MerivelOnTheRoadAgainIndex | HomePage | GameLogs | OtherGameLogs | Merivel On the Road Again Merivel: On the Road AgainFinally, he turned and faced Tree and shook his head. "No, I don't know precisely who to trust in this matter, given the precarious nature of my own status, too. We'll go on to Marshend and I will decide where to go once you leave me and discharge your much-thanked duty." Tree nodded. "We'll make for Marshend then, and the Song and Sheep. A good inn, Maester. And there are ditches beside the road where we can hide at need." He pointed the way to the King's Road. Merivel nodded, and began to follow Tree in the direction of the King's Road. Merivel kept quiet for the first half day or so of the journey as they eschewed roads in favor of crossing across terrain toward the King's Road. Still, as they walked through trees and bare ground, Tree noticed Merivel's intense interest in everything. The color of moss on a boulder passed by. The layout of trees in a copse. At one point, Merivel halted his progress and picked up a snail, having come out after a brief shower. Merivel held it carefully by the snail, and finally relaxed enough to smile at Tree before putting it down. "The last time I journeyed in this direction, after all, bad things resulted." Merivel explained. "I was having a good time, too, explaining stuff, and what it means to be a Maester. The eternal curiosity that goes into someone of my profession. About anything. Everything." Over the next day, as they reached the King's Road and headed south in a less than direct fashion, Merivel was as good as his world. He traded ancedotes about flora and fauna with Tree, although he was careful not to reveal his revelation regarding the symbols that indicated the Greenway. Instead, Merivel chatted about animals, from worms to deer, trees, and even the nighttime sky, telling Tree about the glass that Sewell had created. Through some light rain, and then clearing skies, Merivel and Tree continued their long walk. A few times, Merivel asked to stop, to check on the status and condition of his wounds, but, convinced that he is healing, he continues to press on their journey. A couple of times, the pair hid in a ditch as travelers passed by on the road, but none of them seemed to actively look or notice the pair hiding, and thus the unlikely pair of Maester and Wilding continued their journey toward Marshend. The first night they made camp in a woodland grove. After some scouting of the area, Tree allowed a small and fitful fire. By the second night, he was willing to allow a larger fire and they slept warmly enough in a willow lean-to that Tree constructed in a half hour, and sustained by a meal of a stew made from dried meat and woodland herbs and roots, gathered by Tree, who was more than wuilling to share with Merivel the secrets of those that were unfamiliar to the Maester. In his element, Merivel took such knowledge eagerly and perhaps even greedily, asking detailed questions about every herb and root that Tree gathered. Merivel reminded Tree of their discussion of his role as a healer, and explained that interest in flora extended somewhat beyond the purely medicinal. They had left the track behind them - Tree deeming it safer to cross through the woods. But early in the morning of the third day, he looked at the undergrowth they were beginning to traverse, and frowned. "What did you find?" Merivel asked, as he squinted at the undergrowth, trying to see what was disturbing the Wilding so much. In his element, Merivel took such knowledge eagerly and perhaps even greedily, asking detailed questions about every herb and root that Tree gathered. Merivel reminded Tree of their discussion of his role as a healer, and explained that interest in flora extended somewhat beyond the purely medicinal. They had left the track behind them - Tree deeming it safer to cross through the woods. But early in the morning of the third day, he looked at the undergrowth they were beginning to traverse, and frowned. "What did you find?" Merivel asked, as he squinted at the undergrowth, trying to see what was disturbing the Wilding so much. "It's growing boggy underfoot," said Tree. "Do you see those clumps of grass? I'd meant to bring us north of the town, but I'm not familiar with the paths and I think I've overshot my mark. We're on the edge of the Ghost Fens." "A dangerous place, Tree." Merivel said. "But I don't think you need *me* to tell you that. We need to get away from it, get back to more solid ground. Even if neither of us are strangers to the wilderness, we could get lost in the Fens, or worse." "Especially worse." Tree nodded grimly. "We'll head that way," he began - and then he froze. There was the sound of voices coming towards them - seemningly on their tail. "South!" whispered Tree. He started along the narrow path in that direction, looking to see if Merivel was following. Merivel hesitated for a moment, turning to look behind him for a fleeting second or two, and then, gritting his teeth, began to follow Tree south, away from the voices drawing ever nearer. "Skirting the Fens might throw off pursuit." Merivel said quietly as he hurried to match his stride and pace to Tree's. Tree nodded, tense - and terse. Unfortunately, the route south also seemed to swing east; the voices were growing louder, even as their way seemed to be getting boggier. "There's a channel just ahead," said Tree suddenly - and he hurried forward towards it. Merivel's head once again turned backward, briefly, as the sound of the voices grew louder, more distinct, and closer. When he turned back, Tree was already some strides ahead of him, and Merivel drew from his reserves to catch up to Tree in a sprint, slowing only when he was a few paces behind. In this way, he might easily watch Tree as he placed his feet in the ever-increasingly dangerous ground they had chosen. "There's a boat here in the inlet," said Tree quietly, as Merivel came up to him, indicating a flat hide covered corracle drawn up under an overhanging tree. "We could slip through these channels more swiftly than moving on foot, I think." "I'm not from the Trident." Merivel replied as he looked at the corracle that Tree uncovered. "But, if I can learn to walk through the treetops, I can learn how to help paddle this." "Let's go." Merivel agreed, and he walked to the tree where the boat was hidden and waited for Tree to aid him in bringing to to the ground, and to the waiting channel. It was something of a scrable to get down into the boat and not fall as it rocked. Tree went first and - by dint of clutching at the roots as he stood wide legged arthwart the craft - managed to keep it fairly well balanced for Merivel. Merivel gingerly lowered himself into the corracle, settling with some uncertainty. He turned his head briefly backwards, toward the sound of the voices, before turning back to pay attention to Tree once more. "Let's just push ourselves along the banks of the inlet till we come to a broader channel," Tree suggested in a low voice. Down here, the sounds opf the forest were muffled and it was hard to tell how close the voices were. "All right." Merivel replied, sotto voce, and picked up a paddle. He looked at it, and the corracle, and resisted the urge to ask Tree about the nature of the craft only with difficulty. Merivel waited for Tree to start paddling, and then started trying to imitate him to propel the craft down and away. In actual fact, it was easier than Merivel had been expecting, for they were using the small oars to push them off from the close banks on either side, and manoeuvre themselves down the channel until they reached the broader stream. Then Tree dug his short oar into the water and began to move the craft along more swifty, nodding encouragement to Merivel. "This isn't so bad." Merivel murmured softly, barely above the sound of the insects and the sound of the oars pushing into the water, as Merivel dutifully copied Tree's motions. His mind went back to the Citadel, and lessons with other Maesters, and even further back, to the Vale, and learning to sword fight by first watching his father's retainers practice in the courtyard. Fondly, Merivel remembered taking a wooden practice sword and clumsily, at least at first, imitating the motions. And so it was, when Tree alternated and used more motions to propel the craft through the water by means of the oar, Merivel followed in turn as they headed away from the voices and toward the wider channel ahead. As they moved out into the channel, Merivel noticed some unusual ripples in the water - as though something large was moving below the surface. Tree seemed unaware of this. Merivel ignored it for a few seconds, dismissing it as a trick, or a hypersensitivity to changes in the environment. As the moments ticked away, though, and he continued to look at the ripples, he spoke in a low but urgent voice to Tree. "Something inhabits the channel's water beneath us. Something large." Tree looked at him startled. "But ... But what could live in these waters? Surely great fish must live in the se ... " But before he could finish, they were jolted - it was as though a vast fist had punched the boat, hard, from underneath. Merivel bounced from the impact of the water creature from underneath the boat. Firmly grasping the paddle that was nearly knocked out of his hands, he spoke loudly to Tree, eschewing discretion. "We've got to get to the shore of the channel." Merivel insisted. "If this creature tips us over, we'll be helpless prey in the water for it." Even as he spoke, the water was disrupted, and the broad alien head of a large eel protruded, seemingly gazing straight at the boat and its occupants. Tree gave a shout of terror and seemed to freeze where he sat. The eel was perhaps thirty yards away - but approaching. If Merivel wasn't terrified at the thought of becoming a meal for the huge fish, he would be fascinated by the size and nature of the beast. With the heel of his hand, he gave Tree a shove. "Paddle, Tree. MOVE!" he shouted, and as soon as his hand returned to his side Merivel began doing just that, to try and put distance between them and the huge eel. Tree came to life and began to paddle wildly for the shore. And then there was a second bump that half-lifted the boat out of the water. The shore was closer now - but was the boat close enough to jump for the shore? Or should they row? Otherwise - it would need a prodigious leap. Merivel looked backward in fear at the approaching eel, and then looked at the shore. Decision came quickly, fueled by adrenaline pouring through his veins. "Keep rowing!" Merivel exhorted Tree. "If we fall into the water, we are dead men. We must reach the shore!" It was two minutes frantic activity before they reached the bank, which as high and muddy. And now they realised that therre were perhaps four or fives eels in the water - as another banged hard at their boat. The banging of the eel jarred Merivel from the flight or fight response from the adrenalin in his veins, and he moved to action. "Come on, Tree." Merivel decided to get onto the shore first, climbing the slippery and muddy embankment as quickly as he could, fear winning out somewhat over being too careful. Once Merivel reached what he thought was a stable place on the bank, he turned back to see Tree, and to aid him if necessary, arm be d*mned. Tree tried valiantly to sramble out himself - but as he felt the boat breaking up beneath him he grabbed - not for Merivel's arm, but for his sleeve. Merivel winced as he heard Tree pull at the sleeve, and tried to lean a little further, so that his hand could reach Tree's wrist, and improve the leverage to get him away from the danger. The seams creaked, but held for long enough for Tree to drag himself clear of the boat. Then Merivel felt them give - a long rending sound ... and Tree was throwing himself forward into the mud of the bank, half on top of Merivel. Below, in the creek, the boat crunched under eel-blows. Merivel winced as his shirt seams gave way under the stress, and he groaned as Tree was launched away from the boat, and on top of him. "Ruined." Merivel said, not indicating if he meant the sleeves of his clothes, or the boat that was falling apart to the blows of the eel. "Are you all right?" he asked Tree after a moment, wiggling to get out from underneath him. Tree hastily rolled aside. "Yes ... and you Maester? I didn't crush you?" "No." Merivel said with a slight groan as he contemplated getting to his feet, and instead decided to remain on the ground for a few moments more and waited for Tree to get up before joining him in the act, He sat up to look back down at the stream. A few wooden planks, bo longer than ywo hands width, were floating on the water. Tree shuddered. "It think we had a narrow escape. "We did at that." Merivel said in agreement. "I had no idea, and neither did you, that such creatures inhabit the lakes and swamps of the North. Something I will have to discuss with my peers--someday, in the future." "For now." Merivel rose completely to his feet. "We're going to have to make our way on foot, to escape our possible pursuers." Tree nodded. "But we'll need to go careful," he said. "We're in the Ghost Fens now ... they say paths shift and change without warning, and there are places a man can take a step forward and the marsh will take him and suck him down and down to his doom ... " "Many dangers." Merivel said, his voice taking on grave tones. He looked down at the ground at his feet and brushed off the mud and dirt he could from his seam-split clothes. "We go slowly and carefully, with emphasis on both." He gave a nod to Tree as he brushed the last from his clothes. Tree nodded, and started them at a swift but stealthy pace in the direction that he thought would be Marshend. But before they had gone more than three hudred paces, they found the path crossed by a channel. Tree stuck a branch in it - it was narrow, but still too broad to leap, and perhaps would be knee high. "Do you want to risk it or find another way?" he asked Merivel. Merivel looked doubtfully at the channel for a few moments, and then he regarded Tree. "Going around will take too long, and as you say, getting lost in the Ghost Fens is a danger we cannot afford. We'll cross the channel quickly. Very quickly." Merivel said. And then he walked forward to the water's edge and began wading with a determined look on his face. The water was deep enough to be unpleasant, but was mercifully eel-free - and Merivel was soon able to scramble out on the other side. Tree swiftly followed. Now they were presented with a choice of two paths - one heading more to the west and one due south. A smudge if smoke in the distance to the southy, perhaps two miles distant, suggested the presence of life - perhaps even Marshend itself. Merivel looked at the path that headed south, and the smudge of smoke that seemed to lay at its end. He looked back at the channel they had managed to cross without difficulty, and then regarded Tree. "I think it would be an entirely good stroke of luck if the southern path leads directly to Marshend, but I'm willing to try it. Trying the Westerly one seems to be avoiding the obvious choice for no good reason." "Let's try South." Merivel suggested to Tree. Tree nodded. The path seemed a good one, even if several times it twisted from the true. But after a half hour of walking, they were close enough to the village to smell woodsmoke, and hear the distant shouting of children. "Perhaps I should leave you here, Maester," said Tree. "It might be dangerous to take a Wilding with you into the village." "Dangerous to you as well." Merivel said gravely. "You've more than discharged your duty, and seen me safely to here. While getting from here back to Clearwater will not be easy, I am hopefully now out of danger for the moment." "As for you." He put his hand on Tree's shoulder. "You should be careful, yourself, you and yours." Tree nodded mutely. "Thank you." Merivel added after a moment. Tree managed a smile. "It's been ... well, not entirely a pleasure, Maester. It's been too venturesome for that. But it has been an honour to escort you. Take best care of yourself, now." And with a duck of his head in salute, Tree turned and began to trudge back the way they had come, leaving Merivel to make his way to the village. Merivel stood in place, turning around to watch Tree make his way back into the dangerous Fens that they had escaped with difficulty. Finally, as Tree's form became more and more indistinct, Merivel turned around, and began to walk toward the waiting village. (Continued in Merivel in Marshend) |
