Chapter XXXIX: Return to Azurat (Cont. IV)
Far above, the farmer had just begun to recover, startled by all the noise of the log pile that had been loosed. He slowly brought himself up and glanced down into the village, seeing nothing out of the ordinary except a few less palamares and a demolished log pile. He shook it off and resolved that he would not take any more walks up here. He slowly brought himself up to his feet, trying to steady his shaky nerves. Slowly, he calmed in the silence. And then he froze. Next to him, emerging from the cavern was another man, wearing all black, though much of it was tattered and a couple strips had been torn away. The man who had emerged didn’t even acknowledge the frozen farmer and marched down towards the village, muttering to himself.
Shaw observed the village for a moment, plodding through it as he looked for a suitable mode of transportation. His eyes finally settled on a feralite that was chained up in a small building that had to be its home. He slowly marched towards the shack near the edge of the village, bringing out a small vile of acid to eat through the chains. The feralite growled slowly, baring its teeth as it slunk back into the house. This stopped Shaw for a moment as he reconsidered his choice.
“No…no….that’s perfectly good trans….port.” A voice grunted from below Shaw. He turned and glanced over the edge to see Forte laying in a pile of logs and bleeding from the leg. He was bruised and his lip was cut, but he was otherwise in good shape.
“Forte?”
“Ermine got the drop on me, it seems. But no matter. We have to deal with him. He’s heading back for home….if we don’t stop him, then Baen will catch on to all that is going on around him.” Forte brought himself to his feet slowly, hobbling towards the hill and pulling himself up slowly.
“And what all is going on?”
“If you knew, then he may search your mind and discover…that’s why I needed you to remain in the dark. You were supposed to go home.”
“And if I did, then what was the point of all this?”
Forte had brought himself up to Shaw’s level and glanced over at the feralite who had stopped growling once it took in Forte, the assassin’s eyes far more frightening than anything the beast had seen. “Sometimes our point is solely to help others along to their destinations. You may believe that we all have our shining moment, but some of us do nothing more than help others reach theirs. All our life we will be nothing more than stepping stones.”
“You may believe that, but I don’t.”
“Still, you will take me home and we shall get rid of Ermine. That will be point enough.”
Shaw observed Forte for a moment, looking down at the bandage he was wrapping around his leg. “You say that Ermine got the drop on you?”
Forte glanced up, “Yes.”
Shaw glanced over at the feralite and poured the acid on the chain, watching as it shattered at his kick. He lead the feralite out by the remaining length of chain and mounted it, helping Forte up onto it. “Why would he let you live?”
Forte sighed, “Who knows, Shaw. Let’s just get going, shall we. We don’t have much time.”
“Fine,” Shaw said. He knew something was fishy about all this, but he wasn’t sure what. But right now, he was about ready to just relax and wait for an explanation, not go searching for one. Every time he went searching for answers, he ended up with nothing more than more questions. “Let’s get going then.” Shaw shoed the feralite and the two took off across the wastes towards home.
By now, the farmer had finally brought himself out of his stupor, watching the feralite disappear in a cloud of dust. He shakily marched over towards the cavern and peered inside. He was now getting angry, the mad kind of angry that drives someone towards insanity. “You all done now!?” His yell was filled with nervous sarcasm as he peered into the darkness. No reply came. With a sigh, he turned and began to march towards the path, stopped by the sound of clanking armor. He didn’t even glance at the cave, he just ran for the village screaming with fear. A moment later, Rah emerged from the caverns and glanced up into the sky.