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Hoi
Chapter 4
"Tenuous Alliances"
(North Sparrow
Pass)
Darkness fell over the entrance to the misty
canyons. Hoi waited patiently a few hundred
paces from the guardhouse, silently watching
and waiting for his opportunity. He didn’t have a
convenient Highland escort this time through...he’d
have to get back into Highland with his own
wits.
Hoi’s thoughts were interrupted by a loud
yawn. He looked over to the soldiers, one of
which was completing that yawn. He
said something to the other guard, who nodded, and the
first guard went inside the guardhouse.
This was the break Hoi had been waiting for.
The moment the door clicked shut behind the
guard, Hoi leaped into action. His work
was silent and quick.
A few moments later, the guard came out of
the guardhouse and dropped the bread he had
been eating. His fellow guard was out
cold on the ground and no one else was in sight.
Zecks Matiste slipped quietly from the noisy
home of his bandit clan. The sounds of the usual
rowdy activity disappeared behind him as
he moved farther and farther away from the cave they
called home.
For the millionth time in the past year, Zecks
wished he could just walk away from all this and
never come back. He had never wanted
to become leader of this rag-tag band of outlaws, but
somehow it happened that way. He at
least had an obligation to those who had taken him in so
long ago. And, in any case, Zecks was
sick of running away. He’d done that too many times in
his life.
The stars shone down on him invitingly, and
he stopped to look at them. They weren’t as bright
here as where he grew up, but they were still
beautiful. Zecks approached the edge of the cliff he
was standing on, staring up at the glittering
jewels above him. No matter how tough things got,
he could always look at the stars.
They always were there, constant and unchanging. Zecks took
a deep breath and released it slowly, letting
the stress he had pent inside him seep out with the
air.
With a small smile, Zecks turned from the
edge and the stars, preparing to go back to the hideout. He realized with
a start that someone else was traveling on the pass. A dark shadow
walked
through the mist, approaching Zecks.
He reached for his sword, pulling his right foot behind him
for a ready stance. He remembered too
late that he was at the edge of the cliff.
Zecks let out a small cry of surprise as his
foot slipped over the edge and he lost his balance. He
went tumbling over the edge, barely clawing
a handhold into the cliff’s sheer side.
Now what? Here he was...leader of the
largest bandit clan in Jowston...at the mercy of some dark assassin.
He could only hope the shadow had a change of heart...
Hoi’s footsteps echoed through the empty, silent canyons of North Sparrow
Pass. This
put him even more on edge than he had been before. It had been
more than sixteen hours since
he last slept, and he wanted to get through the pass before he camped
for the night.
A rhythm formed in Hoi’s footsteps and their echoes, one Hoi started
to hum softly to.
The stars had come out tonight, painting the dark night sky with a
glittering array of light. He
almost forgot his pain for a moment in the presence of them.
Suddenly, Hoi noticed a figure in the mist. It was a good twenty
paces from him, and
apparently looking straight at him. The figure moved for a sword
and shifted into a ready
position. Then, with a cry, it tumbled out of sight.
Without thinking, Hoi raced forward to where the figure had been, keeping
careful eye on
the ground before him. The person had obviously fallen over the
side of a cliff and would need
help if he hadn’t plummeted to his death. He found the edge of
the cliff, fell to his stomach and
peered over the edge.
A man in his mid-twenties looked up at him in shock. He had a
mess of long red hair,
tied at the nape of his neck with a piece of white cloth. His
green eyes looked pleadingly up at
him, a scar etched over the left of the two. Hoi almost immediately
recognized him, but decided
to leave that for after he got him back on solid ground.
Hoi swung an arm down to him. “Can you reach?”
The man looked at Hoi’s hand, then shook his head. “I don’t think
so,” he called up in
his soft voice.
Yes, Hoi thought. This is definitely who I think it
is. Hoi untied his length of tartan from
around his chest, spinning it around itself to create a makeshift rope.
After tying one end, he
lowered it to the man. “Grab on, I’ll pull you up.”
The man looked at Hoi, then raised his sword. For a moment, Hoi
thought he intended to
use it on Hoi instead of accept his help, but then the man plunged
the sword into the cliff face.
He put a foot on the sword, using it for stability, and grabbed hold
of Hoi’s “rope.” Hoi dug his
heels in and pulled the man up. It really wasn’t as hard as he
thought it would be; the man was
lighter than he looked.
He took Hoi’s tartan rope and tied a loop in it. Laying back down
on his stomach at the
edge, he carefully lassoed his sword. He pulled on it gently,
getting the loop tight, then pulled
his sword from the cliff face. After a few moments, he had his
sword back in its scabbard and
Hoi was tying his tartan back around his chest.
“Thank you very much, sir,” the man said, bowing at the waist.
“I am in your debt.”
“Don’t worry about that.” Hoi paused, then asked, “You’re Zecks,
right?”
The man looked startled again, then nodded. “Yes...I’m Zecks Matiste.”
“My family and I met you a year ago when we passed through here.
You and some of
your bandits stopped us, but we had a Highland escort. You turned
and left when you saw him.”
Zecks didn’t remember everything as vividly as this boy obviously did,
but he still said,
“Yes, I remember now. I’m terribly sorry for that.”
Hoi shrugged. “No harm done, I suppose. Are you still with
these bandits?”
“Yes, I am. I’m the leader of the Red Hand Bandits.” Zecks
stopped, then added, “Do
you have lodgings for tonight?” When Hoi shook his head, he said,
“Then at least let me offer
you room and board. It’s very dangerous to travel through the
pass at night.”
“You were,” Hoi said.
Zecks looked flustered, and he turned away from Hoi, walking in the
apparent direction
of the bandits’ hideout. “I wasn’t going anywhere. That
is different.”
Deciding to drop the subject for now, Hoi followed Zecks through the
mist.
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