Episode 5 : Crossing the River of Death - Part 3

 The discovery of the rafts was not as difficult a task as it seemed. The Shemites, however, were not interested in the many Mongol boats and cannon parts in the underground stores.

 The Semites coveted mainly Gora's elaborate crossbow, as well as clothing and cloth. For in the wilderness of Nosferus there were few plants from which to make cloth, and the Shem seized the few beasts that dwelt in the wilderness, or, more horribly, the likes of other hostile races, to skin, tan, and clothe them. Linda and Remus looked away as they saw the bodies of the Gora soldiers lying here and there in the ruins of the once majestic castle, their clothes torn from their bodies. It was a dismal sight. Suni clutched at the hem of Linda's coat as if frightened.

 Guin, and Istvan, did not seem even slightly moved by the sight. They mechanically pushed the corpses aside to make way for them, and in front of the great door, which was half burned down, they cooperated in throwing the corpses to the left and right. Istvan was almost as slender as the hulking Guin, but his slenderness belied his great muscular strength, and he lifted the heavily armoured corpse with ease.

 Eventually, Istvan shouted with joy. He found a raft behind the door, untouched and untouched.

 The rafts were very solidly built, made of hard wooden planks strung together with iron strips, with a kind of bottom to hold a few necessary things, and with sails. A flat raft was more stable than a long, narrow boat for sailing on a broad but fast-flowing river like the Kes.

 The four of them and the Shemite girl sweated profusely and carried the raft out of the burning place. Istvan made them gather round branches and roll them up, and pushed and pulled them to the wall.

 They were at a loss as to how to get the raft safely down the sheer cliff, but this was soon solved. Istvan had found a rigging from within the castle to lower the raft into the water. By themselves they attached themselves to a huge pulley and managed to lower the raft into the riverbed of Kes. By that time, the sun had risen high in the center of the sky and was shining relentlessly.

 They decided to take a sweaty rest. They knew that the friends of the Ghoras would come to the rescue of the fort, but they could not move. The heat of the fire and exhaustion made the Paro twins slump down, and they paid no attention to Suni's constant fanning of them. Even the Red Mercenary was covered in sweat and breathing on his shoulders.

"Hey, are you really human, leopard head?"

 "With his own tail swallowed by the snake god Cetho, if you're a man, there must be no other men. What kind of strength is that?"

 Guin didn't bother to answer.

 The mercenary gazed contentedly at the raft which he had finally lowered to the surface after much effort.

"Anyway, we got the raft. It was made to help the men cross the Kes, but do you know how we were trained at Staphorus Castle? We've tried many times to build a bridge across the Kes by hauling rafts with traps and pulling them from the other side. Hey, Guin, you know what this means. Grand Duke Vlad of Mongol is very unhappy that the northwest boundary of his lands is cut off by the Kes. He has an ambition to send a great army to extend his dominion to the wilderness of Nosferus and beat the other two dukes, Prince Talio of Kumu and Prince Or Kan of Yulaniya. Even in the dreadful wilderness of Nosferus, he is watching vigilantly."

"It's none of my business."

 was Guin's calm response. He had not even dreamed that it was a false idea, and that in the not too distant future the fearless ambition of the Grand Duke of Mongol would become a critical juncture for him.

 After a puff of smoke and a breath of air, they rushed to their feet. The threat of the Gora Rangers had made them hasty.

"For now, as much food as we can get our hands on, and water, since the water is undrinkable on the Kes, and there's no guarantee that the fish in the river will be that appetizing. Then there are the weapons."

 Istvan said. The twins and Suni searched for food as much as they could under his direction. Under his direction, the twins and Suni searched for food as best they could, but the results were not good. All the food they could eat had been plundered by the Shem, and the drinking water containers had been broken.

 Still they find some dried meat, some dried fruit, and some watered powder. They divided them up and put them in leather bags and tied them tightly to their waist belts. And Istvan, seeing the dead body of a Semite, bent down to search for it.

"What are you looking for?"

 Linda called out to him,

"I was wondering if you were hiding something valuable."

 And then he smiled, showing his white teeth in an impudent manner. You can never be too careful, Linda thought secretly.

 As if I didn't see that coming,

"Hey, girl-- do you have any idea what you're doing in Cheironia? What happened to your parents? You're not the daughter of one of these settlers, are you?"

The Red Mercenary said. Linda freaked out,

"You, why are you looking for the Lady of Light or something?"

 I'm going to ask you a stern question. The Red Mercenary laughed out loud.

"You're the girl in the corner. You're a tight little bitch."

 You say that like you're impressed.

"As you stand there in the light, your platinum blonde hair catches the sunlight like a silver doll. Could it be that the 'Lady of Light' is you? What family do you belong to?"

 Well, he's just asking questions, Linda said angrily, biting her little ruby lips tightly. Remus came up to her with a worried look on his face.

"What does my birth have to do with you? If I happen to be the Lady of Light, what does that make you?"

 He said sternly, and brushed back the silver hair that had won him the prize.

"The Lady of Light should be able to bring me luck."

 was the answer of the Red Mercenary.

"A lucky break?"

"To tell you the truth, I don't know any more about it than that. But the prophecy..."

 When he had reached that point, he suddenly stopped talking, as if realizing that he had said too much. Just as Linda was about to nudge him, Guin approached with Suni in tow. He held a crossbow in both hands, and seemed to be nervous in some way.

"Let's go out."

 Guin said without warning.

"There's smoke rising in the direction of the Talos forest. If I'm not mistaken, it's the smoke of reinforcements from Arvon or the stronghold of Talos using their midriffs. It takes about two and a half days to ride from Arvon to Staphorus, and if we let them ride without a break, they should be entering the Forest of Ludes by now."

"Okay."

 Istvan wasn't dawdling.

 They, in the order of Istvan, Remus, Suni, Linda, and Guin, followed a narrow path down the cliff from the wall to the water's edge.

 Unbeknownst to them, their steps had become those of the pursued. Guin looks back at the ruins of Staphorus' castle to see if he has left any evidence of their existence behind. The corpse-eating spirits that had lurked there and perpetrated their haunting evil must have been consumed by the roaring fires of purification and perished, and there was not a shadow of a moving thing in the wiped-out fortress.

"Very well."

 Guin muttered in his mouth and finally jumped on the raft.

 The raft, reinforced with iron, swayed when he was heavy. Istvan came to the edge of the raft to keep it balanced. On both sides of the raft were iron poles, which he could hold onto to keep himself steady.

"Girl, get a little closer to the mercenaries. Suni, stay in the middle. No-- yeah, that's good."

 Guin says.

"Let's sail!"

 As if in remembrance of the old days when he was born in Valacia, near the sea, Istvan cried out in a youthful voice, and raising his sword, he struck the rope that held the raft to the rock with a single blow.

 Immediately, a swift current cradled the raft with the five men on it and carried it to the middle of the river. The raft set out into the dark river Kes.

 Linda held on tightly to the bars with both hands, shaking. The river was running fast.

"Look, the last thing you want is to go down in the water. There's no way I'm going to be able to go back and save you with the way things are going."

The Red Mercenary shouts. Guin is standing with his feet propped up in the direction of the others, handling the heavy pole and making sure the raft goes straight.

 It was a hot day, but there was a strong wind blowing on the surface of the water, and the splashing water made them feel cold.

"The water is so clean! I can even see the stones at the bottom, I can't believe they call this the River of Darkness, the River of Death!"

 Soon, Linda began to get used to the comfort of the raft, which was moving at a good speed. She brushed her hair and shouted loudly.

 Istvan shrugged his shoulders without saying a word. He crouched on one knee at the end of the raft, grasping the railing with his left hand and keeping his right hand on the hilt of his unsheathed sword.

"Stupid."

 It was Guin who answered.

"The truth is this river is so deep you can't even see the bottom. And the name 'dark river' comes from the color of the stones you see from above. If you think you see a stone at the bottom, be very careful. It must be some other creature disguised as such.

 All right, everybody remember. This is the frontier. It's the middle of nowhere!"

 Even as he cries out, Guin's strong hand never forgets to subtly adjust the pole to the current.

 Linda looked at Remus, whose eyes were wide open, and then hugged him honestly.

"I'm sorry, Guin. But Castle Staphorus is so far away now. If we keep going like this, we can make it to the town at the mouth of the river in no time."

"It's about fifty tads to the town of Paro--that's fifty days' worth of horse."

 Calm down, says Istvan.

"Even if we count the speed of the current and advance ten tads a day, we must stay in this river of death for five whole days. You'd better pray for Yarn's blessing."

"I was just saying what I thought."

 Linda said angrily back to Istvan. Her long, platinum-blond hair was blowing in the breeze. Istvan shrugged his shoulders and grinned.

 They were all too much occupied with keeping the raft in good order through the rapids. And even if they had not done so, on the right hand - that is to say, on the bank of the Gora, on the top of a series of high cliffs, there would have been a blind spot which even Guin's eyes could not have seen.

 But on top of that cliff - far below, looking down on the flow of the Kes River, was the figure of a mounted warrior.

 The cheeks of his helmet are down, and on the top of his head a white tassel flutters beautifully in the wind. The white armor, the shin guards, and the harness worn by the horse are all made of white leather inlaid with sparkling jewels.

 The eyes of the warrior on his horse were fixed from beneath his helmet on the stream of Kes. From that height, the raft on which Guin and his men rode looked like a torn leaf on which ants were clinging.

 The warrior, who had watched for some time the small, daring figure challenging fate, eventually nodded in satisfaction. Without noticing the glistening blond hair spilling out from under the white helmet, he pulls on the reins and turns the horse around.

 A slender, white-clad, chain-knit gloved hand was raised and a whip was applied to the horse.

"Hi!"

 He scolded the horse with a sharp voice. The white horse ran down from the cliff with a light step. The narrow path must have led to Fort Arvon, of all places. After the horse had disappeared, silence returned to the forest and the frontier river.

 The five men on the raft going down to Kes, on the other hand, are not supposed to know that.

"Hey, Guin--if we make it to Paro in time, what's the best way to hide that head? And Suni--"

 Holding tightly to the railing and peering into the white bubbling water, Remus was saying these things.

"We'll find a way."

"But Suni--"

"Suni, just drop him off somewhere and let him go home to his people."

"You're like a woman, you're a little boy who's all bothered about this and that, aren't you?"

 Istvan said in a mean voice.

"Your twin sister is much crisper and manlier than you."

"That's not--"

 When his usual weakness was mentioned, Remus was annoyed and almost said something, but could not finish it.

 He stops speaking suddenly and gasps for breath while clinging firmly to the railing with both hands.

"What's wrong, Remus?"

 Linda protested. Remus was shaking,

"Hey, look--there's something ... wrong!"

"Weird?"

 Linda frowned, looked at the water where Remus was pointing, and gasped.

"What--what is it, what is it, what is it?"

 About five meters to our right, in the waves, a mass of white bubbles buzzed as if trying to follow the raft.

 Then, as if to burst the bubble, something extraordinary appeared on the surface of the water.

 A colossal maw, lined with terrifying, spiky fangs!

"It's the Great Bitsu Gumaguchius!"

 As soon as he saw him, the mercenary shouted and rushed to grab his sword again.

"Watch out. He'll hit the raft and take a bite out of you in the water!"

 That's when the giant mouth opened in a flash!