Night set in and a Troll’s nose sniffed the air as the giant came out of the cave. He was eight feet tall and had a large hooked nose and huge brown eyes. His skin was pale ivory in colour and he wore but a red shirt and short brown trousers. Behind him was a younger female Troll about seven feet tall. She was ugly and had yellowish green teeth. The large male was bald, while the female had long greasy red hair. She wore a simple dress and both of them smelled rather rotten.
“I smells me some grub, woman.”
“Aye, Groggy, me too; and it smells of men and horse.”
“Aye, Meach, it do. Be lot better than what we been eating lately.”
“Yes it do, Groggy. Let’s go find ’em and cooks ’em whole, says I.”
“Aye, me sweets, and I gets dibs on the horses! Don’t feel like picking man-bone out me teeth tonight!”
“Listen, Groggy! Don't you be forgetting our youngling back in the hole! He gets dibs on all it afore you do, you fat slob!”
“Of course, me sweets! Do ye think me as rotten as to keep good horsemeat from me son Egbyrt?”
She replied, “Well, maybe not, me husby. Ye may not be that rotten, but you smell like it at any rate! Come on, afore dinner up and runs away! If it do, Groggy, you'll be the one chasing after it in the desert so Egbyrt can eat!”
“Ah shut up, me sweets, and let’s go get breakfast for me, I mean for Eggy and you, me darling.”
Meach picked up a club and hit Groggy in the head and said, “Who you telling to shut up? Let’s go!”
“Hey, why you gotta go and bust me noggin so early? You usually waits for at least an hour after we rises and shines!”
She replied, “Because I’m the only one here to knock some sense into that bloody noggin! Now let’s go, and I got dibs on the horse!”
“Yes, me sweets,” replied Groggy in total frustration, as he rubbed his head.
She then grabbed him by the nose and pulled him along as he cried out, “Let go of me hooter! OK, you and Eggy gets the horsemeat!”
She smiled, let go of his nose and planted a sloppy wet kiss on his lips. As the two of them headed into the woods, Groggy was mumbling under his breath, “The bloody things I have to put up with!”
She said, “Did you say something, Groggy? Were ye talking to yourself again, love?”
He replied, “I said we up to get with getting our vittles!”
She replied, “Ye darn tooting ye better be, Groggy. I know ye said something because I isn’t deef! I should’ve listened to Mumsy! She warned me about you!”
Horsa and the Quest Warriors were well hidden. Their fire blazed hot and they could hear the Trolls creeping through the trees and clambering around the rocks. The Trolls stopped and closely surveyed the scene before them. They sniffed the air and Groggy whispered, “Look, Me Sweets. There be four men all nice a cozy sleeping by the fireside. We can takes ’em all in one blow, says I.”
Meach looked closely and said, “Seems a bit too easy, Husby. Something isn’t right. Better be looking out for a trap. Breakfast never makes itself this easy.”
Groggy said, “Why you got to go and make an easy kill hard, Me Sweets!”
He jumped up and charged through the woods for the horses and stepped right into the foot snare! He was yanked off his feet and whipped high into the air as the tree snapped back!
“Blimey!” yelled Groggy. “Come get me out of this, me Sweets!”
She jumped up and ran towards him straight into the camp and grabbed at the sleeping bundles on the ground, flinging them wildly left and right into the trees! It was then that Horsa and the warriors unleashed a hail of arrows! Meach could not see from whence they came, for the bright light of the fire worked against her. Everything around was dark! The arrows lodged in her arms and legs and as she fell she shouted, “Krykie!”
Groggy bellowed out, “No, don’t kill me wife! It were all my idea to eat you and not hers!”
At that moment a young Troll, dressed like his father, came running through the trees and clambering over the rocks, hollering, “Mumsy, Mumsy!” He was very large, but still only a toddler.
Horsa and his warriors were not Slaughter-Wolves and would not butcher a family, even though that family was a group of Trolls and had started this whole episode!
“Mumsy and Dahhy, where be you? I’m scared!” cried the toddler.
He couldn't have been more than four years of age and Horsa said, “Enough! It is finished. We’ll not kill babies outside a mother or inside her, as do the Slaughter-Wolves! Not even Troll babies!”
The warriors rose from their hiding places and Little Eggy ran and lay over the top of his wounded mother to save her. “No, men, please don’t hurt me Eggy! Don’t kill me baby!” begged Meach.
Groggy, still swinging upside down from the tree, pleaded with Horsa, “Please, Master Human, don’t kill me wife and son. It were all my idea to do this because Eggy was hungry!”
Horsa replied, “We won’t kill you, but as long as we’re here you’ll be tied! We will not trust that you are not a liar Troll! What is your name?”
He replied, “I’m Groggy. Those are me wife Meach and me son Egbyrt. We just calls him Eggy. Krykie, the blood is rushing into me noggin!”
“They stink like brimstone gas or rotten eggs!” declared Thurgau. He looked at Groggy and asked, “Don’t you Trolls believe in bathing?”
Groggy replied, “Blimey, what for? I can’t smell a thing!”
At that very moment, a brilliant white light filled the sky. A great white, flying unicorn appeared from out of the night! Then came a second and astride them were Byock and Min Tze. Four other unicorns bearing no riders came in behind them, landing softly and gently upon yonder ground near the wounded Trolls. Byock slid from the back of the great white unicorn, still clad in his white cloak and hood. Min Tze followed suit. The Trolls fell silent, as did Horsa and the Quest Warriors.
Horsa said to his men, “Lower your weapons.”
Byock walked towards him, and pulled back his hood. He bowed in greeting to Horsa, saying, “Greetings, Thane Horsa, and honourable Warriors of the quest. I am he whom you seek. I am Byock, White Wizard of the East and of the Sons of Light. This lady is Min Tze, Spirit Maiden of the East, of the Circle of the Spirit Maidens and my beloved wife.” Min Tze smiled and bowed in greeting.
“You have passed the test, my sons. You have been pure and you have not slain the innocent.” He pointed to Eggy. “Time is short. Leave all and come with us on these our brother unicorns.”
Horsa replied, “Master Byock, we are noble men sent here by our King and Queen. We cannot leave our brothers, these horses, here to be eaten by Trolls. We must do something for these steeds who have brought us this far.”
The White Wizard of Shangra-La replied, “Well and good, Thane Horsa. But these too must eat. You must leave behind all your pack rations so that Eggy can eat. There is nothing left here for this family and the baby will starve otherwise. I will go into my power and move these steeds as far as the River Oxus. They will find their way home to Thorstadt in due time, Thane Horsa.”
The Wizard walked over to the wounded Meach, and with a gentle, mystical touch, he removed the arrows and the wounds vanished. It was though she had never been wounded.
Groggy, who was still hanging upside down, saw the healing and was in amazement and said, “Blimey!”
The toddler held on to his Mumsy for dear life as she silently gazed at the strange human who had shown her such kindness, even after they had hunted them.
“We will leave you this food, Madame Troll. Remember this night always. Sleep child, for thy mother is safe.”
The toddler fell into a deep sleep as Byock walked over to Groggy, who was still hanging upside down.
“Blimey, you be that White Wizard fellow they talks about from Yerpa!” stuttered Groggy.
“I am he, Master Troll. Sleep now. Eat what has been given you when you awake. Remember this night when you were shown mercy by humans. Your wife will
cut you down when we are gone.”
He waved his hand over the eyes of the Troll, and the creature was instantaneously asleep. He began snoring loudly and soon giant snot dripped from his nose.
Meach said, “You hear that, Master Wizard? You hear that snort-snoring he does? He sounds like a ruddy warthog he does! That is what I have to put up with in the day when we sleep! It’s a wonder that I even gets me fifty winks a day with that racket in the cave! Please will you do something about it, Master Wizard, seeing as how you’re being a good sport and all?”
Byock smiled and then touched Groggy on the nose with the little finger on his left hand. The noise ceased and Meach said, “Blimey, Master Wizard, you went and done it after all. Thanks, Master, and I shall remember the kindness. Truly I will, sir, always.”
Byock nodded in reply. “Come, Quest warriors, we go.”
It was then that Byock caused a whirlwind to envelop the horses and mules. It picked the animals up, but left their packs behind. The wind carried them away, and put them safely on the western banks of the River Oxus one hundred miles away that very night. Everyone mounted the backs of the white unicorns, and away they flew into the night sky. The moon and stars silhouetted them and around each animal and human shone a bright and holy light.
Chapter XIII
The Dark Tower
From the Skald’s Tale:
Our traditions tell how the dispatch riders arrived in the camp of these Great Kings bringing word of the massive victory over the Goblins at a place called Bloody Glade and the large number of steel weapons captured from the Goblin Storm Trooper Legions. The Legends sing of how King Togrobeg’s Army was now en route north to rejoin the main Army.
We who know the legend can still hear their voices in our dreams of these voices of long ago. “This fills my heart with joy and confidence,” stated King Sigurd to King Osrik and his assembled nobles. “We will win this war! So say we all! So say we all! So say we all!”
A cheer went up and the strategy meeting was filled with confidence, everyone in unison repeating the chant, “So say we all! So say we all! So say we all!”
And I say when battle doth come, all ye Visigothic Warriors, be of good courage and strong hope, just as Sigurd the Good and the Mighty Shield Maid Queen was, in that age so long ago.
L ord Gedron brought word in from his scouts.
“My lord kings, we now know that the Sarmatians are no longer with Korgan-Tal. They have joined the Ogres of Morag and we think that this force will try to slip behind us and attack Thorstadt.”
King Osrik replied to Gedron and the entire council of war and said, “I do not worry as much about those swine. These Sauromatae have no iron, neither mined by them nor yet imported. They are armed with bronze weapons, as most of us still are. They have, in fact, had no dealings at all with the foreigners around them until going into league with Idanthrsus and the goading trickery of Hister! To meet this deficiency they have contrived inventions. In place of iron they use bone for their spear-blades and cornel wood for their bows and arrows, with bone points for the tips. They throw a lasso round any enemy they meet, and then, turning round their horses, upset the enemy caught in the lasso. Each man keeps many mares. What manner of men are they? Unlike us, their land is not divided into private allotments. We build villages and ring fortresses of wood with great mead halls. They do not. They are fully nomads and wagon dwellers, whereas we are only partially so and then only in the summer. And as for their land, it bears nothing except wild trees. These mares aren’t only used for war, but they also sacrifice them to their gods and eat them for food, and mingle horse blood with berry wine for a beverage. Their breastplates are made from horse hooves which they collect, clean, split, and make from them, as it were, python or dragon scales. Whoever has never seen a python must at least have seen a pine-cone still green. I have only seen such giant snakes in Myrkvidr. He will not be mistaken if he likens the product from the hoof to the segments that are seen on the pine-cone. These pieces they bore and stitch together with the sinews of horses and oxen, and then use them as breastplates that are as handsome and strong as those of the Dorians. These can withstand blows of missiles and those struck in close combat. But our weapons are iron and our bows superior and so we will crush the Sarmatians!”
King Sigurd spoke about them as well, saying, “Their women, so long as they are virgins, are Shield Maidens who ride, shoot, throw the javelin while mounted, and fight with their enemies. They do not lay aside their virginity until they have killed three of their enemies, and they do not marry before they have performed the traditional sacred rites. Unlike our Shield Maidens, a woman who takes to herself a husband no longer rides, unless she is compelled to do so by a general expedition. This war is just that and so these women will ride as well! They have no right breast; for while they are yet babies their mothers make red-hot a bronze instrument and apply it to the right breast and cauterise it, so that its growth is arrested, and all its strength and bulk are diverted to the right shoulder and right arm.” There was a round of mumbling at that statement. “This is truly horrific! How can they mutilate children in such manner or any manner at all? Only to indoctrinate them into hate-mongers and killers is why they do such things to the innocent babies!”
Lord Snaevar spoke, saying, “These Sarmatian Slaughter-Wolves speak almost the same tongue as their Scythian Masters! They are all the same to me! Nevertheless, we know they are not all one tribe, but have several: the Iazyges, the Roxolani, the Aorsi and the Siraces! Even these one-breasted Shield Maidens will slaughter anything in their path! They fight with weapons of bronze.”
King Sigurd replied, “I pity any Sarmatians, Shield Maiden or not, who challenges Queen Gwynnalyn; with child or not.”
The Ealdormen of the Witena Gemot cheered at that saying and all shouted, “Long live the Queen! Long live the Queen! Long live the Queen!”
King Osrik put a hand on King Sigurd’s shoulder and said, “My wife and child are gone to Valhalla. If I go as well, I bid you, brother, to keep my people safe with yours. May Queen Gwynnalyn be blessed to bear you a strong son, who will rise to be a great King and unite all of our people.”
King Sigurd was rather surprised to hear this from Osrik, about uniting their tribes in the event he died, and all present heard it, including all of the Gepid Thanes and Ealdormen. He replied, “It shall be as you wish, my brother Osrik. But you shall live a long life and continue to be a great King, and the Princess Gnita will be found. We all here will bask in the light of your glory and your wisdom and you shall take another wife and she will bear a whole tribe of sons for you and the Gepid people. Here, here now and be of good cheer. All hail King Osrik!”
Every warrior there began cheering and chanting, “All hail King Osrik!” The drone of their voices could be heard for miles around and was amplified by both the terrain and the wind.
When the cheering died down, Lord Volsung was next to be heard. “Since we speak of this, we must also speak of the Cimmerians! They have weapons of steel as well as bronze! These are sons of Gomer as we are, yet their tongue is different now from ours; and yet they fight against us! They made friends with the Gargoyles as well! They have mercenaries amongst them known as the Khumri. It was the Khumri who were first paid by Idanthrsus and now the entire Cimmerian Nation, all of their Princes and their King, has submitted to the Scythian tyranny. King Dugdamme was first allied to the Goblins but has died and his son Krosis has taken the throne! Now all Cimmerians are puppets and Hister of Dakkia is the Puppet Master! I sense, my Lord Kings, that when we destroy the Slaughter-Wolves under Korgan-Tal, this Axis of Evil will break apart. Some of these people may join our rebellion and end the slander of Idanthrsus and the god pretensions of Adawulf Hister. No more in this land will the vile chant ‘Heil Hister’ be heard! Then we will destroy Dragos’ power and the Gargoyles will be forced to sue for peace, and the Ogres will run back to the crags of Morag like frightened puppies”
“You have spoken wel
l, Lord Volsung,” replied King Sigurd. “Well said. That will leave the Goblins a threat and we may have to march into the Lofty Mountains and end this reign of Storm Trooper butchery forever!”
King Osrik replied, saying, “We must not forget that Hister and Dragos and Gorgo have made Thralls of an entire tribe of our people, the Gutthiuda of Helmgard, who is closer kin to my Gepid peoples than any of our tribes, my brothers. We fight to free them as well from the yoke of the Slaughter-Wolves! When the Quest Warriors return with Byock and Dithranti, our only hope for real peace and freedom is to march on Kul-Oba, free the Gutthiuda, kill Hister and Throostra, and crumble the fortress of doom! A mere march on Scythia-Gelonus and the death of Idanthrsus will in no way suffice to accomplish our goal. Since when have we let evil become stronger than we are?” Osrik looked at King Sigurd, who was nodding in full agreement.
Sigurd asked, “And what of King Klug and the Hagobards? Will the King of Eikengard join us as well?”
Osrik replied, “No, he will not. The Hagobards seem to think that they have no dog in this fight, and so sit on the sidelines beside the Oster Sea in Eikengard. Klug will do nothing. And unless Klug joins us, neither will the Vandals.”
Not knowing that his Goblin Allies had been mauled by the Dwarves, Korgan-Tal continued with his plan of attack. The Ogre Army under Gorkan-Mar, accompanied by the Sarmatians who, under Chief Ariaricus, would cross the Tanais and thus slip past the Rebel Army, cutting them off from Thorstadt. Then the Axis of Evil would close in on the Rebels from three sides, as well as from the air with their Gargoyle Wing Troopers! King Dragos had arrived with his entire force, minus the security detachment at Kul-Oba which was 500 miles to the east. But not knowing what had happened to the Goblins would cause his forces to be divided in the face of a powerful Tervingian Army. Nevertheless, the presence of Gargoyles in the air gave Korgan-Tal a tremendous advantage over the Rebels that would be terribly difficult to overcome.
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