“He will be born of the Half as the Whole

He will be born of Chaos and will die as one of Creation

He will unify what was once shattered

It will be the sign that the beginning of the end is here”

Prophecy of the Unifier

Perkins

Siddy has been growing agitated since they escaped the well-fortified village. He complained about the girl, demanding to cut her throat. Granted, she was annoying and Perkins was tired of her wailing, but he needed her more than he needed Siddy.

“We should be going to the west,” Siddy said after the noon. “Emm confirmed that they aren’t pursuing us.”

Perkins said nothing to that. The younger bandits weren’t worth revealing a true reason for why they were traveling to the north. By the time Perkins planned to tell the truth, it’d be too late for them.

“And it’s not that they won’t figure out who we are. We’ve left Red Bill and that liar Logan behind. He will speak.”

Perkins was certain of it and this couldn’t work out better for the healer. He was even ahead of schedule. A meeting awaited him in the place that no sane villager would venture to. What else it can be if not the will of the forest? He asked himself as he considered the recent events. They meant to scam another village after Yucca. Then sharply turn to the north alongside the Uccan River. Somewhere there he’d plan to get rid of Siddy and the conman. They were of no use to him. Emm, however, was the best scout Perkins has ever seen and he’s been hoping that the young man would follow him. Red Bill was a different story. But this Cape Town has changed everything. Well-organized militia, expensive commodities, a real healer, and fortification. These things haven’t just appeared there. The sort of coins flowing through this place was dangerous. Their eyes are now turned toward Soto and Butcher. Their anger will sweep the bastard off of the earth’s surface. At the time the cape towners figured out the ruse, Perkins would be far away.

They stopped when the little rascal fainted and Siddy refused to carry her. The bags with coins they’d stolen from other villages were too heavy for two people. Emm was scouting ahead. The yesterday’s meeting with tri-horned rhino and panthers shook them more than the bandits let out. And the place of their destination was even more perilous, though neither Siddy nor Emm understood it yet.

“Wake up,” Siddy snarled as his boot found the girl’s side. She cried out and pressed her hands to her ribs, hoping to defend the spot. It wouldn’t work against Siddy who was used to kill people through beating. “Or I swear, I will beat you to death.”

“Leave her,” Perkins said, making space to sit down and camp. The girl was terrified, if the idiot pushed her further, she would collapse mentally.

“Or what?” Siddy’s smile was devoid of warmth. He felt no remorse after murdering and torturing. Against the common belief, this was a rare trait amongst the bandits. Most of them bragged and pretended, but when the time came to do what needed to be done, they backed off. “You aren’t my boss. We’ve left him in the village. Halfdead. How are you going to explain that to Butcher?”

Perkins watched the girl, though he was well aware of the close proximity of the other bandit. A small fern between them wouldn’t stop Siddy, though it didn't need to. The healer didn’t fear his companion. Red Bill was too strong for Perkins, this was clear, but Siddy? Too young, inexperienced, and soft. And soon, the withdrawal effects of sharproot will kick in. Siddy was getting closer to the truth. Despite the idiot he was, he also had some natural instinct. Perkins needed to keep Siddy alive until the evening. He couldn’t carry the coins alone and drag the girl leashed to him at the same time. Though she was violent until Siddy promised to cut her ears off, without him around she might rekindle her fire.

“We must press ahead. Find a shelter before night’s fall.” Perkins said, hoping to stir Siddy’s imagination. Wasn’t Siddy and the conman the first to run away? There’s bound to be fear in him. Unfortunately, Siddy sniffed some uncalled opportunity and didn’t show it.

“Where are we going?”

“The Silent Falls,” came an answer from between trees. Though both men looked around, they couldn’t find Emm anywhere. He rose so close to them that Perkins’ hand involuntary found the hilt of his knife. This boy’s something else.

“You gotta be kidding me?” Siddy laughed grimly. Perkins didn’t confirm nor deny the words of the young scout. It was bound to happen sooner or later, though Perkins had hoped it’d happen later.

“Or the Chasm of Ethnea.” At this, the girl began shuddering, and soon she was on her feet, gagged and with hands tied. Doubtless, she was about to run away again. It’d once more end with Siddy’s knee between her shoulders’ blades.

“The Silent Falls,” Perkins said swiftly, then fell into his usual quietude. The girl managed to sit down and lean against a trunk of a tree. She was no older than ten, black hair, kind face with the sort of innocent eyes that have haunted Perkins at night. The healer was the cold-blooded killer but his conscience was getting heavier with each year.

The newfound silence didn’t last long as Siddy snarled again, “what’s the meaning of this? Why aren’t we returning to Soto?” Perkins considered his words. He could manipulate Red Bill’s greed with coins but Siddy’s needs were less pronounced. He liked to kill, rape, and steal. But he wouldn’t kill a village’s chief over few copper coins. There were qualities in Siddy that were hard to grasp. So, Perkins approached this in a different way. Butcher seemed uncaring but now and then came a time when he put rules in place. These things had no logical or religious explanation. Curfew, no drinking, no sharproot, or other drugs, no killing or stealing. The list went on and one could only guess what the next week was going to bring. If Perkins’s memories served him right, then Siddy had been complaining the loudest about staying put and ban on alcohol. This once got him into trouble and he’d to explain himself to Black Jon. The cruelest and most loyal bastard in the Butcher’s gang.

“Go with me to the Silent Falls and you’ll be compensated with as much alcohol and killing as you want.” This was a lie. Where Perkins was going, Siddy couldn’t. The younger bandit was a part of the reason why Perkins decided to leave Butcher to his own fate.

Emm squatted, observing them. He didn’t question Perkins. The scout seemed unbothered by the sharp turn of events. It was as much a good as a bad sign. Not knowing what he was thinking, put Perkins at disadvantage. It was unlikely that Emm would attack Perkins but what he’d shown in that woman’s office made the healer worried a little. It was Perkins’s idea to use chlorium on the knives’ edges but Emm’s speed was shocking even for the healer as he’d attacked the large guard. The young scout was nowhere near the Royalblood level but it still wasn’t normal. The boy was quicker than Red Bill, almost as fast as Black Jon.

Siddy’s answer was slow in coming. Perhaps, he sensed the lie and looked for a way to get out alive, or more-likely the bandit was slow in the head. None the less, his words came out, though not in the form Perkins had hoped for.

“You’re leaving Butcher’s gang? You’re betraying us. Let’s kill them, Emm. We’ll get the coins back to Soto ourselves.”

Perkins’s muscles tensed up, ready to react in a split second to par Siddy’s or Emm’s attack. Strangely, none of the bandits came at him and Perkins almost snarled amused at them. He rarely showed emotions, not because he didn’t want to, but because he didn’t have any. He was cold inside.

“I’m not coming back to Butcher,” Emm said after a minute of silence. “I’ll accompany you to the Silent Falls and go my way.”

“What? Where’s your loyalty to Butcher?” Siddy’s hand was at his machete, though his feet didn’t twitch.

“I’m loyal only to the Codex of the Forest. I follow the forest gods, not Butcher.”

At this, Siddy laughed, a derisive kind of sound. Religion was a topic of constant feuds amongst the tribes and bandits. Some followed the forest gods, others sought strength in the Imperial Pantheon, while many tribes invented their own deities. Perkins believed nothing but the forest itself. If Emm was as ardent as he seemed, it might end bloody. After all, Siddy was of no tribal origin like the scout. And then, just like that, a change occurred behind the muddy eyes of Siddy. The smile that crept on his face had no malice, it seemed innocent and pure.

“Fine,” he said. “I don’t care about Butcher either. He wasn’t paying me enough anyway. I’ll gladly follow a new paying boss.”

Perkins nodded to him. One disaster averted … for now. Then he turned to Emm. The scout was no longer there. He moved with the fierceness of still air. A dangerous trait. It meant a blade out of nowhere.

*

“We aren’t far from the Silent Falls. Three, maybe four hours,” Emm said as he reappeared some time later in their midst. They didn’t speak since leaving their small camp where they’d had the argument. It seemed that Siddy accepted the revelation well. The girl also caused fewer issues as if the peace amongst the bandits eased her mind. “We should get there before the sunset. But I found tracks. A party of twenty. A day or two ago.”

Perkins steeled his nerves. The Silent Falls wasn’t a sort of place frequented even by bandits. It couldn’t be coincident. Am I late? Impossible. We agreed to meet at the Silent Falls a week before the end of Withering Twist season. Or were they too early?

“Your friends?” Siddy asked, figuring out that Perkins meant to meet someone there. When the healer shook his head, Siddy asked again, “any clue who were they?”

Emm’s hand raked his mop of brown hair, he thought for a while, then answered carefully, surprising Perkins with his knowledge and but also lack of imagination. “This far we should only expect Barkeaters, Fifth Finger, and Tucan gangs.” Emm didn’t consider the larger and more powerful gangs. His mind didn’t reach above Butcher’s level. Perhaps, the fault was in the fact that since the fall of Soto, no bounty hunter has appeared to collect Butcher’s head. The empire and the Royal Houses have done nothing to avenge the unfortunate town. One might mistake this for the sign of strength. Butcher was a Royalblood, but so the leaders of other gangs. A grin appeared on Siddy’s face but quickly faded away when the bandit realized the odds. The girl seemed to not listening to them, struggling with her own thoughts.

“We must press harder to the Falls then,” Siddy said urgently. He was right. The Silent Falls was the natural fortress augmented with solid trap doors and a place to sleep. Arguably, it was safer than a shelter house. While the red dirt pushed the jungle away, and most animals also avoided it, there was a sort of beasts that snuffed the shelter house like a candle’s flame. The Silent Falls was the home to one of such creatures. It prowled only during the night though. Siddy and Emm knew it. Their pace has increased considerably as they neared the fated place. Soon, he’d be free of everything Butcher represented. Perhaps, he’d even hear of events from Soto and learn of Butcher’s death. This was his hope. How little he knew of things that awaited for him in the future. And so, when the temperature of the air began suddenly dropping, and Emm murmured, “the Falls are ahead,” he almost smiled.