| |
The evening wore on, but for the first time since their journey began, their conversation was stilted. Every shadow in the swamp beyond their hill seemed to hold some sort of menace. The summer sun was still over the horizon when Lars turned to Aein and said, "Sleep while you can. It is going to be a long night." He looked out into the fog. "I may need to wake you before your shift."
She nodded in understanding, feeling that same tension in the air. There was something out there. "I could stay awake with you," she offered.
But Lars turned her down. "One of us needs to be rested."
She let him win this one time. She climbed into her little bed in her little shack, barred the door, and closed her eyes. It seemed one minute she was awake, and then the next it was morning and she was waking up. Her heart was pounding. Panic overwhelmed her. Had she heard something or was it just a dream? She leaped out of her bed and pushed the wooden door open a crack. The fog had rolled in and the campfire was dead. The entire world was nothing but grey mist in the morning light.
"Lars?" she called. There was no response. "Lars?" she called again.
"AEIN!" he called. "Where are you?"
"HERE!" she cried back.
She heard splashing and then his silhouette stepped through the grey and into her sight. He looked dirty and tired and exhausted. He fell to the ground and rolled onto his back. He was still wearing his chainmail and armor from the night before.
"Why didn't you wake me?" she asked, running over to him and kneeling by his side.
He waved her off. He pointed at the campfire. "The fog came in with the twilight and smothered the fire. I couldn't see anything. I called and called, but the fog ate all the sound."
She felt her throat tighten. "I was only steps away."
He looked at her. "I tried to get to the shacks, but the fog... it twisted everything around. I crawled on the ground, trying to find you, but..."
"...the fog," Aein finished for him. "It did not wish you to find me."
He ran his hand over his eyes. "Twenty-nine more days of this," said Lars. "Just twenty-nine more days and we get to go home."
Aein couldn't believe how stupid she was to ever have looked at this as an adventure. Though the fog was backing away now, she wanted to scream at it, yell at it.
"And you've already done this twice this year," she said.
He nodded. He didn't need to say anything more.
"I'll cook us some breakfast while you rest," she told him, forcing a cheerful tone into her voice. "Something warm and wonderful that will remind us of the stronghold."
He squeezed her hand and then stood, shuffling over to the shack. "Keep on the lookout for Johan and Whalter," he said. "Sometimes your days get mixed up here on the border, but they should be here."
Aein pulled a pan out of the wagon and dug around for anything to dress up their meal besides hardtack and cheese. It was then the fog parted and Aein saw the body.
The shape was lying on the ground, twisted unnaturally.
The pan fell out of her hand.
It was Johan. Only not Johan. There was someone else's head beside him. Whalter. Their two patrols, the ones they were supposed to relieve. The two men that were supposed to be going home. Only, they had already gone home. Their throats had been ripped out. Body parts were not attached to where they should be.
Lars called from across the campground. "Aein?"
She was unable to make a sound. Her lips were unable to form the words. There was dried blood all over the ground. It looked like they had tried to climb into the cart Aein and Lars had pulled just yesterday. There was a handprint on the wood.
"Oh gods," Aein whispered. "Oh gods!"
Lars was suddenly beside her. His sunburned face paled as shock washed over him. "Pull yourself together," he said, but she knew the command was directed at himself even more than it was directed at her.
Aein's mind reeled. Johan and Whalter had tried to come to the campground last night. They had touched the wagon. What animal had the fog been hiding? How close had Lars come to death as he wandered lost in the swamp? How close had she come to death as she lay asleep in the shack? What other horrors were in the fog?
Lars crouched down for a closer look at their wounds. "They were attacked by some animal," said Lars. "They must have come out hunting and ran into a swamp bear or a... wild boar... or... something."
Aein did not know how to tell what sort of an animal could create the gashes they were looking at, but she knew it was not a bear or a boar. Children were told stories of the creatures in this swamp. There had been one, a real one, in their camp. It had ended these two men. The stories were true.
"Oh gods," she whispered again.
Lars rose and began unloading the cart. He started dividing up all the goods, placing Aein's belongings and his belongings in separate piles.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"They were loyal subjects of the Lord Protector. We must build a pyre and give them proper respects before any other animals smell them. And then you must return to the stronghold to tell their families and ask Lord Arnkell to send reinforcements," he informed her with cold practicality.
"I think you mean that 'we' need to return home to tell their families," she clarified.
"I know what I said."
She shook her head, dismissing him. "I can't leave you here alone. Look at them! Two men, here together, couldn't fend off these beasts. How the hell do you think you're going to be okay just..." She couldn't finish the sentence. The sight which filled her eyes would not allow her.
"Are you going to help me move them?" asked Lars, pretending as if he hadn't even heard her protests.
Aein came over and grabbed the leg and stump of one of the men. She tried not to gag. His body was still warm. The blood was still relatively fresh. She thought back to the moment when she woke in a panic. She had not had a single dream the entire night, had not heard a single sound, but had woken with the sun knowing something was wrong. Was that when it happened? Was the creature still near?
"Please come with me," she begged.
"I cannot," said Lars.
"Yes, yes, you can."
Lars and Aein dropped the body with as much dignity as they could muster beside the fire.
"You're right. It was just wild animals," said Aein, trying to convince herself as much as Lars. "It is not worth splitting up. It was just animals and you and I should remain at our post until our month is up. We will tell their families when we return."
Lars wiped his forehead, leaving a streak of red across his pink and freckled face. "You know it wasn't animals, Aein." He walked over to the next body and she followed after. "These... The jaws which created these bites... they are..." He stopped himself. "This is how it starts. It is how everything on the boundary starts. I need you to go to the stronghold and let Lord Arnkell know."
Tears pricked in her eyes, the shock fading into anger and frustration. "Well, if you think there is some sort of imminent threat, I can't very well leave you here by yourself to face it alone." She looked up at him, this man who had become her friend, this man whom she might never see again.
"Aein, I am the senior officer."
"Then... you go and I'll stay," she said, trying to get him to understand the ridiculousness of him insisting upon staying alone. Perhaps if he thought about what a bad idea it would be to leave her here all alone, he would rethink. But it did not work.
"You would be dead within the hour." He picked up the next body, keeping himself focused on the task. Aein grabbed the end of the torso. They would have to come back for the legs. "I have been here on the border many times before. I can hold it until you get back with reinforcements."
"That will be at least a month," she said.
Lars's jaw tensed and released. His eyes became distant. Aein knew he was thinking of what it meant to spend all that time on the border alone. It wasn't enough, though. He shook his head and said, "I have to stay."
"What can one person do against creatures like this?" she argued as they put the body down. The evidence of what fate awaited him was right in front of them.
"I promise I will stay here in the camp. I won't go wandering around into the sections of the swamp where a person is liable to get hurt."
"But how can you even imagine that I am going to be safe traveling by myself back to the castle? I'm liable to get lost the moment the first fog rolls in."
"Just give your horse his head. He'll see you back."
"I can't do this, Lars."
He took her face in his hands, willing her to understand. "I cannot leave this post. Someone always has to be here. It is why they send two of us. In case something happens. Something like this."
"But what if something happens to you..."
"Nothing is going to happen to me." He swept back a piece of her hair and gathered her up to comfort her. But he was firm as he whispered in her ear, "Trust me, Aein."
His embrace, though, told a different story. He knew as well as she that they would never see each other again.