"How did it go?" Suiv asked while controlling the slow moving carriage once everybody was in.
"Quite well. We got some treasure out of it." Venamo answered and showed the golden accessory that the mysterious holy lady dropped.
"Did you rob the lady yourself?" Suiv asked.
"No, actually. She sort of gave it to us. In a way." Yilka answered the question.
"And you, foolish girl! You will not jump into trouble when the boys do! They can take care of themselves." Suiv lectured to Varma and turned her head to look at her.
"I took care of myself out there. The crooks went running when the saw my spearwork." Varma tried to convince her mother.
"There were only of two of them anyway. Varma was not in any danger." Yilka pointed out.
"They could have had mates lurking in the crowd, waiting for an ambush. What if one of them grabbed Varma and held her as ransom? You two should have sent her back here." Suiv told the brothers.
"We were focused on something else happening at the moment. We didn't notice that Varma jumped out until she was there with us." Yilka calmly explained.
"He is right. Varma's presence was a distraction to us and it allowed one of them to get away." Venamo snitched on Varma.
"Well Vena and Yia intended to sell their treasure and spend the money themselves!" Varma snitched back.
"Well, the gift was for them. They can do what they want with it." Suiv stated.
Yilka let out a relieved exhale, Venamo looked a little ashamed of himself and Varma was steaming.
"So no more playing hero for little girls." Suiv reminded.
"Pfft. Little girls. I'm just..." Varma murmured and counted in her head.
"Four years younger than Yia and 12 younger than Vena." She murmured some more.
"In any case, does anyone know anyone in this town who might sell fine sal..." Yilka started to say but got an elbow on the ribs from Venamo before he could finish.
"What would you need fine salts for?" Suiv asked.
Venamo gave a mean glare to Yilka.
"Umm... Maybe to... add flavour to the meat that we'll cook for the table." Yilka quickly lied once he realised that he shouldn't have asked the question he just asked.
Suiv started laughing at the head of the carriage, which confused Yilka.
"Honey, I don't think you know what fine salts are for. They're not for flavour. They do... interesting things to a person's mind, let's just say." Suiv said.
Yilka looked embarrased of himself and then wondered why Nofa asked for the fine salts earlier.
"Things like what?" Varma asked.
"Nasty, horrible things. Stay away from them. And we will now leave this town before you get any more ideas." Suiv replied quickly and sternly as the carriage was nearing the exit of the town.
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They made it out of the town with no trouble and continued their journey along the dirt roads leading to their destination. They weren't alone on the road, as behind them and in front of them were other travelers from different parts of the land to chat with along the long journey. During the all day journey, the bread basket was eaten empty, mostly by Varma who spent much of the later part of the journey napping, as did Vaino. Yilka kept daydreaming for most of the journey and Venamo kept checking the feign flesh on his hand every chance he got. As often as he checked his hand, he noticed something he found odd. He slapped Yilka on the knee to get his attention.
"Look at this." Venamo quietly said to his brother and showed his hand.
"What? This quickly?" Yilka quietly said back when he saw the hand.
"How long did she say it would take to fully merge with my own flesh?"
"About ten days or so. I suppose she remembered wrong."
"Or wait. Could it have been that holy lady back in town? She touched me and perhaps that did it."
"That might actually be it and... What is that?" Yilka said and noticed something on Venamo's forehead.
"What is it?" Venamo asked.
"On your forehead is this odd symbol." Yilka replied.
Venamo looked into the water container and saw his reflection and the symbol on his forehead.
"It's not a symbol. It's writing in the holy people's language. It means Deserving." Venamo said to Yilka, once again quietly.
"Well, of course it does." Yilka said jealously.
"What do you mean?" Venamo asked.
"Don't mind it. But I suppose the holy lady made your hand heal faster. Isn't that what the holy people can do?"
"They can. But I've never known that they can brand someone like this. Perhaps Vaino might know something about that."
"Ask him once he wakes up."
"I shall do that."
"I'm glad I wasn't branded with that ugly symbol. And neither was her." Yilka said and looked over at Varma who was napping happily while leaning on the side of the carriage.
"I am not ashamed of this branding. I find it something to be proud of, and it's a shame that you and her couldn't have it, even though the holy lady seemed to deem you deserving as well." Venamo stated.
"Eh. I reckon she was a fraud anyway." Yilka said bitterly.
"But would a fraud do this to my hand? Think, Yilka. She was real, but why was she in our land?" Venamo wondered.
"Well, Rarhea is directly north of Uhmakas so maybe she was on her pilgrimage a bit earlier than usual and passing through here." Yilka speculated.
"But then she'd have to cross the mountains between Uhmakas and Rarhea and that wouldn't make sense when usually the holy people go around the mountains and the lake through Vastusarian territory that is much easier." Venamo explained.
"Where did you learn all that?" Yilka asked.
"We have the book. You should read them sometimes." Venamo replied.
"Of course." Yilka said.
"What are you whispering about back there? Do you see that there?" Suiv said while holding the reins and pointing forward.
Both of the brothers looked in the direction where the carriage was headed and saw down the hill a tall wooden wall made of massive spiked logs that the Uhmak people had no clue where the constructors of the wall had gotten them from. The wall had white smoke coming from it, and it was four times the height of any tree in Uhmakas, making many people believe that everything in the realm of Greater Vastusar must be enormous. By the wall was a vast area of flat land with bonfires of different sizes scattered around, as well as tents and carriages. But on the other side of the wall was something even more interesting. From the clouds in the sky, red, orange and yellow light shone through and lit the skies. The glow didn't scare any of the people gathered by the wall, as they were used to seeing it every spring and they knew what it meant. Once the wall was closer, more details could be seen. Nearest to the enormous wall was a long table, longer than the entire town of Reutsa where the holy lady branded Venamo.
"We are at the Wound." Suiv stated.
"And the Fire Feather is waking up." Venamo followed up with.
"Mmm, does that mean that we're finally there? Can we see her soon?" Varma said as she was waking up.
"Yes, we're there." Suiv replied and felt glad that she could finally stand up soon.
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Down at the bottom of the hills they found a good spot to leave their carriage in a circle of tents and other carriages around a big bonfire.
"Finally here. And I am done for the day. Could you boys back there cut the meat in pieces and heat it with spears in that fire?" Suiv said and turned around to see the others.
"Of course. You've worked plenty today." Venamo replied and nobody disagreed.
"I can help too." Varma pointed out and felt overlooked.
"Nobody is stopping you." Yilka pointed out.
He took a piece of meat and stuck it to the end of one of the spears and handed the spear to Varma. While all the meat got warmed by the large bonfire, Suiv woke up Vaino and they set up a large hood over the carriage that made it a sort of a tent on wheels. Once the meat was cooked, Venamo, Yilka and Varma carried it to the table on a large platter that they also brought with them. On the same long table were all sorts of meats, breads, vegetables, cheeses, meads and wines, and Varma especially put her self control to the test in order to not snatch anything from the table. Nobody was allowed to take anything from the table before a certain point of the evening. All around the area people in special celebratory outfits with stich patterns on them were getting to know one another and catching up with people that they hadn't seen since last year, but when a prestigiously dressed man climbed on a podium, most people's attention went to him. People gathered into a big mass to hear what the man had to say, as two men around him blew into horns to call for silence.
"Tonight, on the day that the Fire Feather awakens from her slumber and ends winter, the entire tribe of Uhmakian is gathered here at the the rotten, festering wound in the flesh of Mother Uhmakas to celebrate the event our tribe has celebrated for generations and generations. Some of us are here on this side, and some of us are there on the other side of this hundred year border of division, but rest assured, we are all here, gathered in love and oneness, and anticipation for a bountiful summer." The man at the podium shouted.
He then turned around to face the wall.
"To our brothers on the other side, let us know that you are here with us!" He shouted at the wall.
Cheers and shouts came from the other side of the wall to respond to him.
"One day we will knock down or burn this seemingly indestructible wall, and we will finally see our brothers. If not we, then perhaps our great grandchildren will, but it will happen yet. Until that day, we must speak to them only with our arrow messages. You may all ready your bows." The speaker said, and people all over readied their bows where they had blunt arrows with a messages wrapped around them.
"Have you all written your messages?" Suiv asked her family as Varma was already wrapping a paper around an arrow.
"Well in advance." Varma replied, and shot the blunt arrow over the wall.
Arrows were flying over the wall, and messages on blunt cushioned arrows were also coming from the other side of the wall to the point that one was lucky to not get hit in the head by one. After Varma fired hers, Venamo, Vaino and Suiv fired theirs with the same bow.
"Do you have a message?" Suiv asked Yilka.
"I don't really have anything interesting to say this year." Yilka replied and shrugged.
"Shame, but I understand." Suiv said
Right then, Venamo got hit in the head by one of the messages that came from over the wall. He unwrapped the message.
"What does it say?" Varma asked curiously.
"Follow the road of blood, you will find a way through." Venamo read from the paper.
"A way through?" Yilka asked.
"And on this paper is also a red stripe. Is that what I'm meant to find in one of these logs." Venamo said and began looking at the wall.
"Could a way through mean that somebody has made a hole in the wall somewhere?" Varma wondered.
"It's a long wall. Who even knows how far away that way through would be?" Venamo said.
"It may not even be marked with a similar stripe painted on the wall. It could be painted on the ground and you need to follow it." Varma added.
Right then Yilka noticed a man with a black hood and a black cape walk past him, and one detail about the man caught his attention. The black cape had a vertical red stripe going along it.
"The road of blood." Yilka said quietly and looked at the letter in Venamo's hand to see the exact same type of red stripe in the letter.
Yilka started following the hooded man without saying anything about it. Venamo was about to ask where Yilka was going, but then he also saw the hooded man and started following as well. The hooded man was going through the crowd of people skillfully without bumping into anyone, but the brothers didn't lose him. A few messages hit the brothers in their heads but they didn't let that distract them. After following the hooded man for some time, they found themselves far away from the rest of the people where the flat land ended and the forest began. The hooded man went into the forest. Yilka took his Beast Slayer from his hip and Venamo took his Defiance from his back, and they both ran to the forest to chase the man who had disappeared behind the trees. Yilka reached the forest first, and as he passed a tree, he got grabbed and held by force in a position where he couldn't fight back. The hooded man held a knife to his kidney and had his free hand around Yilka's neck. When Venamo ran past the same tree, the hooded man shouted to get his attention and pushed the knife harder against Yilka and penetrated the first layer of skin.
"You are following me. Why?" The hooded man asked in a raspy voice.
"If you do anything to him, I will cut off all your limbs and bury the rest of you as you scream." Venamo warned and clenched his sword with both hands.
"I asked, why are you following me?" The hooded man asked again.
"The road of blood. The red stripe on your back, and the same red stripe on this message."
The hooded man let go of Yilka and shoved him away.
"Do you believe me?" Venamo asked.
"Quiet." The hooded man said.
"Pardon?" Venamo said.
"Keep it down." The hooded man calmly demanded.
Everybody stayed quiet and heard rattling and the sound of drool hitting the dirt. The hooded man gave the brothers a serious look as if to tell them to stay quiet. Venamo looked up to where he heard the sound coming from and saw a hairy creature with a long torso, long limbs, long claws, thick skin, big mouth and big white eyes crawling along the wooden wall above. The freakish creature locked eyes with Venamo and widened its mouth, almost smiling in a way. The creature jumped down to the ground and landed on its four limbs. Venamo clenched his sword in his hands and took a fighting stance.
"What is that thing?" Yilka asked frightened.
"It's a wallcrawl! Running won't help us here!" The hooded man exclaimed and readied his knife.
The wallcrawl charged at Venamo who thrust his sword forward, aiming it at the creature's mouth, but the wallcrawl caught the blade with its teeth. It shook the blade around but Venamo would not let go of his weapon. The wallcrawl yanked its head backwards and sent Venamo flying. When Venamo landed on his back on the ground, the wallcrawl prepared to pounce at him and finish him off. Before it could do that, Yilka charged at the creature and hit it on the neck with his Beast Slayer. The wallcrawl let out a pained screech. It smacked Yilka in the gut with the back of its hand and sent him flying too. When Yilka was on his back, the wallcrawl had its eyes on him. It shook its head and leapt in the air, looking to pounce at Yilka, but as it was landing, it got the blade of a sword in its gut. Venamo had gotten up and intercepted the wallcrawl's attack. The blade of the Defiance only sunk one third of the way in, hitting a bone that prevented it from sinking deeper. The wallcrawl started writhing and jumping in an attempt to get the blade away from its gut, but Venamo kept pushing.
"Now, Yilka!" Venamo shouted.
"Say no more!" Yilka shouted back and took his cudgel from the ground.
He charged the beast and shouted his lungs out as he leapt forward and unleashed a powerful downward swing with all his strength. His hit landed on the top of the creature's skull, and he could hear the skull crack from the hit. The wallcrawl staggered on wobbly legs with no capability to defend itself now. Venamo pulled his Defiance out of the beast's gut and landed a downward swing on the wallcrawl's neck, cutting off its head. Both of the brothers breathed heavily and looked at the headless beast on the ground.
"Well done on listening." Venamo said.
"Good hit." Yilka replied.
"Thank you both. You always have to be careful in places where the wall meets the forest. These creatures are not as uncommon in these places as I'd wish." The hooded man said and put his knife away.
"Do we have your trust now?" Venamo asked.
"You have the advantageous position compared to me now, yet you haven't tried anything. That alone is worth my trust these days. You can turn back, and forget everything about me, or you can follow me, if you are comfortable with the risk of being imprisoned or murdered away from your home." The hooded man warned.
"What do you mean by that?" Yilka asked.
"I know a way to get to the other side of this wall, but the other side is not the same as this side. Make a few mistakes, and you may spend the rest of your life in prison there, or end up in a mass grave." The hooded man explained.
"Do you come from there?" Venamo asked.
"I was born there and I live there to this day, but I seem to be the only who realises that the only way to free my people from under the tyrant's heel, is by getting help from our brothers on the other side."
"How does the crown of Vastusar treat our brothers on the other side?" Venamo asked curiously.
"You can come see for yourself, but for your safety, stick by me. You can still turn back, if you want to." The hooded man told them.
Yilka looked at Venamo.
"I have to know." Venamo said.
"Agreed." Yilka replied.
"But keep your eyes on this man. I still don't fully trust him." Venamo adviced.
The hooded man rolled a big log out of the position where it was laying, and revealed a hole under it. On the log a red stripe was painted too.
"Follow me. You'll trust me more than anyone else you'll see on the other side." The hooded man said and crawled head first into the hole.
The brothers shrugged at each other and then Venamo followed the man into the hole, with Yilka entering last when he didn't hear any sounds of distress.
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After an unpleasant crawl through a tunnel that was reinforced with wood here and there, the three men who went through it found themselves on the other side of the wall. They were now in a forest that was just like the forest on the other side as well, but when they followed the hooded man out of the forest, they found a site full of tents that looked a lot more permanent than the tents back on the other side. Here on the other side people were reading the messages that had been fired at them, but nobody was eating well. Armored guards with spears were supervising every corner and confiscating the bows from the people who seemed fully compliant. Aside from the guards, the people there were all wearing goat hide jackets, and some wore leather helmets. The celebratory mood seemed to have ended here already.
"We shan't go in the camp. We would stick out in these clothes." The hooded man said and went into a direction away from the camp.
The brothers followed and soon found themselves by a large rock. The hooded man flipped the rock over and revealed that it was hollow and not even made of stone. Under the hollow stone was a pile of the same types of clothes that the people in the camp wore.
"Wear these to blend in." The hooded man said and removed his cloak to reveal that underneath he was wearing the correct clothes to make him blend in.
"Why do we need to blend in?" Yilka asked.
"If you don't dress in the work clothes, the guards will know that you're trespassing." The mysterious man answered.
Yilka seemed confused. He had never been told what to wear, or that some places require certain types of clothes.
"What is your name?" Venamo asked, finding it appropriate.
"I won't reveal my name to anyone I don't fully trust. For now you can call me The Fifth. And for both of you, hide your weapons under your clothes." The mysterious man replied.
Both brothers put the hide coats over their clothes and made their weapons hang on their backs under the coats. Venamo's weapon was much better hidden than Yilka's bulgy cudgel.
"You won't have to wear them for long. Only until we get to where we need to be." The Fifth told them, and walked towards the camp.
The brothers followed and made it to the camp, where many people were reading the letters that came from the other side. They all looked tired, and most had an expression of much needed relief and rest on their face, as well as calloused and cut hands. As they walked through the camp, The Fifth kept saying: "The earth whispers tonight." to certain people as he walked past them. All those people seemed to understand what the phrase meant, even if it made little sense to Venamo and Yilka. Some of the armed guards gave an interested look to the brothers, but didn't seem to be too curious about them. Some of the tired looking people in the camp quietly thanked the brothers as they walked by, which confused them.
"That's enough slacking! The night workers must return to the cave now. The day workers must return to their tents before the light dies from the sky." A guard with broad shoulders shouted from the top of his mount.
People groaned, but didn't complain. Guards rattled their weapons and got people to form queues.
"What is that place?" Yilka whispered to The Fifth when he saw a rock with a cave right outside the camp, with railroads going into the cave.
"The reason why the Kingdom of Vastusar wanted this place to begin with, and wants to keep it so badly." The Fifth answered.
"Because of a cave? Why does it have an iron road leading in there?" Yilka asked.
"It's what is inside the cave what they want. The moss that grows in that cave makes their whole society function, and it's what these people here dig every day, except today. Today is a rare day. Usually they get a rest day every twenty five days only, but on this day they got two rest days in a span of twenty five days. That's why they look so relieved."
"Their society functions on moss?" Yilka wondered.
"Not the moss, but the smoke that burning the moss creates. It makes their machines work." The Fifth explained, leaving Yilka no less confused than he was before.
Right then the loud sound of a wing flapping resonated through the entire area, and cheering was heard on both sides of the wall. Everybody looked up at the glowing clouds, and saw a massive bright feathered, fire coloured bird appearing. The bird dove down and took a majestic flight in the distance. It flew from place to place, first flying away into the horizon, but surprisingly quickly returning again and first flying over the nearby town. Then it flew over the camp and over the wall, making all the remaining snow on the ground melt and sending a warm wave that also stung people's faces with the heat, but nobody minded it, as long as they got to see the one of a kind bird. Once the Fire Feather had flown over this side of the wall, the people suddenly erupted into a song that they all seemed to know the lyrics of. The guards didn't bother to quiet them down.
"Is this their custom here?" Venamo asked The Fifth.
"The song has been sung on this day every year as long as I've lived." The Fifth answered.
Venamo and Yilka noticed that they understand the language of the people here perfectly, but not the language that the guards speak. That made them truly realise that despite a minor difference in customs, the people here truly are of the same tribe as their people.
"Don't stay there wondering. Nobody is looking at us. Keep following." The Fifth said to the brothers.
They followed him into one of the tents where nobody was inside. Inside the tents were only rugs on the floor, and The Fifth walked over to one of them. He pulled two camouflaged nails out of the rug and revealed that it was concealing a wide hole on the floor, leading to a tunnel underground.
"In here." The Fifth said to the brothers and got in the tunnel.
They followed him and once they were in the tunnel, The Fifth nailed the rug into the dirt surrounding the entrance of the tunnel again from both sides. The Fifth took a lantern that was hanging from a hook on the wall and led the way again. By following the Fifth, the brothers found themselves in a larger room where The Fifth lit torches on the walls with his lantern. The light revealed a room with weapons on the walls and a map table in the middle.
"What is this place? Why did you bring us here?" Yilka asked once the room was fully lit.
"You will see if you wait." The Fifth replied.
And so they waited. Gradually more people in groups of two to four entered the underground room. In all of those groups, one person looked certain of themselves and the others looked confused, but all had the same clothes. Soon enough the room had around twenty people inside it, and The Fifth stood at the head of the map table.
"I see more new faces here. Not as many as we got last year, but everybody serves a purpose. You all came here voluntarily by following the road of blood, and you all had a chance to turn away. You have all now seen what this side of The Wound looks like and it is now your decision whether you want to fight to free it or not. To let you newcomers know who we are, we are the Road of Blood, and we believe that the time for talking is over. This is what it has been like over here for the past hundred years when Vastusar conquered these lands. Our fathers and their fathers tried to negotiate with the Kingdom of Vastusar. They tried so hard to come to a compromise with an entity that doesn't budge. They went on hunger strikes, they wrote poems to rile the people up, and where did that get them? Nowhere. The Wound remained there, and the Crown had no intention to remove it. They want what is in these caves, and they want workers to dig these caves. We are just the unfortunate people who were born near them and they will not let us leave this side and reunite with our tribe. We have seen how people live on other side of the wall. They are their own lords. They serve their own families, their villages and the greater Uhmak tribe. They don't live to serve some lords who live in a far away city somewhere. They don't live to make some lifeless machines run. They live to live, and to make sure that their children also get a chance to live that way. That is what we want, but without sacrifices we will not get there. So if anybody who came from the other side believes that this side of the tribe is worth freeing, stay. If you want to return home and forget about us, leave." The Fifth told them with a loud booming voice to everyone in the room.
Four people left, but everyone else stayed in the room. Among them were Venamo and Yilka.
"We are grateful to those of you who stay. But before we can reveal you too much, or trust a weapon to you, you will have to prove your loyalty. You will have a task. A simple task, but it may prove challenging. Are you ready to prove your loyalty?" The Fifth asked.
Nobody said anything.
"I said, are you ready to prove your loyalty for the cause, and for the tribe?" He then shouted.
The other people in the room gave an affirmative roar.
"That's the attitude I want. So your task is this: Find a guard who wears the colours of Vastusar, steal his weapon, and bring it to the other side of The Wound for the first person you see with a black cape and red stripe on it. And don't try to buy a weapon from a smith, for we are able to tell what the weapons given to guards and police of the Crown look like. You may have to travel further than you expect on this task, but it's all proving your loyalty. So who is still in?" The Fifth asked.
Venamo looked at Yilka.
"I want to help these folk, but we have a homestead to take care of. The others there have never hunted before and they don't have my skill." Venamo reasoned to Yilka.
"You go with them then. I'm not needed for anything there, but I believe in these fellows, and I agree with them." Yilka replied to him.
"You are young and impressionable. It sounds like a noble cause, but a lost one. The Crown won't budge, the wall won't burn and the folk here have been disarmed. Their best bet is to sneak under the wall to our side." Venamo argued.
"And the Crown's forces would know exactly where they went, and then they'd attack our homelands and put us all in danger. No. I have to join this cause. As soon as I came here, I noticed that this land smells like Uhmakian land. Its people speak the Uhmak language, and they are of Uhmak flesh. They must be freed. If the world loses useless little me in the process, then at least I served a purpose." Yilka argued passionately.
"Or maybe I can steal the weapon and join the fight!" Varma's voice said from behind the brothers.
They both looked to the direction of the voice and there she was, standing proudly in the goat hide coat that was far too big for her.
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