71

Chapter 17

Only an hour after that, Stone and I reach the main path. This is the path used mostly only by Predators, but sometimes by their prey. I hate to think of it, but Beast's probably have used it too.
It stretches from the forest on the edge of the shelter, and goes for miles upon miles, until it reaches the mountains. No one knows if it ends there, or simply continues on and on, until it reaches the ocean, and goes on even then, under the leagues of water, until it reaches the other side of the Wold, after traversing the entire planet.
Only occasionally is the route ever used by the folk who live freely in the Wold, unable to enter the City, the Underworld, or even the Shelter, like me. Or, so I thought.
I hadn't even known so many people lived in the Wold. I guess I'm not all alone after all. I did notice none of the other people had brands on their necks. I am marked.
Me and Stone emerged onto the open road, a clear path wide enough for three very fat people to march side by side. I knew from experience that though the road was nice and clear right now, there were spots where one person could just barely squeeze through, even then bloodying up their stomach and back in doing so.
Marching down the road, every ten feet or so, was a group, or cluster, of people. Me and Stone had no trouble joining the flow, as long as we keep our heads down and shuffle. Somehow, I feel that everyone has the same destination in mind- the mountains, the rebels. Suddenly, I don't think it's such a crazy idea after all.
I feel uncomfortable being around so many people, but it's not like the marketplace- Here, everyone keeps to themselves, and we all trudge along at a steady rate. Plus, all the families keep a good, safe, distrustful distance from each other, so I don't feel crowded in.
It's quiet, but not silent. A low humming fills the air, as separate groups murmur among themselves, but I can't make out what they're saying. For a couple, that's because they're not speaking with what I call words, more like a low, gurgling hiss, like the group two behind us, a man and what I think might be a woman, both with long, stringy green hair that falls to their knees, blocking their faces.
"I take it you weren't the only one to know about the rebels...?" I say to Stone, muttering for some reason. It wouldn't really matter if anyone heard, but I know if I talk any louder, it might attract unwanted attention.
"It's posted in every Wold trading post, and it's not exactly a secret. I'm amazed fa-" He coughs suddenly, but I frown at how fake it sounds. He carries on as if nothing happened. "I'm amazed the Rulers haven't sent out an army to crush anything that might be there."
Suddenly I have a horrifying thought. What if they had sent out someone, and any alliance that had been gathering had been flattened?! All these people, refugees, seeking sanctuary from the Order and the Beasts, which they were trapped between, all of them, they were heading towards their doom! Or worse, what if the troops that had killed the rebels had stayed in the mountains, and were now capturing and slaughtering everybody who arrived!
I can't stand it, so, ignoring Stone's complaints, I rush ahead and address the family ahead of us. They look friendly enough.
There's a woman and a man, with three little children, who might be triplets, jumping through their legs and having a great time. All of them have red/orange ears sticking out of their red hair, and fox tails.
"Excuse me," I tap on the woman's shoulder, and she turns, green eyes wide and fearful, but less so when she sees my ears.
"Yes?" She glances at her mate, husband- the tall dude- and he turns too, picking up one of the identical kits.
"Are you headed to the mountains as well?" I try to say as politely as I can, but one of the fox children is yanking on my tail.
"Yes, actually, to join the rebels," She nods.
"Is that where everyone is going?" Stone says, suddenly right next to me.
"From what I've heard. I just hope there really is strength in numbers," The man says, glancing worriedly at the children.
"As do I. Thanks." I add, backing away and falling into place again, Stone beside me.
"All these people..." I say, overwhelmed. "At least we know the rebels will have a large force."
"A large, untrained force. I mean, look at them. These are not warriors. They're refugees." He gestures exasperatedly at the great, slow moving caravan of beaten down Impurities.
"Same as me." I say defensively.
"Yeah, but you're different. You're-" He searches or the word.
"Seeking safety and revenge, same as every one of them." I get in his face, unable to stand him putting them down. Sometimes, he's so...
"No-" I do love that he's trying to defend me from myself. It's a nice twist.
"I have no weapons training, just like most of them. You, on the other hand, you're a natural with those swords-"
"I'll teach you, then," He insists. I'm rather enjoying this whole argument, with each of us defending the other, it's a nice change.
"The point is, Pebble, I'm no different from any one of them." I shrug. Every person likes to think they're special, they're different. The cold truth is, right now, I am exactly like ever other person in this line, which goes on in either direction as far as I can see.
"That's not true, and don't you ever say that." He snarls, surprising me. "How many of these people have one of those?" Stone jabs a finger at my neck, which many people have been staring at.
"How many of these folks would have stopped and faced a giant snake to save- save a-a friend?" He winces, but his eyes are hard and firm. He sighs, the hardness vanishing in an instant.
"Speaking of which, you need to cover that thing up. People are staring." He nods to the group in back of us, a single old man, who's eyeing my neck. That doesn't necessarily mean what we think it does, though. He could just be a vampire.
"In my pack there's some skin colored powder, rub it over your brand." He examines my neck. "Our skin tones are both almost identical, it shouldn't show." I step behind him and open up the pack, taking my time to rummage around in it. Strange enough, it's just filled with normal pack things- Food, water skins, some bandages, and the small vial of powder, which I draw out with a frown.
"Why, Stone, do you have make-up in your bag?" I say, opening it, and dabbing it onto the brand. It's cold on my skin.
"It's not make-up!" He snarls suddenly. Jeez, anger issues. "I bought it from a merchant, it's to cover up marks that give away your identity." I think that sounds a lot like concealer, but then I draw one of Stone's swords slightly out of it's sheath, studying my reflection, and see it has completely hidden every trace of the brand.
"Do you use it to cover your blood number?" I ask easily, closing the vial of non-make-up (Yeah, okay, Stone, but I still think it's the same thing City women use to cover zits) and sliding it back into his bag.
"I told you, I don't have a blood number." He says firmly, and I silently curse. How to catch him off-guard, and get him to spill!
"Then why, on god's earth, do you have women's concealing make-up! What else distinguishing would you need to hide!?" I say incredulously.
"A brand isn't the only permanent thing the Order can do to you..." He mutters, leaping over a creek ahead of me. I hurry to catch up.
"Is it getting colder to you?" Stone says when I land beside him, completely off-topic. I sigh, knowing I could press on, but I would get nothing else out of him.
"Maybe a little bit." I shrug, sniffing the air- no, it's not that unusual, I mean, almost everyone was doing it, their animal instincts at work.
We stride around a corner, and I stop suddenly, staring at what lies before us.
It's like we stepped completely out of the Wold, into an entirely different world. The trees have been growing steadily smaller, and now they're barely twenty feet high, and thinning out more dramatically on the sides of the path ahead of us.
The majority of the forest, however, skirts out and around the slope ahead of us. The ground suddenly slopes steeply upwards, and I see why we couldn't have used horses anyways. I don't remember this part of the trail from my travels, but then again, I had never been this far, but only used the path for foraging and trading with the Predators.
The mountain ahead of us rises upwards, and further upwards, until I can't see anything more. I crane my neck as we follow the now-slower ascent of the caravan. The mountain rises right up through the clouds, and it's barely tapering to the peak by then, only half-way up.
"I thought you said it was a fort-night's journey to the rebels, Stone!?" I say in awe at the sheer size of the mountain. The base itself must stretch on for miles, maybe even hundreds.
"It is a fortnight's journey. To the top." He grimaces, shading his eyes from the glare of the sun with his right hand, squinting even then.
The crowd at the base of the mountain is a large bunch, milling around and trying to get to the front, but the path on the mountain is so narrow, you can go only two people at a time, and they're supposed to be spaced out.
I think, while we're waiting, how inconsiderate the rebels are being, if they really are up there. All these people, willing to join them, and you would have thought, if they really were an alliance of Beast and Man, they could have sent down some flying Beasts to ferry us to the top, instead of making us walk.
Starting to get a little nervous about so many people being so close to me, I'm relieved when me and Stone finally get to start our ascent, which is the real journey. Behind me, I see some of the stronger flying folks, those with no small children, lifting off and circling up to the clouds.
At first I'm jealous, watching them luxuriously sweep to the top in minutes, then I realize you have to be an extraordinarily strong flyer to even hope to reach the top. As they get higher up, little black specks in the blue air, they suddenly slow down dramatically, and then stop ascending altogether, and fall from the sky, passed out in the air. I look away as they hit the side of the mountain below me, with a horrid crunching sound, and I carry on grimly.
Me and Stone don't speak much- The work requires too much attention. This first part of the path on the mountain doesn't slope too steeply, but it's riddled with little rocks that you can slip easily on, and roll right off the edge. Even about half an hour after we begin the climb, it's high enough a fall off the edge would be most likely fatal.
"I really, really wish I could fly." I grunt, as my feet have just flown out from under me for the third time, and it's only Stone's quick actions that keep me from plummeting. His hand strikes out and grabs my wrist, and he pulls me up laboriously on the steepening slope.
"So then you could fly up half-way and drop like a stone- ah, boulder," He adds, not wanting to use his own name. "And make a grease spot on the side of the mountain, as a warning to all the others who think they could make it?"
"No," I catch his arm as he, too, slips, and pull him inward, towards me, because he insisted to be on the outside. "So I could hover over the path, instead of crawling up it like a lizard."
I look over his shoulder, and see we're already about fifty feet of the ground, a factor that's made worse by the fact there are next-to-none trees on the mountain to obscure our view.
Stone must see the worry in my eyes, and he grasps my hand, gazing into my eyes. There are no words needed, and for a moment, I think he might kiss me again. Then he nods, and we continue on, scrambling for dear life up the terrible slope.
We struggle on for fifteen or so more minutes, the slope always getting steeper. I'm seeing that the path wraps around the mountain, though I can't imagine how many times it will have to go around, even at this rate of ascension, before we reach the top.
The people on either side of us are thinning out, falling behind. We pass the people in front of us, the fox family, who're holding their children tight as they climb. I wish them good luck as we pass, hurrying on.
Me and Stone are both very athletic and strong. We pass a lot of other people, but as we carry on, I notice they're staring at us, not only because we're passing them, and they can't be looking at my brand anymore, because it's hidden. It takes me a couple times to see it's Stone they're staring at.
"Stone, you need to hold yourself differently." I say decisively after a while. As I said it, I knew I was right. Even in climbing a mountain, he held himself like... Like a prince, upright, tall, and proud, looking straight ahead and even at whatever would challenge him next. That was very good on him, and I hate to tell him to change it, but everyone we passed walked with their shoulders hunched, heads down, as if they had been beaten down to the point of breaking, and couldn't bear to stand tall and proud.
"Excuse me?" He frowns at me like I've gone funny.
"They're staring at you," I yelp as my foot slips into a crevice on the side of the path. Stone grabs my shoulders, pulling me out, and we carry on up the hazardous slope.
"They're staring at you because you don't walk like them." I manage to time that perfectly, as we pass a man and his daughter, both with four legs. How could we be passing them? They must be having a freaking joy ride with those things?
"You mean I should walk like I have four legs...?" He raises an eyebrow, and I shake my head, smiling slightly.
"No, you need to hold yourself in a defeated way, like them! Not like... You." I gesture to his entire body, searching for a word but finding none.
"Me. They're staring at me because... I walk weird." He says unsurely.
"No, you walk like a prince-" I say, since that's what I've been thinking, before realizing how odd that sounds. Thank God, I don't have to explain, because at that moment, there's a rumbling from the ground, far below, that sounds like... Hooves.
"Horses," Stone mutters beside me, glancing back over his shoulder. The mountain is so wide around, that though we've been hiking for a while, and are far off the ground, we can still see our starting point behind us, the clearing milling with panicked Impurities. "Get down."
He presses his hands on my shoulders, making me shiver, and I kneel down beside a convenient boulder that juts out into the main trail, Stone beside me. At first I think this is hardly necessary, but then a whistling sound reaches my ears, followed by piercing screams.
One by one, the cowering people on the mountain behind us, the people we pass, are picked off by thin, almost invisible chrome arrows that rain down from the sky, like the gods themselves are killing off those deemed unworthy. As the arrows strike their undefended bodies, they cry out, toppling off the trail and the side of the mountain, and plunging to their deaths on the hard rocks below.
I scan the woods, and see the arrows seem to be coming from there. Suddenly, there are screams from below as well, and the crowd surges in all directions, pushing each other up the path, trampling those who lost their footing, rushing around like cattle. I strain my neck to see what all the commotion is, and who's plucking people off the side of the mountain. No Beast could shoot arrows.
Then I see the horses, and more importantly, their riders. Thirty or more, a small force if they were fighting a war, but overwhelming to so many untrained refugees, City warriors barge through the trees, horses screaming, and trampling people as they go. They're armored in glimmering glass, silver and gold, just like the City itself, as are their horses. Then the gunshots begin.
"There is no force that can overcome the First City, that can fell the Rulers that hold the power. Any that attempt to rise against the Order, will be slaughtered without mercy." A soldier in gold and glass armor, the general, speaks, his voice magnified, probably by some technology hidden in his helmet. More screaming. The soldiers in glass have whipped out rifles, and holes appear in the packed clearing below, as people are hit by the bullets then trampled to death as they fall.
"You have tried to rise and create a rebellion. Therefore, you will be killed and disbanded, one way or another." The voice echoes off the rocks around us, and I thank every deity I have ever known for that little boulder that saved my life. So far. If we hadn't been near cover, like so many- I don't even want to think about it.
"This is the first strike- Take it as a warning, and surrender before we return by the new moon after next, and obliterate every sign that you ever existed, as well as any of you that survive this day." The speaker declares darkly, and I shiver, glancing at Stone. His blue eyes glare icily at the general, his mouth twisted in a disappointed scowl.
It almost kills me to sit and watch as the crowd below is driven away, hunted down, and killed. The worst part is, I can do nothing about it, at all. If I come out of cover, I'll be shot immediately. I'm too high up to save those below anyways. So what am I supposed to do? Throw rocks at the soldiers, and hope I hit 'em?
"If we had a bow, that would be a staring point." I mutter, as a few of the sparkling warriors wheel around their horses, and hunt down those who had gotten lucky and made a run for it. Screams rise up from the woods.
"You mean..." Stone has pulled off his pack, and is rummaging around inside. "Like this?" He pulls out a flat, black stick, about an inch wide, half an inch thick, and as long as a pencil.
"Sorry to disappoint you, but that's a..." He runs his finger down the side of the stick, and it expands into a full size hunting bow, the string dangling from one end. "Bow. Um..." He strings it, and hands it to me, reaching around in his bag and pulling out a handful of arrows.
"I'm a terrible shot." I object as Stone presses the arrows into my hand.
"Bet I'm worse." He shrugs, throwing back on his pack. "Besides, what's the worst that can happen if you miss? And if you don't, then you lower the number of my f- Of the Ruler's forces."
"Cover me." My hand falls into position on the bow, which is firm, and metallic. It's much different from my bow, but as long as I could make a difference, even a small one, it didn't matter. I just needed to try.
I crouch on the ground, propping my head and the strung arrow over the boulder. I'm about the shoot, but I can't get good enough aim.
"I have to stand." Stone nods, pulling out his swords, though I can't see what good those are going to do. Before the archers can spot me, I pull back on the string, closing one eye, and sighting in on the general's neck- A bare spot in his armor.
"You've got him." Stone says, as my fingers begin to shake from the strain of the string. It must be a fifty pound draw.
My fingers snap open, and I let the arrow fly, the string vibrating with a buzzing sound. The arrow is a thin black dart flying through the air, much faster than the enemy archer's.
The general's head sags, and he collapses to the ground, blood trickling from his neck and pooling on the ground. Every soldier remaining slowly turns their head my way, where I'm clearly visible, holding a bow that is aimed at the general. Crap.
I dive behind the boulder, just as arrows and bullets dig up the dirt where I had been standing.
"How'd it go?" Stone asks casually, while handing me another arrow.
"What?" I say in disbelief as he presses it into my hands, but I string it anyways.
"Now would be a good time for that cover," I say to him, and he nods. He crawls over behind me, tucking and rolling out from behind the boulder and into the opening.
"Stone! You freaking idiot!" I scream as another rain of projectiles pours from the sky. He's holding his swords, tensed to strike, as the first arrows hit.
I close my eyes....