by GJ Kelly
The wizard shook his head. “No, Captain, that would not do. Once the beast is loosed, like words once spoken or an arrow shot from a bow it cannot be recalled. The iron collar and chains infused with aquamire are all that keeps it in check, those and the occasional interventions from the parGoth as Longsword described earlier. Once free of its bonds though, it would take the power of its creator to contain it once more, and I believe we have destroyed that creator.
“No, the Kraal would charge down the road, destroy us, and then it would be aimless, purposeless, its only remaining interest the feeding of itself. And the only food it would find within the range of its eye once we were destroyed would be its former masters, unless they themselves could find a way to outrun the beast, and they are on foot.”
“Yet if we simply remain here the beast will eventually become unmanageable, and in fear for their own lives the Gorians will loose it upon us and run west as fast as they can.”
Allazar agreed again.
“So,” Tyrane sighed, staring at the map. “We cannot advance to the north. And to stand still invites attack, sooner or later. That at least leaves us a good deal of room for manoeuvre. We have at least half the compass to move in, and that includes our attacking them.”
“It does.” Gawain agreed. “Certainly they’re more concerned with the Kraal and us on the road than they are in keeping watch around them in the forest. It should be straightforward enough to take the wizard into the forest, sneak up behind them, incinerate the creature and be back in time for supper.”
“Ah…”
Tyrane smiled. “I was thinking of something so much more complicated, my lord. But now you’ve mentioned it, the simplest solution is often the most elegant and effective.”
“I think I would like to hear your complicated plan, Captain.” Allazar muttered.
Gawain smiled. “Humour him, Tyrane.”
“Oh, I was going to test the enemy’s ability to see our movements by despatching small numbers of our group south half a mile or so, until they elected to follow. Or, to confuse them even further and add to their discomfort, by sending some east through the woods towards the plains, and some south at the same time.”
Gawain grinned. “If it were just men tracking us it would be wonderful plan. But knowing the fractious state that our enemy is in, and how close they are to losing control of the beast, I think the more direct approach is the one I favour. Besides, we know where the beast is, and I’d rather destroy while it’s chained. You can destroy it, Allazar?”
“Yes, Longsword, a sustained bolt of white fire from the staff will defeat the aquamire armour of its skin, of that I am certain.”
Gawain eyed the wizard, looking for signs of overconfidence, or signs of the kind of dangerous enthusiasm that had so worried him the day before. There were none. If anything, Allazar seemed nervous about the plan, rather than excited.
“Good. Because if it gets away from us, its gaze is as fixed upon all here on the road, just as the Eldengaze is fixed upon it.”
Allazar grimaced and glanced over his shoulder towards Elayeen, but even he knew now that the frozen form of the elfin and her blank stare trained on the northwest was very far removed from the vivacious young queen he had fought so hard to protect in Ferdan two short months ago.
“What would you have us do, my lord?” Tyrane asked quietly.
“I like your idea of moving people. It might serve as a distraction, a diversion. Perhaps, Jaxon, you and your people could help, move south about half a mile, then back?”
Jaxon nodded. “You go to face the darkness my lord? You and the wizard? Alone?”
Gawain shrugged. “And perhaps a couple of your stealthiest men, Tyrane? Those seven Gorian guardsmen were rather large and I wouldn’t want anything to happen to Allazar should I have to deal with them alone.”
“I know just the two, Serres,” the sergeant grinned, “One of ‘em a poacher before he took his majesty’s gold and black, the other the son of a woodsman. Good lads, both of ‘em.”
Tyrane nodded. “Ask them would you, Sergeant?”
“Aye Serre.”
They stood and watched as the sergeant strode down the road, pointing first at one guardsman and thumbing him forward, then the next.
“My lords,” Jaxon said, his expression a mixture of admiration and fear, “If you go to face the darkness, I and my people will run to the mountain and back, if it will help.”
Gawain smiled. “I don’t think you’ll need to go that far, but thank you. Tyrane, if you post your guardsmen here, and stand close by my lady, you can perhaps gauge the effectiveness of the diversion.”
“Indeed, m’lord.”
“I’ll let you arrange the details with Jaxon and his people.”
“Aye, my lord. And it looks like you have your poacher and your woodsman. I’ll brief them, with your permission, and leave you to make your arrangements.”
“Thank you, Captain,” Gawain acknowledged Tyrane’s tactful withdrawal, and watched as he led Jaxon across the road towards the wagons.
“So, wizard. I hope you are ready for this. The beast is impressive.”
“The knowledge has shown it to me, Longsword. It is fearsome indeed.”
“Wait until you see it for yourself. It numbed my blood, I don’t mind admitting it. Is there anything you need before we leave?”
“Oh, perhaps a year or two to reconsider…”
Gawain smiled grimly. “Alas…”
Then, with a deep breath, Gawain slapped the wizard on the shoulder and moved to stand in front of Eldengaze, deliberately blocking her view. She didn’t move.
“I want my lady back.” Gawain said softly, for her ears alone. “I want the shimmering beauty I found hurt and bleeding on a moonlit autumn night near the track to Ferdan two years ago. I want the gentle and graceful elfin who nursed me so tenderly for so long when I was felled by Morloch’s Black Riders and their poisoned arrows. I want the elfin lady I held in my arms and carried through the snow from Elvendere to Threlland. I want the girl who robbed me of breath with a smile and a glance and who could melt my heart with a quiet word. I want the lady whose courage in the face of all that’s dark and terrible burns like a beacon in the night. I want miheth and mihoth and my bounden love. I want Elayeen back. And if the wizard and I succeed in destroying the darkness that threatens us all, I shall have her back, even if I have to walk barefoot all the way back to Raheen and smash the circles in my father’s hall with my bare hands to get her.”
Elayeen said nothing. She didn’t blink. She simply stood stock still, holding her bow lightly balanced on the toe of her right boot, staring through his chest towards the darkness.
Gawain turned away from her, strode across to Allazar, and with a flick of his head towards Tyrane, led the wizard across the road.
“These are guardsmen Rollaf and Terryn. Both have volunteered, my lord, and both are at your disposal.”
Gawain nodded to the two men. Rollaf was the taller of the two, but both were lean and wiry, tanned from long years outdoors, and both had about their eyes that deep serenity that seemed common to woodsmen and those familiar with the wilderness. They had removed their heavy leather uniform tabards and mail, greaves and other accoutrements, and each carried a shortsword and knife in scabbard at the belt, and a cocked but not bolted crossbow over their backs.
“We’ll move south along the road a mile at the double, and then head due west. We’ll come up on the enemy from behind, from the southwest. We’ll need to move as silently as possible; if the enemy hear us and loose the beast to defend themselves before Allazar can destroy it…” Gawain trailed off.
“I must be the first to strike,” Allazar announced quietly. “Once I have destroyed the Kraal, then you must deal with the Gorian guardsmen. I may not harm the races of Man.”
“And the parGoth dark wizard?” Gawain glowered.
Allazar nodded. “He too is mine. He has betrayed the races of Man.”
“The be
ast is immense,” Gawain warned the two men of Callodon, “And astonishing to behold. Try to fix your attention on the men and not the creature. Our first targets will be those not clinging to the beast’s chains. Earlier, they had two men on the chains each side of the beast, and three resting nearby, ready to assist the others if needed. Those three will be ours. I doubt you’ll have time to reload the crossbows, so don’t miss. Shoot, discard the ‘bows, and draw steel. The quicker this is all done, the better. Any questions?”
There were none.
“Captain?”
“No, my lord. We’ll wait until you’ve turned into the trees before deploying our diversions.”
“We have about two hours before dusk makes the forest challenging. If we fail, Captain, the Eld… my lady will tell you of the creature’s advance. If that happens, get as many onto horses as you can and scatter. Just don’t send too many to the north, for the sake of Jarn.”
“Aye, my lord,” Tyrane acknowledged, his face grim.
“I know this isn’t a particularly honourable action,” Gawain sighed, “But neither is loosing a ravenous beast upon an unsuspecting town. Let’s do this quickly and quietly, and then be on our way.”
With that, Gawain checked his own weapons and performed his curious jumping on the spot routine. Allazar promptly followed suit, and then the two guardsmen. Once all were able to move without clinks or rattles to give them away, Gawain gave a quick nod, a last glance at Elayeen, and then led the way at a brisk run south along the gently undulating track. After a mile, perhaps a little more, Gawain slowed to a halt, regarded Allazar and the men for a brief moment, and then leapt the ditch and headed due west into the forest.
At first, Gawain moved swiftly. He knew the forest floor and gauged the distance between himself and the enemy far enough to allow speed with sufficient caution not to cause too much of a disturbance to the woodland creatures. Then he slowed, weaving around obstacles, all senses alert. Allazar was doing well, better than he’d hoped in fact, and a quick glance also revealed the two guardsmen loping behind the wizard, grim-faced and wide-eyed, yet moving quietly and with skill.
Light slowly faded, and the ferns and brackens gave way to leaf-litter and humus on the gloomy forest floor. Gawain paused, peering westward through the trees and then up through the canopy, gauging the distance they had travelled. Satisfied, he squatted down, knelt on one knee, and made a brief hand signal to the guards. They acknowledged the signal, and then unslung the crossbows from their backs, holding them casually, still cocked but unloaded. Gawain frowned in the gloom, then reached into his muddy tunic and withdrew a mud-stained black cloth from his tunic. He tossed it to Allazar, and then pointed to his own head.
At first the wizard looked puzzled, so Gawain pointed to the cloth and then at the wizard’s head. Allazar understood. His robes were filthy enough not to draw too much attention, but the wizard’s white hair was clearly visible in the gloom. Gawain’s own blond hair and clothing was still caked in the filthy mud of the quagmire from the day before.
Here in the depths of the forest, the pearl-like lustre of the Dymendin staff Allazar carried seemed to reflect the gloom around them, unless by some magical means the wizard had contrived to dim its former whiteness. In any case, Gawain didn’t care, as long as the staff wasn’t seen by the enemy until it issued a lightning-tree big enough to destroy the Kraal.
Then, to Gawain’s surprise, the wizard tossed the darkening cloth back, and smiled. Then he took one hand from the staff, made a gesticulation in the air before his face, and Gawain the guardsmen gaped as what looked like ink all the colours of the forest around them ran from the wizard’s head to boots, leaving Allazar almost perfectly camouflaged.
Stringing an arrow tight in his right hand, Gawain pointed straight towards the northeast, and silently rose to begin the hunt in earnest, but not before casting two more astonished glances at the wizard. Less than twenty minutes later, they heard Gorian voices. Gawain signalled a halt, and then with simple hand signals, deployed the guardsmen wide to his left, bringing Allazar up between himself and the men of Callodon. When he was satisfied with their disposition, he raised his arrow, and watched as the guards silently fitted heavy steel-tipped bolts to their crossbows. Another glance at Allazar, who drew a deep breath, and then nodded, hefting the staff a little, and then Gawain eased forward, moving one tree at a time towards the enemy.
“…what the threken Tal are they doing then?”
“I don’t know, Aldayan, why don’t you go and ask them! I’m simply telling you what I’m seeing through the Jardember!”
“But why would they be moving up and down the road?”
“Maybe it’s not a road after all. Maybe it’s the lake on the map and they’re fishing or something,” Brayan offered quietly. “Who cares? It’s getting darker, they’re not going anywhere tonight.”
“I care,” Aldayan muttered darkly. “The threken Kraal keeps shifting its threken head this way and that and I’m the threken idiot has to hold the chain. Eight threken times now! It’s driving the Kraal mad and me with it.”
Gawain eased forward to the next tree, and cautiously peered around its broad trunk. The Kraal seemed to be standing obediently still, the chains running out either side of its iron collar taught but the four big men holding them not straining. Three squatted idly on their haunches well clear of the beast, and Darimak parGoth stood a little further beyond them, tossing the Jardember from one hand to the other like a ball.
Glancing to his left, he saw Allazar creep into position behind a tree, and watched as the wizard’s eyes widened in shock at the sight of the Kraal’s enormous horror. Gawain waited, patiently, calmly. When he felt certain the guards were in position, he stole another glance around the tree. No-one had moved.
“It’s threken Darimak’s fault,” Aldayan complained again, bitterly, but keeping his voice low enough not to alarm the Kraal.
“How can their moving back and forth along the road possibly be my fault, you witless oaf!”
“Their running up and down ain’t your threken fault, parGoth, but you’re the one keeps lifting up the threken charred ember and confusing the threken Kraal!”
Gawain stole another glance to the left. Allazar was watching the proceedings, his eyes flicking back to the immense beast, but perhaps some kind of sixth sense made him look to his right, into Gawain’s eyes. A quick flick of the head, and Allazar looked to his left. The guardsmen were kneeling, crossbows to shoulders, targets in their sights and fingers on the triggers waiting for wizard’s assault.
Allazar leaned back hard against the trunk of his tree, and took another deep breath. Turning his head to his left, he gave a single nod to Gawain, who adjusted the sword on his back and tightened his grip on his arrow.
“There he goes again!” Aldayan spat.
Darimak parGoth lifted the Jardember high above his head, one-handed, and began a brief chanting. “The group is moving quickly south again,” he announced, and the Kraal’s head twitched a little, as though the great eye was fixed upon the refugees a mile away, running briskly down the road towards Raheen.
Allazar chose that moment to grip the staff two-handed and charge from behind his tree into the small clearing. It was entirely the wrong moment.
oOo
24. Contact
Gawain watched the catastrophe unfold, observing the events dispassionately as if time itself had slowed. Allazar broke from behind the cover of his tree, his face contorted into a fierce grimace, the Dymendin staff gripped two-handed and parallel to the ground, its business end swinging towards the Kraal.
Darimak parGoth stood rooted to the spot, almost on tip-toe, holding the Jardember high and balanced on his fingertips, his back to the wizard and the drama behind him. The three Gorians squatting on their haunches had been staring at the parGoth, and the four chainsmen were standing watchful at their duty, or rather three of them were. One was gazing with undisguised contempt towards the dark wizard.
At
the very moment Allazar summoned forth a blazing lance of white fire, the Kraal twitched its massive head to bring its one-eyed focus back to the northernmost group on the distant road, and then back again to the group running south. The twitch was enough.
No plan ever survives contact with the enemy, flashed through Gawain’s mind, a dignified, retired cavalry captain had told him over dinner during training, you must always be prepared to be creative.
The searing blast of white fire from Allazar’s staff began ripping a furrow through the soft dark earth of the forest floor, chewing its way towards the Kraal. But the twitching of the great beast’s head jerked the chains radiating from its black collar, and Aldayan, sullenly watching the parGoth instead of attending to his duty on the chains nearest Allazar, was yanked off balance and stumbled into the path of the white fire now halfway across the clearing.
At once, the wizard heaved up on the staff, sending the crackling lightning blast away to the left of the Kraal and uselessly up into the trees. Lightning forked and streamers flickered here and there, shattering boughs and trunks, debris small and large raining down into the clearing and the forest beyond. The Kraal jerked its head again, snatching Aldayan off his feet completely, sending him flying headlong, still clinging to the chain, into the gaping maw and the razor-sharp rows of black teeth within. Aldayan was bitten clean in two before he had a chance to scream. The second chainsman on Gawain’s side of the beast had been jerked to within range of the Kraal, and another flick of its head drove the single horn clean through his body before a third flick sent the man’s remains tumbling far into the gloom over the beast’s back.
Crossbows twanged, bolts struck home, and two of the idle Gorian guardsmen simply fell face-first into the ground, while the third, seemingly oblivious to the attacks around him, lunged instinctively for the chains now slithering unattended across the forest floor.
Allazar, summoning another blast of white fire, unleashed it towards the Kraal, where it struck the black aquamire-infused iron collar, bursting it into pieces, before once more raising the white lightning into the trees as the panic-addled Gorian dived for the chains and into the line of fire between the wizard and the beast.