“So people say, but it’s not like they’re going around casting spells in broad daylight. It’s all so hard to believe.”
“Hard and wonderful,” Vera said. “I don’t know what I believe anymore, but I know I want to believe. I want to believe that magic exists and all that goes with it. I want the world to be a magical, mysterious place, full of wonder and hope. Not the grim, hopeless waste it has seemed to be lately. When I thought you were dead...” She couldn’t finish. Tears rolled down her checks.
“I’m so sorry,” Stone said. “I came as fast as I could, but—”
“No, it’s not that,” she said. “I knew you would come for me if you could, but I thought you were dead. I thought they’d killed you.”
“They gave it a good shot,” he said. “I’m lucky they didn’t check the bodies for survivors.”
“They’re animals,” she said angrily. “They only care about what they can take.”
“Well, it’s over now,” Stone said.
“But Lorik said they’ll come for us again,” she contested.
“Perhaps, but if they do we’ll stop them again.”
“The raids won’t stop.”
“So we’ll go south—maybe even back to Hassell Point.”
“No, I don’t want to go back.”
“Then we’ll go to Osla or Falxis or somewhere you feel safe. I’m not taking any chances with you again.”
She smiled, and they leaned on each other for a short while.
As the afternoon wore on, the mists rose. Lorik kept the group moving until he found a place where they could huddle together for the night with water nearby. Everyone was hungry and there was no food. Lorik saw the occasional deer, but with his bow and arrows gone he had no way to hunt. Plus, he didn’t want to start a fire in the forest again. He knew how to build a fire that was safe, but fire was the one thing the Drery Dru feared most.
It was impossible to tell how much light was left in the day, so once Lorik had everyone settling in for the night, he walked a short distance away and called up into the trees.
“Hennick!” he called. “Can you hear me?”
“Perhaps not Hennick, but I can hear you, Great One,” came a playful voice from behind him.
Lorik turned to see a brown-haired elf clinging to the side of the giant tree as effortlessly as Lorik stood on the ground.
“I’m Udell. How can I be of service?”
“I need food,” Lorik said. “Enough to feed a lot of people. I’m leading a group of captives back through the Wilderlands.”
“Yes, we’ve been watching,” Udell said. “I can see about food, but know that the painted warriors pursue you.”
“I expected as much. I will deal with them tonight.”
The elf looked excited to hear that Lorik meant to confront the Norsik raiders again.
“We will bring food down to your people,” Udell said.
“Thank you,” Lorik said, bowing slightly.
The elf returned the bow, then scampered up the tree like a squirrel. Lorik watched him go until the Drery Dru disappeared in the darkness high above. Then he went back to the group of women and children. They looked tired, but more alive than when he had first found them. He needed to keep them from discovering that the Norsik were pursuing them. He needed them to eat, sleep, and regain their strength.
Lorik was still watching the women and children when a large wooden basket was lowered from one of the trees. It was filled with fruit and the simple root vegetables that he remembered the forest elves feeding him. The women and children, including Vera and Stone, were amazed. They looked up, trying to see the elves, but the Drery Dru were well hidden in the high trees.
“You won’t see them,” Lorik said. “The Drery Dru are bashful people in most cases. You can only see them if they want you to.”
“Are they invisible?” asked one young girl, her voice full of awe as she stared up into the canopy.
“No, they aren’t invisible, just good hiders. They always win at hide-and-seek.”
“Really?” she asked, with rapture on her face.
Lorik laughed and nodded. The women and children ate their fill, and there was enough left for everyone to fill their pockets for the journey the next day. Then night fell and darkness enclosed the camp. Everyone lay down together, the women and children huddling together for warmth. It wasn’t a perfect situation, but at least their bellies were full and they were safe for the night.
Lorik felt better about leaving the group knowing the Drery Dru were watching them. He checked his swords and then followed the mist through the forest. He ran at a light pace and kept it up for the hour it took to reach the Norsik camp. He found nearly a hundred warriors. Most were sleeping, but there were sentries staring blindly in the dark.
Lorik wasn’t sure what to do. He had fought and killed the Norsik mercilessly over the past several weeks. He knew that they had no qualms about killing indiscriminately: in a Norsik raid, no one was safe. And the Norsik were entering the Kingdom of Ortis with bad intentions, so surely killing them to save his own people was justified. Still, when he thought about slaughtering the group of raiders, something made him hesitate. He thought again of Hennick’s warning. His choices would mean the difference between life and death in his quest to protect his people.
He decided he could accomplish just as much with a little theatrical surprise for the sleeping Norsik as he could by killing them. He hoped he was making the right choice. It could be that by allowing the Norsik to live, he was sealing his fate, but indiscriminate killing seemed wrong, and he decided to trust his heart.
He sheathed his sword and drew his dagger. He could see the sentries but they couldn’t see him, so hitting them on the back of the head with the handle of his dagger and knocking them senseless wasn’t difficult. Then he stripped the sentries naked and used their clothes to tie the raiders up. He left them at their posts, each one tied like a pig ready for roasting. Then he took their swords and walked into the center of their camp. He had to move quietly, stepping over the sleeping forms of many of the raiders. Then, at the center of the camp, he arranged the sentries’ swords, stabbing them into the ground in a circle. With the last sword, he sketched a crude drawing of a human skull. Then he left the group.
He waited nearby through the night, wanting to see if his ploy worked. At sunrise, the raiders woke and discovered his handiwork. The sentries had no memory of what had happened to them. Lorik couldn’t understand the arguments being made around the camp, but he could tell the raiders were spooked, so he set out, running through the forest to get back to his own camp.
He found it abandoned but it didn’t take him long to catch up with Stone, Vera, and the captives. They were heading in the right direction, and Lorik hurried over to Stone.
“Where have you been?” Stone said.
“Just leaving a message for our friends. Besides, I knew you could get this group moving without me.”
“I did that,” Vera said. “Liam was too tired,” she teased.
“I’ve been through a lot, okay?” he said in mock defensiveness. “And I’m injured. Have a little mercy, would you?”
“I think he’s milking it,” Lorik said.
“I keep trying to get him to ride his horse,” Vera said.
“Other people need it more,” Stone argued.
“Perhaps, but I don’t want you too stiff to help if I need it,” Lorik said. “It wouldn’t hurt you to take a turn or two today. We still have about five days’ travel through the forest.”
“Speaking of helping, why didn’t you take me with you this morning?”
“I didn’t go this morning,” Lorik said. “I went last night. And you aren’t much help in the darkness.”
“What did you do?”
“I tried to scare the raiders off.”
“Did it work?” Vera asked.
“It scared them, but whether they turned back I don’t know.”
“You should have killed them,
” she said bitterly.
“Did they hurt you?” Lorik asked.
“They hurt all of us,” Vera said. “But they didn’t abuse me if that’s what you’re asking. They did that with the weaker women and children. I guess we were too valuable to rape or beat too severely, but they are animals. You could kill every last one of them and I wouldn’t lose a minute’s sleep.”
“Well,” Lorik said, “you may be right. I made a choice not to kill them. I hope that choice doesn’t come back to haunt me.”
Chapter 39
The next four days passed smoothly. There was no trouble as the group traveled through the Wilderlands, and each night the Drery Dru lowered baskets of food down for Lorik and the returning captives.
The Norsik raiders had fought over what to do and eventually decided to continue pursuing their lost captives. But they were much more cautious than before, moving slowly through the giant forest, and Lorik’s group outdistanced them a little more each day. Vera and Stone were concerned about the raiders, but Lorik assured them they would be out of the Wilderlands by nightfall on the fifth day. With the women and children safely within the walls of Fort Utlig, the raiders would have no chance of defeating them.
Lorik was careful not to wear the captives down, setting a brisk pace but allowing for frequent stops to rest along the way. Stone’s leg was another concern, however. The wily fighter needed rest, but he refused to ride the horse, insisting instead on walking every day. His knee swelled again, growing stiffer. He was forced to splint the leg again, tying the straps tightly around his leg to support his injured knee. Vera worried constantly, but there was nothing she could do. Even with medicines, all she would have been able to do was ease his pain. He needed to stay off his leg for several days, but that remedy simply wasn’t an option.
Late on the fifth day of their journey Lorik sensed something amiss. He left Vera and Stone to lead the group and sprinted ahead to discover what was wrong. He knew there was trouble before he reached the edge of the Wilderlands. He could smell the trouble. It was fire and smoke.
At first he feared that the Norsik had set the Wilderlands on fire, but as he made his way carefully toward the tree line, he could see that the black, rolling smoke was coming from the plains. He knew then that Fort Utlig was gone. The fort had been defended by barely a dozen men, and as Lorik came out into the open under the giant redwood trees, his heart sank. The wide open plain around Fort Utlig was now filled with Norsik warriors. The wooden palisade and inner buildings of the fort were burned to the ground, and only the round, stone watchtower still stood. Around the crenellated top of the tower Lorik could see human heads mounted. He knew instantly that one of the heads had once been Constable Yorn’s. The miserly old constable had been difficult to deal with, but Lorik found that he still regretted the man’s passing.
He stepped back into the shadows of the forest and pondered. What could he possibly do? The captives were on their way to the fort, but if they were spotted by the massive horde of Norsik warriors they would be recaptured. Lorik looked across the field. There were thousands of Norsik raiders, all camped in small clumps that spread as far as Lorik could see.
He looked out to the east and saw Yulver’s ship still at the mouth of the bay. His friend didn’t have the resources to sail home, and now he was cut off from the land by the Norsik raiders camped along the harbor. He wondered if it might be possible to sneak out and somehow swim to Yulver’s ship. Perhaps they could find a place to make land and sneak the captives onto the ship. But Lorik knew that plan was hopeless. Yulver’s ship, even empty of cargo, couldn’t come close to carrying the almost one hundred women and children he had rescued. Not to mention that once he got them on board they would face the same dilemma that Yulver faced: where to land safely.
Lorik turned back and sprinted the way he had come. He had to stop Stone and the others before they came too close to the edge of the Wilderlands and were seen. He ran hard and caught up with the group less than a mile from the edge of the forest.
“What’s wrong?” Vera asked immediately.
“Let’s make camp here,” Lorik said.
Vera frowned but she didn’t argue. She got busy helping everyone settle down. It wasn’t difficult to convince the group to stop and rest. Lorik located water, and they all found places to sit and rest their tired legs.
“All right,” Vera said when she rejoined Lorik and Stone. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
“The Norsik have taken Fort Utlig,” he said. “They have established a strong base where the fort was. There are several thousand of them.”
“By the gods,” Vera said. “We can’t fight that many!”
“No, we can’t,” Lorik said.
“So what do we do now?” Stone asked. “Is there any way to go around them?”
“I guess that’s possible, but we’ll have to go for miles to the west, and there’s no guarantee we’ll find a place to go.”
“What about the gulf?” Vera asked. “Is Yulver still there? Could he get us someplace safe?”
“He’s there, but the harbor is surrounded. I don’t think he has a safe place to land his ship on either side of the gulf.”
“You said there were thousands of raiders,” Vera said. “There weren’t that many when we fled, were there?”
“Not that I saw,” Lorik replied. “Why?”
“If there are thousands now, then chances are they’re congregating here.”
“Meaning what?” Stone asked.
“Meaning we have a better shot of going around them,” Vera explained.
“And then what?” Stone said. “They’ll just pursue us and catch us. That is, if we don’t starve to death first. They’re like a plague, eating everything and destroying what they can’t consume. There are no villages or farms to get food from. We’ll starve within days even if we don’t get massacred first.”
“There has to be something we can do,” Lorik said. “We can hide in the forest.”
“Not for long,” Vera said. “The raiders you fought are still behind us.”
“What about the Drery Dru?” Stone asked. “Can’t they help us?”
“I don’t know,” said Lorik. “They aren’t warriors.”
“They captured you.”
“They’re tiny,” Lorik said. “Smaller than most of the children we have with us. Besides, I doubt they would leave the forest.”
“What if we lured the raiders into the forest?” Vera asked. “Could they fight the Norsik then?”
“I’m sure they could if they had to, but they wouldn’t like it. I don’t think they are fighters.”
“Well, we’ve got to come up with a plan of some kind. How long do you think we have until the raiders who are following us catch up?”
“Tomorrow at some point,” Lorik said.
They looked at each other. Lorik felt sick to his stomach. He knew he had to do something, but he couldn’t imagine what it would be. The idea of asking the Drery Dru to fight with them seemed wrong somehow. But there was no other way to defeat the Norsik raiders.
“I’ll speak to the Drery Dru,” Lorik said at last.
“It’s our only hope,” Vera said.
“What’s the worst that they can do?” Stone said.
“All right. I’ll be back,” Lorik said.
He walked a short distance away and called out to the forest elves. There was no answer. Lorik thought that perhaps he was too close to the edge of the open land, so he hiked a mile deeper into the Wilderlands and called again. There was still no answer. Fear began to worm its way into his mind. He felt abandoned and defeated. He knew he hadn’t imagined the forest elves, but he couldn’t keep his mind from imagining the worst. They had abandoned him because he had made the wrong choices. He didn’t mean to make bad choices and he didn’t see how he could have made different choices, but the fear ate away at his confidence. Finally he decided that his only course of action would be to fight the Norsik.
He returned to Ver
a and Stone.
“They aren’t responding,” Lorik said.
“What?”
“They aren’t answering my calls.”
“Are you sure you did it right?” Vera asked.
“It isn’t a magic formula,” Lorik said. “I call, they answer. It’s that easy, only they aren’t answering now.”
“So what are we going to do?” Stone said.
“You and Vera have to take the others west,” Lorik said. “I’m staying here to distract the Norsik.”
“What?” Vera asked. “How are you going to distract the Norsik?”
“He’s going to fight them,” Stone said. “You’ll be killed.”
“I don’t know,” Lorik said. “I’ve fought them outnumbered before.”
“Yes, you did, but that was a couple hundred. This is at least ten times that number,” Stone said. “It would be better if you came with us. We don’t even know if the forest elves will feed us without you.”
“Are you both insane?” Vera said. “This is your plan? Have you forgotten that there isn’t any way to survive because the villages and farms were destroyed? Not to mention the raiding party that is following us. If you stay here we’ll be murdered.”
“And if we flee we’ll be murdered,” Lorik said. “At least if I fight, it gives you a chance.”
Vera looked at Stone but he wouldn’t meet her gaze. They both knew there was no good option. They also knew that what Lorik was proposing was suicide.
It was almost dark and Lorik had two tasks to complete when the sun went down. He was going back to kill the raiders who were following them, then he had to find a way to fight the raiders spread out around the remains of Fort Utlig. He sat alone, waiting for the gloom to overtake the Wilderlands. This close to the forest’s edge the mists were thin. Lorik knew that he could find his way; he could see in the forest’s black nights. It was like seeing on a night when the moon was almost full. He could see the shapes, distinguish certain features of the landscape, even recognize a person. With the mist, he could even make out small details, like the weapon a sentry was or wasn’t holding.
Lorik The Protector (Lorik Trilogy) Page 34