The Wall | Page 9

nodded. "I leave now," he said; and he turned and went
the way he'd come, guided only by the feeble starlight and the many
years of walking the Wall.
Sartas watched him go with a look of longing.
******
The next day Sartas came down from the Wall. He was greeted with
much cheer and plied with wine and food. Tavarius watched all this
from afar, grimacing with regret.
"You look as though you've lost something," said Karn.
Tavarius regarded his friend ruefully. "Perhaps I have," he said.
"You should be joyous," insisted Karn. He clapped his friend heartily
on the back. "You've saved the boy."
"Have I?" Tavarius stared up at the Wall. "He was like no other, Karn.
Now he's simply one of us."
"I don't see him complaining."

But Tavarius wasn't listening. He was gathering shield and spear and
packing provisions. When he was done he started out the tent, striding
with a determination he hadn't felt in years.
"Where are you going?" asked Karn, confused.
"To walk the Wall," Tavarius called back. "To listen to voices that have
no faces. And to guard against our greatest enemy."
"Our greatest enemy? What's that?"
"Apathy, my friend. Apathy."

Afterword:
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Lindsay H.F. Brambles,
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