Theurgy: The Journey's Dawn (Book One)

Chapter 20 On A Knife's Edge

Life inside a box was getting to Massia. The first week of being conscious has had their challenges, but she felt that she could cope with it. They only allowed her out to pee, usually in a highly securable place with nowhere to run, surrounded and watched by them all with swords ready to kill her before capturing her. That was her time to stretch and maybe have something to eat if they at all felt gracious. She needed to strengthen Zoi as much as she could while she could. She was even begging if the worst came. She hated it, but they would indeed throw a dry cracker or two in the trunk before carrying on. They gave water at the start of every day. They needed her alive, but not in the best conditions it seemed. And they weren't after money, she guessed. Whatever nefarious plot they had, she doubts she will be alive after.

Or maybe they were after her brother. No, that couldn't be. He was no more valuable than her. At least, he wasn't. He was a knight now, the shield of the kingdom and all that, and more useful than a hundred men alone. The thought made her sneer, but she did not understand fully why. Just five years, give her five years, and she could be a knight too. She has been practicing the spear and quarterstaff for ears now, as much as Lyse could tell her. She was not going to be a helpless little girl in her care or be rescued by him. She wanted to prove that she can be cunning as well, be just as crafty. Maybe more. All it takes is another scratch in the wood.

She had been working arduously to summon zoi to her fingertips to part the wood. The wood was far from old, maybe made the day before they caught her. But that just meant it wasn't as hard as wood at its dryest. Parting it wore down her nails and sometimes scraped her fingertips. She was careful not to cause any wound noticeable; if they found her with bloody fingertips, she knows their modicum of hospitality will vanish, and she might spend the rest of this rough journey in chains or rope. She barely had room to move as is. It would get so hard to breathe sometimes that she forced herself to draw lower breaths and position herself to the seam of the lid. She tried to stop herself from crying; showing weakness was not something Knights should do, but tears will fall silently some nights when she remembered her mother and father in the burning house, bodies falling all around Massia as faces settled to lifelessness. It still made her shiver from the terror that she was captured by these people, at their mercy. Her mind went to all the worst that could come for her, but that only made her more desperate.

One time, they had to stop at a town. Massia didn't know for what. The only reason why she knew it was a town was the sound of other noises, horses, and the occasional voices as people pass by her little chest. She was itching to call out for anyone to hear her voice and the slightest possibility of help, but she knew that if any conflict were to come because of her, she would die then too. There were so many ways to die if she did anything they thought worthy of death. They did not stay for long, however. She was in a stable, no doubt with several guarding her, for less than an hour before they were on their way again. She had heard the sounds of celebrations by the time they left. From the seem in the chest, it was night-time with lanterns lighting the roads. It was the first time she had been anywhere else outside of BrokenArrow, unfortunate that she had to spend it inside a box. No matter, she thought. She will see a city, even if it killed her, even if they killed her. She's not going to be broken by just these conditions.

Just a few hours outside of this city, they stopped to allow her to pee in the bushes once more. As she always did, she made sure to get a good look around before going into the thicket. It has been a while since she had seen the mountains of Silondras. She never thought it possible that the whole mountain could be out of view. That means she has to be far away then, very far away. Another range was to the north, ragged and broken.

Those must be the Range of Swords, she thought. Every child from Arkouda to Koraki knows of this range. It's in numerous tales and songs spoken and sung in taverns. Northwest of those mounts laid a field of barren wastes known as the Aponos Barrens and the Field of Giants. There were many things said to go missing there. Travelers go in and never come out. Women who wish to escape their husbands throw themselves to the Barrens in the hope of death. Or perhaps a knight or guildsman looking for treasure. The only thing sure Is what can be seen from the edge of where the mountain meets the barren. They named it the Field of Giants because of what littered the cracked ground throughout it. Massive skeletons, mostly humanoid, with large pieces of armor large enough to flatten a town. Swords were more massive than any tower, possibly as tall as the very mountains. Massia always wanted to visit a place like that. Not to travel into, but to marvel at what must have happened to those giant people. Some sort of battle. She had heard tales also of a large island off of the coast of Arkouda that they now call the city of the dead, haunted by spirits as evil as evil can go before pure destruction. Guilds rarely came to BrokenArrow, but she liked to hear stories of these fantastical places, and she promised that she would see them.