Song Of The Aura: Grym Prophet Part 4

"I'll carry both of these down," he said to her, las.h.i.+ng both sets of supplies together. "If I start to fall, I can always stick to the stone and stop myself... but you've got no such talent, so it'll be better if you have just your own weight to balance."

Elia didn't argue. Other than occasional gusts of wind, and the odd gra.s.s fire started by the sunbeams that lanced out of the clouds as, the trip down the strange rock-ramp was uneventful... though harrowing enough, by her standards. Gribly seemed to actually enjoy it. She couldn't imagine why.

"How can you act so... so flippant?" she called to him once, when they were about halfway down, and he was smoothing the path for her with jaunty sweeps of his foot and a bit of precise Stone Striding. Several times she'd been forced to accept his help. As he took her arm and helped her past a particularly dangerous section of the pillar, a look of pure enjoyment was stretched across his face.

"It's like... like leaping from rooftop to rooftop back home," he replied without looking back. She gripped his shoulder with white knuckles as he helped her towards the end. "I haven't had a good chase across the sky like this in months... not since I got tangled up in this whole mess with Lauro. This's a bit different than stealing from the bedsides of the aristocrats, naturally, but it's close enough..."

"Ugh."

At last they were at the bottom. Gribly hopped off the cracked end of the tower before Elia could utter a word of caution, falling to the ground at an odd angle and toppling over in a heap of packages, wrapping, and cloaks.

"Gribly!" she called, but he made no answer. Oh Lord of the Sea, she thought to herself, a lump in her throat, don't let him lose it this close to the end...

With a small cry, she jumped off after him. It was a good ten feet to the bottom, but the excellent quality of the footwear the Reethe had provided for her absorbed much of the shock, and she let herself roll to blunt the rest. When she came up at Gribly's side, however, she found him shaking with fits of uncontrollable laughter.

"h.e.l.lo, Beautiful," he chuckled, brus.h.i.+ng an escaped lock of hair back from her face.

Blast him, he'd tricked her!

Elia leaned close to the thief's face, and his smile grew wider.

Then she slapped him.

"Now what don't we have time for?" she huffed, annoyed, and got up to walk away. His laughing was silenced abruptly. "And you can carry both packs for the rest of this trip, as far as I'm concerned!" His m.u.f.fled protest came from behind her as he tried to struggle to his feet, holding his throbbing mouth at the same time.

"But... but it was just a joke!"

She kept walking, and didn't look back.

Eventually he caught up with her, just as tears started to form in her eyes and she buckled over, holding her stomach. Something... something tearing at her insides... begging to be fed... an emptiness that wouldn't go away...

Something was very, very wrong.

Chapter Six: Almost.

Calloway was a boy of the South Village, so he wasn't stupid. When he saw the two strangers walking in the outskirts during eventide, he ran straightaway back to the Elders to tell them what he'd seen.

"I ain't stupid, and I saw 'em for sure!" he told the doubtful old man who received his report. "They's just like the first one, that Demon Man with the black horse! One of 'em even has the same face, wid' the same eyes and everything!"

"Show me, boy," said the elder, and so Calloway did. Elder Donovan, the old man, followed him to the edge of the outer village, where they met Elder Margry and several young men brandis.h.i.+ng pitchforks and rude weapons.

"You seen the strangers, too?" Calloway called. "I ain't stupid, and I seen 'em!"

"Yes, yes," Margry said, nodding her old head so that her fat chin wobbled and her gray curls bobbed up and down like leaves in the breeze. "Cramner here saw them, and now we've seen them, too."

Cramner, twelve years old and a little taller than Calloway, nodded solemnly.

"Where?" Elder Donovan asked immediately. "Where are these strangers? We'll drive them out like the first ones!"

"Right over there, blot-headed old man," Elder Margry stated, pointing to the right. There, around the bend, stumbled two dust-covered young people, a boy and a girl, not but a few years older than Calloway or Cramner or any of the other village children. The little boy stayed silent, peering at the strangers suspiciously as the two Elders and their militia surrounded them, pointing a dizzying array of sharpened farm implements at them.

"What's your business here, and why're you troublin' our peaceful South Village without need?" Elder Donovan was known for his harsh, commanding voice, and it certainly was needed here. Calloway watched as the uglier of the two, the lad with the same face as the Demon Man, tried to support his female partner while answering.

"We're looking for someone... a friend of ours. But you must help me- this girl is a water-nymph, and she needs to bath to stay healthy." When neither Elder answered him, the lad went on pleadingly. "Please. Our water ran out soon this morning, and we haven't been able to find the river that should be here. She's only exhausted now, but soon she'll have spasms from lack of water. We need your help... please." It looked to Calloway as if the stranger had to unbend his pride quite a bit to plead like that. His jaw was set tight in a way Calloway recognized, and he wasn't stupid enough to not know what it meant. This stranger would fight if he had to.

Elder Margry evidently noticed it, too. "We want no parts of you, Stranger. Cannot you see that our village is in ruins? Cannot you see what your own kind has done? You have the face of the Demon Man, Boy... you are tainted with evil! I can smell it on you..."

"What?" asked the surprised lad. He seemed ready to drop dead in front of them all, but somehow he kept on his feet. "I don't know what you're talking about. I've never been here before, and I'm just trying to help my friend!"

"You are a friend to the Demon Man, then?!"

"Demon Ma- oh..." and the stranger's voice grew smaller, "This is where the Pit Strider struck, isn't it? What did he do here? If you help me," and his voice grew stronger again, "if you help me, I can find the Pit- the Demon Man, and bring him to justice."

"Bring him back to kill us all, now that he's ruined our lives, you mean!" shouted Elder Donovan, and the gathered villagers sent up a roar of agreement. The young stranger looked miserable, but not as surprised as Calloway would have expected. Perhaps he knew the Demon Man, after all, though Calloway's very un-stupid heart was beginning to pity him.

"No, no! That's not what I'd do. I wish to help you all, if you'll just help me! Wait, wait," he almost sobbed, as the girl on his arm slumped unconsciously at his side and the angry mob closed in around him. "Is there anyone among you named Lauro? Help, I need to speak to Lauro!" He was desperate now, Calloway saw. A pitchfork poked him above the ear, sending a little trickle of blood down the side of his head. Calloway felt a stirring of pity once again, and he bit his lip to keep it down. This was a stranger... a Demon... someone not worthy to be trusted!

"The warrior-boy? You want the warrior-boy?" shouted Elder Donovan from amid the press of people. "He was almost as bad as the Demon Man! Took what he wanted, then left! Hurt my young grandson, he did, stealing food and threatening anyone who tried to stop him with that ugly blade of his!"

"You'll get what we couldn't give him, mark my words!" screamed Elder Margry, waving a misshapen block of wood in the unconscious face of the girl as she glared at the strangers. "You'll pay for your friends burning our village, killing our young, and stealing our things! You'll pay! You'll pay! You'll both pay!"

Calloway wanted to cry, though he knew how stupid and un-boy-like it would be. These strangers didn't deserve that, he knew now. Look at them! he wanted to shout, they can barely stand on their feet! Have they done anything to hurt you? No! Then let them go! But he didn't say anything; he just slunk farther back into the crowd until he could barely see the shapes of the tormented stranger and his sick companion through the tangle of bodies pressing closer for revenge.

Just as he was about to run away, to try to push the terrible images from his mind, Calloway saw Elder Donovan lurch forward on his rickety legs and seize the unconscious girl by the neck, trying to pull her off her friend and beat her with his walking-stick.

It was a stupid mistake that was just like a grown-up to make. Calloway saw the stranger lad, tired as he was, kick out at the skinny old man with his foot, throwing up a whirling mess of sand that formed a crude fist-shape, striking the Elder in the chest and throwing him back into the mob, barely missing being impaled by their weapons.

Gore! thought Calloway, his eyes widening as the crowd uttered a collective gasp and jumped back. The stranger's a magician! Maybe a Sand Demon! He'll kill them all, and me, too!

But the strange lad didn't kill anyone. He lifted the still-sleeping water-girl into his arms, shakily but sure, and spun around to face the way out of the village. Men stepped in front of him and Elder Margry came at his back, but he just bellowed in rage and the dusty ground reacted to his voice as if it had been waiting its whole life to obey. Sand and dirt and bits of rock leaped up yards in the air, all along the path of his yell, throwing villagers topsy-turvy out of the way. Before Elder Margry could gather her wits up again to strike him with the club in her hand, the sand magician was off at a run past the bodies of his enemies.

In seconds he was away, and none of the villagers were man enough to follow him. The crowd scattered at a few angry words from the Elders, and those who had been thrown to the ground by the magician's scream picked themselves up with curses and complaints, bellowing to everyone else that they should have helped stop the New Demon Man.

He's not a Demon Man, Calloway thought, watching the poor lad stumble off into the distance. He's just like us. Why couldn't they see that?

Calloway wasn't stupid, no, not when he'd lived his whole life in the South Village. But he was about to do something brave, and probably stupid too.

He was going to help the stranger, without anyone else knowing about it.

Chapter Seven: Calloway.

By the time Gribly thought it safe to stop fleeing, the sun had sunk behind the crown of the world and plunged the land into darkness. But of course, he was barely thinking at all: his mind was a whirlwind of hate and fear, but not much else. Hate for the idiots who'd turned him away, and for the Pit Strider who'd caused it all... and for Lauro, who'd made it worse. Fear for Elia, for the water-loss sickness that was wracking her body far too early... for the time he might never have with her, selfish as it sounded even to him.

That was why, when he finally collapsed on the side of a gray hill, letting Elia slip limply to the gra.s.s beside him, he wasn't surprised to hear phantom voices in his head convincing him that he wasn't dead yet.

"I ain't stupid, and you ain't dead yet, Stranger. Get up, and I'll show you the river." Voice, actually, not voices. He was hearing a voice out of the darkness, and a light soon followed it. It blinded him for a second, and he groaned, rolling on his side and putting a hand out to rea.s.sure himself that Elia was still there beside him, and he hadn't actually died. "Come on, capital Stranger. Pick her up. I'll show you the river."

Small hands grabbed at him, but he was too weak to bat them away. Someone small was turning him on his back again, s.h.i.+ning that infernal light in his face, babbling on about a river. A river... wouldn't that be the luckiest thing in the world right now? Gribly ignored it.

"You ain't dead yet, Magician. Get up, I say! I didn't follow you all the way out here just t' let you die! I ain't stupid, y'know."

Blast. He was really awake, and there was really a boy in front of him, coaxing him back from death's door. Gribly sat up.

"Whu..." his lips were dry, cracked, and swollen from lack of water. He'd given his whole share to Elia to buy her a few more precious hours as a full nymph. His mouth could barely form words.

"Pick her up, Stranger. I'll show you the river you were lookin' for."

The river... It had been important, hadn't it? Why was his mind seeping away through cracks in his skull? What had been important about the dratted river??

"Oh, by the Creator!" he blurted, suddenly remembering. "The blasted RIVER!"

His throat rasped and hurt him horribly from the strain of his shout.

"Don't! Not so loud, Stupid!" hissed the village boy, shaking the yellow light of his lantern at Gribly. "I can take you, sure, but not if you'll bring the 'hole village down on I!"

He talks funny, Gribly thought numbly, but his arms and legs were already moving independently of his will. Without willing it, he already had Elia in his arms and was standing up... stumbling forward... following the boy...

"Calloway," the boy was saying. "M'name's Calloway... But you can call me Cal. I'm from the South Village. I'm not stupid- I know you're not a Demon Man. I'm going to help you. Follow me... no, not that way. This way. Come on, Stranger."

On...

And on...

d.a.m.nation. He's still alive.

Silence, Bonedale. If he is, he could be dreaming of us at this very moment.

Gribly woke surprisingly refreshed, a cold trickle slipping down his throat. Cal, the village boy who'd saved him, was pouring water into his mouth, as he lay p.r.o.ne on the rocky bank of the river, his hand trailing in the water. Gesturing the lad off, he sat up and looked around. They were alone on the bank in a rare glow of morning sunlight. His tattered double pack was in a heap beside him, but Elia was nowhere to be seen.

The young prophet's mind was a muddle of confused memories. He had been carrying Elia... following Cal to where the boy said they would find a river... it had been dark, he had been bleeding... But there was no blood on his head now, was there? He felt the spot where his wound from the pitchfork should be, and there was nothing.

"Where's Elia?" he asked Cal, confused and unfocused.

"The water-girl?" Cal's eyes were wide, and his face had a lingering half-smile on its edges. "I didn't quite believe you about her... not at first... but look for yourself, and you'll see. Look, there she be!" he pointed his stubby finger at a spot in the wide, flowing river, just out of Gribly's field of vision. The bewildered Sand Strider turned to look, and his fears eased away instantly at the sight.

About the middle of the river, the water's surface broke in a splash of clear green as Elia shot clear of it, twisting twice before plunging below again like a frolicking water-animal. She was in her sleek Swimmer Form... gorgeous, Gribly would have said, had he felt safe enough. He grinned as the sea nymph broke the surface again, right by the bottom of the bank. Her hand, watery and translucent, took his out of the water and laid it by his side. She was not quite halfway out of the water, the light causing her haunting blue body to glow as she bobbed up and down in the current.

"We made it, thanks to your new friend," she said, her voice high and pure and musical as it always was, transformed into something magical by the Change in her form. Flas.h.i.+ng Cal a sparkling smile that made the village boy blush, she dipped beneath the water again and went swimming away in the deeper parts of the river.

"She's..." Cal began, then fell silent.

"...Enchanting?" Gribly tried. "I can only imagine what her whole tribe must have looked like, swimming and playing and living together, able to look like that whenever they wanted."

"You mean there's more of her kind?" gaped the boy, his eyes growing so wide Gribly thought they might pop out of his head.

"Of course," he laughed, "There's a whole different race beyond the cliffs that keep this land secret... or there was." the memory of the Treele ma.s.sacre kept him from saying more.

"What's wrong?" questioned the boy, but Gribly refused to explain, standing up and moving away to watch Elia as she swam, drinking life and health and beauty from the simple gra.s.slands river.

"Tell me, Calloway," Gribly said finally, using the child's full name to hold his attention. The tone of his own voice surprised him- he almost seemed like the wise, sage prophet he was supposed to be. "Tell me, have your people ever been past the cliffs that ring your land?"

"I ain't stupid, stranger. 'Course not... why? No one goes past the Hammerlands... no one can!"

"Well," said Gribly, sighing deeply, "They can now. Your people should have figured it out, after the Demon Man and the warrior-thief came." his voice tightened as he realized he had just tagged Lauro with the t.i.tle he himself had borne his whole life. Thief. Would the word ever stop following him around? Probably not, with his kind of luck.

"Did you really come looking for the thief?" Cal asked, sounding confused.

"Yes. He's my friend... or used to be. He has, well, problems, and he needs to be stopped before they carry him too far. Before they carry him somewhere he doesn't want to go."

"Like stealing? Like hurting Ran, the Elder's grandson?"

"Like that. And I'm sorry about that, Cal. If there was anything I could do for your village, to make up for this misunderstanding, I would. Well, to you, at least. I'm not feeling very loving towards that Elder of yours right now."

Cal chuckled at the joke. "No, stranger. That's all right. Seeing the water-girl safe and... and free... it's good enough for me. I ain't stupid."

Gribly laughed at the repet.i.tive phrase. "No, indeed you aren't. And I suppose we owe you an explanation of the Demon Man, too. You can tell your village later, if you want to help them understand."

"The Demon Man?" Cal's face grew pale. "You ain't his friend too, are you?"

"No, not at all. We're hunting him. He's killed a lot of people outside of your village, Cal... people close to Elia and I, that we're going to avenge when we find him."

"Oh." The boy was silent for a minute. "Why do he look like you?"

"I... I don't know. That's something I'm trying to find out. It could me more important than anything else on this quest. I'm not sure."

"Quest?" Cal said, his eyes popping for the hundredth time. Then he looked solemn. "You're goin' to the Swaying Willow, ain't you?"

Gribly started violently. "How did you know that?"