by J W Murison
She rubbed her womb without conscious thought, ‘I never realised then you had left me a gift of love that I will cherish more than life itself. Thank you master.’ She fled from the room tears spilling down her face leaving Graun speechless in the bath. Five minute later a confused looking servant girl came to help him finish dressing; he barely noticed.
CHAPTER 8
Steven and Glaciea were first to the rally point, ‘I forgot our food,’ she suddenly admitted.
Steven just stared at her for a moment, ‘oh whit! How did you forget the food?’
She looked crest fallen, ‘I was just so excited, I forgot,’ she bit her lip and he relented.
‘Och, don’t worry about it we’re first here anyway, can you nip back home and get it.’
She nodded, ‘I won’t be long.’
She gave him a peck on the cheek and transformed. No sooner was she out of sight than the rest of the Scouts turned a corner. Steven felt his cheeks redden with embarrassment. Billy was the one who asked, ‘where’s your wife?’
‘She uh, we uh forgot something, she’ll be back in a few minutes.’ Billy shook his head and went to see Graun. Graun gave him an unfathomable look that made Stevens face deepen in colour.
He stood a little to the side as Graun gave final instructions. The Beast, Alan and their wives stepped into a pool. ‘Don’t forget your sword,’ The Beast called out to Steven, who wanted to curl up and die. No sooner had they vanished than there was a beating of wings. Glaciea came into land and then got her tunic entangled on the food bag. It was a comedy of errors as the men tried not to stare at her naked form.
Graun took a deep breath when she had sorted herself out, ‘are we ready?’
She nodded fiercely, ‘yes we’re ready.’
‘Good, follow Alan and The Beast, you lady’s will fly different search patterns to see if you can locate the breeding centre. If you see something then return immediately, let the men investigate. Don’t fly anywhere near it, you could get hurt, ok.’
She smiled, ‘yes sir.’
It wasn’t returned, ‘off you go then.’ Graun turned to give out orders to the rest of the Scouting group that were paired off with single Eagles.
They stepped into the pool and she frowned, ‘there's something wrong?’
‘Like what?’
‘I can feel where they went but can’t hear their thoughts.’
Steven frowned, ‘so?’
‘I should be able to hear them clearly.’
‘Maybe they are ignoring us, I wouldn’t blame them,’ he spotted Billy glancing at them, ‘come on lets go before we make a complete cunt of ourselves.’
‘Ok.’
A second later they were hundreds of miles away. Glaciea dropped like a stone into a shallow stream. ‘What the fuck!’
Steven barely had time to register his wife’s collapse. Before him Alan was on the ground trying to defend himself against a couple of armed men, The Beast was surrounded. He noted she was face up and in no immediate danger so drew his sword.
A well aimed axe snatched Alan’s shield half off his arm and pinned it. He trust his claymore at the man and it bit, but it left him completely open to a spear man, Alan realised he was dead. As the man began his trust a sword point suddenly burst through the man’s chest. Alan trust harder with his sword before the axe man could pull away and ran him through. A flash of McLennan tartan told him who his saviour was. The Beast was hard pressed with a half dozen men when one fell then another, before the others could rally The Beast changed from defence to attack and accounted for two of them in as many seconds. Young Alan struck down one man as he made to run off, while Steven almost cut the other in half.
‘Well it’s good to see you didn't forget your bloody sword,’ the Beast spat.
‘Just as fucking well, eh,’ Steven shot back forgetting who he was talking to for a moment.
Alan pointed, ‘heads up here come another dozen.’
The Beast growled and charged; the two had no choice but to follow.’
They crashed into the compact group of men like a battering ram. Men flew high, stunned as the Highlanders ploughed through them. The stunned troops were easily finished off.
The clash of arms had alerted more attention but these men were a good few hundred meters off. Alan ran up a small embankment, ‘you want to see this Beast.’ The two men joined him.
‘Aw fuck, that's too many even for me,’ The Beast growled. To the south was an encampment of over a hundred men all grabbing weapons.
Steven looked round, ‘we need to grab the women and take off in that direction.’
‘Why that direction?’ The Beast asked.
It was Alan who answered him, ‘because that's the only direction we canna see anybody.’
‘Right, good idea.’
The three men ran back to where their wives lay, ‘they slung them over their shoulders and began to run. Even heavily burdened they still gained ground on the pursuing men. Steven glanced behind him after a couple of miles. They were all still following.
‘Hey new boy, what’s this plan of yours,’ The Beast asked.
‘My plan?’ Steven was shocked.
‘You’re the fucker that said pick up the women and run.’ The Beast growled.
‘Just seemed like a good idea at the time,’ Steven squeaked.
‘Great, another thick fucker.’
‘Naw,’ Steven protested, ‘we keep running until they regain consciousness. Then they fly away, find a stream and we can get tae fuck out of here.’
The Beast thought it over for a while, ‘well I dinna have a better idea.’
So they kept running. After five miles Steven glanced back again. Alan tried to dissuade him. ‘Don’t keep looking man, they’re still coming.’
‘I know that, I was just thinking.’
‘Don’t,’ The Beast growled.
‘Ignore that cunt,’ Alan grinned, ‘what were you thinking.’
‘Well they are starting to string out a bit now. We slow down a wee bit and encourage them to go a wee bit faster. Once the lead group are a half mile from the rest we find a wee ambush position, take them out and take off again.’
Alan shook his head, ‘why, we’re already a couple of miles ahead of them.’
‘Aye just now; I'm sure The Beast can run all day like this but can we?’
‘Don’t know until we try.’
Steven considered leaving it, but instinct told him these men would consider him weak if he didn't at least put his idea across to them. ‘It would seem to me the ones in front are the fittest and the bravest. We kill them and the rest might no be so keen to follow. We also get a chance to stop and rest for five minutes, we can have something to eat and drink. It might keep us going.’
‘Aye but what if one of you two get wounded,’ The Beast put in; typically thinking it could never be him.
‘Aye, I suppose so,’ Steven admitted.
‘Still, it’s always an option,’ Alan decided finally. A couple of hours later there was no sign of the second group at all, but the first seemed to be almost keeping pace. The women were still unconscious. Sweat lathered the Highlander’s bodies. Alan was beginning to realise that Stevens plan was really the only sensible option open to them. He called a halt in a steep ravine out of sight of the pursuing men. Steven broke open his bag of food.
‘No to much, just a few mouthfuls and a drink of water,’ The Beast warned, ‘you'll cramp up.’
‘Ok,’ Steven gasped.
‘Not bad,’ Alan held up a sandwich, ‘did your wife make this?’
Steven shook his head, ‘Your kidding aren’t you, can yours cook?’
The two laughed and admitted their wives couldn’t, ‘she does try,’ Alan grinned, ‘bit of a waste of time though. If she can get away with it she’ll kill something and eat it whole so she doesn't have to bloody cook.’
‘Aye mines the same,’ The Beast admitted, ‘and if you fry an egg in front of her she pukes.’
/> The three men laughed and Steven felt a flush of warmth, ‘mine isn’t happy about me eating eggs either, I told her lots of birds eat each other’s eggs. She told me that they were to her as monkeys were to us. I've never seen a monkey.’
‘I have,’ admitted Alan, ‘they look a bit like ugly hairy children. Women think they are cute, don’t get it myself though.’
‘Where did you see one?’ Steven asked.
‘The Dales quite close to the border, we sometimes get travellers coming up with strange beasts, they call it a circus. The men and women perform strange acts and they have this big fuck off tent they do everything in. Some of its ok, they liked our silver.’
‘Heard of silver,’ Steven admitted, ‘never seen any though.’
‘We would go and dig a chunk of it out of the hill and give it to them. We could watch the show all day if we wanted to for that lump of rock. Never realised the real value of the stuff until we came down here,’ he mused. ‘We probably gave them enough of the stuff to feed themselves and the animals for a year.’
The Beast grunted, ‘Aye, the bastards wanted me to join them when I saw it. Their fancy strong man couldna lift half of what I could. It was amber they wanted off of us.’
‘Saw a bit of amber once,’ Steven admitted, ‘had some kind of beastie in it.’
The Beast nodded, ‘aye, we always get a good price on a piece of amber with a beastie in it, the funnier looking the better. Legend has it there was once a piece of amber with a cat in it. Funny looking cat it was supposed to be, never seen it myself.’ The three men wondered what a cat in a piece of amber would look like, ‘canna see it myself though,’ The Beast admitted, ‘insects now they are easy to catch in amber but a cat, why did it just no walk away.’
Alan flicked a thumb, ‘we need to figure out what we’re going to do here, no speak about cunt toys.’
‘I'm sick of running,’ admitted The Beast, ‘let’s just kill the fuckers.’
The three men nodded in agreement and so set up a small ambush. They hid the women in some bushes and took up positions. When the men came running past they shot out from hiding and killed them, dragged the bodies in to the bushed and waited again. The next group arrived much later and they killed them too. Then they waited an age for the next lot but they never came. Eventually they came out of hiding and went looking for them.
‘They must have turned back,’ Alan mused.
Steven went and began searching the bodies, ‘find any gold we share,’ The Beast growled.
‘Like this,’ Steven held up a gold ring and then tossed it to The Beast. A quick search discovered all of them had gold rings on them. On a hunch The Beast cut them in half. When the last one was cut there was a yelp from the bushes and within seconds three very confused women appeared. The Beast shared out the cut rings between the men.
‘What happened?’ Natina asked Alan.
‘Some kind of magic ambush,’ Alan told her what had happened and she took to the sky. A few minutes later Alan told them what she was seeing. ‘That's it, the others have turned back, she says there is a stream a half mile away we can return using it.’
Natina landed and the headed for the stream within an hour they were reporting to Graun.
CHAPTER 9
Graun was beginning to feel frustrated. He and Billy were going to remove Steven and his wife from the Scouts but Alan and The Beast stuck up for the two of them in a private meeting so they stayed with the group for now. Gareth soon voiced his frustration and dragged them to see the palace’s wizard. He had come to Gareth one day offering his services and had talked his way into the palace. Gareth actually liked the old wizard, but rarely required his services.
They found him at his ease reading one of the spell books Graun had captured. Having no use for it he gave it to Gareth who had passed it on. He stood and bowed, ‘your highness, war master Graun, a pleasure to see both of you.’
Graun had never acquainted himself with the wizard and tried to look deep into the light blue eyes, but he could not read the man.
‘Evening Cadora, we seek some advice.’ Gareth growled.
‘It would be my pleasure your highness.’
Graun explained the situation to the old wizard as he inspected one of the gold rings. When he was finished the wizard pulled a large book from a shelf and opened it.
‘This book explains some of the magic used in keeping the Eagles under control. There is a picture here of the giant ring that holds the power, now over the page, ah yes here it is. This diagram has the big ring in the centre and lot’s of smaller rings that can be buried and even smaller ones that can be carried or worn by men. With these smaller rings they can extend the power of the large ring for hundreds of miles, they can even carry their own spells.’
‘Well the women that were with them are all of the golden ones, they simply collapsed,’ Graun told him.
‘They were lucky they weren’t flying. It would seem that this is what we are dealing with. The owner of the breeding centre has obviously hired mercenaries and extended the range of his power outwards.’
‘Do you think he is still there?’ Gareth asked.
‘Undoubtedly your highness, alone a small ring like this would only hold power over a short distance, depending on the spell, by what you have told me war master your men drew a couple of miles from them and still they were effective. They can only draw that kind of power from a master ring of power. They join together like a web, a spider’s web, anything between them will come under the influence. Your men must have been outside the web when they cut the rings carried by the men.’
‘Wait,’ Graun scratched his head, ‘if they were outside the web, why didn't the women just wake up.’
‘Because they weren’t far enough away from their pursuer’s war master. The gold rings have a far greater range and power when part of a web like this. They might have had to gain maybe ten or twenty miles on their pursuers before breaking free from its influence. As they were being followed the web would extend its influence. When they cut the gold rings the web would have snapped back like a bow string.’
‘Ah, I think I get it,’ Graun mused. ‘Their pursuers didn't really need to catch them just follow from a reasonable distance until they were exhausted.’
‘That is a reasonable assumption war master; I wonder why they weren’t perused by cavalry.’
‘You may not believe this wizard but with a head start our people can out run cavalry any day.’
‘Oh I did not know, I knew your people were strong, but I never realised they could run that fast.’ The wizard didn’t look convinced.
Graun sought to put that right, ‘We can’t run that fast, but we can run all day without stopping, a horse can’t.’
‘Ah, I see.’
‘So what can we do about it?’ Gareth asked.
The wizard shrugged, ‘Not a lot I’m afraid. It would take a very powerful wizard to even scratch that web and I don’t know any.’
‘Thought you were three hundred years old,’ Gareth stated.
The wizard smiled, ‘you truly know nothing about magic Sire. I am but a child in the art of wizardry, even though I am three hundred years old. The older a wizard lives the more powerful he becomes, as his life force grows then so does his ability to manipulate the natural magic of our world. Knowing a spell or incantation doesn’t mean you can actually wield the spell. Every time we renew our abilities increase, the nearer death we are when we renew, the stronger we become, it’s rather complicated and one has to begin his studies when he or she is very young.’
‘How come you’re not young,’ Graun shot at him.
‘I never was that pretty when I was a young man, I think I matured rather well and prefer to stay this age.’ He smiled, ‘you will find we wizards are very vain.’
‘Figures,’ Gareth agreed, ‘why can’t you manipulate your looks if you were that ugly?’
‘To some extent we can Sire, but it’s far easier to cast a spell that makes ev
eryone think you are handsome.’
Graun grinned, ‘it ain’t working.’
The wizard suddenly burst out laughing, ‘you have great wit war master.’ He picked up the gold, ‘you must melt this down, I can still feel a residue of power and it’s not a nice spell.’
Gareth and Graun left the wizard and went to the royal forge where Stan laboured lustily at The Beasts axe. Gareth grabbed a crucible and tossed the ring in. He put it on the forge and watched it melt. As they discussed the matter Gail appeared, she had seen the smoke from the royal forge and wanted an edge put on her short sword, she didn't expect to find Gareth or Graun there.
She snapped to attention, ‘I am sorry to disturb you Sire I thought it was the duty sword master that was on.’ She made to turn away.
‘Wait a moment,’ Gareth stopped her from leaving, ‘you’re married to an Eagle am I correct.’
‘Yes that's right sir.’
‘Could you call on him to get in touch with Natina, tell her to get her husband to gather together all the gold rings they found and take them to me. They have a residue of magic in them still and our resident wizard believes them still dangerous. I will melt them down and return them.’
She half closed her eyes, ‘all done sir.’
‘Thank you, now what was it you wanted?’
‘Nothing sir, I was just going to ask the sword master to put a new edge on my weapon.’
‘Let’s see it,’ Gareth held his hand out.
Reluctantly she passed him the sword and Gareth inspected it, ‘well I can tell by the state of this you’re not one of my people.’ He shoved the blade into the forge.
‘No sir I'm not, I'm with the Eagle Kings forces.’
Gareth was frowning at her, ‘That may be so but we have met before haven’t we?’