And just who told you all these explanations
Rommus?"

"No one."

"Then how did you discover
them?"

"By thinking on the matters
continually."

She shook her head at him in
amazement. "I thought I had you all figured out, Rommus Tirinius.
Now you have to go and say something impressive."

He smiled but he kept his gaze on the
narrow dirt path before them. "I’m not trying to impress you; I
just think it’s important to understand things."

"Oh and he’s modest too!" she said,
teasing him.

They walked on for a while in the warm
sun, weaving in and out of the forest onto different trails. Some
were simply animal trails, and Rommus took them knowing they would
lead to water where they could drink. He put water skins on the
list in his head of things they needed to purchase at the next city
or town. He also considered buying horses, but with the money they
had, they would have very little money left over for food and
supplies. For a moment he thought of just buying one horse, but it
would have to be a massive animal to carry them both so far. He was
certainly heavier than most ordinary men, and she was not petite
like Mirra. She was tall and had a frame that was larger than a lot
of women, although she still maintained an exquisitely feminine
appearance.

Patches of sunlight moved lazily on
the forest floor as they made their way back onto a more suitable
trail. A gentle breeze cooled them as it rustled the leaves in the
canopy overhead, weaving the sounds of nature into a pleasant song.
Both of them took some time to be silent and enjoy the
surroundings, content just to breathe the fresh air and walk
together through such a glorious landscape. Rommus lost himself in
his thoughts until he almost lost himself in the forest, forgetting
where he was going.

"What about at dusk or dawn?" Alana
asked.

Confused, Rommus jerked his head
toward her. "What are you talking about?"

"You know, in the morning and in the
evening the shadows are longer. Why are they not the same size at
dusk and dawn?"

"Oh I see. They are the same size;
it’s just the angle of the sun that distorts them."

"But I have seen my own shadow stretch
out for almost as far as I can see when the land is flat. How can
you say it’s the same size?"

Rommus scratched his head and twisted
his face slightly as he thought of how to explain it to her. "I
admit your shadow covers more area, but it’s not larger. It’s still
exactly the same width, it’s just that the sun is coming from a
different angle. If there was suddenly a wall in front of you, and
your shadow fell upon it instead of the ground, it would be normal
again. Like I said it’s all about the angle."

She brought her fingers to her mouth
as she thought. "I think I understand, but I’d still like to test
it somehow."

"Well maybe we’ll get to test it
sometime soon. We have quite a long ways to go before we get to
where we’re going, and there will be many sunsets between now and
then."

"Rommus, what will you do when you get
to this place? I mean, what is your plan?"

He breathed deeply and let
out a quiet sigh. "I don’t have a plan. I have never really had a
plan for anything my whole life. Finally I see a light at the
horizon
¾
which is actually a light on the
horizon, oddly enough
¾
and I feel the need to go there. I
don’t know what waits for me, or if anything is there at all. All I
can do is hope that there’s some meaning to all of
this."

She stared at him quietly for a moment
before she replied. "Do you think that maybe you’re dreaming about
this light because of how you feel about life in general? Could it
just be a way that your mind is trying to tell you what you’re
actually thinking?"

He ran his hand through his hair and
down the back of his neck. "I don’t know. I have never put much
effort into unraveling the secrets in dreams. I do believe that
they tell us what’s going on deeper inside ourselves, but this one
was different. There was this feeling, like this great importance
to it. In other dreams, I could see why I dreamt them, but this was
like it was something shown to me, not something I created in my
own mind. Do you understand what I mean?"

"Well I have never experienced
anything like that, but I can understand. I remember when I was
little I would wake up from dreams because I realized I was
dreaming. When I knew something was too strange to be real I would
question it, and as soon as I did I would wake up."

"Yes I have done that a few times too.
After a while, you can learn not to wake up. Once you know it’s a
dream and you can stay asleep, you can do anything you want. You
can fly from here to the moon if you like. I have not had it happen
in a long time though."

They walked on for a while in silence
before she asked another question. "Rommus, how does the moon stay
in the sky and not fall to the ground?"

"What makes you think I know the
answer to that?"

"I was under the impression that you
knew these kinds of things. Do you know?"

He smiled down to her as they walked.
"I have an idea why, but I can’t be certain it’s
correct."

She stared at him as he turned back to
the path ahead of him. "Well are you going to tell me?" she said
with exaggerated impatience.