Vida had seen the flames from miles away, lighting up the night sky over the jungle. Now, as the charioteer brought the chariot to a complete halt, he could still see the red glow in the sky above the trees. It extended to both sides for miles in both directions, as well as further ahead.
The charioteer pointed upward. “It is a circle,” Adran said. “That is not a naturally occurring forest fire. Someone has deliberately set the fire in a large circle, and from what I can tell from here, it appears to enclose the area where the hermitage is situated.”
Vida’s hand pressed against his chest. “Goddess! That means the hermitage is now isolated? How do I get there?”
Adran shook his head. “Nobody can get to the hermitage now. Not until the fire subsides. Unless . . .”
“Unless?”
“Unless the goal is to burn them down,” Adran said. “Hence the circular fire. It is a tactic used by some cowardly tribes who do not have the courage to engage in honorable face-to-face combat.”
Vida exclaimed, “But I must reach Shvate. I have an important message for him.”
Adran gestured at the red glow. “We would have to leave the chariot here anyway, as the jungle is too dense from this point onward to travel further. If you wish, I can accompany you on foot as far as we can go. Perhaps we may find a firebreak. But we also run the risk of perishing in the fire. I have seen forest fires before. They are impossible to outrun, and once engulfed by smoke and heat, one can no longer make out east from west, north from south. We risk our own lives if we go forward.”
Vida took a deep breath and released it. “So be it. I must reach my brother at all costs. It is a matter of life and death. Vrath and Goddess Jeel themselves have entrusted me with this communication.”
Adran stared at him. “Then our path is set. I will hobble the horses in such a manner that if the fire does reach here, they will be able to break free with an effort and flee for their lives. There is no use having them perish with us. But if we survive the attempt, we may have to walk all the way back to Hastinaga.”
“Do what you must. All that matters to me at this moment is reaching Shvate and giving him my message.”
Adran took a few moments to do as he had indicated, then the two men set out on foot through the dark forest. Within a few miles, they began to smell the acrid fumes of smoke and could already feel the warmth of the fire. The closer they went, the warmer it grew, and the smoke and fumes increased as well.
Adran placed a hand on Vida’s shoulder. “The smoke will soon surround us. I cannot guarantee that I will be able to find our way back.”
“The way back does not concern me,” Vida said. “Only the way forward. If you fear for your own life, you may return, good charioteer. I do not ask you to risk your life as well. This burden is mine alone to bear.”
Adran shook his head. “Nay, good Vida. You are an honorable master and a man of Krushan. I will go with you to the ends of Arthaloka. Give me a moment.”
Adran tore two strips from his garment and doused them with water from a small lota of water he had taken from the waterskin kept in the chariot. He handed one wet cloth to Vida. “Wrap this firmly around your head and your face, cover every inch carefully. You will be able to breathe through the wet cloth, and it will keep some of the smoke and ash from entering your lungs.”
Vida did as the charioteer advised and saw him do the same. Then Adran splashed a small amount of water from the lota over their heads and asked Vida to drink a little as well. He upended the lota over Vida’s mouth and dripped out the last drops. Then he put the lota aside and indicated that they should keep moving.
As they continued forward, the smoke increased suddenly, filling the forest around them like a thick fog. The wet cloth around his face helped him breathe, but even so, Vida found it growing harder to take in air. Abruptly, a thick cloud of smoke billowed over them, engulfing them completely and plunging them into darkness more impenetrable than the natural night.
The sound of the fire ahead was loud and intense, but there was also a strange hissing that Vida could not identify. The two men stopped moving, and Vida felt Adran’s strong arm on his shoulder, pressing down to indicate that he should stay still. Adran’s face appeared beside Vida’s ear, speaking to him over the noise of the fire. “We must stop awhile and climb a tree; there is too much smoke.”
Vida wanted to protest, to argue that he needed to push on to reach Shvate at the earliest, but the charioteer added, “You will not get your message to Shvate if we both die here in the jungle. Do as I say, and we may yet survive.”
Vida still felt reluctant to deviate from his mission, but he saw the sense in Adran’s words. He let the charioteer lead him to a suitable tree and bend down to form a bridge with his hands so Vida could more easily climb. And so he did—going as high as he could on Adran’s instruction, and as he climbed, he found the smoke reducing until by the time he was at the very highest point of the trunk, some fifty yards above the ground, he could almost breathe normally again. The charioteer climbed up after him, remaining below him to help and support or push when Vida found the going too difficult. Finally, both of them rested on the strong upper branches of the tree, looking out at the tops of the trees.
Vida found that he could see the sky here and even a bit of the forest beyond the fire. The flames had cut down a patch of forest in a large ring, exactly as Adran had suspected, and the break in foliage provided glimpses of the clearing, which gave him hope, because he could see, even at this distance, that the huts of the hermitage appeared to still be standing and untouched by the fire.
But now there was something else that he could see. He squinted, trying to make out if what he thought he was seeing was real or just a miasma caused by all the smoke swirling around them.
“The fire has been put out,” Adran said, confirming Vida’s suspicion. The charioteer pointed with one hand, gripping the bole of the tree trunk with the other. “That is what produced all the smoke. Someone has put out the entire circle of flame at the same time, producing the clouds of smoke that we encountered. I thought that was the case, but could not be certain till we climbed to this vantage point.”
Vida’s eyes were watering from trying to stare through the smoky air. “That is good news! Now we will be able to continue on our way and reach my brother very soon.”
“If you wish, then we shall,” Adran said, “but I must caution you, Councilman, that such an enormous fire would have taken a great number of hands to put out with such precision. And it is to be expected that these parties would not be friendly to us or to your brother and his people. At first I thought the fire was to burn down Shvate and his family, but now I suspect another reason altogether.”
“Such as the elimination of a patch of forest,” Vida said slowly, coming to the same conclusion.
Adran nodded. “I cannot speculate on why this was seen to be necessary, but it has been done. And there can be no question that something else is meant to follow the dousing of the fire. Whatever that event may be, it will not be pleasant.”
Vida was about to respond when suddenly, he felt a vibration through the trunk he was holding on to. It felt as if the earth were shaking. He looked around, puzzled, then thought to look down, at the ground. Even in the smoky darkness, he saw the shapes of many figures moving quickly through the woods. Dozens, hundreds, more and more, they kept on coming in endless waves, running at full speed through the jungle, all carrying arms, all moving with the silent, deadly grace of veteran warriors. His heart sank. “We are already too late, the attack has begun on the hermitage.”
Adran was also watching the swarm of soldiers below. From this height it looked to them as if the ground itself were moving or was covered with water flowing in only one direction—toward the hermitage. “I fear it may be so.”
“But my message,” Vida said in dismay. “I must reach Shvate and pass it on to him!”
Adran gestured at the ground, carpeted with never-ending waves of soldiers racing through the dark night. “Even a soul as brave as yourself cannot fight an army single-handedly, good Vida. I urge you to stay here until the danger is past, or we will become the first casualties of war.”
Vida knew the charioteer was right. He had no choice but to stay where he could survive. The worst thing, he thought as he looked back toward the hermitage, was that he had a prime view of the battle that was about to commence yet could do nothing now to influence its outcome.