by Sam Ferguson
They marched as quickly as Dell’s slight limp would allow the group to move, making the tree line and entering the forest within only a couple minutes of exiting from the protection of Fort Sym. Jonathan noticed how much darker everything seemed inside the forest. He looked up to see a thick, wet covering of moss stretching from tree to tree, using the outstretched branches to create a network of soggy greenery that all but blocked out the light from above. It didn’t help that the rain clouds were thickening either.
The group wound their way through the darkness for miles. The rain never let up. Luckily, despite the lack of sunshine breaking through the trees and moss above, the air was actually quite warm, allowing for some amount of comfort despite the wetness.
None of the men talked. There were no songs either. Only the relentless pounding of cleated boots into the mud accompanied by the slapping raindrops that burst upon the branches above or the heavier drops that slammed into the watery ground below. Dell kept his eyes moving, sweeping all of the area around them. Jonathan tried to do the same, but then a thought came to him.
Why not hold the bow? If it would alert him to a troll’s heart, then he may very well be able to see the threat before any pair of eyes might. He reached around and took the bow in hand. He felt nothing other than the cool, dry wood of the weapon in his hand.
“Did you see something?” Dell asked in hushed words.
Jonathan shook his head. “The bow is magic. It will alert me if trolls are close.”
Dell looked to the boy surprised. “I thought the bow was enchanted to kill snakes.”
Jonathan shrugged, not wanting to explain the conversation that he had had with the king snake. “It does both,” Jonathan said.
Dell let the topic go at that, apparently valuing silence over a history lesson.
After several hours of walking, the forest turned from a dead, soaked bunch of conifers and pines to a black and green swamp with vines now stretching through as much of the forest as the moss had been. The trees looked different too. Thick trunks that almost appeared to have many trunks fused into one rose up from the wet ground. The gray, smooth, vertical ridges and columns bent and fused with others to create unique trees that stood high above them. Dense ferns and lilies grew around the base of each tree. Thick, snake-like vines dropped low, swooping down from branches and boughs.
“Eyes open,” Dell said. “No one touch or cut a vine until you are sure it isn’t a snake.”
The soldiers in the group all unsheathed their swords in unison, creating a ringing sound of scraping metal that echoed off the strong trees.
Off to the right, a few frogs croaked loudly. The croaks grew quieter the closer the troop marched to them. Often the sudden silence of a frog was followed by a sharp splashing sound. Jonathan tried to locate the frogs, but never saw more than a wiggling fern or ripples in the water after the creature had disappeared.
A tingling sensation rippled through Jonathan’s hand and up his left arm. He stopped and pulled an arrow as he scanned the nearby ferns and trees for any sign of what was there. Dell noticed Jonathan’s actions and halted the group with a hand signal. The soldiers responded by turning their backs inward toward each other and preparing for battle.
A thick, angular head dropped down from a low hanging bough twenty yards away. Jonathan pointed to the snake and called Dell’s attention to it.
“That’s a pretty big beast,” Dell commented. “Why not test the bow?”
Jonathan nodded. The snake flicked its tongue out, tasting the air. It turned its thick body to look at the group and then hissed, revealing a mouth filled with several rows of sharp fangs. The body was easily as thick as any of the guardian Kigyo Jonathan had seen before, and from that he could guess that the snake was probably as long as any of the guardian snakes as well, which would mean that the rest of his twenty foot long body was coiled up in the trees.
Jonathan felt the bow call out to him. The heart began to glow within the monstrous snake. The young man nocked an arrow and let it fly. The enchanted arrow flew straight for the beast’s heart, driving through the body and out the other side, causing a mess of blood to explode out the back as the snake went limp. The massive head drooped and the snake swung slowly back and forth like a scaled pendulum. With each swing, more of the body slid down from the branch above, until the whole creature slid down to the ground, crashing through a bunch of ferns and splashing onto the watery ground. Twenty feet of limp body followed the head, piling atop in a loose heap on the ground.
“Well done,” Dell said.
Jonathan smiled. The tingling sensation left and the bow was quiet again. Then, to Jonathan’s surprise, he heard a sliding sound in his quiver. He reached up with his hand and realized that the arrow he had fired had been magically returned to the quiver, ready for another use.
“That could come in handy,” Dell whispered. He then placed a hand on Jonathan’s shoulder. “Anymore danger?”
Jonathan shook his head.
“I’m starting to like that bow of yours,” Dell said. He made another hand signal and the soldiers returned to their marching position. The group began jogging through the muddy swamp at a moderate pace. They kept it up for more than an hour, judging by how far they had run. Jonathan’s legs ached a bit, but he was able to keep himself going by thinking of Dell’s limp. If a man with an injured leg could run, then he should be able to push the aches and pains out of his mind.
Rourke was able to keep up easily enough, but it was Sami who eventually caused the group to stop. He doubled over, heaving for breath and stopping on the side of the road. Dell was quick to catch it, and halted the entire group only a few paces beyond Sami.
“Come on, you can still walk. Put your arms up over your head and keep moving!” Dell ordered.
Sami nodded through his gasps for air and slowly raised himself upright, placing both hands on top of his head and stomping forward through the mud.
They walked for the remainder of the day.
When night fell, Dell halted the group only long enough to call up four mages.
“Do we use magic light, or do we use magic to keep our torches dry?” Dell asked them.
The four glanced to each other and then one spoke. “It would require less magic to keep torches dry,” he said. “However, if the boy’s bow can alert us to approaching trolls, then we can gain more light by using magical light.”
Dell nodded. “With more light, we can move faster,” he explained to Jonathan. “What do you say, will your bow alert us in time if trolls approach?”
Jonathan nodded. “It alerted me to the snake,” he said.
Dell nodded. “Yes, but this will be different. If we use magic, it might draw the trolls to us. If that happens, you will have to tell us as soon as you are aware of something. If you wait, like you did with the snake, then it might be too late to defend against them. Trolls are not snakes, they will come with magic and bows of their own, and so we need to be extremely aware of our surroundings.”
Jonathan nodded. “I will do my best.”
Dell nodded to the mages. “Make the light,” he said. Dell then turned to Sami. “Can you run some more?” he asked pointedly.
Sami nodded. “I will do what I can.”
The four mages turned inward, facing each other. They spoke an incantation in a language Jonathan had never heard before. Then a flash of light exploded between them, lighting their faces and illuminating the shadows around them. A great orb of white floated out and toward the back of the group. The thick shadows of the swamp retreated at the orb’s presence as if the orb were able to cut a thick fog of darkness. A second orb appeared, and then a third, and then a fourth. Each orb took up a position around the group so that one could make a rectangle if they were able to connect the orbs with a rope. The amount of light the group now had to work with was brighter than even the noon-day sun, and Jonathan had to look away from the orbs as they hurt his eyes terribly to focus upon.
“Now work your
bow,” Dell commanded. “Tell me the instant you are aware of anything.”
Jonathan nodded.
The group marched quickly through the swamps. They alternated their pace by running for five to ten minutes at a time, and then walking at a quick pace over the muddy road for ten to twenty minutes. They kept this pace up for the rest of the night. Dell would often look to Jonathan, but Jonathan assured him that he was not aware of any dangers.
It was still completely dark when the group finally spotted the twelve foot tall stone walls that encircled Wendyn. The bald cypress trees in the area thinned away, with just stumps sticking out above the dense ferns in a wide swath before the gate and wall. Great torches burned along the outside of the walls, set in massive iron sconces that were sheltered from the rain by iron slates. There were four guards protecting the gate, all of them standing on the battlements and scanning the swamp. They called out to Dell’s group, easily identifying them with the magical light and hurrying to open the gates.
“Double time men,” Dell shouted. The group broke into a run. Jonathan then noticed that Sami dropped out from the group again and stood at the side of the road, grabbing his stomach and sucking in heavy breaths. Jonathan cut away from the group and went to Sami.
“Come on, we’re almost there,” Jonathan said.
Sami shook his head. “My lungs are burning, and my feet won’t move. I need a break.”
Jonathan pointed to the gate. “It’s less than a hundred yards away. Come on, you can rest inside!” At that moment, Jonathan’s left hand tingled. He looked down to his hand and then turned to shout at Dell. “Danger!” he called out.
The group didn’t stop. They were already too far away to hear him shout over the din of their boots slamming the ground and their armor clanking and screeching.
Sami took in a deep breath and put his hands to his mouth to propel his voice as loud and far as he could manage. “DANGER!” he bellowed.
The soldiers stopped and turned instantly to put their backs to each other. Dell came sprinting around the group and shouted out to Jonathan.
“Which way?”
Jonathan put an arrow to his bow string. His mind was invaded with many beating hearts this time, not just the one as had been the case with the large snake from the tree. A purple flash glimmered in the darkness. Jonathan raised his bow and fired. A second later something howled in the night and the purple flash disappeared.
“Look right men, look right!” Dell ordered.
Jonathan could hear the officer shouting at the guards to close the gates, but the young boy was not focused on that now. He put another arrow to the string. His arm tingled wildly and the purple flashes appeared in the shadows in great number. He saw maybe ten or fifteen. He began sending arrows out. One after another the glowing hearts faded to be replaced by the screams and howls of death.
Sami moved to flank Jonathan, holding his hammer at the ready. A few seconds later, Rourke was on Jonathan’s other side, with his spear held firm. Jonathan worked his bow, unleashing arrow after arrow. For each shot he fired, a glowing heart disappeared and an arrow magically returned to the quiver.
He must have killed forty of the things before any of them reached Dell’s group. He could hear the men shouting and the swords clashing against metal, but he couldn’t turn to help them yet. There were more than a dozen glowing hearts sprinting their way through the trees toward him.
“Keep firing steady,” Sami said. “If any of the beasts show their faces, I’ll crush them before they can reach you.”
Jonathan fired at a troll off to the left. Then another broke through the brush from around a large cypress tree. The beast was hideous. From the mage’s light off in the distance, Jonathan could see the angular nose and the jagged teeth. Green, muscular arms wielded a pair of axes that appeared to be made of bone and stone. Jonathan turned to fire at the troll, but Sami was there in a flash, just as he had promised. His mighty hammer swung low and then upward, catching the troll in the solar plexus and lifting it up and away from the road until it crashed into the cypress tree it had hidden behind.
Jonathan let that troll go and took aim at a different one not far beyond the road. He slew it with one shot and then reloaded to kill another troll. Three more jumped out from around the cypress tree. Jonathan killed two, and Rourke drove his spear into the third, hitting the beast directly in the heart and extinguishing the purple glow.
The troll gripped the spear shaft and ripped the weapon from Rourke’s hands as it fell backward onto the ground. Rourke pulled his pair of long, curved knives out and held them at the ready. The troll that Sami had hit was now rising from the ground. Its chest was caved in nearly flat, but the purple glow from the heart was bright and strong. Before Jonathan’s eyes, the troll healed and the bones snapped back into place as the chest thickened out again. It howled menacingly, but Sami was there in a second and drove his hammer down through the top of the troll’s skull. So powerful was the strike that the creature’s spine could be heard snapping in several places as it crumpled to the ground.
“Grow back from that,” Sami taunted.
Jonathan watched as the purple glow from the heart slowly faded and winked out. As it faded, so too did the tingle in Jonathan’s arm. He looked out and saw there were no more glowing hearts in the area.
“Head or heart,” Rourke told Jonathan. “Either one is a killing blow, otherwise you are wasting your strength hitting anything else.”
Jonathan nodded. He stared down at the broken troll and was unable to take his eyes from the mangled body. He had often imagined what it would be like fighting trolls, but it was something different altogether to see it in person. The macabre image held Jonathan’s gaze up until Dell was able to reach him.
A hand grabbed Jonathan’s shoulder. “You alright?” Dell asked.
Jonathan, finally able to pull himself from the grotesque sight, looked up to Dell and nodded. “I am.”
“The first fight is always the worst, but it gets easier,” Dell said. “Come on, let’s get inside.” Dell looked to Sami and poked the man in the chest. “Don’t dawdle again, you are going to get someone killed.”
Sami’s shoulders slumped and he sighed as the shame he felt was stamped onto the frown on his face.
“Let’s move,” Dell said sharply. The group rejoined with the soldiers and then they made haste for the gate. Only when the gate was firmly secured again and the entire troop was inside Wendyn did anyone relax.
Dell sent his men to find lodging in the local inn while he went to go and speak with the town’s mayor. Jonathan, Sami, and Rourke were told to go to the inn as well.
The three of them followed behind the soldiers, each lost in their own thoughts. It wasn’t until they pushed in through the doorway that Sami finally broke the silence.
“I am sorry, Jonathan,” he said. “I didn’t mean to put us in danger.”
Rourke cut in before Jonathan could answer. “It wasn’t your fault. The trolls were already close. It was the magic that brought them. If you hadn’t stopped, then the trolls might have attacked right as we entered the city. Think of how much worse it would have been if Jonathan couldn’t use his bow because there were soldiers stuck in the gateway fighting hand to hand.”
Jonathan smiled and nodded. Sami smiled as well, thankful for the objective opinion.
“I’ll get some food,” Rourke said.
“I’ll find a table for us in the corner,” Sami said.
Jonathan glanced around the room and shook his head. How were they all supposed to sleep here? The main hall was long and wide, but there were only ten rooms connected to it that he could see. There was no other floor, unless there was a basement somewhere. Suddenly Jonathan realized the answer as soldiers began removing their wet armor and clothes. Some of them disappeared into the rooms, but others took up position on the tables, or underneath tables to lie down. It was definitely not something Jonathan had expected.
At least it was warm. There was
a long fire pit encased in stone that ran the length of the middle of the hall. The high, vaulted ceiling had a few vents through which the smoke was able to rise and exit the building. A set of iron racks near the fire were used to hang the wet clothes on to dry.
“It would have been nice if the mages had used their magic to keep us dry,” one of the nearby soldiers grumbled.
“You saw how the trolls came when we used the light,” another put in. “Using magic earlier would have brought the trolls sooner.”
“Bah,” a third man grumbled as he wrung his shirt out near the fire pit. “They didn’t come until we got near Wendyn. We would have been fine.”
The man turned and sat with the others at a table while a barmaid brought them each a mug of what he could only assume was ale from the greedy way they snatched the drinks. He watched them for a second or two and then his eyes lifted up from them and he caught sight of a young woman in the back of the inn, leaning against the wall with her arms folded across her chest. Her hair was long and black, cascading over her shoulders and down her back. She wore a long, blue tunic that was fastened in place with a thick belt around the waist. Black leggings were visible on her thighs under the bottom of the tunic and above the boots that reached nearly half way up her thighs. White sleeves poked out from under the dress, tucked into long leather bracers wrapped around her wrists. Even from across the room Jonathan could see her emerald green eyes as she watched the soldiers in the room. She was stunningly beautiful, far more so than any of the young women he had seen in Holstead.
A long staff stood against the wall next to her. It was a simple weapon, without ornamentation or carvings of any kind, but there was something about it that piqued Jonathan’s curiosity. Then he noticed that the young woman was looking back at him and he blushed and looked away. Luckily Rourke came back just then with three bowls of soup on a wooden tray, breaking the young woman’s line of sight to Jonathan.
“Everything alright?” Rourke asked.
Jonathan nodded and reached out for a bowl of soup.