CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
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Urman Gant
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23rd of Decepter, 935 PC
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Urman held a damn nice spear in his hands if he had to reckon, but boy did he hate spears. Killing wasn’t his favorite thing to do, but when he did it, he liked to earn it. Up close and with the weapons The Creator gave him if he could. Not standing back poking at a man like he was some kind of beast no one wanted to get near. But, Kathar had gone through the trouble of making the thing so he was doing his best with it.
As much as he didn’t like poking around with spears, he hated whacking things with them even more. The click, clack, click and crunching of leaves under their feet sounded more like a bard’s music than battle as he and Kathar shuffled around smacking wood on wood. He’d gotten better, of course, that’s what he did with weapons. Not enough to think he could kill a man with the thing, but at least his fingers weren’t getting crushed anymore. Crack. Now, it was his arms and legs. He cursed loudly and hopped on one foot for a bit. Kathar’s spear must have been dipped in something because it hit a lot harder than his.
They stopped, Urman breathing heavily and rubbing his sore shin, Kathar strutting toward Kolton and Ember, happier with himself than a rooster in a henhouse. A good day for him. A rare day. Kathar was no slouch with any kind of weapon you put in his hands but Urman had always been the better of them with swords and bows, even shields. But these damn sticks, they just didn’t move like he wanted them to. No matter how much training they did and the lords knew they'd done a lot in the last few days.
They’d done their fair share of walking in that time too. Up hills, down hills, across streams, into valleys, hours upon hours of walking each day because Kathar refused to get tired until the sun itself got sleepy. So much walking. Almost made him miss running. No, that’s not true. Blisters had shown up the first day in the too big for his feet boots that Kathar insisted he wear. Three days in them now and every step felt like walking on glass. From the looks of it, Ember felt the same way. Only thing on her face so far was depression. Dogs were supposed to love running and walking. The fact that she didn’t like either told him he’d be digging a grave before they got to Locke.
“Nice weather for Decepter,” Kathar said. And it was. Blue skies up high and no snow down low.
Urman shoved the blunt end of the spear into the ground and stared at the pointy end. For such a pretty stick the spearhead looked like Urman had made it himself but he didn’t say anything. “I thought ya poked people with spears.”
“You do, but that spearhead might fall off at some point and when it does you’re going to want to know how to fight with a stick.” With Urman’s luck it was all but written in stone that he’d be swinging the damn stick around in a fight now.
“I got my fists.”
“Great against steel.”
“You don’t let the steel touch ‘em. Thought you was smarter than that.” He examined the stick again. “Let’s throw ‘em. I feel like I’d be better at throwin’ ‘em.”
“Throwing it is even harder.”
“I can do it.” Urman tossed the spear straight up a little ways and caught it where it felt good for throwing. Like he’d know. When he brought it over his shoulder he pointed toward a couple trees standing closer than a man and wife. That way if he hit either one he could feel better about himself. He shuffled forward and let the spear fly. Damn thing didn’t even get to the trees and if it had, they would have had their best chance of surviving by just standing still.
Kathar shook his head. “I suggest you keep it in your hands at all costs.”
“Ya might be right. Harder than it looks.”
“Aye, and you made it look impossible.” Urman liked the look of ladies, he really did, but Kathar’s smile lit him up like he always imagined his wife would. A wife. He’d planned on finding a good woman when he was a younger fella but he’d gotten too busy running around the empire. The thought ended up way in the back of his mind a long time ago. Or might just be he’d turned into something he thought women would fear. He sure wouldn’t blame them for it.
He sat down on a big turtle shell of a rock and held his hand out for his waterskin in Kathar’s bag. He liked not needing words with his old pal. Guess any idiot could tell I was thirsty. But still, he liked it. Words always had a way of making things real when they should have been left as guesses. He hadn’t always felt that way but then he ran into a long string of bad news and talking became a pastime he wasn’t so interested in.
As he sat and looked at the Emerald, he realized Kathar had been right, like usual. There were some fine-looking places in this here forest. Especially now that they were far enough away from that ruined village he had dug around in for weeks – nothing but horrible memories rested there.
The ground here was wavy, up and down and all around. Trees of every height, like a family that kept popping out little ones. If he listened closely he could hear the Jazak Sea crashing against the rocks not far away. Had to use his left ear. The right one didn’t work so great anymore.
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“Shouldn’t be more than a day or two until we get to the bridge,” Kathar said. “We can rest there for a day if you want.”
“Not gonna argue with that.” There’d only be a couple days until Locke after that. Not so bad on rested legs.
Kathar pulled out some dry meat and fed it to the hound. She barely lifted her head as her tongue pulled it into her mouth.
Kolton walked up to his daddy and put out his hand. Blood dripped slowly from two of his fingers. Soldier of a boy, not a tear to be seen.
“What happened?” Kathar asked, pulling his boy closer to him to hug away the pain.
Kolton pointed at something glassy sticking up out of the dirt where he’d been playing. All kinds of colors were reflecting in the sunlight, dark blues, darker greens, and an ugly yellow that demanded attention.
Kathar handed Urman his bag. “Could you wrap that up for him?” He stood to check on the glass before Urman could get out of working on the boy.
“Come here, rascal,” Urman said. He’d seen Kolton’s hesitancy before. On just about everyone he’d ever told to come closer to him. “I won’t bite. And if I do it won’t hurt. Don’t got enough teeth to leave a mark. See?” He showed his teeth and pointed at the gaps from where he’d been hit with everything under the sun.
“What happened?” Kolton asked as he stepped toward Urman which won him some respect in Urman’s book.
“I’ve bit into a lot of bad apples over the years.” He opened up Kathar’s bag and pulled out the bandages he would have expected himself to be wearing. “Let me see that.” He took Kolton’s hand and wondered how long it’d been since his own hand had been so small. One thing was the same though. It was covered in blood, just like his own, only Kolton’s belonged to himself. “Ah, that ain’t nothing.” He went to wrap up the cut with clumsy hands.
“Clean it first,” Kolton said.
“Oh, right.” Urman hadn’t cleaned one of his own wounds in so long he was surprised he’d never had to cut off any limbs from infection. He paused, looked at the boy. “How do I do that?”
“Water.” Obviously. He knew that but the boy made him nervous. He’d never taken care of a child. Three hells, he’d seldom even been allowed around children.
He was flicking the water on the ends of his fingers at the boy and chuckling when Kathar came back carrying the glass.
“There are others somewhere,” Kathar said, tossing the glass on the ground near Urman.
“The kind that will bother us?” He knew the answer well before Kathar said anything. Up close it was obvious the glass had come out of a window at a temple and only one group in the empire would dare go breaking windows at a temple.
“Are The Hounds friendly with anyone?” Kathar said, watching Urman try to get the bandage to stay put on Kolton’s hand.
“Good as new,” Urman said because that was what his momma would say to him when he got hurt. Course there was never any bandage, just a kiss and a pat on the rear-end but he wasn’t about to do either with Kolton.
“Keep a sharp eye,” Kathar said, then took Kolton by the hand. “Come on, let’s look at the water.” He clicked his tongue at the hound so she’d follow.
Urman thought about carrying the poor pup, she looked so tired. Then he stood and realized he was tired too. “Sorry, Em.”
The two of them wandered along together at Ember’s pace, a good ten yards or more behind the father and son, until they came to the trees with the front row seats along the sea. A strip of rocks and thin grass separated them from a fall no man could survive but Urman got real close to the edge anyway. Felt like something he had to do since he was here and all. Weird smell this high up. A little bit of salty brine and a whole bunch of something that didn’t have much of a scent but overwhelmed his nose as the air came sweeping up and over the cliffs.
If he had to reckon, he’d guess a whole lot of people loved looking at the Jazak, but boy did Urman hate the high seas. Or at least the thought of them. All his roaming and he’d never been on a boat. To him, the sea was just a quiet monster just waiting out there for someone foolish enough to come into its lair. Not a man alive that could swing a sword well enough to cut down a beast that size and a spear wasn’t going to do a damn thing about it either. He had to admit though, it was awfully pretty. Water stretched so far out it looked like the world just ended. Maybe it did? He’d never know.
He crouched and picked up a couple rocks, petting the hound with his other hand as she rubbed up against his thigh. “Look at that there,” he said to Kolton, looking down at the waves crashing into the rocks below and handing the boy a rock.
“Beautiful,” Kathar said.
And it was. White jumping up at them, crisp blue bobbing around wildly. The tops of a few rocks were peeking out of the water to see if the chaos was over yet. The whole thing made him feel as peaceful as he’d felt in years. Then Kathar spoke and his words messed up everything. Like words had a way of doing. “I’ve got some friends that are going to meet us near the bridge.”
“Like hell they are.” The words flew out of his mouth like bats out of a cave.
“Now listen,” Kathar said.
“No dammit! Ya already forced yourself along on this trip, I’ll be damned if more tagalongs are joinin’ us.” Kathar put his hands up to calm him. Like putting your fucking hands up had ever calmed a raging bull. “I knew this was a bad idea! Dammit Kathar. I don’t wanna see nobody and I don’t want seen by nobody. This is my trip. We do it my way.” Urman threw the rock as far into the sea as he could like an angry child. The sleeves of his too small for him tunic slid up her arms under his cloak as he moved, pissing him off even more.
“They’re not coming with us. They just have a few things for us that might make our efforts easier,” Kathar said, hands still up. And dammit if Urman didn’t stop bucking. Although, some of that was because Kolton had slid in behind his daddy’s legs and didn’t like how his uncle was acting.
“Easier?”
“Aye. Some supplies we might need.”
Urman could come around to that. “Maybe some smaller boots?”
“Maybe. I don’t know.” The way he said it meant no. There were other things they could use though. Lots of them.
“Then what do ya know?”
“They have some Lotus gambesons for us. Thought they’d help us get into Locke.”
“How in the three hells did they get those?”
“Because they’re Lotus.” Words. Fucking words. Always messing everything up.