by Jeff Inlo
"So you were willing to chase goblins into the dark… alone?"
"There were only two of them."
"There could have been a thousand behind the first hill."
The farmer looked over his shoulder into the rolling hillsides covered in the shadows of night. He just grunted as he turned back to face the town's captain.
Sy decided it was time to get a few more answers, and maybe he finally found someone willing to talk.
"Why'd you leave your farm?"
The man responded quickly, as if the answer had been rehearsed.
"You people know that. It's the same for everyone. The goblins…"
"You're right," Sy interrupted. "I do know that. The goblins were all over. And you wanted to keep your family safe. I understand that, too, but I don't understand why you'd run after them in the dead of night if you were really afraid of them. It wasn't just the goblins that made you leave the valleys. It was something else. What was it?"
The man looked away from the captain of the guard. The appreciation for finding someone that might comprehend his desperate actions quickly evaporated.
"You wouldn't understand," he finally offered.
Sy wouldn't allow that to stand as the final word.
"I understood why you ran off after the little thieves that took your food. I understand that you reached your limit. Try me."
The farmer decided to do just that. He had previously spoken freely of the goblins back near his home in the valleys. He used them as the reason for the abandonment of his farm. He almost made himself believe that was why he left. He was just protecting his daughter, but there was indeed more than the goblins. He didn't like to speak of the feelings that truly made him run. In a moment of pure honesty-both with himself and to a soldier he chose to trust-the farmer said more than he ever had before.
"Something was wrong… more than just the goblins."
"People have said that already. Rumblings across the land."
"That's not what I mean. You could hear, even feel the rumblings, but you couldn't really hear or feel this. It was something that just started rubbing you the wrong way. It's like when you know there are wolves nearby and you haven't even heard 'em howl. And I'm not talking about some black cloud over the land or some crazy magician casting spells. It was something deeper. You got monsters out here. We all know that, but there was something else back in the valley."
"I'm still listening."
"It was something with the land. Crops just died-not of insects, disease, or draught, but something else. That's what I meant when I said you wouldn't understand. You're not a farmer. You think crops die all the time, and they do, but not like this. And there was more to it than just dead crops."
"You haven't lost me yet," Sy noted, urging the farmer to continue.
"Whatever was killing the crops wasn't going to go away. It took hold, like a hand that makes a fist and starts to crush the life out of you and won't let go. That's really why I came here. You got that wizard that protects you."
Sy knew the farmer was speaking of Enin. It was the main reason most of the refugees came to Burbon, why they camped out under dirty canvas outside the town's wall.
"And you think he can stop it," Sy acknowledged.
"I don't know what else can."
"Anyone else talk about this to you? I mean the reason behind the dying crops?"
"I don't want to speak for anyone but me."
Sy respected that, but the anguish he saw in the man's face, he saw it before. He saw it in many of the expressions of the refugees when he pressed them for answers. They were afraid of something out in the valleys, but all they seemed willing to talk about were the goblins.
While that might have explained why many of the refugees left the Great Valleys, it did not go far in alleviating Sy's true problem. The people that camped outside his wall created danger for themselves and for Burbon as a whole.
"The wizard's name is Enin," Sy offered, "but he's not in Burbon now. Hasn't been here for quite some time."
"This is still his home. We know he watches over this place."
"Maybe, but if you're really looking for his protection, wouldn't it make sense to go where he is? He spends most of his time in Connel. They're building it up. There's room for you there… more room than here anyway. You ever think of going to there?"
"Connel's a city."
"Won't argue that."
"I'm a farmer."
"You're not doing any farming now."
"I haven't figured out what I'm doing yet, but it won't be in no city, especially a city that was once taken over by goblins."
There was no logic to that last response. Burbon sat within sight of Dark Spruce Forest, and goblins roamed that region in great numbers. The man knew that. Living in a tent outside Burbon's wall put him at far greater risk for a goblin encounter than living in Connel. His latest experience with two goblin thieves should have reinforced that truth.
Unfortunately, logic didn't always win the day. Sy saw nothing further to be gained by arguing the point.
"Head on back to your tent. We'll make sure your food supplies are restored, but do me a favor, don't go running into the dark after goblins again."
"No guarantees… but thanks."
The farmer walked solemnly back to the crowd of people at Burbon's wall, and as Sy watched him leave, he made a not so surprising announcement to the sergeant who remained on his horse.
"We have to get these people inside."
Sergeant Klusac didn't wish to argue with his commander, but he had to point out certain truths.
"Where can we put them? This is the third time the camp has grown this large outside the wall. The ones we've already let in are blocking half the streets. And don't tell me we can block the other half. No one will be able to move. We can't keep the town secure that way."
"I know," Sy sighed, "but we can't leave them out here, either."
"Some times you have to let people make their own choices. You've lived by that principle. You've told all these people what they faced. You told them there was room in Connel."
"They won't go," Sy then considered one last option, a plan he had kicked around in his mind the past few days. "What about the rooftops? Why can't we let them camp on top of the inns and merchant shops? Not the ones with the pitched roofs obviously, but there are enough with relatively level rooftops."
The sergeant shrugged. He knew his captain was grasping at straws, but it was at least a temporary solution.
"Might work, but it's not the safest plan."
"Safer than having them outside the wall."
That was true, but it didn't address the real issue, and the sergeant saw it as his duty to speak the complete truth.
"Captain, I don't want to talk out of turn, but we've brought them in twice now and each time the empty space around the wall just fills up again with new refugees. Okay, so we drop a bunch of ladders from the roofs and we let these people set up camp up high. Then what? All this open space will fill up in a few days. We're right back where we started and now we have tents on top of stores and inns. No one's going to be happy about that."
"Everyone will understand. It's not permanent. Maybe we get an answer in a few days. Ryson is out checking on the valleys. Maybe we just need time."
The sergeant shook his head.
"Captain, did you ever really consider what's different now?"
"Different how?"
"Different with Burbon."
"Things have changed a lot with the magic."
"Not what I'm talking about. We survived the magic, but now things are different. I know you understand why Burbon held together and towns like Pinesway just fell apart. Yeah, we owe a lot to you and the wizard, as well as the delver. We're still a town and other places like Pinesway are nothing but abandoned buildings. Having Enin helped, but he's in Connel now. Ryson is a big advantage, but I think we could survive without him if we had to. He sure takes his chances to go exploring. I don't den
y it for him. He's a delver. He's got to do what he's got to do. But we still survived."
"What are you trying to say, sergeant?"
"I'm saying what you already know. We survived because there was order here. It wasn't just the wizard or having the delver. It was having everyone understand what was necessary, keeping things within a structure… order. Problem is, we don't have it any more. You can let those people in and put them up on rooftops, but it's only going to make us weaker."
Sy didn't argue. He couldn't. The sergeant was speaking the truth.
"Well, I'm not going to make any decisions right now," Sy announced. "Why don't you go and get some sleep?"
"Sleep? What's that?"
Sy chuckled, but then spoke with a more serious tone.
"You're not going to be any use to me if you fall off that horse. I could make it an order."
"With all due respect, I'll sleep when you do."
"How about we both try? Nothing else is going to happen tonight. The goblins made their raid. They're done."
"Yeah," the sergeant agreed, and he nudged his horse forward.
Sy pulled himself up into the saddle. Before he set off after Klusac, he took a long look at Burbon's wall and the refugees that camped along side it. He couldn't leave them there, but was putting them up in tents on rooftops really the answer? No, that was absurd, the solution of a desperate captain made in the dead of evening. He had to acknowledge the truth, a truth that was just spelled out to him.
Burbon was spiraling out of control and despite his desire to help the refugees, he couldn't let that continue. It would be disaster for all of them.
Chapter 5
Holli chose a mid-sized town to continue their search for information, large enough to get lost in a crowd, but not so big it would be difficult to explore. The town was named Huntston, and its borders remained within the southern valley where they began their investigation. It offered storage and loading facilities for regional farms. That would offer a link between the farmers and the town, enough of a connection for the elf to follow up on questions that had arisen from their exploration of the neighboring fields. There was also something about that particular town that bothered Holli, something in the magic that surrounded it.
In reaching out to the magical energy, Holli followed its flow. She let her connection to the magic passively ride the currents to seek out any extraordinary spells. Her perception of the energy was no where near as strong as Enin's, but she had an innate ability to hone in on certain vibrations. As she monitored the magic, she sensed the energy bending inward into the city and then rebounding away, as if something was attracting it at first, but not absorbing it for any specific use.
The aberration raised her concerns, almost to the same level as discovering goblins occupying outlying farms. Magic remained relatively new to the land and she was uncertain of the advent of magic casters in regions so far from her home. Bending magic was not necessarily the sign of advanced sorcery, but the flow was sizable. It was an additional mystery heaped upon a growing puzzle.
The added uncertainty did little to enhance her sense of security. She even considered choosing a different town, but there was no sense in delaying the inevitable. As an elf guard, it was her duty to avoid unnecessary risk, but she knew they would eventually have to examine the irregularity. If they intended to determine the full extent of the odd occurrences in the Great Valleys, anomalies in magic needed to be considered just as much as the occupation of farms by goblins.
Huntston rested quite a distance from the Aranka River, but another major tributary forked into two slightly smaller rivers just to the north. The Twin Rivers, as they were called, cut across Huntston's eastern and western borders, sandwiching the town between their banks. In order to enter Huntston, travelers were forced to cross a bridge over one of the two rivers, unless they came straight up from the southern Twin River Forest.
The terrain through the woods, however, was rough, and roads remained absent within the trees. Farmers carrying crops, merchants with wares, and buyers in search of commodities could not navigate carts through the forest, and were forced to cross one of the rivers.
At the time Holli and Ryson decided to investigate Huntston, the bridges were guarded by several sentries. The elf monitored the crossings from a safe distance throughout the day. She noted that each traveler was stopped for lengthy questioning before being allowed to enter the town.
Hoping to avoid such questions, Ryson and Holli waited for dark. No wall surrounded Huntston, it was just the sentries at the bridges that offered a deterrent to free entry. The elf and delver moved to the south, leapt into the trees and used close hanging branches over the water to cross the western river. They had to leap a fair distance, but it was child's play for two such agile figures.
Once they passed over to solid ground between the two rivers, they quietly climbed through the trees and made their way to the town's southern border. There was one large clearing between the forest and the edge of Huntston, and both Ryson and Holli could see it was watched by guards on rooftops.
The townspeople had not constructed watch towers, which Holli found difficult to believe. She had never before entered Twin River Forest, but she knew it would be a large refuge for dark creatures of all types. The town would be a ripe target, especially with its warehouses and food storage facilities within sight of those that knew how to spot them.
While the elf guard considered the deficiencies of the town's defenses, Ryson reviewed the grounds ahead of them. He considered several paths to reach their goal without being detected, and he revealed them to his companion.
"They've got two blind spots," he declared as he pointed. "There and there. We just have to keep low and break around that silo and none of the guards will spot us. It's a pretty easy path. If you want to stay totally concealed, there's a drainage ditch that runs from the edge of town to the eastern river. The banks are tall enough to conceal us all the way to those buildings over there. Another way would be to cause a distraction to the east and we could walk right up that trail to our left. You could also cast a shadow spell over us. With that and the darkness, I don't think they'd see us if we walked right up to them."
"No spells for the moment," Holli replied, and then she revealed the anomaly she sensed in the magic around the town.
"Any idea of what's causing that?" Ryson wondered aloud.
"Magic is a current that will bend to those that know how to use it. While the flow is quite strong, someone could simply be monitoring the magic in a more active manner as opposed to passively riding the flows, pulling in all they could muster but not absorbing it for any use. There also could be an item of enchantment that is redirecting the magic for a similar purpose."
"And any spell you cast might get someone's attention?"
"It is a possibility. I can not say for sure until I understand the source of the disturbance."
"So better safe than sorry."
"That is my position."
"Okay, no shadow spells. It's still not going to be difficult to get across the clearing. I'd pass on the distraction as well, no sense raising any alarms. I would also think the ditch is a bad idea. We'll get into town, but we'll be covered in mud. Might be hard to avoid attention that way. The blind spot over there is my first choice…" Ryson paused and listened deeply, and then sniffed the night air.
"A sizable pack of goblins is coming up from the forest," he warned, "but they're across the river, southwest of our position. They're using the road. Fairly close."
Holli could not yet sense them, as the strong current of magic flowing in from all directions disrupted her abilities.
"A raid?" she asked.
Ryson shook his head.
"No way." He was convinced of that fact, and revealed why. "They sound… drunk."
Holli's expression revealed disbelief.
"You're going to hear them in a moment." Ryson explained. "They're not even trying to keep quiet."
Within a
few short moments, the elf did hear the clamor. She could not believe it, but it sounded as if the they might actually be trying to sing. Singing goblins was not something she ever thought she would hear, and once she heard it, she decidedly didn't wish to hear it again. It sounded more like the anguish of metal grinding against rock to an unsteady beat.
"How many do you think there are?" she asked.
Ryson shrugged at first, but then offered his best estimate.
"Two dozen, maybe even three."
He paused and sniffed the air again.
"Wait… there's more… behind us. They're not using the road… they're between the rivers."
Holli went silent and removed the bow from over her shoulder. She readied an arrow just in case they were spotted. She motioned Ryson to remain still and under the cover of thick tree limbs. Eventually, she heard the rustling of branches and brush at ground level on both sides of their position. Remaining silent, she pinpointed the location of four more goblins moving through the trees.
The goblins did not spot either the elf or the delver. They were actually quite oblivious to their surroundings. They showed little care to what might be in the forest and even less concern over the town they approached. They ventured out into the clearing with total disregard to the guards on the rooftops, and they stumbled onward through the field without trying to hide their advance.
Once they were out of earshot, Holli whispered to the delver.
"We can use this. Follow me."
The elf dropped out of the tree and quickly chose a path that led toward the town but away from the goblins that continued to stumble carelessly ahead. She crouched low and motioned for the delver to do the same.
"Keep to the shadows, but move low to the ground, as if you are just another goblin walking toward the town."
"Won't that be dangerous? What if a guard gets lucky and spots us. If they mistake us for a goblin, they might fire an arrow or two in our direction."