CHAPTER FIFTY: STANDOFF AT THE TWELVE GATES

The decent down into the valley, though short, dragged by for Calin. His legs were bouncing up and down as they floated to the clearing.

As they got closer, thirty or more gypsies stood opposite each other. All were talking at the same time, and all were furious. The opposing groups seemed to be on the edge of attacking.

But it was clear that none were as furious as Mictoria. The gypsy woman’s body language screamed her rage at the betrayal of the other gypsies. Her delicate features looked marred by the intense facial expressions that flashed over her.

Through it all, Calin glanced around. It was impossible to miss the details of the location.

At the far edge of the clearing, between some normal trees, were twelve rock arches that looped in a half moon around the clearing. They made Calin think about Stonehenge, just much more precise stonework alongside the added stone walls behind them. All in all it looked like a gathering point. Yet this particular gathering held deadly intentions.

When Calin’s caravan eased closer, Ta-Reen came into view with a sword in hand. All the gypsies had either daggers or swords equipped. Some of them even had both. It was odd to see Mictoria was one of those.

Noticing the weapons, Calin asked Christoff. “When we reach them, do you have a sword I can borrow?”

The gypsy motioned his head back in the direction of the trap door and said, “Down the ladder to the right Nísir. I have a bad feeling we will be in need of them before the hour passes.”

With a grave nod, he waited until they reached the others. On approach, the majority of gypsies who were arguing stopped and stared at the approaching caravan. The only two who didn’t were Ta-Reen and Mictoria. They were still screaming away, even though they were barely ten metres away from each other.

Jumping up, Calin went in to retrieve the sword. It only took a minute and soon he stepped outside the carriage walking over towards Mictoria from behind.

Somewhere while he made his way to the gypsy woman, he caught sight of Tyas, Jerry and Kara off to the right. All three of them looked grim. The picture of his friends armed with blades was not lost on him. A renewed jab of anger surged forward in him. He squared his jaw and strode on with determination.

As he got closer they spotted him too. He relaxed his features a bit as elation flashed over their faces. The situation only allowed it for the barest of moments.

Kara sprinted forward and embraced him. Worry and relief mixed in her voice as she said, “Calin! You got out. Thank goodness.”

Calin patted her back, and as her face moved back from his chest, there was uncertainty in her eyes. He tried hard to smile but finally he just shook his head.

“It’s going to be okay Kara, let me go talk to Mictoria.”

The girl nodded and let Calin go.

A few seconds later he moved in behind the gypsy woman just as she said, “Ta-Reen...you let the girl go now! Or there will be blood tonight! Do y—”

Calin tapped her shoulder and she jerked back flashing her dagger. It was bronze handled with an almost golden colour to its blade. It glinted dangerously in the moonlight and looked as sharp as the woman’s wit. When she noticed Calin her eyes went wide with surprise.

“Nísir Calin! In all my years, I’ve never heard of anyone escaping from that prison. But I’m over the moons that you achieved it.”

With a smile hardly tugging at his lips he said, “Not without a lot of your help and some extremely weird luck.”

The woman got a mischievous look to her face as she asked, “So you—”

“Jumped?” Indeed I did.” Calin admitted with a sigh. A flash of pride bloomed on the gypsy woman.

But it had to wait.

Without waiting, he motioned over her shoulder to Ta-Reen. The smile disappeared from her features as she nodded.

Calin stepped pass her and the traitor gypsy exclaimed.

“Ha! I knew you would do something stupid! That’s why I took the girl after their little failed ‘rescue attempt’.” Several hisses sounded off behind Calin at that.

But he just stared at Ta-Reen without emotion, and with a cold voice he said,

“I wouldn’t have escaped if I didn’t see you deny her freedom. I watched as you went back on your word. You broke the agreement first.”

The gypsy spat on the ground and said, “You don’t know what you’ve done, boy. You are either vastly ignorant or very stupid. You can’t think of consequences. But... seeing that you are here now, let’s make a deal you and I, shall we?”

The next moment the older gypsy whistled.

“Markas, bring the girl.”

Gnawing on the inside of his lip, Calin waited. He scanned the area. The gypsies who flew traitorous flags now, were mostly men. The fast majority of them were young except for three or four of them who were riddled with scars over the snow white skin common amongst all the gypsies he had seen so far.

A few seconds later, one of the Floating Caravans behind Ta-Reen burst open emitting a man with a hat. It was the same man who had taken Calin captive the other night.

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Markas, as Calin had heard now, was pulling hard at the wrists of Evany, but the girl was struggling and putting up a fight.

And as soon as he brought her outside, she kicked him on the shin, forcing a grunt of pain out of the man. Markas jerked on Evany’s rope and swore at the girl before moving towards the standoff.

With the resisting Evany, it took them a minute to reach the side of Ta-Reen.

But the moment Evany spotted Calin and the others she calmed down immediately and stepped forward on her own. Markas handed the roped connection of her wrist bindings to Ta-Reen and faded back with a cruel smile. The look on Evany’s face shouted her amazement of the fact that Calin was free and there in front of her.

The girl looked like she wanted say something when Ta-Reen said,

“Now that the party is complete, let’s set the terms. Calin my offer stands thus, you drop your sword and walk over here, hand yourself over and I will let your lady friend here walk free. What say you?”

An awkward silence settled in the clearing as Calin stared hard at the man, and then at Evany.

Not to his surprise, she had a ‘don’t you dare try it or I will cut you myself’ look on her face as she glared at Calin. He smirked at the girl and started to unbuckle his sword. He didn’t know who shouted, “NO!” first, but it clearly came from Kara, Mictoria, Evany and who knew who else. He ignored it while continuing to take the sword and its sheath from his belt and held it in his hand.

Calin was about to drop it, when Mictoria came from behind, her ghostly pale hand gently stayed his as she softly said,

“No Nísir. It is not right. What they are doing is against everything we stand for. Don’t give them the victory.”

His insides twisted in conflict. He would gladly give himself for Evany’s freedom, but everybody else was trying to make him choose otherwise. He turned his head to Mictoria and whispered harshly. “Then what should I do?”

The gypsy woman started to say, “You should—”

But Ta-Reen interrupted the woman as he said, “Too long! Let’s make the choice easier, Jael?”

One of the gypsy women with thick chestnut locks of hair stepped from the others to Ta-Reen. She smirked and gave Evany a dangerous smile as the gypsy handed her Evany’s rope.

“Go stand at the gate to the plains. If they make the wrong choice you go through the gate and head to our fort. I’ll meet you there in forty days,” Ta-Reen looked hard at Calin then, “Because of this foolish boy, I have a lot of unfinished business to take care of until then. If I don’t show up, you take that girl straight to that Run and then we’ll see how long she lasts.”

Mictoria gasped, her cheeks shook in her anger as she growled. “You wouldn’t dare!”

Ta-Reen looked smug as he said, “Wouldn’t I? Oh Mictoria, Mictoria. If you believe that, then you don’t know me at all.”

Calin was confused at the exchange, but as Jael took Evany to one of the stone arches, he started suspecting something was wrong.

When the traitor gypsy woman and Evany reached the one arch, the wall behind it started to light up. It looked like a blue light was snaking over the wall like water seeking the quickest route down towards the new intruders.

Then out of thin air, the space between the arches started to shimmer. Immediately the memory of the glimmering wall from the World Barrier popped up. It was not the same as the wall in the least, but he wasn’t going to take the chance that the thing leads to another place.

He jumped forward with his hand up and shouted, “EVANY, IT WILL BE ALRIGHT. It’s going to be like I promised.”

Dropping his sword, Calin started toward Ta-Reen. But Mictoria grabbed at him. He shrugged the woman’s arm off and said, “No! Not this time, she is my responsibility.”

Kara scampered closer and her protests came quick and fast.

“Calin!—” But he didn’t have a choice in the matter, so he ignored them and stepped forward. Ta-Reen was smiling wickedly.

When he reached the older gypsy, the man took hold of his wrists.

“Good choice boy, and just so there is no more... let us say misunderstandings. Until you are in Mishael’s possession, let’s make it simple. So you don’t try and escape again, shall we?”

To Calin’s horror the man looked to Jael with the bound Evany in hand and shouted, “Jael go! We’ll let the girl go after the exchange of the boy goes smoothly.”

The woman got a wicked grin and pulled on Evany’s restraints. Adrenalin shot through Calin’s body and he slammed against the preoccupied gypsy and knocked the man back and off balance. He powered his legs forward and ran towards where Jael was dragging Evany toward the gate.

All around him there were outraged screams, but he only watched his long time friend. He shouted at her,

“Hold on Evany!”

But as he ran, the gypsy woman was almost at the gate. Evany was struggling with all her might, but nothing helped.

Calin desperately shouted, “NO! LEAVE HER ALONE!”

He lunged forward trying to grab at the girl, but he was too far. The woman stepped through the shimmering air. Evany’s face shot up to Calin, her eyes wide with some sort of realization. She rushed out a few words,

“Remember, you promised—”

And disappeared into thin air.

Only a moment later, Calin’s hand passed through the particles that held the form of the girl’s hand. It slowly dissipated in the moonlight.

Shock lanced through him as the girl was nowhere to be seen. He jumped forward to go after her, but he leaped straight into the stone wall beneath the arch. He bounced painfully off of it.

The light was nowhere to be seen. The stone wall was dark as the night.

Evany was gone.

Calin pounded on the wall in denial. Tears streamed freely from his face. “EVANY! WHY! Why would you do that to her. No ...no ... No! Open up... Evany, come back... I promise, just come back...”

His fists started to hurt, it was futile. But as he dragged them over the smooth stone, a fierce anger started to boil up into his stomach, anger for the one who did this. Calin spun around to go take revenge.

***

When he looked back over the clearing, the whole place was in chaos. Swords clashed against swords. Screams of outrage and anger filled the air.

Before Calin could mark Ta-Reen on the battlefield; the sight of Jerry and Kara trying to fend off the man with the strange hat, took precedence.

Their attacker, Markas, wielded two swords and was toying with them. Anxiety washed over their faces.

There was no waiting as Calin stormed forward. He jumped with no weapon whatsoever at the man.

With a crash, he collided with his adversary’s back, throwing his arm around the man’s neck. The gauntlet dug into soft flesh. Resulting in a gurgling sound that came from Markas, but instead of collapsing, a sword swung up to slash back at Calin.

At the last moment, Calin threw up his free arm and the sword strike punched against the gauntlet. Pain lanced through his arm at the shock of the blow, but it would just bruise.

To his dismay the second sword arm came up to slash at him from his unprotected side.

On its way down to strike uncontested, it stopped with a jerk. The man dropped to his knees and Calin danced hard on his left leg to keep his balance.

In front, Jerry stood wide eyed. The boy dragged the sword with a rip from Markas’ chest. Jerry’s bloody hand was trembling as he did. The man dropped forward and gurgled, “How?” before hitting the ground dead. His hat fell off, revealing a shaved head with a tattoo of a dune and a spider on the back of his head.

Easing forward, Calin helped Jerry lower the bloodied sword as he said, “Jerry, it’s okay. You did well. Now listen to me, keep Kara safe and out of the way of the battle.”

“I can keep my own self safe thank you very much,” Kara said with conviction. But Calin threw up his hands and said, “Just stay with each other please? I don’t want anything to happen to you two.”

The girl seemed to nod reluctantly at first, but as she took a breath it sounded more in agreement as she said, “Okay.”

Jerry accepted it, albeit more dazedly. Calin bent down and took both swords from the dead man

With them he trudged off to where the battle was.

“But where are you going?!” Kara shouted.

Not answering loudly, Calin said, “To stop him.” He marched towards where Mictoria and Ta-Reen were in a clash of blades.

This ends tonight...