Quest for the White Wind
Page 12
Seekin grabbed two Hummdhar warriors from around the fire and thrust them into the dark. Propelling them toward their camp, he instructed them to run fast, the rest would soon follow.
The Hummdhars stood around the blazing fire warming themselves with its heat and the warmth of their self-congratulations for capturing an old enemy without suffering any casualties of their own. Tanden, his back to the fire, listened as each man bragged about how he followed Gadon stealthily to the grove and snuck up on the band.
Taking a burning stick from the fire, Bransch walked to Tuller and began slowly burning the hair away from the sailor’s scalp. He took no particular care whether he touched the burning brand to hair or skin. Tanden smelled the burning hair and flesh, yet Tuller made no sound, though he flinched involuntarily. At each twitch, Bransch snickered to himself, the bulge of an erection visable in his pants.
“Enough, boy. Let’s get back to camp. There’s time enough to deal with these vermin tomorrow.”
“No. Leave me this one and Pugh to stand guard. I’ll return to my father’s camp in good time.”
Pugh was a huge beast of a man, larger than any Hummdhar Tanden had ever seen. The man had a blank look in his eyes and a loose enough lip that he drooled a bit down his chin.
Seekin hesitated.
Bransch shouted in a whiny voice crackling with anger. He punctuated each phrase by striking Tuller on the head with the burning stick. “Go on, old man. Uncle or not, I’ll tell my father you refused to follow my commands.”
Seekin and his tribesmen dragged Tanden, Gadon, and Durrban to their feet, moving them into the darkness away from the light of the fire. Seekin led the way with another. The two remaining Hummdhars followed closely behind. One held his short sword in hand ready to prod the captives should they lag behind the group. The other strung his bow and notched an arrow to cut down any man who ran.
Before they had gone a hundred paces into the moonlit night outside the grove, they heard a scream cut through the night. Gadon turned as if to run back to aid his brother. The rear guard thrust his sword into the man’s face as a warning to move. For a moment, Tanden thought Gadon would challenge the two armed men, even with his hands tied behind his back.
Slowly, Gadon turned back, walking quietly beside Tanden.
Tanden said quietly, “Our time will come, Gadon.” He wanted to say something to comfort the man, but no other words came to mind.
Seekin called back, “No talking there. Amdar, keep them quiet or you can join them.”
Amdar ran to Gadon and shouted into his face to be silent or die. Though Gadon didn’t understand the words, he understood the message. Gadon clamped his jaw shut, but his eyes glared back.
Tanden’s mind outraced his steps, searching for a way out of their predicament. Taken by Hummdhars under any circumstances meant death. He was sure his death would not come quick. No solutions came to mind, try as he might.
In the dim light, Tanden recognized the slope of the escarpment across the river. They were opposite where they had started their swim. A call from Amdar caused Tanden to look behind them. For his trouble, he got the point of an arrow jabbed into his backside. His look was worth the pain. He saw Tuller trotting toward them with his hands behind his back. Bransch and Pugh were prodding him along.
In front of the column, Seekin turned about without slowing his forward progress or losing a step. He grunted in surprise and spun back around. He said something to the man next to him that Tanden was unable to hear. The Hummdhar guard looked over his shoulder. Turning his eyes back to the front, the man shrugged in the age-old motion of a foot soldier who obeys without question. Commenting on the peculiarities of those in command was a bad and dangerous habit.
A moment later, rushing past the Hummdhar rear guard, a wild-eyed Tuller plowed silently between Tanden and Gadon pushing them sideways. He carried a Hummdhar short sword in his hands. A step behind the two lead Hummdhars, Tuller thrust his sword at the back of Seekin. A shout from behind alerted the warrior.
Seekin spun about with his sword at the ready. He parried Tuller’s thrust with his sword, then using his left arm and shoulder, he pushed Tuller away from him. With catlike speed, the grizzled warrior fled toward his camp.
Tuller spun sideways from Seekin’s push and fell against the other Hummdhar tribesman. Using his momentum, he pushed the sword through the man before he reacted to protect himself.
Tanden turned to throw his body at the Hummdhar guards behind him, but instantly recognized Seenger dressed in Pugh’s clothing. Seenger had already run a spear through the chest of the archer. The ogre closed in to finish off the dead man before the Hummdhar could even fall to the ground.
I-Sheera, wearing Bransch’s clothing, was backing away from Amdar’s sword. The Hummdhar was swinging cut after cut at the smaller girl. It was her startled shout that alerted Seekin, allowing him to avoid Tuller’s first killing stroke.
Gadon’s shoulder connected with Admar’s back sending the guard sprawling to the ground. He rolled away from the armed guard barely dodging a sword stroke. I-Sheera stood over the Hummdhar with a double handful of sword at the ready and drove the point through the startled man’s chest. With a shout of victory, she gave the sword a twist and yanked it free.
Running away quickly, Seekin was almost out of sight. When the man reported to the Hummdhar camp, they would have many more men to deal with than a small night patrol.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“Cut me loose,” Tanden commanded.
He leaped to the body of the archer as soon as he was cut free. Untangling the bow and arrow, sighting carefully at the running man, he loosed a shot. A normal bow wouldn’t reach the distance, but Hummdhar bows were longer. The unusually strong pull of the bow gave him hope the arrow might reach its target.
The arrow sailed harmlessly past the running man, causing Seekin to dart into the shadows of some nearby trees.
Tanden snarled, “Damn me!” Calming quickly, he added, “Sorry. I guess that was a waste of a good arrow.”
Tuller cut Gadon and Durrban free. Gadon turned to hug his brother while Durrban stood quietly beside Tanden.
Tanden said, “We must get out of this area before Seekin returns with reinforcements. Gather up the weapons. Hurry, we need to move now.”
Tuller said, “Time enough or not, this one has less need for his clothing than you or I.” He, Gadon, and Seenger stripped the three dead men in short order. Gadon tossed a tunic and an over vest to Tanden. The tunic was still warm from the dead man’s body. The warmth was a comfort in the night air, so Tanden ignored the warmth’s origin just as he ignored the wet spot around the gaping hole just under the right arm made by Tuller’s sword. They also handed him a leather shield with a metal buckler and the archer’s quiver with a dozen arrows
Tuller put on Amdar’s shirt and leather overcoat. Gadon could not find anything to fit his girth, but found a fur hat. It perched above his ears like a second head of hair.
“These blasted Hummdhars probably have bugs crawling in their clothes. This hat will undoubtedly make my hair fall out. At least, it will keep my head warm.” He turned to I-Sheera and said, “The next time you kill a man, make sure you kill one that’s not so scrawny. This bunch is nothing more than skin and bones.”
Tanden looked at the woman. She was dressed in the Hummdhar youth’s clothes, holding a short sword still dripping blood in the moonlight. She was breathing heavily, but she appeared resolute and ready for whatever came her way.
“Well,” he asked Seenger as his men stripped the bodies of anything useful, “what happened?”
Seenger looked at I-Sheera and shrugged, “I couldn’t sleep with a woman on guard, so, I watched the watcher. I saw her step out of sight and I got up to follow. If I’d stayed behind I would have seen these vermin slipping up on us.” He tugged at Pugh’s leather garments, trying to stretch them as they barely covered his torso. The pants were so tight their sides had split open at the seams.
Tuller looked up from pulling on a second pair of trousers, “I’m glad you didn’t wait longer. That little piss hole already had me bent over and was about to rape me in the ass, when Seenger came rushing in like a lion to the hunt. He killed the guard with his bare hands and held the young pervert until I-Sheera cut me loose. We stripped them both and came after you three.”
“And the boy?”
Tuller shrugged and said simply, “He won’t rape anybody again.”
Durrban said, “This is my fault, Tanden. I was so excited to see Gadon I missed these men sneaking up on me.”
Tanden put an arm around his shoulders and said to everyone. “This is no one’s fault, understand? It’s over and done. We’re tired, but we must move now. Southward is as good a direction to go as any other, as long as it’s away from here. Plus, southward is toward the White Wind. We move in pairs. I-Sheera, you’re with me. Gadon and Seenger, follow Tuller and Durrban. Stay close behind. Don’t lose sight of each other. Be as careful as possible to not leave tracks.”
Tuller interrupted Tanden with a fit of coughing and cursing before dropping to his knees. Everyone gathered around him with concern. Sputtering, he looked up with tears in his eyes. He handed a water bladder to Gadon that he had taken from one of the dead men. “Drink this easy, brother. This stuff’ll make you think Grandma is a pretty young maid.”
Gadon drank. Then in a raspy, hoarse voice, he said, “This is watered down, little brother. It doesn’t do much more than tickle my tongue.” It was apparent to everyone, the drink was stronger than Gadon expected. He handed the bladder to Seenger. The bag passed from Seenger to Durrban and then to Tanden. Each in turn drank a few swallows to warm their inner fires. Lastly, Tanden looked down at I-Sheera standing beside him, dressed in the leather and rough cloth of a Hummdhar raider.
He said, “And you, Little Warrior, deserve this as much as any of us. I know your red magic creed doesn’t allow you to take alcohol, but this will warm you for the night ahead.”
“What creed?” she asked. Her tone made it clear she did not expect a response. Taking the bladder in both hands, she drank long and deep. With a ragged sigh, she tossed the bladder back to Tuller, turned on her heels, and walked straight south.
The men quickly gathered their collected equipment and followed the woman. Tanden caught up to I-Sheera before they reached the first grove of trees. He guided them around the trees, staying as much in their shadow as possible while avoiding large clumps of brush. In Deering’s fading moonlight, he looked for clear areas they could pass through without leaving a trail for the Hummdhars to follow. They would have a few hours of complete darkness before the Egg and Lumpy rose high enough in the sky to shed their moonlight over the night.
Even a skilled tracker could not follow them in moonless darkness. The moon waned and the darkness deepened. In half an hour or so, it would be fully dark. The Egg and Lumpy’s reflected moonlight would barely shine enough to throw lighter shadows. His crew could not travel well without light. Morning would come too soon and any village idiot could track a group of six people in daylight.
Picking up his pace, Tanden began trotting at a ground-eating pace. He maintained a steady measured pace he could have kept at all day in his youth. Now, only time would tell when his body would quit. His crew stayed with him, silently moving as fast as possible.
Tanden splashed into a small creek with only a sliver of the moon left. Turning downstream, he quickly waded through the water. He needed to find a way out of the water that would not leave tracks for the Hummdhars to easily follow. The stream swung wide around a hill, but in doing so, it cut into a high, rocky bank.
Tanden spied a ledge leading to a wide plateau. It was beyond his reach. He stopped and without a word, bent down to take hold of I-Sheera by her lower legs. He easily lifted the woman high enough to grab the ledge and scramble up. He handed her his newly acquired bow, quiver, and shield.
Tanden waved Seenger over to him. Clasping the ogre’s hands in his own he commanded Gadon to climb. Gadon, achieving the ledge and laid down with his arms stretched to those below. The ascent was a quick matter for Tuller and Durrban to step into Tanden and Seenger’s grasp, then be lifted up by Gadon’s strong arms and pulled up onto the ledge. Tanden grunted as he lifted Seenger into Gadon’s hands. Once Seenger was up, he turned, and with Gadon, stretched out his arms to Tanden.
Tanden leaped upward, making a quick grab at their hands. Catching him, they pulled him up and dragged him onto the rocky ledge. Deering had set and the night was dark. Clouds swirling across the sky from the west obscured the stars.
Tanden said, “We must wait here until we have enough light to see. I-Sheera and I will keep guard.” He backed away from the rim of the ledge until he could not see or be seen from the stream. He sat cross-legged on a rock and told the others to find resting places behind him.
I-Sheera sat on Tanden’s right, close enough he felt the heat from her body. She quietly handed him his bow, quiver, and shield. In the faint light of the night, he watched her lay her short sword before her, close by her hand.
Tanden sat upright, trying to adjust his eyes to the night. Try as he might, all he could do was distinguish dark shadows from darker shadows. In the sky above, the twisting clouds blanketed the stars. He sensed a coming storm, both hoping it would miss them, as they had no place to weather out a bad blow, and hoping it would come on them hard enough to cover their tracks.
The air was quiet and still, feeling heavy, thick, and ominous. As a student of the sciences, Tanden learned that none of the world’s four elements were stable and only foolish men trusted them. Like all children, he learned fire was the most dangerous and deadly. As a sailor, he learned the air and water were always changing. He also learned to employ them, bending them to his will, not like a blue wizard or magician who claimed the air’s magic, but like a partner, working with the elements. Fire, air, and earth were the elements whose magic could be harvested by those with talent and training.
Tanden once met a man who claimed to have felt the ground move beneath his feet. The man described how the dirt itself opened up and swallowed an ox. The man used his experience as an argument trying to convince Tanden to worship his pagan earth gods.
The dark demon and his minions had caused the earth to quake, just as the dark demon was even now brewing up a storm to hamper Tanden’s efforts to reach his goal. Without a blue wizard or even a lowly acolyte to help control the coming storm, it would slow his march toward the White Wind. Durrban, as a green acolyte, had an abundance of grass, trees, and forest to gather his magic, but he was a new student with limited talent. He had no control over the weather or the dark one.
Tanden was firmly convinced he had made mistakes, but they were over and done with, to be forgotten. Though he was past his errors, they kept returning to his thoughts. Nothing would stop his doubts, but he believed he had the presence of mind to continue rejecting those thoughts of worry and doubt. Nothing short of his own death would keep him from reaching his goal.
In the stillness of the night, Tanden heard a grating noise like an animal in the throes of a painful death. Feeling about him on the ground his fingers closed around a small round pebble. Turning slightly he tossed it at a dark shadow he was sure was Tuller, sleeping near Gadon.
The pebble thumped softly on flesh and rattled away on the rocks. Tuller grunted softly as he woke. He sat upright, leaned over to Gadon, and rolled his brother onto his side. The snoring stopped as quickly as it began. Without a word, Tuller slid closer to his brother and lay back down to sleep. Tanden’s thoughts turned to his crew.
I-Sheera and Tanden sat in silence, but he was sensitive to her presence. They were sitting close with thigh touching thigh. The heat from her body warmed him from head to toe. A rush of excitement suddenly flooded hi
s loins. He was surprised at his body’s reaction her. He decided she was no longer a burden to his life and that sometime in the last couple of days he had grown fond of her. He considered her an asset. Tanden silently chuckled, he was a man fast approaching old age and the end of his life, not an adolescent to be excited at the slightest touch of a woman.
He had seen a lot and done much in his life and realistically he had no reason to expect to live beyond another ten or fifteen years. He truly doubted he would ever see his grandchildren, that is, if he ever settled down long enough to gain a wife and have children. Gadon and Tuller were from a long-lived family. Their grandmother and Uncle Gall both lived into their seventies. Their grandmother’s father was still alive, although he was frail and had to be spoon fed and carried everywhere. The old man was a fountain of wisdom. Whenever they were back home in Harkelle, Tanden and Gadon joined Tuller as he listened to the old man’s stories. The family often said Tuller inherited the old man’s wisdom and sharp mind. In truth, Tuller was who he was because he loved his great-grandfather and listened carefully to the old man’s teachings.
Durrban had lost his parents to the invading Surr when he was young and his siblings had all died of disease and bad water. As a young man, he married a girl who also alone in the world. Together, they bore ten children. Durrban was proud that half his children lived to have children of their own.
Tanden suspected Durrban was on his final sea voyage. The older man would probably stay in Harkelle to live his last years surrounded by his grandchildren, enjoying his newfound studies as an acolyte to the green order. His share of the cargo from the overstuffed holds of the White Wind would have made his last few years comfortable, despite the high fees charged by the green priests for their magic lessons.
Tanden swore that the White Wind’s cargo would still be his to share with his crew.