by A. Giannetti
“We must find the Tarsi company and warn them as soon as possible,” said Dacien, “otherwise, the false sentries will slay the relief when they come down to the river this evening. That will give the Goblin army more than enough time to cross the Arvina and to fall upon my people’s encampment without warning. Our main difficulty will lie in finding the Tarsi company in time, for they could be anywhere to the east of us. I was counting on one of the sentries to guide us to them.”
“Perhaps I can help with that,” said Elerian.
Despite his resolve not to use it again, he called his crystal orb to his hand, for the urgency of their situation seemed to balance out the danger of using the portal again. He held it out to Dacien, who took it gingerly in both hands.
“Think of those you wish to see,” said Elerian to Dacien.
The heart of the orb brightened, and a tiny herd of sleek horses grazing out on an open plain, appeared inside it. The image faded after a moment, but a pleased expression filled Dacien’s face.
“I recognize that place,” he said handing the orb back to Elerian. “It is not far upstream, along the southern bank of the Tanicus. Let us hasten there while there is still time to warn the encampment.”
Elerian sent away his orb. “We will hurry, but we will be cautious,” he said firmly to Dacien. “There may be Goblins hiding along the Tanicus, too, keeping watch on your people. In single file, with Dacien leading the way, they set out, traveling north through the narrow belt of trees that grew along the river bank.
THE HORSE HERD
Through occasional gaps in the trees on their right, Elerian could see stretches of open grassland, his first sight of the vast Tarsian plains. There was nothing moving on them to hold his interest, however, and he soon became restless. For all his talk of hurrying, Dacien was walking at a slow pace, stopping often to examine the ground under the trees and the thickets ahead of them. Elerian noticed that there were beads of sweat on his brow despite the relative coolness under the trees. Ascilius, too, was sweating and had a strained look on his face.
“What is wrong with these two?” wondered Elerian to himself. Had the situation been less serious, he would have cracked a stick under his foot when their backs were turned just to see them jump.
“Are you looking for Goblin spies?” Elerian asked softly as Dacien stopped yet again.
“Plains lions often hide under trees to escape the heat of the day,” whispered Dacien, his eyes darting around nervously. “If we are unlucky enough to encounter a family group, they will make short work of us. Only the need for concealment has forced me to follow this dangerous path.”
“Let the quietest go first then,” said Elerian. He handed over his sword to Dacien and then sped off ahead of them, vanishing between the trees.
“Has he ever seen a plains lion?” asked Dacien in a whisper as he and Ascilius followed along behind Elerian.
“No he hasn’t,” said Ascilius with a speculative glint in his eyes at the thought of Elerian coming face to face with one of the enormous, tawny hunters of the plains.
“Not that I would want him to get eaten, of course,” he thought hastily to himself. “I would just like to see him startled out of his wits for once.”
“I know you are indebted to him for your escape,” said Dacien, interrupting the pleasant scenario that was playing out in Ascilius’s mind, “but there are times when Elerian seems a most capricious companion, hardly the sort of person I would expect a Dwarf to associate himself with.
Despite all the criticisms he had heaped on Elerian, Ascilius instantly came to his defense now that he was being criticized by Dacien.
“His whimsical nature is a characteristic of Elves,” said Ascilius, thinking back over the long years to the time when the Gray Elves still ruled in Fimbria. “He has driven me to distraction at times with his mad humor, but given my choice of any companion in the Middle Realm, I would still choose to have him by my side,” said Ascilius quietly, after a quick look around to make sure Elerian was not in hearing distance. “He has proved himself a brave, true friend many times already.” Ascilius suddenly cleared his throat and said a bit anxiously, “Do not tell him I said that Dacien. It will make him even more insufferable.”
“You have my word,” said Dacien solemnly. “I must admit, however, that your words surprise me. I have heard the two of you argue constantly,” he said in a confused voice.
“His demented humor sometimes gets the best of me, and I become impatient with him,” said Ascilius in a long-suffering voice.
“Well, I do not know how you put up with it,” said Dacien. “I said nothing before, but I suspect him of causing that splash that caused us to bolt in the cavern of the water horse.”
“I did not bolt, as you put it,” said Ascilius, his voice suddenly frosty. “I merely put some prudent distance between myself and a possible source of danger.”
“Well I can tell you that I had no idea Dwarves can run so fast,” Dacien said seriously. “I had all I could do to keep up with you.”
Ascilius peered suspiciously at Dacien, but the young Tarsi seemed entirely serious and lacking of any attempt at humor.
“Well that just goes to show that you cannot underestimate a Dwarf,” said Ascilius expansively. “We have many talents you know. Running swiftly is just one of them. As far as that regrettable incident in the cave, I, too, suspect Elerian, and I will exact revenge on him at the proper time,” said Ascilius with a steely gleam in his dark eyes.
“What a strange pair they are,” thought Dacien to himself, not for the last time. “And yet, the fate of my people may hinge on their actions.” It was a sobering thought.
He and Ascilius continued on in silence then, each keeping to his own thoughts. Despite the fact that Elerian was scouting ahead of them, they maintained their vigilance, scouring the wood around them for any tawny shapes that might be lurking around. In their present situation a lion would be far more dangerous than a whole pack of Goblins.
Far ahead of Dacien and Ascilius, Elerian, unfazed by the thought of meeting a lion, was walking lightly under the trees, moving silently from one broad gray trunk to another. Since only willows and alders grew here, there was no proper canopy for him to run through, forcing him to stay on the ground, but he felt no uneasiness, for his keen eyes and acute hearing kept him apprised of all that went on around him. If he did encounter a lion, there were plenty of trees within reach where he could take refuge as long as he saw the beast first. If the situation were not so serious, he would have circled around behind Dacien and Ascilius while wearing his invisibility ring and done his best to imitate the roar of a hunting lion. In the nervous state they were in, he was certain that he could have obtained a very satisfactory reaction from both of them. This very pleasant thought abruptly vanished as he caught a brief gleam of red in the branches of a tree that was ahead of him.
High up in a tall alder, Elerian saw the dark shape of a large cornix. It was spying out the plain beyond the trees on his right. As it moved its head from one side to another, its eyes glinted red in the sunlight. Without hesitation, Elerian knocked an arrow to his bowstring, drawing it back and releasing it all in one quick motion. The arrow sped through the canopy, striking the bird on its right side, squarely in its dark breast. With a brief flutter of wings, the cornix slipped from its perch, falling heavily to the ground where it lay without moving. Elerian ignored it, instead searching all the trees nearby for more of its brethren. He found nothing and settled himself to wait, remaining motionless with his back to a large willow.
When he heard Dacien and Ascilius approaching quietly through the wood behind him, Elerian called out softly, “Over here.”
“Have you seen any sign of lions or spies?” asked Dacien anxiously as he drew near to Elerian.
“I saw no lions, but I did find a spy,” said Elerian, leading his two companions over to the body of the cornix.
“But that is a bird,” said Dacien in confusion, stirring the body of th
e crow lying near his feet with the tip of his right foot. “What has a cornix to do with the Goblins?”
“Watch closely,” said Elerian, raising his right hand. Casting a transformation spell, he watched with his third eye as a small golden orb flew from the fingers of his right hand. When it struck the dead cornix, it spread, covering the bird with a golden mantle of light. Elerian closed his third eye and watched with Ascilius and Dacien as the cornix’s body began to change, enlarging and lengthening, until it turned into the slender, naked shape of an Uruc. Clearly visible around his pale, sinewy throat was a thin iron collar.
Dacien started back a step. He was not sure if he was more disturbed by the sight of the spy or the power Elerian had demonstrated in revealing him.
“A shape changer,” exclaimed Ascilius. “Doubtless he was keeping an eye on the encampment.”
“Of that I have no doubt,” said Elerian. “Look through the gaps in the trees.”
Ascilius and Dacien both looked up from the body of the shape changer. Framed by the trunks of the willows on their right, they could see the distant forms of a large herd of horses. The sun gleamed on their glossy hides as they fed on the rich, spring grass under their hooves. Stationed around the herd were a number of mounted riders armed with long spears.
“We can approach the sentries under the cover of my ring,” said Elerian, “but we will have to take care that we stay close.”
“These are my own people,” objected Dacien. “Why should I hide from them?”
Ascilius laughed outright and Elerian smiled. “Take a good look at yourself Dacien and at us,” he said wryly.
For the first time, Dacien suddenly realized what an outlandish figure he presented. The black wolf skin cloak he wore wrapped around him, added to his long, unkempt hair and beard, gave him a menacing appearance. Ascilius looked even more alarming. His hair and beard were still braided but full of twigs and bits of leaves from their passage through the woods. Short and broad shouldered, he looked like a small bear wrapped in his dark cloak. Elerian could easily have played the role of an outlaw with his grim features and worn leather clothing.
“Perhaps you are right,” Dacien conceded to Elerian. “I had not realized what a disturbing appearance we presented. The herd guards are likely to take us for lawless folk and fill us full of arrows before we can speak a word of warning.”
Elerian called his ring to his hand, turning himself and his companions invisible once more.
“Stay close together or you will step outside the boundaries of the spell,” he warned them.
Leaving the shelter of the trees, they set off across the open plain. Dacien led the way. Ascilius followed behind with his right hand grasping Dacien’s cloak so that they would not become separated. Elerian followed last with his hands free. With his mage sight, he could still see the dim shades of his two companions, even under the bright spring sun. The only sign of their presence was the grass they pressed down with their invisible feet. Luckily, it was still the lush green growth of spring, barely more than ankle high, and they left behind no sign of their footsteps, for the grass quickly sprang erect again after they passed by.
The plain, which separated them from the horse herd and the sentries, appeared flat, but in actuality, it was a series of low, gently rolling hills that worked to their advantage, for they were often entirely out of sight of the sentries and the horses they were guarding. They were, of course, invisible and the wind was blowing in their faces, but Elerian still worried that the horses would sense their presence and sound an alarm.
Dacien was still less used to being invisible than his two companions. Besides feeling terribly exposed, he was obliged to keep a close eye on his invisible feet for fear that he would trip and fall. His body was tense as a taut bowstring, for at any moment, he expected to hear a horn sound the alarm. He was, therefore, quite surprised when he looked up from the base of a small knoll, after what seemed an endless amount of walking, and saw that they were within several hundred feet of the nearest sentry, who sat his horse on the summit of the hill.
Like Dacien, the rider was tall. Dressed in brown leather armor, his long black hair was tied with a leather thong at the back of his head, and his skin was burned a dark brown by the sun. The long spear that he gripped in his right hand rested in the cup of his right stirrup, and there was a short bow along with a quiver of arrows tied to his saddle. His features were those of youth. Dacien guessed that he was no more than eighteen. His bored glance was mostly trained on the horse herd, but he occasionally examined the plain around him.
Slowly and carefully, the three companions eased up the side of the knoll, drawing closer and closer to the sentry. He remained unaware of them creeping up on him, but his fine brown stallion must have sensed something, for his head came up, and his oval ears pricked forward. He looked suspiciously down toward the place where Dacien and his two companions were stealthily advancing up the side of the knoll.
The stallion snorted through his nostrils and shifted his front feet. At once, the guard turned, his eyes following his horse’s gaze. Dacien immediately stopped as did Ascilius and Elerian.
“We will be discovered now,” thought Dacien anxiously to himself.
Behind Dacien, Elerian raised his right arm. The distance was still overlong for a spell, but he had no choice. He cast an immobilizing spell at the horse and rider, watching with his third eye as a golden orb flew from his fingertips. His aim was good, for the orb flashed up the side of the hill, striking the rider squarely in the chest and instantly covering him and his mount with a cloak golden light. As if they had been turned to stone, the Tarsi and his stallion froze in place. Only the slow rise and fall of their chests demonstrated that they were still alive.
“I have cast a spell over horse and rider,” said Elerian quietly to Dacien and Ascilius. “He and his horse are unharmed, but they will not be able to move until I release them. Let us approach him quickly before the other sentries realize that they are acting oddly.”
The three companions speedily climbed the knoll. When they were within a few feet of the sentry, Elerian ended the invisibility spell around Dacien. For the moment, he deemed it more prudent if he and Ascilius remained invisible. The sentry was unable to move a muscle, but his gray eyes mirrored his astonishment when Dacien suddenly appeared before him.
Dacien spoke reassuringly to the young rider.
“Do not be afraid. I am not an enemy, and I have no wish to harm you. I am Dacien, son of Orianus, and I carry important news for your commander. Will you take me to him or at least tell me where he might be found?”
Elerian released the spell holding the rider immobile. When the sentry found that he could move again, he gripped his spear more firmly and looked closely at Dacien. He was puzzled by the strange events of the last few moments and a little frightened, too, but he was determined not to show it.
“You bear no resemblance to the king’s son that I can see,” he said harshly. “Tell me who you really are or it will go hard on you.”
“I have not lied to you,” said Dacien patiently, for he realized how his appearance clashed with his words. “Take me to your commander and let him judge the truth of my words. I am only one unarmed man and can hardly do any harm against you or your companions.”
“That remains to be seen,” said the sentry suspiciously. “Judging by the trickery you have already performed, you are some sort of mage. You might do all sorts of harm with your magic. If I am to take you before Merula, I must first blindfold and gag you so that you cannot use your powers against us.”
“My cousin will not thank you if you drag me before him in that state,” said Dacien warningly.
“It was Merula who ordered such measures,” said the sentry stubbornly. He has commanded ordered that no strangers are to walk freely in our land. He is a stern leader, and I dare not disobey his orders.”
“If you will take me to Merula at once, I will suffer being bound,” said Dacien reluctantly, “only
waste no more time. The woods along the west bank of the Arvina are thick with Goblins. I believe they mean to cross the river today.”
The rider greeted Dacien’s statement with a skeptical look.
“We have sentries near the river, and they have reported no sign of Goblins,” he said doubtfully. “Besides, only a fool would try to cross the river with a large force. It is too swift and deep for many miles upstream and downstream from the Tanicus.” His face hardened and Dacien began to despair of reasoning with him.
Ascilius’s impatience suddenly made the situation worse.
“Do as Dacien asks or I will pull you from that horse and give you a lesson in respect,” he threatened.
The sound of Ascilius’s disembodied voice caused the sentry to look wildly about. Fear of the unknown filled his eyes. Snatching up the horn that hung on a strap from his left shoulder, he blew a mighty blast. At once, there was a thunder of hooves in the distance, and Elerian groaned to himself as he wondered what to do next.
“Elerian, make yourself and Ascilius visible,” said Dacien calmly. “The truth will serve us better than deception with the men who approach.”
Elerian did as Dacien asked and also took the time to release the sentry’s horse from the spell that held it motionless. Moments later, a dozen mounted men thundered up the knoll, surrounding the three companions. Unlike the sentry, they were all mature men, with stern, hard faces. The looks that they gave the three companions were not friendly ones as they sat their horses with the sun shining on the bright steel heads of their spears.
“I am Dacien, son of Orianus,” shouted Dacien. “Are there none among you who recognize my face?”
Some of the men looked skeptical at Dacien’s words and others looked amused, but one fellow, whose beard was shot with gray, looked Dacien over carefully.
“One of them is a mage,” warned the first sentry they had encountered. “Do not trust your eyes. We must bind them or kill them if they resist.”