Chapter Six (p. 2)
Voices sounded, snapping Kieran from his thoughts of vengeance. They grew louder as they got closer to him and Kieran tried to struggle into a sitting position. Someone grabbed his arms from behind and hauled him to his feet. Kieran realised they must have been closer than they sounded.
He raised his fists, trying to look like he could win a fight with whoever wanted one. In reality, if the guy holding him up let go, Kieran would immediately drop to the ground.
About five people surrounded him. All men, all long haired, and all with puzzled frowns on their faces. They wore some stupid uniform too, something that was a cross between a dressing gown and a cloak. Their tattoos made Kieran want to burst out laughing. What kind of man tattooed flowers on his temple? Oh, man. This was bad. This just had to be a horrible dream. He would open his eyes any minute now and see Rick and Sven bitching about how Kieran looked like Sleeping Beauty.
He held that thought to him like it was a life-jacket and he was sinking fast. A great weight lifted from his heart at the thought of seeing Rick and Sven again. Dear God, let him be dreaming. Let Sven and Rick be alive and that horrible forest nothing more than his twisted imagination.
The closest one stepped forwards, his dark, brown eyes fixed on Kieran. On his right temple was a brown-red flower, with twisting, long vines that covered a third of his face. If it had been anything else, this guy could have looked menacing. Right now, the threatening look he was shooting at Kieran almost made up for his flowery ass.
“Your name?” he demanded.
Kieran laughed weakly. “Ah, you don’t need my name. When I wake up you’ll be gone. Vanished. Poof. Not existing. You understand that, right?”
The guy’s jaw tightened and Kieran smiled, thinking how similar the flower-tat man and Rick were. When he next saw Rick, he’d drop in some joke about the kind of tattoos he should have.
“And you should understand you are talking to a warrior of the Lady Aliessye.”
Kieran smiled again. “That’s cute. That’s real cute.”
Rick Two nodded at the berks standing closest to Kieran. They reached out and grabbed Kieran’s arms, their grip as tight as bear traps. Or so Kieran assumed. He’d never been trapped in one before. Although from the gleam in Rick Two’s eyes, it looked like he’d encounter a new experience soon.
“H-hey!” He tried to pull his arms away, but they hadn’t had the relaxing afternoon Kieran’d had, so they were quite a bit stronger. “What are you doing?”
“You are to come back with us,” Rick Two told him. “From the state of you, a healer will be needed. Not to mention a good wash.”
“What of the patrol?” asked another. His soft, high voice made him sound like the kind of man who would cry for hours if he trod on a flower.
“We will have to discontinue it. Another shall set out tomorrow instead. Right now we must head back.”
Rick Two nodded at the three guys holding Kieran and marched off. They followed him, pulling Kieran along with them.
At first he struggled, but it didn’t take him long to realise it was pretty much pointless. These guys, as girly as they were, were actually quite strong. Right now, Kieran could fight them off as well as butter could fight off a knife. Which, obviously, wasn’t that well.
When he’d given up, he concentrated on looking around. Might as well see what his perverted mind came up with while he was here. It would be more to tell Sven about when he woke up.
Behind him, the grassy slope he’d fallen down lead up to the forest he’d been trapped in for hours. That part he knew, but what was in front of him, he couldn’t see: Rick Two and the high-voiced wimp stood in the way. As they navigated their way between all the rocks, Kieran suddenly realised something.
They weren’t rocks, but bricks.
Huge bricks, about as high as Kieran’s waist and as chipped and weathered as boulders, but most of them were rectangular in shape. And the guards on either side of him cast sad looks at them whenever they passed one, like they were walking through a cemetery and each rock was the headstone of a loved one. When Rick Two and the other guy walked around a brick and out of Kieran’s way, Kieran finally saw where they were going.
In front of them, sat on mini-mountain, was a huge city. There were thousands of white buildings, all of which looked like villas in Spain. Right at the top of the mountain was a lump of green. More trees, Kieran thought unhappily. The city was levelled; there were about five lines of buildings reaching to the top. The dots moving up and down between the levels must have been people climbing up and down great stairs. No escalators here then, he thought, doubly unhappy now.
All of a sudden, he realised where the stones had come from. Surrounding the city was a great, stone wall, the height of a three storey building and a white version of the Great Wall of China.
Right, so he was in Africa, the Amazon, and China at the same time? He was definitely dreaming. Thank God.
There was a great hole in the wall, like a nuclear explosion had ripped it apart. There was no crater in the ground, though. So the nuclear bomb explanation was out. Still, something bad had happened, that was obvious. Nothing good would blast through such a huge wall, nor would the people kidnapping him look so sad when they looked at the wall.
Wait a minute, he thought with a frown. This is a dream. Don’t get so caught up in it. Once you open your eyes it will all be gone.
“Hurry,” Rick Two snapped at them after turning around to check they were keeping up. “Night comes swiftly, and you know what it brings.”
Kieran was immediately bundled forwards as the guards increased their pace, obviously well aware of what Rick Two was talking about. Well aware and shaking as they nervously glanced up at the still-bright sky.
“What does it bring?” Kieran asked Rick Two, curious about what was making his captors tremble.
Rick Two glared at Kieran. “Do you play games with me, stranger?”
“Not right now, I’m not.”
Rick Two glared at him for a moment or two, clearly wondering if Kieran was pulling his leg. Kieran must have had a rare sincere look on his face, because Rick Two reluctantly said, “Winged demons which fly over our city and pluck from it the vulnerable.”
Kieran’s heart started to pound. “Vultures?”
Rick Two snorted and shook his head. Without even another contemptuous look at Kieran, he quickened his pace and marched up ahead. Obviously Kieran had offended him somehow.
The guard to his right leaned towards Kieran when Rick Two got out of ear shot. His lilac eyes were fixed on the sky, anxiously scanning for whatever the hell they were talking about. “Vultures would be preferred,” he whispered to Kieran, with a knowing nod.
“Over what?”
The answer Kieran received from the nut job was insane, but nevertheless a sudden chill seeped into his bones. It was like Sven had sneaked up behind him and poured an ice-cold beer down his back, complete with ice cubes.
“The Harpies.”
that stinks
