by Dean Cadman
He stood up and brushed the sand from his clothes, causing dozens of crabs to scurry around on the beach and vanish down their burrows. He had no idea how long he had been asleep, but thankfully his head had stopped throbbing and he no longer felt nauseous. He glanced up at the sun to see how far it had moved across the sky, but it looked to be in almost the same position as it had before. It didn’t appear that he had been asleep for very long at all, even though it felt like he’d just awoken from a deep slumber—even his mouth felt parched again. He examined his magical reserves and they too had barely recovered, adding more credence to his suspicion of having only slept for a short time.
After quenching his thirst from several of the nearby forest plants, Lusam decided it was probably time to head off in search of the Guardian book. He contemplated healing his earlier wounds first, but upon inspection, he discovered that most had already begun to scab over, which surprised him considering the relatively short amount of time that had passed. There were two wounds on his legs, however, which seemed much worse than the others so he decided it would be best to heal those before entering the dense undergrowth of the forest. He had no idea what type of insects might feed on an open wound, or what else might potentially infect him within the strange forest.
Lusam recalled the vivid memories of his earlier dreams about the island, when he had soared high in the sky above as the dragon. He knew there was no point in searching along the shoreline, as it eventually ended with sheer cliffs in both directions. He had no idea where to start looking for the Guardian book, but he knew if it was there, it would be within or beyond the lush forest. In his dream, he clearly remembered seeing several telltale signs of campfires dotted around the island, as their smoke drifted up through the thick tree canopy.
He decided that the best course of action was to try and find one of the settlements and ask whoever he found there about the Guardian book. He knew that they might not know of its significance or possibly even its existence, but they might know something which could help him to find it. Even if it was only an ancient myth or legend. In the meantime, he would look for any other source of magic that he could use to replenish his own reserves, as well as allow himself to regenerate naturally whilst he travelled. If all else failed, and it turned out that the locals didn’t know anything which might help him, he would wait until he was recovered enough to levitate above the island and search for the Guardian book’s location himself.
Lusam knew there was no way he could currently maintain a continuous magical shield around himself, given his extremely low power reserves. But he was confident that he could cure himself of any poisonous bite or protect himself against any potential forest predators that he might encounter. And since he had regained at least some of his power during his short sleep, he now expected his reserves to continue replenishing themselves as the day wore on, giving him the confidence that he needed to move forward with his quest. With a final glance back towards the sea arch, he turned and stepped into the dense forest, leaving the wide open space of the sandy beach behind.
It was a dark humid place and Lusam soon felt uncomfortably warm without the cooling sea breeze on his skin. Strange sounds and smells assaulted his senses, and he found himself staring wide-eyed into the ever-thickening foliage for any signs of danger. At first, he had tried to use his mage-sight to spot any hidden dangers but soon discovered that because nothing contained any magic, everything appeared the same to him—whether it was alive or not. It wasn’t until he almost stepped on a snake-like creature that he decided it was probably best to use his regular sight, instead. Fortunately for him, the creature hadn’t been aggressive and had simply slithered away into the undergrowth.
The further into the forest that he travelled, the stranger his surrounding became. He had not seen a single tree, plant or animal that he recognised since stepping foot in the forest, and some of the insects he had seen went well beyond strange, to say the least. Purple iridescent beetle-like creatures, the size of dinner plates, with pincers larger than the crabs’ on the beach, lumbered slowly through the undergrowth. Heavily armoured spiders with leg spans that would cover his entire face, sat motionless in the centre of their immense webs, waiting for a passing meal. And the flying insects were no less terrifying either, many reaching the size of a small bird. One he saw was as big as an eagle. Thankfully, he heard its loud buzzing approach long before he saw it and took shelter behind one of the enormous trees. He watched open-mouthed as it flew directly towards one of the large spider webs. He expected it to become entangled within its sticky thick silk, but instead, it simply plucked the large spider out of the centre of its own web and flew away with it securely in its grasp—no doubt to become a meal moments later.
At least finding fresh drinking water didn’t prove to be a problem, as Lusam soon discovered several freshwater streams gently meandering their way between the giant trees. Unfortunately, the streams weren’t deep enough to contain any large fish and nothing else that he’d seen so far looked in the least bit appetising to him. He just hoped that whoever lived in the settlements had a more palatable menu than what was crawling or flying around in the forest. Dream-related memories of the wide open meadows, filled with hoofed creatures to the east, gave him at least some reason for optimism regarding that.
Lusam trudged on through the forest hour after hour, sometimes freely on well-defined game trails, but more often than not fighting his way through the thick foliage to maintain his northerly direction of travel. He couldn’t see the sun’s position at all through the thick canopy above, but he could tell the sunlight was still strong, and so continued to push onwards through the forest. He had no idea how many hours were left until sunset, but the last thing he wanted was to find himself having to sleep out in the open, amongst the giant insects and any other strange creatures he had yet to lay eyes upon.
When Lusam first entered the forest several hours before, he had expected to regain a good portion of his magical reserves long before nightfall. But worryingly, it had barely increased at all since leaving the beach and he couldn’t understand why. He’d drunk plenty of water and also eaten the entire kocos seed that he’d found. He had even slept, albeit briefly. So why were his magical reserves regenerating so slowly? It simply didn’t make any sense to him, and it was beginning to concern him greatly. At this rate, it would take days, if not weeks to be fully replenished. And if he did manage to find the Guardian book and increase his magical capacity even further, it could take weeks before he was able to leave the island—and that was time he simply didn’t have.
He was just contemplating turning around and heading back towards the relative safety of the beach for the night, when he heard what sounded like a scuffle up ahead. At first, he thought it might be two animals fighting over territory or food, but a moment later he clearly heard a voice calling out. He quickly crouched down in the undergrowth so as not to be seen, whilst he thought about what to do next. He had no desire to become involved in someone else’s fight, but this was the first sign of people that he had encountered on the island. And if he didn’t make his presence known to them and they vanished back into the forest, he might never find them again before it got dark.
If Alexia had been with him, he would not have been so concerned about losing whoever it was up ahead. She had already proved her tracking prowess beyond doubt in the Elveen Mountains, and he felt certain she could easily have tracked these people back to their village—wherever that was. He, on the other hand, didn’t possess anywhere near the level of her talent, and he knew it.
Not wanting to stumble blindly into the midst of a fight, he carefully moved through the undergrowth towards the voices up ahead. He couldn’t see anyone through the thick foliage but the noise of battle grew steadily louder as he slowly approached the scene.
Lusam was less than twenty feet away when he finally caught a glimpse of what was happening, and when he did, he couldn’t believe his eyes. They weren’t people at all, they were…
actually, he didn’t have a clue what they were. There was one large human-like creature trying to kill about a dozen much smaller, swifter creatures. The large one looked a lot like an ogre: an imaginary creature found in many children’s stories throughout Afaraon. Ogres were often portrayed as vile creatures who lurked in the shadows waiting to steal away any wayward child from their parents, and as a young boy, he’d been terrified even at the thought of them.
The ogre stood at least seven feet tall and wore a full set of studded leather armour. Its ugly face contorted and snarled as it swung its massive battle axe trying to swat the tiny creatures all around it. Its heavily scarred skin was a dark greenish-grey colour, and it had two large fang-like teeth protruding upwards from its bottom jaw—like a pair of small discoloured ivory tusks. Its head was completely bald, except for a long length of black hair which was tied up in warrior’s braid and hung freely down the back of creature’s head to its shoulders.
The smaller creatures were swift and agile and seemed to easily be able to dodge the powerful, but lumbering attacks of the ogre. They sprang effortlessly from side to side, sometimes even running up the vertical tree trunks and then somersaulting over the top of the ogre’s battle axe as it attempted to cleave them in two. The ogre roared in frustration as its massive battle axe tore through the tree trunks, sending chippings of wood and bark flying through the air. The smaller creatures almost looked like they were enjoying the challenge, and at one point Lusam was sure he heard one of them call out as if it had just scored a point of some sorts.
Even the largest of the small creatures only stood about a foot tall, with most of the others standing no more than about eight or ten inches high. They looked almost human-like, but their skin was a pale shade of blue and they had a strange lump on their backs. They wore no clothes, yet it was impossible for Lusam to guess their gender. He could hear them calling out to each other, and when he listened very carefully and attuned his ears to their high-pitched voices, he found that he could actually understand most of what they were saying. Amazingly, they were taunting the ogre, inviting it to continue attacking them.
Lusam watched as several of the smaller creatures disappeared into the undergrowth, whilst the others continued to taunt the massive creature. It appeared that their movements didn’t go unnoticed by the ogre either, and it slowly backed itself up against one of the larger trees at the edge of the clearing, obviously concerned that it was about to be flanked by several of the smaller creatures. Lusam couldn’t understand why such a big and powerful creature would be so concerned about such a thing. After all, the smaller creatures didn’t even appear to be carrying any kind of weapons—not that he thought anything they could wield would cause much damage to the ogre anyway. But for some reason, the ogre seemed very concerned about its situation, constantly looking all around itself for any signs of movement.
Lusam saw the ogre flinch several times as the smaller creatures darted in and out of its range, each time swatting at its skin afterwards as if an insect had just bitten it. The ogre howled in anger and frustration as it fruitlessly swung its massive battle axe at the approaching creatures, but time after time it only struck the earth or empty air.
Gradually, the ogre’s reckless swings slowed to a crawl and the smaller creatures became even more emboldened. Amazingly, one sprang nimbly into the air and dared to land momentarily on the wooden haft of the ogre’s swinging axe, before somersaulting backwards to safety again—much to the obvious delight of its gathered brethren. Incredibly, it seemed like the smaller creatures were beginning to gain the upper hand against the dangerous looking ogre, and Lusam found himself willing them on.
The brutish ogre began to sway a little as if its legs were about to give way under it, but it still continued to swing its weapon ineffectively at them. Lusam knew the fight was all but over for the ogre, and wanted to get a closer look at the vile creature before it finally gave up and vanished back into the forest. Still in his crouched position, Lusam tried to take a step closer towards the ogre so that he could see it better, but he accidentally stood on a dried twig and it snapped loudly under his weight.
The ogre’s head swung instantly in his direction, no doubt expecting to see one of the smaller creatures there, but instead locked eyes with Lusam. Its deep orange, almost red eyes narrowed as it took in his image, then it suddenly threw back its head and howled towards the sky. At first, Lusam thought it was a battle cry, but he soon realised it was a cry of pain when the ogre spun around and revealed one of the smaller creatures biting down hard on his shoulder. With lightning fast reflexes, the ogre reached over his shoulder and grabbed the smaller creature, tearing it free from its flesh, and with a sickening crunch instantly crushed the life out of it with its powerful hand. The ogre snapped its head in Lusam’s direction and snarled openly at him, as if it had been his fault that the smaller creature had caught it unawares.
The smaller creatures’ apparent playfulness seemed to suddenly evaporate at the sight of their dead brethren and they snarled openly at the massive ogre, revealing mouthfuls of tiny sharp teeth. It was almost laughable watching the massive ogre attempting to back away from the tiny advancing creatures, but something was obviously causing it a great deal of pain and distress. Lusam instinctively slipped into his mage-sight to see if he could determine what was troubling the ogre. He didn’t really expect to see anything different, given the complete lack of magic he had witnessed throughout the hidden realm’s environment so far—but he was wrong.
Lusam gasped as he saw the unmistakable glowing signature of magic. There, in the ogre’s belt was a knife. A knife with some type of gem set into its hilt. And that gem glowed brightly to his mage-sight. Whatever the gem was, it contained a significant amount of magic. Not enough by far to replenish him completely, but certainly far more than he had seen so far in this realm. And more importantly, he realised—where there was one source of magic, there could be more.
Lusam watched as the ogre slumped heavily backwards against a tree, sweating profusely, but still feebly swinging its axe in a slow arc to ward off the smaller creatures. A moment later the heavy axe slipped from its grasp and hit the ground with a loud thud, and the massive creature slowly topped sideways into the dirt. Lusam couldn’t tell if the ogre was simply unconscious or dead, but whichever it was, it proved that the smaller creatures were far more formidable than he had first given them credit for.
Lusam decided that his best course of action would be to tap into the magic of the gem and replenish what he could of his own reserves, before either he was discovered, or the knife was removed by the smaller creatures. Judging by what he had seen so far in this forest, it certainly wasn’t a place that he should be wandering around blindly, and certainly not without a reasonable amount of magic to defend himself. Just as he was about to send out a tendril of power towards the gem, Lusam felt a sharp pain in the back of his neck, as if an insect had just bitten or stung him. He went to swat at it but only caused himself more pain, as he forced the object deeper into his own skin. He grabbed whatever it was between his finger and thumb and pulled it out with a slight wince. But as he did so, he felt another sharp pain in his arm, quickly followed by a second in his left cheek. He pulled the object from his cheek and stared at it numbly as he swayed unsteadily on his feet. It appeared to be some type of tiny dart. Then as his vision began to darken around the edges, it all became clear. The ogre had been poisoned—and now, so had he. The last thing Lusam saw before the poison took him was a small blue creature staring up at him from a nearby bush.
He slumped forward—but was already unconscious before he hit the ground.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Zedd purposely arrived late at the village square. Noon had come and gone some thirty minutes earlier, yet he and Cole had remained out of sight of the gathered people until he was satisfied that they had endured a long enough period of uncertainty. The reason behind this was simple—give the clan members enough time to begin talking among
st themselves. Any doubts that they had would soon begin to surface, and the most likely the troublemakers of the future would no doubt reveal themselves during the process. Those were the ones he would kill first should any disciplinary measures become necessary, either now, or at any point in the future.
As he and Cole stepped into view the village square fell silent. Only the occasional child made any noise, but even they were quickly hushed by their parents. Cole remained close to the buildings as previously planned and surreptitiously scanned the minds of the people within the square for any signs of hidden danger. Zedd didn’t really expect any resistance from them after witnessing what he had done to the Empire soldiers the day before, but he had never been one to take unnecessary risks, especially when it came to his own life.
Although Zedd hadn’t counted the exact number of prisoners he had rescued the previous day, there was no doubt in his mind that there were even more people in the village square right now. He guessed that many of them must have been in hiding or out of the village when the initial attack took place. One thing was certain, however, they had all been told precisely what had occurred there. Zedd knew this because he could see the fear and respect in their eyes as he passed his gaze over them all—and he revelled in it. But a moment later that feeling turned to disappointment and disgust when he scanned the same faces using his mage-sight. Less than half of them possessed any magical ability whatsoever, and of those who did, less than a dozen would have been allowed to serve as a regular soldier in the Thule Empire. The rest would barely have made the grade to serve as a clerk. If these people proved typical of the calibre of fighters that he could expect to recruit from the other clans, he was going to need to gather his main force from within the Empire itself. These people he would simply have to use to accomplish that goal.