Tripped

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Jogging, holding her staff off the ground with one hand and keeping her bag steady with the other, Allabva pressed on through the night. Every time Hronomon showed up, he seemed to bring bad news, making her plight and the world’s fate sound ever darker. If that were going to keep happening, then she would will herself reach her goal sooner, before everything could get too bad. She would wear herself to the bone in doing so, but if that was what it took, then so be it.

She had grown up believing that the Shrongelin was either the creator of the world, or that he had some close connection with the creator. Now she was told by one of the Nomord that the Shrongelin was just another Nomord. The Nomord were immortal, unless that was also a lie or misconception that her poor, wretched, short-lived class of beings called humans had misinformed her about.

The Nomord were immortal, as far as she knew, a species made up entirely of benign individuals, but that still meant the Shrongelin was far less powerful than she had supposed.

So, the Shrongelin was Nomord. And he had a partner called Hronomon, but apparently both of these were titles, meaning something along the lines of guardian and forerunner. Did they even have proper names? And if these were titles, and all that Hronomon was using to speak of himself and of the Shrongelin, was Sacalai a title as well? What was it supposed to mean?

And now this Sacalai had apparently surprised Hronomon with her ability to influence the weather while she was still in prison. What else could Hronomon be unaware of, or be wrong about?

Allabva was wrong. This situation didn’t only get worse whenever Hronomon showed up to give more news. It was getting worse right now as she simply thought about it.

She jogged on, trying to strike a careful balance between lifting her knees to lengthen her stride, and conserving energy by not going too fast.

She was glad for the excuse to be moving quickly. With the weather being much colder than it should be, her fingers would have been too cold without the exercise. But the rain, although not heavy, was starting to make the dirt of the road into mud, which she was then kicking up onto her boots and her cloak as she jogged.

Normally this pace would make her feel more alive, allowing her to cover ground somewhat quickly and yet not tire excessively. But tonight, with the threat of Sacalai’s influence over her, she did not feel free to enjoy the sensation.

Allabva focused on keeping her footfalls and breathing steady. She could not spare the focus to do anything besides put one foot in front of the other and keep herself moving forward. She eyed the road in the dark, watching its contours to avoid stumbling and falling to the ground. As she was watching the contours of the ground, she did not see the rope which she caught with her toe as it was suddenly pulled taut inches from the ground.

Allabva fell hard, saved from scrapes by the long sleeves and gloves that the cold weather had forced her to wear. Thinking she had tripped on a rock that she had failed to see because of the darkness, she came up to her hands and knees, gathered her bag and staff, and began to rise to her feet. Then a shape formed from the darkness to her right and rammed into her, forcing her back down. This was followed quickly by a hand covering her mouth before she had a chance to shout for Hronomon.

“Tunbloth, come grab her staff.” A human voice whispered behind her, holding her in place as she tried to struggle out of a grown man’s grasp. Another shadow emerged from the grass on the north side of the road, running to assist the first. The second man snatched the staff from her hands before she found a way to land any blows with it.

“Give me a gag,” the same voice whispered behind her. The second man produced two strips of cloth, shoving one strip as a bundle into her mouth after forcing it open, then using the other strip to tie it in place.

“How much do you think she has on her?” the second man wondered.

“I don’t know but it’s probably a fair amount. Traveling alone at night. Wearing a nice enough cloak. She probably has some urgent business that she came ready to pay for somewhere.”

The man named Tunbloth grabbed Allabva’s bag and opened it, rummaging through. “There’s no purse here. Only food. A knife. Socks? Alright, little lady, where do you keep your scrip? Halmon, let’s search her. Thoroughly.”

Money had not been high on Allabva’s list of concerns when she madly dashed about with her mother to pack for this journey, but she carried some. “Mmffm,” she tried to communicate. She pointedly eyed her belt near her left hip, intentionally giving them the money they sought in hopes they would leave her alone afterwards.

“Too easy,” Halmon said.

Tunbloth undid Allabva’s belt and pulled both ends away from her body, revealing her small coin purse tied to the inside. Removing it, he opened it to inspect the contents. He frowned.

“That’s it? That’s all you have? This can’t buy us anything but a few nights in a cheap inn.”

“Come on,” Halmon goaded. “You’ve got to have more. Where is it?”

Allabva’s eyes were wide this entire time, genuinely fearing what the pair may do to her and wondering how far away Hronomon was. How soon would he hear this and come back? She shook her head furiously, crying. “Mmffhhm-mm!”

Putting one leg underneath her, she sat on it and then tried to stand. She was halfway up when they shoved her back to the ground.

“You’re staying there,” Halmon directed. “If you cooperate, we won’t hurt you. I think. Do you understand?”

Allabva nodded, trying to appear meek.

“Good. Look, I have your knife and your staff. I have the capacity to hurt you. Tunbloth here will ungag you for a moment and will ask you a question or two. You won’t shout, or we will hurt you. Do you follow?”

Allabva nodded again.

“No tricks now. I’m ready for you.” Halmon appeared as though he would not hesitate to make good on his threats.

Tunbloth worked to remove the gag. “Halmon, you’ve got to work on your knots. This one’s a mess.”

Halmon didn’t wait before beginning the interrogation.

“What’s your name?”

“Allabva.” Despite the security ramifications of telling them her real name, she still didn’t feel good about lying.

“Allabva, eh? No last name? Very well, you can keep some secrets. Now, where are you headed?”

“East for now. Towards Palf Glen.” Allabva felt apprehensive about telling them that much.

“Towards. Not ‘to’?” This man was dangerous. “Why are you heading there?”

Allabva said nothing, only staring back.

“I see.” Halmon pursed his lips. “And where are you coming from?”

Allabva stared back, still.

Halmon took a moment to look at Allabva’s clothing and bag. “I’d say this comes from roundabouts of the Cleft, wouldn’t you, Tunbloth?”

“I wouldn’t know,” Tunbloth replied, “but it doesn’t look too shabby. Why don’t we just take those things and be on our way?”

“No, I don’t want to do it that way,” Halmon replied. “She’d freeze to death if we left her in her underclothes. I don’t want to kill without more purpose other than making a few coins off her clothes.”

“But we can’t just leave her here, can we? She’s seen us now.” Tunbloth studied Allabva’s face, scrutinizing her for any hint that she might give away their passing through this place, if granted her freedom.

“Well, can we?” Halmon asked Allabva sarcastically. He leaned in. “Are you as alone out here as you appear to be?”

“No,” Allabva was glad to answer truthfully.

Halmon squinted at her. “And yet we find you, looking very much alone, hurrying so quickly through the night that you’re not using your walking stick and I could see that you had to take extra effort to steady your bag. But then again, how does one such as you come to be on the road, this far from the Cleft, or any other settlement to the west, for that matter?”

“I’m not alone. I have a companion up ahead. He’ll probably come back here any moment. He could take the two of you easily.”

“No, I don’t think so,” Halmon retorted. “We’re the ones who aren’t alone. We have the two of us, and three others in the brush back there.” He pointed behind himself with one thumb. “You see, we’re on watch, the two of us. We’ve been on watch for some time. If your friend had come through here, we would have seen him. We were here for two hours, freezing our fingers off for our mates because it’s our shift, and you’re the first thing to come by on two feet.”

“Nobody’s come through here but some dumb unicorn,” Tunbloth agreed. “No travel companion of yours.”

Allabva resisted the urge to correct the vagrant and his use of the slang term.

“Go ahead, spit it out.” Halmon taunted. “Tell him the correct term is Nomord.” He spat the word out with derisive inflection.

Disaffected, Allabva thought. What were the odds that she would come among some Disaffected mere hours after Banduchy had warned her?

“Well…” Allabva let it hang.

“Let’s tie her up,” Halmon directed.

“Unicorns.” Tunbloth dripped the word in Allabva’s face, then set about putting her gag back in place. “When you behave as selfishly as they do, when you’re as sadistic as they are, you hardly even deserve an appropriate descriptive word like that. They are unicorns, and cannot lay claim to any term that’s supposed to sound more dignified. Not with the way they treat us humans. ‘Unicorn’ is more than they deserve.”

Halmon Took Allabva’s hands behind her back and tied her wrists together. “On your feet. We’re going for a little walk first, then we’ll hobble you around the ankles. Come on. Tunbloth, you go on ahead, so she knows where she’s walking. Little girl, no games now.”

Allabva followed Tunbloth off the road, Halmon following her with her knife. She wished she could fight against them or run free, but she was too in touch with reality to try. With her weight and strength disadvantage, there was no way she could hope to overpower two grown men in a struggle. They had the knife and staff also, so there was absolutely no hope of her hitting them quickly and running while they were down. Allabva didn’t think she could premeditatedly use her knife against people anyway, no matter how nefarious their behavior. She might use it in the heat of the moment if she found herself defending.

Finally, making a break for it and running would be useless as well. She was tired from hours of walking and jogging, so she didn’t have any energy left in her for a sprint. Tired as she was already, her only hope in running would be to lose them quickly, then rest while hidden until they gave up. Without any chance of success to escape, she walked with them and hoped to keep her life.

They soon came to a small depression in the ground where there were two horses tied to a tree near a wagon. The wagon contained two men asleep in their bedrolls, with another man asleep in his bedroll on the ground.

Halmon took Allabva by the arm and led her to the wagon, where he tied her hands to one of the wheels. Tunbloth went from man to man, waking them without raising any loud noise.

“What?” a new voice said, “Tunbloth, why did you wake me up? It’s still the middle of the night. And it’s cold. Least you could do was build the fire back up.”

Halmon answered him. “Nillan, I have somebody to accompany us on our way to the encampment, but we need to put some distance between ourselves and this place quickly.”

“Somebody how?” Nillan demanded.

“Some diversion. Little girl won’t tell me where she’s going or where she’s from. We took her money, and figure we shouldn’t leave her here after she’s seen us, so we should take her with us, at least for now. Besides, I figure if she’s trying to hide something, it’s might be something the Wise will want to know.”

“You think they’ll let you talk directly to the Wise?” Nillan yawned. Then he turned to the other man next to him in the wagon, whom Tunbloth was still shaking. “Qurast, how many times does he have to tell you? Get up. Strike camp.”

Qurast sat up begrudgingly. “But Nolder was the one who tied up the horses. Get him first, then come get me.” He tried to lie back down but a sharp pain in his leg caused by Nillan’s knuckle prompted him to get up.

“We might as well be awake. Don’t tell me you were getting good sleep with this cold and rain.” Nillan looked up. “At least the rain is starting to let up, but Halmon’s right about one thing—we need to put some leagues behind us.”

As Qurast climbed out of his bedroll and the wagon, Tunbloth roused Nolder.

The men rushed around, gathering their things and attempting to destroy any evidence they had stopped there. Once they decided they were prepared, Halmon and Nillan untied Allabva from the wagon wheel, bound her feet together, then lifted her into the wagon and lay her there like a log. Qurast sat in the driver’s seat, the horses tied in front of him, and led the wagon back onto the road.

Once on the road, Qurast asked where they were going.

“Same as always,” Nillan answered. “We just have some cargo to take with us.”

“Why are we taking somebody with us? Is she trying to join, too?”

“No, and don’t worry about it,” Halmon said. “Just drive.”

From Allabva’s vantage point in the bed of the wagon, she looked up all around her. Qurast sat on the front with Nolder, and Halmon, Nillan, and Tunbloth rode with her, each of them sitting at a different point and supporting his back with the outer board of the wagon bed. Allabva lay in the middle of the bed, surrounded by their bedrolls and miscellaneous other items, including her bag and walking stick. She looked from one man to another as they held their conversation.

Nillan looked to Halmon for more explanation, which he gave. “We stopped her for her money but she didn’t have much. Asking her a few questions, I got the feeling that she was trying to hide some things from me. Weren’t you, little girl? She said she wasn’t alone, but she sure looked like it. Since I couldn’t know completely, then I couldn’t leave her there anymore to send people after us. I figured it might be fun to get some more questions answered, but if we can’t, somebody at the encampment should be able to. She might be nobody, or she might be something. One way to find out.”

“You woke us up for this?” Nillan blinked, then continued with forced patience in his voice. “I take that back. Yes, once you robbed her, you had to take her. But you could have just let her pass, couldn’t you? I was having one of my favorite dreams in which I get to keep my fingers because it’s not so cold. Right now, I’m considering getting back in my bedroll and riding on warm and cozy.” Nillan rolled his eyes, then rode on in silence.

Allabva needed to make a decision. She didn’t know where Hronomon was. He must come back for her. Was he any good at reading tracks to follow them? She had no idea. The only thing to do there was to wait and see if the Nomord showed up.

She obviously couldn’t escape from among the middle of them, bound and gagged as she was. But they had left her cloak on her and the bed rolls around her provided some small amount of insulation. Since she couldn’t do anything to improve her present situation, she decided to maximize her capability within it. Regardless of the cold, after the running she had done and not knowing what was in her near future, she needed rest. With this in mind, she deliberately put everything out of mind and fell asleep.