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“No.” He shook his head and lifted my hands, careful not to touch the burns on my wrists or the drying blood on my arm. “Does this hurt?”
“Stings. It’s fine. My leg is the biggest concern. We need to get moving.” I made to stand with his help.
“Can you walk?”
“I think so. It may be slow going though. Look… I appreciate you helping me and all but I’m a liability now and I’ll only slow you down. Go on without me.” It would have been the smart thing to do. My wounds would likely attract more predators, and I couldn’t outrun anything with this injury.
“Not gonna happen, Roav. We had an agreement.” The side of his mouth lifted into a smirk.
I let out a breath of relief. There was no way I could have made it on my own. And if I was able to solve the riddle, then maybe this symbiotic relationship really would have been worth it for both of us.
I put my jacket back on while he went to snatch up the canteens that were laid by the river, and we started walking north again. Njall supported me for the first few steps until I got to a steady limp. I left my daggers in the river creature’s head. I wasn’t risking getting burned again to retrieve them.
“Where’s the food?” I asked after a few moments.
“Well, while you were fighting for your life against some water-lizard-thing, I was busy being scared of parasitic insects, so I didn’t get any,” Njall said sheepishly. “But thankfully the dried meat wasn’t ruined!”
He passed me some as we walked. He walked, I limped. I knew that he was slowing his pace so that I could keep up.
“Alright, let’s work out this riddle,” he practically chirped with a mouth full of meat. “I estimate it will take about two days to walk to the base of the mountain. And then we’ll have an entire night to do whatever else we need to do.”
I glanced down at my arm and read it several times, ‘you shall find what light brings to life yet dies in darkness’. I mumbled it under my breath over and over and over, until I had it committed to memory. At least it gave me something to think about other than my injuries.
“You still think it’s about the plants?” He gestured to my arm.
I shook my head. “No. Maybe? It could be.” I struggled with deciphering it. “I mean, if it is plants oraplant, then you’re right, that doesn’t narrow it down. And here.” I pointed to the next part on my arm, Njall bending over me to get a better look, a scent of iron and leather filled my nose. “‘Only its death will bring forth the path’. What if that means it can only be seen at night, since it dies in darkness?”
Njall ran a hand through his damp brown hair and seemed to contemplate my theory. “But how do we know which one or ones? We’re in a forest for Nox’s sake,” he said, beseeching the Goddess of Gaol.
I stopped and looked around. The moss and trees and bushes looked average, nothing seemed particularly different. If I could just get a better look—
My gaze snapped up. Between the trees, I could just barely make out the concave tip of the mountain.
“What if we just can’t tell from down here? Maybe we’ll be able to see it from up there.” I pointed toward the mountain peak. It made perfect sense. The riddle was leading us to the mountain so that we could see the path. “We have to climb to the top of the mountain.”
Njall let out a sharp breath. “At night.”
“What?” My confusion was written all over my face.
“‘Dies in darkness’. We have to climb the mountain at night. And since it’ll take us two full days to get there, that only leaves us a few hours to find what we’re looking for before the third dawn.”
Njall was right. If we had the riddle correct, we would only be able to see the answer from the mountain in the darkness. With the slopes completely barren of any trees, we would be completely exposed, unable to hide from the beasts that dwelled in the forest. Something neither of us looked forward to.
We trekked through the forest for an entire day, and thankfully, we hadn’t run into any additional unsavory creatures.
Njall talked. A lot. I listened. He revealed that he was indeed from Oryn, and he told me all about his life as a blacksmith. He rambled on and on about the metals he forged, his favorite weapons he had been commissioned to make, and how much he loathed forging horseshoes—which he apparently did often. And, how excited he was to finally work without long sleeves that had to cover his mark. To my surprise, I found myself actually enjoying the sound of his voice, appreciative for the distraction of his stories as we walked for hours.
At some point, I tuned out his words, my mind trying to figure out the rest of the riddle. My eyes glazed over in thought, and my legs moved automatically. I couldn’t make sense of the words, and it bothered me to the point of frustration.
‘What has a river that doesnot flow’
I really didn’t want to think about any fucking rivers. But I repeated it in my head over and over and—
“Kya?” Njall brought me back from my thoughts, looking at me expectantly.
I shook my head. “Sorry. What?”
“I said, ‘What is it like being a Roav?’”
