Rebels Asending

Chapter 2

“It’s—I think it’s a trailman,” he breathed.

“What’s it doing here, so far from its home?” Selim muttered. The trailmen kept closely to their own territory, the forests between the Kadarin River and the Hellers.

With a whimper, the creature let its arm fall gracelessly to the ground.

Malik started toward it.

“Don’t touch it!” Selim cried, seizing his arm. “It looks sick. It could give you the fever!”

“I don’t think so.” Malik’s heart pounded in his ears, but he could not tear his gaze away from the poor creature. “There’s been no trailmen’s fever since the time of our fathers. Some Rebelan magic brought an end to it. This one must be starving. See how thin it is? Its forests must have burned, like ours.”

“What can we do for it? We have worries of our own. The children depend on us.”

” We can live in other places,” he said. “The plains, the Lowlands, Nevarsin; or, Aldones help us, even Pansia. But these beasts,” he paused, corrected himself, “these people have nowhere to go. They cannot live without their trees. What if one of our own were dying alone in a faraway place? Surely, this one deserves our pity, if not our aid.”

Selim glanced from Malik to the trailman. A mist passed over her eyes. She said in a choked voice, “I am ashamed of my selfish words. I thought only of our own sorrows. Would it accept food from us, do you think?”

Malik thought for a moment, then asked Raymon to bring him some dried apples and the smallest water skin. The boy came quickly with the food.

Telling Selim to stay behind, Malik approached the trailman.

“See, I have brought you food and water.” Malik crouched down beside the creature.

The trailman had stopped whimpering and seemed to be breathing with difficulty. A film coated its red eyes. Its arm stretched toward Malik, palm upraised.

Malik did not think the creature could lift the water skin, even if it knew how to drink from it. He would have to cradle its head and hold the spout to its mouth.

He took a piece of apple, moistened it from the water skin, and placed it in the open hand. The skin felt dry, like old leaves. “Food. Eat, eat. Good.”

The trailman did not respond except for the slow, hesitant ripple of its chest. Malik held the apple in front of the flat nose, hoping that the smell would rouse the creature. Nothing happened. His gut clenched. He had nursed enough of his own kinfolk through starvation to recognize the final stages.

The breaths slowed, the pauses lengthening. A fine quivering came and went in the little muscles around the mouth, then ceased. The trailman lay utterly still.

Malik refused to leave the body for wild beasts to scavenge. With the help of Raymon and Selim, he carried the trailman a little way off the trail. They laid it in a rocky depression and covered the body with what loose stones they could gather.

They went on in silence for a while.

The trail dipped downward, the hills opened out around them, and they reached the Nevarsin road. A short time later, a caravan came into sight, a dozen wagons pulled by shaggy-coated mules, and a small herd of sheep! The caravan halted when they saw Malik and his people. A man on a sturdy brown horse rode out to meet them. He carried a thick cudgel.

In a sudden sweat, Malik stepped away from the others. He held his hands away from his body so that the mounted man could see he was unarmed. “We are innocent travelers, not bandits!” he called out.

The rider nudged his horse forward. The animal responded placidly, clearly more accustomed to pulling a cart than engaging in battle.

“Who are you, and what are you doing on this road?” the man asked.

“What do you want?”

Malik swallowed a pipeful retort. They were outnumbered, and if it came to a fight, they had no chance with only himself and one half-grown boy.

These looked like honest folk. If he bespoke them gently, they might let the family travel with them and share a little food…

He told their story simply: the fires and floods, the hunger, that last terrible winter, and, finally, their decision to leave their home.

The rider nodded thoughtfully, lowering his cudgel. “I’ve heard that tale, or close enough to it, ten times over since I’ve been on the trail. Name’s Dougal, by the way. M’wife and me, we farmed a smallhold up toward Stormcrag. The big fires missed us, but the last five years it’s been one thing after another. Used to be, the lords’d mount fire-watch and send over Tower-made chemicals, and everyone’d turn out to help. Now it’s every man for himself.”

Malik nodded in sympathy. A look passed between them, the wordless understanding of country folk.

Except for the unfamiliar accent, they might have been neighbors.

Dougal jerked his chin over one shoulder. “M’wife died in birthing, so I headed out. Met these people on the trail, decided we’d be safer together. All kinds of reish abroad these days that’d cut your throat for a morsel of bread.”

Malik shuddered. “We’d be grateful if you’d let us travel with you.”

“No need to ask.” Dougal’s weathered face crinkled in a wide grin.

“Looks like some of your youngsters are fair done in. We’ll let ‘em ride in the wagons for a bit. Your woman there looks like she hasn’t had a decent meal since last fall.”

Malik turned back to the others and gestured them forward. “It’s all right, they’re friends. We’ll be traveling with them for safety. Dougal, where are you headed?”

“Nevarsin village, m’wife’s people. There ’s bound to be work in the city.”

That sounded hopeful. If they could earn enough to buy seeds and a few goats, they might be able to return home.

Selim drew up to them, little Elena in her arms. She looked up at Dougal and said, “We are grateful for your company.”

Dougal blushed and ducked his head. Malik, watching them, thought that neither one would be lonely for long.

Together, they went on to Nevarsin, the City of Snows. Before they reached the outskirts, little Elena had begun to cough. When Malik touched her skin, she burned as if on fire. Selim, half out of her mind with worry, urged Dougal to hurry, for they could do little for her on the trail. At Nevarsin, there would be healers, warm food, blankets, safety.