CHAPTER FORTY: YERA’S CROSSING
Through a haze Calin came to, a dull headache throbbed through his head. He tried to remember what happened, but his thoughts were jumbled as his skull throbbed like it was pulsing; he tried to bring his hand to it, but realized he couldn’t move his hands, not even a bit, neither could he move his feet.
Panic grasped him as he forced his eyes open to see what was wrong, though the answer set his pulse running high as he quickly realized he was tied securely almost flat on his back to the roof of what seemed to be one of the caravans. It was dark on the roof. No lanterns no light to announce the way.
He shifted his head a bit more, there was something holding his head up. At least it’s soft. It was a moot point.
He remembered what had happened now.
He was the prisoner of the traitor gypsy Ta-Reen.
As if he announced the name loudly, the driver twisted back and looked at him. Ta-Reen chuckled the next moment and said, “I see you’re awake. Does your head hurt much?”
Calin didn’t give him the satisfaction of an answer. Instead he glared at the man and asked, “Why?”
The caravan slowed down just a bit as Ta-Reen shifted more to get a better look back. “Why what? ‘Nísir’ Calin.” The man sarcastically used the honorific Mictoria had so sweetly used on him.
He just shook his head and said, “You know what I mean.”
Instead of answering, the older gypsy said,
“You know there is a lot of questions that could come from why. Let us take for example, why are you still alive after all these years? Why show up now? Why try to escape when I told you someone is going to get hurt? See ‘Nísir’ there are a lot of whys’, so try to be specific.”
While the man talked, Calin drew on his bindings with no effect. It was tightly secured. After a minute he took a deep breath and asked,
“Why do they want me? I’m just an ordinary orphan with no family, nothing special about me. What could they possibly gain from having me?” It was almost a surety that Ta-Reen was working for the men with the red suns.
Ta-Reen laughed at that. “No family? Nothing special? You can’t be serious....” The gypsy turned to him with an astonished look, like expecting something, and then got a slight frown of confusion.
“You really don’t know who your people are? What you have kept hidden so selfishly all these years?”
Trying desperately to hide his ignorance, Calin turned his head to the right. It had the opposite effect as the gypsy laughed and said, “Oh, this is too good! Mishael is going to love this—” But the rest of the man’s words flew by Calin as he spotted the far too familiar curls of blonde hair splayed next to him.
Calin got a knot in his stomach and twisted hard to look back at the small figure of Evany tied horizontally behind him. Her eyes were closed; it forced a gasp from him. He tried to look for injuries, even with the little light that emanated from the scattered Morning trees, he could spot bruises on her delicate face. It was all Calin could take and he started jerking wildly while shouting, “Evany! Evany, are you alright?” No response.
Pain settled in his wrists as he wrenched on his bindings as hard as he could. “Evany, please answer me...”
The older gypsy started laughing. It sent Calin’s rage brimming over and he sneered at the man. “What have you done to her?! If anything happened to her, you’ll regret it!”
Ta-Reen just smirked as he eyed Calin’s bindings, before he said, “Oh I highly doubt that.” The man sat back and Calin bridled at Ta-Reen’s overconfidence; the gypsy shifted deeper into his seat and yawned.
“But for now I’m tired of playing games,” the gypsy said with a slight annoyance in his voice. “So don’t worry so much, the girl lives. We have this root that if burned it places a person in a deep sleep. She’ll probably wake up any time now.
‘Just so we understand each other very clearly, she is only my captive until I give you to the people that paid for your capture. If you don’t try anything stupid until they get what they want, she will be let go unharmed. I am not in the mood to hurt the girl; she is a good girl, she was kind to me. And she will stay unharmed unless you give me a reason to do so. Don’t try and test me, is that clear?”
Through it all, Calin kept his mouth shut. A moment passed before he nodded his assent.
“Good boy,” Ta-Reen said with a smile. “You are as bright as you look. Now don’t bother me with anymore questions, or I will hit you again, just harder this time.” The look that the gypsy gave him was enough to make Calin wish he could throw the man off the caravan.
A conflict sprang up in his heart, he didn’t want to believe anything his captor said, but he had no choice in the matter. It involved Evany.
Begrudgingly, he dropped his head back.
Calin was trapped, even if he got loose somehow, he was certain now Evany would pay the price for it. So he gritted his teeth and waited.
***
With nothing to do but wait for the inevitable exchange, he looked to the surroundings passing by the caravan. The stark contrast of the turquoise light from the Morning trees and the darkness they tried to expunge from the area was urging him to relax. This ‘other part’ of the planet Earth was something filled with a bitter sweet atmosphere. On the one hand, it was an extraordinary place filled with beauty, even with all the hidden dangers that seemed to lurk around every single corner.
In just a couple of days on this continent of Sambria, he had seen things that defied what was known. But what was eating at him was the fact that for some reason his presence here was placing his friends in greater danger.
Even so, he couldn’t possibly ignore what his eyes were seeing as remarkable. What would this place have been like if their lives weren’t in danger?
It just brought his state of mind that much further down, he couldn’t help but slump his shoulders. It was no use wishing for things that would not happen.
For no real reason, it made him remember the times he spent in the Getsamé’s book shop. Going through old Natural Geographic magazines to marvel at what was out there in the natural world, or even the rare times he had gotten a chance to watch a documentary at the Jacobs’ farm.
There had always been foolish fantasies of running away from his isolated existence at Misses Talsen to go and see the wonders of the world, the Pyramids, the Amazon rain forests or even the Ancient Incan cities. To have adventures, to be free from the shackles of his loneliness.
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It was then that he thought of Evany, Jerry and Kara. It pierced the darkness.
As much as he wanted to wallow in his depression he couldn’t lie to himself, the truth was: He hadn’t been alone. Even without a family, he had friends, friends who had filled a lot of that hole in his chest over the years. Calin shook his head. They had always been there for me. They are like the brothers and sisters I never had. Determination filled his being. He swore in his heart that if he got out of this, that he would do everything in his strength to be there for them to protect them no matter what, they were his family now.
Something eased from Calin’s heart at that moment and his nerves settled even if it was just a bit.
The carriage moved around a long bend and the narrow path through the delta started opening up.
Calin was about to lift his head to see where they were headed, when faint groaning noises drifted to him from behind. He jerked his head back just as Evany’s eyes slowly opened. She cringed a bit and asked in a hoarse voice.
“Calin? What happened—” As the girl realized her situation, she started struggling. “Calin, why am I tied up, what’s going on?!”
This is going to be difficult. Calin tried to make his voice as soothing as possible.
“Shhh.” But even then, he didn’t think she could be calmed down enough to listen to what was happening, never mind listening to why he was going let them take him. So with a deep breath he started laying down the facts. “Ta-Reen took us prisoner Evany...” he spit out the gypsies name with disgust.
“What?! This isn’t funny, Calin, I’m scared.”
He bit his lip and said, “I know, but listen to me carefully now. It’s going to be okay. They will let you go. They just want me... if I go with them, Ta-Reen will let you go.”
“What?” The girl struggled even harder, groaning with the effort of trying to get loose. “No they can’t! Why do they want you? Who are they?”
The fear of her own captivity seemed to have disappeared as Evany rather demanded answers Calin didn’t have. It was strange to say the least.
But he dropped his eyes.
“I don’t know...” He said. “But, if it means they will let you go unharmed, then I will go with them Evany. Do you understand me? It’s my fault you are trapped in this world.”
He hoped desperately that she would accept his decision; but when he looked at her, everything about her screamed defiance. It was enough to make Calin stare hard into her hazel eyes, but before she could say anything he said in a harsh whisper, “No Evany! Let it go, I will not allow you to get hurt because of me.”
The girl was gritting her teeth and Calin wished he could grab her shoulders or something; but as luck would have it, Ta-Reen shouted back. “Oh it’s good to see you’ve joined us ‘Madam’ Evany, because it’s under my impression that you two have never seen this place. So...”
The gypsy chuckled as if laughing for an inside joke then straightened his face. “Forgive me. Welcome to Yera’s Crossing.”
Calin glared at the man, but in spite of everything he lifted his head to take in the scene unfolding before him. His mouth fell open.
The forested delta opened up into a wide valley of about two kilometres wide. In the middle of the dark valley, there was a forest of Morning trees of all sizes, throwing off light into the night.
The trees ranged from small ones to some that were truly giants that challenged even the natural stone pillars that towered to the sky out of their ranks. Some could have reached as high as three hundred metres. Easily much taller than the tallest trees from the modern Earth he came from.
But that wasn’t what made Calin gape.
The forest of light was shining around a white city, bathed in a warm cherry glow, which was built on top of a colossal stone pillar. The great column was natural and of the same rock as the surroundings.
The enormous pillar took up the space of most of the valley and must have been at least a kilometre wide. There were numerous smaller pillars of dark rock surrounding the main column. Like advisors surrounding their mighty King.
Even from a distance Calin spotted small bridges leading from the main rock structure to many buildings in the adjacent stone columns and to some of the greater Morning trees; there were too many bridges to count off the bat, like a road network up in the air that led to the many buildings built into the rock columns and trees.
All had pathways connecting the great pillar city in one big web. Everything was heavily supported by thick buttresses anchoring into their solid hosts. From the centre of the main city it looked like a plume of warm light was emanating over it.
All in all it was a city unlike anything Calin had ever heard of, much less seen.
Upon looking to his right, he spotted a wide road that made its way down from the grassy plateau. It went past an abundant number of stepped terraces adorning the entire face of the right canyon wall.
It quickly became obvious that the people of this city catered for the long nights and short days. The terraces were lit up like rows of streetlamps by smaller Morning trees that dotted them. A snake of light Calin mused, even in his dark circumstances.
The colours in the valley were undeniably fascinating, from the turquoise light from the Morning trees to dark greens from their crops and the normal trees, to deep blue patches in the darker areas of the city that rested in the valley.
Off to the left of the pillar city there was a cliff that looked unscalable to say the least. It stretched the entire left side of the valley, as far as the eye could see.
Far below against its treacherous face, a river battered against the stone, as if trying to break through. But the solid smooth rock was standing its ground defiantly.
The river snaked hundreds of metres down below at the foot of the enormous natural rock formation that housed the great city. Finally the life giving river was led down towards the delta. Calin watched as its white rapids disappeared into the tight corners of one of the several gorges that left the open valley.
But Calin’s eyes were drawn to the huge bridge that gapped the sheer chasm over the storming river between the main pillar city and the unscalable cliff.
The heavy-set bridge seemed to come from a building with two great arches that guarded the mouth of Yera’s Crossing that stood atop the main stone pillar up high.
Large thick ropes sloped down from one of the arches to the bridge below, their weight Calin could only hardly begin to guess. But it led him to wonder whether a section of the hundred metre long bridge was able to be lifted.
The pathway that led over the thick bridge went into a relatively small gap at the top of the cliff, between two massive stone guard towers. The trail from there seemed to disappear in a thick patch of trees that peeked out of the area behind the towers.
All that Calin could spot beyond the cliff in the distant night were mountains as far as the eye could see.
In that moment he suddenly felt small.
The uncomfortable feeling made him turn his head to Evany. Her face said it all, she felt exactly the same. To know that such places exist for the first time is an unfathomable knowledge. Even Mesa Versee somehow didn’t stand up to its grandeur.
The caravan stopped and Calin got a bad feeling about it. He watched silently as Ta-Reen got up and walked over to him. “As much as I like to see you struggle,” The gypsy said. “I don’t want you messing things up when we get to the city.”
“What are you going to do to us?” Evany asked in a small voice.
The gypsy thought for a moment before saying, “For now I’m going to shut you two up. Can’t have you place suspicions in the heads of the guards, now can I?”
Without giving him a chance to say anything, the older gypsy tied a scarf through Calin’s mouth and gagged him. If Evany hadn’t been bound, the girl would’ve been all over the gypsy as she shouted, “Don’t you dare touch him, you snake!”
It didn’t look as if the threat fazed him a bit as the gypsy finished calmly with Calin and moved over to Evany. Calin tried to demand that the man leave her alone, but only grunts and groans left his mouth through the thick scarf.
The gypsy moved in front of the only line of sight that Calin had had of Evany. He watched in silent dismay as there was a series of shouts and frantic grunts flying this way and that while the girl was also being silenced. Ta-Reen sat back with a yelp all of a sudden and said, “Sands consume you! You bit me you wretch.”
The girl just sneered, “You deserve far worse. Just untie me and you’ll get what’s coming to you, do you hear me?”
With that Calin watched as the gypsy surged forward with a sneer and Evany’s threats turned into muffled grunts. Finally Ta-Reen sat back and exhaled loudly.
“There, I hope that will teach you to mind your manners.”
The muffled noise that came from Evany was probably another defiant threat from the girl, but as the man stood up Calin looked Evany deep in the eyes and shook his slightly. He hoped she would interpret it as not to make things worse. With Evany’s head going from side to side in a resigned manner, he believed she did.
The gypsy started the caravan forward again, but there was something irritating the man after a short while as he banged on the roof and shouted, “You lot inside, keep quiet!”
The sounds from inside ceased, everything going silent except for the sound of the wind flowing over the caravan.
Calin and Evany could only watch as they slowly approached the forest of Morning trees that surrounded the great Pillar city of Yera’s Crossing. What awaited them there was totally unsure, but Calin silently prayed that Ta-Reen would hold true and release Evany when all was said and done.
It was a foolish thing to hope for from the traitorous gypsy, but at that moment it was all he could hope for.
Even if it meant his imprisonment he would see to it that Evany went free.