Follow: Book 1 The Rose Tree Chronicles

Chapter Four: Stalling

Gerardo no longer cared enough to make his way to a neighboring town, even though no one in Cair would allow him to stay in an inn. He had sought out a lonely back alley and slept in the dirt by the mounds of trash and debris with only a tattered, abandoned cloak that he had stumbled upon to keep him warm. The memory of losing Rein left an overwhelming feeling of guilt in his heart that had him tossing and turning throughout the night. The next morning, harsh rays from the Southern sun rudely awakened him from a short night's sleep.

As he sauntered back onto the street, Gerardo noticed that nothing about the town had changed. Nobody even witnessed him egress from the darkness between the two battered shops in his musty uniform. The townsfolk were still busy working to revive their town and to keep what was left of their families alive. Gerardo pulled the worn hood of his cloak over his head to avoid being recognized when purchasing food. When he felt sure that no one was paying him any mind, he proceeded to search for an exit out of Cair, but this time his goal was to reach the dreaded Emperor Mentir's palace.

Cair was a very small town that sat in the middle of acres upon acres of grass and weeds. Gerardo followed the seldom-traveled dirt road that split the flat valley between Cair and the palace in half. All that he could survey of the landscape was the trail that led around the Lucierna Forest, surrounded by vibrant green grass stretching as far as his eye could see. Further out in the distance he spotted the palace sitting on the horizon like a little white stone on a bright green ring. He took a steady, deep breath and forced himself onward.

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The suns were high in the bright blue sky now, but as winter was ever nearing, they were tiny and emitted little heat. After walking for half the day with only a couple of short breaks, Gerardo felt a tad warmer with the additional help of his new cloak, but the air was still chilly and it caused him to shutter every so often. Over a quarter of a day further into his trek he had stopped shivering, but his muscles were sore and his joints ached with every step he took.

When the Southern sun began to set on an exasperatingly tedious day, Gerardo heard the muffled sounds of galloping and yelling resounding from his left. He glanced over and discerned nothing aside from the Lucierna forest line. Still, the noise grew louder and clearer. Gerardo slowed to a stop and squinted his eyes in an attempt to make out the tiny black mass emerging from the trees. As it approached it got bigger and brighter, until finally Gerardo realized the figure was a unicorn. He felt slightly nervous when the huge, dark gray-colored horse with the silver horn on its forehead ran directly up to him showing no signs of slowing down. Gerardo wondered if it even noticed him standing there.

At last the unicorn skidded to a dead stop in front of Gerardo, kicking up a large cloud of dust between them. They gaped at each other for a few short seconds. Gerardo waited for the creature to speak but the unicorn wondered if it should. Finally, Gerardo sighed through his nose. He scanned his surroundings, feeling quite unalarmed for this poor creature, and spotted a tall blackwood tree ahead to the right of the road.

"Hide behind that tree," he said, pointing. "I'll be casual about it."

The unicorn gave Gerardo a second, untrusting glance before quickly and silently obeying. Moments later, two hunters bolted out of the forest to see only Gerardo wandering along the path, like a random traveler ignorant of their situation. They rode up to him on their white and brown horses, their bows and arrows ready for any tricks that he might pull. Once they realized they had a distaste for this soldier and his mere presence, one of them spat in his direction before they both retreated back to the Lucierna Forest, neither muttering a word to him.

When the hunters were out of sight, the unicorn showed from its hiding place and trotted over to Gerardo. However, Gerardo paid it no attention and continued to walk onward, watching his feet.

"Sir!" called the unicorn, his silver beard bouncing at every word. "I appreciate what you did, but I have a question. If you're a soldier of the People, why did you aid me?"

"I'm not a soldier of the People," Gerardo admitted without taking his eyes off his feet.

The unicorn hesitated. "Then why are you wearing their uniform?"

"I'm borrowing it, if you must know." He had hoped that simply mentioning he was not a People's soldier would suffice.

"For what reason?"

"That is none of your concern." Gerardo tried to put a hint of warning in his voice, but he wasn't sure if the creature got the message through his chattering teeth. "I've said too much already. Please, return to your home."

The unicorn only thought for a second, then continued to pry. "Nevertheless, you're still a resident of this empire, so naturally I'm curious as to why you helped. The people here have little respect for anyone not of human form."

"I'm from the Noelle Empire," Gerardo confessed with a sigh. "Now please leave me be."

"Ah," said the unicorn in a distrustful tone. "So you are a soldier of Noelle I'm guessing?"

Gerardo shot a glare at the unicorn.

"I see. What might be your business here?"

"Not yours."

"Well, there seems to be an interesting story behind this!" The unicorn trotted in front of Gerardo to claim his full attention. "A Laxer on enemy lines, dressed as an Executioner, on a road which leads to the palace. How could one resist? I only hope you don't plan to take down the entire palace on your own..."

Gerardo was appalled at this creature's blunt disrespect. After all, Gerardo had just saved his life not two minutes earlier. "Are you unaware of the meaning behind 'none of your concern?'" he snapped.

"It's not as though I would alert anyone. I'm only interested to learn what you're doing and the story behind it. Who knows, I might even be able to help you... assuming that what you plan isn't too absurd."

"Do you wish to be involved?"

"Unfortunately, since you saved my life, I am obligated to return the favor."

"There is really no need. I'd prefer to do this alone."

Gerardo hurried around the unicorn, but the irritable creature continued to trot beside him.

"As a matter of fact, there is a need. It's what you would call, 'tradition,' for my kind. However, we only call it tradition when we're not acting due to conscience."

Gerardo supposed that at this point there was no way to get this creature to quit following him, so he began to talk. "I must break another soldier from the emperor's prison. Don't ask me why because even I can't be sure. I couldn't get a straight answer out of the naiad who relayed the message to me. Only something about the importance of his future bloodline."

"And you believe this naiad?" asked the unicorn as if Gerardo was an idiot.

"Honestly, I don't know. I just thought I'd escape the war for some time."

"Well, I'm no fool."

"That's all very well. I'm not you."

Gerardo stopped to sit beside the road for a moment and removed his boots with some struggle.

"What are you doing?" asked the unicorn, annoyed.

"Making sure my feet aren't about to fall off. I've been walking constantly for nearly a month now."

The unicorn paused and did his best to be patient. "My name's Calder, by the way."

"Nice to meet you, Calder," Gerardo said as he massaged his feet. "I'm Gerardo of Liko. Everyone calls me Gerry, among other less pleasant names."

Calder only sighed heavily in response. "Why don't you ride on my back?" he finally offered. "I'll run so that we may arrive sooner and we can get this over with."

Gerardo felt hesitant, but nodded his head in accord as he pulled his boots back on. "Where were you a month ago?"

Gerardo mounted Calder and allowed the unicorn to carry him the rest of the way to the palace. At this point, the Northern sun was setting and Gerardo noticed for the first time how hollow his stomach felt. Not only was he extremely fatigued and in need of sustenance, but it would be twilight once they reached the main road leading to the palace gates. He wouldn't be storming the palace tonight.

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The Southern sun had set with only the faint beams of its light shooting up from the horizon when Gerardo and Calder came to a fork in the road. Calder was ready to continue forward, but Gerardo stopped him.

"Just a moment," Gerardo said. "I'd like to know where these roads lead to."

"Straight ahead is the palace and to the right is the Dead Sea Desert," Calder replied. "We want to go this way."

Calder began to move toward the palace, but Gerardo stopped him again.

"Wait, don't go that way," he said, putting his hand on Calder's neck. "Go into the Lucierna."

"You can't cower now! We've arrived, so just go in and retrieve your friend!"

"Calder, we must be wise about this. Has it occurred to you that if I simply approach to the gates without a plan I might be thrown into jail as well? Not to mention I haven't eaten since dawn."

Calder considered Gerardo's words and took a moment to observe the positions of the suns, but of course there were none. He sighed. "Very well."

Calder ventured into the Lucierna Forest, which lined the emperor's palace wall and stretched further north. Gerardo directed him deep enough to where he hoped they wouldn't be spotted, but where they could still observe the pale white palace wall. The icy wind blew through the trees and Gerardo trembled from the sudden drop in temperature. He yanked off his leather gloves and blew into them in a futile attempt to give them some warmth. Though he was thankful that it wasn't snowing yet, it seemed as though it might as well be. Regardless, the air was chilly enough to where a campfire was necessary, so Gerardo began to gather the materials to make one.

"What are you doing?" Calder asked as Gerardo positioned a bunch of sticks to form a pyramid.

"What does it look like I'm doing?"

It took Calder a moment to piece it together. "Why must you build a fire right now?"

"Because I'm cold."

"You said you were hungry. There's an apple tree by the river."

"Thank you for that input. I shall harvest some as soon as I'm finished with this."

"You don't seem to be very concerned about your comrade."

"Quite frankly, I'm not." Gerardo struck his flint a couple of times to create some sparks. No fire followed. "Jorge and I have nurtured a rival relationship for some time now. If it were up to us, we would've killed each other a long time ago."

"Then why are you rescuing him?"

Finally, a small flame flickered into existence and Gerardo gently blew on it to give it life. Then he brushed his hands together and stood to face Calder.

"I already explained this to you and I have no intention of explaining it again."

He turned toward the river to search for the apple tree Calder had previously mentioned. To his disappointment, Calder followed closely behind like a second shadow.

"So you recall that somehow, his future generations are going to be important to the empires, which means we need to get him out before he can no longer procreate."

"And in this case, that means tomorrow. You find that explanation to be fallacious anyway, so what's the point of you using it on me?"

"You said you believe it."

"I said I don't know what I believe. Either way, I refuse to do anything until I devise a plan of action."

"Well, keep in mind he might not have a lot of time to waste," Calder continued. "The emperor only uses his palace prison for soldiers who might have valuable information, so you can be sure your friend isn't necessarily living in luxury at the time being."

"You think I'm unaware of this?" Gerardo asked. He finally came upon the apple tree and carefully picked the best fruit he could find.

"I'm only mentioning it as a reminder that you may want to plan quickly before there isn't much of Jorge left to save."

"Perhaps you would like to help me conjure up some ideas then."

"I suppose I can try, but I don't know how much aid I could provide."

Gerardo couldn't grasp how this brainless unicorn was anything more than two extra pairs of feet for him. He did his best to ignore his feelings of vexation and searched around for more food besides apples, as well as more wood so his fire would last the rest of the night.

"Why can't you just walk in?" Calder soon asked. "You're dressed in an Executioner's uniform so they should let you in."

"Suppose Xers must reveal some piece of information before they can enter?" Gerardo asked. "Like their name or brigade? If that's the case, my cover would be blown on the spot. So no, that won't work."

"What I'd do is simply walk up and see what happens. If I found myself in trouble, I'd gallop back into the forest and hide, then find a way to sneak in later."

"But now they'd be on the lookout for any more attempts."

"They wouldn't expect

them from one person."

"Who's to say I'm alone?"

"Who's to say you're not alone?"

Gerardo breathed a heavy sigh to keep himself composed. It was impossible to take this unicorn seriously. He gave up on searching for anything more than the apples and wood he had gathered and returned to his campfire.

"Very well," he replied. "In that case, we should come up with a second plan before going through with the first plan."

"Find a way to crawl over the wall," Calder suggested after a beat. "Maybe climb these trees to reach the top, then sneak into the palace."

Gerardo rolled his eyes. "Calder, perhaps you should lie next to the fire, indulge in some grass, and relax for the rest of the evening? The moment you have a suitable, step by step plan that takes every possible outcome into consideration, share it with me."

Calder decided that if Gerardo wasn't going to listen to any of his suggestions, he might as well do what was suggested and relax. As a result, neither of them spoke for the remainder of the night, which Gerardo thought to be a good thing for a few reasons. For all either of them knew, Emperor Mentir may have had guards and spies in the forest prepared to fight off any possible invaders or capture anyone who could be trying, and they may have over-heard him and Calder discussing ideas on how to enter the palace. Since they hadn't been attacked yet, Gerardo concluded that they had successfully gone unnoticed and prayed that Calder would keep his snout shut until prompted to do otherwise.

Gerardo ate his dinner slowly and took a moment to analyze his situation from afar. Everything was against him; numbers, resources, strength, energy, perhaps even wits. Calder certainly hadn't offered any useful ideas, but then again, Gerardo had come up with less than him. There weren't very many options for a soldier working alone, so perhaps "simply approaching" the palace was as good as any other solution they could come up with. What was additionally frustrating was the thought that Rein probably would've produced an exceptional plan at this point. Rein... she was probably dead by now, wasn't she?