PART V: Awaited Arrival
On the eastern road leading to Kalaa rode a carriage under the moonlight, carrying Commander Riger of House Provos, as he traveled without rest to obey his king's commands.
With the carriage rode Tex, his aide, and Actaeon. Behind them rode Tazan on Commander Riger's white horse—the only horse that wasn't scared of Tazan, and the only one that was strong enough to run while carrying him.
Under the silent night's veil, the only voice heard throughout the empty roads was the voice of young Actaeon from inside the carriage.
"But how? How were they able to build it like that?"
Actaeon asked with a mesmerized voice—his face was lit up in awe.
Riger sighed with a tired expression as Tex took it upon himself to respond. "That is what everyone who has seen the city asks, Actaeon."
Actaeon didn't respond—he only waited patiently for the explanation from Tex.
Tex smiled wide as he answered, "Truth is..." Tex leaned into Actaeon's ear, then he suddenly whispered slowly,
"We... don't... We don't know." He leaned back fast as he watched Actaeon's expression.
Actaeon froze, then asked with a confused expression,
"What do you mean? But how can the Stellan people be so adapted to living in Deaa if you do not know how it was built?"
Tex answered, "Well, we used to know, but somewhere down the line from the past centuries, that knowledge was completely lost."
After hearing Tex's answer, Actaeon was disappointed. He lost himself in his thoughts for a second, looking down at the ground, thinking to himself.
Tex did not need to look Actaeon in the face to realize how he was feeling, so he broke the silence. "Well, think about it for a bit—where is your home, Actaeon?"
Actaeon looked up and then responded, "I... I used to travel with my parents—we never really had a place we could call home."
"Then you have seen many great cities—maybe not all of them were as amazing and brilliantly built as Deaa, but I hear that Vaelthrone is a wonder in itself. No one knows who built it, and from what I heard, it has the highest palace ever, built on a ledge, and around it is the city itself. So it is not that strange to not know how the cities were built—we just adapt."
Upon hearing this, Actaeon's smile crept through his thoughts, and he answered, "Yeah... I guess that does make sense... Nex would have loved Deaa."
Actaeon then looked at Commander Riger and asked, "When will we reach the capital, Commander?"
Riger answered playfully, "Me? You are asking the blind man how long the road is?"
To which all three of them began laughing at the top of their lungs.
The laughter was loud enough that when Tazan heard it, he couldn't help but smile, especially when he heard Actaeon's laughter—that made him feel comfort in a way he hasn't felt in a very long time.
Half a day later, on the western road leading to Kalaa, rode another carriage, carrying Countess Ghufran—and across from her sat her husband, Bronn Sunrise, heeding the call of their king.
Under the bright sunlight, on the roads filled with different desperate peasants running from their fate, making it hard for the carriage to reach its full speed, a knight rode ahead and called for the people to make way, yelling and shouting as the peasants obeyed in silence.
The inside of the carriage carried the same silence, as the Countess shielded her eyes from the sunlight that shone on her from between the curtains covering the windows.
Bronn observed as he sat in front of her, quietly trying to build up the courage to speak his mind.
The Countess closed the curtains and turned away—her eyes meeting Bronn's for a moment. She recognized the look.
She sighed, then asked, "What?"
Nothing," he answered quickly, as he averted his eyes. He opened the curtains a bit and started looking outside, then he quickly closed the curtains again and crossed his arms, leaned back, then closed his eyes, trying to sleep.
"Spit it out, Bronn," the Countess ordered.
Bronn opened his eyes, then he sighed and answered, "Look, Countess... Do not take what I say badly, but are you sure about this? We can still salvage it—we can tell Leofric that we wanted to keep secrecy and we lied in the letter for that. But if we tell him to his face that Nex is dead, there is no coming back from that."
"And what? Deliver Nex to him myself? I owe a debt to his people, to return their heir to them... How would I live if I abandoned my honor and went back on my word? What kind of monster would I become?!" The Countess yelled out.
Bronn's look became more fierce—an expression from his past life as a soldier wore his face as he responded angrily for a moment, yelling back at his wife for the first time in decades.
"You SERIOUSLY believe that? That they will treasure the young boy? And what—hail him as a long-lost king? Have you learned nothing from dealing with humans for the past two hundred years? They will see him as a threat, and they will get rid of him. You are not paying off a debt by delivering an heir—you are leading a young sheep to the slaughter to pay off a debt no one is alive to remember but you."
He sat back down, as he realized he had stood up while shouting without meaning to. Exhausted, catching his breath, he said, "I apologize, Countess... I did not mean to yell—I don't know what came over me."
The Countess sat staring at Bronn, frozen in shock. Then she looked outside the window in silence as she watched the peasants through the curtains.
Then, as she watched the children carried by their parents, collapsed from hunger, from exhaustion, she saw the face of Nex on one of the children. Then, for a moment, a face of a younger child from her memory flashed, making her gasp in silence.
And Bronn, unknowingly brought her back to the present. He said, "I know... I know you care for the boy, even if you care for the infant more—I know that you see a version of yourself in him. So do me a favor—tell the king he is missing, and when Andy finds him, make amends with him. Who knows—he might trust you enough to care for the infant if you show him you are to be reasoned with."
The Countess looked Bronn directly in his sandy eyes, forcing back memories from when she first met him, back when she was truly happy.
Bronn did not insist further—he saw it in her eyes. She was thinking of doing the right thing.
And they both sat there, eyes locked, reading each other, unable to say everything with words—silently thinking of their own and their children's future.
As the sound of the knight rang high as he was shouting on the road, "Make way... Make way... Move!... Move!"
Those same words were echoing throughout the nameless forest, as a knight leading Andy's men shouted, "Move! Move... This way! Move! Move!"
Andy himself rode behind the knight, as his horse slowly paced through the mud. Under the heavy rain, every few moments, Andy would order a few soldiers to stay put and look for any movement.
Andy's gaze searched around, and a voice from behind him grabbed his attention.
"My lord, we have been searching all day since we arrived at the forest—we need to rest... We haven't had a real rest ever since the king ordered us back from the frontlines days ago. Besides, where could a child be hiding in this empty forest?"
One of Andy's high-ranking soldiers asked as his face carried frustration and exhaustion.
Andy looked at his men's faces—many of them were desperately trying not to fall asleep even under the heavy rain. He then looked at the high-ranking soldier and answered, "Just a bit more—once we reach the Sunrise's soldiers who are stationed here in this forest, we can ask them if they have seen him. If they haven't, I promise you we all go to the nearest city and fill the whorehouses and bars."
Andy smiled as he promised his men a promise they both knew he couldn't keep.
And as the men relentlessly searched for a young child in the forest, the rain grew more angry with each passing hour, reaching the point where some of the more heavily armored soldiers threw their armor on the mud and continued to march. Some of their horses refused to march further into the deeper mud.
And as the smell of burnt flesh crept through their noses, they knew they had reached the sunrise's soldiers.
The soldiers were happy—the search had finally come to an end. However, Andy was more frustrated at the results, as he knew the possibility of these soldiers seeing Nex was close to zero.
And as the soldiers came from their posts to respond to Andy's summons, one of them met Andy with confusion. He asked, "Young master, what are you doing here?"
"Looking for the boy that walked out of our front door," Andy answered as his eyes searched around.
"What boy?" The soldier asked.
Andy turned, meeting the soldier's eyes from the back of his horse. "Are all my family's soldiers this incompetent? The child that my mother found in these woods? The same one that ran away a couple of days ago?"
The soldier let out a small smile as Andy's soldiers laughed at him, then answered,
"Apologies, young master—me and the others have been stationed in these woods for months. We only get food delivered along with the dead bodies we are ordered to burn.
Apparently the plague will never touch our bodies after Doctor Isane gave us a special potion. Now we just sit here burning bodies, and when we are done in just a few more days, we will be rich for the rest of our lives."
A smile erupted on Andy's face, then he asked, "And how long has it been since they told you 'a few more days'?"
The soldier started counting on his hand, then he slowed down after putting down his fifth finger.
Andy looked around at his own soldiers as they laughed a bit, then he leaned in and ordered the Sunrise soldier to come closer with a signal.
"This special potion the Doctor gave you—was it in a leather flask?" Andy asked.
The soldier nodded.
"So you did not see what was inside. And what did it taste like? Out of curiosity, of course?" Andy asked again.
The soldier responded, "It had an awful taste, almost..." The soldier could not find words to describe the taste.
"Pungent and spicy?" Andy asked.
"Yes! That is it. Did you also have the potion, young master?" the soldier responded.
Andy shook his head, then answered, "No, but I did drink garlic water—it is a special drink that Doctor Isane poured into my mouth when I was asleep many times, hoping I would stop snoring."
The soldier, dumbfounded, asked, "So... are you saying garlic water prevents the plague, young master?"
Andy shook his head once more.
The soldier fell to his knees and started throwing up, pleading after he threw up, "Oh, God, we could have ended up just like them at any point? I... I..."
And without even finishing his words, the soldier ran away in fear without looking back.
"Why did you do that, my lord? If you didn't hint at it, he would have stayed here burning plague-infested bodies till the end of time." One of the soldiers commented, then everyone erupted in laughter.
Andy laughed a bit himself, before a knight yelled out, "Well, you are all laughing, but how hard is it to find a child hiding in a forest?"
It was one of Isvand's loyal men that followed to keep an eye on Andy.
Silence took place beneath the rain as everyone looked around them, unable to talk back to a knight.
Then Andy responded, "Calm down, Lark—no one forced you to be here."
"You know that is bullshit, respectfully, my lord. I—" And before Lark could even finish his words, he flinched around and froze in place for a moment, then turned back.
"What was that?" Andy asked.
"Sorry, my lord. I thought I saw someone. Turns out it was just a crow. Now, back to what I was saying," Lark responded.
Andy paid it no attention, but suddenly a memory hit—when he was back home and saw Nex, the bird that stared him down, making him back down—the eyeless crow that locked eyes with him and the way it was protective of Nex.
"Where?" Andy asked immediately.
"Where what?" Lark answered back.
"What direction did you see the crow?" Andy asked.
"That way," Lark pointed east.
Andy knew it—Nex was heading toward Kalaa. He knew he was being pursued.
Andy did not wait long enough to order his men. He kicked his horse and sped up toward the east, where Lark had sighted the crow.
It might have been another crow, but after combing through the forest for a full day and finding nothing, he would cling to any fragment of hope. He had to trust his guts and go for it.