Chapter 29 – Into the Teeth.

Once Alison and Dudley had left, it didn’t take Clocky long to prepare everything. Survival gear and supplies were pulled out of the storage racks in the carriage, packed into travel packs, and handed out to everyone, Crys included, not that she was complaining. There was only four of them and she was happy to do her part, though it did mean that she had to adjust how her sword and shield were attached to the harness in order to wear the pack. She had a sneaking suspicion that it was probably only a temporary measure till she was able to claim the rest of the armour.

indeed,

until arma dea

Crys stopped, confused, and looked questioningly at Spectre. There it was again, the strange yet familiar presence that she couldn’t place. At least not yet. She felt like she should know, that the knowledge was there, but yet also withheld.

‘I can sense it now, but that is it. It is blocking me from discovering anything else about it. Whatever it is, it is powerful, and it has a connection to you that supersedes mine.’ Spectre looked around the area while Clocky put on his pack, who was probably carrying far more than he should. ‘That I can even sense it is likely it’s choice too.’

“Right, let’s go,” Clocky stated, motioning for them to follow and taking the lead. Crys walked behind him, then Fairweather, with Vorsce bringing up the rear.

It seemed a bit surreal, all that had happened in the last twenty four hours. The crash and battles almost felt like dreams, so different were they from the life that she had had before this time, coupled with the presence, yet she knew they were all very much real, and this was indeed her life now. Including the return to walking. The train had been nice while it lasted, but it was now a wreck. Exercise was good they said, and she’d been getting plenty of that. And even more now.

Making their way around the wreckage, they headed back up into the Narrows, following along the train tracks. It didn’t take long for the valley to match its name, the walls closing in on the track till there was barely any space beside the track and they were forced to walk on the sleepers, Crys trying to watch both where she was placing her feet and ahead at the same time, and only marginally succeeding at either. The others though didn’t seem to care. She recalled when the train had raced through this section earlier, even finding the marks where the carriage had scrapped against the wall because the train had been going too fast. A rockfall through here would be catastrophic too, but looking up all she could see was the smooth stone of the walls, till it finished further up some ten or so meters, the slope above that a lot more gentle she guessed. She assumed that whoever had built the railway through here had taken that into consideration and taken appropriate measures.

“No more trains are going to be coming this way any time soon?” she asked Clocky as they walked. If one came around the corner now at speed there would be no way they’d be able to avoid being hit.

“We would have been the next one on our return trip to the port and back again, and that would have been two weeks away. So we’re fairly safe for the moment.”

That was a silver lining at least.

“How far do you think we’ll end up behind Sean, if he disembarked around the summit area?” Crys then asked. She’d been thinking on this one, and time wasn’t on their side given the difference in speed between walking and the train as it has careened through the Narrows.

“If it was the summit, possibly a day or more, depending on if he sleeps at all. However, we may be closer than we think.”

“This is purely speculation,” Clocky continued, “But I am guessing that whatever ability was used on us, that caused us not to notice what was going on, probably has a short effective range, and we woke up once we were out of the range. While it is still quite a distance to cover on foot given the speed of the train, not a lot of time passed between the two events. I reckon we’ll find where they left the train well before nightfall.”

“Unless they can fly,” added Vorsce in an amused tone. “In which case it’s going to be a lot more difficult.”

“That would indeed be problematic,” Clocky agreed. “I did also consider using the buggy to try and get us closer behind, but depending on exactly when they disembarked we may not have saved much time in the end due its small capacity, and we may have caused them to run out of fuel prematurely on the return trip.”

They continued to walk, mostly in silence, the occasional bird casting its shadow over them as it flew overhead. Vorsce whistled a few tunes to himself, and Fairweather hummed a little. Not tunes that Crys recognised at all though. They passed the curve where the train had first scrapped against the walls, the deep gouge easily spotted in the rock but the plate that had been sheared off the engine nowhere to be seen. In all likelihood it had ended up embedded in one of the tucks. It did provide a sense of progress though.

Crys was surprised to find that it took them just over a couple of hours to clear the Narrows, the valley opening up quite considerably. She didn’t recognise the area at all, having been lost in her thoughts about Pyre. The valley floor was covered in a soft short grass, a five petalled white and violet flower growing amongst it. Some small shrubs hugged the edge of the valley, and she was sure she saw a small rabbit like creature disappear behind one. A little piece of paradise in the middle of the mountains.

“Dreamsoul flowers,” Fairweather stated, picking a couple and threading one in her hair and the other in Crys’. “I didn’t think I’d see them in bloom here.”

“Out of season?” queried Crys. She did think it was quite the pretty flower though.

“Just rare and irregular in bloom.” Fairweather bounced up beside Clocky. “Any signs?”

“None at all. No one has passed through here as far as I can tell, but that is what we’d expected. Keep your eyes peeled though for any hints or pathways. Sean at the least won’t have any knowledge of the area, or the ability to hide his tracks. As to the assailants, we’ll find out soon enough.”

The greenery was short lived and soon they had walked through it and were back on stony terrain again, before the ground gave way in front of them to a deep but narrow chasm that stretched across the valley, a river thundering along the bottom of it. A single wood and steel bridge for the tracks spanned it, aged but sturdy.

“The river has been nicknamed the Styx,” Vorsce informed her as they carefully made their way across the bridge. “The track crosses over it five times on the descent from the crest, each time just like here. The source is not known, nor its eventual destination, as it does not flow out of the mountains on to any of the surrounding plains. It’s the only obstacle that was present when the track being laid through Junction Pass.”

Crys could see the resemblance, and any fall down into it would be certain death.

It was just rocky terrain again on the other side of the bridge, clumps of larger stones laying in a floor of much smaller ones, with a smattering of tufts of grass and the occasional small bush. The sides of the valley started to close in again, though nowhere near that of the Narrows, with enough space that she could have probably fit the entirety of South Mall in there. The incline had also become much more noticeable. Walking on the stones wasn’t easy though, with it having a tendency to shift underfoot and hence requiring considerable concentration as well as slowing them down, so they were walking as close to the tracks as they could without being actually on them. The area was not friendly to foot traffic.

“And there’s the first of them,” Clocky stated, stopping just after the bridge had gone out of sight.

She would have missed it had it not been pointed out to her, but as it had it was obvious. There was a tear shaped depression in the stones where someone had landed at speed, displacing most of them around their handing point. They had likely fared better at their landing than the group had, but the train would have been going a bit slower. Other than that however Crys was unable to see anything else.

“Any other signs?” Clocky asked Vorsce as the shorter man moved to the front of the group, having a careful look around.

“No. They’ve probably done what we’re doing, and left little trace. I’d say they’ve headed in the same direction for obvious reasons, but beyond that nothing. Saylin would probably be able to glean more.”

“Is she a good tracker?” Crys asked. She recalled Clocky mentioning her as the last member of their team.

“Very, very good,” Vorsce replied. “And a little eccentric. I think you two would get on well.”

Clocky nodded. “We continue on then.

---

By early evening they had found signs of where the remainder of the people had disembarked the train at, Sean included, and had followed their trail until the light levels were no longer viable. Six in total, as far as they could tell. While Vorsce may not be as good as he claimed Saylin was, he still seemed to be pretty good to Crys. After they had found the signs of the first one Vorsce and Clocky had switched places, giving Vorsce a clean view of the land before they trampled all over it. Two had jumped off the train within a short space of each other, the remaining three not too long before that. Which had included Sean. The area had been sprayed with blood, and scraps of blood soaked silk had fallen near the track. It appeared that Sean had run off up the tracks, with the others following behind. Whether they had gone in pairs, or waited for the other two, or even three, to join first, they were not sure. Vorsce had scrunched up his face as he had examined Sean’s track, something amiss. Sean was travelling too fast. If he kept up that pace, then those following him would not catch him up. Whether or not that was actually a good thing was debatable, as they knew naught of the others intentions except that they had attacked the train and killed Mason and the drivers. On the other hand though, Sean was a man of the city, not the wilderness. This was not his element.

Clocky was unwilling to continue to travel in the low light. If they couldn’t see the tracks clearly then they may well miss the point at which they deviate into the mountains proper, and he wasn’t going to risk that. Proper scouting had portable lights for such tasks (flash-lights Crys assumed, or something similar), but that wasn’t something that they currently had. Not to mention that everyone would need rest at some point, Sean and his pursuers included, and Clocky was confident that they would catch them up. Dead certain in fact, tears of blood rolling down his face. A side effect of his sixth sense apparently, part of the cost for trying to sense beyond the immediate now, and he was actually surprised that he even got a result from it, which implied that there was almost no way that they wouldn’t catch up with him. The rest of the cost being that Clocky fell unconscious shortly after, which meant that their campsite had been decided for them.

“Does that happen often?” Crys asked as he worked with Fairweather to erect a tent around Clocky.

“First time,” she answered with a thoughtful expression. “Sometimes he gets really tired if he tries to use his sense on something specific, but mostly he just lets it run in the background. I think the ability is much more powerful than he lets on.”

It had been fortunate that they were in one of the larger valley areas at the time, and they had found a patch of it that wasn’t as rocky as the rest of it, and once they had removed most of the larger stones it was serviceable enough. Not comfortable, but serviceable. They would do the watches in pairs, under natural light as there wasn’t anywhere near enough wood for a fire (not that that would have been a good idea either, as there was a good chance that a fire would be seen). Once the camp was set up and a cold mean consumed, Fairweather went to lie with Clocky.

“Want to get some more training in?” Vorsce asked Crys. “There’s still enough light for that at the moment.”

Crys nodded, drawing her sword, and shield as well. She could feel the balance and synergy of the weapons. The shield held on her left, sitting comfortably and ready to deflect an incoming blow with a slight change of angle. The sword she grasped lightly in her right hand, testing and feeling its weight and flow. She gave it a few practice swings, altering the strength of her grip as needed until she was certain she was now holding it correctly, hand positioned for its maximum potential. Neither weapon was in its true form, but they wouldn’t change without the rest of the armour being present.

She shifted her feet, falling into a comfortable stance, doing a few more practice swings before she then changed footing, moved forward and did a few more. Another change in position, bringing the shield into position to block a phantom attack, and then the responding counter attacks. Then back around to the beginning again, and repeating through all of the steps. She flowed effortlessly through them, the training mantra soothing on her soul.

“Whoa, whoa... Were you pulling my leg the other day?”

Crys snapped out of her trance at Vorsce’s voice, the day suddenly a lot darker than before.

“Huh? No... why?” Crys replied confused. “Oh, and how long was I at it for?”

Vorsce looked at her curiously. “You’ve been at it for over an hour lass. And your stance, your swings, everything you’ve been doing, those are that of a master, not a beginner. That’s not something that happens overnight. It takes years of practice and experience.”

“Oh. Umm... wow.”

Crys sheathed her weapons. Vorsce was of course right. She just hadn’t noticed, as lost in the trance as she was. Everything had just felt right, natural, and instinctual. A part of her. Not to mention her awareness of the weapons true form. How had she known though, what had changed...

a gift.

Oh.

Crys sat down and looked at Vorsce as he sat beside her. The confusion was probably evident on her face.

“I’m not sure... I’m really not. Something happened to me after that battle with the Dark Wolf, but I’m not entirely sure what. Something touched me... something powerful.”

“You mean when you bleed from almost everywhere possible?” He was giving her a wary but compassionate look.

“Yeah, then. Spectre can sense it, but that is about it.”

“It doesn’t seem hostile,” Crys hastily added.

‘That it definitely isn’t,’ Spectre confirmed. ‘It is battle related however, well kind of obvious I guess. It opened up to you a bit while you were practising. Not enough that I could learn anything about it however.’

“And you know nothing about it?”

Crys shook her head. “Nothing. Though I think I hear thoughts from it at times... Actually I think I have for a while, I just hadn’t been able to identity them at all, and I certainly can’t remember them.”

She paused, a memory coming to her.

“Though, I did see a scene of a battle in that instance...” A battle in which she stood. A battle in which the weapons had been in their true forms. A one sided massacre. Crys shuddered.

in time,

pyre,

in time.

Vorsce shook his head. “These last few days have been filled with more and more unknowns, and to be honest kid, I’m a little scared. We’re in deep. Real deep. In something that dwarfs everything else we’ve done before, and you I think were just the trigger.”

He gave her a smile, seeing her worried expression.

“I don’t blame you for it though, and I believe you when you say that you weren’t faking it. Someone of that skill level cannot pretend to be as incompetent as you were at Cannonsgate. But that realisation just ups the ante. It will be interesting times ahead. Dangerous times. I just pray that we all make it through. Mason did not deserve to die, and hopefully no one else has to.”

“And you know, somehow, I think that Sean too is just a victim...” he finally added.

That... was a heavy reality.