Into the Wastelands: Book Four of the Restoration Series

by Williams, Christopher

  They didn’t spend long on lunch, but Heather got them moving quickly. They travelled the rest of the day, stopping just short of nightfall. This was the first evening that Enton didn’t visit her during her watch. She was pleased and perhaps just a tad disappointed. It galled her to have to admit it though.

  Their fourth and fifth days on this side of the river went as smoothly as all the others had. Heather and Enton were acting coolly towards each other, friendly but restrained.

  As they got nearer to the mountains, the small hills were becoming large hills. Deep ravines had caused the group to backtrack on several occasions and they had to ford several small rivers.

  The trees and bushes were changing as well. The types of vegetation that liked the low-lying areas were long gone. There were still pines and cedars but they were just the type that liked higher altitudes.

  Despite constantly looking for anything that could have explained the lightning and fire that they saw several days ago, they still hadn’t come across an explanation.

  They continued northward on the sixth day. They continued to make good time and Heather kept up the pace. Later in the afternoon, the sky became more cloudy and the wind began picking up.

  Heather froze as she heard someone coming up from behind her. She knelt down behind a thick bush and waited. Since the noise was coming from behind her, she suspected it was one of her fellow Guardians, but it was better safe rather than sorry.

  Atock emerged between two small trees. He was moving at a steady rate, not quite running but more of a jog.

  At his approach, Heather stood up. Atock noticed her at once and steered over to her.

  “Everything all right?” Heather asked.

  Atock nodded. “Yes, but it looks like the heavens are about to open up on us.” As he spoke, Heather began walking northwards again and Atock fell into step beside her. “We were hoping to find some shelter for the evening. Something, anything that might keep the rain off of us.”

  Heather nodded. Sleeping in the pouring rains was just plain miserable. She opened her mouth to speak, but hesitated. Something didn’t feel right to her. They were walking up a steep slope toward a line of trees that ran along the ridge and she began searching for whatever it was that had bothered her.

  Atock caught her feeling and he tensed up. He immediately began looking around for trouble. “What is it?” he asked quietly.

  Heather shrugged and looked around again. Something felt wrong. Then it hit her. It was quiet. No birds were to be seen and even the squirrels were gone. “It’s too quiet,” she said after a moment. They were on the outskirts of the mountains, and they had responded by being more careful. She had even refused to allow a campfire last night. In all honesty, she wasn’t expecting any trouble yet. “Wait here,” she said to Atock. He looked ready to argue, but she glared at him and he acquiesced.

  Moving quickly, Heather climbed most of the rest of the way, stopping just short of the summit. If there was trouble on the other side of this hill, then the last thing she wanted to do was to rush in.

  Bending over and moving low to the ground, Heather came up behind several trees. She crawled the last few feet, reaching the summit in between the two tree trunks.

  Looking out from the summit, Heather’s stomach did several flip-flops. Between this summit and the next hill was something like a small valley. Trees grew fairly thick along the eastern side and a small pond was directly in the middle. It was an ideal location for a campsite.

  Turning, Heather caught Atock’s attention and waved him to join her. While he approached she turned her attention back to the scene below. She wasn’t the first one to think the valley made a good location for camp. Within the last several days, someone else had pitched their camp here. The remains of four or five tents could be seen, but they had been knocked flat. It appeared the campers had been ambushed. The whole area was scorched and bloodied. In a line next to the lake, was a row of pikes. Each pike was impaling a human head.

  “Good gods above,” Atock said, surveying the scene. He too had crawled the last several feet and he now lay beside Heather.

  “I think maybe we found Dagan’s sorcerers,” she said.

  Atock’s eyes widened at that. “Who could do this to a bunch of sorcerers?”

  “Well, they don’t have to all be sorcerers. Could be just one and a bunch of his helpers.”

  “Should we circle around?” Atock asked. “You know, avoid the area.”

  Heather considered for the briefest of moments. “No. Whoever did this is long gone,” she said. “Let’s go down and have a look.”

  Atock seemed less than pleased with this idea, but he followed her down the slope. There were signs of the fight all around, unfortunately most of those signs were pieces of the combatants.

  They picked their way through to the line of pikes. The heads had all belonged to men of differing ages. Some looked barely old enough to shave, while others had hair that had gone stark white. Nothing about the heads suggested where these men had come from.

  Moving beyond the row of pikes, they walked through the trashed camp. The tents were little more than a piece of canvas and not identifiable. Pieces of clothing lay scattered across the ground, but it was of common make. Not sure what might be lying under the clothing and other refuse, they began kicking pieces of it over. They had almost given up on identifying these men, when Atock nudged a shirt to the side and noticed a small book. Bending down he hesitantly picked it up and began reading. His eyes widened and he handed it over to Heather.

  She recognized the book as a prayer book. Opening to the front cover, she noticed a small inscription. It read, Order of the Intercessor. She glanced at Atock. “Ever hear of this Order before?”

  He shook his head, “No, but I’m guessing they were here for the same reasons we are. The Church must be searching for the armor.” He looked around at the devastation. “Any thoughts on who might have done this?”

  “It’s obvious, isn’t it?” Heather said. She pointed to several spots where the ground was disturbed. “Goblins.”

  A noise caused the two of them to spin around and they both dropped their hands to their swords. They immediately relaxed at they recognized the other members of their small group descending the slope. Only Agminion looked squeamish at the sight of the carnage. The rest, including Dagan, looked around in disgust.

  “Any of you ever hear of an Order of the Intercessor?” Heather asked when they arrived.

  Everyone shook their head, except Dagan. He blinked several times but didn’t answer otherwise.

  “Dagan,” Heather said after a moment, “do you know something about this order?”

  Dagan started and looked around surprised. “My apologies,” he said, “but I was lost in thought.” He reached out and took the small prayer book from Heather, “I have never heard of this order before and that worries me.” He flipped the book open and began to slowly turn the pages. “To me, that implies that this is a very secretive order of the Church, and secrets like that are very hard to keep.” He closed the book with a snap, “I can only assume that this order is related to Kelcer and these men,” he waved his hands at the heads, “must be searching for the armor.”

  “Any idea who killed them?” Agminion asked. He was studiously avoiding looking at the pikes. He still looked a little pale.

  He’s seen death before, Heather thought, but not like this.

  “Goblins,” Atock answered.

  “We’ll have to take more care at night,” Aaron said. “We’re in the mountains now and this is their territory.”

  “We need to get moving,” Heather said suddenly. As one, the others in the group tensed, but she didn’t notice as she was busy scanning the sky. “Rain’s coming and I don’t want to spend the night here.” She pulled her eyes from the rain clouds, “Atock, I’m going on ahead to try and find us a place for camp.”

  Atock didn’t answer, he only nodded.

  They made camp that night behind some thic
k bushes and up against a steep rocky slope. There was a small overhang that provided a minimum of shelter, although the wind picked up and blew the rain sideways up under the overhang.

  As Atock had predicted, the heavens did indeed open up and dump the rain on them. And sleeping in wet blankets was just as miserable as Heather remembered. She was going to forbid a campfire, but the rain made it a moot discussion.

  After the carnage they had witnessed today, Heather made a change to the watch rotation. She insisted that there be two people posted as guards at the same time. In order to make this a little more bearable, she insisted Dagan, Cassandra, and Agminion also take a turn standing watch. She had half expected an argument, but there was none forthcoming. Either the sight of the ambush made them more agreeable, or they were truly beginning to see her as their leader. Personally, she was inclined to believe the former.

  The night passed slowly. Between the rain, wind, and the longer watch shifts, their sleep was fitful at best. Heather seemed to wake at every sound and, with the wind blowing like it was, there were plenty of sounds. At least the pouring rain would keep anyone from following their trail.

  The next day dawned a grayish black. The rain had stopped for the moment, but the sky seemed to promise that it was only a brief respite. They ate a quick and cold breakfast and then moved out. Their order was the same as earlier. Heather led the way, then came the main body of the group, and Enton brought up the rear.

  The going was slower now than before. Heather stopped constantly to listen for any sound that shouldn’t be there and she endlessly scanned the forests for signs of movement. If nothing else, stumbling across that old campsite had put them on the alert.

  Without a doubt they were in the mountains now. The terrain was getting steeper and more rocky, but there were an abundance of paths and openings that they could follow. The forests were thick on this part of the mountain and she was thankful for that. The trees would help hide them from prying eyes on up the slope.

  Several hours after they broke camp, a steady drizzle began to fall. While the slow falling rain still got them soaked to the bone, it was less annoying that the all out pouring rain of the night before.

  Early in the afternoon, Heather called a stop and they had another cold meal. Between the weather and the Gods-awful food, morale was definitely on the downturn. She didn’t give them a long break but got them moving after only a quarter of an hour or so.

  They continued trudging through the forests in the drizzle for several more hours. All the while Heather constantly searched for any sign of something out of the ordinary. She saw nothing unusual. That is until she stepped through a ring of trees and realized that something had definitely changed. She stood on a large plateau. The plateau was relatively flat and stretched to the northeast for nearly a mile until it ended abruptly in the steep side of the mountain.

  Heather immediately reversed course and stepped back into the trees. She could not see any movement, nothing implied any danger, but still her heart was pounding. They had reached Saprasia.

  Heather’s initial thought was that this trip had been an enormous waste of time. The plateau stretched out in front of her and the remains of what has once been a beautiful city were obvious. The problem was that after thousands of years, the city was an absolute ruin. There wasn’t a single building still standing and she cursed herself for not thinking about this sooner. Of course the city would not be standing, the goblins would have seen to that when they sacked the place. Not to mention the thousands of years since the city had fallen.

  Here and there, the bases of grand buildings were still visible but for the most part the ruins were mostly hidden by the vegetation. Trees had pushed their way through the stones of the streets and short thick bushes covered the ground. Dislodged stones were scattered around and everything was covered by a layer of vines.

  She waited for the others to catch up and it didn’t take them long to arrive. They each stared out over the plateau, the futility of their mission settling on them. Only Dagan was unaffected by the scene before them.

  “What do we do now?” Aaron asked.

  Sighing, Heather looked to Dagan. “It’s a good question. Do you have anything to say?”

  The sorcerer didn’t answer immediately, instead he stepped to the edge of the trees and surveyed the destruction. “Not much left, is there?”

  “You said the armor was here,” Mikela said. Her face was flushed and she looked angry. “Well?”

  “I did not say the armor was here,” Dagan said, his tone going slightly frosty. “I said this was the last place it was ever seen.”

  Mikela opened her mouth to retort but Heather held up a hand and the magician fell quiet.

  “Dagan, what are we supposed to do?” Heather asked, struggling to remain calm. “There’s nothing left. Nothing for us to search through.”

  “Perhaps, but I think it’s a little early to decide that,” Dagan said. “I do agree that the armor will not be easy to find, but it has to be here, or at least a clue as to where it’s located.”

  “And why is that?” Aaron asked. “Perhaps the Church already has the armor.”

  “No,” Dagan said, shaking his head. “If the Church had the armor then they wouldn’t still be sending expeditions here. And I daresay that if Zalustus had it then he would have worn it when he attacked Mul-Dune. No,” he said again and took a deep breath, “it has to be here.”

  Several of the Guardians had rather angry looks on their faces and Heather moved quickly to forgo an argument. “It’s getting late in the day. Atock, find us a safe place to make camp and we’ll wait until tomorrow to start our search.”

  Atock shot another angry look Dagan’s way and then turned to Heather. “You want to camp on the plateau or in the woods?”

  Heather thought about it for a moment. The plateau would probably be safer, if they could find a hidden defendable location for camp. “Let’s try the plateau,” she said, “but only if you can find a decent spot.”

  Moving quickly and staying low, Atock bolted from the tree line and out onto the plateau. He nearly tripped several times as the stones that had made up the roads and such were no longer level.

  There was approximately twenty yards of open area that he had to cover before the shrubs and ruins hid him from view. As soon as he was under cover, Atock came to a stop and listened for any sound that would signal something out of place. Nothing. Breathing easier, he began moving through the rubble.

  Even after thousands of years, it was easy to see that this city had once been marvelous. He passed a small stone wall, probably part of a wall from a building, the wall was only several feet high but there was no gap where the stones joined each other. He had seen dwarven stonework before and the ruins reminded him of that type of craftsmanship.

  After only a few moments of exploring, he came across what looked like a small hill to his right. In reality it was the remains of the base of a large building. The building had collapsed a long time ago, and just the base remained. The remaining walls were higher than Atock’s head and covered with vines. Luckily the rubble lay up against the wall and he quickly climbed up and looked into the base of the building. He sighed at the sight before him. The wall he was looking over was the only wall that remained standing. This structure offered no cover, no protection. Sighing, he climbed back down and moved on farther into the plateau.

  Atock checked several more small hills, which he presumed were the ground floors of larger stone buildings, but he couldn’t find an acceptable campsite. After wandering for nearly a quarter of an hour, he was just about to give up and return via a different route, when he stepped into a small clearing.

  The Gods only knew what the clearing had once been used for, but it had remained relatively free of rubble and for the most part was still level. The clearing was open and rather broad, perhaps indicating that it had once been some sort of open air market. Regardless, it was way too exposed for their campsite and Atock was about to retur
n when he noticed two more of the small hills on the far side of the clearing. “Might as well check them out,” he said aloud. He immediately clamped his mouth shut and listened for any sounds. It was fairly quiet and his words had been louder than he had intended. After a couple of moments, he stopped holding his breath and began crossing the clearing.

  The first small hill was open on the north side and Atock quickly dismissed it since two of the walls had fallen. The second hill, however, was intact and looked promising. Like the others, the hill looked to be the base of a building, how big the original building had been, he had no idea and it really didn’t matter. When the original building had fallen, it had left the four walls of the ground floor reasonably intact. Over the years the trees and shrubs had grown up right around the walls and had helped keep them standing. It took a moment for Atock to find a way up to the top of the wall, but it was worth it. The four walls of the building formed a sort of bowl at the top of the hill. It was perfect for their campsite. They could make camp in the bowl, have walls to defend them, and be hidden from sight.

  He spent almost another quarter of an hour searching the surrounding area, just to make sure it was safe, and then he turned his steps back to where the others waited for him.

  They made their camp that night in the structure that Atock discovered. The only shortcoming, as they quickly discovered, was its lack of overhead covering. The rain continued to fall in a slow steady drizzle but no one complained too much. They preferred the hidden and defensible campsite in the rain to a more exposed location under a covering. Still, no one was foolish enough to ask for a campfire.

  As they had done last night, two people were assigned to the watch. Heather really didn’t expect for any of them to fall asleep, but it would be easier for two people to spot trouble than one person.

  Heather lay down and placed her cloak over her head. The cloak was leather and had been oiled recently. She desperately hoped it would keep the rain from bothering her all night long. She lay there for several moments, listening to the plop, plop of the rain hitting her cloak and wondered how she would ever get to sleep. That was the last thing she remembered until Agminion shook her awake.