The Outcast and the Survivor: Chapter Seven Read online

The Outcast and the Survivor

  Written by Trevor A. A. Evans

  Text Copyright © 2015 by Trevor A. A. Evans

  Published by Thirteen Crossroads Publishing

  All rights reserved

  No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotation in articles and reviews.

  www.thirteencrossroads.com

  Preface

  The story that follows is part of a chapter-series, The Outcast and the Survivor. It has been made available on Kindle and Nook as a convenience, since it is available free of charge directly on the Thirteen Crossroads Publishing website. The story will continue with a new chapter being released each month until the last chapter is published in December 2017.

  Chapter Seven

  The weeks journeying south passed without trouble.

  That is not to say that danger did not find us, but as safe as Wade kept me before, he and Yori have made an even more formidable pair. We encountered a number of beasts on our way, great cats and reptiles, as well as other creatures I could hardly describe, but my two protectors led us around all of them with ease, or through them as necessary.

  At first, this seemed reason enough for why Wade had insisted we needed Yori, but there is even more. Wade is a fugitive among the fortressed cities along the River Lethe we seek entry to. It’s not that many people will recognize him, but there’s risk enough that we need someone who can slip in and out of the strongholds without arousing too much suspicion.

  Yori is a ghost, a memory that even the old will not recall. I was shocked when he told me it had been over fifty years since he left this land the rangers once had for a home. That’s a long time to live without companionship, a long time to forget about people and things. It makes it even more impressive to me just how warm and personable he is.

  It also makes me sad to think about the times of doubt and depression he must have gone through, yet I hope that today we can make use of the silver lining in his sacrifice as we approach Vanguard, the northernmost city of the plains. This is where we will find Mavyn, an enchantress Wade says will be able to unlock the secrets of the world stone I carry with me. This is where I hope I can begin to truly understand why my father sent me to this sorrowful land in the first place.

  “Kaela, hold up,” Wade calls out from the brush behind me.

  I twitch as I stop, his speaking my name feeling like a sharp pinch on the back of my neck, something Mariam did to me often when we were little. What happened in the canyon has refused to leave my mind even though I’ve tried not to be troubled by the darkness I know Wade hides. I don’t want to be uncomfortable around him, but I can’t help it right now.

  “You can’t keep running so far up like this if you’re going to have your ears shut. Yori found a hidden cache and called out to you, but you kept going like you didn’t even hear him.”

  My head motions downward jaggedly in a slow nod as I try not to upset him any worse. I can tell he’s become bothered at how cold I’ve been of late, even snapping at him a few times. Though he has been respecting my desire for space, he seems pretty irritated by it, which in a way surprises me considering how hard he once sought to remain distant himself. Still, I try my best to recover and appear amiable when I’m feeling edgy, to say something to relieve the underlying tension between us.

  “But isn’t it nice to not hear Yori sometimes?”

  Wade gives a light smile as he turns to lead me back the way we came. I don’t mind Yori’s tendency to jabber on about things, but I know Wade gets tired of it and sometimes steps away to get a breather, especially now that we are far enough south to be away from the more dangerous predators.

  While we retrace the short distance, I find myself surprisingly without fear in this rough and thick landscape. Dense groves of bushes and trees no longer produce much anxiety for me. It is only when we come across ruins that I get nervous. Nature doesn’t seem to scare me at all anymore. Only people do.

  I start to hear Yori mumbling to himself somewhere nearby, but then I become confused when we get close and I still can’t see him. He sounds like he’s only feet away, yet there’s nothing in sight, so I continue walking when, suddenly, the ground beneath me disappears and I’m yanked back by Wade.

  “Thanks,” I exhale without looking at Wade as I peer over the edge of a hole that Yori has somehow managed to uncover.

  “You’re a bit young to be hard of hearing,” Yori teases as I step down dozens of wooden steps descending into a dusty, dirt-filled bunker.

  “Maybe you’ve just worn them out,” I smile back, spotting him toward the back of the unexpectedly spacious room.

  “That’d take a lot more than a couple weeks, dear,” he says playfully, “and you know, you’re older than you think. Even though I could never study the stars down here below the mist, I did get enough grasp on the seasons that I think I figured out that a year here is nearly a hundred days longer than where we came from. You’d be 26, maybe 27, if you—”

  “Enough of the astronomy lessons,” Wade interrupts.

  He then scowls at me as I look toward Yori with a smirk. I don’t think I could have handled the last couple of weeks without Yori’s company. He has taught me so much and really helped enlighten me to everything going on in the plains, at least as much as he knows. The history and nature of this world remains cloudy even to those educated and wise like Yori is, but it’s still nice to get a better grasp on things.

  Wade walks across the room to talk with Yori, but I ignore what they’re saying and wander over to a shelf stocked with some boxes of ammo. Sadly, there are no arrows, just bullets. Yori did give me a gun that I’ve been practicing with, but we’ve been slowly bleeding ammunition, forcing me to rely once more on the bow resting over my right shoulder. For some reason, I’ve found that I still prefer it to a gun, maybe because it ties me to the world up on the plateau I knew for so long. All these new things, like pistols or explosives, make me uneasy, whereas I feel at home with a bow in my hands.

  “Here, put this on,” Yori says to my right, tossing me a peculiar black garb as I turn.

  “What for?” I say curiously, holding the outfit in front of me and recognizing it as something similar to the dark cloaks worn by cult priests back in Kalepo.

  “You’re going to be a serf today.”

  “What’s a serf?”

  “It’s a slave,” Wade answers. “That’s not how people here see it, but that’s what they are among the river cites. Serfs work in shops, stores, fields, or wherever their taskmasters need them, but they’re bought, sold, and traded as though they were animals. Treating them like domesticated pets doesn’t change that they’re considered less than human.”

  “So I’ll be snuck into Vanguard as a slave.”

  “Not just you,” Wade says dryly, draping himself in an outfit similar to mine, though much taller.

  Once I get the garb properly on me, I look back over and notice that Yori is also changing into something else, a clean and elegant outfit, though not after any fashion I ever saw in Kalepo. Yet despite its strangeness, Yori for the first time doesn’t look rustic, but sophisticated, and appropriately so. I can imagine this version of him attending important events before justices and kings, presenting significant ideas and discoveries. I’m very fond of him. I hope to keep him around.

  Just as I’m admiring his new look, however, Yori reaches down and starts dirtying his pants and cloak, even going so far as to rip and tatter it. I watch in further apprehension as he then makes a few light scratches on his face and hands, wiping the blood off by using the fabric o
f his fine suit as a towel.

  “What are you doing?” I ask dismayed.

  “Can’t appear too clean after chasing down a couple of runaway serfs,” he laughs. “I need to be dressed like I’m important, but not above dealing with the city guards.”

  Wade walks over and begins binding my arms and hands with coarse rope, tying another line to my wrists so that I can be pulled along. Yori then does the same for Wade, lastly tying the strands together, Wade in front and me at his rear.

  It makes me panicky being so helpless, suddenly incapable of defending myself in any meaningful way. With how tightly squeezed together my wrists and arms are, I’d be lucky to even protect myself from a fall. And even worse, I’m bound to the one person I can’t bring myself to feel comfortable about.

  Yori grabs the rope that connects us and leads us to the stairs.

  “Ready?” he says as though there could be an answer to stop us from moving onward.

  Wade gives a straight-faced response, but I just look past Yori back toward the room. It is amazing all the supplies that are here, from food stores and clothing to munitions and jewels. It is a good thing that the rangers thought ahead to build such places of refuge, having predicted the tide turning against them long before it actually did, though too late to stop it.

  “We’ve only got so much light left,” Wade says tersely, rousing me from my stupor and