The Colorless Land

Chapter 14: Almost Safe

The direct path to the mountains looked short enough, but unfortunately the truth was not that simple.

The land was milder here, warmer, but that also meant it was more densely settled. Everywhere along the way to the mountains lay homesteads and villages and small towns, and every patch of field and grassy plains belonged to someone. Edmian stayed well-hidden under his hood, but they could still not risk it, especially not as long as they did not know if the outlaws had kept their promise.

And so they crossed the country in zig-zags, slowly making their way through the most deserted parts while avoiding people as much as they could. Whenever they could they kept to the high grass, four figures passing with nothing but a rustle; they often slept by day and traveled by night, their dark clothes barely visible under the waning moon.

For some time nothing happened. Jolette had lost count of the passing days; the mountains never seemed to move closer, and the moon was often clouded and revealed nothing of the passage of time. They spoke little on their journey. Their days were all the same: get up, eat, walk with few breaks (and all of them at Saryana's insistence, claiming their growing bodies needed them), find somewhere to hide, eat again, and go to sleep. She had offered to do the night watch several times. But Saryana was adamant about not even letting her do that.

Jolette had always dreamed of this kind of life. Traveling for days and days, to distant places she had never seen, only stopping to eat and sleep as the world unfolded in front of her eyes. But those dreams had never involved being only a useless tagalong. They had never involved having to hide from her own people.

At least Edmian still had the pendant, she thought. But what did she have? A dragon-horn in her pack and a kitchen-knife in her pocket. Edmian might feel like a burden all he wanted, but deep inside she could not shake the thought that she was truly the weakest link in the group.

So, she decided, something had to change. She needed to learn and get stronger so people would rely on her again. She needed to grow skilled so Saryana and Aithal, kind as they were, would stop treating her like a child.

Partly for these reasons, partly to kill time, she began watching the adults. As closely as possible, she observed all their skills, from searching paths to tracking trails, finding hiding-places and setting up camps, keeping track of directions and picking up early signs of danger. There was much she had still not known, she understood now, despite all her studies of survival in the wild.

Over time she became so engrossed in her observations that she barely noticed that Edmian was acting strange.

While she was distracted, he had become very quiet, almost spaced out. His face had become blank, his eyes glazed over, his movements calm and mechanical and devoid of all thought and emotion. It was as if he was sleep-walking, numbly following along while he was lost in his own world, and he was only sinking in deeper and deeper.

Jolette did not know when it started. But by the time she noticed, everyone else seemed to have realized something was wrong.

"Edmian," Saryana said one evening as they took their evening meal before setting out, "you haven't been eating much. Are you all right?"

His head shifted up without his eyes focusing, as if he was staring right through her. "I'm fine," he said. "I don't need any more."

"That's where you're wrong," Saryana replied, "and you know that. Your body needs much more."

Edmian shook his head. "I'm fine."

Jolette narrowed her eyes. He did not sound like himself. His voice was blank and empty, as mechanical as his movements, a soulless shadow of the Edmian she knew.