The Forgotten Stone, page 7
“You don’t want to be last, do you?” Pakel offered, encouraging her.
Ugh.
“You coming, coward?” Canukke taunted from across the way.
Well, drat, maybe she really did have a new nickname. Enouim took a deep breath and gripped the rope tight in her hands.
“Just hold tight and push off with enough speed to carry you over. Baird can catch you on the other side,” Silas told her.
Enouim nodded. Heart in her throat, she shoved off, and a sudden rush of wind hit her face. Far too terrified to see the draw of the thrill, she gasped as she left the safety of the rocky cleft and swung out over untold heights, her feet cycling into nothingness. As promised, Baird and Oloren waited for her on the other side and helped her steady herself before she released the rope. Enouim staggered and took in a ragged breath. Kilith winked at her, an amused grin tugging the corner of his mouth.
Pakel and Silas followed her over, completing the group again, then Baird and Silas showed them three small rooms where they would spend the night, three people in each room. Piles of blankets had been laid out for their arrival, and the only other things in the rooms were a two-person table and chairs chiseled out of the rock attached to the wall.
Oloren gestured at the table and chairs. “You really don’t waste any part of the cliff, do you?”
“We like to be resourceful, yes,” Silas replied. “Using the cliff itself is helpful, and these have been here for decades. Another reason is cultural. Whatever is chiseled into rock or tattooed onto the body cannot be stolen. It’s strategic.”
Oloren planned to get up early with Gabor to ready the horses, and the rest would gather the new supplies from Kalka’an and then meet Oloren and Gabor. Enouim headed to bed with gratitude. Exhaustion took her, and she soon fell fast asleep.
She awoke the next morning to the sounds of morning bustle as people began their day. Enouim hopped up on the table, jumped to catch the top of the wall, and peered over it. Three women with small game tossed over their shoulders stood at a leatherworker stand, haggling over price and offering their catch. A man sat on stone steps, watching the comings and goings, while he cut up a piece of fruit with his knife and ate it off the blade. The sun was well up. Where were the Gorgenbrilders? Enouim hopped down and looked around. All the rooms were empty, their blankets folded and back in place against the wall. Had they left her behind?
Enouim thought for a moment. Only Canukke had known of her final decision. So much was going on last evening she hadn’t wanted to disturb anyone or interrupt them. She had participated in discussions and been introduced to Silas and Baird like anyone else, stayed with the party. Surely they knew. But clearly they didn’t know. And Canukke had never wanted her along anyway. Kilith had said she needed to prove herself to Canukke if she chose to stay, and she obviously hadn’t. Perhaps they all saw her as a coward, unfit to be in their company. Perhaps they knew she was worthless to the mission. But why had no one awakened her to say goodbye? And Oloren and Kilith had both welcomed her along with them!
Canukke. He must have told them something to keep them away from her. She couldn’t stay here. How could he think he could abandon her here in Kalka’an with no way home? Did he expect her to just live here forever instead? Outrageous!
Enouim stormed out of the dwelling and took off at a jog. When she reached the expanse without a footbridge, she took in a determined breath, grabbed the rope, and swung over to the other side. A few heads turned her direction, but she saw no one she recognized. She broke into a run, thanking Glintenon that Kalka’an was mostly long rather than deep, making it easier for her to remember from where they’d come. All she had to do was get to the horses and catch her comrades before they left. If they’d already left, she could ask the guards how long they had been gone.
Energized by her optimistic plan, Enouim ran past house after house, up ladders, through passageways, down ladders, until she finally saw the archway and stopped before the narrow footbridge. Steadying herself with several deep breaths, Enouim carefully crossed the bridge. Four new guards blinked at her.
“Have they left? When did they leave?” she demanded.
“It’s you,” said a voice behind the guards. “I thought you left with the others.”
Their guide from last night stood inside the enclosure that had held the horses. Empty now. Enouim strode toward him. One of the goat-like creatures, a tsiza, stood beside him eating something from a bucket. Though its body and feet were much like a goat, it had a long neck and face, tapered nose, large eyes, and a tail that widened at the end into a flat almost fin-like shape nearly the length of its head—perhaps used for balance. The tsiza wore a harness around its neck and midsection, and it looked as though the man was about to load the tsiza with a bulky bag.
“Where are they?” Enouim said again.
“They already left. An hour ago. Why weren’t you with them?”
“I need to catch up. What horse were they going to give me?”
“Blanket appaloosa stallion. Black, tall, can’t miss him. We thought he might be too much horse for you, but the other woman said you could ride. He’s far on the other side though. This area here is just a holding area, short-term. That second tunnel goes out to open land, and from there most horses are taken to the main pasture wrapping around the cliff. It takes some time to get there, but it’s worth it for long-term care of the animals. We took them the long way round last night to the larger pen and some grass, you see. Down there.” He pointed to a ledge jutting out from the cliff fifteen feet down and forty feet over. “If they left in a hurry I imagine Inferno may still be all tacked up, but by the time you make it over there, your friends will be long gone.”
Enouim panicked. The Ecyah Stone quest was her quest now too. She needed it. She would fight for her people, doing something instead of nothing. She would learn as she went. She would traverse many lands and become someone along the way. Find her purpose. The only purpose she had now was wrapped up in the Ecyah Stone. How dare Canukke leave her behind? How dare he mislead the others? They wouldn’t have willingly abandoned her. And she was not the coward he thought she was.
“How does it work?” Enouim asked the guide, gesturing toward the tsiza.
Surprised, the man glanced back at the animal, which stood perhaps four feet tall. “We use these weighted plates and match them to equal out the sack we’re transporting so the weight is evenly distributed, and it doesn’t throw off the tsiza’s center of balance. The plates are on the side close to the cliff, so it can still hug the rock face as close as it sees fit, and the sack is on the other side.”
“Great,” she said, stepping forward. “I’ll save time by getting across as the sack.”
The guide’s eyes widened. “No, I don’t think that’s a good idea. We do not transport people on a tsiza!”
“You do today! Now how heavy is that sack? Should we add another plate?”
The guide shook his head but looked her up and down. “The sack is pretty heavy. I can add one more plate to the vest. And how do you expect us to replace the trained tsiza should you both die in this reckless notion of yours?”
“Tell you what,” Enouim answered, “If I die, I’ll pay for it.”
8
The man added a plate to the tsiza’s vest and led it to the edge of the precipice. He shook his head at her again. “You’re going to die.”
“Thanks for the confidence boost,” Enouim snapped as she stepped up. She snatched an empty sack from a pile nearby and handed it to the man. “Put it on the tsiza.”
“Look, it’s not my fault if you die. I will tell everyone you did it without my knowledge.”
“Don’t worry, Gorgenbrilders are firm believers that stupid people have the right to be stupid and weed out the less intelligent. I am no one of consequence, and no one in Kalka’an who might possibly care knows I’m still here.”
The man frowned but did as she asked. He slid the sack into restraints attached to the tsiza’s vest. Enouim scooped up a few treats from the bucket and awkwardly climbed into the empty sack. She shifted uncomfortably as she pulled her knees up to her chest to fit in the sack, bundled into a ball except for her head sticking out the opening. Enouim slid her left arm out of the sack and around the tsiza’s neck, grasping the harness, and nodded at the man. “Let’s go.”
He let out a resigned sigh and swatted the tsiza’s hindquarters. Enouim’s heart flew into her throat as the animal stood and moved to step dainty cloven hooves up onto the rocky face of the cliff wall. Enouim felt herself lifted up and the tsiza’s weight shift as it made the transition to placing all four feet on the wall. Slowly it proceeded forward. When she glanced down, all Enouim could see was the animal’s feet, the cliff, and lots of empty air. Air that would be no help whatsoever if the creature made a misstep. No trees grew on the cliff here, and no landings jutted out to slow a fall.
Something in her brain screamed at her now that this was a very, very terrible idea. The man was right, she would definitely die. No way could she cross the cliff here; no way could she climb anything quite so steep. But another part of her remembered that the tsiza had made this journey before, multiple times—probably practically a morning ritual for it. Enouim glanced ahead. Thirty-five feet to go.
She closed her eyes, trying to trust the tsiza’s footing. Had it ever carried a load this heavy?
She felt a lurch. Another lurch. Glintenon, I’m going to die. A rock crumbled, and Enouim’s eyes snapped open. The tsiza’s back legs were several feet above its front legs, weight mainly supported by the front. One of the tsiza’s front legs had struck unsteady rock, breaking it off, and the rock was still falling. Enouim hoped it didn’t foreshadow her future. Fortunately the tsiza recovered and made steady progress to the other side, finally reaching the grassy landing forty feet over and fifteen feet down from where she started.
Letting out a sigh of relief, Enouim tumbled out of the sack and waved at the guide across the way. He shook his head at her in disbelief, shrugged, and turned away. She gave the tsiza one of the treats she’d taken from the bucket and looked around at the horses in the grassy pasture. The one she was meant to have, Inferno, was hard to miss. He was a beautiful black stallion with white markings scattered over his hindquarters and reaching up to the saddle area, almost as if a blanket had been tossed over him. He still wore a bridle, but the saddle blanket and saddle lay on the ground nearby.
Enouim took a few deep breaths to steady her nerves before approaching him confidently and gently. She offered a hand with the rest of the treats and was rewarded by Inferno touching her hand with his nose and taking her gift. She stepped in to pat him on the neck and shoulder, and worked quickly to saddle him. After mounting, she turned Inferno down the nearby trail that led to the bottom of the flat-topped mountain. Canukke had planned on going down the mountain and out along the sea.
They picked their way down the mountain side, descending past the treetops, a rocky wall rising on one side. Behind them, the mesa stretched up to meet a bright-blue sky, with the village chiseled in the rock beneath its high ceiling. When the path opened up and the slope eased, Enouim urged Inferno forward at a canter.
Now that her fear at the tsiza situation had passed, the anger of the morning returned. Canukke had left her behind, abandoned her in a strange place with no way to get home, and kicked her off the mission unceremoniously without the least courtesy. She’d told him she’d claimed the Ecyah mission as her own, and she would not be thrown aside.
The longer she stewed, the more she boiled. It took her several hours to get to the bottom of the mountain, but the time only served to feed her fury. At the end of the trees, she saw a group of eight traveling through the open land ahead. She’d caught up! She kicked Inferno into a gallop. Nothing filled her mind but the strength of her muscles against the horse, the wind on her face, the tension in her body. Hooves pounded into turf that turned to sand, and she took no notice of the glittering ocean to her right.
Silas and Gabor, riding side by side in the rear, heard her coming first. Gabor had an arrow notched when he turned in the saddle, but lowered it when he saw Enouim. She galloped past them, past Vadik, Baird, and Pakel riding three abreast, to Canukke, Oloren, and Kilith riding at the front of the group. By now everyone had seen her, and several paused to wait for her until they saw that Canukke wasn’t slowing. They couldn’t possibly have mistaken the intensity and anger on Enouim’s face.
Enouim cut in front of Canukke’s horse and pulled up short, horse and rider heaving. She pushed Inferno forward until Canukke’s mount stopped, tossed his head, and stepped backward. “Where do you get off abandoning me in Kalka’an?” she said. “I told you I was staying on the Ecyah mission. I told you, and you didn’t even say no, you said yes and then left me there!”
Oloren’s eyes widened. “Canukke, is this true?”
Canukke rolled his eyes. “You didn’t earn your place here with us. You’re nothing but a hindrance.”
Enouim bore into him with eyes ablaze. “What honor is there in leaving one of your countrymen behind? What honor in breaking your word?”
“I promised you nothing. You told me you wanted to continue, and I acknowledged your desire. What you assumed from that is none of my concern.”
“You told us she had chosen to stay behind!” Oloren exclaimed. “I was up early preparing the horses, and you said we had to leave quickly and that Enouim had chosen to stay in Kalka’an.”
“She did choose to stay behind. She chose by her utter worthlessness with the zegrath, her cowardice with Chayan, and her own self-doubt. She has no business here!”
“You lied to us. To me.” Oloren’s bitter accusation hung in the air.
Canukke looked at her, indignant but silent.
“Lying is lazy,” Enouim said. “For all –”
“Lazy!” Canukke roared. “How dare you! Was I lazy when I scouted and killed ten Sumus in preparation for this mission? Was I lazy when I trained myself to be the best—in navigation, in war, in survival—that Gorgenbrild has seen? Was I—”
“For all your honor, all your courage, you lied to the company to serve your own purposes,” Enouim retorted. “A responsible man, a real man, takes ownership of his decisions and states them plainly for others to judge as they will. You are a disgrace to Gorgenbrild. Hypocrite! Keep your fancy stories to yourself. Keep your accomplishments and all your self-awarded trophies. I am staying on this mission whether you like it or not.”
Canukke curled his lip and stepped his horse forward, pushing into Inferno and leaning in, inches from Enouim’s face. He spoke in a harsh whisper far more menacing than any yell could have been. “This is my mission, and I am its leader. You will not disparage me in front of my men, and I will dispose of whomever I see fit. No one stands in my way.”
Enouim nearly choked on intimidation as a chill ran up her spine. This man was dangerous. She had woken a beast willing to do whatever necessary to continue his quest the way he desired. Her anger remained, and she glared back at him, but by the satisfaction in his eyes it was clear Canukke saw he’d rattled her.
“Enough,” Kilith said firmly from behind Canukke as he moved forward.
Oloren also moved up. “I can’t believe you did that to her,” she said to Canukke quietly but angrily, clearly upset. “How dare you. As a team we need to be on the same page.”
“I avoided sharing information that would interfere with our exiting on time and on course. I did my job.” Raising his voice for the rest of them, Canukke added, “And what is most effective now is to move on from this needless delay and spend no more time out in the open than necessary. Never to turn. We go forward.”
Oloren shook her head. “Canukke—”
“We’re done here. If she slows us down, she’s gone.”
9
The tension was tangible. Canukke stepped his horse around Enouim and rode alone, leading the company on as if nothing had happened. Kilith joined him after a while. Oloren hung back with Enouim, and Pakel drew up on her other side, while Baird rode behind her. Silas and Gabor remained at the back, riding silently for the most part, with occasional soft exchanges back and forth.
“It’s ridiculous that he thought he could get away with leaving you there and lying to us,” Oloren said. “I’m sorry that happened. I would never have allowed it had I known what was going on.”
“I knew you wouldn’t have left me,” Enouim answered quietly. “I assumed he must have lied. Do you think I’m safe now? On the mission, I mean.”
“Probably. I mean, you didn’t earn yourself any points with him today, but you did with us.” Oloren smiled, but then bit her lip.
“So you just woke up to no one around? How did you find the horses?” Pakel asked.
Enouim briefly explained what had happened, from waking up to find herself alone to running for the horses and finding the guide. She ended with her impromptu tsiza ride across the cliff, reaching the horses, and starting down the mountain.
Pakel whistled. “Well that doesn’t sound like a coward to me,” he said, eyes twinkling. “It sounds like you must have found a purpose for being here after all. Let me be the first to officially welcome you to the Ecyah mission!”
Oloren echoed his enthusiasm to have her along, and Enouim breathed out much of the tension she’d been carrying. She was grateful for their kind acceptance and company.
Pakel kept things light. “Well, like I said, welcome. And as for this morning, I suppose it wouldn’t be the first time our fearless leader has stretched the truth! At Kalka’an Canukke essentially took credit for killing the zegrath.”
