75th Spring 522
Sunberth, Midday
Sunberth, Midday
The rest of the flight from Syliras went on without any problems, though it rained the entire time we were in the air. I lost myself watching the rainwater roll off Len's feathers as if it had never been there. It took another five hours before we flew low enough below the dark clouds that Sunberth came into view. Even from the sky, this place looks like death and decay.
Once I spotted the Slag Heap, my heart started pounding the inside of my chest like a frantic bird trying to escape its cage, and it hasn't slowed yet. I saw the Slave Market, too, and it made me cry. Oddly enough, though, my eyes didn't shed any tears. I think it was just my heart that cried.
Lenorov and the rest of the Wing Eagles landed just outside the city about fifteen chimes ago. Even the birds don't want to sully their feet in this place. We will stay for two days here. I nearly went all out Rhysol on the man who told me. I might have, had I had the energy to.
I feel strange, and not just because I'm feverish, either. I feel hyper and hot inside but with no energy to act on it. Like I have so much to do but don't know where to start, but it's all inside. Strange, right?
Okay, maybe it is the fever.
Jordan has gotten, I think, stronger is a good word. He's home, after all. I think he was trying to pull me out of the saddle during the flight, but I held on for dear life. Ha! See what I did there?
He slapped my face so hard just before we landed that I think my ears are still ringing. My lip split, and Darrin asked about it. I told him I hit it on the saddle. Pretty sure my eye is bruised, too. At least I should fit right in here with a cut lip and black eye and skinny as a rail.
I can't stop thinking about my brother. I last saw him here in Sunberth.
I think I might go to
"Shiress?"
Shiress glanced up from her journal to see Darrin staring at her, his blue eyes creased in concern.
"You've been staring down at the same page forever. You, okay?"
Shiress gave the Endal a soft smile, shoving the small book and pencil into her bag.
"I am," she replied, "Just tired and kind of...out there." she laughed.
"Okay, then," he returned her smile, "We are going to walk into town for a bite of lunch and get our rooms. You want to walk with us?"
Just the thought of food made Shiress's heart summersault, her stomach followed suit, and she had to swallow hard.
"No, thank you, Darrin," she said, rising from the log she had been sitting on, "I have someone I need to find first."
With that, Shiress began walking in the direction of the city proper and to the area she knew to find Ruby's. From behind her, she heard Darrin call out, "You sure you're okay?" but the doctor ignored it, throwing a hand over her shoulder in lieu of a reply. No, she wasn't okay, not by any measure, but that burden was hers to carry, no one else's.
Shiress trudged for nearly a mile before she reached the city border, and up until then, her path had been wet grass and leaves and the occasional puddle, which on her better days, she might have jumped. Today, she walked around. Now, however, her path became a cesspit of wet clay, thick mud, and other unsavory puddles. Shiress did her best to follow the ruts of wagon wheels, but it did no good. Her feet were already covered in mud and worse up to the ankles, and she had only taken a half dozen steps back into the wretched city.
Lifting the hood of the borrowed cloak, Shiress plowed on through the mire, Jordan at her back, ever taunting her with his serpent tongue. At one point, the ghost shoved her hard, and she went down on her knees into the mud, one hand flung out to catch her fall, and she winced, feeling her palm scrape over something sharp hidden beneath the mud. Shiress pulled her hand free and studied the wound, but all she could see was a definite gash, which didn't look too deep, but mostly all she could see was caked mud. Climbing to her feet, Shiress tried to fling as much of the stuff from her hand and her legs as possible and walked on, chest heaving like a bellows. Weak legs and thick mud made for a hard pace.
When the doctor halted about ten feet from Ruby's entrance, Shiress's leather cloak was nothing but mud from about the knees down. Her hands were likewise filthy, though more caked under her fingernails than anywhere else several lines of dirt streaked her face. Surely Alric will turn her away for a beggar at first sight of her.
Shiress staggard up the steps and all but fell through Ruby's entrance. As the door swung back and closed with a soft click, she closed the distance between herself and the first person she saw. A woman, obviously a worker, scanned Shiress from her toes to her tangled mess of hair, and judging by the wrinkle of the whores nose, found the doctor wanting.
"Alric," Shiress's voice cracked with emotion, and she cleared her throat, "I need to see Alric Lysane, please."
The dark-haired woman did another quick head to toe, sneered, turned on a heel, and disappeared deeper into the brothel. Shiress swayed to the side in an attempt to escape Jordan's verbal lashings but otherwise stood stoic in her filthy, feverish, and exhausted state and waited.
She'd made it. By all the gods, she had made it and was so very close. Shiress didn't think a mountain could stand in the way of her will and Syka's need.
The sound of heavy, booted footsteps crossing the wooden floor stopped just behind her and Shiress slowly turned, pushing back the hood from her face with trembling, bloodstained fingers. The doctor was filthy, pale, and beads of sweat carved filthy lines down her grime covered face, but those emerald eyes of hers searched the male's face that stood before her with ferocity. When they found recognition, Shiress had to fight her body from rushing forward and throwing her arms around Alric's neck or just falling at the man's feet.
Shoulders sagging, a wave of exhaustion and sweet finality hit Shiress so hard that she had to lean heavily against the wall behind her. All the doctor could do was stare at those so very familiar, storm colored eyes momentarily, before she finally found the breath enough to speak.
"Remember me? I've come a long way with a message." Shiress said softly, almost hesitantly, "Alric Lysane, Syka, and her people need you desperately."
Word Count - 1198
