Blasphemer's Travelogue Chapter Three

The path they had chosen took them through several satellite towns. They were headed towards a forest that apparently was not well-traveled and marked the boundary of the known world. Nunya irritably acknowledged that she had experience in the forest and that it was not odd for the peasantry to venture in to forage or trap small game. She had pursed her lips and grudgingly admitted that not everyone came back.

Charming.

The first few days of travel were not that bad, aside from the fact that Moida was clearly concerned about pursuit. His anxiety began to put Tavia on edge as well, because she had the impression that he was pretty level-headed. If he was really worried about the vulture man, then there was probably a reason.

She pried a bit of it out of him one night, when they stayed in a country manor.

“Lord Faraise is ambitious,” Moida hedged. “He is not known for his open mindedness, or his fondness of competition. He may feel that I present a rival for the Emperor’s approval. He has much improved his family’s standing in the last years, but they do not have quite the access to titles and respectable roles that more prestigious families do. His youngest son was recently dismissed from a warden posting.”

“So if you’re dead, he has a better shot of increased political power?” Tavia checked.

Moida looked a bit green.

That was a yes, then.

They were traveling pretty quickly, considering that they were all on foot. They stuck to a rigid schedule of three long walks throughout the daylight hours, and a relatively early stopping point in the evening when they relaxed and socialized and made food for the next day. The first part of the trip was something that the nobility had definitely done before, because they had a clear route of roads to take and friendly faces to bother for spare rooms for the fancy people and camping space for the less fancy people.

It took them a week to get to the point where there wasn’t a nice town with a rich man’s house to crash at every night. French Fry had been wrangled into a rope-based containment system that she couldn’t quite dignify by calling a harness, but he wore it well as he strode imperiously around the first real camp that they made.

That night was the first one she spent more than a few minutes at a time with the man who had the birdcage being used as cat transport. French Fry’s footman was 23, eager to please, and not very knowledgeable about cats.

“Of course he walks on a leash, it’s very easy,” Tavia said, just to watch him squirm. She faked concern. “Are you having a hard time?”

Joel faltered for a moment, but then his lopsided grin was back. He was cradling French Fry’s cage as if it contained fragile ostrich eggs and not the world’s most spoiled cat. “I will practice at our breaks, then. The little lord will need his daily walk.”

Tavia looked down at her cat, who had previously been employed as a tremendously lazy house cat. “He’ll chase things on a string, let’s try that tonight.”

Someone nearby made an aggrieved sound.

Ah.

“Mrs. Bhaira,” she greeted. The middle aged woman, who had apparently appointed herself chaperone, was giving them an exasperated look.

“My lady priestess,” Bhaira said, aiming for respect but sounding somewhat chiding. “What time will we be entertaining the …” she trailed off and gestured at the cat. “Your companion animal?”

Tavia frowned at her. “He’s a cat,” she said slowly. “Or you can call him French Fry.”

Mrs. Bhaira looked a bit strained. “A cat,” she repeated, as if she had never heard the word before. “A cat, of course.”

...Alright, cats are probably not a native species, Tavia decided. So. She had showed up with the cultural equivalent of a … an ermine or something.

French Fry mostly had a good attitude about the travel, which was good because his yowling seemed to unnerve people. He adjusted better than Tavia did. She had finally gotten nice boots, but they were hurting her feet. Humans were, technically speaking, made to walk long distances. And she was used to being on her feet at work. But the boots were pretty hard and flat on the sole and she was pretty miserable by the end of the second day.

Walking left her a lot of time to think. At first, she tried to fill all the time by talking. She learned a lot. Mrs. Bhaira was a farmer, who was there because of Tavia’s suggestions. Mr. Aguilar was loud and funny, and he talked with his hands. He was one of the better-traveled people present and he kept a good attitude even when others became tired and irritable. One thing she couldn’t help but notice was that Moida grew even more anxious as they walked on and became more withdrawn.

“If Lord Faraise wants to follow us, it would be easy, wouldn’t it?” she asked Mrs. Bhaira.

The older woman nodded. “Very easy,” she said blandly. She was looking ahead, at where the man with the ‘bear’ scar was talking with Moida. “This is the obvious and only route to our starting point, and any number of people would have noticed such a large group. It doesn’t matter. We are ahead, and he won’t gain anything by retracing our path.”

Tavia bit her lip. “That depends on what his goal is, don’t you think?” She ran a hand over her hair, which was neatly braided and pinned up.

Mrs. Bhaira eyed her sideways. “I’m sure he wants to finish the task first and return to the emperor successfully for his reward.”

“Being the only one to come back is one way to do that,” Tavia said.

For a few moments, the only sound was their footsteps among the shuffling, clatter, and chatter of about 200 people going on a very stupid walk into a deadly forest.

“Not a very godlike idea, is it,” Bhaira commented. It was hard to read her tone.

...It seemed like a time for mystical bullshit to muddy the waters. So she hummed. “The minds of men are ever far from the holy,” she said, lowering her tone. She hoped it sounded cool. Tavia snuck a glance over. Bhaira didn’t look like she thought Tavia was full of shit, at least. She looked like she was thinking it over.

And then they entered the forest. It seemed normal, at first. Tavia thought that the legend of the forest was a bit exaggerated. But it was a lot less comfortable than the towns and roads. They couldn’t get all the tents up. The trees were too closely gathered. The second day in the forest, she kept feeling smaller and more anxious. She wasn’t sure where the feeling was coming from until Mr. Aguilar mentioned that the trees were getting taller as they walked further inside.

“As we knew, of course,” he said, winking confidentially. He had a way of making it seem as if they had a lot in common and were sharing in-jokes. It was comforting, despite the fact that she didn’t know any of the punchlines. “I’ve been this far and no further. Young Mr. Ragfield has gone deeper, and that is why he is at the head of our group.”

“How tall are the trees at the center?” Tavia snaked her arms inside her sleeves and tucked them against her body for that little extra bit of body warmth.

“No one can say,” Mr. Aguilar said cheerfully. “If we come back, we will be the first!”

That was a bit terrifying, but the way he said it, it was also a bit exciting. Even Tavia felt a bit caught up in it.

On the fourth day, the trees were bigger still, but increasingly further apart. It  became more comfortable again as they could put up tents to sleep at night. Tavia shared hers with French Fry, Nunya, and of course Mrs. Bhaira. Of the three, French Fry was by far the most cheerful and talkative.

On the fifth day, they found a river. The first thing to note about it was that it was an obvious course to follow, because water meant life. The second thing about the river was that it felt magical.

“Priestess?”

Mrs. Bhaira touched her arm.

Tavia took a moment to register the feeling. “Yes?” she said, without looking away from the water. It was glistening, even in the falling dark. Something was calling to her. She wanted to get in the water.

“We are stopping for the night,” Bhaira said. Her tone was odd.

Tavia frowned. She blinked. Something was pulling at her attention, but it was hard to consciously figure out what it was that she had noticed. She felt her jaw tighten and ran her tongue along the inside of her teeth. The sensation woke her up a bit. She blinked rapidly a few times and then finally looked at the other woman. “Oh, of course.”

It was a lot darker than she had realized. They had been walking later than they usually would, or maybe the trees were just blotting out too much of the light.

She bit her lip and glanced around. Yes, the light was an issue. Men were trying to get fires going already. That was backwards- usually the temporary shelter would go up first. What had happened? How had they failed to notice the light leaving? She momentarily wondered why their guide with the bear scar hadn’t stopped them earlier, and then she lost track of the thought.

“Would light help?” Tavia asked, feeling oddly disconnected.

Mrs. Bhaira’s eyebrows drew down a bit. “I’m sure that it would, but-” She stopped talking when Tavia held a hand up and wanted there to be light. Not like before- she didn’t turn the sun up. This time, she knew what she wanted was a gentle ray stretched across the forest above her head, casting light down for everyone to work by.

There must have been a reaction, but she didn’t hear it. She was looking at the water again. It seemed so deep and inviting.

She had a feeling that there was something in there that she was going to need. Everything was a bit hot and heady and disorienting, but the concept of the lady in the lake trailed across her mind before fleeting away in the low light.

Before the end of it all, she was going to be in that water. It was the only thing that mattered.