The reply to my unspoken question came back: we hope so.
Suddenly, Reckter turned and we saw Erst coming into the clearing, looking very agitated and moving as quickly as he could. We stood and I saw Reckter’s eyes grow wide and the color drain from his face. What news? Why this reaction?
Reckter raised a hand. “We cannot exclude him,” he said pointing to me. “He will have to help with this. He can perhaps explain.”
“Explain what?”
Erst sat, and Reckter motioned me to sit also.
“Someone or something has some through the barrier, in the same place you did. We think it may have been someone who followed you or knows something about your crossing.”
“What? I was pursued but I don’t see how anyone could follow me. There is nowhere to go, nothing to see. I thought we were dead when Therian walked into the hedge.”
“Nevertheless, we must go and see what has happened. Come, you and I will go now, before anything else happens. We must stop anyone coming to our settlement and we must ensure no one finds anything unusual on the path.”
Erst sat still, staring off into space, ignoring us, it seemed. Reckter turned and knelt before the old man, and looked him in the eye. Erst met his gaze and I saw that there was some communication there. Reckter stood and walked toward the opening nearest us, and I followed as quickly as I could.
We quickly left the settlement behind, with no one looking askance as we walked quickly toward the opening in the trees that led to what now seemed like another world to me. Peering into the shaded gloom, we saw no one coming nor anyone walking our way, so perhaps it was nothing at all. It cannot be nothing, came the reply from my companion.
“Please don’t do that. I can’t know when you are listening to my thoughts and I can neither shield them nor reply.”
“It’s not something I can easily control. You are a loud thinker.” He laughed a moment. “I will try to speak where there is no danger of being overheard. But there may be times when it may more expedient to communicate more directly.”
“I understand and I mean no offense. It just startled me. I am not getting used to it, I’m afraid.”
With that, we kept on, looking ahead and to the sides to see evidence of what Erst had detected. We listened for any unusual sounds, footsteps, rustling, but heard nothing. The wind was just audible in the treetops, moving the leaves high above us and making the shadows shift gently on the ground and the trunks and branches of trees. We were approaching the place where Therian had revealed himself, where the profound strangeness of things started to become clear. I looked around but could see nothing unusual. We had dropped nothing that I could see, so if someone did come this way, they could not be sure this was the right path.
The sun became stronger as we left the glade, the trees became thinner, the path more brightly lit. The track become narrower as well, and we walked single file, Reckter leading. Perhaps I should lead, as I am more likely to know any person who would have come through. Reckter stopped and stepped aside, a faint smile on his face. Good thinking, I heard in my inner ear, and let his gaze with my own.
I walked more slowly as we approached the crossing. I held a hand to signal Reckter to stop a moment as I walked a few steps further. I bent slightly to see into the undergrowth and in a vain attempt at concealment. I took one, two more steps and saw a booted foot. I froze. It was pointing toes up: the wearer was on his back. I crept slowly forward, making no sound, until I could see that the owner of the boot — the other foot was bare — was beyond hearing. I looked around and listened. Looking back I could see Reckter, and thought, Come, I have found what we’re looking for. But quietly.
Bending over the body, I recognized it was Jackson, one of Cranby’s men. One of his more trustworthy ones, as well. He may have been following me, I dimly remember it being someone of a slight build on a smaller horse. He had fallen or been thrown into this position. He had been dead when he landed here, that seemed obvious. What a mess someone had made of him. The blade had landed next to him, covered in gore, blackened already.
Reckter was standing, looking over my shoulder.
What do we do with him?
We dare not leave him here, in the event someone else comes through and sees him. We have never had anyone come through this gateway without knowing of it in advance. We have to move him and remove all traces of this. Whoever killed him or disposed of him may get curious, and if they are in a position to connect your disappearance with this, things could become complicated.
Jackson was not a big man, so carrying him would be no trouble. I had no idea what awaited his remains, but that could come later. I grabbed the body by the legs, raised them up as I turned around, so his feet were sticking out in front. I left Reckter to look around the scene and clean up when he could, and I started back along the path. Once I found my way back to the glade, I stopped and waited. I couldn’t think how Jackson had come to be here, how he had come through the gateway, why he had been killed and by whom. Too many questions and no one to ask or answer.
Reckter came walking quickly along, with the knife in his hand. He motioned me to keep walking, and we fell into step, silently, the lifeless Jackson bouncing on my back. The questions reverberated through my mind, as I tried to locate recollections of where I had seen Jackson, in what proximity to Cranby and who else was there. I didn’t know many of Cranby’s boys by name, though I had seen quite a few doing his bidding. Jackson was one I had seen at the periphery of workings I had know Cranby to be interested in, and I had known him to run some of Cranby’s excavation projects. On one project, I remember arguing with him about the futility of further digging. He was sure that there was something worth the trouble just a few feet further and I had ordered a halt to the work, based on my own experience. The rock to which we had just broken through was exactly the wrong sort to find any embedded ores or gems. Jackson had fumed and I’m sure reported my intransigence to his boss.
Jackson was of the belief that the things we were looking for were distributed evenly, like the fruit in a cake. In some places, that may have made sense. But the training I, and most people who made a living at this, received held that the ores and other materials were formed by the same processed as the rocks in which they were found. Some materials weighed more than others and so sank, while others floated. Some were found near others often enough to serve as a an indicator, while some served the same purpose in reverse. In the instance I had just recalled, the digging had gone well, but then the workers hit a much harder surface, heavier, and impermeable. The materials they were looking for were found in the vicinity of lighter rocks and often where water had been seen to flow. The water itself sometimes aided in the accumulation of deposits of this material. So when I saw that we had hit the heavier rock, I called off the dig, and Jackson had raged that I was abandoning my contract. The terms called for exploration to a certain depth and we were well short of that. But to get to an arbitrary depth was a waste of time and money, to say nothing of the opportunity cost of not being able to explore another spot. He had stormed off, likely to tell Cranby, I realize now. I never heard from Cranby about it, and he had paid for my services without any questions.
“Can we, that is, you tell Erst what we have found and what we’re bringing back?”
“I can and will as soon as we get closer. We may take your burden to another place, rather than to the settlement. There is no need for anyone else to see this and get alarmed.”
“Lead on. I agree. This development can be kept to ourselves.”