Holy City: Chapter Sixteen
V woke before dusk. It would be an hour before the sun would disappear. Green-eyes woke as well. He watched V move about in the darkening light. V noticed he was not the only one awake.
“We need to find water if we are going to survive.” V whispered.
“There is no water here,” green-eyes said.
V looked over to their mutual friend, slumped against the rock. Green-eyes did the same and wondered if his friend was still alive.
“I will go find water.” V said. “It will take several hours. Stay here and I will come back with water.”
“There is no water,” green-eyes said again.
V rearranged his dusty clothes and stood tall. He did not listen to the advice.
“I will return,” V said and began his journey away from the rock. In a matter of minutes V disappeared over a distant sand dune, the top of his covered head the last thing green-eyes could see in the twilight of the early evening.
This man by his actions had just condemned the three of them to death, green-eyes was sure. One man with a broken leg, the other off wandering the desert looking for something that didn’t exist and the last man alone with a decision to make. The only way to survive was to abandon the other two. He looked at his friend, still resting against an uncomfortable rock. They did not have several hours to waste. He did not have several hours to waste.
The sky lost its glow and with a sudden start, brown-eyes jerked upwards, his body rigid then flexible again as he was surprised to find himself awake and alive. He coughed several times and then smiled realizing the vision of the softly darkening sky before him was not a dream.
“Is it morning?” He asked.
“No. It is night. That means it is time to continue the journey,”
“Where is the other one?”
“He left to find water.”
“I see.”
“He will not find water. We must continue our journey now. Can you stand?”
The man with the injured leg did not stand. He shook his leg as if to regain feeling. He shook it a second time.
“What is wrong?”
“Nothing. There’s nothing wrong. I feel no pain.”
“Can you stand?”
Brown-eyes stood, using his hand against the rock for support and then taking his hand away from the rock.
“Can you walk?”
He walked several steps. He stopped and turned back and walked the same paces.
“Do you feel pain?”
“Very little. Very little.”
“Then we should begin.”
Green-eyes stood as well.
“What of the other man?”
“He marched off into the desert to die. That was his choice.”
“He healed my leg.”
“He made his choice. It was reckless. He will not survive. We should not choose to die with him.”
Brown-eyes sat down and rested against the rock once again.
“Is it your leg?”
Brown-eyes shook his head. “He will come back.”
“We should leave. If we do not leave soon, we will die in the desert. Every minute we waste is a minute closer to death. We can journey now, dusk is the best time, we cannot waste hours waiting to see if a dead man is still alive.”
“He will come back. My leg feels better. He did not lie about fixing my leg. He is not lying about the water.”
“That man has already died in the desert. He is not coming back.”
“He will come back.”
The two friends were at an impasse. Green-eyes stared with the same suspicion he had reserved for V the day before. Green-eyes did not believe his friend. He did not believe the words V had said before he left. There was no water in the desert. That strange man had marched off to find something that could not be found. He was going to either return with nothing, only having delayed the journey, bringing them all closer to death, or he would not return at all.
Green-eyes did not have the patience to wait. If he was going to survive he would need to move, his friend, now with a fixed leg, would need to move. Minutes were precious in the desert in the way they are few other places in the world. One could not waste time in the desert just as one could not waste water in the desert.
Green-eyes’ friend did not move. He was not going to stand. He was not going to continue the journey. One problem had been solved only to find another. The choice remained. He decided to give a deadline for that choice.
“He has until the moon reaches that peak,” Green-eyes pointed at a spot on the horizon. If he has not returned by then we will march on without him. Brown-eyes nodded and looked down at his left leg without saying anything, hoping that V would return before the deadline. He wished this not because he wished for water. He wished this because he did not want to leave the man who had saved his life behind in the desert to die.
After an hour, the moon reached its predetermined deadline, the jagged edge of a far peak cutting a finger into its side. V had yet to return. It was now time to carry on. Green-eyes stood and looked down at his friend as he continued to lay back against an uncomfortable rock. His friend did not move. He had no intention of moving.
“Do you want to die here?” green-eyes said
There was no response.
“We will die if we do not continue on now. We have waited. He did not return. We need to continue the journey.”
“We will die if we continue now… we need water if we are going to survive. That man was right when he left to go find some. The other men were right when they told us we could not make the journey in this direction. We need water to survive. That man said he will find water. It is the only way. I will wait for him.”
Green-eyes could not put off his decision any longer. His friend gave him no choice. He had done what he could, it was now time for the two of them to part. If his friend wanted to die sitting by a rock in the desert, he would not save him. He could save himself. Green-eyes started to speak, to say these hard truths to someone who would not believe them, to say his final goodbye. He was given a reprieve.
A covered head appeared above a far off dune. Brown-eyes squinted and pointed. “He has returned.”
Green-eyes turned to look at the covered head. He did not believe this mirage. But the sun had fallen and the moon had risen. The moon does not create mirages. V’s face appeared above the far off dune and then his whole body. He was carrying something in front of him with both hands. It was green, the color of the eyes of the man who did not believe what he was seeing.
It took minutes for V to reach them over one dune and then another, until he was standing before the two men with a large green leaf in his hand. Water pooled in the center of the leaf. It wasn’t much water, but it was more than nothing. The leaf itself had seen better days, the green of the leaf showing hints of brown throughout, yet no one looked at such details, the three men focused on the pure water in the middle of the leaf.
“Did you find an oasis?” green-eyes asked.
“There are other ways to find water in the desert.”
Green-eyes did not believe this answer. Brown-eyes did not care and drank his portion of the water very quickly.
“The rest is yours” V said. “I have had my share.” This did nothing to stop the suspicion. It only made it stronger. But green-eyes was thirsty. He had no choice and drank the rest of the water that crawled down the body of the green leaf in slow drips.
“How did you do it? Where did you find this leaf?”
V did not answer these questions. He only looked at the darkened blue sky, which would soon become black.
“We must continue on now. We have waited long enough.”
V started to walk. The other two men followed. There was hope for the first time in days.
The journey may have lasted for two weeks. It may have been longer. It may have been shorter. The journey was not always in a straight line towards the Kingdom of Lyonesse and the three men had lost track of the days and the nights.
Time was measured in a different way after V returned with the leaf of water. Time was measured by the length of time between V’s walks into the dunes. Four more times they stopped and waited at dusk, four more times V disappeared over a sand dune for several hours to do his trick and came back with water pooled in the center of a withered leaf. The others did not ask how he did what he did, how he was able to conjure water out of a dry desert. They accepted the nourishment when it came and carried on their journey. After the second time V returned with the perspiring leaf there was no need to doubt any longer. The journey to Lyonesse was assured. It was only a matter of time until they reached their destination.
Next Chapter: Chapter Seventeen
Previous Chapter: Chapter Fifteen