Taragon Stein: The Search For The Soul Crystal

by Jason L Crocker

  The gap itself, as on the other side of the mountain, was well concealed also, and unless you were riding close to the base, you would not have known of the cleft, the curvature of rock, or the subterranean tunnels beyond. The luck of Kanthar must have indeed been with Jantar on the day of this find, I thought.

  As I peered through the cleft at the unfamiliar landscape, it reminded me of the land to be located just before the entrance on the far side of the mountains. Brown dusty terrain competed with patches of green grass as both types of earth fought for the domination of the soil beneath it. Rocks and boulders were everywhere I looked, some large, some small, there was even one as big as a house which seemed as if it could have tumbled from the mountain’s top, only to rest embedded at an angle in the world below.

  Trees were also in abundance, as on the southern side of the range they were grouped together like small islands upon the patchwork earth. It was to a grouping of the trees that I now looked. Situated on my left some sixty paces away from the cleft they appeared as good a place as any to regroup and refresh ourselves.

  Looking to my left and right, I scanned for signs of life around me…. Nothing, and except for a few birds flying overhead all was quiet. I turned to Baram, who was in the process of jostling his head to better his view.

  “There is a group of trees over to our left; we should head for those and rethink our next move.” Baram and Jaramel showed their agreement as I took my first steps into the north proper… be it as quick as they were.

  I was half expecting to be spotted by some unseen assailant as soon as we broke from cover, but no cry of alarm was heard.

  It was then a welcome relief when we reached the relative safety of the trees without incident. Jaramel and Baram both hurried in after me, and we made our way to the core of the cluster to secure our horses. With horses tethered, I moved to the tree line so I could improve my light away from the shadowing canopies high above. I felt that I had just about enough of being in the gloom for one day.

  Baram and Jaramel both rested their backs against the trunks of trees near to the outer edge of the miniature woods. I smiled inwardly to myself as Jaramel first checked the trunk, and then looked to the branches above before leaning back against the tree.

  “Gentleman,” I began, as I passed around the water flask that I had taken from the packhorse, “it appears to me that we have just two options.”

  I crouched near to them as I unfolded the map upon the ground for their attention.

  “I propose that we travel along this eastern edge staying as close to the shoreline as possible, and from there we follow its line until it leads us straight into the Dead Lands.”

  Pausing briefly for any interjection, I carried on with my plan.

  “We have enough food to last us for over three days, four if taken with consideration, and I don’t foresee the finding of water to be a problem. We can also live off the land if required, but our options are this.”

  “We may either travel by day, or by night.”

  “By night, surely,” said Baram as he turned to look at Jaramel for his opinion.

  I nodded at Baram’s suggestion. “I have given great consideration to both options. If we travel by night, we may move unseen and cover considerable distances. But these lands are as strange to me as they are to you, and Jantar’s map, as good as it is, surely would not have recorded every little detail of the land.”

  I looked to both of them and saw the thoughtfulness of their looks as I continued.

  “What if we were to come suddenly upon a ravine, or a town in the night, then it could pose unforeseen circumstances that would otherwise have been avoided.”

  Jaramel cast his fiery looks in my direction.

  “Yes, I have thought also of using your eyes in the night to light our way in the darkness, but even you need to rest during the day, especially if you have been using your magic, and it is in the day when we are resting when we would be at our most vulnerable.”

  “Then it must be by day,” stated the mage.

  I nodded again.

  “By day we would have to move with more caution and less speed. We know that our route lies northwards, and our enemies will be able to see us more clearly in the day, but this will also mean that we will be able to see them. We would rest in the night, and take our chances in the day to show us our way.”

  “But what if were spotted,” objected Baram. “Would we run or fight?”

  “My dear friend, we are not here to start a war that is already being taken care of. This job is one of stealth, and if we can find this Crystal without even a soul noticing then, that would be fine by me.

  Baram did not look too satisfied with the answer he had just received, so I decided to entertain him further.

  “If we are spotted then I propose we first try to bluff our way through as mercenaries.”

  “Mercenaries!” repeated Baram.

  “You already look the part my friend, and I’ve had enough experience of the trade to see my way through.” Baram turned his head the same time as mine, as we both cast our gazes towards the apprentice. He looked like a lost child sitting in a big cloak. His slight, thin frame did not look healthy enough to harvest wheat, let alone put the fear of the Gods into his enemies. But his power, like all wizards, lay upon the inside.

  “You, master Jaramel, are now a rogue wizard of the north.”

  “Him!” said Baram laughingly, until a look from the apprentice demanded his silence.

  “And why not?” I asked.

  “He looks the part of a wizard does he not? And that long dagger at his side will add to his roguish facade.”

  “But even so…” protested Baram with a sideways look at Jaramel.

  “Correct me if I’m wrong then, but didn’t the first King of Kantaria banish many rogue wizards to the north? Those that were found to be guilty of practising the black magics of the forbidden arts? Then why can’t he be one of them? Or at least one of their disciples?”

  Baram looked again at Jaramel, this time with more thoughtfulness.

  “Of course he will have to play dumb,” I added aloud.

  “Dumb?” returned Jaramel with an air of disbelief as he returned his attention back to me.

  “Or would you prefer the word mute?” I mused.

  “I prefer neither,” scorned the young wizard with an edge of anger.

  “Jaramel.” I started calmly with just a hint of sarcasm. “Your hood hides most of your features, which is good if we are spotted. But even I would not be able to convince a whole crowd of believers that you are a cruel renegade wizard when the moment comes that you would let a single word issue forth from your lips.” I delighted in my appraisal of the young mage at the same time as imagining the scowl upon his face.

  Baram, however, came to my aid.

  “He’s right you know,” stated Baram as he turned to look at the apprentice. “It’s not your voice Jaramel; it’s the sound of your upbringing that I think Taragon’s objecting too.”

  “Exactly so!” I agreed. “As soon as you were to speak, anyone would know that you have had a sociable upbringing and not one that’s associated with the hard reality of struggle.”

  “So I am a mute then?” asked Jaramel dejectedly.

  I replied with a huge grin.

  The remainder of that hour was one of rest and recovery. The journey across the Nazoran Battle Plains had taken a great deal of the night, and the early morning hours had been taken by our passageway through the mountains, so I did not think an hours rest would go amiss.

  I had taken a little of our food provisions and distributed them around equally, not too much but just enough to keep the hunger at bay until the evening. I wanted our food stocks to last as long as possible, and although as I already mentioned to Baram and Jaramel that we could live off the land if needed, I only really wanted to use this option as a last resort. It took time to hunt for a rabbit or fish in a stream, and I was never one for living just off berries and root
s, although I was able to in the direst of times. But some days you could spend hours just waiting for a rabbit to enter your snare or a fish to take your bait, and it was time itself that was our real enemy. If by some miracle I was able to find this Soul Crystal and take it back across hostile lands, I still needed Ranak-Lore to be there to take it back to! I shook my head as I wondered how it was again that I was in all this mess, just as another voice inside my head screamed aloud, “Five hundred gold!”

  I stowed the food sack back onto the packhorse and made my way back to Baram and the mage.

  I found the young apprentice, as usual with his nose stuck in that blasted book of his. Any reasonable person would have finished its contents by now I thought, but I often caught him going over and over the same pages time and time again, silently mouthing the words to himself as if his life depended on it. I thought back to the incident near to the Midnight tree when I had picked the book up, and how I discovered how light and warm it had felt, a sure sign of its magical nature. I gave the subject no more consideration, as I turned my attention to Baram.

  The big weaponsmith had taken to one of his own favourite pastimes and fallen fast asleep under the Ackash tree. I was just about to kick his boots to raise him from his slumber when I heard the sounds of approaching horses.

  I dived to the edge of the tree line as fast as a werecat as I sought to discover the source of the sounds. Lying on my belly close to the trunk of an Ackash I cautiously peered out.

  Ten armed riders dressed in light armour and furs, the hallmarks of the warriors of the north, had stopped just before the entrance of the cleft that we had previously exited. I pushed myself nearer the trunk as I watched them dismount. What were they doing here? Had we been spotted? Were they searching for us? Questions without answers raced through my mind as I continued with my vigil.

  Two of the men at the forefront of the group were dressed differently from the rest. The two dismounted and began pointing in the direction of the cleft. The warriors behind them then dutifully responded to this, by walking their mounts up to the opening and disappearing into it one by one.

  So much for our secret passageway, I thought. I then realised that if we had travelled a couple of hours later, we would have met them in the tunnels! I kept up my watch as I wondered how much more luck I had left to use.

  One of the men bore the resemblance of nobility in his attire. He wore polished black boots with black leggings, and a thick buckled belt about his waist held a long sword in its place by his side. On his torso, he wore a white shirt, and he finished his look with a long red cloak that was fastened about his neck.

  His companion was shorter by comparison and hid within a hooded cloak of forest green that concealed most of the man within its folds. There was a sense of familiarity connected with this man, but for the moment it escaped me as to why this was.

  Baram suddenly stirred from his slumber. The big man stretched and took in a great breath of air as he prepared for one of his infamously loud yawns. Moving my arm like a striking snake, I covered his mouth with the whole of my hand… much to his surprise.

  “We have company,” I whispered, as I motioned in the direction of the men.

  Baram’s eyes widened as he lay there. I was not sure if it was from hearing this news, or his sudden lack of oxygen. I removed my hand as he began to roll onto his front carefully.

  Looking back to the strangers, I was alarmed to see that the man in the red cloak had walked away from his companion by a few paces, and was looking straight in our direction!

  By the Gods! Had we been spotted?

  I looked to Baram; the big man laid low to the ground behind an unusually large Ackash and was well concealed. I had a few other trees in front of me and was currently lying in the shadows of the one I now hid behind…… I turned to Jaramel.

  The young wizard was lying on his back with his thumb and forefingers of both hands pressed tightly together in a strange embrace above his chest. His hands also shook from some unseen effort, and he turned his head to look at mine. Beads of sweat glistened off his nose and rolled down his cheeks. He was obviously in some unnatural discomfort as he spoke his words through gritted teeth.

  “He’s…a...magic user…” he said with effort. “He can….sense me.”

  Damn! I turned my attention back to the red-cloaked wizard.

  He still surveyed the area, but his head now was searching in a much wider arc from left to right. Whatever Jaramel was doing it involved trying to hide himself from this magical foe.

  I dared not move as the green-cloaked companion joined the man.

  Unheard words passed between the two men, and I saw the man in green move to look in this direction before sharply turning his head back towards the other. They then both turned to walk back in the direction of their horses. I cast a look at Jaramel who still held his effort of concentration, and wondered to myself how much longer he could keep it up.

  The man in green swiftly mounted his horse, nodded once to the man in red, and turned to ride back off in the direction of their approach. The red cloaked magic user then took the reins of his horse, before calmly walking the white stallion to the gap of the cleft and disappearing through its opening.

  I gave a sigh of relief as I turned back to our apprentice.

  Jaramel had relaxed his posture but remained laying upon his back, taking in great gulps of air, as if he had just run up a mountain.

  “Were we spotted?” I asked him with uncertainty.

  Jaramel looked across to me, taking several moments to reply.

  “I do not know,” he puffed. “It was all I could do to conceal myself from him.”

  He then looked out towards the cleft, where all was quiet.

  “His power was strong,” he breathed, whilst eyeing the opening.

  “Vorgannon!” said Baram in presumption.

  Jaramel shook his head. “It was not Vorgannon, if it were, then we would not be sitting here now. But there was something similar to Vorgannon that I sensed within him,” he added.

  I shook my head.

  “It does nothing to ponder; we must leave this place now!”

  We collected our horses and led them through the trees to the other side of the grouping we occupied, then using the trees to shield our departure we mounted our rides and rode off at a canter heading towards the north-west.

  We journeyed for three hours without incident. I regularly checked behind me for any signs of pursuit, but there were none. Not that it would have taken much effort to track us on the soft earth we now travelled upon anyway.

  As our ride continued, I tasted the salt of the sea air upon my lips. After a few more moments of travelling, we found ourselves upon a small hillock overlooking an unusually tranquil sea below us. It rolled calm and wondrous before me as far as I could see. A shimmering blanket of velvet silk sparkling under the afternoon sun. I sat hypnotised for moments eyeing its beauty whilst wondering to myself what unknown lands must lay beyond its reach…one day, I promised to myself.

  I came back to reality as I eyed the beach along the shoreline. Its sands were of a golden colour, and it too stretched far into the distance. Since our near miss by the trees, I could not help but feel that we had been noticed, that we were now known to the north. Hardly likely I knew, but ever since our journey from the cleft I almost felt that we were going to be set upon at any moment by a hundred murderous northern warriors.

  I silenced my doubts as my eyes returned to the beach.

  “We should journey along the sands for a while,” I said to no one in particular. “When the tide comes in, it will cover our passing.” There was nothing wrong with being cautious. It was probably due to the fact that I was so careful that I had remained alive for as long as I had done, and besides if Vorgannon Barail was amassing an army in the central north, then it would suit us best to stay as far from its heart as possible.

  We made our way down with little difficulty towards the shore and were soon cantering along th
e golden sands. We followed the shoreline for the next two hours, staying mainly to the sands but travelling around rocks and inlets when needed too.

  Jaramel had become increasingly tired over these last few hours, his posture on Udos continually slumping forwards only to right himself at some sudden jolt. His efforts with his magic in the caves and by the trees must have tired him to the point of exhaustion. With the waning of the afternoon light, my thoughts turned towards camp. I looked to the sky, two more hours of daylight.

  Just when I was thinking of heading inland to find a good spot for the night, a possible location presented itself one hundred yards ahead in the form of a cave.

  The beach we were on continued past the cave for another two hundred yards before it ended with some large rocks that were being pounded by the ocean’s waves. There was no possible way of getting around them unless we were to swim and probably drown in the process.

  Looking to my left, I noticed that the inland route gradually increased in gradient to a point where it formed cliffs above the waters. The caves were set into the base of these cliffs, and it was towards the largest of these that I now headed.

  After lighting my Glowball staff once again, I found the cave to be quite accommodating. The smell of seawater and seaweed was heavy in the air, but I noticed that the pools of ocean water between the rocks stopped about ten paces inside the cave’s entrance. This left the large rear of the cave both dry and big enough to accommodate our horses and us easily.

  “This will do fine,” I said aloud whilst eyeing the cave.

  Camp was made. The soft sandy floor would be our bed. Baram had offered to go and look for some firewood and soon returned with armfuls of driftwood that he had collected from along the shoreline. One particular piece had the first three letters of a ship’s name engraved along its length, a grisly testament to any of those that would be brave enough, or foolish enough to test their luck in the treacherous seas off the coast.

  By the time we had fed the horses a sack of grain from our supplies and had lit a small fire, it was dark. I pushed my Glowball Staff into the soft sand not far from the spot where we were to rest. At first, I was concerned that its light would attract unwelcome attention from outside. But the cave was deep enough at its rear to conceal any illumination from within. Also with the incoming tide now lapping at the cave’s entrance, you would soon have needed a boat to be able to see anything inside.