Closing his eyes, Flare rested his head in the dirt; the agony was nearly unbearable.
How long he lay there, he wasn’t sure, but gradually the pain lessened until it was just an atrocious thudding. Flare opened his eyes and looked around. It didn’t seem so bad as long as he didn’t move his head.
He regained his feet in steps. First, he rolled over, coming to rest in a seated position. Then, he rolled over again, this time climbing to his knees. Finally, after a few moments of rest, he stood up. He was momentarily pleased that he managed to not be sick; it was a close call though.
Flare began to walk then, slowly headed back toward their camp. The thought occurred to him of reaching out with sorcery, and he had to stop and breathe slowly, fighting the urge to vomit.
It turned out that the walk was good for him. Walking worked out some of his weakness and he began to feel better by the time he reached their camp.
The camp was exactly as he had left it, although it was hard to remember if it had been less than an hour ago that he’d left, or years ago.
A lone figure lay on the opposite side of the fire, and for just a moment, Flare was sure that it would be Osturlius that waited for him. However, as he moved closer, the sleeping form turned out to be Keenan. Flare nearly wept in relief, simply pleased to be home and not facing any more trips to Sha’al in the foreseeable future.
Convinced that it was Keenan who slumbered near the fire, Flare retreated to the edge of the their camp, just at the edge of the firelight. He sat down on a small boulder and began stretching his neck and rubbing his eyes.
It hurt to think too hard, but he knew that was exactly what he must do. He had to find a way where he could obey Osturlius’s order to not resist, but also keep Ossendar and Nerandall out of the guard’s hands. It was something he’d considered much on the way here. He’d assumed that the guard would treat with him with the deference due the king’s grandson, but now he wasn’t so sure. He didn’t much like the idea of meekly surrendering, but he liked it even less when he would not be able to keep his sword and armor safe.
Flare rested his head in his hands and began to consider the problem.
Chapter 26
Enton and Atock worked their way in a east by southeasterly direction. It was true that the Narrows were south, but they needed to know what lay between them and the Adelion.
They moved slowly, always from concealment to concealment. At each new hiding place, they waited and watched; looking for anything out of the ordinary. They didn’t see any goblins, or humans for that matter, but there were plenty of footprints covering the ground. They were both human and goblin.
The footprints were both a blessing and a curse. On a positive note, it meant that their footprints were not likely to be noticed, but it also meant there were a good number of the enemy in the vicinity.
Neither man begrudged the slowness of their pace; it was better to be prudent and slow than hasty and dead.
After what seemed like an eternity, but in truth had only been a couple of hours, they reached the lonely, towering tree.
Atock wasn’t sure what type of tree it was, but that wasn’t unusual. His home was far away on the island kingdom of Entucca. He found many of the trees and animals here were unknown to him.
To his delight, this tree was immensely tall with lots of branches scattered along the enormous trunk. The branches would make it easy to climb, and the thick leaves would help hide Enton from sight.
Standing at the base of the tree, Enton bent backwards, craning to see the tree top in the distance. He looked wide-eyed at Atock.
Enton’s look caused a thrill of worry to run through Atock and for the first time he began to doubt the soundness of his plan. “Are you okay?” Atock asked.
Enton nodded, but he still looked pale.
Atock looked back up at the tree, and then back to Enton. “You want me to climb it?” He dreaded Enton’s answer as the tree was far and away taller than anything on the island of Entucca.
Enton shook his head. “No, I can manage,” he said. He took a deep breath and then jumped up and grabbed the lowest branch, pulled himself up, and began the long climb.
In the beginning, Enton found the climbing easy. There were plenty of branches, and with the thick truck, the tree was stable.
He kept his eyes on the branches, avoiding looking down toward the ground. He never would admit fear of any kind, not even to himself, it just wasn’t in his warrior nature, but heights made his hands sweat.
He climbed for a long time, unsure how far he had come. Finally, the branches were getting smaller and smaller, and there were less of them. Also, the thick layer of leaves now had wide gaps and the tree trunk was much narrower. He interpreted these changes as signs that he was getting near the top. He stopped climbing, wrapped one arm around a chest-high branch and the second arm around the trunk, and looked out through one of the gaps in the leaves.
Immediately his mouth went dry. He had indeed climbed a long way into the air. He forced himself to remain calm and began surveying the surrounding area. The first thing he did was turn to the south, looking for any signs of a way to cross the Adelion at the Narrows. He was too far to see the Adelion accurately; the river was an indistinct blur off in the distance. Of a bridge, or any other way to cross, there was no indication.
Undeterred, Enton turned his attention to the more immediate surroundings. Looking at the area around the tree caused a bout of light-headedness to roll over him. He took a deep breath and focused on searching the ground for any sign of sentries, and Gods above were there signs of sentries.
The sight of all the activity on the ground caused Enton to forget his unease at being so high.
To the southwest, back toward the Adelion’s tributary, he could clearly see a clearing with multiple tents. Even from here, he could see tiny figures moving around the camp.
He and Atock had been lucky, very lucky indeed. They had passed less than a quarter mile north of the clearing. Maybe the guards were watching out for them, or perhaps the goblins were just lackluster in their duty.
Goblins? Never seen goblins sleep in tents before.
He looked back to the clearing, but he couldn’t make out much. He supposed it was possible that goblins used tents, but he suspected it was humans in the clearing.
Looking to the north, he quickly spotted several more clearings that he thought might contain tents, but he couldn’t be sure. The clearings were farther away and it was difficult to make out at this distance.
Being very careful, he moved around the far side of the trunk and looked to the east. He blinked in surprise to see that Gilga had been correct. There was another river off in the distance that flowed to the south. It wasn’t far; half a mile to a mile at its closest point. From there, the river angled back to the southeast, undoubtedly connecting up with the Adelion east of the Narrows. On the other side of that river, grasslands stretched out as far as he could see.
Enton pulled his gaze back closer, looking for a safe way to travel south. If anything, it looked worse to the southwest than it had to the southeast. There was an open area, not exactly a clearing, but still it contained ten or more tents.
Enton sighed deeply. Not only could he not find a safe way to the south, he wasn’t even sure how they were going to get away safely. He hesitated only a moment, but there really wasn’t any more that he could accomplish up here, so he began the climb down.
He had thought that the climb up was difficult, but it was nothing compared to the climb down. At least on the way up, he had been able to keep his eyes focused upward. On the way down, he had no choice but to look down. The views of the ground far below him made his mouth go dry and his hands slippery with sweat. He had to pause more than once to wipe his hands dry. As appealing as it was, the idea of simply wrapping his arms around the branch and remaining there wasn’t feasible. Besides, his honor wouldn’t let him remain clinging in fear to a branch.
Several times he paused on the way do
wn and stared far out to the west. The sight of dark-blue rain clouds was almost peaceful, even though it meant they would spend the night soaking wet again.
He was unsure how long the climb up had been, but it felt like the climb down took days. At long last he reached the ground.
Enton dropped the last few feet and dropped to one knee, shaky.
“You all right?” Atock asked.
Enton nodded, trying to catch his breath.
Thankfully, Atock seemed to understand Enton’s exhaustion and gave him several moments of peace.
“We’re surrounded,” Enton finally managed to get out.
“What?” Atock asked, hoping that he’d heard wrong. “What do you mean surrounded?”
Atock listened in horror as Enton explained what he’d seen. His mind cast around for any way to make the trip south. They simply had to reach the Narrows. Or did they? That thought brought him up short. Perhaps this was proof enough and they could simply return to Telur and report what they had found.
He pondered this for a moment before dismissing it. Simply returning with news of sentries overrunning this area of the river wasn’t enough. They needed more information, specifically how soon to expect an attack.
They spent a quarter of an hour by Atock putting suggestions to Enton, suggestions on how to safely make it south. One-by-one, Enton dismissed each suggestion.
“I tell you, there isn’t any safe way to make it south,” Enton said finally. It came out more heated than he intended, but it was understandable. “The forest is crawling with goblins, humans, someone.”
Atock nodded. If the forest is not the way, then how do we reach the Narrows? Immediately, the answer occurred to him. If they couldn’t go by land, then they would have to go by river.
“Tell me about this river to the east,” Atock said.
Enton looked confused, but he retold what he had already explained. He thought carefully, even going so far as to close his eyes so that he could once again see the river as he had from the tree top. Unfortunately, he had nothing helpful to add.
“What are you thinking?” Enton asked Atock, once again opening his eyes.
“If we can reach the river, then we use the river to get us safely to the Narrows,” Atock answered. “It’s only a mile or so away, and it has to be safer than wandering through this miserable swamp.”
“And what happens once we get there?” Enton asked.
“The Adelion will carry us back to the west, and we should have a good view of the Narrows,” Atock replied. “The Adelion will keep us safe and allow us to scout the area.”
“Perhaps,” Enton said, “but that part of the river is supposed to be shallow, possibly even rocky. It won’t do us any good to gather the information only to have our brains dashed against the rocks.”
Atock shrugged and grinned. “Do you have a better idea?”
Enton’s silence said plainly that, no, he did not have a better idea.
The clouds that Enton had spotted to the west arrived just as they started working their way eastward. It was late in the afternoon when they started, and the newly-arriving clouds only made it that much harder to see. Less than half an hour after starting, the heavens opened up and poured on them. Traveling in the rain was rather unpleasant but, as it would aid in their avoiding being spotted, they welcomed the downpour.
They traveled in the same manner as they had earlier in the day; running from one hiding spot to another.
Enton led the way, as he had at least seen the area from the tree and he had an idea of what areas to avoid. Still, it was more nerve-racking now, as they had a much better idea what waited for them.
In reality, it wasn’t the clearings with the tents that they feared. Enton has seen those and they could avoid them. It was the sentries, whether wandering or stationary, that caused them to worry. It would be awfully easy to run up on a guard stationed in the bushes and not even know until it was too late.
They moved faster than they had this morning. There was little point in pausing in a hiding spot. In the rain, it was impossible to see more than ten yards away from them, and they couldn’t hear very well either; but that actually worked in their favor, because the sentries wouldn’t be able to see them very easily either.
Despite all their fears, the journey to the river passed both quickly and uneventfully. It got darker as the evening came on and that only helped to lessen their anxieties, plus the pouring rain quickly obscured any sign of their passing.
They were forced to work around several streams and a large bog. Backtracking cost them some time, but they still reached the river early in the evening.
Kneeling down on the bank of the river, Enton turned to look at Atock. Rivulets of water ran down their faces, dropping onto their clothes. “What now?” he asked.
Atock grimaced, looking around at the flooded-out beach. “We can use the river to get to the Narrows.”
“Yes, but will we be able to see anything?” Enton asked. “This damn rain might keep us from seeing much.”
Atock considered, it was a good question. “Let’s get to the Adelion and then look for a place to spend the night.”
“Then what?”
“Tomorrow night, we’ll try and make it through the Narrows.” With any luck, they would be able to see better tomorrow night, but that also meant it would be easier to be spotted as well.
They tied themselves together using two long vines and then entered the river. It wasn’t very deep, but the current was strong enough to carry them southward. It took several hours for the river to carry them the couple of miles to the Adelion.
As they neared where the two rivers merged, the gentle current of the tributary turned into a whirlpool motion. The rain was still falling, which made it difficult to see, but they swam westward to the shore.
The came ashore a little bit north of the Adelion. As luck would have it they found several trees growing together, surrounded by thick bushes. They crawled in under the bushes and, despite being completely soaked to the skin, they fell fast asleep, not even bothering to setup a watch.
Chapter 27
Reega, Karina, and Seth paused in the shadows of several large trees. They were all tired, wet, and miserable. They stood on a small hill overlooking the Adelion river. It was dusk and they stood at a point about a mile east of where the goblins were planning to cross. As the sun set, lights were lit all along a massive bridge that the human mercenaries were building across a wide but shallow part of the river. They hadn’t been closer to the bridge than this yet, but Reega had obtained the information for them.
It’d been several weeks since Nathan had ordered them to follow the goblins and they hadn’t had a good nights sleep the whole time.
They had followed the edge of the forest north, watching the highway, but remaining within the safety of the woods. Little changed on the highway, goblins and human mercenaries marched north, along with the odd giant or troll.
Less than a week after they started, the forest ended and was replaced by rolling grasslands and farms. For the first time, the goblins began making camp on the western side of the highway. In fact, the land appeared to be covered by goblins.
They had snuck across the Arium Highway in a gap between humans and goblins. The eastern side of the road had its share of goblins too, but the terrain was rougher and provided the small group more opportunities to hide.
They continued their trip north, but as there was much less cover, they now traveled at a distance much farther from the road. This would appear to make it more difficult to keep track of the goblins, but that’s where Reega’s special talent was used.
Where Karina could influence the very plants around them, Reega could communicate with the animals. Normally, he interacted only with the animals of the forest; it’d been years since he had stepped foot outside its boundaries. He found himself using animals that he was less familiar with than normal. In the forest, he tended to communicate with the small, furry sorts that ran around
on the ground and in the trees. While those kinds existed in the grasslands, most of them had fled at the approach of the goblins. Reega found himself having to use birds, which was something he’d rarely done before. A magnificent red cardinal flew west at his bidding to spy on the goblins. It returned daily to update him on their progress. It’d been through the cardinal that they had learned the goblins were not crossing the Adelion on ferries, but upon reaching the river had started marching east along the shore.
Karina and Reega had huddled, trying to decide what this meant. Seth hadn’t participated, which wasn’t unusual. He was along because he’d been told to come, but he didn’t offer much input into the decisions.
Unsure how best to proceed, they continued north and Reega had sent a hawk to investigate. The news it brought was fantastic, bordering on unbelievable. Humans were building a bridge to span the mighty Adelion, and at one of its widest points.
Even though they had been told what to expect, they still found it hard to believe, even as they stared downriver at where the lights spanned the river.
“We’re too far away,” Karina said. “We need you to get closer.”
“How?” Reega asked. “Neither of us are gifted in that way.”
Karina nodded, sighing deeply. “You’re right. Neither of our gifts are of much help in that regard.” She looked past Reega to Seth. He’d been staring out over the river, but looked up as he felt her eyes on him.
“What?” he demanded.
“We need you get close and take a look at that bridge,” she replied.
“Why? Not much we can do about it.”
“He’s right,” Reega agreed.
“The Master asked us to see if we can slow down this army. Perhaps this is the way.”
“What can you do against that army?” Seth asked. He looked less than convinced.
“Against that army, not much, but perhaps there is something that I can do against that bridge.”
“The bridge?” Reega and Seth asked in unison.
A Gathering of Armies Page 26