Bertan`s quest by Michelle Tarynne (ereader android .txt) 📕

"It's a kite!" Genes exclaimed, "I can't believe my eyes! I heard about them only in legends." he watched how fast Bertan worked to bind the ropes to the frame, her hands were so fast they seemed to blur at times. It was almost ready. "The legends of the slave hunters of old," he muttered uneasily at the thought.

"We need to wait for the next fueling tower to put it in the right direction. We have to be quick about it for the speed will make the distance between the two towers seem really short," Bertan ignored the subject of slavery.

"Is it going to support both of us?" Genes asked worriedly, "It looks a little too frail to be of any use for both of us."

"Of course it will support both of us! It's designed for an armored Sword male who is usually much bigger than me. Both of us won't even make half of that weight together," Bertan answered cheerfully, "But as you have no idea what to do, I need to bind you to the main frame first," she said and hooked the rope underneath his arms and legs before securing it tightly to the frame.

"Be sure to do exactly nothing," she yelled loud enough to be heard over the swishing noise the platform and wind produced, "Keep as still as possible and let me work the ropes, even if you want to try to help me, just don't. Do you understand?" she looked deeply into his eyes, "Just do everything I ask you to exactly as I say it. Don't help me in any other way unless I tell you to, or we both perish here today, are we clear?"

"Yes, Ma'am." Genes was too overwhelmed to be scared at this point. What was there to be afraid of once you were tied to something that might or might not fly?

The platform kept on speeding to its full speed. They waited for the next fueling tower to appear in the distance. Bertan kept on checking each link and joint. When the fueling tower passed above them, momentarily she aligned and positioned the kite with Genes tied the longest and least flexible part of the frame.

"Hold onto the frame and get onto my shoulders" she commanded kneeling in front of the boy. Genes obediently took his position, and she stood up. It took all of her strength to elevate the kite higher and higher, but the time was still not on their side. Winds were not on their side either. Bertan got nervous, knowing she should already feel the tension in some of the ropes that should be caused by the kite starting to take its flight, but everything still felt disturbingly lax.

She had to work it up even higher somehow to where winds were stronger and pray. Truthfully, she didn't plan this part of her journey with any additional weight. A few fearful moments of panic later, she felt the weight on her shoulders gradually reduce, but the main tension rope she held was still lax.

With a sudden apprehension, Bertan realized her grave mistake and worked as fast as she could to attach herself to the end of the frame she was holding. She bound the rope she held to the platform. Mustering all of her strength she thought she could possess, focused and prayed for a good fortune, she took the biggest leap of her life.

By the merciful Gods it worked, the last piece of rope became taut too. The kite soared up into the air, pulled by the platform at its top speed. The time to act was of the essence when it was clear that this tension was constant. She had to pull her body up as quick and stable as she could to position herself directly below the boy and link herself both to the frame and to his binds. She broke and cut the piece below her with its remaining rope off the main frame.

They soared even higher for they finally caught southern winds to propel and accelerate their kite even more. But still, it was still not high enough to cross that damn Wall. All she had left was the hope that the few cycles they still had would help them gain speed and height they needed. The good news was that once wind brought you up, it would never let you go down without a fight.

"Where are we going?" Genes asked. He couldn’t really accept fact that he was flying. It felt both unnatural and exhilarating, and he could not decide in his bewilderment if it was a good idea to believe that he was still sanely awake.

"North," her answer was short and concise.

"Where north exactly?" his curiosity just got awakened.

"Far, far north from here," Bertan already displayed marks of a great annoyance.

"Why, then?" Genes wasn't about to let go. It was maybe one thing that kept him from staring to get into his panic mode at the thought that they had to get to the ground somehow too.

"We are going to meet the Mother," she answered through her gritted teeth.

"Why are we meeting your mother?" Genes felt incredulous, "We need to reach my tribe with a warning first!"

"No, I need to squeeze some answers out of the Mother, and then and only then you can go to join your tribe," Bertan said stiffly in a don't-you-dare-to-argue-about-it tone of voice.

"Fine," he huffed.

"Sure, it's not like you are having any other choice now," she answered.

"I know, but I don't have to like it," Genes was almost at the ready to throw a tantrum, was it not for the fact he was apparently flying, for the first time in his life, tied to a structure he knew nothing about, with a fully overgrown woman he was a bit afraid of.

"Obviously," she commented rolling her eyes in the darkness, so he wouldn’t notice anyway, and silence blessed them from then on, marred only by the loud and ungraceful way Genes ate his mince-pies.

The Inner Block of the Axe castle had a pretty utilitarian style and wasn'tconstructed with any grandeur aesthetics in mind. Without unnecessary adornments, it was void of beauty, free of perilous shades. Made of Iron Ore and Tarn Stone to last through a hellfire. It was built for the one purpose only, to protect the mines below, and to provide the only one way in and out for its previous Sword owners.

That single fact was a source of bottomless loathing in the heart and mind of the Red Axe King as he heavily entered the throne room after the High Council had finally ceased its proceedings following Vlad's grand exit.

A large ceiling-less space served as a reminder of the way the Swords had traveled here, all those Great Cycles ago. They had been descending silently from the night sky in the apparatuses the illiterate and nameless slaves had no chance of understanding all the less recreating.

Back then, when the ground was still scorching red, the thousands of the Axe ancestors would have starved to death, was it not for the Anaerthers rebel. Not many people remembered the uneasy truth that Anaerthers were not the slaves like the Axes had been. They hadn't been forced to dwell deep beneath the ground, for that was their First Homeland. The unexplainable mutiny led for some of Anaerthers to become Seekinglanders and leave to the lands beyond the Wall. Bound to no land, bound to no Leader and bound to no destiny, or so they thought Their bodies kept a different composition back then, their tools were more advanced, and they had no troubles getting through the Wall to establish the first exchange points for food and preciousness.

The Axes owed them everything. The Red Axe King loathed that fact too, that Axes owed the Seekinglanders their existence.

"Da?" a soft voice brought the King back to the reality around him.

"Lar, my precious gem," everything in his mind was suddenly forgotten, "You shouldn't have been waiting for me this long." He dropped to his knees to embrace and lift his little girl off the floor.

"I know, I just couldn't sleep," a young and light child confessed sleepily in his arms. "I can't sleep, it's so dark there."

"Where is it dark my little gem? You have lights in your rooms, it can't be that dark" The Red Axe King tried to reassure her and bring some peace into her obviously troubled mind.

"It's dark in my sleep, it's so dark da. I don't want any Great War, it will bring only more darkness everywhere. I'm so sacred, da." she murmured tirelessly.

"Lar. My only daughter, please don't be afraid, I will protect you with all of my might, all of my soldiers. Everyone's job here is to protect you, for I am the mightiest man there is, and I'm your father, Lar," he tried to ease her fears, remembering his own childhood nightmares, how they used to eat at him at each sleep-time. Funny now, how it all stopped exactly at the time he thought for the first time of the coming war early in his teens. With his first plans and preparations came the ease of mind. "Is there any thought that makes you calm Lar? Is there anything that brings happiness to your mind and eases the fear?" he asked recalling his own solution all those Great Cycles ago.

He cradled her absently. A barely audible swishing, grinding and clinging sound gained in its power to become loud enough to attract his attention. He looked around to see where that sound could originate.

"Da, is something wrong?" Lar noticed her father's absentmindedness when she was speaking earlier.

It was as if he had not even heard her talking. The King still would not answer her inquiring question when he realized that the only place the sound could come from was underneath the stone floor. He had been sure that all of the Great Mine exits into the throne room had been sealed off ages ago. It was a common knowledge after all.

He clutched his daughter closer and drew out his weapon unthinkingly. The Red Axe king let his senses guide him out of the Throne Room to protect his little gem. He motioned the guards in silence to seal off the throne room, and they were quick to pick up on the urgency in his expression.

"Nothing is wrong, my preciousness. It's just so late we all need to get our nap-time." He lied smoothly when he finally reached her small room and put her to bed with a kiss, few snuggles, and a short story of happiness.

The Red Axe king left his precious daughter's room as s different man, a fearless leader and a vicious killer to anyone and anything that endangered his only family. Quick and quiet in his steps, he joined his guards waiting for him readily outside the Throne chamber.

"There has been an intrusion." he declared to the surprised men.

When Lar was finally alone, she gave some thought to the question her da asked her before. What was the thing that brought her into the full light? She couldn’t think of even one thing, and surely she could not go to