Warrior: The War Chronicles I

by Sean Golden

  “Southwest, to the big ash grove,” Chutan said.

  “We will meet you there then,” Lirak said.

  Lirak moved over to Patrik’s bed and shook his shoulder. “Patrik, get up. We need to get moving.” He saw Niwoq pulling his things together and strode over to him.

  “Can you and Dobit carry the firestone powder?” he asked.

  “Sure,” Niwoq said, pulling on his shirt. “We’ll keep it safe, we may need it again.”

  Lirak patted him on the shoulder, then, remembering the events of the night before, Lirak turned to Chutan. “Did Jerok or Gawn make it back yet?”

  “No, we don’t know what happened to them,” Chutan replied.

  “Well, we’ll have to move without them and find them later,” Lirak told Patrik while pulling on his clothes. He quickly gathered his pack, bow and quiver, and rolled up the pelt. Patrik moved quickly and soon both were ready.

  “Let’s go,” Lirak said. He moved out of the cave and headed toward the east, with Thorn by his side.

  “Hey, the ash grove is that way,” Patrik said pointing.

  “We’re not going to the ash grove yet,” Lirak said. “We have to make sure the invaders aren’t following Chutan and the rest of the villagers. If possible, we need to keep them from finding this camp, it’s a good camp and I’d like to keep using it for a while.”

  “OK Lirak,” Patrik said, with a grin on his face. “This means we get to kill more invaders doesn’t it?” He pulled his long invader blade out and it glinted in the light.

  “It might very well mean that, but hopefully not with that thing.” Lirak laughed. He heard something behind him and turned to see Mayrie, who also had her bow and quiver.

  “I’m coming with you,” she said.

  Lirak looked at her and saw the determination on her face. He nodded.

  “Okay, we can use another good person with a bow.” Mayrie moved up beside him and the three walked side by side into the forest, with Thorn behind Lirak.

  They walked east, parallel to the river, toward the southern trail. After a while, when they were well away from the camp, they heard a crashing sound from ahead. Thorn growled and vanished into the undergrowth.

  “Shhh,” Lirak put his finger to his mouth and motioned toward a deadfall of trees overgrown with bushes. Quickly the three crawled into the heavy brush.

  The crashing came closer. They peered out through the brush, careful to stay silent and motionless. There were three invaders on the large beasts. One was in the lead and was giving commands to the other two. They stopped a short distance away from the deadfall, looking at the ground. Each of them had the hard head coverings and the heavy fabric that would stop arrows covering their front and back. The beasts too were covered with it. The invaders were attempting to follow some tracks, but were not having much luck. With strange words, and gestures to the north and south, the leader split the other two off, apparently to try to recover a trail they had lost.

  The leader held his beast in check as the two others moved into the forest. Then he began moving toward the west again, on a track that would take him near to the camp, where Lirak was afraid there might still be stragglers still pulling their things together. He motioned to Mayrie and Patrik to follow his lead, and as soon as the invader moved past them, he crawled out of the deadfall as quietly as he could. He pointed to Mayrie and Patrik and motioned for them to move to the south, out of sight. Then he quickly drew his bow and sent an arrow directly into the back of the retreating invader.

  The arrow struck, and then rebounded. The invader stopped suddenly and turned his beast around. Lirak stood in the opening with his bow raised and another arrow ready. The invader opened his mouth and yelled something, then lifted his bow-like device toward Lirak. Lirak’s second arrow caught him in his open mouth. He fell over backwards, making choking sounds. Lirak ran back to the east a short way and hid between a tree and a high bush. As he expected the two other invaders came rushing back on their beasts. Mayrie and Patrik hid in a large brush pile. Thorn was nowhere to be seen.

  The two invaders came into the open area with their bow-devices ready. They saw the riderless beast and rushed toward it, where they saw their fallen leader. One of them leaped off his beast and rushed to the fallen man’s side. The point of the arrow in the fallen man’s mouth protruded from the back of his neck. His eyes were open and staring. The second invader stood up in a crouch and swung around, his eyes searching the area. Lirak and the others were well hidden from him and none of them moved a muscle. After a moment he grabbed the cords on the head of the dead man’s beast and pulled it toward the body. The beast shied away a bit, but allowed itself to be pulled next to the body. The other invader got down and together they slung the dead body across the beast and using strong cords, tied it on. Then they both mounted their beasts and they began going back east, the way they had come, swiveling their eyes and their weapons as they walked their beasts. They were headed right past Lirak’s hiding place.

  Lirak watched them approach. Behind them, he saw Patrik move quickly into position with his bow. Again an arrow flew and bounced off the back of an invader. But Patrik was already moving, and by the time they turned around, he was hidden behind a tree. Strange words flew back and forth between them, but it was clear that they were frightened. Instead of rushing forward, they were holding their weapons and scanning the forest on all sides. They moved slowly to the southwest with their backs to Lirak. Lirak moved quickly and quietly further to the north where he stopped beside a small group of trees growing closely together. The talking between the two men was getting louder and more tense. They stopped again, well short of Patrik. Lirak wondered where Mayrie was but knew she had the sense to stay well hidden.

  After a short discussion, the two invaders again turned their beasts back to the east, still leading the dead man’s beast with his body tied to the back. They moved slowly at first, but then allowed their beasts to move at a speed like a man would jog. Soon they vanished into the forest.

  Lirak moved back into the open area where he was soon joined by Patrik and Mayrie. Patrick slapped him on the back and whistled. “That was a heck of a shot!” he said to Lirak. Mayrie also looked at Lirak, but said nothing. Thorn appeared from the north and sat beside Lirak.

  “You were sure a lot of help,” he said, rubbing Thorn’s head affectionately. “They will be back, with more men. If we are clever, we can lead them away from the camp.”

  “How can we do that without getting killed?” Mayrie asked.

  “I’m thinking,” Lirak said.

  “We need to get them off those huge beasts,” Patrik said. “I don’t like them.”

  “Neither does Thorn,” Lirak said. “We need to think of something, they’re going to be back here soon.”

  “I’ve got an idea.” Lirak and Patrik turned to look at Mayrie, who was smiling.

  The crashing sounds were louder this time. Six men mounted on beasts came rushing through the forest into the opening, each holding their weapon and swiveling their heads back and forth. They advanced in formation, two in front, two flanked outside and behind the first two, and two in the rear behind the lead two. They stopped at the far end of the forest glade and carefully scanned the forest around them. They began moving forward one step at a time, with a constant stream of conversation going between them. One of the men had a great burn along one side of his face and arm. His eye on that side was covered with a patch.

  They advanced as a group until they reached the end of the glade where Lirak had killed the first invader. One of the men in front got off of his beast and searched the ground. He barked back at the other men, and then remounted his beast. As he did so, there was a sudden movement in the bushes on the southeast side of the glade. The man who had just remounted shouted orders at the other five, and two stayed behind, looking to the southwest and northwest, while the other four advanced their mounts toward the movement in the bush. All had their weapons drawn. Again something shook the bu
shes and the four mounted invaders spread out in front of the bushes with their weapons pointed forward.

  At that moment three arrows came from the northwest corner of the glade, each targeting the mount of one of the two invaders left to watch. Two bounced off the thick, hard material protecting the mount, but the third found a gap just above the knee of the beast’s right, rear leg. It screamed an ear-piercing scream, reared up, and went down in a heap, the man falling heavily, with one leg caught underneath the beast. The scream caused the four invaders at the far end of the glade to turn their beasts. The man at the southwest corner turned also, but had not seen from where the arrows had come. The beast that had been hit jerked to its feet, an arrow protruding from its leg, and began walking around in a circle, limping heavily. The man on the ground didn’t move.

  The other five men converged on the fallen man, and soon one was sitting on the ground beside him. As the other four turned their mounts, keeping their weapons pointed into the forest, the sitting man removed the head covering from the fallen man and the two appeared to be talking. The sitting man knelt on one knee and attempted to lift the man who had fallen, but the effort seemed to cause the fallen man too much pain, and the kneeling man gave up. He stood and called one of the other men over. They had a short conversation and the man on the ground nodded. Walking back to the fallen man, he drew his long heavy blade and in a sudden forceful movement he drove it into the neck of the fallen man, who jerked once, then lay still.

  The man on foot then gathered up the dead man’s weapons and remounted. Two others put the dead man’s body across one of their own beasts. The five mounted men then huddled in the middle of the glade, frequently pointing in the general direction where they believed the arrows had come. With a sudden shout, all five wheeled their beasts and charged into the forest in a wide arc from the western edge to the northern edge of the glade. They charged their beasts back and forth in a pattern, driving them through bushes and around deadfalls. This continued for some time until they eventually gave up and came back to the forest glade.

  The sun was now climbing high into the sky. Lirak, Mayrie and Patrik lay in their hiding place on the northeast corner of the glade and watched the men.

  “I think we’ve given Chutan and the others enough time now,” Lirak whispered.

  “Yeah, I think so too,” Patrik agreed. “Now, how do we get past them?”

  “Past them?” Lirak whispered back. “We’re going the other direction, to the trail.”

  Patrik simply nodded.

  “What?” Mayrie whispered insistently. “That’s crazy!”

  “We need to see what they are doing after last night,” Lirak said. “If we’re going to fight them, we’re going to be doing things a lot more dangerous than sneaking around their campsites.”

  Mayrie set her chin and glared at Lirak, but said nothing.

  “Now, let’s move before they decide to do that little trick all around the clearing,” Lirak said, and the three carefully backed into the trees and then turned and began to move at a rapid jog toward the east. Thorn loped along beside them.

  After a while they stopped and listened.

  “I think that’s far enough to get away from those five,” Patrik said, taking deep breaths.

  “Yeah” Mayrie agreed. She was not breathing hard and seemed to have fully recovered from her attack, except for the new dimple on her cheek.

  “It’s funny how Thorn always seems to know what’s going on,” Patrik said, looking at Thorn who was sitting and watching the three of them with a long-fanged grin.

  Lirak looked at Thorn too. “Yeah, it is sort of funny, but you’re right.” He reached down and patted Thorn’s head. “He’s a smart one, isn’t he?”

  “Smarter than he should be,” Patrik said, with a smile. “But that’s good for us; we don’t need him to be giving us away.”

  Lirak thought about it. “I wonder,” he said. “It seems almost like if he were spotted, that’s the last place they’d expect to see us.”

  “You’ve got a point there,” Patrik agreed. He looked east. “So are we going to kill any more of them today?”

  “Patrik!” Mayrie said.

  “What? Isn’t that what we’re sworn to do?” he grinned.

  “Well, we don’t have to like it,” she replied.

  “Well, I do like it,” Patrik goaded, “I like it a lot. I intend to kill as many of them as I can. Did you see what they did back there? They killed their own companion in cold blood! These are not men; they are some sort of evil plague of mankind. They need to be put down like rabid dogs.”

  “Okay, okay, let’s not argue about killing them,” Lirak sighed “at least not now. But no, Patrik, killing invaders isn’t my top priority today. Spying on them is. So let’s get moving.”

  Now that they had gotten far away from the glade, they began to move slowly and carefully, stopping to listen frequently. Patrik and Mayrie both followed Lirak and listened intently to his every word and followed every movement. His ghost-like skills in the forest were a legend in Luh-Yi, and they knew if anyone could sneak up and spy on the invaders, it would be Lirak. Thorn appeared and disappeared at random times, coming back at least once with fresh blood on his muzzle.

  Lirak and Patrik lay a few strides off of the southern trail, a few hundred strides south of the river. Mayrie was well behind with Thorn, or Lirak hoped Thorn was still there. Across the trail and up toward the river Lirak was watching an area that the invaders had cleared out since their appearance and in the clearing were several crude buildings. As they had sat there they had watched several men go into one of the buildings and emerge with burdens. Sometimes it was a large stiff crate made of wood, other times it was a shapeless mass that looked like a large leather bag, but was not made from any leather Lirak had ever seen. They had moved their burdens onto two large flat boxes with the large disks for rolling. Now they were in the process of tying smaller beasts similar to the ones the men rode to the large rolling containers. Lirak guessed that they would soon be taking them down the trail, which would bring them right past Lirak and Patrik. He knew they would need to leave before then, but he could not ignore the insistent wait feeling that tugged at his brain. So he waited, knowing that Patrik was getting fidgety and could at any moment give away their position. Still he waited.

  The final beasts were tied to the rolling boxes. From another, very large, building, men dressed as the fighting invaders always dressed were leading their beasts out and attaching objects to them. Lirak watched as they put the heavy protective material and other things on the beasts. The “wait” in his mind twitched as it did when the waiting was almost over. He scanned the area, looking for anything that would warrant the feeling, but saw nothing. Patrik insistently tapped at his elbow, and he reached back and again squeezed Patrik’s forearm.

  Then he saw the man in gray.

  He came out of one of the smaller buildings, his gray robes and broad-brimmed hat identical to the one they had killed to the south. He carried no visible bags, but Lirak knew that the gray robes had folds and concealed pouches underneath. The gray man was tall and moved with athletic grace. He barked orders at the other men, who obeyed him without question. He directed them into a formation, with six mounted men in front, the beasts with the burdens following, then six more mounted men behind. Even at this distance, the remarkable similarity of the gray man to Lirak’s features was unsettling.

  Lirak still felt the urge to wait, but his fear of Patrik’s impatience outweighed the urge. He was sure that the gray man was the reason for the strange compulsion anyway. Unable to push aside any longer the urgent need to get Patrik to safety, he ignored the nagging feeling to wait still more. He tapped Patrik and the two carefully backed out from under the bush, moving as slowly, but surely, as possible. Soon they were out and moving quickly back to where Mayrie was waiting. When they reached her, she gave a quiet cry of relief and hugged Lirak.

  “Don’t ever do that again!” she said. �
��I was scared to death for you!”

  Lirak took her hand. “I can’t make that promise and you know it.” He looked at Patrik. “Okay, you two need to head back to join Chutan and the others.”

  “Us two?” Patrik said in an injured tone. “What about you?”

  “I have something I have to do, and it’s too dangerous to do with you two,” Lirak said.

  “I’m not going anywhere, if we’re killing invaders, I’m getting my share.” Patrik was indignant.

  Lirak looked at Patrik and his eyes narrowed. “Patrik, you have to listen to me and trust me. I’m about to try something more dangerous than I’ve ever tried to do, and I don’t know if I will succeed. I don’t have time to argue about it. I don’t have time to worry about your hurt feelings for saying this, but if you go with me, we will fail and will both die. I have a chance to do this alone, but I need you to get back in case I fail. You have to carry on the fight without me if I do.”

  Patrik’s eyes flamed with anger. “I can do anything you can do,” he said, knowing it was not true. Lirak’s steady eyes on his own seemed to be staring directly into his soul.

  “No, I can’t, can I?” Patrik admitted. “Not yet anyway” his defiance was not completely subdued. “Okay Lirak, I’ll do as you say. But you better not do anything stupid.” He clasped arms with Lirak, palm to elbow. Then he turned to go.

  “I can’t stop you, can I?” asked Mayrie.

  “No,” Lirak said.

  “Then be careful. Come back to me,” she said, and leaned forward and kissed him gently, her lips warm and moist.

  “Always,” Lirak said, and then he turned and headed back to the east. Thorn was at that moment nowhere to be seen.

  “He’s crazy” Patrik said, as he and Mayrie turned and began moving to the west.

  Misjudgment

  When the gods speak, it is best to listen.

  – Dwon oral tradition

  Lirak moved quickly after leaving Patrik and Mayrie. He moved as fast as he dared. He had one desperate plan that he hoped would work, but to do it, he had to move southeast quickly to get ahead of the group of men. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Thorn moving through the trees to his right. He smiled, feeling better for some reason, and continued his dash for the trail.