The road exploded with dust each time the mule planted one of her hooves. Elias's horse, slightly ahead of Giles, produced twice as much of a cloud as Mabel. The thick rolling clouds overhead refused to release their rain. And, what had started as joy for not having to travel in soggy weather, changed to frustration as Giles fought to keep the earthy particles out of his nostrils and eyes.
The cold shift over the past days had already taken its effect on many of the trees as their journey led them over the hill and down into a thick forest beyond the town. Leaves high and low had begun their shift from green to a bright red. As the wind rushed through them, some even fell about in a dazzling shimmer. A sight that would have given Giles reason to appreciate his life during any other day.
With each bob of Mabel's body, a sharp pain pulsed through his knee. He had little time to check it, but last he did it had already swollen to twice its original size and turned an ugly black shade. He felt sure that Elias had broken it.
No chance of running. It had been no mistake that they provided him with the smaller steed. What he had at first assumed to be a choice of mockery, now seemed a strategic move on the older man's part. They had not bound him in any real way. Only the rope around his arms, and that had already been taken off. To any other prisoner, this would seem a blessing from some divine entity. Feeling his knee, he knew it was anything but.
They had no real reason to bind him or watch him close. Elias could ride ahead, perhaps even for some great distance. He did not even look back at his prisoner.
Should Giles choose to run, either by foot or mule, he would be ridden down and killed. The guard would not hesitate to leap at the opportunity to stomp out his life. But escape was his only hope. So, he waited for a plan.
"So, what did that official say to you?"
"Silence." Giles detected a hint of exhaustion in the old man's words.
"Come now."
"I said silence. Don't think I won't finish what I started."
Giles tried to read what he could from the back of the man's head.
"What you started? Planning to kill an innocent man just for speaking?" Elias whipped his horse around cutting off Mabel, who gladly halted her march.
"You and I both know what you did, even if you refuse to say it." Giles didn't shrink away, but leaned towards Elias.
"All you have is what you say. No proof. Oh wait, how could I forget a pin. Such clear proof of my crimes. Why not kill me here and now? You know why? Because you can't. Yes, maybe you can hurt me again, but you and I both know you are not allowed to kill me unless you find some sort of real proof, which you won't, old man!" Giles' voice rose to a feverish pitch laced with thick smugness.
Elias's face, which had at one point started to turn a shade of red, drew back to its pale shade as his shoulders relaxed in the new silence. He looked away thoughtfully and nodded. Giles felt an unease creep into his stomach.
"Yes. You are completely correct. I can't kill you without just cause. You are a smart man Giles. So, speak if you wish. You may ask questions about all things in your mind. You may even mock me. I mean it. I do not mind." Elias looked back to him. "Because, once we get to where we are going, I know what I will find. And once I do, I will take my time doing what I will. Trust me, boy."
He then spurred his horse onward and Mabel followed once more. Giles sat back in his saddle, projecting arrogance to Elias's back, showing how unimpressed he was.
"Fair enough, old man. Do what you will. However, for now, I'll ask my questions. Now tell me, what did the official tell you before we left."
"He said that if you try to run, I am free within my right to kill you and then head back home."
Giles opened his mouth, searching for a powerful response. The pain in his knee seemed to increase.
"Oh." Was all he could manage.
The two seemed like little figures of men among the great trees of the forest. Trotting along, leaves falling about, the world about appeared open and deep in all directions. A light mist hung about in the distance, blocking any full awareness of what might be about. Giles felt a shiver run up his spine in the cold silence. Rather than his mind conjuring up useful questions to aid in his future escape, it instead spoke out to drive away the silence.
"Did you see the sky the other night?" His voice a low mumble, eyes looking off into the forest to the right of the road. Elias did not look back.
"I did." Giles nodded, keeping his eyes fixed on the mist.
"Did you see it?"
"Yes."
"What did you think of it?"
"I think night clouds are night clouds. They have their ways and will appear strange to men like us." Giles pulled his eyes forward.
"What?" He was surprised by the frustration in his own voice. "What do you mean? You didn't find it strange in the least?"
Elias simply shook his head. Giles sat back into his saddle.
"I know you, and anyone else looking up that night, had never seen anything like it before." He then pondered Elias's response, and it all seemed too wordy and perfect. "Ah, you old man." He laughed. "You were scared, weren't you." He sat back up, laughing to himself. "You saw the night sky open up before you, and you thought it was truly the end of all things." He let out a deep laugh from his belly. "But then again, who wouldn't have thought that. Don't you worry, I won't judge you for it. Your secret is safe with me."
"I can still break your other knee, boy." Giles spotted Elias's hand clamp over the club, and he lowered his tone.
"Fine, but you can't convince me you thought nothing of it. I simply don't believe a scared old man like you didn't worry about what a sign like that could have meant for his people." He waited, brow raised in anticipation for a response.
"I was." Elias's only reply.
The sun had nearly reached its peak when the forest had begun to thin away. Eventually, long red grass stood high on each side of the road, like some sort of amber wall blocking their view. The change in scenery brought back to Giles the crops at the farmhouse, and a pit formed in his stomach. Mabel felt as though she might have been standing still with how slow she moved. If anything were to come after them, no doubt he was done for.
I have to get out of here.
"What does the pin mean?" He knew the question brought risk with it. If Elias had any real wit about him, he would realize that Giles simply knew too little about the world he claimed to live in.
"It was given to the ones who stayed at Ironveil." Such a matter of fact statement. No extra details to cling hold of. But it would be enough.
Ironveil! This was it. The name stabbed into his mind, prying open a flood of memories from his history instructors as a child. The civil war had ended nearly thirty years before he was born. Now at the age of twenty, it seemed like such an old story to him. Ironveil. That was the name given to the city where the roads crossed. No one could get from one point of Tovoran to the other without at least seeing the place, even from a great distance.
"Hold on. You mean that old man was one of the Unison men?" Giles, despite his situation, let out a low chuckle. "I don't believe it. You almost had me there."
The fields continued to open around them, and gloomy skies above let out a light drizzle upon the chilled world finally giving moisture to the dry road beneath them. Elias only let out a heavy sigh.
"What do you struggle believing?"
"What do I- Oh my, where do I start. For one thing, what would a hero like that be doing out here? Why would he ever become a farmer?"
"World needs food. Farming is a good way to do that."
"Then let the ordinary people do that. If he really was a Unison soldier, then he should be hailed as a hero and given an easy life. From what I hear, weren't many of them left after the war anyway."
"Stop calling him that." Elias looked over his shoulder. His face, not angry, but sorrowful and stern.
"What? A Unison man? It's what he was."
"A hero."
"Oh. Sorry." Elias turned back around. "Didn't like him too much then?"
"He's my best friend. Only man I would ever call a hero."
"Well then why won't you?"
"Because he asked me not to."
They road in silence for some time. Their clothing had become damp and clung to their lean bodies. Giles listened to the swaying of trees and the crowing of ravens within their branches. All about, still nothing came to life. It reminded him of graveyards back home. Their deadly atmosphere in the fall time gave the feeling of being watched from something behind every headstone.
It had hit him, just now, looking far ahead down the road then twisting to do the same thing behind. Since the priest, nothing had come down the road. No wagon, no patrols, nothing. He had imagined that perhaps the creature had been driving people away. It only made perfect sense to him. However, this far away from where he had seen it? Wouldn't there be a single mounted patrol moving through the country?
Right as the words formed in his mouth, Elias spoke first.
"Did Thomas speak to you this morning before they let you out?" Giles' thought leapt at being asked a question.
"Thomas?"
"The Master of the village."
"Oh, him."
He thought back to his rude awakening.
Just when he had finally managed to drift off, keys rattling in the door of his cell brought him right back to the dark world of early morning. He found Thomas standing over him, torch in hand. Not an ounce of humor in his face.
For a moment, Giles thought he might be killed that very moment. Then the Master squatted low and brought the torch so near to Giles' face that he thought it might catch his hair on fire.
"I will only give you this one chance." He said. "The priest you saw, was he wearing something like this?" Thomas had held up a parchment with a drawing upon it. It seemed to be a large rendition of some sort of letter resembling something of a circle with a bow shape at its top. It reminded him of how a child might draw a bull's head. It also reminded him of the symbol upon the priest's chain.
"Yes. He was wearing one." Giles swallowed hard, the heat of the torch now scalding his cheek. Thomas leaned closer.
"Why do you call him priest?" He tried to scoot himself back away from the older man, only for his arm to slip along the straw.
"What do you mean? His clothing. Clearly."
Thomas nodded, but never once broke eye contact.
"Yes. Yes, I see now. Thank you for telling me." He stood up. "Understand this, you might have not killed that farmer. However, I see the look in your eyes. You have killed someone. If you should run while out there, you might make it some great distance. Perhaps you will even make it out of Tovoran. But fate will bring you to my country again. And I will give justice to you for your actions."
With that, they bound Giles and brought him out to the gate.
The whole ordeal did not sit right with him. Not one bit. He recounted the events of his conversation with Thomas, leaving out the last bit involving the accusation. Elias only listened, and then nodded.
"Can't see what he would want to know about some priest for." Giles murmured. "Thought you two were all bent out of shape for the Unison man." Elias nodded again.
"We are. We are, indeed. There is just one thing about your story that bothers him."
"What now? Does he agree with you now? That I made it all up?"
"No. He still thinks you are telling what you know. The only thing that is a problem is your choice of words, Giles." Giles tensed up at the use of his name. The tone of the words came out smug, knowing something that he did not. Elias turned about and looked him up and down, a smirk on his lips. Then he turned forward again. "They are called Magi in most of Tovoran. Did you know that? In fact, there is only one region where they call them priests. Actually, it's not even much of a region. More of a clan." Giles felt the prickle of hair sticking up on the back of his neck. The cold wet clothing and excitement running through his body gave him a convulsive shiver. "Thomas has many spies throughout the world. Many tell him of what is happening in the five kingdoms." Elias slowly looked back again, this time with a hand on his club. "So, you must forgive him when one of the Namroe clan crosses our borders, disguises himself, and brings us stories of monsters. Simply something that puts him on edge."
Elias and Giles had come to a complete stop, neither having noticed as they watched each other. Giles' felt his eyes widen and jaw clench near to cracking his teeth. With no weapon, he stood no chance.
Then they heard it. A reverberating cry let out through the distance over the hills.