by Bob Blink
“It’s trying to attack,” screamed one of the guardsmen as he used his sword to hack at the vines that had wrapped itself around his left arm.
The others could see it now as well. All along the path that had been cut by Debi’s magic, the vines were twisting and grasping into the open space rather than hanging limply as one would have expected from ropey vines that had been cut from their supports. The cut off ends dripped a syrupy yellow liquid, which burned like a caustic when it touched the skin. Two of the guardsmen had to be quickly treated by their healers after being coated with some of the liquid.
“We’re going to have to burn a path, and then stay well in the middle,” Syd suggested, as he and Debi conferred on how to proceed.
“Try it,” Debi ordered.
While she checked on the men who had been burned, Syd created a different kind of ball, this one fiery red and hot. He sent it down the pathway that Debi had created, making the passage marginally wider. Everywhere the fireball touched the vegetation steamed and turned to ash, then ends of the vines burned and blacked. They pulled back into the protection of the surrounding trees, as if eager to escape the killing fire.
Stepping carefully, and watching the edges of the tunnel he had created, Syd stepped down the trail to see if anything would attack him. Staying near the center he was able to move without a problem, and after progressing fifty paces, he returned to where Debi waited.
“It’ll be slower, but it looks like it will work,” he said.
“Let’s try again,” Debi ordered, and with Syd leading the way burning a path, they started through the jungle once again. The magical fire wasn’t silent, and the forest gave off a low wailing in response to the attack. As a result, their progress was not exactly silent, and if anyone was nearby, their presence would have been obvious.
“Daim warned us the vipers are poisonous, didn’t he?” Cerla asked.
“Everything in this place must be considered dangerous,” Debi replied. “Why?”
Cerla pointed. Moving through the ash along the edges of the trail every twenty paces or so, she saw a long red snake. They were mostly moving away from the trail, but some were twisting as if in pain, and in their maddened state might easily attack anything that came near.
“Wonderful,” Debi said. “Warn everyone to keep an eye out for them. If anyone is bitten, the healers should see to it immediately.”
Progress was slow the first day, because they discovered more things to worry about as they worked their way deeper into the unfriendly tangle. Surprisingly no one was bitten. Although they discovered vipers of three distinct colors, including an iridescent blue variety that liked to crawl along the ropy vines above the trail. Everyone was relieved when the end of the day came and they were able to return to the cool and safety of the mountain camp.
For the next ten days the team returned each morning into the uncomfortable environment, slowly making their way south while enduring humidity, heat, detestable creatures, and constant danger. They found nothing of interest, and never saw a Baldari or one of the mounts they rode into battle.
Burke and his team from the Three Kingdoms set out on their own expedition on the same morning as Debi and her group from Sedfair. Burke looked at the six medium sized boats that would carry them down river as they prepared to set off. He wished he had stopped to talk with Tara before leaving the Outpost, but of late they had little to say to one another. She had already indicated her displeasure at his leading this expedition, and it hadn’t seemed prudent to stop just before setting off. Perhaps after things were underway there would be an opportunity. Much like the Sedfair expedition, they would be returning frequently. Minimizing the number of nights they spent camping out in the wilderness.
Each of the boats carried five people. With six boats filled, he was able to take thirty people. Counting himself, Burke had ten wizards, all experienced with the Ruins, Hoplani and various hardships, and a force of twenty soldiers. The soldiers were handpicked for this expedition by Major Loum, a close friend of King Rhory, and Burke was certain they could be counted on no matter what they might encounter. Major Loum was among those making the journey, which surprised Burke somewhat, but the man was obviously an outdoorsman, and had taken to the effort of getting the team ready with eagerness.
Burke realized his team would move slower than the team from Sedfair, at least at first. It was ironic. They would be climbing over the steep mountains and he would be floating down the river, but because they could advance with magic via the Bypass portals, they would move relatively swiftly until they reached the jungle. His team would be restricted to moving at the pace of the river, or perhaps slightly greater. It would be possible to push the boats along with magic, but more than a modest speed would risk swamping the craft. The boats available were not designed for high speed, and there was no time to design and build anything else.
Major Loum looked at Burke for his agreement they could begin, and when Burke nodded the Major shouted out the command that started them on the way. “Push off!” he barked, and a pair of broad-shouldered young soldiers pushed each of the boats away from the shore, jumping in as they caught the current and started to turn downstream.
Because the mountain canyon the river flowed through forced the broad river into a deeper and narrower passage, the current was swift, and it took little time for the base camp to fall far behind them. A small bend in the river soon blocked the view of their starting point. All they could see was gray rock towering above them, the steep walls plunging into the water along either side. The water followed some kind of ancient gorge through the tall mountains, and without magic, it would have been all but impossible to make one’s way upstream.
Traveling was easy, and everyone settled in to long days of sitting. The boats traveled in line, with Burke’s boat in the lead, and that of Major Loum immediately behind. Before long the scenery became monotonous, and in the four glass they had been headed downstream, not a single point where they could have pulled over and beached the craft had been spotted. They ate as they floated downstream from their cold rations carried in the boats. Burke hoped that the nature of the passageway would change, as they would need a place to put in if they were to dock the boats for the night, and make a Bypass back home. If necessary they could travel through the night, using wizard’s light to illuminate their way, but the plan called for them to return each night to the special barracks they had set aside at the Outpost. Given the potential dangers, night travel was not something to be undertaken lightly.
As dusk was settling in, one of the soldiers in Burke’s boat spotted a small ledge along the east side of the river. Burke agreed they should check it out, and using his magic to force the boat more sideways than the river would normally have allowed, he was able to bring them alongside the small flattened area. Close to the cliff a small patch of flat gray stone stood dry above the surface. If they crowded together closely, all thirty of the men might be able to stand out of the water. Extending out from the dry rock, a ledge of rock, almost flat extended some distance out into the water, slowly dropping deeper as it fell away from the edge. Near the dry expanse of rock the water was only a hand deep, although moving quickly.
“Your wizards can drive the mooring spikes into the rock,” Major Loum shouted from his boat, which was a mere handful of paces away. “We can tie off the boats. They should survive well enough until morning. That assumes the flat is large enough for you to make a Bypass so we can go to the Outpost. It’s either that or continue on.”
Burke looked unhappily at the small space available, then looked up at the sky. It was getting dark, and there was nothing else along the river that looked better. This would have to do. He picked up the metal mooring spike that was as long as his arm, with a loop in the end through which a rope had been routed. He tossed it toward the bank, driving it with magic and forcing it deep into the rock. Small chunks of rock blasted free and splattered into the water as the shaft penetrated into the side of the hill.
“See if it will hold,” Burke commanded the soldiers in his boat. They pulled on the rope that was looped through the spike and then tied to the front of the boat. As they pulled, the small craft was pulled toward shore. Finally the water became shallow enough that the bottom scraped on the rock just under the surface. They were close enough to the dry ledge that one of the men was able to leap out and step over to the where the spike was drive into the wall.
“That’s not coming out without help,” the man shouted back. “The rock is solid and without cracks. The boats will hold easily enough.”
At Burke’s signal, the wizards in the other boats followed suit, each driving one of the spikes into the hillside, then pulling the boats close to shore. Burke created a Bypass back to the Outpost, and as the passengers left the craft and stepped into the portal, the boats were pulled even further up onto the rocky ledge and tied off. Satisfied, Burke and Major Loum followed the last of the men through the portal.
The following morning they returned, re-boarded the craft that had survived without incident, and soon were on their way back down the river. The process was repeated each evening, although most nights they were able to find a small beach where they could pull ashore and store the boats. Only once had they been forced to tie the boats together, anchored to a large rock and spend the night floating in the river, no reasonable place to disembark presenting itself.
The climate was noticeably changing. It had been warm and humid enough where they had begun the journey, but now the days sweltered, the temperatures well above what they were used to, and the air so wet everyone was soaked in sweat even though they were merely sitting and following the river. Only the wizards were actively helping the progress of the boats, and then by using their magic to push against the rocky cliffs in an attempt to drive the boats faster downstream.
After five days, the river started to widen, and while they were still deep in the mountains, a variety of greenery started to appear along their route. Large trees grew tall in the small patches of sandy soil, and occasional dark sand beaches were encountered. Numerous brightly colored birds could be seen in the trees and flying overhead. The air was thick with strange smells, and they were still some distance from the jungle itself. Mountains could still be seen for a great distance in front of them.
A shout from one of the boats behind them caused Burke to look back. The wizard was pushing the boat hard in an attempt to catch up. Burke ceased his own efforts to speed his craft forward, and allowed it to slow until it was propelled by the current alone.
“What’s the problem?” he asked as the other boat pulled alongside.
“Have you noticed the worms?” The wizard in the other boat asked.
“Worms?” Burke asked.
“Big ones,” the other replied. “Twice as long as your big finger, and half again as thick. They drop out of the trees along the shore into the water. They appear to be able to swim. I swear they are trying to follow us. They move faster than the current, but can’t keep up with us if we are moving at full speed, but if we slow, they can.”
The boats were closer in to the shore than usual due to the presence of large rocks along the center of the channel. They were moving along as fast as usual, but taking more care in case the rocks became more plentiful. Burke hadn’t noticed anything falling into the water from the trees along the shore.
“There,” the man said, pointing into the water between the two boats.
Burke peered into the water. A couple of hands below the surface, he could see a couple of moving tube-like structures. As he watched, one of them attached itself to the wooden hull. He could see that several appeared to be attached to the hull of the other boat. Burke didn’t like it, but he couldn’t see what harm they might do.
“Perhaps we should move back toward the center of the river,” Burke suggested. “We should also keep moving. When we stop tonight we’ll pull the boat and have a look at these things.”
The wizard in the other boat nodded, and followed behind as Burke directed his lead boat more toward the center of the river. Now that he’d been alerted, he could see the small splashes as the worms dropped from the branches of trees over hanging the river. He’d have to make sure they never pulled under the trees when they approached shore.
A half glass later, one of the soldiers in the back of Burke’s boat swore. “Great Risos! The cursed thing bit me.”
Burke looked back to see what was happening when he saw one of the soldiers stomping on one of the long pale worms. He had a bleeding cut on his leg, and there was a leaking hole in the bottom of the boat where the creature had bored through the wood. Even as Burke watched, the soldier’s eyes rolled up in his head and he passed out.
Burke made his way to the fallen man, and calling upon his healing magic probed for the poison that must have been injected into him by the worm’s bite. One of the men stuffed a bit of cloth into the hole, but the others were now looking carefully for any sign of other holes or worms. The body of the one the fallen soldier had squashed had been pitched overboard. Burke was able to purge the poison, but the man was still unconscious, although his breathing was now more normal.
“Find a place to pull ashore,” Burke commanded. “We need to see how many more of these things are attached to the boats. Stay well away from the trees.”
It took them more than a glass before they found a spot where they could beach the boats that was also clear of the trees and other vegetation that had become so common. The word had been passed to the other boats, and during the search for a landing, three more of the boats had had at least one of the aggressive and venomous worms chew through the wood and crawl into the boats.
As the bow of Burke’s craft ploughed into the sandy soil, he leaped free onto the ground, as did the others with him. Moments later the other boats were beached along side his own, all of the crew standing back. They had been moving quickly through the water and had left behind any of the swimming worms, and there were no trees nearby, so the water was clear.
Burke signaled the others to stay back, and calling upon his magic he rolled over the boat he had been riding in.
“Risos, will you look at them all,” Loum said in disgust as the underside of the boat was revealed. Several dozen of the worms could be seen wiggling in the wood, their bodies sticking out but their heads and mouths well into the hulls.
Burke washed the hull in a swirl of magical fire, burning the worms to ash. They died easily enough, but they couldn’t burn them with fire while the boats were in the water, and they couldn’t know when a convenient beach would present itself.
“Check the other boats,” Burke ordered.
All of the boats were similarly infected and soon blasts of fire were being used to eradicate the infection.
“Several of the boats need to be patched,” one of Burke’s wizards informed him. “The worms chewed most or all the way through in a number of places.”
It was clear they weren’t going any farther today, when one of the soldiers came running back from the shore.
“They’ve found us,” he yelled, pointing toward the water.
At first Burke could see nothing, but then the small ripples at the surface became more pronounced and distinguishable from the normal disturbances caused by the current. As he watched, first one, and then several of worms appeared at the edge and began crawling out of the water.
“What attracts them?” Loum shouted.
“I don’t know,” Burke replied, and directed a narrow beam of bright fire at one of the wiggling masses. It flashed into ash. “Boil the water,” he directed his wizards, and within moments the water along the beachfront was boiling and steaming from the magical energies of almost a dozen wizards. Hundreds of the pale white bodies floated to the surface to be swept away by the current. The magic had to be applied continuously as the current swept the heated water away, but within a couple of minutes no more of the worms floated to the surface.
“We need to change th
e boats,” Burke said when all was quiet. “Let’s go home. We can’t go on until we have something better.”
It took two days to modify new boats, wrapping the wooden hulls in thin sheets of metal that all hoped would be able to resist the worms. It would be impractical to try and boil the river as they floated downstream, and they had to assume the worms would continue to be a problem as they moved deeper into the jungle. The morning of the third day they returned to the beach, bringing the modified boats through the Bypass with them. The one soldier who had been bitten remained in Branid as he was still weak from the encounter. He was replaced by someone new.
“There’s nothing left,” Jorg, one of Burke’s wizards, exclaimed when they stepped onto the beach.
Burke noted the correctness of his assessment. The six boats they had left on the beach were crumpled and splintered. Whole sections had been eaten away, and some of the squirming bodies of the worms could still be seen in the wood. After they had left, more of the worms had come, and had feasted on the craft they had left behind. The worms explained why they saw little in the way of dead and downed trees along the river. On Burke’s signal, the wizards burned the old craft and their squirmy inhabitants to ash.
“Let’s get these in the water,” Major Loum ordered. He didn’t like standing on the beach, half expected more of the creatures to dig up through the sands. He felt more confident in the metalized boats, although he felt sorry for anyone who fell into the river.
A glass later they were all back on the river. They continued downstream, noting that the worms they encountered were indeed frustrated by the metal coating on the hulls. That night when they pulled the boats from the water, not a single worm was attached, although many had been seen in the water during the day’s travel.