Chapter Four
A Companion from the East
Fate eyed death distrustfully, "You shouldn't play the rook. It's unreliable."
Death shrugged, if such a motion was possible if him. "We shall see."
I could just see that whatever Tarren had in mind was going to be dangerous and most probably rather foolish. I groaned.
Evie's eye's lit up, "Do tell."
"I see no need to pay for horses for you when there are three perfectly good ones waiting in these stables."
"That's stealing!" I hissed.
Tarren's eyes were cold, "Those men in there no more deserve their horses than they do their lives. Knowing the type of people they are, they probably mistreat their horses anyway."
Evie, always the animal activist gasped, "Then we must take the horses. We cannot leave them to be hurt; I could never live with myself!"
I rolled my eyes at Evie's melodramatic actions and stood frowning in an agony of indecision. "How do you know those horses are theirs?"
"Only Lord Theon and his cronies would be rich enough to afford them," Tarren told us.
I frowned, "Lord Theon?"
"Aye, that is his name. His two lackeys, I do not know. Now we must hurry." He began un-tethering two of the horses.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" I whispered.
It was Evie's turn to roll her eyes, "Don't be such a sissy."
"Hush!" Tarren's voice cut through our conversation, ending it abruptly. He gathered the two horse's reigns in one hand and his own horses in the other and began leading them slowly out of the stables so they did not make too much noise.
"This is so wrong" I couldn't help moaning quietly, and received a smack on the back of my head from Evie in response.
Once we were safely out of the stables and a fair way from the inn, we mounted up, with some assistance from Tarren, and were soon quickly trotting towards the exit to the town.
Tarren bribed the guards to let us out, as officially no-one was allowed to enter or leave after sundown, and then we were on our way. I'd like to say we rode hard and through the whole night without pause, however in reality we kept a relatively slow pace as neither Evie nor I were very good riders and we stopped a few hours later after I almost fell off the horse soon after accidentally falling asleep.
We unsaddled the horses at the edge of a pine forest, tethering them loosely to one of the tree trunks so they could not bolt. I had ended up with a small black horse, though when I say small, it was still enormous to me, but in comparison to Evie or Tarren's horse, it was petite. I had been given the littlest horse as it was seemingly the gentlest, and because it was the only one I was not totally dwarfed by. Because of Evie's height, she took a large brown horse, more descriptive than that I cannot say, as I know little of horses, I could not even discern if mine was male or female.
Whatever they were, they were pleasant enough beasts and Evie quickly called hers Brownie, stunningly original as ever.
Once the horses were unsaddled and tethered, we lay down to try and get some rest. It was very different from the night before, as then we had been relaxed, warm and full. Now I was cold and scared, I was tired but I did not know if I could sleep; I kept running over everything that had happened, and puzzling over it. Who was the Lord Theon, and how did Tarren know him?
I turned over to look at Tarren and was surprised to see him awake, sitting up. His back was against one of the trees and he was puffing on a pipe, deep in thought.
At some point I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I knew it was morning, and I was cold and damp from the dew.
I got up, rubbing my arms to try and get some life back into them. I had sometimes in my daydreams imagined sleeping out in the wilderness; however my fantasies had never contained stiff limbs, dampness and perpetual hunger.
I was irritable because of my bad sleep the night before, and therefore spared Evie no sympathy when Tarren poured part of his water gourd on her face to wake her up.
The fact that it was summer was my only comfort; it meant we dried out quickly and soon became warm; raising my spirits so much that even a breakfast of dry biscuits and cured ham couldn't dampen them.
We made better time because we all had horses and therefore rode instead of walked. We travelled continually East, passing through the forest we had stopped at to sleep, and on through more hilly terrain, the landscape becoming less and less inhabited as we rode on. I was not sorry to see the end of the forest, as it had been dark and enclosed, I was glad to be out in the open air again.
We rode on like this for five days, getting continually sorer from riding, picking up blisters from our new boots and getting thoroughly sick of dried meat, on the whole it can be said we were rather miserable.
However on the fifth day we came in sight of a small village, which Tarren told was called Kirkstall and that we would be stopping for the night there. It was a tiny place with only about twenty houses, and a single inn. Tarren bought some more food provisions to give us some variety, and then we went to get a meal and lodging at the inn.
As we slowly clopped along the main road towards the inn, I looked around frowning. The village looked dead; apart from a few children sword fighting with sticks outside one of the cottages, there was no sign of life. The inside of the inn was no better, a few men sat around drinking, an old woman was just visible in the shadows, and a woman sat behind the counter, absently drinking some kind of brown liquid.
Tarren looked around frowning, "When I passed through here a few years ago, this town was bustling with life. I wonder what has happened."
I frowned, "Nothing good I bet."
Evie punched me lightly on the shoulder, "Don't be so pessimistic, maybe they all just moved away to get more work in a bigger town or something."
I patted her shoulder, "Yes Evie, and your pet parrot didn't get eaten, he went away on holiday."
She glared at me.
Tarren shushed us, "try not to draw attention to us please. Let's purchase a meal and lodging, eat and then go to bed. I want to spend as little time here as possible; this whole place makes me nervous." He went up to the counter and paid, then went to find a table, choosing one fairly near the fire which was burning, as although the days were warm, with the absence of the sun at night, it became significantly cooler.
We sat around eating some kind of meat stew with coarse bread and a drink that Tarren told us was mead.
Our luck with inns however did not seem to be very good, as something seemed to happen every time we went in one. This time was no different; a tall slim man probably in his thirties, with a black beard and wiry hair tied back in a loose ponytail started walking determinedly towards us, the firelight causing his long sword to gleam brightly. Tarren tensed and put his hand to his sword hilt beside him as this was more surreptitious than his battle axe.
I clenched my hands under the table nervously, tensing my legs, ready to run if we needed to.
"Have you come from the south?" the stranger asked.
Tarren answered for all of us, standing as he did so he matched the man's height. "We have, if you travel there be wary, rebellion stirs there. And you…friend?" he spoke cordially, but his hand never left his sword hilt.
"I am from the east, but have not been there in many months. I am travelling back across the mountains to Camelot now; may I join your table?"
He spoke in a clipped, quiet tone, his voice heavily accented. He looked and sounded like he was from somewhere in the Middle East, but where exactly I could not say.
Tarren hesitated for a moment, and then nodded. "Of course."
He sat and the tall man followed suit.
"Forgive my manners, my name is Zane."
Tarren looked surprised, "The swordsman?"
The dark skinned man inclined his head.
Tarren nodded, "I have heard of you, you are well famed as a fighter. I am Tarren the Bear, and this is Evangel and Nikita."
I frowned, apparently this man was well known, but this did not make me any less cautious of him.
Zane surveyed us curiously, before turning back to Tarren. "I have heard of you too, well are you known as a man of great strength and fighting talent. Tell me where do you travel?"
The whole exchange was making Tarren uncomfortable I could tell, but he could not get rid of Zane politely and so answered his question. "We go to Camelot."
Zane's stern face broke into a smile, "you also? Then why do we not travel together?"
I took an instant dislike to the man for barging in on our meal, asking too many questions and inviting himself along on our journey, he was too forward, and travelling with him would make it awkward to hide where we were from and why we travelled to Camelot.
However as there was no polite way to decline, Tarren was forced to agree.
And so we gained another companion, although rather unwillingly, we would be glad of the man before the end.
Just when I thought the night couldn't get any worse, it did.
The old woman who had been in the corner since we arrived shuffled over to our table and sat herself down.
I internally groaned, what were we, a magnet for trouble or something?
She surveyed us through rheumatic eyes, "you are strangers here?" she asked.
I noticed Evie looked sympathetically at her, Tarren was frowning, and Zane looked haughtily disgusted, making me dislike him even more.
"That is correct."
The woman nodded, and indicated the room with a wave of her gnarled hand. "What do you see?" she asked Tarren, who had obviously decided to humour her.
Tarren surveyed the room carefully, before answering, "I see poverty and unease, people who have learned to be wary…and I see fear."
The woman sighed, "Yes. You are right; this was once a rich happy place. Before she awoke."
There was a silence, before at last Tarren asked what we were all wondering, "Who awoke?"
"The dragon."
