With the soldier's help, he attached every saddlebag on his donkey.
When Keith departed, he felt missed. Jaggar had difficulties to pick up the right emotion he was going through, it was something he couldn't put his hand on, Greenie sure was someone mysterious. Or was it because it felt like the loss of a pet? No of course not. It was only a depraved child.
The lack of a cart would give Keith more mobility. It allowed him to use narrow paths and steep roads with less efforts for his ride.
With a last glare at Jaggar, just for an instant, he saw a shadow out of the corner of his eye. As if someone observed him from afar. But because he was about to leave the place for good, he chose to not pay more attention.
In the first morning, when he wasn't talking with Show, he mumbled to himself his regrets to not have attempted anything against the king. The fact Chandragupta ran away kept both monsters furious.
They reached a high point on a hill, one of those surrounding the city. He took a long look at it. Many buildings had popped during the past year, the orange tiled houses were the easiest to spot.
The kid stood still for more than an hour. He held a grudge against the city, because he got hurt. A grudge was nothing new to him, because of Ned's existence. But now that he knew the benefits of an animosity and of its counterpart, the vengence. He wanted to hurt the inhabitants of the city where his father, and himself, died.
Mister Show was everything but patient. After only the first fifteen minutes, he asked the kid to stay until night fell. Which the kid accepted. He had to calm down his nerves before ongoing the travel. His eyes stared at Varanasi's torches, lighting up one by one. The scenery lasted until every sunbeam faded away in a red, unreachable blaze.
A swarm of torches lined up. They all gathered in the inner circle of the city, the spectacle made Keith more curious with each passing minute.
There was a huge explosion. One that spat fire up to the clouds. Its blast extinguished every torches around it, maybe few lives vanished as well. Dirt rose in the sky and a black smoke soon engulfed everything, ascending to the sky with the many souls it harvested on its path.
One and a half second later, the strongest wind Keith ever felt stroke him and every tree nearby. The million blade of grass around him bent to cover the ground in unison as the kid's hair underwent a sudden hairstyle.
The noise was deafening. Keith's heart pulsed strongly and a wave of adrenaline filled his whole body.
He observed the scenery as if everything had always been his fault. He wanted to cry, but there was no tears. He wanted to apology, but there was no words. His gaping mouth was dry when Mister Show came back next to the kid.
"I'm done. Let's go." He said. And the kid looked at the giant shadow to ask, with a weak voice. "What was that?"
"Death's breath." He answered casually, but when he saw the kid's sadness, he added. "The great city was cursed long before we came."
Show's answer was no lie, yet the monster chose to keep the story for later, as it could only worsen the kid's mood.
The donkey ran away like most birds, after running for fifty meters, it stopped. Its short term memory had him run in circles and stay nearby. They departed for good once Keith sat on its back.
After a day, they had to stop because the donkey was exhausted. Keith had no idea how to manage a ride nor how much rest did it need.
On the second day , he chose to walk next to it, to lessen the weight on the animal. They managed to walk five more kilometers before dusk. The kid had yet to touch his provisions, they ended up being more appetizing for the donkey than anyone else. Water was the only essential element.
"How much time do I need to walk until we arrive?" The kid asked.
'Maybe a year, if we're lucky.'
Looking at the sky map, Keith followed the same star pattern, Show pointed out the shiniest stars and called the strange formation 'the Great Bear'. Keith asked few question concerning the bad art it was, as discerning things such as animals and objects in the sky was ridiculous. Show managed to quieten the kid's animosity by saying. 'It 'bears' the mark of the East, keep that in mind and just follow it.'
High on hills, there was less oxygen to breathe. Keith mistook his short breath for the long walk effort and asked. "Do we really need to pass by this road to avoid meeting anyone?"
'You've seen how easily Randi reached the city using the non existent roads. Of course it can only do us good. Thankfully we don't have any cloud yet, the moon light helps your ride walking straight, this guy can't see much in the dark.'
The travel was the best occasion to teach Keith useful matter. But with only a donkey as a test subject, Show wouldn't risk endangering the animal's life. So he begun talking about a different type of knowledge.
'You remember, that time you talked about being a foreigner? You are going to become one with this trip. Because we're crossing a frontier. It means we're crossing the delimitation of a territory ruled by powerful beings, such as Chandragupta ruling over Maghada, from where we came, and my country is ruled by the Jin dynasty.'
Keith was confused. He said. "We came from Varanasi, not Maghada, I don't know this city."
And Show answered. 'No, Maghada is the territory, in which you have several cities, villages and small parcel of land owned by lower nobilities. The Chandra dynasty rules them all. Where I came from, it's the same, with another family in power.'
He gave more details until he was sure Keith understood how ruling worked. He gave for example Leton, the village chief that had most privileges, and the villagers, working for him and he even introduced taxes to emphasize the link between poor and rich people. But the kid who still had difficulties with additions wasn't much interested in money matters.
And finally, he spoke about the main issue.
'You know, when I came to your village, I wouldn't talk much to you, that's because I had no clue about your language. I had to spy on the neighbourhood and yourself to figure the simplest words out.'
Keith nodded, remembering their encountering and the first time he heard the monster's voice one word at a time.
'Then, I took your mother's voice. After you fell asleep with her for the last time, I had to hide her body under your bed. I then consumed everything human beings use to speak in order to assimilate this language of yours. This curse made me able to use both languages. I can teach it to you, but it requires someone from Eastern Jin, plus you can't eat me to get the same result. I'm not even a real being.'
Keith remembered few voice imitation the monster did. He asked. "But you never ate mine, how come you could mimic my voice? Or the little girl's back then?"
Show said with a sneer. 'I can mimic, just as you said. But I need to hear it first.' He then demonstrated his talent by repeating Keith's last sentence. Because the monster used his body instead of a mouth to speak, the voice's origin was harder to spot than a long distance echo.
"Are you going to teach me your language then? We have plenty of time now that I think of it."
'Precisely! At last! A good answer! I hope you'll be a better apprentice once we begin.' He said with his voice oozing sarcasm. The kid had never disappointed him. He learnt how to read and many curses without a flaw. He could focus on a sole task until it was accomplished. Show had rude jokes that targeted the kid's confidence daily.
And so Keith would repeat every words Show gave him. The intonation was really complex.
Each day, they moved about thirty kilometers to the east, and slightly toward north. Show knew there was a tall mountain chains between the two territories, but the moment he saw them, he knew it'd be a mistake to try passing through.
Several kilometers in front of them stood a wide mountain, with a white top that could be mistaken for pale rocks.
The plain they were in seemed to elongate as they got closer to the mountains.
Huge became gigantic, and few hours later it became titanic. Colossal. Trees wouldn't have a chance to grow on those steep grey slates and the lack of shadow made most animals unable to live nearby. It was desert.
Keith had yet to eat normal food, but after ten days of travel, the obstacle in front of them forced them to make a decision.
The donkey accelerated their pace by a lot, but travelling below the mountain would multiply encounters with travellers, or worse bandits.