TRAVELLER (Book 1 in the Brass Pendant Trilogy) (25 page)

Eventually, the meeting was over and the soft murmur of voices rose again around us. Morgan spoke more with Dante and I listened to his perfect accent as he asked Dante questions about his beloved cows. I played a hand clapping game with the little girl that every child of nearly every time segment knew and, after a while, I offered to braid her hair. No sooner had I started though, I found myself surround by a whole group of little girls who all waited patiently for me to braid their hair as well. They appeared out of nowhere and, when they looked at me with their wide, dark eyes, I had to take the braids out of my own hair and cut my leather hair ties into small pieces so I had enough leather to tie around the ends of their braids. When Morgan began sharpening his arrows with a piece of rock, a group of small children crouched around him as well and some parents used the collection of these children as an excuse to watch him themselves.

A few of the younger folk talked to Dante about what Morgan and I had done to the giants and they spoke in low voices before glancing at us and moving back to share the story with their own groups. Later, when Morgan and I walked around the cave to stretch our legs, we overheard versions of our story as we climbed up the stone steps. Apparently, I’d felled three of the giants with a single arrow, and Morgan had killed four of them with his bare hands.

We stood at the entrance to the narrow crevasse and the rain was still falling outside. The sun was setting behind the clouds and the light was fading, and I’d spent enough time with these people now, that the smell of roasted cow meat turned my stomach when it reached us on the evening breeze. We could hear the giants as they roared below us and I shuddered as they celebrated their brutal taking of the town. The smell of death combined with the rain clouds and the approaching darkness was depressing and, when I shivered again, Morgan took my hand and we returned to the welcome warmth and the bright orange glow in the large cave.

Soon after we returned, women passed around baskets of smooth cheese and when I tasted the creamy sweetness of this cheese, I realised the depths of these people’s love for their cows and the true sacrilege of slaughtering them for their meat. Morgan broke up pieces of our bread and we shared it with Dante and his daughter, and I shared mine with a few other children who looked at me with their beautiful eyes.

When we washed down our meal with sips of these people’s fruity wine, we realised the talents of these people when it came to fermenting their fruits as well, and Morgan said Jonah would truly appreciate the craftsmanship evident in these people’s simple food.

After the meal, the people sang quietly and their voices rose and fell in perfect harmony as the acoustics in the cave rounded out the sound. Soon, they crooned a quiet lullaby and small children slept in their mother’s laps. I looked at Shania, but her eyes were still open very wide. Morgan and I talked softly once the singing ceased and we tried to work out how we’d get home tomorrow. We tried to think of every possibility from rooftop attacks to simply making a run for it, but we knew none of these plans were going to work. Even with our Aldirite fighting skills, thirty giants was just too many to take on by ourselves. As the night grew late, Shania curled up beside her father and the voices in the cave quietened one by one. I couldn’t think of any more ideas to get us home and, surprisingly, neither could Morgan, and when we spread out our jackets on the hard ground and lay back against our packs, we were still no closer to deciding on a plan. We lay facing each other and I looked into Morgan’s eyes.

“What about a distraction?” I suggested softly, and Morgan shook his head.

“It would take a distraction the size of an earthquake to move those giants from that town,” he said quietly, and I nodded. Now that it was quiet in the cave, we could just hear the faint sound of the giants roaring and shouting in the town below. They were getting louder and Dante was right; they were certainly wild. I wondered if it was still raining and Morgan must have been thinking the same thing.

“I’m glad we’re not out in the rain,” he said, and I nodded sleepily as I fought to keep my eyes open. Morgan smiled.

“You go to sleep. I’ll try to think of something during the night,” he said, and I nodded again as I closed my eyes…….

CHAPTER 12
:

“Livia…..Livia, wake up.”

I wondered whether Morgan’s voice was part of my dream. His hand moved my hair gently away from my face. That was surely part of my dream.

“Livia,” he whispered again……and I opened my eyes. His face was very close to mine and he moved away from me quickly. “Wake up, we’re going down to the marker now. The giants are quiet and I think they’re asleep,” he said softly, and I sat up.

“But, we can’t go back to the house yet. What time is it?” I whispered, as I frowned.

“It’s a half clock turn before sunrise, but don’t worry, we’re not going back to the house. Zurina said the object of this quest was to survive using any means we can. So, to make sure we survive, we’re going to travel home via another marker,” Morgan whispered, and he grinned as I put on my jacket quickly. Morgan already had his pack on his back and he waited while I picked up my gear. We crept together then, through the sleeping townsfolk and headed for the entrance to the cave.

Outside, the rain was light but steady, and there was no noise at all coming from the township below. As soon as we were outside the cave, Morgan removed his emergency cylinder from his jacket pocket and he turned it so it would light our way.

In the rain, the way down the mountainside was more treacherous than the climb up and I was glad of the light as I made my way cautiously down the slippery path. When we reached the stone archway at the edge of the town, we pulled our pendants silently from beneath our shirts and we used the emergency light to see as we set our dials. We didn’t usually set pendants until we were at a marker, but we were sure of the placement of this marker and we had no idea what was going to happen once we were inside the town. It was best to be prepared. Morgan hesitated slightly before he gave me the settings of the marker we were travelling to and I glanced at him curiously, but he was busy turning the settings on his dials. I didn’t ask him where we were going. I simply set my pendant to
Delphinius+1876 rise 49º
too, before I fitted an arrow to my bow. Morgan pulled an arrow from his back too and, as he fitted it to his bow, he looked at me seriously.

“If they’ve set a lookout, or if one of them wakes, I need you to hit them between the eyes again. Can you do that?” he whispered, and I nodded. “A quick death means no time to make a sound to rouse the others,” he added, and I nodded again before he nodded too and turned off his emergency light.

We paused while our eyes adjusted to the darkness and, a few minutes later, I followed Morgan cautiously into the town.

I could see the dim shapes of destruction around me in the dark. Walls had collapsed and I stepped around the dark shape of a body as we moved along as close to the edge of the road as we could. Ahead of us, I could see the glow of an open fire which was burning beneath the raised houses that surrounded the town square.

The smell of roast meat mixed with raw meat and wood smoke was strong here in the town and we passed the dead body of a giant laying awkwardly against the edge of the road. We were nearly at the town centre when we passed the first of the sleeping giants. He lay, passed out, in the middle of the road and he was oblivious to the light rain that formed pools around him as it ran from his giant limbs. He breathed heavily and it sounded like factory bellows as the air rushed in and out of his giant lungs.

We crept between more heavily breathing giants and, while they breathed peacefully, I hardly dared to breathe at all as I had to pass very close to them. Ahead of me, Morgan paused as a giant rolled over and repositioned himself. I held my breath as the giant threw one arm over his eyes, but he was soon snoring soundly again, and I let out my breath slowly as we continued cautiously.

Beneath the dwellings around the town square, there were more giants laying together, almost on top of one another. These were the giants who’d been sober enough to realise it was raining and who’d wanted to sleep undercover near the fire. We crept carefully around them and I felt their breath against my legs as I walked silently in front of their giant faces.

Of course, there was a giant lying right in the centre of our marker.

She lay on her side and her short, cropped hair was greasy and matted at the ends. In the glow from the fire, she almost looked like a giant, baby doll as she slept, and I noticed the length of her eyelashes and a bracelet of shells looped twice around her thick wrist. I looked at Morgan as the air patterns around us blew against the matted sections of her hair. He raised his bow and I raised mine too and I lined up my shot while I willed her to remain asleep. The temperature dropped and she stirred and, in her sleep, she instinctively rubbed her massive arms.

She opened her eyes just a moment before we dropped……but I waited…..and thankfully, as the air patterns roared in my ears, although she stared at me with her giant, baby blue eyes, she didn’t make a sound. She woke slowly, or maybe, she thought we were a dream; either way, both she and I were spared the release of my arrow, and I travelled through time filled with agony…….and a sense of relief………

The darkness became colours….very bright colours….and when the air patterns slowed and the pain faded, I realised the sun had already risen here. Despite the early hour, the air around us was already very warm as well. I could hear the ocean and we stood on pure white sand beneath a pale blue, early morning sky.

I put my arrow back in my quiver and shrugged off my jacket as I looked at Morgan and smiled. He smiled at me too and we moved out of the marker and put our packs against a tree. On the shore line, rock pools glistened in the morning sun and green and red feathered birds flew around us into glossy green ferns and tropical trees. There was a headland above us and I could smell salt in the air. Jagged, water pitted rocks formed the edge of the rock pools on their ocean side and waves occasionally broke over the top of the rocks and washed down into the crystal clear ocean filled basins.

“I like your plan,” I said to Morgan, and he smiled again as we took off our boots and rolled up our pants to our knees.

“I lived here with my group in my first turn of quest training. There’s a trading port two days walk from here and a local fishing village a half days walk to the north. We stayed in the village. They were accustomed to strangers because of the trade routes and they welcomed us happily. We ran in the sand along these beaches and swam in the ocean for our physical training,” he said, and I could tell his memories here were happy ones. It wasn’t often Morgan volunteered this much personal information and I smiled and told him he was lucky to have lived here.

I walked slowly through the sand and my bare feet sunk into the cool, white grains.

“Are there really star fish in the rock pools or did you make them up to try and convince me to come here that day?” I asked Morgan and I frowned as I looked into the clear water of the ocean pool. The bottom of this pool was white sand only with the occasional crab and a few smooth shells.

“Last time I was here, the starfish were in the pools beyond that headland,” said Morgan seriously and when he looked up at the rocks above us, I asked him if we were going there. He smiled and held out his hand. “I hope they’re still here or you’ll never trust me again,” he said and I took his hand as we walked towards a sandy path that disappeared into the trees.

It was cooler under the trees and quieter away from the sound of the ocean. We walked hand in hand while birds called and flew above us, and the sun made dappled patterns on the path wherever it managed to shine through the canopy of leaves. We stopped half way up the headland to eat the fruit from a tree Morgan noticed just off the path. He climbed into its lower branches to pick thick skinned fruit from long stalks before throwing them down to me.

The fruit broke apart easily in our hands and the thick flesh was sweet and tart at the same time. The juice ran down our arms and, by the time we’d eaten, we were both sticky. Morgan grinned and put his hands in my hair on purpose so I’d have to go swimming with him when we reached the starfish pools. I ran after him and wiped my sticky hands in his hair too. He wasn’t the only one who could act like a child. He laughed and took my sticky hand in his and we left the canopy of trees and stood out on the open headland while we looked out at the view. The ocean was clear turquoise and green in the morning light and the coastline curved away from us on both sides. The breeze was warm against my face and it felt like we were planets away from the township and its giants, rather than just centuries and centuries of time.

“I feel guilty. Poor Dante and Shania are stuck in a cave for a week and we’re here at this beautiful beach,” I said quietly. Morgan nodded and we headed down the other side of the headland. This side was clear of trees and we slid down rocks and jumped onto more rocks before heading towards natural formed rock steps.

“I don’t know why those people don’t have at least some kind of defence plan in place, especially when the giants show up regularly to ruin their town and murder their herds,” said Morgan.

“I guess it’s difficult to change the way you’ve been brought up. To challenge belief systems that belong to those you love wouldn’t be easy and I can see some merit to their peaceful life. Many more of those people might die if they were to take a stand against the strength of those giants,” I said thoughtfully, and Morgan looked at me with an expression I couldn’t quite read before he grinned suddenly.

“Did you know there are fifty seven natural rock steps from the edge of this ledge to the sand? We counted them when we used to swim here with the local children,” he said, and he counted the steps one by one as we made our way down to the sand, just so he could prove he was right. I hadn’t doubted his memory for numbers for a minute though. His memory for marker settings was remarkable enough.

When we reached the beach, I stood on the edge of a rock pool and the white sand beneath the crystal clear water was indeed covered in hundreds of tiny starfish. They were blue and purple, and red and orange, and they formed a multi-coloured mosaic against the white sand below. Morgan stood beside me and looked into the rock pool as well.

“So, are you swimming?” he asked me, and I glanced at him.

“I have to. I have fruit in my hair,” I said dryly, and I undressed very quickly without looking at Morgan at all. When I stood on the rocks in my underwear, I jumped feet first into the warm water and I found the pool was deceptively deep. I was fully submersed before my feet touched the bottom and I felt the tiny bumps on the backs of the starfish brush against the tips of my toes. I heard Morgan’s splash from beneath the surface and the water churned beside me as I caught a glimpse of him diving. I kicked back towards the surface of the pool.

Morgan wasn’t in the least bit self-conscious about swimming in his underwear and it wasn’t long before I relaxed as well and we swam in the pool until our fingertips wrinkled. We swam to the bottom and picked up handfuls of the starfish before letting them go again to float back down to the sand. We raced each other across the pool and back again and, when we finally climbed from the water, the sun had risen much higher in the clear, blue sky. I checked the time on my pendant which hung, as always, around my neck and we had only two clock turns now until we had to go back to the marker. The sun glinted off Morgan’s pendant where it hung around his neck too and we lay on top of our clothes on the sand and let the sun dry us as it warmed our backs.

Morgan told me his training group had often walked the two days journey to the trading port and he described the tall wooden ships and their cargos of tobacco, coffee beans and exotic spices. He described the sailors too and he told me some tales of smugglers and pirates he’d overheard on the docks. It was only when I asked him about the other questers in his group that he avoided my question in his usual way by asking me if I’d ever lived by the ocean. I’d lived in a house on the coast more than once, but each time, the ocean had been wild and too cold for swimming, and the sand had been golden and gritty, not smooth and white.

When we were dry, we got dressed and walked along the beach, and Morgan tied his shirt around his waist. Before we reached the next headland, we came to a fresh water stream that ran through the sand into the sea and we followed it up the beach and into the trees. It wound its way between rocks and ferns and when we came to a shallow pool, we swam again. The fresh water was cooler than the water in the rock pool had been and I rinsed the ocean salt from the lengths of my hair.

The rocks around the stream were smooth and the water had cleared a path between the trees. We climbed up onto some larger rocks and sat together in the sun again to dry. The sun was very warm now and I leant back on my hands and looked up at a perfect blue sky framed by the tops of the glossy leaved trees.

“It’s so beautiful here,” I said, as I ran my fingers through my hair to separate the damp strands.

“Yes…….we could stay here forever and no one would ever know,” said Morgan quietly and, when I glanced at him, he was looking at me with an unreadable expression again. I looked into his eyes, but I wasn’t sure if he was actually asking me to stay here with him, or if he was just pointing out the fact that no one knew we’d travelled to this marker. There was a moment of silence between us, but when Morgan stood up suddenly, the chance for me to reply was gone.

“We should get dressed. If we don’t leave soon, we won’t make it back to the marker in time to pass our challenge,” he said quickly, as he climbed down from the rock. I climbed down after him and we dressed in silence. I glanced at Morgan as he pulled his shirt on over his head…….I would have stayed here with him……..if that was what he’d been asking.

We walked back along the beach and up the fifty-seven natural, rock steps, and when we reached the highest point of the headland, Morgan headed away from the sandy track and walked out across the rock to the very edge. I followed him and we stood above the ocean. Far below, white sand curved away to either side of us and I glanced down at the green waves where a school of fish swam in a dark mass beneath us. Morgan glanced down too before he looked at me.