Ascendant (6 page)

Not knowing
where else to go from the first crossroads, he had walked steadily in a
generally southerly direction, trying to stay ahead of the changing seasons,
keeping away from towns, and out of sight as much as possible. Once, when he
was very hungry, he had snuck onto a farm and stolen a handful of eggs, but as
he sat down to eat them, he considered the children who likely lived on the
farm. The missing eggs would not go unnoticed, and the children would get into
trouble with their parents. Koren lost his appetite thinking that he might
cause some other boy or girl to be abandoned by their parents, so he returned
to the farm before daylight and put the eggs back. Since then, he lived on
plants he found in the forest, and fishing and trapping provided just enough
food. His pack contained his meager supply of possessions; two knives, fish
hooks and twine, flint for starting fires, a length of rope, a small tarp, a
thin sweater and a jacket. Koren was not terribly worried about being able to
survive in the forest, except for during the winter. No child grew up on a farm
in Winterthur province, boy or girl, without knowing how to hunt and fish, how
to make clothing out of deer hide, to make a bow and arrows, how to find plants
and roots to eat.

For this
morning, he had a few wild potatoes and carrots that he
’
d found the day before.
With a fire started, he huddled next to it for warmth while he roasted the
vegetables for breakfast. When the carrots and potatoes were roasted soft, he
munched on them, watching the small fire burn down. Koren stood up abruptly,
kicking dirt into the fire to put it out without any smoke. Fires reminded him
of home, a fire glowing on the hearth in their cozy kitchen, warming the house
on a cold day, with a pot of stew hung over the flames, and his mother stirring
and sprinkling in seasonings. Fires reminded him of home, and he now didn
’
t have a home, or a
family, so he didn
’
t
want to be reminded. When the fire was safely out, he ate a roasted potato
while he made his way through the forest. It was time to check on the trap he
’
d placed in the river, to
see if any fish had been caught during the night.

He hopped on
rocks out into the river, to where he had set the trap. It was in a good place,
for just downstream, the river picked up speed as it fell through a series of
rapids, the strong current should push fish into his trap. Success! He would
eat well that day, he thought hungrily. There were three fat fish swimming in
the trap, Koren quickly lowered the upstream gate so the fish could not get
out. With one of his knives, he sharpened the end of a stick, and held it like
a spear, waiting for a fish to swim close-

Voices
startled him, and he crouched down behind a rock. Sound traveled far across
water. He heard deep voices, more than one man, and a higher sound, a girl?
What were they doing, here in the wilderness? Koren had not seen a single
person for three weeks, and he had been camping in these very woods for eight
days. He tucked his knife into his belt, used the spear for a balance, and
leaped across rocks back to the shore, to hide behind bushes on the riverbank.

A small boat
floated into view, such a boat Koren had never seen before. It was no more than
twenty feet long, narrow, brightly painted, with the carved head of a dragon on
the front. A man paddled at the front, and two more men used paddles at the
rear, in between were two boys and a girl, roughly his age. The men were armed
with bows and short swords, and the children were wearing brightly-colored
clothes the likes of which Koren had never seen. Even the Baron of Crickdon
county could scarcely afford such fine clothing.

Where was the
boat going? Surely the man in the bow could see the rapids ahead? He did. The
man called out, and the boat turned, steering for a gravel bank just upstream
from Koren. Koren had a moment of panic, his pack was hanging from a tree, near
where the boat was headed. Everything Koren owned was in that pack! He needed
to crawl through the bushes over to-

Koren never
finished that thought. The strange boat was almost ashore, the man in the front
had laid down his paddle and swung a leg over the side to get out, when there
was a blood-freezing roar, and the largest bear Koren had ever seen burst out the
woods and crashed into the boat. Before anyone could react, the boat flipped
over, spilling everyone out, the two men in the back were trapped underneath,
the two boys were flung onto the gravel bank, the girl was tossed out to land
with a splash in the river, and the man in front was knocked to fall face-first
into the water.

The bear
stepped back, momentarily confused, then focused on the girl, and bounded over
the upturned boat. The man who had been in the front of the boat rolled to his
feet, and tried to draw his sword, but the bear swatted him with his great paw,
and the man was flung onto the shore, his sword flying away into the river.

Koren expected
the girl to scream as the bear reared up in front of her. Instead she reached
down to the river bottom, picked up a smooth stone, and threw it to hit the
bear square on the nose! The bear stopped in its tracks and covered its
now-bloody nose with a paw, the girl lost her balance, and stumbled backward to
hit her head on a rock. She slumped on her back, her face barely above the
water.

The bear shook
its head, dropped its paw away from its nose, and rose up on its back paws to
stand over the girl, its front claws glinting like daggers in the sunlight.

Koren
’
s feet were splashing into
the river before he knew what he was doing. He shouted something at the bear,
holding one hand, palm outward toward the great beast, his other hand reaching
for the girl. To his great surprise, the bear was
pushed
violently
backwards, it rolled to sit on its haunches in the river, swinging its front
paws around like its face were being attacked by a swarm of bees. The bear
roared again, splashed back to the shore, crashed head-first into a tree, as if
it were blinded, and disappeared into the forest, bellowing as it went along.

Koren was so
surprised to still be alive that he fell right on his butt into the chilly
river, up to his waist. The two guards who had been under the boat were now
standing near the boat, looking dazed but holding their swords with grim
determination. Koren turned to look for the girl, she had lost her grip on the
rock and was drifting helplessly into the current, her head barely above the
water, one arm waving weakly. As she drifted by, she and Koren locked eyes for
a split second.

They were the
most beautiful eyes Koren had ever seen, ever imagined, a striking pale green
that drew him in. How a moment could last a lifetime, Koren didn
’
t know, but in that
moment, time stood still, and he was lost.

Help me
,
her eyes pleaded.

“
Boy! You, boy! Get away!
”
One of the men warned, as
he splashed unsteadily into the river. Koren knew the man would not reach the
girl in time, she was already being spun around as the river gathered force to
rush through the rapids. Koren hauled himself to his feet, and saw that his only
chance to catch the girl was to leap from one rock to the next until he was
right at the first rapid, he might be able to jump in and hang onto the girl as
she was swept by. He jumped wildly from rock to rock, his feet skidding and
slipping, bruising his knees and knuckles as he steadied himself from falling.
Just as he reached the last rock, he saw the girl plunged under the water.
Koren took a deep breath as he launched himself into the air.

Somehow, Koren
found the girl under the water, and held onto her. Held onto the girl, thinking
of nothing else but clutching her to him as they were carried along, plunging
down one rapid after another. When he could, he held the girl
’
s face up so she could
breathe, even so they both swallowed water and choked as he struggled to stay
afloat. His body was battered as he was bashed against rocks by the tremendous,
unrelenting force of the water. Atop one swell of water, just before they
plunged down over a fall, Koren saw a relatively still pool to the right, and
willed
the water to sweep him in that direction. As they fell, he kicked his feet with
all his might, before the swirling water spun him upside down, and he swallowed
a mouthful of water. Koren gagged and almost lost his grip on the girl as he
spat out water. He needed air. Desperately, he twisted to lift his head out of
the water.

And found they
were floating in a pool, a backwater where the current lazily spun around. The
girl coughed, spitting out water. Koren swung his legs down and found he could
stand on a rock, with the last of his strength he waded onto a wide, flat rock
near the riverbank and pulled the girl to flop down next to him. The girl
rolled onto her side, coughing and choking out water.
“
Help!
”
Koren managed to cry,
between breaths.

When he could
move again, he reached out for the girl, she was dazed, her eyes open but
unfocused. Her dress was torn, her arms and legs covered with bruises. Koren
tried to stand, and found his own limbs so battered and cold that he could
barely control his hands and feet. Blood seeped from cuts and scrapes all over
him, his already rough pants and shirt now ripped in so many places he could
never patch them together again.

Koren was
startled by the faint scratching sounds of something, or someone, trying to
move quietly through the woods along the riverbank. And there was another,
louder sound, further away but drawing closer. Men
’
s voices, shouting, and
what Koren thought were horses making their way through the woods at high
speed.

The bushes
along the shore above his head parted, and a man stepped out, followed by three
more men. They were the type of men his parents warned against, hard-looking,
carrying swords and knives, wicked grins on their faces.
“
What have we here? A rich
girl, looks like, and her servant? I bet her parents would pay a pretty price
to have their daughter back, in one piece, huh, boys?
”

Bandits! It
was Koren
’
s
bad luck to stumble across woods that bandits were using as a hideout. Truly
his life was jinxed! Koren rose unsteadily to his feet and pulled a knife from
his belt.
“
Stay
away from her.
”
He said in a voice hoarse from choking on water. He had never fought with a
knife before, but it was a good blade, dwarf-made, and everyone knew dwarves
were the finest metalworkers in the land.

“
What? The lady
’
s pet has a sting? Forget
her, boy, drop that knife and we
’
ll
give you a share of the ransom money. More than you
’
d earn in a lifetime, I
think.
”

“
Hurry up about it, Togan,
we
’
ve got
company coming.
”
One of the other bandits said, as the sound of men and horses crashing through
the woods grew louder.

The man called
Togan eased down the steep bank to stand on the rock on front of Koren.
“
I
’
ll not say it again, boy,
stand aside. There
’
s
no need for-
“
Togan struck, moving his knife in a slashing motion toward Koren
’
s face, expecting the boy
would flinch and back away. Instead, Koren
’
s
own hand came up faster than he could see, and his knife cut Togan
’
s wrist, forcing the
bandit to drop the knife.

“
Argh!
”
Togan held his bloody
wrist with his other hand. Koren found his ears burning red at the bad words
Togan was screaming, in front of a girl.

“
Don
’
t curse in front of a
lady, mister.
”
Koren scolded the man.

“
What?
”
The other bandits stared
open-mouthed at Koren, as if they
’
d
just discovered he had two heads. Who was this idiot boy? What kind of person
cared about being polite, when attacked by bandits?

“
Kill him!
”
Togan growled, as he
tried to scramble backwards up the riverbank. One of the other bandits grasped
Togan
’
s shirt
collar and pulled to help the wounded man up, but Togan slipped and fell
heavily onto the rock.
“
Help
me up.
”
Togan
ordered, as the sounds of men and horses crashing their way through the
underbrush was now very loud, and Koren could see bushes swaying along the
riverbank as the horses knocked them aside in their haste.

“
Too late. Good luck to
you, Togan.
”
Said the bandit who had been trying to help Togan, and at that, the other
bandits melted back into the woods.