"Are you sure you know where we are going?" I asked for what must have been the hundredth time as we cut our way through a patch of thorny bushes.
"We are going east. It is not that hard to go in a single direction." I frowned. Without the ability to see the sun though the thick treetops, I was doubtful. Perhaps it is just the fact than my sense of direction is worse than a blind rabbit, but it did not seem like we were going straight. But every evening without fail, there would be vague glimpses of a sky colored red and orange ahead of us and I would know that we were indeed going east.
Except for brief stilted conversations, our journey was almost entirely silent. Brom had changed greatly with the passing of Saphira. Before he had had an almost childlike attitude, and had been happy. Now, a frown featured permanently on his face, and his eyes, more often than not, were haunted with pain and shimmered with withheld tears. I did not bother speaking after a while. The only replies I got were in the form of a word or brief sentence and were always accompanied with an annoyed scowl.
I was exceedingly grateful for the leather boots I had fashioned myself while we were on Doru Araeba. Without them, I had no doubts that I would be barefoot and my feet raw after the paths, or lack of, that we used to travel. As it was, my feet were covered in painful blisters no matter how often I healed them with magic.
I counted ten nights and eleven days of unending travel before anything eventful happened. I woke up, and Brom was gone. There was no note, nothing to tell me where he had left to go or when he would be back. I waited for the entire day waiting, and then lingered for several more, hoping he would return, but finally I accepted that he was gone. He filled my thoughts as I wondered what had happened. Had he decided to abandon me, thinking he would be better off on his own, or had he simply wandered off, stumbling into a situation he could not handle. Perhaps he was lying dead or injured at the bottom of a cliff, not having seen it in the dark.
—It was only at our next meeting, years later, that I had discovered the truth of what had happened. Brom had seen Morzan's dragon flying above the Spine, and in his single-minded determination, he had set out after his dragon's killer, leaving me behind.—
Alone in the Spine, a place I had never before seen, I continued to walk in the direction I believed to be east. At the beginning of each day, I would wait for the colored sky of sunrise to tell me if I was continuing on the right path. More often than not, I was turned around, or traveling more in a northerly direction than east, but after nearly two weeks, I realized I had reached the mountainous region of the Spine, having fought my way through the thick forested borderland.
Having flown over the Spine on the way to Doru Araeba, I knew just how large they were. No doubt it would take me months or even a year to make my way to the other side. Even worse, there were tales of animals and monsters living on the slopes that were remnants of the time before even the elves had ventured to Alagaesia. In the old elven legends there were tales of monsters and the fights against them. I knew for a fact there still lived mammoth sea monsters in the sea to the west of Alagaesia. Monsters with the size and strength to rival dragons, but despite everything, I had no desire to live my life secluded in the barren forests of the Spine. I longer for human company, an urge only magnified by Brom's abandonment of me.
That was how I found myself walking a deep canyon of an old dried up river bed. The river had snaked it way to the coastline it seemed, and I had found a collapsed portion and had climbed down, knowing that I had a much better chance on flatter ground, protected from the worst of the cold mountain winds. The canyon most likely took the flattest ground, something I was thankful for. With magic I was able to get all the water I needed, and what magic couldn't get, boiled snow was always an option. Countless small animals had made their homes in the canyon which, come summer, must be full of plant life.
The old canyon seemed to twist and turn as it made its way east. The walls of the canyon loomed around a two hundred feet overhead though the canyon itself was often only around thirty feet across. Fifteen and a half days passed as I slowly walked through the canyon which, thankfully, continued on a path mostly east. I could still see the rise of mountains on either side of me, but I hoped that eventually that would end. I ate whatever came across my path, numbed to the killing of small creatures. My hands seemed frozen and my feet numb. Without magic to weak like a thick cloak, there is no doubt in my mind I would have frozen to death, the chill from the wintery mountains seeping down into the canyon. It was a boring and tedious journey.
And then, something happened that could have only happened to me.
It was near evening, and I was preparing dinner on the edge of a cliff when I heard a noise from down in the rift. For a while I was confused at the deep rumbling before my stomach clenched in fear. It was the noise of a rock fall, and a large one by the sound of it. It had come from behind me, around the bend. After a brief hesitation, I walked a hundred yards to see around the bend and my eyes widened. A practically vertical wall of rocks blocked my path. After looking at it a while and deeming it unsafe to climb, I continued on my path eastward, hoping the rock fall was just a random event unlikely of repeating itself.
As I continued forward, I began to hear a different sound. It was a sound alien to the wilderness of the Spine. Metal. I felt as if I had fallen into an icy river. My hands trembled and I stood still, pressed against the wall and entirely unsure of what to do next. Before I could decide, I saw rank after rank of weapon bearing men, wearing the traitor rider's sigil, walking down the canyon. Before they say me I turned and ran toward the rock wall, looking up to determine if I could climb it.
And then, my already abysmal luck sunk to a new low. From the edges of the canyon, now around a hundred feet high, I could see the shapes of huge beast like figures. Urgals. And if my eyes didn't deceive me, kull.
Understanding dawned in my mind, but it was neither welcome nor pleasant. If my suspicions were correct, as they usually are and proved once again to be, I was trapped in the middle of an ambush of Galbatorix's soldiers by urgals.
—Any other time, I would have found it extremely amusing that the best of the best soldiers of Alagaesia, not only having gotten utterly lost in the Spine, had been outsmarted by a band of urgals and walked into an ambush, but, having also been trapped in said ambush, I utterly failed to find any amusement.
I heard the sound of another patch of wall being collapsed somewhere east of me in the canyon, most likely trapping the soldiers in the canyon to be killed or starved as the ambushers wished. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, my mind racing as I considered what to do. I could talk to the soldiers and pose as a sort of medicine woman. After all, there were stories of such women living deep in the Spine. They featured most in children's stories and legends. But, if I became friendly with the soldiers, if I did manage to come up with some way to escape, the chance that the urgals would kill me, a good probability, would increase drastically for consorting with their enemy. Not for the first time, I cursed fate and chance. Surely my life was some sort of twisted game to them if my situation at the moment was even possible.
So there I was, trapped in a thirty foot wide, hundred feet deep dried up canyon. A wall of unscaleable rock was to my back, and I faced an army thousands of men strong. That was bad enough, but then the addition of the urgals, who had began throwing flaming branches into the gap. No, not branches. I noted detachedly. Not branches. Trees. Flaming trees.
Screams echoed eerily through the canyon as men were crushed and burned by the trees. Archers had begun to shoot arrows upward toward the urgals, but it was a hopeless cause. Boulders followed along with volleys of spears and arrows. An arrow crashed into the wall beside my head and I cringed, erecting stronger wards around myself.
I felt something, a human sized boulder, land only feet from me and I took a breath. I needed to get out. I would die if I didn't. I recalled once that I had seen a rider fly without their dragon, but after a moment of consideration, I dismissed the idea. To lift myself, I would have to push off the ground. The higher I got, the more energy it would take. It was far beyond my level to do such spell work. A sudden solution came into my mind. It was hopelessly complicated and likely impossible, but from my position, I had nothing to lose. I doubt anyone has ever done what I was about to try ever before, but I knew the theory was all there. The energy I had; it was not too much.
Before I could talk myself out of what I was about to do. I closed my eyes, focusing all my concentration into not being in the canyon. I focused on the spell used to move objects instantaneously and opened my magic. Immediately, I felt myself gone, trapped in a cold nothingness. In panic, I tried to draw a breath and failed. There was no air. I could feel no ground, nothing.
In utter darkness, I screamed, hearing no sound. As I passed out from the lack of air to breath, I saw a sudden bright light. Then I knew no more.
I woke up, to my surprise, in the sparse trees overlooking the canyon. As soon as I forced myself standing, I realized with a start that I was surrounded by urgals, weapons drawn. The magic had exhausted me and I was in no condition to fight. Resisting the urge to slap myself on the forehead, I realized belatedly that perhaps I should have focused on arriving on the non-urgal filled side of the canyon.
Having no other option, I drew my swords and set them on the ground before me, raising my hands in surrender and hoping for the best. With a harsh sounding command, I found myself cast to the ground, my hands being bound behind me. At first, I was grateful. It was only a second later that I realized that maybe being a prisoner of the urgals could be worse than death.
So there you have it. I know it was long in coming, but it is finally here. I promise that the next will be quicker. And, as always, I am open to suggestion as to what happens in this story. If you have a good idea, share it with me. As it is, I just completely changed this part of the story from my plans. So who knows what will happen next. I honestly haven't quite decided. Tell me what you think.