Day 3

Finding a man Perkins had spoken of turned out too easy. Emm had the same feeling as with the older bandit who had wanted the scout to follow him. Nonetheless, with Perkins it was understandable. This here was worrisome. If he was as dangerous as Perkins had said, then Emm would have to be extra careful.

Outside the cover of a heartfell tree, rain drowned all sounds and Emm needed to edge closer to hear words.

“...stupid, why can’t we go?” It was the voice of the kidnapped village girl. “Are you afraid of getting wet?”

The man grunted something noncommittal in reply. Emm couldn’t see him from his hiding spot. But more importantly, where were the bags with coins and medicine. They had little use to Emm. Before he joined bandits, he’d lived on his own in the jungle. It has become like a matter of honor. Not true honor as there was no honor being a bandit but still, Emm’s instinct told him to come here. Emm trusted his gut feeling as it had saved his life before.

The bags were left in a recess between two protruding roots at the heart of the tree. Emm moved, ever silent and for the first time saw the man that had thrown Perkins and Siddy out of the Tusk into the night. And perhaps saved me from plummeting into the hollow. I will offer him my gratitude by not killing them.

The man sat with his back to Emm. Long strands of silver and gold hair streamed down over the brown coat to the middle of the man’s back. He also wore a brimmed hat. What kind of clothes are these? They were not fit for the place where the air could drown a man and temperature boil a skin. It was as Perkins had warned. This wasn’t an ordinary man. I need to be cautious.

The girl had to be somewhere in front of the man. These bags ... they seem like a trap. Emm reached for a knife. Just in case. He extended his hand to grab the first bag.

“C’mon let’s go. My mother must be sick from worrying. One of them looked kind of scary, you know?”

The man grunted, his face was focused on something in his hands. Emm couldn’t see it. He didn’t care. Rough material was wet, and beneath it was a familiar hardness of stolen coins. Medicine had to be in another bag. Emm’s hand moved away from the coins. They had no use for him. Why do I care about medicine? It belongs to Perkins and he is gone. Forest bless him.

“You’re like Giliad. Always lazy!”

Emm hesitated. Everything in the bags belonged to other people from many villages they’d crossed earlier. I don’t need it. I don’t want it. Forest will provide. He softly turned, not that there was a risk to make a noise. The rain was loud enough to camouflage a whisper. And maybe that was why he didn’t hear when the girl’s eyes fell on him, but instead of screaming, she pointed at him, her mouth moved soundlessly.

The man slowly, almost carelessly, pivoted on the root he was sitting on. His skin was pale! He wasn’t just a foreigner. He must have come from another region. A faraway one. The shock caught Emm off guard. But the man didn’t attack. It is as Perkins said.

“And who are you may be, little fella?”

“That’s one of the bandits!” the girl said, wrinkling her nose, although her eyes lacked hatred. “You need to kill him!”

“I don’t kill people, remember?”

“Then do something.”

Emm’s instincts kicked off and he reached for the knife. In an answer, the man used his finger to push the brim of the hat a little up. He was smiling! Seeing another man not taking danger seriously was greatly unsettling for Emm.

“That knife won’t do you any good,” the man’s accent was cleaner than most folks who spoke the imperial language.

A retreat was an option. No longer. Emm fell into a fighting position his fellow villagers had called – the ambushed tiger.

“I told you!” the girl said as if she’d predicted this.

You still have a chance, Emm said to himself. No. I won’t back off. He moved with startling speed. He surely was one of the fastest fighters he’d known. He used stealth and speed to survive.

And yet, the man barely made a countermove, avoiding the trajectory of the knife. Then with gentleness and precision, he sent Emm flying into a bush! Upon landing, Emm checked the plants around searching for anything dangerous for him. It was safe. Only then the scout allowed himself to be overwhelmed by what just happened. This is the true Royalblood. He’s like Butcher. More force of nature than a man. It was impossible to defeat him. He needed to see it for himself and he knew it now to be true.

“Why are you here?” the man asked.

“What a stupid question!” the girl snapped. “Obviously his gang told him to kill us and steal the bags back.”

The man’s blue eyes jumped to Emm questioningly. How could he answer it? He didn’t know it himself. He came here because it felt right.

“Is that true?”

“No.”

“Liar!”

Emm huffed and something snapped in him. He turned toward the insufferable girl. She was still a child and she accused him of lying? She didn’t know him.

“Kid,” Emm used a tone his parents had employed when they’d wished to show him his place. “You should return to your toys and do not get between adults.”

She shot toward him with surprising agility. Her body was lean, possessing hints of undeveloped strength but this was swifter than Emm anticipated. Her fist barreled into his stomach. Emm grunted with pain exploded in his side. She was a kid! Then another of her fist shot toward his face. This one he foresaw and easily ducked. She gritted irritated and launched herself at him. Emm’s eyes went wide as they fell and tumbled in the weeds. The man on the root laughed. Emm couldn’t wrap his head around this. What if he stabbed her? Sure, his knife was thrown somewhere but he could’ve had another one, right?

“Are you really a bandit?” she asked once taking a position at top of him. “You are so weak.”

Fighting in the jungle wasn’t about strength but speed, stupid girl. Emm’s hands become a blur as he grabbed her arms and twisted shoving her off him.

“You bastard!” she cried as dropped on her bottom. Emm jumped to his feet.

“Haha! You’re very funny. What age are you to think you can best me?”

“I am a girl.”

It was at that moment he noticed it. A yellow-striped snake. Venomous one. Once it locked on its prey it’d attack without hesitation. And now, its beady eyes seemed to only see the girl. Emm rushed forward, propelled by a desire to save her. Where this desire came from? Emm had no idea, nor he even knew it was there until he was on the move. His vision tunneled.

And then, something even more unexpected happened.

The snake’s head snapped toward him. This was against the nature of the yellow-striped snake. The shock rippled throughout Emm and he didn’t twist in time. The snake shot at him and bit before the scout could do anything.

“Hey! That’s a snake!” the girl’s silly voice reached him, distance and muffled as if a veil appeared between them. The bite didn’t hurt and Emm couldn’t see the snake anymore.

The strange man lifted him up and questioned but in Emm’s ears, the man’s words sounded blurred and incoherent. Then the canopy of the massive tree vanished and endless grayness appeared above Emm’s head. He was rocked from time to time. But his muscles refused to take action. He blacked out, upon the return of his consciousness he wanted to argue ... but he no longer remembered about what. He eventually passed out.

“...you’re joking...”

“...miracle...”

“...snake...”

“...save...”

“...he...”

“...”

*

“He’s waking up, mayor.”

“Then get out, Rigial-Pik.”

A hasty shuffle of feet faded away and a soft sound of a closing door. Emm felt good after a hellish nightmare ... wait. He understood. He was back in Cape Town. They should’ve left me to the venom. It’d easier and honorable death at least.