Speed. I didn’t realize exactly how much faster I’d be going on horseback. We sprint past the family’s house and through the farms. We leap over fences and careen through pens of livestock, cattle fleeing out of the way. Without the bulk of the saddle I can feel the horse’s muscles flex and loosen as we gallop through the farmland. I feel giddy, almost light headed. As the horse jumps over the last fence and gallops into the open prairie, I start to laugh. The noise is swallowed into the vast night. For a moment, as I speed through the grass, I forget why I’m here and focus on what I’m doing. The speed is delightful. The actuality of my circumstances return quickly though. It is like they have a physical weight.
I slow the horse down a bit once the farms are out of sight and glance over my shoulder at Lavasa. The first city I’ve ever seen and I didn’t even go inside. I don’t regret it much. I had always wanted to see the dome though. It was built to worship the gods in a time when people still believed in such things. It stood as a monument to their strange powers: inhuman strength, longevity. Some myths speak to other stranger powers, unique to each god. Some could turn invisible, others wielded lightning. I suppose it’s fitting that the dome is almost completely obscured by towering buildings.
It doesn’t take us too long to reach the tracks. The sun is straight above us when I turn the horse to lope beside the metal lines. The train must have been moving much faster, still we make good time. I stop us before the sun goes down in a clump of scraggly bushes. The little shelter they offer is better than nothing.
The next day is much the same. We move speedily through the open prairie, but I have very little sense of where we are or how long it will take us to get to the city. I eat only what’s necessary to keep me going and make sure not to over work the horse. Even walking he is much faster than I’d be alone. The landscape blends together. All a yellowish green, waving grass and the occasional hill or cliff fin the distance. By the end of our third day of traveling the scenery changes. Up ahead of us I can see the tracks disappear into a gray haze. Great, fog. I’ll have to be careful not to lose the tracks.
We enter the fog about an hour later. It’s wet and damp and thankfully not totally opaque. I can see a few feet in front of me. As I walk the horse through the fog, I can’t help but think about one of my favorite myths, about the Glen witches. The story says they lived on the edges of the Forsyth. They’d been human women once, women whose all-consuming hatred and loathing petrified their skin, turning it to wood. When their skin hardened and began to crack, they would slink away from the cities to the Forsyth and live amongst the trees. They never forgot their hate and when they would see a human, particularly a male, they would seek revenge. Not wanting anyone to see them, they would summon a thick fog before they attacked. They would appear suddenly in the mist and wrap their wooden arms around their victims, squeezing until their hard limbs crushed and cut through the body.
A particularly loud whiny from the horse makes me jump. “Don’t tell me you’re nervous,” I whisper and pat his neck. I’ve seen fog this thick plenty of times in the Forsyth. It runs across Kostos from the sea and makes its way amongst the dense trees. I’d never been scared of it before, but I can’t ignore that my heart is beating faster. I hold tighter on to the rope reins, preparing to bolt at any moment. I concentrate on the tracks and listen for anything coming my way.
The mist gets denser the further we go. I’m glad that this horse doesn’t spook easily. I’ve seen animals refuse to go into fog before. The moon is bright tonight and the fog seems to hold its light, making it glow eerily silver. I wish we could gallop out of here. I can’t risk it though. For all I know there is a cliff ahead. With the moonlight shadows begin to appear in the fog. For one moment I can clearly see my own shape reflected before me. Then it changes, becomes longer, wider. It’s easy to let my mind play tricks and so, when I hear a strange low rumbling come from in the fog, I jump and land hard on the horse. He whinnies loudly in complaint.
“Hush.” I stroke his neck and scan the fog. The myths aren’t real, I remind myself, and then feel ridiculous that I even thought that. A moment later I hear another rumbling growl. I turn the horse slightly to the right, facing where I heard the sound. I grab tight onto his mane and slide to the left, leaning into his neck and body. I can just see over his neck. If it’s an animal out there it will be tough for them to spot me. Whatever it is, I hope that it won’t be interested in just a horse.
The shadow I had thought was mine is now completely unrecognized, huge and growing darker by the moment. As I watch with wide eyes, it gets taller, doubling in size. A beastly roar rips through the fog. I realize what the shadow is at the same moment the fog shifts slightly, revealing a gigantic bear. It stands on two legs and swipes the air with massive paws. I’ve seen bears before in the forest. Most won’t bother you until you annoy them. They’re nowhere near as vicious as their cousins, the kuanas, giant furry beasts with more fangs than make sense. Yet this bear is not like any I’ve ever seen, although still eerily familiar. Its fur is in patches. Its skin covered in scabs. Its eyes are wide, red and pupil-less. I can see puffy, bright blue veins run from the corners of its mouth down to its back. I realize with chilling certainty that this animal must have the same disease as the deer. This time I don’t have my bow and arrows. I don’t have a weapon of any kind. So I rely on the only thing I do have. The horse.
With a holler and a hard kick from me, the horse bolts forward. I don’t look back. I can tell the bear is chasing us. His angry roars are right behind me. “Faster!” I urge the horse. With a snort he obeys, shooting forward through the mist. I can’t see where we are going and try not to think about us galloping off a cliff. The danger behind me is more urgent.
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The bear’s roars and thundering footsteps grow quieter as we pull away from him. The horse doesn’t slow down, even after I can’t hear the beast anymore. I’ll trust the horse though. Maybe he hears something I don’t. The fog is lifting, pulling away from the earth and heading up to the sky. The horse starts to slow down and eventually stops. I dismount, sliding off his slippery back. His withers are streaked with sweat. I’m not that dry myself.
“It’s alright,” I tell him, patting his neck. He whinnies and starts to eat some of the tall grass. “Good idea.” I reach into the pack and pull out a handful of jerky. As I eat it, the tough meat giving my teeth a workout, I watch the last of the fog lift off the tall grass. A jolt of elation flashes through me when it’s gone. A dark, mountainous shape is just visible on the horizon. It must be the Delphast. I’m closer than I’d thought. After I’m done with the jerky and the horse is done with his grass, I jump back onto his back, using his mane to hoist myself up. With a kick of my legs we set off for the horizon, the Delphast and, gods willing, my brother.
The closer I get to the capital the more gigantic it seems. The tracks turn east and lead me to an endless landscape of blue water. I’d read about the ocean before. The words didn’t prepare me for its wildness, its never ending edges, so dark and massive, almost as if I were looking at the sky. The ocean is dotted with little vessels. Ships. I can’t imagine how anything could travel such a massive thing. It reminds me of the Forsyth. The waves in the water much like the wind rippling in the trees.
The Delphast doesn’t remind me of the Forsyth at all. The tracks run along the coast and lead to the capital. I see more tracks coming from different directions towards the city. I lead horse directly on top of my tracks so I don’t lose them. The Delphast more massive than I’d ever imagined. Tall. Twisting. Dark. A black wall made of serpentine metal rods surrounds the entire city. Behind the gate, buildings rise towards the sky as tall as mountains. Everything is made of dull gray metal and shiny, black glass. Each building is uniform, split into two towers that intertwine geometrically like a helix. The entire city is shaped like a mountain, with the lowest buildings at the edge closest to the gate. The buildings grow taller and taller until they reach the largest double helix at the very center. The jagged tips of the highest tower seem to touch clouds. I hate everything about it.
The train tracks curve with the gate. I follow them carefully, wanting to shadow Evan’s path as closely as possible. It takes longer to circle the Delphast then I had thought. Trotting around the wall I feel like I’m losing time. It all looks the same and if I wasn’t so certain I was moving forward, I would swear I was in the same place. Eventually I round a corner and see that the tracks enter a large tunnel. There are two guards standing at the edge. They are dressed in tight black clothing layered with hardened reinforcements. I slow the horse down to a walk, not wanting to give the guards any reason to stop me. As I get closer, I realize how stupid it is to not have come up with a plan beforehand. What if they ask me questions? Why am I here? Where was I coming from? Should I lie about my name? Is it possible that people inside the city are looking for me? Did the braided man anticipate that I would follow the tracks? It’s too late to think about that now. The guards walk out to meet me. One raises a hand.
“What do you think you’re doing?” he says, coming to stand next to me.
“Just trying to get into the city.” I am very aware of the pistols on their belts and the pikes in their hands. “Is there a problem?”
“You can’t get in this way,” the guard says. “This is only for the trains. Public entrance is a mile or so away.”
“Sorry,” I say earnestly. “I’ve never been here before.”
“No doubt about that,” the other guard says. He nudges the first guard and points at my horse. “Where is your saddle? Your supplies?” He laughs.
I don’t mind the laughter. It means they don’t see me as a threat. “Can’t afford it,” I say, speaking slowly. I want to appear as unimportant as possible. “My family is in farming and the crops have been bad.”
“We’ve heard it all before,” the second guard says. “Tell your sob story to someone else.”
The first guard points down the wall of the Delphast. “Follow the wall for a mile. You want the biggest gate. You can’t miss it.” He lightly hits the back of my horse, sending him into a trot.
“Thanks,” I call as I move away. I speed the horse up and start to lope along the wall. That went well. It was smart to stick to the truth, more or less. I’m no good at lying. I can play the simpleton easily because it’s true. No one will suspect a poor country boy. At least I hope so.
I reach the next gate quickly. It is much larger than the first. Intricately woven metal vines create a deep arch in the wall. The wall is much thicker than I’d thought and a row of guards stand along each side of the arch. They hold long metal pikes and look straight on. An older man leading a cart horse is coming through the other side of the gate. I follow his lead and dismount. I hold tightly onto my horse’s reins as I walk through the gate. I can feel the eyes of the soldiers watching me. The hand that’s holding the reins starts to sweat. There is no way they could recognize me, right? I pass the man with the cart horse and nod. He doesn’t acknowledge me and stares at the ground in front of him. He looks exhausted, bags under his eyes, his skin gray and sagging. As I get closer to the city, I feel as if the air around me is changing. It feels cold and unmoving. The buildings come into sight. They are even more monstrous up close. The light is different. Everything is gray. I can’t see the sun with so many tall structures. The guards don’t stop me or acknowledge me in any way. I pass through the arch and pause at the precipice of the city. My legs feel weak. I lean onto the horse for a moment. A surge of disappointment washes over me. What did I expect? To find Evan waiting for me at the end of this tunnel? To find him as soon as I can into the city? Of course not. I take a steadying breath and walk into the city.