Victim of Fate

by Jason Halstead

  Alto's eyes widened. He'd seen it, too. The carcasses were torn apart and fed to larvae. If they did that to the farmer's daughter...

  "We'll take care of it," Tristam promised the farmer.

  James sniffed and offered a terse nod before he turned and walked stiffly to his wife. Alto stared after him and then turned to his mentor. Tristam shook his head, stalling any questions he might ask, and then turned to the door of the farm. "Keep your wits about you out there. They may be docile at night or they may be worse. They're unnatural."

  Before Alto could begin to worry at just what sort of unnatural behavior the wasps might have, Tristam drew the bar on the door and opened it. Alto followed the veteran out the door and looked around, searching for movement. A light breeze rattled the nearly skeletal trees on the farm, causing Namitus to jump and twist about beside him.

  "How's the arm?" Alto asked, distracting the rogue.

  "What?" Namitus turned back to him and then glanced down at his arm. He flexed his fingers, making a fist, and then curled his arm up to the elbow. His lips twisted up into a grim smile. "Nearly as good as new."

  "Alto, check the horses," Tristam snapped without taking his eyes off the starlit sky overhead.

  Alto hurried over to the barn, accompanied by Karthor, and pulled open the door. He was greeted with a shrill whinny from inside that set his heart to racing. He stepped aside as a shape rushed out of the darkness at him and then passed him by. The other horses followed, even Tristam's mount that had been injured hours ago. Alto could see it limping in the starlight but only because he'd grown up having a sense of such things.

  "Leander's grace!" Karthor whispered.

  Alto turned away from the horses and looked where the shocked priest was staring. Dark lumps on the floor gradually came into focus as his eyes adjusted to the torchlight. He saw the remains of giant wasps that had been smashed into the floor. "How many is that?" Alto asked.

  Karthor shook his head and raised his torch higher to shed more light. The gory remains of the insects were smashed into the ground and each other. "Two or three? Maybe?"

  Alto nodded. "We're not needed; let's just send the horses to the hive!"

  Karthor chuckled. "Tristam won't risk it—he'd be afraid they might want a part of the pay!"

  "What about pay?" Tristam asked as he walked up behind them. He grabbed the reins of his horse and ran his hand along its neck before turning to look at the scabbed-over wound on its haunch. "Seems you can heal horses, too."

  Alto and Karthor glanced at each other and let his comment slide. Alto hurried to the horses and looked them over, checking for other signs of injury. Sebas had a scratch along one leg but other than that, they all seemed fine. "I think they'll be all right," Alto ventured.

  Tristam grunted and swung up into his saddle. His stallion bore his weight without complaint. "Mount up. We can be at the forest in less than an hour with the stars above. Douse the torches, to be safe. Besides, we'll need them when we enter the woods if we're to root out this hive."

  "I think for wasps it's called a nest," Alto corrected.

  Tristam turned and stared at him. "Nest or hive, I mean to make it a bonfire."

  Feeling chastised, Alto nodded and climbed onto Sebas's back. The rest of the Blades of Leander followed suit and then followed Tristam as he led his horse to the west. The leader waved at the farmhouse once and then let it fall behind him.

  Alto rode up next to him and stayed beside the silent veteran for a few minutes. He surveyed the countryside but had trouble making out any details beyond a few dozen feet. "Do you really think James's right?"

  "Which part? Us dying or his daughter being killed?" Tristam replied.

  Alto hesitated. "Us dying, I guess."

  "Are you worried?"

  "I'm not scared," Alto said without pause.

  Tristam smirked. "Bold words, my young friend. Foolish, but bold. Without fear, you'll die a quick death. It keeps us from trying that which we shouldn't."

  "I'm not a fool," Alto defended. "I spoke rashly, but I meant it. I'm not afraid. I recognize the danger and yes, if there's as many as the villager says, it is dangerous, but I'm at peace."

  Tristam turned in his saddle and looked Alto over for a long moment. "And you say you're not a fool? What sort of a man rides into this without fear?"

  Alto shrugged. "I don't know. I've seen battle and I've been scared before. Now I know enough to fight and I know some of my limits. But it's not me I'm thinking about."

  "Who then, the damsel in distress? What's her name, Rosalyn? You've not even met the girl, not to mention the girl whose ribbon you still wear!"

  Alto glanced down at Aleena's favor wrapped around his wrist. He felt his cheeks heat at the memory of it. "I'm not dreaming of the farmer's daughter," he muttered. Tristam smirked again, stoking Alto's ire. "I'm not! I'm worried about these people. They're simple folk, like my family. Life is hard enough for them without disasters like this."

  "Glad you left home?"

  Alto frowned and then nodded as he thought it over. "I am. If I hadn't, I'd be just like the farmer. Trapped and not knowing enough to make a difference for my family or others. But I'm not like him. I'm here and I can help them. Maybe someday I'll settle down to a simple life, but it would be a waste to do so now."

  "Awful sure of yourself," Tristam teased. "Is that what your father did, he lived a life of adventure and then settled down when he met a serving maid that caught his fancy?"

  Alto felt his cheeks heat again. "I don't know, maybe," he admitted. "He has a sword and armor, the sword I had when you first found me. He kept it when I left, too, told me I had to earn my own blade."

  Tristam nodded. "Wise enough, although some men's idea of earning is different than others."

  Alto fell into silence as he considered Tristam's words. Thieves and bandits would take anything they could get their hands on, whether it was coin, bread, or weapons. To them, they'd earned it. For Alto, earning something meant having the right to own it such that no one could deny him. He turned back to Tristam to ask him about the kindness the warrior had shown to the farmer when Tristam stiffened in his seat and then thrust his arm out to silence the soft conversations behind them. He pointed ahead.

  Alto sat up in his saddle and saw the river cut across the ground ahead of them after it came out of the hills they'd ridden through. It ran along the edge of a mass of darkness and disappeared into the shadows. It was the forest but only the outermost edges of the barren tree limbs were visible. Even the breeze that made the sticks rub and creak against one another couldn't give the woods the semblance of life and growth.

  "How will we find it?" Tristam asked him in a hushed voice.

  Alto racked his brain for an answer. He was their best tracker but that was a far cry from meaning he had any real skill at it. He could trail a bleeding deer on a winter day, but the ground here was hard-packed and covered in the brown and dying summer grasses. Tracking would serve him little purpose; they sought something that flew.

  "Look to the trees," Alto suggested. "They build their nests in trees and safe and dark places."

  "Sounds wonderful," Tristam grumbled. He twitched his reins to encourage his horse regain the speed they'd lost when he'd slowed it at the notice of the forest. "The entire damn forest looks dark."

  Alto nodded. "We'll need torches. As long as we don't pose a threat, the wasps should leave us alone."

  "You know our job is to kill them, right?"

  Alto nodded. "Well, yeah. I mean we should be okay before that."

  Tristam scowled and rode on. Each passing minute, Alto felt himself growing more and more excited. He hadn't been in a real fight since they reclaimed Highpeak. Everything since then had been skirmishes or brawls. He was anxious to test out his skills. He'd learned new moves and new ways to protect himself.

  Alto's pondering kept him so preoccupied that he gasped when Tristam called a halt and swung off his horse. The bony sticks of the forest blocked th
e stars above them. Alto dismounted and grabbed his shield off Sebas.

  "Torches," Tristam ordered as he grabbed one from the bundle on his saddle.

  The rest followed suit and soon Namitus struck a spark to it that burst into a flame. The others lit their torches from his and waited for the flames to set before they turned to face the forest.

  "Well, now what?" Kar asked.

  "Now we search. Any idea where a wasp nest would be? Other than in a tree?" Tristam looked at Alto as he asked the question.

  "Maybe along the river? Closer to water that way."

  "Wasps need water?"

  "Um, I think so?" Alto guessed. He flashed an apologetic grin.

  "Flowers need water and wasps feed on flowers," Kar pointed out. "The river is a fine place to start."

  Tristam grunted and turned away. They'd crossed over the stream on their way to the forest a short distance back. He turned and headed along the dark edge where the barren trees met the brown grasses of the plains. The wind whistled and rattled the branches above them but didn't reach down where they walked.

  "At least we're not buried under tons of rock and surrounded by goblins," Kar offered.

  Tristam turned and glared at him. His message delivered, the warrior continued along the edge of the forest. They peered into the woods and up at the trees looking for the wasp nest, often tripping or breaking sticks or bushes. They'd escaped the trip with no more than a few muttered curses and scrapes when they found the edge of the stream.

  "Come on," Tristam said, turning and heading into the dark forest along the bank of the stream.

  "Shouldn't we walk on the other side, so it's quicker to get out of the woods?" Namitus asked.

  "The wasps won't fly as well with all the trees and branches as they will in the open," Kar pointed out.

  "Oh."

  "And the horses are on this side of the forest," Tristam reminded him.

  "Yeah, I get it, I'll stop," Namitus said.

  They continued on, staring so hard into the darkness that Kar slipped and fell down the bank into the stream. He rose up sputtering and cursing. He splashed out of the small pool he'd fallen in and started wringing the water out of his clothes while the others looked on with grins splitting their faces.

  "A pox on you all," Kar muttered when he saw their amusement.

  A cracking branch deeper in the forest caused Alto to snap his head around. He stared into the darkness but could see nothing beyond the light of their torches. The others took notice and fell silent, each searching for whatever it was that had spooked the young warrior.

  "What is it?" Tristam whispered.

  "I'm not sure. I heard a branch break. A deer, maybe?"

  "Those wasps went after horses; a deer wouldn't last a minute!" Karthor reminded him.

  "I don't know then. Maybe a squirrel or a falling branch. We'll not find it sitting here," Alto said.

  Namitus hissed to get their attention and whispered, "I hear something."

  They turned as one to look at the rogue. Each of them lifted their heads or cocked their ears to try to help them. "Another stick?" Tristam asked.

  "No, it's…" Namitus paused, frowning. "I'm not sure. Over this way though," he pointed down the stream.

  "Lead the way," Tristam bade him, abandoning Alto’s discovery.

  Alto continued to cast glances to his left. He feared whatever made the noise would be upon them when they were least ready for it. Tristam's hand on his arm stopped him a few moments later. Alto jerked to a stop and looked at Tristam, and then ahead into the gloom. A darker shape lie ahead of them, bridging the stream from bank to bank. Alto squinted harder and realized that it was shifting and moving in the darkness.

  "Found it," Tristam whispered.

  The shape was a massive wasp nest, Alto realized. A nest with wasps crawling over it. He heard the noise now, too; it was a low hum that he hadn't even noticed at first. A hum that was the beating of wasp wings.

  "That's going to take a lot of smoke," Tristam said. The stream was less than ten feet across and in the shadows, the nest looked to be at least three times as long and twice as thick.

  "Resting over a stream, too," Alto whispered. "If it breaks or burns, it will fall in and put the fire out."

  "Got an army of giant bears on the prowl for honey?" Tristam quipped.

  Kar cleared his throat. "Be careful what you wish for, this forest may provide it."

  "What do you mean?"

  Kar shrugged. "There is fey magic about this place. It's not mere superstition and ignorance that makes the villagers call this forest enchanted."

  "Can we drop a tree on it or something?" Namitus asked as he peered up into the towering trees around them. Each one seemed sinister in the darkness, as though they would reach down with their branches and grab them up.

  "Be silent!" Kar hissed. He forced his torch into Namitus's hands and sniffed the air, and then began to mutter a quick spell while weaving his hands back and forth in front of him.

  Alto watched the wizard and tested the air himself. He glanced about, remembering the noise he'd heard earlier. Another noise intruded on the buzzing of the wasps, a bubbling and popping noise. He followed his senses to the stream and saw the water bursting as bubbles rose to the surface. "What's that?" he asked, pointing at it.

  Kar finished his spell, only to curse a moment later. "Back! Away from here! Now!"

  "What, why?" Tristam demanded.

  Kar grabbed his torch back from Namitus and threw it ahead of them, towards the wasp nest. It fell short by a dozen feet but it was close enough to cast a light on it and show the wasps that crawled across the nest growing clumsy and losing their grip. They fell off and landed on the ground or in the stream. They continued to move sluggishly and then stiffened or jerked to a final rest. "Some poisonous fog is arising."

  Tristam sucked in a gasp of breath and turned away. He grabbed Alto and yanked him after him, but lost his grip as Alto was staggered off balance by the abrupt motion. In moments, they were all hastening away from the bubbling brook.

  Alto felt his vision swimming as they ran. He slipped and staggered, and then pushed himself to his feet. He looked up at one point and saw the shadows twisting and taking on shapes of their own. Shapes with claws and beaks. Something reached out of the darkness at him and knocked the torch from his hand. Alto cried out and reached for his sword. His shield, he realized, was gone.

  Alto twisted and looked behind him. Where had it gone? When did he drop it? A growl from his left alerted him to turn back in time to catch the claw from something with black fur smash into his mail-covered shoulder. Alto staggered away and slipped down the bank into the stream.

  "Alto!" Tristam cried out from farther down the stream.

  In the poison-induced confusion, the others had gotten ahead of him. He rose to his feet and was about to rush after them when the black-furred creature jumped into the stream in front of him. He stared at it, trying to make sense of the beast. Other shapes moved through the trees following his friends and separating them further.

  "Go, I'll meet you at the horses!" Alto cried out. He knelt down and picked up his fallen sword and lunged forward as he rose. His blade plunged into the belly of the horrific creature, causing it to cry out in a noise that was a cross between a shriek of a bird and a howl from a bear. The creature had a beak and cold avian eyes but its size, claws, and the way it stood on its hind legs were all bear.

  Alto ducked an angry swipe and jammed his sword in a second time. The creature snapped its beak, narrowly missing his face. He backed away from the beast, drawing it towards him, and smashed his blade into the side of its head to drop it into the stream. Alto looked up and saw other creatures, amalgamations of animals that could not inter-breed, coming out of the darkness. He heard Tristam and the others cursing and fighting but they were growing further away.

  Alto nodded. This was it then; he had to fight his own way free. His horse was across the stream and some distance away. He nee
ded to cross over the water. He glanced at the stream, his heart racing with the memory of the poisonous fog rising out of it. Was the stream as cursed as these animals? Alto staggered away from it and climbed back fully onto the bank. He wanted to stay clear of it, that much was certain.

  A deer with the hindquarters of a rabbit slammed into him, knocking him into a tree and off his feet. His breath was jarred from his lungs by the impact, but one of the deer's antlers had broken off. Alto used the tree to brace himself as he rose up. His chest ached from the strike but his mail had saved him from being gored. The hopping deer rose up and shook its head. It glared at him and blew its breath out. The deer's head lowered to bring the remaining tines of its antler in line with Alto before it stamped its feet.

  Alto jumped towards it and to the side, angling enough so that his arcing sword smashed into the twisted animal's face as it charged him. Alto spun away, jarred by the impact against his weapon, and saw that the deer would never bother him again. He backed into another tree and pushed off it, anxious to put distance between himself and the horde of unnatural creatures.

  Chapter 8

  Therion watched the adventurers scatter. They'd escaped his fog of death, surprising him, but then they'd stumbled into his army of experiments. The creatures were failures, all of them, but for once they were making him proud. The failures feared him but beyond that, they had no intelligence or redeeming qualities, or so he'd thought. He'd cast his thoughts of them aside once he’d finished with them, but now he wondered at the wisdom of doing so. They'd come together and fought against the invaders.

  With a few spells aimed at confusing the warrior Rosalyn watched so closely, he'd ensured that the young man was separated from the others. He'd fought back, though. Even stranded and alone, he'd killed two of his experiments before he fled from the rest. Therion had been forced to work more magic to guide the warrior’s friends away and repel them from the forest to ensure he had the young man to himself.

  The wizard strode through the forest, intent on intercepting the warrior and dispatching him. He'd hoped to be rid of the boy without direct intervention, proving to Rosalyn once and for all that any help that might come would stand no chance. Perhaps it would be better to show her his strength. He could twist her under his grip as much as he liked, but he wanted her mind intact. Destroying her hopes of rebellion directly and showing her that he had earned the power he wielded was the better path to take.