A Pilgrim's Heart by Elles Lohuis

Author:Elles Lohuis [Elles Lohuis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Elles Lohuis
Published: 2022-05-30T00:00:00+00:00

twenty-six

The morning sun is still far from reaching her highest point as Karma leads us off the gravel road onto a narrow, barely visible path down south. I halt my horse for a moment, my eyes skimming ahead into the heightened woodland where the arid pines sway their burnished tips on the gentle wind. Karma gestures without turning, and I spur on my horse to follow him. In a slow but steady canter we climb for a while, past the warm and fragrant woodland, up the cooler, more barren mountains, even further. As we reach the highest point, Karma halts, and I stop at his side, eager to learn what’s ahead.

I shift to the front of my saddle and throw my glance down the steep gorge below. A green-hemmed river runs through, slicing the valley in half. The far end’s covered in early autumn orange and dark green. The side we’re on is patched brown and scant of trees.

Karma points, and I bend to look closer, but I see nothing but sand and dust. Small piles of boulders are stacked in rows and on top of each other, and yes, I do detect a few large squared walls, carved out of what appears to be beige-brown stone. Karma’s dismounted by now, and leads his horse down the winding path.

“Wait until we’re closer,” he says, as he answers what must be the most curious gawk on my face. “Almost there.”

He goes ahead, a confident stride in his step. But as we get closer, I still can’t make out anything of the peculiar, and uneven, collapsed silhouettes. We let our horses loose in the luscious side stream of the river where they reward us with a wild spray of crystal clear water, the iced drops a cool welcome to my perched lips.

“I’m sorry, but it makes little sense to me,” I say, walking together amidst the stone shambles. My hand glides along the wall, dry grit crumbling between my fingers.

“Come here.” Karma pulls me up on one of the heightened rectangles. “Now look around and tell me what you see.”

My eyes run along the outlines of a walled square and another one leading into it through a small opening on the bottom. A narrow lane passes along it, opposite another crumbled, walled square, but on a different elevation, running into the adjacent hill. Then it dawns on me.

“It’s a house, an old house.” My voice pitches. “Or more like a few old houses together.” I turn to Karma. “But it’s nothing like the houses I’ve seen.” My eyes dart over the structure again.

“They are houses.” Karma says, and I crane my neck to catch his glance.

“But who lives, or rather, lived here?” I say as my mind tries to imagine this place alive, with people and no doubt a few animals. His hand slides around my waist, and he draws me closer. The shaft of his long knife presses against my hip.

“Beats me,” he says. “But see that cave?”

I shield my eyes against the sun and stretch to see as he points at a narrow gash in a nearby hill.

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