Book II - Exodus (Chapter 10)

Erich listened to Essara’s tale with widening eyes, as nothing she told him was anything he would have guessed. When she arrived at the part involving the strangely dressed Dark men with cubes that flashed, he had trouble accepting it. Surely, it has happened. The girl saw it with her own eyes. Watched the men enter the kingdom. He knew it was true, and yet it meant that in so many ways he had been wrong. There was no other Dark who had his power, none jealous of Erich’s own. He was just a threat to their workings, a boy to be killed at all costs, as he was the only one who would be able to stop them. But who are they? Men from the outside? From Mer’ka, where you believed you’d be welcomed? No one there will want you. You’re dangerous, and they know. Somehow they know. But as Essara went on, Erich began to wonder. Triga was no accident, and yet did that mean that every other kingdom would fall to the same fate? It was possible, and if that were the case he would not be able to help. Because the men with the cubes travelled by magic, it seemed. The other kingdoms would be doomed, and he would be too late no matter which one he tried to reach first. His horsa was gone, and he knew they could only go in one direction from here walking, and that was east. Past the mountain and to the Wall. If he could not save the people of Meil from inside, then he would try from the outside. Perhaps there was still a way.

Essara finished her tale and looked at him expectantly. But he could not bring himself to tell her, not yet, and he excused himself by telling her he was tired, and that the night had come and they should sleep. She looked hurt, and he saw a flash of anger in her eyes as she rolled away from him and put her hands beneath her head. In fifteen minutes she was asleep and Erich cursed himself. Why was he so afraid to tell her the truth? She was the closest thing to a friend he’d ever had, and yet he wanted to contain himself. She won’t understand you, you’ll be like the men with the cubes to her. A boy with the power to kill with magic. She’ll be afraid, and you’ll be a monster. He pulled his legs up to his chest, resting his chin on his knees, and rocked himself through the cold, (though warm breezes wafted up from the swamp every now and then) fearing the one thing he’d never worried about before. She won’t understand, and you’ll be alone again. The boy’s heart clenched, and he remembered the horsa he’d lost in the sucking muck of the swamp. What I would have done without the girl after that, I don’t know. How would I have the will to do anything? He took little solace in the fact that he was stronger now than ever, in character and in body, and that he would have journeyed on, stopping only when he could no longer move forward. It was stubbornness. The thing that exists in all people that refuses to let them lie down and die, or sit by and watch while their siblings are murdered. Depending on the situation, his drive to meet his goal could be considered valiant or stupid, fruitful or useless. And he discovered that he didn’t care. I am the one who has been chosen to save these people, even if I have chosen myself. I have never felt like I belonged with any of them, and yet I will put forth my life for theirs. The cause is right, and there is no right cause that’s not worth dying for. If indeed it comes to that.

He whiled away the hours until morning by gathering more huskberries from the plant. The bush, he was surprised to find, had many untouched branches and he collected enough of the berries to keep them satisfied for a week or more. Once again he blessed the girl for finding the bush. She would not have known until a day or two from now, when the walking became unbearable, and her stomach was sticking to her spine. Then she would have wished for a find like this. He placed the berries in a small shred of the hunter’s pouch that would still function as a pocket, and he secured it with another shred of fabric so that the berries would not fall out barring some tumble down a cliff.

When dawn came, the sun did not rise. Instead, the Wall to the east gave off an incredible glow, a red line of light that bled from its lip. It was an incredible sight, and Erich sat watching for several minutes before he remembered the girl. He shook her awake, and soon she too watched the sunrise from behind the Wall. As the sun crested the lip of the giant structure, the entire land was instantly illuminated, and for anyone who had seen many sunrises, it was already mid-morning.

By this time, however, the two travellers were walking east, up the mountain.

“Where are we going, Erich? Can you at least tell me that?”

“There’s only one place we can go from here, only one place that may mean I can stop whatever’s going on in Meil.”

“You mean to go to the Wall, and through it.”

“Yes.”

“How do you plan to get through?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“Well, I was hoping…well, we’ll have to walk along it until we see an opening.”

“You plan to go through the wall without any idea as to where it opens?”

“…Do you have a better idea?”

“Yes, actually.”

“You do?

“I do. I told you about the schools they held for Darks in Triga, right?”

“Yes.”

“One of the most cherished pieces of knowledge that the elders passed down were the locations of the entrances all the original Darks had used to smuggle themselves into Meil. All of us were taught this knowledge.”

“So you know where to go to find a way through?”

“Provided I know where we are, and that’s a very tricky thing right now. But the Wall was visible from Triga, and after lessons we’d all go outside and find the locations by sight, mapping the external features of it so we’d be able to find the entrances. Right now, I can see a part of the wall that we had always been taught was the ‘little foot.’ It’s there, straight ahead and to the left. From Triga, it had always been north, and now it’s south of us.”

“Can you find your way from the ‘little foot’ thing to an entrance?”

“That won’t be a problem. There’s one south of there maybe five or six miles. But we won’t want to use it.”

“Why not?”

She stopped then, and Erich hiked three more steps before he realized she was no longer at his side. He turned to find her looking at him, in that way that made him understand that what she was about to say was meant in the most serious way.

“Because it’s suicide.”