Chapter 29
After several days, they finally reached the mountains where they were guided through the foothills by Faelan, one of Lord Vaan's men who was familiar with the area having scouted for Wattan. Duo had spent time in the mountains with Wattan's men after landing on Calabria, so he was not surprised by the terrain, but Arora seemed to be awestruck, turning her head frequently as they passed through the thickly wooded region following a path only the guide could see.
When they stopped to rest and have a meal, Duo went to Arora who was sitting on a fallen tree feeding Shamara. He held out a leaf with food he had gathered, and when she hesitated, probably believing he might have picked up something they should not eat, he boasted of being an experienced mountaineer, then admitted that he had learned the hard way what not to eat. So she took some of what he offered with a nod of thanks.
"Have you never been in the hills?" Duo asked her.
"Not this deeply," she responded. "Apolo has ventured further in, and now I understand why." She took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment. Duo would describe the look on her face as rapture and he wondered what she was thinking before she spoke again. "I hear the ancestors so clearly here."
"All I hear are birds," remarked Duo. "Are you sure that isn't what you are hearing?"
She opened her eyes to look at him. "I am quite sure, Duo. As we travel through the hills, they will guide me in learning my powers."
Thinking of the comfort she gave him at night, he said, "I'm all for that. Maybe they could teach you to add a little heat. The nights are getting cold."
"Guerani do not make fire, so you will just have to move closer to the campfire."
"It would be a lot more convenient if you did." He leaned closer to look at Shamara. "Don't you think so, princess?"
The baby waved her hand and belched loudly.
"Will you take her while I speak to Baerot and Faelan about the direction we take?" She didn't give him a chance to respond before she shoveled Shamara into his arms and walked away to join the two men standing across the small camp near a stream.
Shrugging, Duo looked down at Shamara. He had a faint memory of holding her when she was just a tiny infant and now she seemed like a small person. Although she could not talk, she expressed herself in smiles and frowns, gurgles and giggles, and waving arms and kicking legs. A year ago he could not even imagine holding a baby let alone being responsible for the care of one as important as the child he held on his lap now, an arm around her as she moved restlessly. She could sit up, and while babies on Earth might play with shiny rattles, Shamara was fascinated with sticks and leaves.
Now he mashed up some of what he had gathered and when he put his fingers up to her mouth, she eagerly took the food from him. She finished it quickly, so he prepared more and was feeding her when he saw Arora returning.
"Tomorrow we will head north, so the trail will be steep. We will have to walk for several days because the horses will have difficulty with their footing with a rider on their backs. Our route will take us closer to the volcano than I would like, but Faelan assures me that its rumbles are nothing to be frightened of."
"When is the last time it blew its stack?" asked Duo. He wasn't fond of the prospect of skirting the volcano either.
"If you are asking when it last erupted, the records indicate that it has been hundreds of years, certainly before recorded time. There is a legend that the palace of the gods is there."
Palace of the gods? More likely a Baymani observation post. "I would like to see that!"
Shamara whimpered and clutched at the arm around her, so Duo looked down to see that she had a wide-eyed frightened look on her face. "I don't think Shamara wants to go by the volcano either."
"It will be safe enough. The bright side is that you may get the warmth you want," she pointed out.
"I want warmth, not my ass boiled in lava."
For several days the trail was as difficult as expected, and they had to move carefully over deteriorating paths many times. After the third day, Duo decided not to look down because the last time he had done so he had gotten dizzy to see the heights they had climbed. The view had been as magnificent as he remembered, but the realization of the danger made his insides twist and his knees grow weak.
If Arora was afraid, she did not show it. If anything, she appeared to be braver than most of the men climbing the mountain, pulling nervous horses with them. She pushed ahead even though he was sure it must be physically taxing on her because of her condition. Duo took Shamara from her early on over her protests, and he was amazed that the baby did not fuss in the sling strapped to his body. Even the other men remarked about how brave the first princess was. Duo wondered if they were talking about Arora as well but did not want to insult her by saying so. None of them had probably seen a strong female, but Duo had been acquainted with many tough as nails women on Earth and in the colonies, so he knew what a female was capable of.
They finally reached a plateau that they would cross before descending the other side of the mountain, so Arora ordered that they rest for a couple of days. They made camp near a stream that fed a nearby hot spring heated by the innards of the volcano. The men took shifts bathing, the first real bath they had in many days. Duo wasn't that particular about bathing, certainly not like the Calabrians, so he waited until one of the last shifts to enter the water and when he did, he did not want to get out. It was like a spa hot tub, and after washing, he relaxed as long as he could, ignoring the other men who were reluctantly leaving.
"Are you getting out?"
Duo was startled by Arora's voice, and he turned to see her sitting on one of the rocks on the edge of the hot spring. "Do I have to?"
"You wanted to accompany Faelan and Baerot when they scouted and they are about to leave." She was unwinding Shamara from her sling, and since she was distracted, he scrambled from the pool and fumbled with his clothing.
He heard Arora laughing, and he was annoyed to see her watching him. "Hey, no peeking!" Then, "What's so funny?"
"That you are embarrassed to be naked."
His cheeks were flaming, so he quickly pulled on the undershirt that hung past his thighs and then turned his back to her as he put on his leggings, hopping from foot to foot until he was able to pull them up. Picking up his tunic, he turned back to her, then choked when he saw more of her than he should slipping into the pool with Shamara clutched to her.
"Um … I … uh ..."
"Duo, are you coming with us?" Fortunately Baerot's barking demand saved Duo from making any kind of small talk with Trey's naked wife. Grabbing his boots, he tripped over his own feet in hurrying to get away from the pond, landing with his face at Baerot's booted feet.
"What are you running from?" he asked with a frown, looking past Duo down the path to the pond. "Is gracious Lady Arora there? I will have a guard posted on the trail here to protect her privacy."
"Good idea." Duo rubbed his eyes, hoping that would wipe the memory of what he had seen, but it did no good. He wasn't aroused, which surprised him given just how beautiful she was and how long it had been since he had been with Trynity. He was feeling what guys felt if they saw their naked sister in the bathroom, that he wished he had not seen her. Maybe Arora could take that memory from him.
"Haven't you ever seen an unclothed woman before?" asked Baerot with a snort as Duo pulled on his boots, grabbed his pack and fell into step between him and the scout.
"One or two," he admitted. "I just don't think it's proper to see Lady Arora like that."
Baerot shrugged. "She's a female. That can't be a surprise. You have been sharing your warmth with her."
"Hey! I haven't done anything with her!" Duo was horrified to think that the other men imagined they were intimate during the cold nights.
"I didn't hear anyone say you were," remarked Faelan. "I doubt you could train with her as you have if you had betrayed the emperor with his mate."
That much was true. Arora was a harsh trainer, demanding more perfection from him than even Apolo. She expected him to learn the second attack by the time they reached the battlefield along with all the other warriors she trained.
"I would never betray the emperor," stated Duo emphatically.
"None of us would or we wouldn't be here," said Faelan. He pointed ahead. "I don't remember exactly where we found you, but I think it was that way."
Duo had recognized a few landmarks on the trail and knew they were headed in the direction he had hidden the ship, so he wanted to check on it. He wanted to salvage what he could of any records in the data bank of the ship to take them back for Virinea to study. Perhaps she would have the time to go through them to find any reference to the wormhole. The Baymani had been studying space probably for as long as humans on Earth had been living in caves and carrying spears, so they had to have studied the wormhole, and Duo would bet they went through it more than a few times. Arora thought it a good idea for him to accompany Baerot and Faelan when he brought it up to her.
They could not have searched more than an hour before Faelan pointed out the trees that had been sheared off by the crashing spacecraft. So they followed the path for nearly another hour before they came to the camouflaged ship. As the two men waited outside, Duo slipped into the ship, stumbling around in the dark interior until he managed to find a crystal that flared to life and lit the control center so that he could search for anything useful. He found what appeared to be a spyglass, but it was probably high-powered and might serve as a telescope. Tossing that in his pack, he headed to the control panel, and taking off the front, he carefully removed the power crystal that had burned out and placed that in the pack as well. He would show it to Trey so he would know what he needed to power the craft. Unfortunately, other than a tablet, Duo did not find a computer that would contain the information Virinea would need. If the tablet had navigational charts, it probably had some reference to the wormhole.
After climbing back out, he secured the craft and covered it with vines again before joining Baerot who was waiting alone.
"Where did Faelan go?"
"He thought he heard a canyon beast and went to investigate?"
"Investigate?" Duo shivered. "If I heard a canyon beast, I would run in the opposite direction." He slid down on the ground, and after scrounging for something to snack on and coming up empty, he opened his pack to find some dried beetles left from the day before.
As he was pulling them out, his fingers brushed the small telescope, so he took it out and after popping a few beetles in his mouth to chew on, he studied it as he ate. When he figured out how to operate it, he flipped it on, then stood and raised it to his eye to survey the mountainside. At first he just enjoyed the scenery, pausing to study outcroppings, identifying landmarks they had passed and then he looked beyond in the direction in which they would be headed. He was able to zoom the lens to see further and he could just barely make out another group marching through the dense forest already heading down.
He swung the telescopic lens around to look in the direction Baerot had told him Faelan had gone. Seeing a canyon beast from this far away would be far preferable to the close up version he had been treated to upon landing on Calabria. Unfortunately, he was not able to find Faelan or a canyon beast in the quick scan of the area, so he turned the lens in another direction and was scanning the forest for any animals when he caught movement of the two-legged variety.
"What have we here?" he murmured to himself as he zoomed in on the men he saw moving in a direction opposite their camp. There were at least a dozen, and following the line back, he nearly dropped the telescope when he recognized the two men he had seen shortly after crash-landing, Raemon and Raenald of house Caron. For a moment, he felt panic as he imagined them killing everyone at their camp, but he calmed when he realized that they wouldn't have come out of a fight unscathed and none of the warriors were bloody.
"Did you find anything?" he heard Baerot ask and Duo thought he was speaking to him, but Faelan answered.
"A family group to the east. A male, two females and a handful of young. It is fortunate that we passed through that area yesterday or they could have given us more trouble than we can handle."
Duo waved to the two men without taking his eyes from the house Caron warriors. "There's some trouble this way too." When Baerot came to him, Duo handed him the telescope and after giving him instructions, he pointed out the direction where he had seen the Caron warriors.
For a moment, Baerot said nothing, and then he gave a startled gasp. "House Caron!"
"They came from the direction of our camp," Duo told him.
Baerot and Faelan exchanged worried glances, but Duo said, "We should follow them to find out where they are camping and how many men they have."
"I should warn Lady Arora that the house Caron warriors probably know where the camp is," suggested Baerot. "We need to set up a defense in case they return."
Faelan nodded. "Hurry."
Duo did not wait for Faelan before he took off in the direction he had seen the enemy warriors. As he dashed through the forest, leaping over logs and reaching heights that scared him, he was careful not to make noise. He could not hear Faelan behind him, but he sensed that he was there, and he did not stop to use the telescope again until he was sure they were close.
Faelan was beside him and when he was about to peer through the scope, Faelan put up his hand to stop him before crouching and moving deeper into the foliage. The warriors were passing by so close that Duo could reach out to touch them. He counted at least two dozen men before the scions of house Caron came into view.
"But they might leave on the morrow!" one of them said. "I say we take the men back now and attack them before they have a chance to move."
"I told you to shut up, Raenald. We will discuss this with father. He will know best how to proceed."
Duo glanced at Faelan whose brow was furrowed. Seeing Raemon and Raenald was bad enough, but discovering that Caron himself was somehwere in the mountains was disturbing after they had information to the contrary because it meant that Trey could not trust the information his scouts were giving him.
When the two men moved past them followed by another dozen warriors to protect their rear, Duo made to follow them. Faelan tried to stop him with a hand on his arm, but Duo shook him off and crept along parallel to the repulsive men.
They did not speak for several paces and Duo saw the glare that Raenald gave his brother's back as he walked a length behind him. Then Raenald smiled slyly although his forward facing brother did not see it. "We could have the Wasteland whore any time."
"Shut up!"
"You saw her as well as I did, cavorting in the water with that female brat. She's swollen with another of the pretender's bastards ..."
"Pretender's?" scoffed Raemon without turning to look at his brother. "That bastard is Dilan's and the pretender does himself no favor by claiming it as his own. No one believes him."
Duo's teeth ground together as he listened to him. He wanted to leap out of the bushes now to defend Arora's honor, but he would fail and only end up getting himself killed. He glanced at Faelan and saw that his gaze was hard as he glared at the progeny of house Caron.
"If we return to father, he will take the whore first and there will be nothing left. I am not going to waste my time on a corpse."
"Why not?" sneered Raemon. "You've done it often enough before."
Duo was determined that both men should be planted six feet under as soon as possible, and he sure as hell wasn't going to let Arora be taken by Lord Caron. He would sooner kill her himself before that happened, although given what he had just heard, that would not prevent Raenald from violating her.
Raenald reached out to snag Raemon's arm, stopping his brother who glared at him as if he were a loathsome creature. "Listen to me! Let us take the men back and capture them. You have always wanted Arora and now is your chance. Do you think father will let you have her?"
"What do you want from this?" demanded Raemon, licking his lips greedily as he must be thinking of what he would do once he had captured Arora. If Duo had any skill with the dagger, he could throw it at his back. Maybe Raenald would get blamed and given how despised he appeared to be, he would not be believed if he denied killing his brother.
He must have put his hand on the dagger tucked into the belt at his waist because Faelan grasped his wrist to stop him from drawing the weapon. He shook his head, but Duo had already decided it would be a foolish move.
"I want the female child. I will raise her in my household, and when she reaches an age to bear children, I will breed the Guerani bitch. You and I both know that is no pretender gathering warriors, that Trey has returned. Through her, house Caron will have a legitimate claim to the throne."
Raemon glared at his brother. "And you think father will agree to that?"
"I will let him think that I am rearing her for him. He will be pleased since we know he only enjoys them young, but before he has a chance to mate her, he will be dead."
Raemon glanced around then leaned closer to his brother. "How will you be sure of that?"
The other man did not answer him, but the look on his face made Duo think that Lord Caron's days were numbered. He was surprised that Raemon did not renounce Raenald immediately as he continued walking for several more paces before he put up his hand to stop the men.
"We are going back," he announced. "We have twice the number of the whore's warriors."
The last thing Duo saw before Faelan dragged him back was Raenald smiling smugly.
"We have to get back to warn them to leave," Faelan said urgently when they were far enough away. "Raemon is right. They will overrun us."
"We have to do something here," argued Duo, his mind whirling with possibilities. Perhaps the weapons in the ship could fire to create a distraction. Better yet, he and Faelan could just kill Raemon and Raenald. They might die doing so, but the bastards would be dead and the resulting chaos would slow down their warriors. But Duo didn't particularly want to die and the death of his sons would make Caron more determined to hunt down the imperials that had caused it.
"The best plan is to get back to camp and get off the plateau before they reach it," insisted Faelan.
"Even if we could do it, they will just follow us." Duo shook his head. "There must be something we can do here to keep them from following." He started pacing, his hands on his hips, and then suddenly an idea came to him.
He spun to look at Faelan. "How far away are the canyon beasts?"
Faelan's brows raised and then he shook his head. "No! Don't disturb them. They are far more dangerous than you can imagine."
Duo laughed nervously. "Oh, I have a pretty good idea how dangerous they can be." He grabbed Faelan's arm. "Show me where they are and I'll do the rest."
"You're going to get yourself killed," warned Faelan.
"Hey, the way I look at it, those Caron bastards are going to kill me anyway. I might have a small chance with the canyon beasts."
"Their young are big enough to eat you and still be hungry," persisted Faelan.
"Don't sweeten the pot, Faelan!" He didn't need to have what little confidence he had to be shaken. "Just take me to them."
Faelan must have realized he could not talk him out of his plan because he made an exasperated sound and turned to head in another direction. They walked swiftly for many precious minutes before the stench of the beasts told Duo that they were near.
Finally they stopped. "Any closer and they will scent us," Faelan told him. "This is your last chance to change your mind."
Duo took the pack from his back and handed it to Faelan. "Take this. Get the camp moved and I will follow the trail to find you."
Faelan put his hand on his shoulder. "May the gods guide you." When Duo didn't respond, he shook his head and then sprinted away in the direction of the camp.
Shaking his head, Duo raised his hands to the sky. "I don't believe in you guys, but if you are there, now would be a good time to try to convince me that you exist."
He snorted at his own foolishness and lowered his hands before he oriented himself to the clearing close by where he could hear the sounds the canyon beasts were making. If he put any more thought into this, he would not go through with it, so taking a deep breath, he charged forward, running through the foliage until he broke through and nearly wet himself when he saw three enormous creatures and four smaller ones feasting on carrion of various sizes. Duo was far smaller than what they were eating – he certainly did not want to meet animals that could satisfy a canyon beast's hunger – but his arrival drew their attention and suddenly he felt like the main course.
"Hey!" he shouted at the group, waving his arms as if they weren't aware of him. "You want a piece of me? You're going to have to work for it!" He didn't bother waiting to see if they were interested in his tender meat. Spinning on his heel, he began running as fast as he could and before long, the very ground beneath him began to rumble so he knew they were on his heels.
Although his first encounter with a canyon beast was with only one of the creatures and this was a group, the last time he had been starving and weak from having been in space for several weeks. He might not be as strong and nimble as an imperial warrior, but Duo had come a long way. Leaping now onto a fallen tree, he used it as a springboard to take to the air where he was able to snag a branch to propel himself even further. The canyon beasts were roaring in anger that he had evaded them, and because Duo wanted to keep them chasing him, he deftly landed on his feet and began running again, using the trees to leap and avoid them. They were so close, he would swear that he could feel their hot breath, but he managed to stay a few steps ahead of them and when they came any closer, he leapt into the trees to avoid their snapping jaws.
When they came close to where he had last seen the Caron warriors, he wasn't surprised that they were gone, but their trail was easy enough to follow. Just as he was starting to get winded, he saw them ahead, the rear guard screaming as they spotted the charging beasts. Duo managed to scamper up a tree, and while he wanted to watch the canyon beasts enjoy the meal he had provided them, he needed to get back to the camp so that he could protect Arora and Shamara. He scrambled down the tree after the last creature had barreled past, then he sprinted in the direction of the camp.
Reaching the plateau after several minutes of running, surprised that he hadn't gotten lost, he found the camp abandoned and he was relieved that they had escaped. He was able to follow the trail they left, and by the time the second sun was setting, he found them still moving swiftly.
Arora dropped the reins to both her horse and his and hurried to throw her arms around him. "You're alive!"
Shamara whimpered between them, so Duo pushed her back at arm's length to keep from crushing her. "Did you have so little faith in me?"
There were tears in Arora's eyes. "Faelan told us what you were going to do." She hit his chest with her fist and he winced from the pain. "Don't you ever do anything like that again! Shamara and I were so worried!"
Now that the flight or die experience was over, Duo was quickly losing the energy to even stand and Arora must have sensed his weariness. "I think it's safe enough to make a camp for the night," she told Baerot and Faelan who had come to see Duo.
Faelan shook his head as if he could not believe he was still alive.
Nobody expected Duo to do his duties that night although he did not let Arora get Shamara ready for sleep because her diapering abilities were abysmal and he did not want the baby to soak him during the night. He doubted a wonderful hot spring was nearby to wash in the morning.
They did not have a fire that might give away their position in case the Caron warriors were hunting them, so they sat in a large circle to listen to Duo explain what he had done. When he finished, there were muted murmurs of wonder and Baerot lamented that there was not a scribe to record the event. After Duo told the story, he wondered how he had gone through with such a hare-brained plan or how it had ended without his having become digested parts in a pile of canyon beast shit.
"Too bad we don't know if Caron's sons were eaten," remarked Faelan. "I suppose I can double back and check the scat on the morrow."
"As much as I would like to know for certain given what you have told me, I forbid you to go back, Faelan," spoke up Arora. "Lord Vaan would be very displeased if something happened to you."
He shrugged. "I just wanted to see either Raemon's or Raenald's half eaten face in a pile of shit."
Duo laughed. "I'd like to see that too."
"I think we all would," said Arora before looking at Duo. "Do you think they saw you? If they did manage to escape, they will be infuriated that you thwarted them, and by now Lord Caron is probably tearing up his camp in a rage over the warriors he must have lost."
Duo shrugged. "I think I got in the trees before I reached the Caron warriors, but the rear scout might have seen me." The rear guard had probably been the appetizer of the canyon beast feast.
She handed the baby she was holding over to him. "We should get some sleep and leave tomorrow after first sunrise. For a few days until we are sure we are in the clear, we may have to suspend training in favor of travel."
While he was changing Shamara, she was unusually docile, but he was glad because he was too tired to play with her and he was relieved that Arora had made the bed for him. When he laid down beside her, she moved close to him and put her arms around him.
"I think you saved my life today, Duo," she said softly, her voice filled with emotion. She rested her head on his shoulder. "I will always consider you family, Duo, no matter what happens or where you go."
"I could never let them hurt you, gracious lady." He turned his head to look at her. "You are the only family I have."
After a few moments, he knew she had fallen asleep by her soft sighs, but despite his exhaustion, Duo had a hard time joining her and Shamara. He stared up at the colorful moons through a break in the foliage of the trees, then turned his gaze to a dark area of the sky where he imagined the wormhole might be. As Shamara's tiny fist clutched a handful of his tunic, the solar system never seemed so far away.
