World in Tatters Ch. 30

And just when I thought we might be out of the woods…so to speak… there’s another threat. Who could it be this time?

“Steven, it’s alright. We’re here to help you.”

Alice looks to me, Butch’s knife still in hand. I hold my hand up to her, signaling for her to stand down. For now.

Stepping out from behind my tree, “And why would you do that?”

As soon as they see me, the archers draw their bows, leveling arrows at my heart. “Stand down!” The sword-wielding man orders. The archers relax “He’s a friend.”

“Friend seems like a strong word.” I snipe. The strange man paces around to the other side of the campfire. For the first time since his arrival, I get a good look at him. Sword still in hand, blood and steel glistening in the firelight, stands the man I met back at Alexandre’s inn. “Hello, Richard.”

Breathing a sigh of relief, “Oh, good, you remember me.”

“The sword was a bit of a giveaway.”

“Yeah, I guess it would be.” Suddenly remembering it is still in his hand, Richard takes up a fallen rag and wipes the blade before sliding the sword back into its scabbard. Kiera and their accompanying archers all stow their weapons. Richard turns to his men, “Gather up any supplies that didn’t burn up. Get the horses and wagons ready to move out.”

Looking around the now desolate battleground, I see Rachel, Jason and Chris warily coming out from their hiding places. Alice rushes to my side, keeping on guard while Richard’s people scavenge the wrecked camp. She whispers in my ear, “Who are these people. Shouldn’t we be running?”

“I don’t know yet. I met two of them back in Picayune. Richard and his wife Kiera. But beyond their names, I don’t know them.”

Rachel and the others make their way around to join Alice and me, giving Richard’s crew a wide birth. Richard takes notice of our discomfort. “Please, all of you. I know this is weird, but I promise, we’re on your side.”

“Look, Richard, I’m sure we all appreciate the rescue here, but I gotta ask. What are you doing here?”

“Um… so, this is going to sound bad, but hear me out. We’re here for you.” I feel Alice tense at my side. “We’ve been tailing you since Picayune.”

My body tenses. My voice drops as my mind goes back on alert, “And why is that?”

“Well, we were sent to find you.”

“By whom?”

“That’s a long story.” Still hesitant, “Really hard to explain.”

“Right…we’d better get going.”

“I’m sorry, Steven. But we can’t let you do that.” Realizing how creepy he sounds, “Not yet, anyway. You’re not prisoners. I’ll have your gear returned to you. Food, supplies, whatever you need, it’s yours, but I need you all to stick around.” Shuffling uncomfortably, “Maybe you and I should talk in private?”

Thinking for a moment, I look to my comrades. All of them are on guard. I don’t know why, but I feel some sort of trust for Richard. Maybe it’s just wishful thinking, but I actually believed him when he said he’s on our side. Still, I’m cautious. “Return our gear first. All of it. As a sign of good faith. Then we can talk.”

Richard flashes me a warm smile, spreading his arms in a gesture of embrace, “Of course!”

He calls one of his archers over to him. After a moment of conversing, the man rushes off, disappearing into the night.

*****

A few hours pass before Richard’s man returns followed by a small caravan of men and women on horseback.

In the meantime, my crew keep ourselves separated from Richard’s people while we wait. We sit well away from the fire. Richard and Kiera sit opposite us. They’re clearly keeping an eye on us, likely making sure we don’t try to sneak away. Despite Alice getting increasingly antsy, we decide to stick around.

I can’t put my finger on it, but I think we can trust Richard. There’s a kindness about him that I don’t quite understand yet. I’m still skeptical though.

As soon as the caravan rolls in, Richard has his men unload two large trunks from the wagon. They carry them over and set them down in front of us. Richard stands over them, “You’ll find all your stuff in here. Everything you left at the tavern in Hattiesburg too. We’ve also recovered most of the stuff Butch’s men took. We even brought your horses. Now, Steven. Can we talk?”

I stand up, brushing myself off and flipping open one of the trunks. I breathe a little easier when I see my mother’s rifle sitting right on top of the pile. I pull it out of the trunk and sling it over my shoulder. “Sure.”

Alice grabs my arm, spinning me around. Keeping her voice low, “What are you thinking? I’m not letting you go out there with him alone.”

“Letting me?” I jest. “When have either of us been able to control the other?”

“That’s not what—”

“I know what you meant. It’s okay. I don’t think he would have rescued us and given us our weapons back just to lure me into the woods and kill me. It doesn’t make sense.”

“None of this makes sense. We’ve got our gear. Let’s just go.”

“I won’t be long. I’m just gonna hear him out, then we can go.”

“Fine.” Alice reluctantly releases me.

I crack a smile at her before following Richard.

“Oh, I almost forgot!” Richard turns about, rushing over to covered wagon. He rustles around for a minute before reemerging with a large dark thing cradled in his arms. He walks straight over to Rachel, holding out the fuzzy blob. “I think he missed you.”

“Rex!” She shouts, lifting the furball from Richard’s arms. She hugs the cat tight to herself, much to Rex’s chagrin. He tries to wriggle free, but Rachel holds him close. She looks Richard in the eye, unsure how to react. “Thank you.” She says flatly.

“My pleasure.” He says, running his hand over Rex’s head before catching back up to me. “Shall we?”

He grabs a torch from one of his people and leads me away from the camp. We walk in silence for a while until we come to a clearing. Richard leads me to a fallen tree at the edge of the clearing, the trunk shattered from the storm a few nights ago. He sits down, adjusting his sword to get comfortable.

“Steven, please. Sit.”

“Why’d you bring me all the way out here?”

“Well, frankly, there’s some things I need to tell you. Things that are of a…sensitive nature.”

“I don’t keep secrets from my family.”

“You might want to keep this one.”

“Okay… you have my curiosity. Are you going to tell me this secret, or keep me in suspense?”

After a long pause, Richard takes a deep breath. “There are a lot of things I need to tell you about before we get there.”

“Then you better get started.”

“Where would you like me to start?”

“The beginning is usually a good bet.”

“There’s the trick. Knowing what the beginning is.” Richard puts his index finger to his forehead, “Ah. I got it. Let’s start about six years ago. From my understanding, that’s around the time you left the Alliance. Is that right?”

“Yeah. Give or take.”

“Well, you left just in time, I’ll tell you what. Because that’s about when everything went to crap.”

“I thought the uprising didn’t happen for another few years.”

“True. The first shots weren’t fired until later, but there was plenty leading up to it.” Richard looks up into the night sky. “I was living in Atlanta at the time. I grew up with my dad and brother in one of the tenements. Mom died giving birth to my brother. I didn’t know the rest of my family until I became an adult.”

“No offense, but…What does that have to do with anything?”

“Patience.” Richard waves his hand at me, beckoning me to sit on the log next to him. I roll my eyes before joining him on the fallen trunk. “Look, I’m telling you all of this, so you understand the full context. Before he died, my father told me that I was adopted. That my mother was actually the daughter of some high muckity-muck in the Alliance, and that she had been with someone else before my dad. Never found out who my birth father is, but my dad did tell me where to find my grandfather.

“I tracked him down, because…well… other than my brother…half-brother… He was the only family I had left. Jedidiah. I call him Jedd. He’s great. He took Michael and me in. Gave us a home. He got me a job working in the Alliance militia. I was officially stationed in Savanah, but protecting one of the ambassadors took me back and forth to Atlanta a lot.

“I’m sure you remember, but by the time you left, the Alliance was in a major drought.”

“Yeah, I remember hearing about it.”

“Well, the year you left, crop yields in the area were abysmal. Drought, blight, you name it. Atlanta was starving. Parliament didn’t know what to do about it. They kept making it worse. President Falstrom had to institute rationing. The people didn’t like that.”

“But not you?”

“Nah. I understood it. Some of my compatriots…not so much. I think we all knew that some form of rebellion was coming. Protests became pretty frequent.”

“Alice never mentioned any of this.”

“She may not have known. At least not the extent of it. She was the President’s daughter. She would have been pretty insulated from it.”

“Fair point. So, what happened?”

“Elias Drum happened.”

“Drum… Butch and Rolo mentioned him. Who is he?”

“From my understanding, he’s the one who orchestrated the rebellion. And now, he’s ruling over the Alliance.”

“Rolo and Butch work for him then?”

“Yeah. They do. They’re not low level either. They report directly to Drum.”

“I know why Rolo wants to get to Alice and me, but I’ve never met Drum. Hadn’t even heard of him until yesterday. What could he possibly want with me?”

“I’m getting there.”

“Yeah, well, you’ve been burying the lead for the last five minutes. Maybe get on with it?”

“I have not been burying the lead.” He feigns offense at the accusation. “You just needed to understand some things first.

“You and your sister are being targeted to get to someone else.”

“Really? Who?”

“The person who sent me here—who sent Kiera and I to retrieve you— That’s who.”

“Cut the cryptic crap, Richard. I haven’t had a lot of sleep recently, so, I can’t follow riddles. Just tell me.”

Richard turns his eyes to me, clearly trying to decide how much to reveal. “Kiera and I work with a group of loyalists. Fragments of the Falstrom administration and old militia trying to depose Drum. They’re led by a council of generals and politicians. We work for one of the council members. Chairperson, actually. She sent us here. To keep you safe. And to hopefully bring you to her.”

“Look, Richard, everyone I knew from Atlanta, or the Alliance as a whole for that matter, is either here or dead. I don’t understand what possible connection I could have to…”

“She’s your mother.”

His words bring me to a grinding halt. “That’s not pos… There must be some mistake.” I jump from the log, and pace the edge of the clearing. “My mother was killed. Five years ago. Half-way across the continent.”

“Steven…”

“Oh, I get it. This is some kind of joke to you.” I feel my temper rising. I can’t believe I listened to this guy. How could I have been so stupid? He’s been following us for days. Tracking us longer than that. I don’t know what he thinks he’ll get from us.

“This is not a joke!” Richard insists.

“It must be, because if it’s not, that means it’s a trick, to get me to come with you. And that’s a lot less flattering.”

Richard reaches behind his back, pulling something from his waistband. Even in the low light from the moon, I recognize the book clutched in Richard’s hand. “This was hers, right? Your mother’s?”

“Why do you have that? That’s mine, give it back to me.”

“Here,” With a sigh, Richard places the journal in my outstretched hand. “One of my men found it while searching the camp’s wreckage. I assume you’ve read this?”

After a pause, “No. Did you…!”

“Some of it, yes. Enough to realize who wrote it.”

“You had no right!”

“I stopped reading as soon as I realized. Your mother is a powerful woman. Brilliant. I…”

“Stop talking about my mother like you know her.”

“I do know her.”

“No. You don’t. You’re mistaken. My mother is dead.”

“I know this is hard for you to accept.”

“It’s not hard to accept. It’s just impossible.”

“Steven, I can’t tell you her whole story from the last five years because I don’t know it, but I can tell you with certainty that she is alive. As of about a month ago, at least.” Richard looks straight into me, the light from the torch flickering in his eyes. His piercing gaze betraying only a stern resolve. “I can prove it.”

He looks sincere, completely serious. What if he’s right? Is it possible? I stare into Richard’s gaze searching desperately for any indication of mistruth. Our eyes lock together, neither moving. My jaw tightens.

I am the first to break the connection. I need to know. I nod to Richard, “Alright then. Prove it.”

Richard jams the butt of the torch into the soft ground. With both hands, he reaches behind his neck, unclasping a chain. Richard tugs at it, pulling something from underneath his shirt, clasping the pendant in his palm. When he reaches out, I let him drop the object into my hand.

A small silver ring, simple design with a single agate stone setting. The polished face of the stone shows swirls like ink spreading through water, frozen in time. I turn the piece over in my fingers.

My breath catches in my throat when I see the engraving: Amantes sunt Amentes.

Lovers are lunatics.