Chương 104: Kichan Goes

Two carts became tangled before Kichan had even left that morning. The human army's food cart tried to enter the bridge from one side, while a demihuman herb cart tried to leave from the other. Their wheels locked in the middle, and neither could move. The drivers cursed. Soldiers put their hands on their weapons. Kichan turned around with the wake-up rod in his hand. Before he could do anything, Ern leaned his sword against the railing.

He was one of the soldiers who had eaten meat from the same griddle on the day of the prisoner exchange.

"Lift the wheel first." Across from him, Karun set his spear down.

"Your axle is lower."

"Then you prop it up." The two men squeezed between the carts and lifted the wheel. The soldiers behind them put down their weapons too and joined in. They pushed the human army cart back a little and twisted the front axle of the demihuman herb cart toward the railing. The bridge cleared quickly. Kichan lowered the wake-up rod he had raised.

"Guess I don't have to do it." Riphiel said,"That would have been better from the start." Marten was waiting at the end of the bridge.

"While you are gone, I will guard the truce line."

"Are you saying that to me?"

"If I say it to Grad, it becomes a fight." Grad, standing on the opposite side, answered.

"You said it loudly enough for me to hear." He looked at Kichan's herb pouch.

"If the catalyst is real, make sure you bring it back. Our winter medicine needs it too."

"I never said I was going to share."

"You said that about the mountain goat meat too, and shared it."

"There was a lot of meat."

"Find a lot this time too." The two commanders spoke only to Kichan without looking at each other. Even so, they were no longer standing as far apart as before. Seria and Theor remained at the shelter.

"I will not ask you to stop the war." Seria said.

"Yeah." The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Robbing ancient thieves sounds less objectionable than raiding military rations."

"Why are you smiling when you say that?"

"I've grown somewhat used to it." Theor was holding the casualty list.

"How many days until you return?"

"Soon, if the treasure is easy to get."

"And if it does not come out easily?"

"Until I've looted everything." Theor did not write a return date in the margin of the list. Kichan left one large pot at the shelter. He bundled beans, dried meat, and molly leaves into three-day portions. Marena checked the sacks.

"You put the flour on the plank."

"I usually put things away properly."

"Before, you put it on the wet floor."

"That was once." Marena looked at the white-and-red knot tied to the wake-up rod. She said nothing. The children followed them to the market entrance.

"Bring all the treasure!"

"That would make me a thief."

"You're already a thief!" The children waved their wooden wake-up rods. The people of the market held out bread for the road, dried meat, and string for tying herbs. Parents rose during meals with bowls in their hands to say goodbye.

"Don't stand up while you are eating." Kichan said. People sat down, then stood again when Kichan passed. There were more scraps of cloth tied to Batu's armor. Valkyrie received a small bottle filled with clear water, and Dust stole one shining button from among the farewell gifts. Riphiel opened Dust's mouth and took out the button.

"Take only what you were given."

"Kyu."

"That was stolen." Argaon protested that his sack of meat was too small.

"There might be food in the dungeon."

"You can't eat gold coins."

"Then we grill meat."

"We don't know if there is meat." Kichan took some dried meat from his own sack and gave it to him. At the end of the market, the children sang the thieves' song. One note was wrong. Kichan turned back to correct it, then stopped. Marena stood before the tea tent. Her hands were empty, and the proposal knot was still tied to the wake-up rod. Kichan looked once more at the shelter and the bridge. When the carts got tangled, the soldiers had put their swords down first.

The pot and medicine remained, and Seria and Theor were counting people. Marten and Grad guarded the same bridge from different ends. If he brought back the catalyst, they could preserve molly and mandragora medicine all winter. Kichan adjusted his grip on the wake-up rod and stepped onto the northern road. While the market's wrong refrain faded behind him, Riphiel, Argaon, Valkyrie, Batu, and Dust followed. It took two days to reach the rock mountain to the north.

At the first night's camp, Riphiel checked the copied map three times even after putting it inside her coat. Dust mistook the red thread on the wake-up rod for shining food and clung to it. Kichan peeled Dust off.

"This is not for eating."

"Do you know what it means?" Riphiel asked.

"I do."

"That is surprising."

"She told me herself." Kichan moved the wake-up rod inside the tent to keep snow off the proposal knot. Argaon watched him do it, then pulled his own meat sack inward.

"Why are you hiding that?"

"This is not something I can afford to lose either." When Batu pushed his nose in, Argaon hugged the sack and slept. On the second day, the road disappeared. Where the grimoire pointed, there was no entrance and no door. Only a snow-covered cliff and a black rock mountain stood there. Riphiel circled below the cliff, searching for old elven marks. Argaon placed his hand on the rock and shook his head.

"If I break it with force, the inside will collapse too."

"Then how do we get in?" Riphiel unfolded the last page she had copied. A short sequence of sounds was written there several times, in neither human nor elven script. Inside Kichan's magic bag, the sealed box trembled at regular intervals. Kichan sounded out the first syllable. Riphiel did not even have time to stop him. A sound not yet a word sprang from his throat. The whole rock mountain rumbled low. Snow poured from the cliff all at once.

A narrow crack formed in the middle of the black rock, and the mountain slowly split as if it had always been in two pieces. There was no magic circle and no explosion. The mountain opened a path on its own. Kichan looked at the gap that had opened.

"So it was a door." Argaon did not laugh.

"You did not just open a door."

"Then?"

"You told the mountain to open."