Chapter 25:
Departure and Arrival
Hours later Lia was fully awake, dressed and Erikk had tried many times to convince her to wear armor. Lia wouldn't have it; this was fencing not tilting. You didn't have to wear armor in fencing. You wore padding, which she was. Erikk was looking at her worriedly.
"What?" she asked exasperated.
"Mercutio's good." He said finally.
"And?"
"It's been a long time since you fenced against some one other than myself." He said slowly.
"And?"
"Are you sure you're not rusty?"
"Yes. Can I go now?" She asked, slightly annoyed that he thought she couldn't handle this.
"Yes, we should be going." He said reluctantly, leading his seething squire to the fencing yard.
Mercutio wasn't there when the two got here, so Lia stretched. Erikk paced. The judges chatted as they waited for Mercutio. Erikk was very nervous; he couldn't let anything happen to her,
He walked in. He was young; had short, blonde hair; blue eyes; and what Lia immediately realized as a whippy sword. After he walked in a rather large group of noble ladies walked in, trying not to be noticed. That was rather hard since their eyes were glued to Mercutio and they fell over giggling every two seconds. Lia rolled her eyes.
"Are you ready?" He yelled, in what she supposed was to be a gallant voice. Lia rolled her eyes
"Yes." She said watching his cocky movements with amusement.
"Then guard." He said walking up to the center and drawing his sword in a poised fashion. Lia rolled her eyes and stepped up in front of him. They both whispered guard at the same time.
Merrcutio attacked first. Playing with her, attacking and then defending. A very good battle plan, but it would not win the war. While he was defending Lia intentionally fell over onto her back, she was bored with him. He thought that she couldn't do anything and she would prove him wrong. He stabbed the ground next to her while she rolled. His sword caught in the dirt and Lia jumped up and place her sword at the base of his neck.
Lia smiled as his jaw dropped. She then walked away as the announcer proclaimed her the winner. Erikk was grinning madly as she walked with deliberate slowness back to him.
"You won." He said excitedly
"He was overconfident, and an idiot." She said evilly.
"Uh huh, just don't get cocky; your archery is still horrible." He said grinning.
~~:~~
The next few weeks Lia was challenged more often, mostly by overconfident squires and old conservatives. She worked on her archery often, improving very slightly over the weeks. Sometimes she actually hit small game, but she used dulled arrows so they just bounced off the critter.
The immortal attacks continued as they reached the southern most point of Carthak. When twelve villagers were killed, Lia went and started packing her bags. This would stop, she would see to that.
"So you're just going to leave and not tell anyone?" Erikk asked from a dark corner of her tent.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because people are dying, I can stop it. I have to. No one will even notice that I'm gone." She said as she threw weapons into her bag.
"You know I have to go to right?" he said as he too began packing his bags.
"No you don't. I'm halfway through my squiredom. I can take care of Melodius myself," She said stubbornly.
"Two and a half." He said.
"What?"
"You're two and a half years through your squirehood. Almost three. And I know you can take care of Melodius, but who's going to take care of you?" He asked. Lia blushed. She knew killing Melodius would almost kill her. She hadn't thought about it much.
"You don't have to come." She said softly. Erikk sighed and lifted her chin so she was looking him straight in the eyes.
"I want to." He said his voice just as soft. Lia nodded.
"Then let's go." She said. Erikk nodded.
The two softly ran across the camp. Silently they saddled up their horses and walked them to the south end of the camp. They looked over the desert.
"Still want to do this?" He asked.
"Yeah." She said as she mounted. Erikk nodded and watched as Lia kicked her horse into a gallop. He followed suit.
They rode for three days, stopping only when the horses coldn't run anymore. Even the horses sensed the need for urgency and ran as fast and hard as they could. Their trail lead steadily south, easy enough for anyone to find had they been looking for them. But Lia was right; no one came looking for them. Knights and squires disappeared during progress, always returning for more of the torture in a week or so.
Lia spent the breaks studying the map she and Maria had made all those years ago. She understood it more now than she had before and guessed they were a third of the way there.
Villages had become more frequent but now Lia decided they needed to go into one. She needed to gather information about Melodious from them, so the next day, they rode slower, chatting with farmers on their way to the fields. Lia was slowly introducing their topic of the emerald forest but not getting much on the topic. The locals seemed to freeze up and excuse themselves whenever it was brought up.
"We are never going to find it." Lia moaned.
"Yes we will." Erikk said soothingly, he had been doing that a lot lately. "Look here comes a woman now." He said as she walked by he put on his most charming smile. "Good day madam. How are you?" he asked, voice sugar sweet. I wish he'd talk to me like that. She thought before screaming 'No I don't' in her head a million times.
"G'day to you." she said before spotting Lia. "Why sir," she said quietly. "Your wife is dressed inappropriately. The officials will take her away to the Lords castle." She said.
"They'll arrest her for dressing that way?" he asked shocked. The woman nodded her plump head.
"Yes, they will think her a whore and well, the Lord likes younger women." She said in a rush. "I must go." She said before scurrying away.
"Um." Erikk said looking at Lia. "You might want to change. Because, um."
"I'll change." Lia said grumpily, pulling a dress out of her saddlebags and dismounting.
Mumbling to herself about the idiocies of men, she pulled the dress over her head. She was glad she had brought one, she had almost decided not to. The dress was purple and laced up corset type in the front. "Purple is not my color." She mumbled. It took her a good five minutes to get the dress on correctly, she could hardly breathe; loosening the stays did no good because she then fell out the front. She finally decided that if she didn't take to deep a breath she would be fine. Mounting back up Erikk looked at her.
"Are you okay?" He asked. "You look pale."
"I'm fine, just can't breathe."
"Oh that. We're almost to a city; we can get you another dress there." He said.
"Perfect." She gasped.
The city was small but still had an inn and a dressmaker. Erikk pulled into the inn's courtyard and helped Lia dismount like a proper lady.
"When we get back remind me to thank my parents for all the years of manners lessons." She muttered to Erikk.
"Will do," He said smiling. They walked into the inn arm in arm, smiling and laughing together.
"One room?" The innkeeper asked as he grabbed a key.
"How much?" Erikk asked as he pulled out his moneybag.
"One silver noble."
"Here you are then." Erikk said brightly.
"Number eight." the innkeeper said as the couple walked down the hall to their rooms.
They were staying in a simple room with a bed, table and dresser, a large window opened to reveal they were above the courtyard. Lia flopped backwards onto his bed trying to make it easier to breathe; it helped, sort of.
"Ready?" Erikk asked looking at Lia's sprawled form.
"Yeah, help me up." She said holding out her arms, Erikk pulled, and Lia gasped. Standing on her feet the room spun and then settled. "Let's go." She said; Erikk held out his arm and Lia took it. The two walked stately through the common room and back out into the blaring heat. The two chatted about the weather as they crossed the street. Smiling they walked into the dressmakers.
"Hello." Erikk said politely as the dressmaker walked up to him. "My wife needs a new traveling dress, something simple. We leave again tomorrow so it would be helpful if you already had something put together you could just alter." He said in a rush.
"Alright sir, right this way miss." She said as she led her to the back of the store. The woman didn't speak to her at all, as she took her measurements. The woman disappeared again and came back with a light blue skirt and a white shirt with a bodice in the same light blue.
"Try this on ma'am." She said handing Lia the dress and then exiting the room again.
Lia sighed and pulled on the clothing. Looking in the mirror, she decided that it fit fine and was just going to take with out having it adjusted.
Exiting the room, she saw Erikk looking out of the window and the woman walking towards him silently with a knife. Lia yelled a warning to him and looked for something hard.
Erikk turned around and dodged the woman's calculating attack. He grabbed her wrist, causing her to drop the knife. She glared at him before disappearing into a green mist.
Erikk glared at the spot she'd disappeared from "Let's go." He said. She nodded and followed him out the door. The two ran across the street and into the inn. They grabbed the saddlebags and walked out the back way. Saddling the horses, they fled from the city. They fled the power of Melodius and were running straight at its source.
Hours later, they rode into a forest; Lia didn't recognize its obvious symbolic meaning and kept riding. Erikk smiled and rode after her. They didn't stop until early morning when the horses were too tired to keep going. Erikk set up a small camp while Lia examined her map.
"Any clue as to where we are?" She asked.
"Look around you." He said smiling. She looked up, then around and her eyes grew huge. She looked at Erikk accusingly.
"How long have we been in here?" She asked. "And why didn't you tell me?"
"To answer your first question about five hours. To your second we haven't stopped long enough to form a sentence." He said. Lia's mouth formed a neat O. She quickly looked at her map.
"That puts us four days from Melodius' castle!" She said gleefully. Erikk's heart sank. He needed more time, he wasn't ready for his girl to go off and finish her destiny. He knew she would do the last leg herself; he had been told so before. He just wasn't ready. "Do you want me to cook?" She asked.
"Sure." He said smiling uncertainly. She pulled out two packets of dried herbs and dumped them into their pot with some water. She set it on the fire to boil. She pulled out a wooden spoon to stir it with. She looked at Erikk who was oddly silent.
"What's wrong?" She asked him, watching his face as he tried to look happy.
"Nothing," He said. Lia looked at him. Erikk looked back.
"I don't believe you." Lia said bluntly.
"I know." He said smiling.
"So are you going to tell me?"
"No." He said simply. Lia nodded and stirred the soup.
~~:~~
That night it rained, poured really. Lia awoke to freezing rain coursing over her body. She could hardly see through it. The fire was no more than a smoldering blob.
"Erikk!" She yelled. "Erikk!" She couldn't see him. She couldn't see anything.
"Lia! Li?" He yelled through the rain.
"Erikk!" She said as she crawled around the blob that had once been a fire to where Erikk had been sleeping. "Erikk?" She yelled again. She stumbled on his feet and landed in the mud. He pulled her under a tree by her waist.
"Get lost?" He asked.
"Only a little." She said smiling. They were drier an underneath the big tree leaves. "When do you think this will be over?" She asked him.
"I don't know." He said. "We might not be able to leave early." He said slowly.
"Hmm, well I suppose there's nothing we can do about it." she said slowly. "So what do we need to talk about?" She asked. Erikk smiled.
"Is there something you think we need to talk about?" He asked.
"I think there is, but I'm not sure what." She said. Smiling she looked at the tree's were a tiny squirrel was trying to get through the rain. "Do you see that squirrel?" She asked. He nodded. "It's so small, trying to get through a big storm. And sometimes, that's the way I feel, but then you're there making sure I don't mess things up, making sure I don't run off to kill off evil, overgrown lizards prematurely. So thank you." She said looking at him. "I don't think I've ever said thanks to you before, so thank you." She said smiling. He looked at her surprised.
"You're welcome, but I don't mind, really Li, my life wouldn't be half as interesting without you. So thank you for keeping my life interesting." He said smiling.
"Your'e welcome, but you know I never would have made it to third year if you and yours had never stood up for me. Ya know; ya make a good girl." she said smiling. He poked her arm.
"I thought you were done teasing me about that." He moaned.
"Never." she said smiling. "But thank you."
"You're welcome, I think." He said smiling. "You remember that time..." He said smiling. The two went on like that all morning: Smiling and laughing, reminiscing about old times. Not thinking at all about what was to come, spending time together; and when the storm stopped, the two rode south again, and they were relaxed and chatty, not worrying too much about Melodius.
Late the next afternoon a haze of light started shining at the base of the horizon, not very much, but enough that Lia stared at it in shock. It was sunlight, coming through at the bottom of the forest. Not too much sunlight came through the thick emerald tree leaves, just enough to see by.
"We've reached the edge of the forest." Lia said slowly. Erikk looked at her.
"Wasn't it supposed to take another couple days?" He asked.
"Yes, remember how bad I was at drawing maps to scale though?" She asked him
"Oh Li, you drew it?" he asked her.
"Yeah."
"That explains it." He said smiling.
"Hey, not all of us are perfect like you okay?" She said in mock anger. He puffed out his chest.
"I know, but I do expect you to try." He said. They slipped into silence as they rode onto a sandy beach. A wooden pier stretched out a fair distance into black waters. Lia looked at Erikk.
"This is it." She said. Erikk nodded and started to make camp. He set up a tent with their bedrolls in it and a small campfire. He watched as she stared out into the sea; she pointed.
"There, do you see it, that tiny emerald light in the horizon? That's it." She said. Erikk looked at her.
"Li?" He asked attentively. She turned to look at him. "How do you know all this? You drew the map, recognized road markers, and now you've led us to this spot, directly in front of her lair. How did you know?" she looked at him sadly.
"I had visions, I saw all these places, I've seen Melodius. I've even seen her kill the people I love. Every time she has her people attack the villages I see it; it's like I'm there, seeing it with every one else. One of the first things I saw was a long, steady vision of the map I drew. I think you were there." She said Erikk looked at her.
"I remember that, I thought I was dreaming." He said slowly. "C'mere, you're going to sleep now." He said pulling her down next to him. She snuggled down next to his chest and fell asleep for a while.
