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Mara looked down at his black horse. I finally have my own Vala. But I can’t call her that. I’ll have to think of another name. He touched the smooth leather saddle and saddlebags. Nice. He looked up to see the guide several feet away, and tried to move his horse with a kick, and then wobbled about in the saddle, but it didn’t budge. “Come on, you. We are supposed to be friends. Follow him.”
The guide twisted in his saddled and made a double click noise. Mara’s horse walked. That’s how.
Sevens Helm could only just be seen in the black. I hope I see you again, Silas.
Mara snapped awake. His neck ached from where his head had been hanging forwards as he’d slept on the horse. The red sun had just come up, and the clouds in the sky were yellow and pink. A rope linked the two horses together as they walked through a field of long grass that hissed in the wind.
Mara clicked at the horse and tapped at its sides with his heels. It sped up. He pulled on the reins to slow it as he came alongside the guide. “Where are we going?”
“Ugh,” the guide said.
Mara shrugged, “Where,” he pointed at the guide and then himself, “are we,” then pointed in the direction they travelled and shrugged again, “going?”
The guide smiled. His teeth were brown. “Da. Wron,” he said in a strange tone.
Mara shrugged again. “What?”
The guide slid off his horse. He knelt in a patch of mud, smoothed out a square with his hand, then drew a castle with a circle around it and a square box above that. “Da. Wron.”
Da Wron? A castle?
The guide drew a head with x’s for eyes and an unhappy mouth, then a few houses inside the circle around the castle.
“Is that… Talon?”
The guide nodded. “Ugh.” Then stood and climbed back on his horse.
I don’t want to go back there. Mara shook his head. “No.”
The guide tipped his head to the side, smiled, then got his horse moving again.
Why are they sending me back there? What if someone sees me? Why can’t they send someone else? “Why me? What do I have to do there?”
The guide didn’t turn back. The rope between the horses came off the ground, then jerked Mara’s horse forward, nearly tipping him off backwards.
They walked all through the day and into the night, stopping once for food. The guide had given Mara a blanket to wrap around himself. The sky was clear, and the stars looked like they went on forever. They came to a stop as they turned a corner on the mountain path.
The guide pointed. “Da. Wron.”
The moonlight made the farmland all around Talon look white. Talon stood tall and dark in the middle, little yellow lights all over its surface. Seeing it again made Mara feel nervous. Even though he’d wished he was back in the Spring sometimes, he never thought it would actually happen.
The guide moved on and Mara’s horse followed, this time without waiting for the rope to go tight. It looks peaceful from up here. Nothing like what it’s like down there.
The path got steep as they walked down the mountain, and the horses slipped on the loose rocks now and then, Mara’s stomach tightening each time it happened. After a while, the path flattened out, and they passed into a forest of huge trees that looked the same as the ones Silas had told him the big birds had nested in. Mara hated the strange sounds that came from the dark. Just stay away, whatever you are.
They stopped at a little hut. It looked like it wouldn’t take much to push it over. Grass grew out of its roof, and there were no shutters on the windows. The guide got off his horse and pointed for Mara to do the same, then nodded at the hut, then held both hands on his cheek and shut his eyes.
Mara lay in the hut on some old straw, wrapped in the musty blanket. Something underneath the straw dug into his hip no matter where he moved. The guide had started a fire outside. The smoke smelt nice, and the shadows that danced on the walls of the hut made him feel warm. I better go to sleep, we can’t be far away. Then I’ll have to meet the person. What will I have to do? Kill a Wretch like Silas did? I hope I do. All the Wretches should die.
“Ugh.” The guide smiled through the window.
It was light outside. Mara had seen the Beast in his dreams, in the Spring. The Spring had been on fire, and dead people lay at Mara’s feet, covered in blood. That’s all he remembered. Was it me or the Beast that killed them? He stretched and got up.
Outside, the guide handed over some bread filled with cheese, first pointing at his mouth twice, then pointed into the forest.
The bread was tough and the cheese dry, but the guide smiled at Mara as he ate, so he forced it down. He’s a nice man. He doesn’t deserve not to be able to talk. I wonder if the Beast could help him? The Beast didn’t appear, but Mara knew that it was for the best. Only bad things happened when it showed up.
After an hour’s travel through the forest, the guide stopped and untied the rope between the horses. He pointed at Mara, then down a track. “Ugh.” Then pointed at himself, at the floor, and held out his palm.
