Читать книгу The First Darkness - Mitchell Boone's Gibson - Страница 6

Melvina didn’t remember a forest beyond the coliseum. She hadn’t been given much opportunity to see her surroundings from the floor of the cart on which she and her sister had ridden in. She could clearly remember the cries of the youngest children. They would be useless on the open market and even the most brazen magistrates saw no sport in placing them in the arena. Most of them were probably sold into harems. The unlucky ones went to the southern Carib tribes. She remembered her parents telling stories about the elaborate feast the Carib people prepared that featured heaping mounds of cured human flesh, vegetables, and fruit. They preferred the flesh of young children, so she heard.

She now had much larger problems to occupy her mind. She was very sure that she was dead. She had personally slit Salva’s throat and had been splattered with bright spurts of her blood in the process. She was certain that her blow to Salva’s throat had been fatal; but some unsettling questions remained unanswered. She felt very much alive. Salva hadn’t stopped whimpering for more than an hour. Melvina reasoned, can a dead girl whimper? Why would she? What would be the point?

Salva looked down at her feet as they walked on a pebble-strewn trail through the forest. She didn’t mind the walk so much as she did the hunger that raged through her body. She didn’t care if she was dead. She was still hungry and, for the most part, that was the most important thought in her mind.

Salva’s eyes had turned red from hours of crying. She looked at her sister and shouted, “I’m hungry!”

“What do you want me to do about it? I’m hungry too!” Melvina replied.

“Where are we going? I’m tired. Can we stop for a while?” Salva complained.

“I don’t know where we’re going. I just want to get as far away from that place as possible.”

Salva stopped abruptly and sat cross-legged on the ground. She threw her head back and let out a loud shriek.

“If we’re dead, why do my feet hurt so much? Why am I so hungry? None of this makes any sense!”

“I don’t have any answers for you, sister. I just know that crying and complaining aren’t going to help. We’re dead. I killed you. Those bastards killed me back at that horrible place. I don’t understand why we’re here now. I thought we were supposed to be with the gods.”

Melvina’s questions were not meant so much to answer Salva’s concerns as to help her sort out their situation.

“Where are our parents?” Salva asked.

“You assume that they have died,” Melvina replied.

“What else would the soldiers have done to them?” asked Salva.

“We have rested long enough. Let’s find somewhere to sleep and then we can find someone to help us,” Melvina said sharply.

Shaking her head as if trying to make Salva’s questions go away, Melvina struggled to sound as reassuring as she possibly could. She had no idea if anyone else existed within a day’s walk of where they were.

Salva grudgingly rose to her feet and walked toward her sister. After giving each other a halfhearted hug, they both began to walk back toward the pebble-strewn trail.

They walked for what seemed like hours without saying much of anything. Salva complained about the cold. Melvina reminded her that dead girls don’t feel cold. Salva showed her the goosebumps on her arms.

Melvina spotted a fire in a clearing just a short distance down the road. Salva saw it too. They both looked at each other with a sigh of relief.

“What do you think, sister?” Salva asked.

“What do we have to lose?” Melvina replied.

The two girls quickened their pace and soon reached the source of the fire. In a small clearing set a small distance from the path they saw a simple thatch hut. The hut was surrounded by six large dogs. The animals appeared to be asleep and did not stir as the girls approached.

The animals had shiny black manes spotted with bits of blood and tissue from some unnamed prey. Their glistening fangs hung from their mouths, rising and falling with the rhythm of their slumber. Their sleepy growls seemed to add an ominous tone to the air.

Just in front of the hut, the two girls spotted an old man. He sat quietly and did not stir as they approached. He wore a simple green robe that covered his body completely. He was bald and was perhaps the oldest person they had ever seen. His eyes were sunken and dark. Large wrinkles lined his face and deep circles rimmed his eyes. His skin was the color of pale moonlight before a storm. His hands were wizened and the skin hung from his arms like the leaves of an ancient willow. The only ornamentation on his body was a large, brilliant red stone that he wore on a pendant that hung from his neck.

The two girls stopped to warm themselves by the fire. The dogs did not move, neither did the old man. The girls looked at each other, glanced at the dogs, and decided to sit down as they continued to warm themselves. As far as they could tell, death gave certain freedoms not normally available to young girls traveling alone in the wilderness.

The old man still did not move. He did not look at them. His eyes remained steadfast upon the fire. The girls glanced at him from time to time but said nothing.

After a while, the man closed his eyes and began to sing softly to himself. The girls could not make out the words to the song, but the sound was beautiful.

One by one, the dogs began to awaken. They quickly encircled the fire and, before they could move, the girls were surrounded. The old man continued his song. As he sang, the dogs glared fiercely at the two girls. The dogs did not approach them, but they did not need to. Their message was clear.

Abruptly, the old man interrupted his song. He rose without speaking, glanced at the two girls, smiled a wide, toothless grin, and motioned for them to follow. As he moved, the dogs parted silently in response to his gesture. The girls followed him into the house. The dogs followed the three of them to the door.

After the old man, Salva, and Melvina had entered the hut, the dogs stationed themselves in front of the door. The old man closed the door behind them. The dogs quickly fell asleep.