I had no memories of a home away from the mountain, though sometimes I would wake in the morning with the impression I had dreamt of somewhere warm. Those were the day I was most aware of the freezing winds as I tended to that year's harvest. My body seemed to yearn for the warmth of a land my mind had long forgotten.
Three
"Rhynne, child, 'tis time t'move again."
For a terrible moment my still sleeping mind imagined the man's voice belonged to my father, and I immediately shot up from my blanket of furs to start gathering my things for work. The face that greeted me with a mild "humph!" as I opened my eyes was Sarj's, however, and with a deep sigh of relief and pounding heart I sank back down. The realization that my life was not that which it had been the day before still sent shivers down my spine. It would be some time before I would be able to wake in the morning and not fear that man's anger.
"Oh, don' look so frightened, aye? Yer quite safe with us!" he exclaimed good-naturedly. I could only smile faintly at him. The man was such the opposite of my father that I found myself exhausted by the end of every conversation with him. The man simply had so much energy I felt like an elder trying to keep up with a youngling that had just recently found his voice.
Stretching gently I gathered my covers and wrapped them around my shoulders and face. We had traveled all of the afternoon the day before and stopped in a shallow cave that offered some shelter from the snow to rest. I was quite used to the temperature of these lands, but it had grown incredibly clear that Arrus and Sarj were not remotely so adjusted. The two were fully grown men, and yet they shook so hard in their metal boots I feared they might vibrate straight off the ground and be carried into the sky. I would never had made such a comment out loud, of course, as it would not due to tease the men that had saved my life the day before.
"We should reach the bottom of the mountain by nightfall if we continue along this path." I told them softly, gaining a tiny sigh of relief from Arrus. I had never made the journey myself, but father had always been back be the following evening whenever his dealings with our customers had called for him to go into town.
"That is pleasant news if I've ever heard it." Arrus said with a small quirk of his lips. As Arrus' facial expressions went he might as well have been grinning from ear to ear like a fool.
"Let us be gone, then! The day is young and the travelin' tedious! I shall wish for a bed tonight that is not made of stone!" Sarj boomed in his way and started untying the mules.
The rest of that day's traveling was spent in relative silence, though the winds howled like the very hounds of the Nether were fast at our heels. The mules, a loan from a farmer off the mountain pass, were almost as conditioned to the cold as I was and found little hardship in taking us down at a steady pace. I rode seated in front of Arrus, one of his gloved hands holding firmly to my side. I had not known what to make of this when he had first settled in behind me but had very quickly become grateful of his hand's steady grip once the mule started moving. Riding a mule was like riding a log down a rough current, its rough leather saddle chafing my legs even through my layers and giving little room for the two of us to share safely. Even with Arrus' help every dip of the path threatened to throw me off the animal's every moving back and down the mountainside to my death.
The day wore on as each of us kept our heads hunched against the wind while I pondered with increasing imagination what might await me at the journey's end. Where there really fields of green grass that never knew the touch of snow? What of the people that lived on them? Did they mass together in giant cities that grew so massive they had to have their own rulers under the king to keep them in check? Could the ocean, as the books in father's study suggested, really span more of the world than the land did? Would I ever be given the chance to visit what kingdoms might exist on the lands existing beyond its great expanse?
I practically quaked with excitement, but underneath it was a deeply rooted fear of the unknown. The two knights that were my companions now would surely not be around to save me every time an enemy had mind to kill me. What if I truly did die in the first wave of battle, wiry and thin as I was? If the king learned of my deceit would he have me hanged? Would my saviors be put to death just for aiding me?
"Stop that." Arrus ordered mildly, his fist coming down to strike me on the top of the head just hard enough for it to smart.
"What was that for?!" I gasped, surprise and pain coloring my tone.
"You were dwelling on unnecessary things, and I can't rightly guide a mule if your back is as tense as a plank of wood. You will not die quite yet, so stop worrying so much."
"I fear for you, too, your highness. What is to become of you should your father learn you have helped me?"
"He'll have me put on the rack, without pause for second thought, but would eventually calm down and release me again. My father, pig headed as he is, would not have his own son killed for so little."
"You speak of the rack as if it is nothing." I said with some accusation. To imagine him chained to a wall for any amount of time because of me was disconcerting.
"Only because I have been sent there before in his fury at me. It's not that bad, really. The guards are good for laugh if you can get them talking." He said with a faraway tone as if remembering it fondly. I shook my head, unable to understand anything about this odd prince.
"I said stop it." He admonished, his fist striking me a second time.
"If you don't stop that, I never will!" I cried, unable to keep my frustration from the words as I rubbed my head tenderly. The bastardly prince chuckled softly behind me, just once, but the small sound caught me by surprise. He could laugh as well it seemed. My life was full of surprises lately.
"You two have less maturity than a brother and sister and fight like'em, too! It warms my heart!" Sarj broke in for the first time. His mirthful laughter danced across the mountainside so fully I worried he might send an avalanche down upon our heads.
"Silence, old man. Nobody asked for your opinions." Arrus spoke frostily, all laughter gone. I silently cursed Sarj for breaking the prince's moment. My gut told me he did not have many of them.
"Before we go too much farther we must find a new name for you, girl. 'Rhynne' is too feminine." Sarj spoke up more seriously. The thought had yet to occur to me. Now it seemed so obvious I was ashamed to have not come to the realization before.
"What do you think of Boil? Nice and tough, isn't it?" He offered. I could hardly believe he was serious.
"What do you think of Baryon?" I said slowly, trying for a less unpleasant name.
"Rhyce suits you better." Arrus stated. I opened my mouth to object to it, and then stopped. It was not a bad name at all and close enough to my true name that I would not have trouble reacting to it if it were called over the length of a room.
"Rhyce…" I said it slowly, trying it on my lips. It would do, I thought.
"It's settled, then! Welcome to the king's army, Rhyce! You shall be a fine soldier!" Sarj exclaimed in his way, moving to slap me on the back yet again, but this time I was ready. I dodged quickly, feeling the wind of his hand pass safely through the open air beside me. Finding no insult in my avoidance he only laughed and settled more comfortably onto his mount.
Another stretch of time passed in companionable silence. Sarj's mule grunted as it sidled around a particularly large snow mound. It did not occur to me for some minutes that I had been able to hear it do so. With some shock I realized all at once that we had descended out of the wind's reach, its once overpowering shriek now only a low howl behind us. So attuned was I to its presence that in its absence suddenly everything around me was unbearably loud. The huffs and grunts of the mules as they labored invaded my ears along with the deep panting of the larger knight. Every clink of metal and swoosh of the saddle bags became so noticeable that soon I found myself burying my head inside my furs in an attempt to block them out.
"Are you alright?" Arrus asked after an hour had passed with my head hidden. The sun was on its silent descent down the westward horizon by then.
"Yes," I answered through the wrappings, "I just like my ears to be warm."
"You're lying, farm maiden." He accused as his hand squeezed my side uncomfortably tight.
"Are you to force it from me, then?" I challenged.
"You admit your lie, then? I just might." Was his answer, his fist lifting to threaten another strike against my skull.
"Everything is too loud without the winds."
Admitting that I missed even a small part of my old home was shameful, especially that which had been one of my most hated enemies before.
"Should I box your ears? Perhaps the swelling will keep the sounds at bay."
"No! No, I'll come out!" I said quickly, willing to suffer anything to keep him from striking me again. Pulling my head out I turned a little and offered him a surrendering smile. His answering nod of approval was enough to understand he would not hit me again unless he deemed it necessary.
"You must get used to the winds not being there. Where we are going there are little of them, but there will be quite a bit of noise from every direction. You should use this time away from the worst of it to your advantage."
He was actually scolding and instructing me as one would a child! Huffing to myself, I held on more tightly to the saddle and straightened my back proudly. To be spoken to in such a way brought out a defiant side of me I did not much know what to think of.
"Leave the girl be, boy! She will adjust in time." Sarj admonished his younger companion, earning a scowl for his efforts. I nodded in appreciation.
The air began slowly growing warmer as we descended, though I had not started noticing the shift quite yet, and I found myself growing tired. As the cold gradually started leaving my bones a relaxed drowsiness settled in in its passing. Stifling a yawn, I allowed myself to settle more comfortably in my seat. Soon, though I fought valiantly against them for several minutes, I found my eyelids were too heavy for my exhausted strength to bear, and I eventually fell into a light doze.
I dreamt of my mother.
I had very few memories of her, and those that I did have were blurry and warped. Her tender smile following me as I tottered across the floor on little legs shown the most brightly in my mind's eye. I dreamt of that smile nodding at me from a face devoid of any other features as I tried to explain that father had passed on, that I was leaving our old home behind. Warm, slender hands wrapped around my own as she murmured something soothing into my hair. Unable to comprehend, I simply stared at her smiling mouth as it moved, transfixed by it. She used to sing to me, I recalled, and suddenly my dream was filled with a shifting melody. The words were long gone even from my unconscious memories, and I found that to be destructively saddening.
Without warning a shadow fell over mother's face. Father stood behind her now, his hands reaching for her throat. I grasped her hands in my own, trying to warn her of the danger, but she did not hear or did not care and only continued smiling serenely at me. I screamed, desperate to stop my father from doing what I knew would end her life, but my cry stuck in my throat. Her hands were then ripped from mine, her mouth opening in an "O" of shock as my father's closed around her. The melody of my dream grew sour, its gentle notes falling flat and finally stuttering to a halt.
Helplessly, hopelessly, I cried out one last time as the life drained from her featureless face.
"Rhynne! Wake up!" Arrus' frustrated voice struck me from my nightmare, his hands shaking me in my seat.
Wordlessly I turned to him and touched his face with one trembling hand. He stiffened, his eyes fixing to mind in confusion. I only smiled and pulled my hand away before turning back around. He could never understand what he had done by killing my father.
He could never understand how late it had come.
The sight before me knocked my grim nightmare straight from my head. With a gap I pulled our mule to a stop and slid from the saddle. Before me was a farm, and this was not the sort of farm that man and I had shared, but a true farm. Rows of corn waved in the cool breeze, and the muddy trail on which I stood was totally devoid of snow. Shock still rendering me speechless, I turned and looked behind us only to find that it had been some miles since there had been snow on the ground and that the sun was only an hour from setting. With a small cry I threw myself back around and forward, running with full abandon into the tall corn stalks. The smells of dirt, the rough texture of the stalks and their growths; all of it invaded my senses almost painfully. I laughed in joy.
"What on this earth is gotten into your boy?" The farmer asked the knights as they rode up to where he stood harvesting red tomatoes.
"He has spent a lifetime on the mountain." Sarj answered, his voice grim as he watched me roll around in the dirt. I did not even hear them so wrapped up was I in my explorations.
"Shall we go, Rhyce?" Sarj called with a twinkle in his blue eyes. I nodded up at his giant face, made to look even larger because of his ridiculous facial choice in hair. I would forever hold that opinion to myself.
"Yes!" I answered gleefully. Cool sweat running down the back of my neck suddenly called to my attention the fact that I was stifling under my many layers. The mountain cold was gone, replaced with a steady warmth I could hardly imagine could be possible. At the sudden understanding I began unwrapping my furs from my shoulders without pausing to think. Layers peeled off of me as if I were some great onion being shed for cutting until there were only two left. I marveled at the sweat causing the undermost layer to stick to my skin.
It was ghastly uncomfortable.
"You may have these if you like, sir." I offered the farmer, who was still staring at me as if I might grow a third eye, and held up the furs. He accepted them with a tight nod and then took a quick step back. Even fear of my apparent madness could not stop him from taking what would fetch him good money at the market. Smiling at him in what I hoped was a placating way I stored my remaining layers of ruined cloth in an empty pack and pulled myself back onto Arrus' mule.
"You had a nightmare before, didn't you?" He asked me softly as we began to move again. He, too, had removed his furs and left them behind with the farmer with my permission. Sarj had decided to keep his and draped them across his mule's rear end. The sudden vision of my mother's eyeless face twisting in shock made me stutter.
"It was nothing, truly…" I murmured, trying to make it clear I did not want to speak of it. The prince was silent for a time. After several minutes I dared look back and found him to be looking down at me patiently. Clearly he still wanted the answer, but was polite enough wait for me. I wilted under his expressionless gaze and gave in.
"It was about my mother… She died of illness what I was a small child." I finally explained. It had been father's fault. His cruelty had been a poison on her soft heart. He had used her as he had used me, and it had eventually been her undoing. Even as a toddler I could remember watching it happen but had been too small and powerless to stop it.
"You will learn that there are some thing you should not keep inside of yourself, Rhynne." He said with some kindness. "In the army the men you will train with will be able to spot your weaknesses if you try and hide them. It is best to let them fuel you into working harder instead of letting them fester into something that will hinder you."
"Yer lecturin' again, prince." Sarj pointed out with a chuckle of amusement. I could feel Arrus' disapproving glare even without seeing it. The older man was smart enough not to say anything else on the matter. Personally I was grateful for the prince's advice. There had never been anyone to give me any before, and I committed his words to memory.
"We should stop for the night." Arrus said with finality.
The mountain was only about a mile away, and I had wanted to keep going until it was long out of sight, but that was not my choice to make. These knights had traveled far to gather a lone boy, and it was not my place to make demands. Still, I hoped that the nearest inn was far from here even if I could not say so out loud.
"I agree." Sarj rumbled, scratching his bald head.
"The lodge is two hours from here. We will make it not long after dark." Arrus stated to no one in particular as he spurred his mule a little faster
Half an hour later we came upon a second farm, this one with a large stable of both horses and mules. In the farthest were the knight's horses, brushed and gleaming. Clearly, these were war horses reared to go into battle. The thought of leaving the mule for these animals that stood above my head and rippled with muscle caused my stomach to twist in anxiety.
"Relax, they're nothin' but sweethearts once yeh get to know'em!" The farmhand called out as he came to greet us in the dying light of the evening. I shook my head at the idea of getting onto one of them.
"You'll be fine." Arrus admonished, pulling me none too gently from the mule's saddle. I stared at him venomously as he and Sarj removed the saddlebags from their mounts and placed them onto the war horses. A few silver crowns were given to the farmhand for the use of the mules, and then I was suddenly grabbed from behind.
"Eep!" I squeaked, embarrassingly sounding every bit the female I was. Arrus hardly noticed as he lifted me by the hips onto the new mount. Rather unceremoniously I was settled like a sack of potatoes onto the larger saddle of a black mustang. The horse grunted and shifted his feet, clearly displeased with the idea of carrying two people rather than the usual one. Nervously, I scratched behind its ear in an attempt to calm it. The horse rolled one large eye up to regard me silently, and I returned the stare in an attempt to appear as if I knew what I was doing. After a long moment it let out a snort and turned back, apparently having decided that I was not worth its time.
"His name is Midnight." Arrus offered as he hoisted himself up and settled in behind me. I nodded my thanks and pated the horse's neck gently.
"I'm new to this, sir Midnight, but I hope you can grow to like me. I would be friends, if you'll allow it." I whispered softly into the horse's ear. He only grunted again and shook his head. I hoped that was an agreement.
The ride was hard to take at first. Arrus urged the stronger mount into a canter the moment we were back on the road, which threatened to throw me off with every passing moment. Once again I found myself grateful of the prince's steady and at my side keeping me still.
The inn took less time to reach than they had predicted. The sun had only been below the horizon for half an hour when they spotted the lodge's door lantern swinging in the distance. In another minute we were upon it, and the keeper came out to greet us.
"Welcome back, sir knights!" The greasy man enthused, eyeing their purses shamelessly, "I will have a room ready for you and your new company in just moments! Why don't you eat in the mean time? Supper should still be warm! Only two silver crowns apiece for the night and meal!"
"I recall it was one silver crown when we stopped here the first time." Sarj said deeply, his hand alighting onto the top of his broadsword. The keeper gulped visibly.
"Of-of course, how forgetful of me!" He hedged. Pouting softly, the little man held out his hand and accepted the three silver coins.
"Come, let us eat something that isn't goat cheese and tough bread." Arrus said and got down from his horse. It was an easy job for him to help me off behind him, and once we had Midnight and the other horse, Dove, properly stabled we made our way inside.
The inn was full of boisterous men and busy as a beehive with activity. Maid ran everywhere giving out tankards of drinks and platters of food. I turned at the sound of someone sputtering in time to watch an angry man wipe mead from his face. He had apparently tried to grab the maid giving him his supper and been humiliated soundly for it. His companions laughed uproariously at his dripping predicament.
"Can we eat in our room?" I called over the noise as a headache began forming behind my eyes.
"I was about to suggest the same thing." Arrus breathed in my ear, not wishing to yell as I had. Sarj shook his head.
"You two go as yeh will! I'm going to stay behind and enjoy this lot!" He boomed, gaining surprised glances from several of the closer men. We nodded at him in acknowledgement and headed upstairs after stopping a maid and giving our request for the meal to be brought upstairs.
The inn keeper showed us to our room, opening the door with an exaggerated flourish and earned a shiny copper for his efforts. He thanked us a little too brightly and left the room in a rush.
"That man would sell his own mother without a moment of pause if the price was right." Arrus remarked darkly as the door swung closed behind him. I nodded emphatically.
A few moments later a knock at the door sounded. I opened it to find two maids laden with soup, bread, drink, and an entire pig's haunch. I hurried to let them in and relieve them of their burden. Once they had finished they were given a shiny copper each before they left. I had no idea what a copper would buy but the young girls, younger even than I, were delighted at their gifts and ran away as if they might be taken back at any moment.
"Eat." Arrus demanded, and I had no trouble complying. Without hesitation I started after the ham, my hunger throwing my manners out of the window to die. Between bites of meat I swigged mead, coughing only a little at its sweet burn. I had never been allowed to drink before and soon found myself dizzy in the head. I continued drinking even when my stomach grew nearly full and found my eyes exploring the room and the man sitting beside me. Chewing thoughtfully on a mouthful of bread, I noticed that the prince had a mole beneath his left ear. Without pausing to think I reached up and poked it.
The prince, not expecting the sudden intrusion of his space, jumped nearly out of his armor. It then seemed to dawn on him that he was still wearing it. Placing his plate beside him on the bed he stood.
"Help me out of this, will you?" He asked, indicating the heavy plates of metal. I nodded a little too hard and had to hold my head until the world was still again. Really the mead was very good, I had decided.
Silently he began pointing at the ties under each section of plating that held the armor in place. It took some time for my mead slowed fingers to obey me in untying them, but I managed to succeed every time. First went the shoulder plates, then his front and back pieces. Then here came the hardest part. His chain mail. A single layer of iron rings welded together into a sort of tunic weighed him down. It took us both to haul it off of him, but after several moment of grunting and pulling we did it. Beneath his chain mail he wore nothing but a thin tunic, the fabric tight to his skin with the sweat of getting the heavy outerwear off.
Perhaps it was the three flagons of mead in my system, but I found that I could not look away from the numerous muscles of his stomach as they rippled under his clothing. The prince was incredibly built, no doubt from years of training and hard battle. A scar peeked out from under his sleeve. Without conscious permission my fingers lifted and touched its pale pink surface. Arrus stiffened, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion.
"Did it hurt very much..?" I asked softly, tracing my index finger up the old wound. Gooseflesh grew on the living skin around it, but I took little notice.
"Yes." He answered slowly, then said, "You should sleep, Rhynne. There is a long day of riding ahead of us."
"Mm." I agreed, my eyes immediately growing heavy at the mention of sleep, and I pulled my hand away. The prince seemed to almost visibly relax.
Smiling a goodnight to my companion, I gathered the topmost covering from the bed and curled up on the floor. It was not much harder than the bed I was used to back at the farm, and I certainly could not share the bed with any of those men I told myself. Giggling like a child at the idea, I quickly drifted into the sort of deep, sleep that could only be brought on by too much alcohol. For a silly moment I thought I felt a rough hand brush my hair from my face, but I was far too gone by then to care or remember.