CHAPTER 4
LEAVING
Sunlight streamed through an open window on a neatly made bed. Near one wall, there was a small dresser. Its top drawers were open and their contents removed. Near the door, Alan was finishing his packing. He had two changes of clothes with him, as well as his razor, a pair of knives, a bedroll, blanket, hardtack and jerky, and carefully wrapped and placed near the bottom of the pack, the gold and stones. Hefting his pack, he placed it on his back and started down the short hall to the stairs. Pausing by Mary's room, he stood in the doorway and stared at his sister. Her long brown hair had been freshly combed, and her nightdress changed. Sweat still covered her brow, and her harsh rattle told him she was still having difficulty breathing. Jasmine was asleep in a chair next to her. She had barely left the room since she had come. Alan felt a surge of thankfulness. Jasmine's mere presence was a comfort to Alan. Turning away, he left as silently as he had come.
Downstairs, he found the rest of his family waiting for him. Stormy stood by the door, dressed in a dark woolen one-piece top and collar, with a saddle on her back and bulging packs on either side. His father was helping her adjust some of the straps to give her added comfort. Sabrina was next to the table with her mother, talking in low voices. As Alan came up to them, Sabrina gave him a hug. "You take care of yourself, giant." She whispered. Alan returned the hug fiercely. "You too, short stuff." They released each other. Alan blinked a couple of times; trying to hold back his tears as his mom gave him a gentle hug. Letting go, she gave a smile. Alan looked at his father. "Stormy's all ready to go." He said gruffly. He stuck out his hand and Alan clasped it firmly. Neither man could speak. Sabrina and Kathleen went up to Stormy and hugged her tightly as well. Words were spoken, but were too low for Alan to hear. Grabbing the spears from the table, he followed Stormy out of the house. In the yard, he swung up on her back. Adjusting his wide-brimmed hat, he swung his spears and fastened them next to his bow on the pack. The pack was secured on her back. Stormy turned towards town and started walking. At the edge of the road, they stopped and looked back. There was his family, watching them. Waving farewell, they started down the road.
They passed through the first bits of the rubble. Already there was plenty of fresh construction going up. Most of the new houses, Alan noticed, seemed to be made of sawn logs. They were going up rather fast as folks were worrying about the next storm. There was a charged feeling to the air. Many people were out and hard at work. They raised hands in greetings or cheerfully shouted greetings as they rode through town. He met Tobias near the Meeting house. He found Tobias sitting on the front step, idly spinning his hat. Spotting Alan, he stood up and placed his hat on his head. Accepting a spear from Alan, he nodded to Stormy. "Are we set?" he asked. "As ready as we'll ever be." Alan replied. "Where's your horse?" asked Stormy. Tobias pointed around the other side of the building. "He's over there, probably stuffing his face." The trio walked over and saw a tall reddish-brown stallion. The animal raised its head when he saw Tobias and trotted over to him. "Isn't that Ned Teldman's horse?" Alan asked wonderingly. Ned was very proud of his horse, and had raced him several times. Alan knew he had plans to breed him. He found it really hard to believe that Tobias could get Ned's horse. "Ned owed me a big favor. I saved his daughter from drowning a couple of summers ago. I claimed that favor today. Although, I will admit, he wasn't happy about it." He said the last with a big grin on his face. Alan shook his head in wonder while Stormy laughed. Tobias swung up on Red Lightning and the trio turned up the road and began their journey.  
That night they camped at a bend in the road. Alan busied himself in making a small fire. Collecting dry wood, he built a blaze in a fire pit lined with small stones. Tobias busied himself in preparing tea for drinks. Pouring three cups, he passed them around. Stormy gratefully accepted her cup. Blowing softly, she took a tentative sip. She smiled. "This is really good." Tobias struggled to keep a grin off his face at that remark. His friends looked at him questioningly. Tobias could no longer contain his laughter. "I nicked it from my Mother's private stash." The others joined in the laughter. Sitting back, Alan lit his pipe. The smoke slowly joined the campfires in billowing up to the starry night sky. The new moon gave the stars their chance to shine. Alan shivered slightly in the coolness. Moving closer to the fire, he let the flames warm him. His mind flashed back to Mary, lying on the bed. He felt the fun go out of the night completely. The others sensed his somber mood and left him alone. Alan took out his bedroll and laid it down. Sleep eluded him however, and he rolled onto his back to stare at the heavens. He found no solace in the stars, as they shined down on him. Otherworldly watchers. He heard Tobias fall down in his bedroll and was soon snoring. A quieter breathing signified Stormy was fast asleep. Alan's thoughts kept spinning around and around in his head. Was he doing to right thing? Should he simply turn around and stay by her side. Should he go to the Gleed city and bring back help. These thoughts kept spinning in his head. He jumped when he felt a touch on the back of his head wrench him from his thoughts. "My poor master." Murmured Stormy as she laid down behind him. "Your worries are heavy. Place them down. Let them down for the night." Alan let the soothing words calm him and he fell asleep with Stormy.
There were no other travelers on the road except them, and the leagues steadily rolled past. They passed through a densely packed forest that stretched from the Great Swamp, all along the seaboard and north to the icy lands. Alan remembered the time he and Tobias had gotten a chance to look at one of his father's maps of the world. When looking at the map, they found the forest took up the entire center of the map, and was broken only by cities, a few rivers, and the wall. East of the wall, the map was blank. The same was true of the far north. When Alan had asked his father what lay up there, he replied "Ice and snow, with great wild beasts and even wilder men live." Alan had always wondered what it would be like to visit those faraway lands and meet people like that. Today, he knew he was getting the chance to do what he always had wanted, but he took no joy in that fact. He was desperately worried, but shoved the worry into the back of his mind. Forcing jocularity into his voice, he struck up a conversation with Tobias. "Tobias." He turned round in his saddle. "What?" "Remember that time you found the skunk in his den and placed it in Mrs. Colders kitchen?" Tobias chuckled. "Yeah. Mr. Colder came in just as he was waking up from the smoke we used to calm him. Mrs. Colder made him sleep outside in a tent for a week and made him take two baths that week." Alan smiled in remembrance. "He never did figure out it was us." "Yeah, but I think he kind of suspected us. He certainly kept a very close eye on us for months after that." "And checked under his favorite chair for longer!" The two boys broke into laughter at that while Stormy turned back to look at Alan. "You didn't really do that, did you?" She asked incredulously, which made the boys howl harder. "We did that particular prank when we were eleven," Alan explained, "Since then, our pranks have gotten more elaborate. Such as the time that we used a roll of wire, a rusty nail, some sheets from my Momma's wash line and a bit of string to convince Al Jonkin that he had ghosts in his attic." Stormy looked very confused, as she tried to figure it out. Alan took pity on her and tried to explain. "We placed the nail near his attic one day in an old board. When rubbed with another nail, it produced the most awful screech!" Tobias took over the narrative. "We used the string and the sheets and strung them up. The wires were used to give the sheets a form. Then we waved them back and forth in front of his windows. He woke up screaming for more than a week!" "What happened then?" she asked. "Well, it was going good, and we were about to end the prank anyway, but apparently, someone had seen us stash the ghost stuff in the hollow of Al's tree. When we got there that night, I went up in the tree to get the stuff. When I got to the hollow, however, the sheet came alive and jumped at me!" She started laughing, shaking Alan on his perch. Getting a firmer grip, he finished the story. "Well, I was surprised all right. I let out a yell and fall backwards out of the tree, landing on Tobias below. When we got untangled and looked up, there was Al on the tree grinning fit to burst." Tobias laughed "It was a good prank. Of course, to make it up to him, we ended up shearing his sheep for him." They continued talking about the pranks that Tobias and he had done. To Stormy, it seemed that Tobias was often the one that came up with the prank, and Alan simply helped him ensure that it would work. She continued playing along with the boys, laughing at the jokes and filling in the silence with questions. Alan could tell that she was trying to help keep the mood light, but didn't comment on it. They continued throughout the day, the conversation quickly dying out at the approach to twilight.
Dinner was hardtack and tea. They consumed these in silence. The fire reflecting distorted shadows on the ground. Taking some tea to wash down the hardtack, Alan wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. He scraped his dishes clean and put them back in his pack. He rummaged through the flap and pulled out his tobacco pouch. Filling the bowl of his pipe, he lit it with a few puffs and leaned back on a log. "How long do figure until we reach Crossroads?" he asked. Tobias thought for a moment. "If we keep pushing on like we have been, we should be there by midday, or early evening at the latest." "What are we going to do once we reach there?" Stormy asked. Alan thought about it for a moment. "We'll stop there for the night. I want to get some more information about the Gleeds, especially what they consider valuable to do business with. Then we'll pick up some supplies and head for the Great Wall. There will be a gate-town somewhere along the wall. We'll inquire there about a Gleed healer." Tobias nodded. "That makes sense. Don't want to jump into the water without checking first" Alan nodded. After tapping out the dottle, he put the pipe away and then took his toothbrush and canteen and scrubbed his teeth. The others did the same. Laying out his bedroll next to Stormy, he could see Tobias doing the same on the other side. They fell into a deep sleep like that.
They broke camp in the predawn twilight. Collecting their packs, they saddled Red Lightning and Stormy and set off down the road. Sun rise had already been up for longer than an hour, but the light was still faint in the heavy tree cover. Alan and Tobias concentrated on the trail, trying to keep their mounts from foundering in the wagon ruts that scored the road. Moving quickly in low light was dangerous, but they pressed on anyway. Slowly, the light increased until by noon golden streams of light lit the path more than adequately. On either side of the trail however, a thick gloom made it seem that they were moving down a greenish-black tunnel.
An hour after noon, they topped a rise and the forest simply vanished, leaving a broad grassy plain. Below them, the road ran straight until it found the main Trader Road. There around it, was the largest city any of them had ever seen. It was easily six or seven times as large as Sandytown. A log wall surrounded the town. It was broken by large guard towers on each of its four corners. In the center of the walls were massive wooden gates. The gates were standing open, and Alan could see a string of people moving along Traders Road into the far East gate, and out of the West Gate. However, there was no traffic out of the gate closest to them.
Shaking their heads to shake off the shock, Tobias spurred his mount forward while Stormy led the way down the hill. They made it to the gates about half an hour after they had reached the hill. The guard at the gate was a heavyset man, dressed in chainmail and holding a tall spear. He looked at them askance as they rode up. "What are a couple of fine country gen'lman such as yourselves doing out this way? You ain't running from something now, would ye?" he asked suspiciously. Alan spoke hurriedly, "No sir, we aren't running from anything. We're just in town to conduct some business, and mayhap spend the night, and we'll be gone." The guard simply grunted. "And the animals?" he asked, glancing at Stormy and Red. Alan flushed in anger at hearing him speak that way about Stormy. Granted, she was a slave, but he had always treated her like family. Tobias could see the anger in his friends eyes. He quickly spoke up. "We'll stable them with us of course. Would you happen to know the way to a good inn?" The guard looked hard at Alan for a moment before shrugging. "The Running Pony is a good place, or the Wild Drummer is cheap." Tobias smiled disarmingly, "We'll try the Wild Drummer then." The group passed in the gates into Crossroads.