The Itheryn Chronicles

Chapter VI - Men

Chapter 6

Men

In the desert of Tewnove
The blistering sun beat down upon the brother’s heads as sand blew in whorls around them.
They faced a stark landscape, populated only by a few desert creatures, lizards, little mammals, carrion fowl, and the wandering desert horses, fiery red, and jet black, that weather storms like this in hidden valleys.
So far, all they had spied were a few vultures feeding on a dead animal and two sand rats.
Glancing back at his father, Edric slowed his horse. Karrelt was helping the old woman Bettiny. She was having another of her spasms. They didn’t expect her to live much longer.
Facing the horizon, he picked up the pace. If they were to reach the Haven by nightfall, they had to press on.

Carrick acknowledged the nod from his brother and went to help move the animals along. They had just picked up some hardy stock from the mountain village of Canton.
The Horses were feisty, and liked to lead a winding, pace changing path, while the steers lumbered forwards, intent on slowing down their herders.
“HIYAH!” Carrick cracked his whip. The animals just looked at him out of the corner of their eyes and plodded slowly along. So Carrick swung around, tightened up the herd, and nudged them---with the point of his sword. That got them moving.
“MUUUH! The steers that had just been so rudely pricked rolled their eyes and lumbered into the animals in front of them, causing a chain reaction. The whole herd started tripping over one another, many ending up in a pile of mooing livestock with all the others heading off in various directions, lowing and bellowing as if a screaming banshee was behind them.

“What happened!?” Karrelt came galloping up, staring in dismay at the large cows flopping in front of him.
“Uhh, I pricked a few with the point of my sword?” With a red-tinged face and florescent pink ears, Carrick sat openmouthed as he took in all that he had caused with an innocent poke.




Hours later…
“I didn’t mean for this to happen, really!” Sitting in the center of a mob of angry herders and an even angrier father, he pleaded for a more lenient punishment. “Yup, and I don’t mean to go looking for the white bull and cow. Find them.” Vetik cracked a dark smile. “They like to hide in interesting places. The bull is smart, and the cow, well, she has an ornery spirit. Have fun. And keep the animals alive will ya?”
With that, Vetik withdrew. The lead herder, he had the last say when it came to these matters. The other hands looked at the red-headed young man, shook their heads, and followed Vetik. Karrelt stayed where he was.
“Well.”
Carrick glanced up at his fathers face.
“You made a fine mess of things. You’d better go clean it up.” And he left. Karrelt just turned his back and walked wearily back to where the caravan had set up camp, leaving Carrick with a guilty conscience and some cows to catch.

Stomping off to get his gear, Carrick ran through the day in his mind. Rounding the cows up, losing the beautiful, pure white cows that had cost them so much. Shaking his head, Carrick groaned, sat down, and rested his head on his arms.


Carrick rode out on Aeyin. Aeyin was just as put out with him as the rest of the herders, only he was unhappy about being taken away from his grain. His gait jerked Carrick, and it seemed to his unfortunate rider, to be purposeful.
“Oh, stop it. Not you too!” Carrick kneed his bay in the sides and slapped the reigns.
“You shouldn’t treat your horse like that. It’s you that caused the problem. Not him.” Turning to see his brother riding up on his golden mare, Carrick snorted.
“What are you doing here? Did father send you along to watch out for the ‘Unruly and misfortunate’ brother that you have been saddled with?”
Glancing ruefully at his Twin, Edric gave a slight smile
“I came along because I thought you might need help. I didn’t come because Father sent me, but because I wanted to.”
Carrick wasn’t sure if he believed him, but decided not to say anything. The brothers continued on in silence.
This area of the Tewnove desert rarely saw wind, or rain. And because of that, Carrick and Edric were able to follow the cows’ tracks for a few days. On the fourth, scorching day of searching, Edric began to have second thoughts when suddenly a spear embedded itself in the sand right in front of his horse.
Whipping his head around, Edric saw a dark form disappear behind a ridge.
Horse prancing, Edric nudged over to the spear, and examined it. It was of a make he had only seen once before.
“We should hurry Carrick” He said after another moments pause.
Then they continued on their way.
The heat of the desert weighed upon the brothers as the doggedly skirted the rocky outcroppings while tracking their missing charges.
In the evenings they would pause and eat, then continue as best they could with what meager light was left. When it got to dark to follow the tracks reliably, they rested. At dawn, the moved out again until noon, when they took advantage of the meager shade afforded by rocks in the area, a lunch, and slept. Once the heat had lessened, they would continue on. This pattern was kept until one morning Carrick found another set of prints…human footprints.
Pulling up, Carrick nudged Edric on the leg and pointed.
“Whose prints do you think those are?”
Edric’s hand came to his sword hilt and clenched the pommel.
“They have the cows.” He said.
“They?” Carrick looked again and sure enough, the hoof prints were right beside the footprints.
“Yes…” Edric’s face was grim.
“The Shiken”





“We’ll never get them back now!” Carrick stormed from one end of the camp to the other, fists clenched. His face was glistening with sweat.
“Sit down Carrick. You’re going to exhaust yourself.” Edric calmly stirred the pot of thin soup.
Carrick swung to face his brother, furious. “What will father say? We can’t just go back!”
Edric turned his green eyes up to meet his brothers blue’s.
He nodded his head in agreement.
“Father will not accept the excuse of others taking them. We must get them back.” So saying, he ladled the food into two trenchers.
“Eat”
Carrick stared in disbelief at his brother, ignoring the outstretched hand.
“Are you Crazy? They either kill you, or take you hostage! You know the stories!”
Edric raised his eyebrow, and then gazed at the pastel colored horizon.

“We must try…” he whispered.


By evening the brothers had tracked the Shiken to the edge of the Tiro Nato Mountains.
“It’s all uphill from here.” Said Edric wearily.
Dismounting, he grabbed Ionat’s reigns and started up the rocky path.
“Edric! You can’t be serious!” Carrick sat and eyed the steep, treacherous path in distaste, then glanced back to the scorching desert.
“And besides, I thought the Shiken lived in the desert.”
“They do, just not all of them. Their king lives in these mountains.” Edric could tell Carrick wasn’t listening.
Carrick turned back to the obstacle before them.
“No Edric. If we go up there, we will lose weeks of travel time…Father will not be happy.”
“Yes, well, we will be losing two animals that are worth fifty horses apiece if we don’t hurry! Father will not be happy about that either.” Edric glared at his brother and started upwards again.
Sighing, Carrick slid to the ground and led Aeyin up the path, brow furrowed in apprehension.

One evening after many days of travel through enemy land, the brothers were sitting by their campfire when a faint noise disturbed them.
“Edric, did you hear that?”
“It sounded like….” Realization registered on Edrics face.
“Hurry Carrick…We must leave”
Carrick was surprised by this sudden change in plans, and in his brother’s countenance.
“Edric? ...I”
“Now!” hissed Edric. He was hurriedly stowing all their supplies in their saddlebags, glancing warily around every few seconds.
“What is…” Carrick was interrupted by a few pebbles that fell from the ledge above their heads.
Turning, eyes wide to where his brother stood rigid, naked sword in his hands, Carrick’s blood ran cold.
“Is there something you haven’t told me Edric? Who really lives here?”
Edrics face was strained, as his eyes darted back and forth, fingers nervously tapping on the hilt of his sword.
“It’s the Shiken….They have found us…” Sounds floated out of the darkness, barely discernable from the normal night noises.
“Run!” He breathed, turning and bolting to Ionat’s side.
Edric didn’t get farther than that as a ‘Thwack’ was heard and both collapses, foreheads bloody.

Groaning, Edric shifted, bumping into something beside him. Shifting his head he saw Carrick, a bloody gash on his forehead.
Head throbbing, he nudged Carrick.
When he stirred, Edric examined their surroundings.
Five men sat beside a fire. Aeyin and Iona were tied up to a large stone. It seemed they were still at their old campfire until he noticed the thick trees on one side, and the towering stone cliff on the other.
‘We’re in the center lands…’ he thought. Quick breathing caught his hearing and he turned his attention to Carrick, who was curled up into a ball, hands clutching at his head.
Suddenly a face stared down at them. In a raspy voice it said, “Welcome to the country of the Shiken. “Smiling cruelly, the man, or at least they thought he was a man….with pointed teeth, fingered a strange looking object at his side.
Calling two other men to his sides he turned his back on the brothers and spoke to them. They were dressed oddly, though formidably, and send a shiver of apprehension coursing through their captives.
Edric could only catch the last few words that were uttered.
“…Kill them.”


-Blair

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