Avery The Sneak

Chapter 1: On the Trail

The North is beautiful, but circumstance makes me hate it. After a childhood of hot nights spent next to an unhelpful open window I should be happy for a good chill, but no, fate has chosen to punch me in the stomach. My breath swirls around my head like a mountain in the clouds. I hold my knees to my chest with my arms under this worn white tunic all the prisoners have to wear. My grey travelling cloak is pulled tight over my shoulders. The sleeves are empty as I hug myself, they weren't much help to begin with. I probably look ridiculous but my dignity dropped with the temperature.

The old woman next to me has a blanket. I'm not desperate enough to try and snatch it just yet, maybe I'll get lucky and she'll will it to me if she doesn't make it. My stomach churns with guilt before the thought is even finished. It's not her fault I'm here.

One of the guards pipes up from his horse next to my cart. "Mark, why them trees still green this time a' year?" He's tan with dark eyes and hair, probably from the southern part of Wrencort. His nose is bright red and he's having trouble keeping his snot in place. Poor bastard is probably colder than I am, even if he gets a decent coat.

The guard he was talking to threw an acorn at him. "You dense? Them's pine trees, they're green all year." This guard has the look of someone closer to Halldon. City people like to give country people a hard time. At least I did, whenever I visited my cousins.

"Like palm trees back home?"

"Get the sand out yer ears. Keep talkin' like that and we'll get laughed out of every rest house from here to The Palemere Camp.

I shudder, not from the cold. I've heard 'Palemere Camp' many times these past months, but I still can't shake the feeling of dread in my stomach. The memory of standing in front of a judge trying to look brave for my parents sitting behind me flashes into my mind.

The judge, a tall older man with white hair down to his shoulders, peers down from his stone dias. "Avery Yarlon, for the crime of extortion I sentence you to hard labor at the Northern Palemere camp." He bangs his staff against the floor making me flinch. With that the hearing is over and I'm led away to await the journey North.

The night before the trial I imagined I would be brave. That I'd keep it together long enough to get back to my cell, or wherever I'm taken. I made it about halfway to the door then I began crying, because I know that even if I don't die in Palemere that my life is as good as over.

The cart clatters along the road East toward Palemere. I sit facing North, and I can just see the Napleo's rushing current through the trees. Past that is Milnir, our neighboring country to the North. My mother had grown up there, but she left around my age. Strange to think that the day I'd finally see it would be from the back of a prison wagon.

I look around the cart, not for the first time since we've left. To my left is the old woman. Her face twists and scrunches while she sleeps, so maybe she has even more on her mind than I do. She looks too old to be heading to a labor camp, and I wouldn't miss the smell if she wasn't here. I can't even imagine what she could have done to end up here. Sitting across from me are two middle aged men. One with a long russet beard and another older man whose hair has started to turn white.

Russet beard nervously picks at the dirt under his nails and his eyes occasionally dart between me and the old woman. The older man fiddles with something inside his overcoat. For some reason he has a coat even though the rest of us were issued cloaks. There must be something important in there since he'd been going through the pockets since we left.

"Alright, that's far enough today", the Guard Captain called far up from the front of the procession. "All of you, make camp. We leave at daybreak tomorrow."

I climbed out the back of the wagon, carefully because of the chains around my wrists, and went to find a tree to lean against. Guards mill around near the carts. Some were chatting while others just watched us. A few of the younger guards with newer uniforms help some of the less capable prisoners.

Once it's the older white haired man's turn a guard approaches, likely to help him down. The man jumps off the cart, spry as a deer, and strolls toward a split tree. The guard sighs and goes to help the old woman who was sitting next to me dismount.

He reaches a hand out to steady her. She shakily gets to her feet, blanket still wrapped around her shoulders, and reaches out a wrinkled hand. He grabs it, and she begins to step down off the cart.

There's a flurry of movement underneath her blanket and suddenly a dagger catches the evening sun. The soldier's hands fly to the crimson gash on his neck. He stumbles backward in surprise and struggles to cry out to the other guards. She pulls her dagger from his neck with a sickening shlick. She breaks for the Napleo, and the freedom of Milnir.

The Guard Captain is off his horse, eyes like ice in an instant. He runs over to the fallen guard and feels his neck. I see his teeth clench. Then he unslings a crossbow from his back and rests it on the crux of his arm. A single exhale, and an arrow flies toward the Napleo. It catches the woman square in the back and she topples to the ground. A few tired moans can be heard from underneath her blanket. She expires, and the Napleo is all we can hear.

The Captain hands his crossbow off to a younger guard and whispers something to the pale faced youth. The guard nods and runs off to drag the old woman to the riverbank and nudger her into the water with his foot. He comes back a few moments later wiping his hands on his trousers.

For a moment my mind is drawn back to the blanket the old woman had been wearing, now somewhere downstream. I wonder how much father I would have gotten. As the Sun begins to dip behind the faraway mountains I figure I should just sleep and get through the night. 

Author's note: Oh wow, I started a second project. This one's pretty different from My Friend the Harem Protagonist. It's a bit slower and not as humor focused but I like the setting. This was also the first thing I ever wrote to hit novella length, so hooray for progress. This probably won't get updated as frequently, but I'm still putting it out there. 

-DieSleepEasy