The Rugged Edge

Chapter 22: On Our Way

It was a trip: exciting,
But deemed so by its end.
The traveling was saddening;
The world was lost of mend.

. . . . .

So it was that at eight forty-five the next morning, a large group of people could be seen readying to leave for Vereniva. Eighteen horses had been provided, one for each traveler and an extra one loaded down with baggage.

I was hugging Bessy goodbye.

"Enjoy yourself, Ise, dear," she said. "Don't mind my little bits of misery."

"I'll try," I answered. "Don't miss me too much."

I mounted Saffron, the horse I'd had since I began to ride at the age of six, and patted her neck. She was quiet, like usual. Collum had provided me with a very gentle horse, and though she didn't reflect my own personality at all, I loved her.

Earlier, she'd been loaded down with all of my baggage. I'd never ridden her besides in the confined castle riding space, which provided little scenery, and none that I'd ever seen before. In essence, the castle walls and blue sky high above.

Geraint rode up beside me.

"What time will we get there?" I asked.

"This'll be a long trip," he said.

"Why?" I asked. "It's just, what, twenty miles?"

"Twenty-five," he corrected. "Which takes more than six hours in itself, as long as the horses are walking nice and slow."

"Oh," I said. I'd never traveled before. Besides the Black Forest, I'd never even left the fortress.

"But Collum always uses this as a chance to visit each large village," Geraint continued. "And that takes a while. So I'm guessing we'll be there by five or six this evening."

"Aha," was all I said for a moment. I had no way of knowing whether I'd enjoy traveling, but I was suddenly anxious to try it. "Does Collum always take the same route?"

"As far as I know," said the guard. "The short trip of three miles to Runa, eight to Tielan, six to Rokenville, and eight more to Vilia. It's the roundabout way, but that way we can visit each village. Although as far as I know, a lot of the villages don't want to be visited. Last year they were clearly displeased to have Collum there."

Geraint didn't elaborate.

Just then, the great oak drawbridge opened wide and Collum's horse, at the front of the waiting procession, cantered forward.

We were near the middle of the group. There were many guards before us, talking excitedly, and guards behind us, chattering endlessly. Arlie, the stable boy, was near us, and Fabian was close to the front with Collum.

As we rode out the door, I was amazed to see the difference in the landscape. You see, I'd only ever seen it at night, besides when I was in Professor Alastair's tower study, which, though very high up, provided little view as it was surrounded by six other very high towers.

It wasn't any less lonely, or empty, or grey. It was just clearer. In many ways, it was worse. It was like the sunlight were revealing a far deeper loneliness that was lost behind a veil at night. This was because, though it was day, it was as quiet as night. Shouldn't the day be bright, not only in the sky, but in the colors of the world and the voices of the people? And, like the first night I sat on Rokenfort's tall outer wall long ago at the age of eleven, ready to escape its confinement for the very first time, I heard the howl of a dog coming from Runa - lonely, desolate, and abandoned, lost in Rokenmeine's eery grey... or trapped in it.