Journey to the West By Bert McKenzie Copyright 2010
Chapter VIII
Someone was following him. He could tell. Whoever it was, the follower was not far behind. The sounds were of only one horse, so it wasn't a large party from the castle as he had expected. Either some lone person was coincidentally traveling in the same direction, or it might be one of his friends coming to try to talk him out of his mission. Akuta was not sure what to do. Should he hide or turn and fight. Hiding would only be effective if it was a coincidental traveler. Otherwise, the lone friend would just continue to search for him. If he turned to fight, he would be battling a friend and associate, maybe even his sworn liege. But better that than to give up his quest and return to the palace. Better to kill a friend with his own sword than return and watch his loved one turn to ashes on the funeral pyre.
The road he took wound around tall rock formations and through small canyons in the foothills of the Crystal Mountain range. This was why Akuta could hear but not see his pursuer. He pulled his horse to the side of the marked roadway and hid behind a large outcropping of stone. Drawing his sword, he waited in ambush.
In the early morning light Sharon had one glimpse of a rider in the distance before the road turned north and into the rocky foothills again. She knew the man she was following was riding ahead of her, so she urged her mount to greater speed in hopes of overtaking him. Unfortunately she had to slow down as rider and horse entered the twists and turns caused by the rocky outcrops. They came around a sharp bend and her horse skidded to a stop, rearing on its hind legs in surprise. Akuta sat tall on the back of his steed, sword drawn and prepared to strike. An equal amount of surprise registered on his face as he recognized his pursuer.
"God, you startled me," Sharon said as she tried to calm her mount. She looked up at him and noticed the sharp blade in his hand. "Are you going to attack me, or did you think I was one of the trolls you went hunting for?"
"Why follow you me?" he demanded angrily.
"I asked you if I could join you," she said lamely.
"I told you I wish to be alone."
"And you told the gate men you were taking a royal message to the east border guards. I must say, this seems to be a roundabout way of getting there." Sharon stared defiantly back at the elf as he sat impassively on his horse.
"What I tell others concerns you not," he finally said as he replaced his sword in its sheath at his side. "Return to the palace."
"I thought fairies didn't lie," she added, not making any move. "And what did you do with the tower door guards?"
Akuta's eyes widened slightly. Obviously, this human was no fool. "They will be alright. They were not severely hurt."
"Just like the girl at the worship grounds when you stole Alex's body?"
Now Akuta was really concerned. He didn't know the watcher had been a female, but this woman did. She apparently knew his every move. If she knew where he hid the body she could return and have it destroyed, ruining any chance for a successful conclusion to his quest. She had been in the white tower. He had spoken to her in the great hall just after hiding Alex. She must have seen. "Why follow you me?" he repeated a bit more insistently, placing his hand again on the hilt of his sword.
"Where are you going? What are you up to? I want to know," the woman demanded.
The fairy shrugged his shoulders and climbed down to the ground, leading his horse along the road as he walked. "What care you?" he asked rhetorically.
Sharon dismounted and walked along beside him. "I care," she said. "We all care."
"You have come to talk me from my mission. If truly you cared you would help me, not dissuade me."
"Okay," she said. "I won't try to talk you out of anything. But I just want you to look at yourself. You aren't acting rationally. You've lied; you've attacked men who were your friends and co-workers; you've threatened me with a sword. Is this really what you want to be?"
She looked over in time to catch sight of a single tear running down his pale cheek. "No," he said quietly. "Cannot you see? I have no choice. Either I bring Alex back the gift of life or I join him in death. I only ask for help from my friends and I only receive the cold refusal of enemies."
"Akuta, remember when we first met?" Sharon said softly. "I helped you escape from the military men in my world and we went to hide out at my lakeside cabin. You were the first real fairy I ever knew, and you trusted me then."
"I remember," he replied.
"Remember how you looked in my eyes and were able to read my thoughts. I can't lie to you; I'm not trying to hurt you. I only want to help."
The fairy stopped and dropped the reins of his horse. He slowly reached out, touching his fingers to her temples and looking deeply into her eyes. Sharon stared back, into the two aquamarine pools surrounding dark black islands. She felt as if she were falling into those deep eyes; her thoughts, her dreams, her very soul opened to him. Then just as suddenly, she was again standing on a rocky roadway, looking at the sad face of a friend while their horses nibbled at some dead vegetation nearby. Sharon fell forward into his arms, hugging him and sobbing into his chest. In that brief contact she was completely overwhelmed by the intense sorrow, a grief to the point of despair. If this was how he felt, how did the man bear it? She felt that she could just lie down and die on the spot.
Even in his own pain, Akuta managed to put his arms around the girl and comfort her, holding her gently until the shock of their joining eased a bit and she slowly began to grow quiet. Then he spoke. "How empty you are with no belief to guide you. You feel my quest foolish because you believe death is the end of all things. I understand why you think I should return, but you are wrong." Sharon looked up at the tall man as he held her. "The western islands are no fable like your childhood stories. They exist. Caseldra has given me an old page from a book that tells of the way. I know I can find them and bring him back from death. You shall see."
Sharon nodded slowly. "I know how you feel now," she said. "I know you have no choice."
Akuta walked her to her horse. "You must return now," he said. "And I must continue my journey."
The woman shook her head. "You shouldn't be alone. You may need help, a friend. I'd...I'd like to come with you."
"No," he said. "This is no pleasure journey. I may not return in this life."
"I've been a doctor," she tried to explain. "I've seen people die before. If I could actually see this land of the dead you're looking for, that would really be something to live for. I want to go."
"No," Akuta said more firmly.
"Then I go back to the castle and tell them everything I know, including the hiding place of Alex's body," she bluffed.
"Let us ride," the fairy said without a moment's hesitation. He helped the doctor back onto her horse, and then lightly jumped onto his own steed. Together they rode off to the west.
At first they thought Elnar's magic had backfired again. The needle never seemed to move from its eastern direction no matter where they went in the surrounding area. But then Caseldra was the one to point out that if Dannemel had traveled very many miles to the east they would only seem to get that general direction. To Scott the solution then became simple. They needed a big map and they needed to travel a great distance to the north and south to triangulate on the location. Scott and Rood packed up their magic compass and hopped a commuter plane to Chicago where they took a reading and plotted it on their map. Then the two flew to New Orleans where they met Jennifer and Caseldra. Taking another reading they drew intersecting lines. Soon the four of them were boarding a plane for New York which seemed to be in the general area of the intersection. In a few hours Scott was checking them into a hotel just off Time Square.
"So let's get going," Jennifer said as she came into the room that Scott and Rood were sharing. "Where's the bowl?" Rood handed it to her and she stepped into the bathroom to fill it with water. Meanwhile Scott was digging in his suitcase for the needle and cork float. "This is going awfully well, don't you think?" Jennifer asked. "We're probably sure he's in the area. That needle shows us where, we grab him and we go home. It's all so simple."
"I don't think so," Scott said as he found the needle and stood up. "It sounds too easy. Just remember where we are."
"Now you sound like my mother," the girl said. "New York City is not a den of iniquity. It's just a big city like any other big city."
"And we just happen to be in the company of two elves and we're looking for a runaway fairy by using a magic needle." Scott looked at her sourly.
She smiled sweetly back. "So get on with it," she said holding out the bowl. Scott put the cork in the water and they watched while it turned to orient itself.
"What lies in this direction?" Rood asked.
"Greenwich Village, and the Hudson River," Scott replied as he looked in a guide book. "But we can't just walk around the streets of New York, looking into a bowl. People will think we're crazy."
"Come on, Scott. We're talking New York City here. They probably see people walking around looking into bowls all the time," Jennifer suggested.
"Okay, Rood, get the bowl. You two stay here. We'll be back as soon as we find him," Scott said.
"But my lord, I think it would be better if..." Caseldra began.
"Stay here. That's an order. Got it?" The little fairy opened her mouth to argue, but a glance from Rood made her remain silent.
The two men grabbed their coats, their Tuathan Compass and headed down to the street to find a cab. In a little while they were being driven downtown by a streetwise oriental man named Chan Loo. Rood held the bowl of water in his lap while the two of them watched the needle and cork bob and bounce with the cab's movement. Just as they stopped at a red light, Rood poked Scott to get his attention. The needle swung rapidly around to point in the direction from which they had just come. "What can it mean?" Scott asked.
"He must be close by and moving rapidly past us," Rood answered as he peered out of the windows.
"The subway!" Scott exclaimed. "It runs right up this street, or at least under it." He leaned forward. "Driver, we need to go back to our hotel. We forgot something."
"We forgot nothing," Rood corrected him, loudly.
"Yes, we did, we forgot something."
"What is it we forgot?" Rood asked, then, "My lord, why did you kick my leg?"
Scott turned to his friend and said, "Rood, shut up."
As the cab traveled back through Time Square the needle swung around again. "We have just passed him," Rood announced. Scott asked the driver to pull over and they got out. After receiving his money, the man just shook his head at the two weirdoes and drove off into the busy street.
"Let's go," Scott said and turned in time to see a couple of teenage kids running down the crowded sidewalk. As they ran by, one boy deliberately hit the bottom of the bowl, knocking it out of Rood's hands and into the air. The water splashed on several nearby pedestrians as the contents spilled while the bowl flipped. The cork with its magic needle fell to the ground and disappeared in the crowd. Rood and Scott both dropped to the pavement looking for it while the passersby totally ignored them or gave them dirty looks because they were blocking the walkway. "There it is," Scott said as he spotted the small object. He and Rood both reached for it at the same time, and both were but a moment too late. Someone's foot kicked the cork as the people continued to walk around the two on the ground. The little object skidded across the pavement and bounced over the edge of the curb and into a storm drain.
"Where goes this small tunnel?" Rood asked anxiously as the two peered into the dark slot in the cement.
"The sewer system and probably the ocean," Scott said. It looked as if they were out of business as far as their search went.
"Can we not enter this sewer system?" Rood questioned.
"It's hopeless," Scott replied. "We'd never find it. There's miles of drains and tunnels." He felt totally frustrated at being stopped now. "Damn! We were so close."
"Then let us search without magic," his friend said. "We know the last direction pointed out."
"In a city of seven million people? We don't have a chance."
"Not while we stand here, my lord." The two men moved off down the street in the direction that had previously been indicated.
Although Sharon Gates had lived among the elves for nearly three months, she had never been totally alone with one individual for such an extended length of time as she was now. She and Akuta had ridden west for about a week, and most of that time had been spent in silence. She wasn't sure if this was natural or if Akuta was so very quiet because of his emotional trauma. She tried to engage him in conversation a few times, but each attempt met with only the briefest of responses. So she sank into private thoughts and gave up trying. She knew she was a hindrance to the fairy, but he never complained. They lived off the land, eating a variety of plants that they encountered along the way. When these were scarce, Akuta resorted to small game brought down by his bow. He allowed Sharon to clean and dress the rabbits he shot while he meditated or sang the song of the dead by way of apology for taking the animals' lives. When night fell, the two of them halted and Akuta stood watch while Sharon slept.
Then one day, Akuta halted suddenly, his entire body a picture of alert wariness. "What is it? Sharon asked. "What's wrong?"
"Be quiet," he ordered in a wind whisper. He suddenly jumped down from his horse and ran to the top of the little hill that followed along the right side of the roadway. As he approached the summit he dropped down and crawled cautiously to peek over the top without being seen. The fairy watched for a time, and then quickly ran back to the horses where Sharon waited. "Make no sound," he told her sternly, still using the silent wind whisper so that she alone could hear him. He quickly mounted and led the way down the road at a fast pace, but also a silent one. The whole time, Akuta kept glancing over his shoulder. Sharon followed his gaze but saw nothing unusual.
They had gone about thirty yards when Akuta stopped them. Sharon turned to look, but Akuta spoke to her again. "Move not, nor breathe if you can stop." She had already turned on her steed enough to see what looked like a large, tawny wild cat on the distant hill watching them.
"It's just a mountain lion," she said as quietly as possible. The animal flicked his ears up and turned them in the travelers' direction.
"It is a griffin and he has heard you," Akuta replied. "If he is alone or well fed we may yet have a chance if we move very slowly." The tall elf led the two of them on an incredibly slow walk forward, never taking his eyes from the distant beast.
"It's too far away to do us any harm," Sharon whispered. She'd seen plenty of mountain lions in the rocky hills where her family used to go camping when she was a child.
At that moment the animal raised its head and opened its mouth, emitting and eerie cry. The sound was not at all like the snarl of a big cat, but more like the scream of a predatory bird. As Sharon watched, it rose up on its four legs and the coat of its back seemed to stretch and ripple. She suddenly realized the animal had wings that were folded against its back, huge, fur covered wings which it now stretched out and moved gently up and down.
"Our quest may well end here and now," Akuta said. "Ride like the wind when I tell you. Try to reach those trees." He pointed to the edge of a thick forest that sprang up a few hundred yards to the south across a rocky plain. "Now!" he shouted and slapped the rump of her mare. Sharon's horse jumped from the roadway and charged toward the trees in the distance. Sharon looked over her shoulder to see Akuta following close behind. But what made her blood run cold was the sight of the winged mountain cat. As she watched it took a few running steps and leaped into the air, soaring on the huge, fringed wings, making a direct course for them with claws extended.
Sharon slowed her horse as she saw the beast closing in on Akuta. "Keep going!" he shouted. The griffin dived, but at the last possible moment, the fairy ducked and leaned to the side, the cat's huge claws just missing him. It shrieked in anger as it sailed past, wheeling in the sky and preparing to make another dive. Akuta knew it would not make the same mistake twice. Griffins learned very quickly. He knew death was upon him when he suddenly saw Sharon's horse stumble on the rocky terrain. The girl was pitched head long onto the ground. The unusual movement caught the predator's attention and it changed its course, diving directly for the fallen horse. Akuta slowed his gallop down so that he could reach Sharon, but she wasn't moving. He had no choice but to pull his mount to a halt and drop to the ground beside her.
Akuta checked the girl. She was bruised and scraped, and appeared to be unconscious from a large bump on the head, but at least she was alive. He lifted her in his arms, but before he could put her on his horse, the animal broke into a run. Meanwhile the griffin landed on the chestnut mare and was in the process of making a kill. The animal was unable to attempt an escape because of a broken leg. Akuta ran for the trees, carrying the girl with him and following behind his horse. The frightened animal had almost reached the protecting forest when several resounding cries were heard. Akuta looked up to see two more of the winged creatures diving down just over the tree tops ahead. They managed to turn the fleeing horse around, herding it back in the opposite direction. One of the flying cats pounced on the terrified beast while the other dropped straight for the fairy and his burden. He continued to run for the trees, ignoring the oncoming monster. At the last possible moment he ducked his head and dropped to the ground, the griffin's talons grabbing at empty space as it sailed by only inches over his head. Akuta scrambled back to his feet and ran as fast as possible, finally diving in amongst the underbrush as he felt his cape being pulled up. Another of the winged cats had hooked its claws in the soft fabric, rending it as the animal banked sharply to avoid the dense tree trunks.
"What happened?" Sharon asked as she opened her eyes several hours later. "Those flying animals! Akuta!" she screamed as memories flooded back to her.
"We are safe," he said reassuringly as he reached out to take her hand in the darkness.
"I can't see," she said, trying to move despite the pain along the right side of her body.
"It is night. Also, we are in a dense wood. Move not. You have many injuries which will cause hurt."
"The horses?" she asked hesitantly.
"They are gone. We must journey on foot now," he told her.
"Are those flying cats gone too?" Sharon questioned. "I've never seen anything like them. How can an animal like that even fly? They should be too heavy."
"They are griffins," Akuta answered her. "They fly not as the birds, but only use their wings to sail and glide on the air currents. They are generally found in higher, rocky areas where they may have lairs in mountain caves and long drops from which to launch themselves. This must be a migratory pride forced to the lower lands by hunger. We may yet have difficulty with them. When you are rested and healed sufficiently we shall attempt to move on. We may be safe in this wood. Griffins prefer open space where they may use their wings. They hunt poorly when they cannot prey from above."
The two sat in silence for a time. Sharon shivered from the cold night air until Akuta moved close to her. He gently wrapped the remainder of his tattered traveling cape around the two of them. "Akuta," she said at last. "I'm sorry. I guess it was me that attracted that thing with my talking to you. I nearly got us killed."
"He was attracted by our scent first," the fairy said. "We have cheated death but another day. Rest now. Tomorrow we must try to escape this wood as well as the vigilance of the griffin pride."
Sharon leaned against him enjoying the warmth of his body as he gently folded a protective arm around her. She could feel herself getting drowsy again, but she didn't want to sleep. "What are you thinking about?" she asked, trying to make conversation.
There was a long pause before the fairy answered. "Alex," he said at last.
"I'm sorry," she replied instantly. "I didn't mean to ...well...I'm sorry."
"Of what are your thoughts?" he asked in return.
She closed her eyes and let her mind wander for a minute. "Rood," she finally said. "I was wondering what he was doing right now." She fantasized that it was Rood's chest she was using for a pillow and his arm that held her. Slowly, sleep crept over her bringing soft comfortable dreams.