by Simon Archer
“Very well,” Nadeine rolled her eyes, “I will keep my mouth shut.” Still, she smiled and laughed with the rest of us.
“I thought I saw a small cave a while back,” I mentioned a few moments later as we kept pushing onward. We were making good time, the trails were actually well maintained and clearly made for animals, and now, we were climbing up into a layer of fog that made it difficult to see. “Maybe we can stay in one of those tonight?”
Marinka turned in the saddle to nod and smile at me. “I believe I saw the same cave. I imagine there will be several of them, given the terrain. We shall see if we find one later this afternoon.”
“Otherwise, there have been several clearings and streams that would make a good campsite,” Bernsten called out from behind us. “And I believe I noticed a thicker portion of trees further up when we were still on the ground. We could easily make a campsite there.”
“Oh, it would be nice to stay in a place like that,” Ishida said, excited. “How I have missed a living forest!”
“Me too,” Freyja sighed, betraying a rare moment of emotion. “It would be nice to sleep beneath a live tree again.”
Bernsten smiled at the forest elves. “Well, I have a suspicion that we will have ample opportunities to do so.”
As usual, the pair of animal-elves traveled on foot to the side of our horses. I had long since gotten used to the fact that they were as fast as the horses and that they didn’t tire easily. Even so, the mountain was steeper than any terrain they had ever traversed before, and I thought I could see signs of them starting to slow with the constant marching.
“Hey, you guys know you’re welcome to join us on the horses any time, right?” I reminded the pair of the offer we had made at the start of our journey.
Ishida shot me a wan smile. “Oh yes, thank you, Leo Hayden! I’m afraid we may have to take you up on that at some point. This path is very steep, steeper than anything I’ve experienced in the forest. Even so, I’m enjoying traveling amidst living plants and animals for now.”
“As am I,” Freyja agreed before she sniffed and thumbed her nose. “But unlike someone else, I don’t get tired easily. Still…” She smiled at me and winked. “I might join you on your horse at some point, I mean, because Ishida’s right, this path is steep.”
I had a feeling that wasn’t the only reason, which was absolutely good with me, so I matched that smile with one of my own. “Sounds good.”
I closed my eyes and leaned back my head, breathing in deeply. The air in the mountains was thinner due to the elevation, but still very fresh. If we won and got rid of the last mountain elf, I’d have to suggest that the kingdom and forest elves consider expanding their civilizations into the mountains. It would be a waste to leave such a beautiful place uninhabited.
Onward we marched through the mists. Hours later, late in the afternoon, I caught sight of another small cave off to our left, worn by wind and weather into the side of the mountain. We were pretty high up now, the horses traveling quicker than I had expected. It helped that there was a clear path and that they were calmer now, happier to continue their journey than they had been in the forest given its current state.
“Look,” I said, pointing in the direction of the cave. “I know it’s still pretty early, but maybe we should check it out.”
“Agreed,” Marinka said, following my gaze to the cave. “I would like to see what it is like inside.”
Bernsten frowned slightly, a hint of worry in his voice as he spoke up. “Alright, but I do not believe the horses will be able to make it up there.”
We had ridden closer as we talked, and as I turned back to the cave entrance, I saw what Bernsten meant. The slow turn of the trail had disguised that the entrance wasn’t flush with the trail. Instead, the bottom lip of the cavity hung a good dozen feet above the beaten path. We would have to work some magic or some real acrobatics to reach it. I was about to write it off, sure that there would be a better cave or campsite ahead, when I swore I heard the faintest chime in the air, the distant echo of past magic from within the cave.
It was a new sensation, something I had never felt before, but in my time here, I had already learned to go with my hunches. I pulled up on Bill’s reins as we came closer and looked back at my team.
“Okay, so this doesn’t look ideal, but there’s something… wrong about this cave,” I said, trying to best explain the ringing in my ears. “I think there’s some faint echo of magic here, so… even if we don’t camp here, I think we need to check this out.” I looked to my companions. “Maybe you guys can figure out a way up there. I might be able to just magic us up with a song, but I want to be ready in case there’s some sort of trap or trick the enemy left for us.”
“I will go,” Bernsten said, though he looked a little nervous. “I am the tallest other than you, Leo Hayden. It will be easier for me to reach the cave entrance.”
“I will assist you,” Godfried called, clambering down off his horse and rushing over to us. “I can do it.” It was true, Godfried was young but quite strong from his years of training. I had noticed he was pretty ripped when we were sharing a tent.
“Very well,” Bernsten said. “Just please do not drop me, my young friend.”
“I will not,” Godfried chuckled.
We all dismounted then, Marinka and Nadeine taking the reins of our horses while I traced a mage’s circle in the gray dust of the trail. Ishida’s whiskers twitched as she stood watch further up the trail, while Freyja was content to watch the impending show, but her hands did hover close to her daggers. Bernsten and the kid moved to the steep stone, and once Godfried planted himself, he cupped his hands into a stirrup for Bernsten’s boot. The knight nodded, smiled confidently, and planted his foot in the stirrup. With a quick step-and-pull, Godfried got Bernsten up to the lip of the cave.
From there, Bernsten could easily pull himself upwards. I held out my arms to Godfried nervously, waiting for disaster... but it never came. Bernsten hauled himself safely inside the cave, then turned and offered a hand up to the shorter Godfried. He reached up, hopping the short divide between them artfully, and once their hands were locked, it was easy for Bernsten to pull him up. The pair turned to take a look deeper into the cave.
“It is strange in here,” Bernsten called down to us, his voice booming and echoing even more than usual due to the sound dynamics of the cave, and Marinka and I exchanged a nervous look.
“Alright,” I said, looking at my friend warily. “Just be careful, okay?”
“Am I ever not?” Bernsten arched his eyebrows and shot me a grin as he and Godfried turned towards the depths of the cave.
“Do you really want me to answer that question?” I shot back before quirking my brow curiously. “And how is it strange?”
“I believe someone once inhabited this place,” he called. Marinka shot me another concerned look, and a chill ran down my spine as that chime of magic started to fade.
“We should join you, I think,” I called back as I met Marinka’s eyes.
“Yes,” Bernsten said. “Perhaps you should.”
I nodded and looked around at my remaining companions. “Okay, Nadeine, can you and Freyja tie the horses to those rocks over there? We should all head up, I think.” I pointed to a large rock off to the other side of the path. The lady knight and the fox-elf scrambled to follow my directions, and with her woodlore and survival skills, I trusted Freyja to tie a good knot. The horses would probably stay put, anyway, but better safe than sorry.
Bill looked at me with sad, droopy eyes.
“It’s okay, boy,” I told him before I turned back to the cave. “We’ll be right back. We’re not leaving you behind, don’t worry.”
He seemed to brighten up a little at my words but still looked a bit upset. I sighed and turned back to the cave.
“We should go first,” Marinka said, gesturing around at herself and the other remaining elves. “Just in case, as you said, Leo.”
“Right, makes se
nse,” I said, gesturing for her to come around in front of me. She did so, and Nadeine helped her reach the cave entrance. The forest elves, who were even shorter than the kingdom elves by a few inches, went next, and Nadeine helped them up, too. Then, I reached to help Nadeine up.
The cave was dark and gray, and there was some deep green moss growing on the sides, but only outside. The inside was barren of life except for us, but Bernsten had been right. Someone had lived there, as there was a wooden desk propped against the back of the cave, and it was covered in some scrolls and other supplies. Against the right-hand wall was a thin, but long, bed with a thin wooden frame.
“It’s not dusty,” I said plainly. My companions stared back at me with blank expressions on their faces.
“What?” Nadeine asked, shaking her head in confusion.
I walked over to the desk and swiped my forefinger across it. “It’s not dusty,” I repeated, holding up my clean finger to show her. “If all this stuff was left by a resident from a long time ago, wouldn’t it be dusty?”
Realization dawned on Nadeine, and her face fell. “Oh, dear. He was here recently.”
“Yep,” I said, running my hand across the desk again. It was smooth mahogany, artfully crafted. Elegant yet simple.
“He lived here?” Godfried’s voice cracked a bit as he spoke.
“It appears so!” Marinka looked and sounded more interested than scared. She crossed the cave to usher me away from the desk so that she could look through its contents. “It makes sense, really. He must have lived on this mountain since he cast the spell from here originally, and it would have been practical for him to have stayed here for some time, to maintain his proximity to Viktor. Now that Viktor is gone, he is no longer bound here geographically.” She grabbed one of the scrolls sitting on top of the desk and unfurled it, studying it furiously.
“What does it say?” I asked the scholarly princess. She had been on the team of scholars that deciphered our enemy’s previous message, so she had the best chance of understanding whatever information there was to glean.
“I am not sure yet.” Marinka shook her head slowly as she studied the script. “I will have to study it closer while we travel when I have access to my packs and the scrolls and other materials we used to decipher the first one. Here, Leo, please help me gather everything up.” She gestured for me to help her gather up the scrolls on the desk, and I followed her lead to do so.
“He would not have been so absent-minded as to leave anything important behind for us to find?” Nadeine asked, eyeing the desk with uncertainty.
“I don’t know, to be honest,” I said, never taking my eyes off the desk and its contents as I helped the princess. “He may not have believed we would ever follow him here, or he may be so far along in his plans that he just didn’t care what he left behind. The only way we will know is if we take them and decipher them.”
“Very well,” Nadeine said, though she still looked concerned. “I must say, it gives me pause to carry more of his possessions.”
“I as well, sister,” Bernsten chimed in, “but we cannot let this opportunity to learn of his doings pass us by.”
“Indeed,” Marinka said, still studying the desk carefully. She pulled open its drawers, looking for more items of interest to her. “This is an invaluable opportunity.”
Nadeine looked around the small cave again nervously. “Well, alright, but I do not believe we should stay here for long.”
“That, I can agree with,” I said. “I don’t think he’ll come back, but there’s something dark here… like an echo of a bad song.” I shivered as another chill ran down my spine.
“Indeed,” Godfried said, looking around nervously. “This place has an eeriness to it.” I thought that was a good way to put it.
Now that most of the desk materials were packed away, I looked over at the bed. “Why is it so long?” I asked, gesturing in its direction. “I mean, I’ve never seen a bed that long. It’s not very wide, too, more like a normal bed in that way.”
“Mountain elves are very tall, Leo,” Nadeine said, coming up beside me to stare at the bed herself. “They stand over eight feet tall, some nearly nine.”
“Eight feet,” I repeated, gaping. “That’s huge.”
The lady knight nodded solemnly. “Indeed, especially compared to our peoples. The mountain elves are said to have been very imposing figures, slender in build, but incredibly tall.”
“Creepy,” was all I could really say to that.
“Indeed,” Nadeine mused. “I do not know this word, ‘creepy,’ but it sounds an appropriate descriptor.”
The sound of the last desk drawer sliding shut interrupted our musings. “Alright,” Marinka said as she stood up with a full pack. “I am done. Let us look over the cave one last time for anything more that could be of help to us, and then we may depart.”
Our whole team scrambled around the cave, going through the remnants of our enemy’s life there, but he had either taken most everything with him or had few belongings, to begin with. Perhaps both.
I dug through his large mattress, flipping it over with some effort and looking around for anything we had missed, but there was nothing to be found, other than another chill when I touched where such a dangerous man had once slept. I rose to face my companions, and their efforts had been equally fruitless.
“I do not think there is anything left to find,” Bernsten said, running a hand nervously through his long hair.
“We found a fair amount with the desk, though,” I said, gesturing back to it. “That’s good.”
“Indeed,” Marinka said brightly. “This is much more than we even dreamt of having before. My hope is that we will learn something useful from these materials.”
“Alright, let’s head out then,” I said, looking back towards the cave’s entrance and wanting nothing more than to be away from this place and back in the open air of the mountain once again.
I moved to leave, and my companions followed suit, but when I reached a spot a few feet from the entrance, a loud screeching sound filled my ears. I clapped my hands to my ears and cried out, as the sound was so high and loud that it was painful. I looked around at my companions, and they were doing the same.
All of a sudden, several wispy gray figures rose out of the ground in front of us. They were tall but blurry, and I couldn’t make out any of their features other than to tell they were humanoid, with long arms and legs. I could see through them, and the sound grew even louder, if that was possible, when they appeared, and it was emanating from where I imagined their mouths would be. I jumped back when they appeared and instinctively threw up my arms to keep my companions back behind me. They didn’t need to be told, however, and edged backward themselves, gasping and crying out in alarm.
“What are those?” Bernsten roared from behind me.
“I do not know,” Marinka called, her voice trembling.
“They look like… ghosts or something,” I stammered, yelling as loud as I could so my companions could hear me over the screeching sound.
“I… do not believe there is such a thing,” Nadeine said.
“Well, they’re here now,” I yelled back. Just as I finished speaking, the nearest ghost-like figure lunged in my direction, reaching out its arm to swipe at me. I jumped out of the way and stumbled backward into Bernsten. He caught me and pushed me back up while Nadeine swiped at one of the ghostly figures with her sword, but it passed right through its misty body.
“I… do not know what to do!” Nadeine yelled. Freyja also leapt into action, swiping in the direction of a third figure with her claws out, but she also made no impact. Ishida stood behind her next to Godfried, looking around in a wild panic.
Fortunately, I had a gut instinct on what just might work on these ghostly things.
23
“Magic, everyone!” I called out. “That’s got to be the answer. Circles out!”
Haphazardly, I drew a circle around me, dodging another swipe from the s
pecter in front of me in the process. I looked down. The circle wasn’t exactly visible, as the cave floor was made of rock, not dirt, but it would have to do, and it was better than nothing. I looked back at the kingdom elves, who were just standing there staring at me with their physical weapons drawn.
“Come on!” I yelled, slightly irritated. “Conditions are never going to be ideal out in the field like they are in practice. Let’s go!”
They blinked at me a few times and then spurred to action, quickly making their own non-existent mage’s circles and positioning themselves to begin. The horrible screeching sound continued, much to my dismay, as we all tried to stay clear of the misty ghost’s strikes and lunges. I didn’t know what would happen if these unearthly things touched us, but I didn’t want to. I held my hands to my ears again, but it didn’t really help all that much.
“Very well. What now, Leo Hayden?” Bernsten asked. His voice really was well-suited for this, carrying easily over the screeching sound.
“We fight,” I screamed back, straining my neck in my attempts to make my voice carry. “Do whatever spells you can think of! Offensive.”
“Very well,” Bernsten said again, but he seemed unsure.
Oh well, it was now or never. If my friends couldn’t quite keep up, well, I was the ultimate mage. I’d just have to pick up the slack.
I held out my arms, and my cello appeared almost immediately. I took a seat and began to play, and as my music soared through the air, an advanced offensive combat spell took shape. Blazing, golden weapons sprang forth from the air: a magical mace, a storm of daggers, and a sword. The onslaught of weapons rushed forward, performing their own intricate dance to the tune I wove.
Shortly after the mace appeared and began to come down on the nearest specter to me, Nadeine’s singing voice echoed through the cave and pierced through the screeching sound. Godfried’s joined her not long after, and two golden swords, one for each of them, burst into life to guard the flanks of my leading mace. Then a moment later, Bernsten and Marinka’s voices joined the sounds of my cello. A set of deadly, glittering daggers from Marinka’s spell appeared above the weapons that were already there, and a long broadsword characteristic of Bernsten joined them.