Engaging Evil (Warriors of Vhast Book 2)

by Cary J Lenehan

  Theodora brought the carpet to a stop and they sat, rocking gently.

  “Now I can see. They are large, like boyuk-kharl but bigger, not anywhere near as big as an insak-div though, and with shields and carrying curved swords. Some have long bows like Astrid’s. I think their colour is wrong, but there is not enough light…I cannot tell…I haven’t seen their like before.”

  “Give me the telescope, my love.” He handed it over and Astrid used it. “Where are they?” He pointed. “They are hobgoblins. I have seen them sometimes in the northern forests. There is a tribe of them in the far north and they sometimes raid far afield for livestock. I have never seen so many. The most you see is usually a hand. There must be at least three filled hands of them there…All have armour, some of it metal. They are fierce, very strong, and hard to kill. Some say that they eat people…but then some say that of kharl as well.”

  They watched for a few minutes more. “Are you seeing anything new?” asked Theodora.

  “I think some have ladders, or at any rate, some long things that might help them over the wall. Maybe three of them near the middle are dressed differently. They have the skulls of animals bound to their heads. Do hobgoblins have shamen?” The others both shrugged. No-one knows. Few know much about hobgoblins. It is said that sometimes you can trade with them, and sometimes you get eaten. It is best to stay clear.

  “Well, that would explain the tracks that Thord thought he saw,” said Theodora. “They might come out of their tribal area to hunt the plains and to see if any larger animals have moved in. Mind you, he saw no sign that they had ever come down this path. Astrid, from what you know, do you think that the Masters would have sent them?”

  “That is most likely the case. The wild tribes I know rarely leave their area, except to hunt. That is not a hunting party. If there is nothing else, we should be going back,” said Astrid, and Theodora turned the carpet towards the village.

  ~~~

  Rani

  Rani watched the carpet flying away and started giving orders. She sent Eleanor to the wall with those who only had missile weapons, while Norbert, with his two-handed hammer, was told to sit and hold the gate. That cleared most of the people off the roof. Do I get Naeve to bring the animals inside the wall or not? Let us wait until the carpet returns. We may not need to and it would be wasted time if we didn’t. Everyone can sit down and rest until we know more.

  Everyone reached their assigned places and waited.

  ~~~

  “The carpet is coming back,” said Hulagu.

  She peered out into the pale light. It took a while to see it, but in a few minutes it was back.

  “We have hobgoblins, a large war party with druids or shamen of some sort,” said Theodora. “If they get off the path they can use cover and move around through the animal pens to the wall and we will not be able to stop them. There are far too many, possibly even three hands of hands. I know we have the advantage in defence, but they would just overrun us.”

  “Any ideas?” Rani asked.

  “I will take Ayesha’s invisibility ring,” said Astrid. “I will use it and my strength and speed enchantments and I will meet them on the path where they can only come at me one or two at a time. They have bows, so I will need to find a corner to wait behind. If they want to come down then they have to come through me and I will be trying to throw them over the edge with my spear as much as fight them.”

  “And if you fall? What then?” asked Rani.

  Astrid shrugged and grinned.

  She obviously relishes the challenge. Rani flicked her gaze to Basil. He looks concerned but is staying quiet. He already knows his wife.

  “Send some backup then,” Astrid said, “Basil with his short blades and Eleanor. If I am hurt I will get back behind them, take the ring off and take some healing draughts and they can hold them until I am ready to return. You can make it easier by putting some archers with all of those arrows you brought from Haven on the opposite wall. You make better ones yourself now, so we can use those ones up. It will be a long shot, but the archers will have a height advantage and it will be hard to shoot back at them. They can attack the centre and try and take the druids at the same time. I haven’t been up, but I am told the path goes around a big corner. If we hide behind that then only the one that I am killing will actually see what is happening at the time…and hopefully he won’t do that for long.”

  Not bad for a start. Ayesha said, “If I am one of the archers, I speak their tongue. Not well, but enough. I can try and make them turn back. If they are stopped from going forward and are just staying in place and dying, they will not want to just stand there and let it happen. Hobs are wild and fierce, but totally without patience. They like to attack and kill and they will have little stomach for just dying without a good reason and for someone else. If they are not killing others as well then it will be even harder for them.”

  It comes together and becomes a plan. “Valeria,” said Rani. “You wanted to be our maid. In a combat you will be doing a lot of running and fetching. Get the bag with the potions and the bags of betterberries and quickly.” Valeria headed downstairs at a run. She addressed the others, “That should work. We don’t want to damage the path, so we should not use too much magic… Astrid…get on the carpet with Basil…pick up Eleanor at the wall and fly up the path to a good spot. Try and be well ahead of them so that Theodora can get archers in place before you hit them.” She addressed Theodora, “My dear, you are going to be the most exposed with your runs. Take my helm. You know its enhancement. It will stop at least some arrows if they see you.”

  They swapped helms and Rani gave Theodora a kiss. “Good luck.”

  ~~~

  Basil

  I don’t like this idea, Basil thought to himself, as they headed off, stopping to pick up Eleanor at the wall. I can see that Puss is convinced that it will come off and she is fast with that magic and strong as well. I just wish I am as certain.

  Better pay attention, the Princess is talking, “I have a sort of invisibility device, and would give it to you,” she said, “but, when I made it I was escaping Darkreach, so it only works for me. I think that I need to try and make a better one once we get time. At the rate we are going, I am going to run out of the ability to take on new spells before I run out of things I need to make.”

  They flew up the path this time. I haven’t been up here either, but the spot to make a stand is obvious. The river’s long left curve abruptly reverses itself around a tight turn. It is well down the path, but the path curves most strongly here and, unless the hobs can shoot right around corners, even their druids can do little to whoever is attacking those at the front of their war party.

  Theodora set out back to the village for the first archers. “Don’t start shooting them until you see that they are starting to come around and die,” Astrid reminded Theodora. Once the carpet had left, Astrid said to Eleanor, “Unless you wish to get jealous, close your eyes.” I can feel her lips, and the rest of her, as we hold each other. She can make me stiffen that easily. “Even our leather gets in the way of everything,” she said in a mock grumpy voice. “Still I am now getting all randy and I need to keep my mind on the job. Wish me luck. We can continue this later.” She slipped the amulet on and disappeared. Her hand rubbing on my trousers…her butt should be…He gave a slap and was rewarded with a familiar feel and then she was gone.

  ~~~

  Is that the carpet? I think it is. It is only two hundred paces from here to the other cliff, but with the cloud the way it is the moons are only giving a quarter of their best light and it is tricky. The Princess will be using the shadows as well. Their bows will not do much damage from that range, but then, seeing that they are a good fifty paces above the path, the hobs probably would have a lot more difficulty hitting the ambushers, if they see them at all—despite what Puss said about their strength and what this meant for the power of their bows. I will just have a quick look around the corner. I am better able to
take advantage of shadows in a city, and in the wild I am no match for Puss, but I am far better than most. The hobs are easy to see. The last of them will be out from under the waterfall very soon. The first of them is already well past it. We have at least ten minutes before the combat begins.

  He passed the telescope back to Eleanor and kept watching. She nodded and sat down against the mossy wall for a few minutes. Once a fight starts you crave a rest. She may as well have one now. She put the pack with the potions and other healing herbs and bandages in it down against the cliff wall where they both could reach it.

  The hobs were one hundred paces away when he felt a push backwards on his chest. Puss wants to get ready for them out in front. He moved further away from the curve and gave her ten paces to work in, nodding to Eleanor as he prepared. He didn’t draw his shortswords. I may have to help Puss back before I can attack. I hope not.

  Eleanor stood up and took her kite shield off her back and put it on her arm. She took the outside position with the shield near the edge and her horse mace resting on her shoulder. Basil took the inside, slightly ahead of her, his back almost to the wall. He reached back. I can feel its roughness and some damp moss. They waited.

  Soft footfalls from around the corner…some deep and rough-sounding voices talking… They aren’t worrying about stealth. Who would? They will be thinking they have the advantage of complete surprise…up here they can’t even be seen from the village… Is that the carpet again? Is this its second or third trip? Aren’t the hobs paying attention? Are they that confident? They think they have the village at their mercy, but the tables are turned. I may not be trained for normal battles, but I know, from talks around the family table, that in a well-prepared ambush—and this is—unless those who are attacked are very lucky, most of them die. Surely some of them have to be feeling uncomfortable with all of us watching them and about to attack. I suppose that might even be what the voices are talking about.

  ~~~

  The first hob appeared around the corner. He is large and very ugly and wearing mail. For an instant his shape stands out clearly against the paler sky behind. Almost straight away blood is gushing from his neck…no time to cry out…over the edge…the same for the second. The third is close to the second and has time to cry out before he is clutching his chest and heading for the edge. He is trying to keep hold of the spear in his chest. I hope he fails. He is only lightly injured by the spear and…that scream…that thud cuts it off… It is a sickening thud.

  Basil heard explosions from around the corner. The Mice above us must have decided to use magical arrows after all, probably for the druids. The next hob just peers around the corner and is rewarded with a spear thrust that goes into his toothy mouth—not nice cat’s teeth like my Puss but snaggly and large, meant to take a throat out and rend raw meat. He reeled back and disappeared, his head a ruin.

  A babble of calls and screams erupted from around the corner and there was a rush towards them. Not sure what Puss just did, but three hobs run around the corner together and they keep going straight over the ledge. They tried to turn, but failed and so fall screaming…arms and legs flail in panic, weapons and shields discarded, as they comically try to fly or run on the air and so prevent their fate. They fail…those cries now end in thuds. There is not even a single groan from down below. More explosions sounded loud from around the corner. Rani and Robin will be hard at work through the winter replacing all of these shafts.

  He heard a woman’s voice, it must be Ayesha’s, calling out from above them on the cliff as arrows continued to rain down and hobs tried to come around the corner. The ones coming around the corner are obviously expecting someone with a sword because they are swinging as they die and they are swinging in the wrong spot for where Astrid is…I hope.

  There was a gap then another hob came cautiously around the corner with his shield held high and just his eyes visible. He was calling something out when Astrid’s spear took him in the stomach and she pitched him over. Next a pair came around slowly. Blood spurts from the inside of one’s leg…now from the outside one. They crouch, trying to protect legs…the outside hob has Puss’ spear in his face… The other calls…tries to back up…trips…he gets a thrust to the groin as he falls…he is down and screaming in pain and rage and holding his parts…trying to crawl back around the corner…Ayesha is calling something out…the combination of deaths and screams and what she is calling must finally have been too much for the hobs…there is a lot of noise from around the corner, but no more attackers.

  Basil waited. Is it over? Apart from the injured hob trying to crawl away ahead of them as he staunches his own blood, the calls are growing fainter. Basil sensed something behind him and turned to see Theodora, on the carpet, coming up the road.

  “We forgot to give you a Talker,” she said, a little embarrassed “Sorry…They are just running now. We are still shooting at them as they climb towards the falls, but I think they are finished as a menace. We will harry them as they go. Astrid, you can appear now.” She looked down at the wounded hobgoblin. “I see you brought a wedding present for Bianca. Now, at least we can find out why they attacked us.”

  Astrid appeared with a smile on her face and a bloodied spear in her hands. Basil felt relief run through him. She doesn’t look to have been hit at all. She smiled down at the wounded hob and blew him a kiss. He tried to back up further. He didn’t appear to be able to rise. She must have severed something vital in his leg. She waved the spear at him and sweetly said in her native tongue, “No kitten, stay there so that mother can see you. That is a good hob.” He was a large person but he looked confused and terrified by her. She said in Hindi, “I don’t know what the archers were doing and Ayesha was calling, but it worked.”

  “We got their druids in the first two volleys,” said Theodora. “Everyone fired at them at once. By the time the rest had a chance to recover, what with no-one coming back from your corner and not knowing what was here, and with their leaders down and more being hurt or killed by arrows, they just broke and ran. I think some even dropped their weapons. It was lovely.”

  The hobgoblin spoke then, in broken Darkspeech. “I stay still…help me. We told easy food here, treasure, bandits gone. They lied to us.” He sounds bitter. Not a happy and willing soldier then.

  “Well he speaks,” said Theodora, also in Darkspeech. She took her helmet off and leaned forward so that the hob could see her eyes, which glowed faintly in the night. If anything he now looks even more terrified. “Give him a few berries and keep him alive. He has already told us that they were sent. He might be able to give us more yet. You stay here and I will start ferrying everyone back. We will follow them on the carpet, but we should regroup first.”

  ~~~

  They brought their captive hob back with them. It turned out that his name was Saygaanzaamrat. “A bad choice for coming here,” said Astrid, with a laugh, when they had reached the village to a series of blank looks. “Oh, in Darkspeech it means something like ‘pillager of emeralds’. It may be the same in Hob.” She checked with Ayesha, who nodded. “Well, we mine emeralds and the pillaging didn’t quite go according to plan, did it. Jokes really lose something when you have to work them through a couple of languages. Why cannot you lot all speak Darkspeech like normal people. I’ll bet more people speak it than this entire gaggle of western languages all put together.”

  Basil stood guard with his wife. Saygaanzaamrat is very eager to answer anything we ask, particularly after Father Christopher healed his injuries. He asks to be let go, but that is not happening. He speaks in broken Darkspeech. Now I am a translator. The Masters sent someone to the village, a Human. He had come several times before when they were told not to come in this direction. When they had not obeyed what they had been told to do, bad things had happened to the tribe, hunters had not returned from the hunt, avalanches had thundered down, the crops had failed and floods had swept people away. The shamen of the village had proved that they were useless against t
hem.

  Yesterday they were told that the village had been left open and the slaves were theirs to do what they wanted with. They were told that there were only a few defenders and much treasure. He looks around at that. “Yes,” said Theodora. “There are very few of us, and yes, there is much treasure. That much is true.”

  He swallows and continues. They were told to come down at night. They were told everything was theirs except for a few things. He said he didn’t know what they were—their leaders did, but he didn’t. All he knew is that they were supposed to leave the gate open when they returned to their village and to hold it open with a rock.

  “I guess,” said Theodora, “that the Masters had new tenants in mind. We need to be very vigilant over the next few days, although we know that they are expecting to have the door open and will probably go away if it is not. We need to look deserted. That means only someone who cannot be detected can go to the lookout.”

  “Then I am off to bed,” said Astrid. “That means Ayesha and I have some sleep to get, after I burn some of the excitement off.” Basil felt his hand grabbed as she left, to much laughter as she dragged him away.

  Although he liked the idea of what was to come he tried to salvage a little dignity. Quickly he blurted out in mock terror ,“Help me. Won’t someone please save me from the ferocious insakharl woman.” Behind him he could hear a lot of laughter, cut off by a closing door.

  ~~~

  Rani

  Rani ignored the byplay and kept looking at the Hob. His hands are now tied, his leg bandaged and he is looking around him at the varied faces. It is clear that he has not gotten the joke from the blank incomprehension on his face.

  When the hilarity had subsided, Rani asked, “What do you know of the Masters?”

  Saygaanzaamrat’s eyes switched quickly from left to right, as if one of the Masters might be in a shadow nearby. He sounds very nervous. “We know very little. Only our shamen have seen them. They say they walk like men, and reek of evil. They say that they think that they are some form of undead, but none that they have ever seen or heard of. They once tried to find out more in the spirit world, but there has been a fog over much of it for many years. The fog is growing and growing deeper. The shamen convinced our headman…I cannot say his name…we cannot speak the names of the dead, and he led us earlier and was the first to die…there are many names that will not be spoken for some time…they convinced him that the growing fog meant that the power of the Masters was growing. We either had to leave the valley where the village is or else become one with the fog and the Masters. We should have left.”