Eye of the Moonrat (The Bowl of Souls: Book One)

by Cooley, Trevor H.

  “You get it right here,” she replied. Justan looked puzzled, so she explained further, “this is a pump.” Hegla tapped the curved pipe. “There is an entire river of water under these rocks, but it is too far down through solid granite for a proper well.” Justan had never heard of such a thing as a pump, but he couldn’t see how they would be able to force water up out of that tiny pipe. When he asked her for more explanation, she showed him. She led him to a crank that was set in the ground nearby, and explained that, as it was turned, the water was sucked up the pipe until it was blown out of the curved end.

  Justan was skeptical, but Hegla talked him into turning the crank. It was hard work, and it took a while, but she encouraged him and finally to Justan’s amazement, a stream of water began to pour out of the tube. Pympol and Vannya held some water bags and buckets under the end of the metal pipe.

  Justan continued cranking until all the bags were filled. His arms and back ached from the strain. By the time they were finished, he felt like he might as well have dug a hole down to the water and carried it back up by himself. Still, he was impressed with the dwarves’ ingenuity. The complexity of making all the parts to get such a thing to work had him shaking his head with amazement. These dwarves could truly build anything.

  When they were done, Justan waved a goodbye to Hegla. As they headed back to the wagons, laden with water, he realized that Pympol was laughing at him. Vannya was shaking her head.

  “What is so funny?” he asked.

  “She totally came out on top in that one,” Vannya explained. “She made us pay a good sum to get that water because it was going to be such hard work for her, and then you came along and did the work!” She started to giggle.

  Justan couldn’t help but join in. The dwarf had truly had her way with him. He wasn’t upset, though. The pump had given him some interesting ideas. He felt that the lesson learned had been well worth the aching muscles.

  The caravan wasn’t going to stay long. The group had only been on the road for three days and they didn’t need that many supplies. The mages bought a few baubles while the two guards bought some knives and such.

  To Justan’s surprise he found Riveren drooling over some heavy axes. There were some nice ones on display and Lenny’s comment must have shaken some of the man’s confidence in his own weapon. Justan took the opportunity to buy a quiver of good steel arrows and some extra granite heads just in case he had to make some more of his own down the road.

  When they left the village of Wobble, Justan wondered if he would ever get the chance to meet Lenny again. He had truly enjoyed the dwarf's company. But with the way that his life kept changing directions, it didn’t look likely. Justan sighed. It seemed like there wasn’t much that he had any control of lately.

  He was mulling this over when he heard a shout from the direction of the town. He looked up and could see a figure running up the road toward them carrying a large pack. It was Lenny, panting and trying to catch up, his short, thick legs pumping with the effort. Justan reached out and with a great deal of effort, pulled the dwarf up beside him.

  “What made you decide to join us?” Justan asked with a smile.

  “This ore’s too dag-blamed heavy to go carryin’ it all the way to Dremald by myself. I figger I’ll stay on with you ‘till we get to the crossroads down in Sampo across the river,” he explained through deep breaths. He pulled the pack off his back and set it beside him with an audible thud. “’Sides, with you around, I think the trip will be a lot less borin’!”

  Chapter Twenty

  The road didn’t stay long in the granite hills but turned southward again through the tall grassy plains. Justan spent the next couple of days having an enjoyable time with his new friends. He spent a lot of time during the day with Lenny and the two academy guards, trading stories and practicing combat.

  Every once in awhile, Vannya would even come out and join the four warriors. Her cheerful smile and ready wit made her a welcome presence. Not to mention, Justan and the guards agreed, she wasn’t too hard to look at. Lenny did say however that she could use a little more hair about the face. When the others looked at the dwarf with bewildered expressions, he didn’t press the issue.

  While the days were filled with camaraderie, the nights were a time for deeper contemplation. This was the time when Justan’s thoughts turned inward. He found himself re-examining his thoughts and feelings. He thought about his life before, how it would change in the future, but mostly he thought about Jhonate.

  Every evening, Justan made it a point to stop by the wizard’s door and call to him through the glowing rune. Valtrek still stayed in the wagon all day. Justan was getting more and more curious about what kind of work kept the man locked inside that place.

  Each night the professor answered his knock and would come out to visit with Justan for a short time. The second night after leaving Wobble, Justan brought out the book given to him by the Scralag. He hadn’t mentioned it to the Professor before because he hadn’t trusted him, but these last few days he had developed a respect for the man.

  He asked the wizard to read it, hoping that he would get some answers.Valtrek’s eyes lit up when he saw the torn cover.

  “Yes, Justan, now this might give us some answers.” The wizard opened the book and started to read. One hand stroked his neat beard. His eyes widened, then squinted. “Hmm, this is interesting.”

  “What is it?” Justan asked, hoping that he would finally get some answers. The day that he had met the Scralag seemed almost like a dream now, but he was reminded of it every time he saw the glittering rune on his chest.

  The wizard’s brow furrowed again and he waved his fingers above the page. For a brief moment, Justan thought he saw intricate glowing flows of energy pass from the man’s fingers to the book. Valtrek blinked a couple of times and focused on the book even further. After a few seconds his mouth twisted and he bent over and retched. Valtrek closed the book and sat on the ground, his head in his hands.

  Justan’s heart fluttered. This didn’t look good. “What did you see? Are you okay?”

  The Professor composed himself for a moment and answered, “I’m fine, I’m fine.” He took a deep breath. “But this book is unreadable.”

  “What?” Justan asked. The sight of the powerful wizard on the ground looking green in the face was unnerving. Then he remembered the disorientation that he had felt when he tried to read the thing and he understood why the wizard had the reaction.

  “The text is warded by a powerful spell. I tried to counter it, but it is quite clever,” the wizard explained. His eyes widened and he retched again. “Whoo! I’d like to learn that one for some of my books.”

  He grimaced. “I’m sorry but again I am going to have to suggest that you contact Professor Locksher at the school. He will know what to do.” Valtrek reached out his hand and Justan helped him to his feet.

  Justan didn’t see the wizard the next night, for the rune on his door was dark and he didn’t answer any knocks. Justan was again tempted to force his way in and find out what went on in there, but he decided to respect the man’s privacy and walked back to the campfire.

  He found the mages sitting and playing their card game. Vannya invited him to join in, but he wasn’t interested. Card games were silly. There were much better ways to spend one’s time. He walked to the cook pot where Lenny was once again cooking his fire sludge. Justan quickly refused a bowl.

  “Lenny, I’ve been curious-” he began, but the dwarf interrupted.

  “Dag-blamed son of a . . . Look, boy, could you use my confounded name right for once?” The dwarf froze. He cocked his head, then raised his hand before Justan could answer. Lenny put a finger to his lips. “Shh! Do you hear that?”

  “What?”

  He waived Justan silent and put a hand to his ear. “Follow me.” The dwarf pulled out his hammer, and crept away from the campfire. He stopped near the edge of the tall grass and leaned into the night.

  Justan waited sil
ently and tried to listen for anything unusual. He didn’t hear anything at first, but then it came, an eerie chittering moan. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end. The noise was like all of the creepy sounds of Justan's nightmares rolled into one.

  “Moonrats!” the dwarf spat. “I hate those damned things!”

  Justan frowned. He hated rats. When he was a child, the things had gotten into the family’s storeroom. The rats had eaten into their grain and spoiled it with their little droppings. His father had given him a shovel and made him hunt the things down. They were vicious, nasty little creatures that had tried to attack him when he had them cornered. Justan had finally killed the rats, but not until after he was bitten. It wasn’t a pleasant memory.

  Justan pulled his swords from their sheaths on his back. “Are they dangerous?” he asked. The eerie sound was sending shivers down his spine. Before Lenny could answer, a tall misshapen figure stood from within the grass. Lenny raised back his hammer as the being walked onto the road.

  “Whoa, hold it. Put your weapons down, it’s me.” It was Zambon and he had something big and weird on his shoulder. They walked back toward the campfire until they could see better and he threw his burden on the ground.

  Lenny spat on it. “See? I told you. Moonrats. Filthy things!”

  Whatever it was definitely had the head of a rat. But it was huge. It must have been four feet long, and thick around the middle. It was covered in greasy gray fur and it had what looked like an extra set of arms growing out of its back. This was bizarre, but what was even stranger to Justan was the hand-like appendage at the end of its tail. The beast had a garish sword wound in its side, and oddly shaped organs were spilling out of it.

  Lenny snarled. “What the hell are they doin’ out of the forest?”

  Zambon shrugged. “I hear that they come out once a year in the fall to mate in the plains. These moonrats seemed pretty preoccupied and I doubt that they will attack. I only ran into this one because I stumbled over it in the dark. I killed it before it had the chance to strike me.”

  Justan looked a little white faced and Zambon put a hand on his shoulder.

  “Don’t worry, they are out of their element on the plains. Riveren is out shadowing them right now. Moonrats don’t really get dangerous until deep in the forest, and the Mage School has the road warded through that part of the woods to protect travelers.”

  Justan felt a little better until something grabbed his ankle.

  He looked down just as the creature they had thought was dead opened its eyes and snarled. The grasping appendage on its tail squeezed Justan’s ankle with wicked claws. Its abnormally large eyes were without pupils and glowed with an unnatural light.

  Buster exploded into its head, extinguishing the renewed signs of life. One of the beast’s glowing eyes rolled across the ground to stare up at Justan until the light flickered and winked out.

  “Ugh!” Lenny snarled. “Zambon, you dag-burned nugget eater! Next time make sure the digustin’ thing’s dead ‘fore you show it to people!”

  Justan gulped. The moonrat’s eye, now so dark that it looked like it was all pupil, sat there like an evil beacon looking up at him.

  Justan wasn’t used to the fear of anything but failure, but that night he couldn’t sleep. He just stayed awake listening to the haunting chitter of the moonrats in the grass, and shivered.

  The next morning Justan was out practicing sword forms before the sunlight lightened the horizon. Except for the guard on watch, everyone else was asleep.

  Justan was shaken by the amount of fear he had felt at the sound of the moonrats. Sure, in the past he had felt afraid during battle, but his father had told him that all good warriors did. “Fear is a motivating emotion. It activates a warrior’s senses,” he had said. Justan found that statement to be true, as long as he was still able to think the battle through. But the night before, his fear had been nearly paralyzing. This was unacceptable to the young man who so craved control. So he was desperately trying to recreate the fluidity of motion he had achieved in the close combat test. Justan went at the sword forms with a fury. So focused was he in achieving this goal that he didn’t notice someone coming up behind him.

  “Excuse me,” the voice said, and Justan was so focused on his sword work that he almost cut the person down before he realized that it was Vannya. His left sword stopped three inches from her slender neck. She yelped before she could stop herself.

  Justan stared at her, still breathing heavy with exertion from his exercise.

  “Never walk up on someone who is practicing with a sword!” he exclaimed.

  She shrugged sheepishly. “Sorry.”

  He put his weapons away. “What do you want?” Justan asked, somewhat rudely. He wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone at that moment, especially a disturbingly beautiful young woman that would distract him from his focus.

  “Well, I didn’t get much sleep last night,” she said. “I just couldn’t close my eyes, what with all of that horrible howling. I hate moonrats! It gets a lot worse when we go through the dark part of the forest, you know. Those things are moaning at you the whole way and watching you with their disgusting glowing eyeballs! Anyway, I saw you out here and thought you might want some company.”

  Justan’s eyes were wide. He did not like the thought of going through the middle of a dark place with those things about.

  “Yeah well I didn’t sleep much either,” he replied. “Um . . . What do you mean when you say the dark part of the forest?”

  “Well half of the entire trip from the Mage School to the Battle Academy is through the Tinny Woods. It can take almost a week to get from end to end. When we traveled up for the training tests this year was the first time I had been through it. First we went through the elvish wood where the Silvertree Sect lives-”

  “Silvertree Sect?” he asked. There was too much about this journey that he hadn’t been told.

  “Yes, there is a small group of elves that live in the forest between the dark wood and the river. They are pretty secretive and they don’t bother people who stay on the road. They pretty much just keep their dealings with the wizards.” She took a deep breath. “Anyway, then we went through the Dark Woods. There is one stretch that takes almost a day to get through where the trees have grown so close together that it is almost pitch black. Professor Valtrek says that’s where the moonrats come from.”

  “And we will have to go through this on the way there?” Justan asked uneasily.

  “Of course,” Vannya replied. “Unfortunately there is only one road through the woods that is protected. You see, the mages placed magical wards on that road long ago that keep the wildlife off of it. That includes the moonrats. You are safe as long as you just stay on the road. On the way to the tests, Pandros stepped one foot off of the path and got bit by a poisonous snake. He was lucky that we were there. It took four of us to heal him.”

  Justan was suddenly not looking forward to the rest of the trip. Vannya saw the expression on his face. She stepped unnervingly close to him and put her hand on his arm. “Are you scared of those things, too?” she asked.

  Justan wanted to shout out in denial. He didn’t want to look the fool in front of this alluring woman. But he couldn’t really deny it. It was the truth.

  “Those things give me the shivers,” he said. “I have hated rats ever since I was a kid, and these things are the most disgusting, big, nasty rats I’ve ever seen. So yes. Yes, I’m scared of them,” Justan said, refusing to be embarrassed.

  “Will you promise me one thing?” She threw her head back and raised the back of one hand to her brow. “When we go through that awful part of the woods, will you stay by my side and protect me? I might faint with all those scary beasts about! It would make me feel so much better to have a gallant knight such as yourself around.”

  It took Justan a moment to realize she was joking. He bowed to her and exclaimed in grandiose fashion. “Why, it would be an honor to protect a woman as refined a
s you, most fair maiden! No snakes or bugs or spiders or rats or creepy crawlies will dare harm a single hair on your head as long as I am around, my lady!” He lowered his voice and added with a wry smile, “However, I can’t promise anything as far as the rest of you is concerned. They may be hungry.”

  She punched him in the arm and they both laughed. Justan felt better. Laughing about it helped. As they walked back to the caravan, he realized what a good thing it was to have friends around.

  For the next two days, the caravan journeyed slowly through the plains until they reached the town of Pinewood on the edge of the Tinny Forest. Justan passed the hours practicing his skills, spending time with Lenny and the guards, and even occasionally, Vannya.

  The wizard Valtrek did not answer his door at all during this time and Justan didn’t know what to do about it. The guards didn’t think it mattered and Lenny just said that wizards were peculiar sorts. The mages weren’t even worried. They explained that he had only come out of his wagon once during the entire journey to the academy.