After his quick inspection, Garinor decided not to stop, even if it was an innocent little girl trying to flag him down. He kept the horse’s pace and hurried past the camp, kicking up sticks as they went.
The girl cried out in protest and Garinor risked a glance over his shoulder. A few men took weapons in hand and scrambled onto their own horses while one woman grabbed the girl and kept her back. Panicked, Garinor snapped the reins once and the horse responded by going faster.
Three horses pounded after him as he broke free of the forest and raced across a field. Arrows whizzed overhead and sank into the dirt. The horse was enjoying its run and didn’t notice the arrows, which was good for Garinor’s sake. It would have been disastrous if the horse panicked. He could hear angry shouts behind him as he thundered along, but he had paid for a fast horse and he had gotten one. Not much time passed before he left the others behind, fading back into the horizon.
When the horse’s steam ran out, Garinor dismounted and stroked the horse’s face tenderly. The speedy beast had saved his life. He found a pond for the horse to take some water and then they continued at a more leisurely pace. But the horse stamped and snorted and Garinor released his grip on the reins to allow the horse its freedom. He was surprised to find that the steed wanted to run some more.
They maintained a southeastern pace, eventually reaching a gigantic wheat field marked throughout with passageways. He steered the horse around and overruled a few times when the horse tried turning another way. Garinor could see that they were passing a town on one side, but he didn’t want to stop. He wanted to reach that rocky area before the afternoon deepened.
His persistence worked well, for not long later, they came to another road that dipped a little toward the east and there Garinor saw a darkened mark in the ground that drew his attention. He turned the horse and they made their way ahead. They passed a large row of houses as they went, and he was amazed at all the flowers that were cultivated there, but he pressed onward.
At last he came to the rocky enclave that was the ‘r’ in ‘serene.’ He had kept true to the path and the Seer’s advice had been true as well. He approached what appeared to be a giant, dried-up pond with a dry stream bed leading from it on the western side. Countless small rocks were gathered along the old stream bed, as if the whole world had been tilted to guide them in that direction. He checked further and saw mud caked in among the stones and he realized they had all been shifted about in yesterday’s rains.
He saw three massive boulders that didn’t look as though they would easily budge. The Seer had told him he would find a secret underneath the one that was furthest from Kallinoria, so Garinor sought out the southernmost boulder while his horse snacked on nearby grass.
The dirt was moist and flexible and as he knelt into the soil he discovered that he could reach his hands into it rather easily. He knew it would take a long time to try to move the boulder, so he ignored the discomfort of plunging his hands into the moistness and fished around until he found something.
It took longer than he had hoped, but his fingers touched something solid underneath the boulder itself. It was a bit of a stretch, but he clutched the object and pulled it out carefully, making sure he didn’t dislodge the boulder in the process.
He climbed out of the rocky enclave with his muddy piece of treasure and wiped it and his arms on the grass to clean it. Then he held it up to his eye and frowned at what he saw.
It was a boring-looking rock. Just another rock amidst all the other rocks. It was about the size of his thumb, though a little wider, and the only interesting thing about it was the fact that there was a little crevice along one side.
He remembered the Seer’s words and he took out the glass dagger and lined up the fragile blade with the tiny slit. The wooden handle was hard to hold but he could see that the tip of the blade fit inside the stone and so he pushed harder. Little by little the blade slipped into the crevice until most of the blade was inside. He gave it one more push.
And the blade shattered. The glass cracked and broke away and Garinor’s hand was sliced on a shard. He dropped the stone and sucked on his new wound before picking up the stone. He noticed that the glass pieces had fallen out from inside the rock and he frowned when he realized that he was oozing blood all over it. As he shook his head, determined to wipe the rock off on the grass again, he felt a great heat emanate from within the stone. It was a strange searing sensation that threatened to burn off his hand but at the same time protect him. He didn’t want to put it down.
Garinor scrounged up a few leaves and pressed them to his cut until he stopped bleeding. He then pocketed the hot stone and mounted the horse to continue their journey.
“Now we go east,” Garinor said, recalling the Seer’s instructions. “I wonder how far to the east we go?”
The horse trotted along after its tasty snack and kept to a faded path in the ground. They made their way further east into the mid-afternoon and there they came to a fork in the road. One path led to the north and the other went further east. He wasn’t sure if he should continue east or if this was the place he was meant to turn north.