“Hello.” Darcy whispered. When no reply came Darcy gently shook Calvin trying to stir him. Calvin remained unresponsive. His breathing was shallow and he barely had a pulse. He was either dying or the demon was coming through and neither option seemed that great to Darcy. Darcy didn’t relish the idea of trying to find his way out of that place on his own but he dare not face the demon. He had wanted to be a hero as brave as his father and he had, by luck, killed a young Dragon but Darcy was not made of the right stuff. He was a noble, maybe a leader but not a hero. “I’m, I’m sorry Calvin.” Darcy said. He felt terrible about leaving Calvin but he had no choice. He would die if he waited with Calvin. They were still a couple of day’s walk at best from the edge of the Scorched Lands and probably further from a good meal and fresh water. If Darcy waited around for Calvin to recover he might not make it out of the Scorched Lands at all and if Rinwid came back Darcy wanted to be as far away from the shadow creature he’d seen as he could get. Darcy was about to crawl out from the hut when a spluttering of ash and dust fell in through the half filled doorway scattering across the floor and landing on top of a similar pile Darcy had made when he had pushed Calvin into the same hole. “Who’s there?” Darcy called out startled. He was too weak to fight off anyone and his shoulder felt like it would pop out of place if he swung the little dagger too swiftly. The hole was too small for a Dragon to get in but that did not mean that the young Dragonlings had not came back and would not dig down into or worse collapse the hut in on top of Darcy. “Were you with the caravan?” Darcy asked scrambling around for the bloodstained dagger. He hoped maybe that one of the guards had decided to come with them and that the caravan and supplies were up top. He hoped but knew it was a fool’s hope.
“What Caravan?” Fintan called out as he slid down into the gloom. The silver colored armor was now filthy and showed sighs that he had been travelling through the Scorched Lands for a few days tracking Darcy and Calvin. Darcy could not have been more relieved to see it was a humanoid that had dropped down into the hut and not the snarling face of a young Dragon, or worse its adult counterpart.
“ Who are you?” Darcy asked not releasing his grip on the dagger he was calmed to see it was an Elf that had joined them but that did not mean that they were necessarily safe. It was amazing even to Darcy that he found the strength to hold the weapon up. A day before he could not willingly kill a fly but after the sickening feeling of his own mortality and the feeling as he executed the Dragon. Darcy knew if it came down to it. He could kill again if it meant getting out of this place.
“ The names Fintan, I presume you’re Darcy from Neeskmouth?” Fintan said. There was no point in hiding the fact he knew the name of the man in front of him. He had after all been tracking them for days and it didn’t look like he would be much of a threat. Fintan eyed up the young human noble Darcy and the weak way he held the dagger. “You may as well put the blade down human. Your skills are no match for mine.” He said. Fintan did not need to be diplomatic. He had practiced all his life for an adventure just like this and his journey from Port Lust had given him all the time he had needed to find a sense of confidence.
“ You so sure of that green skin?” Darcy said eyeing up the Elf. Darcy didn’t fancy his chance against the new comer who it was easy to see was more athletic than Darcy had ever been in his life. He sighed and reluctantly dropped the blade to ground by his side. “What do you want then?”
“I’m here to take the Dragon heart from you .” Fintan said not taking his eyes off of Darcy. The noble might have been scrawny and now unarmed but Fintan did not fancy having to fight him off if he lunged at him in the confined hut. It was small enough and weak enough that if they began to fight the most likely outcome was the roof coming in on top of them. Darcy actually laughed. He’d always known Harvey had sent other people into the Scorched Lands to find the heart but he hadn’t expected that another Kingdom had joined the bandwagon. It was even funnier that the Elf Fintan wanted to rob them for it after the hopeless attempt they had made of getting it.
“You’re as out of luck as the rest of us. We don’t have it.” Darcy said and he could see that Fintan believed him by the way he sagged. “You have water in that bag of yours?” Darcy asked nodding towards the satchel that Fintan carried on his back.
“ I do, some.” Fintan said offering nothing up. Most of the supplies he had gathered before boarding the ship had been swept overboard. What little he had left had been rationed beyond the point of desperation.
“ Please. We lost our supplies, my friend is wounded.” Darcy said and he stepped aside so Fintan could see Calvin clearly for the first time. He knew it was a long shot to ask this would be bandit for aid but it was the only option Darcy could see available to him in the moment.
“ What happened, I saw the dead Dragon up top?” Fintan asked as he slid the bag from his shoulders and offered up his water skin to Darcy. Fintan knew that would leave him short for the journey home but he was a kind person at heart. Probably too soft if he was honest with himself for the adventuring life that he had longed after. Then again, here he was living it, and to keep living it Fintan guessed he would need to know what the story was with the Dragon, after all they were supposedly extinct.
“ It’s a long story.” Darcy said before he struggled to drink from the skin. The water was warm and tasted stale but it could have been urine and Darcy would have still drunk it, his throat was so sore from the gulped breaths that had been laden with ash during the escape the day before. “How’d you find us?”
“It looks like your friend needs some healing. While I tend to him I’ll tell you the story.” Fintan said. He had been practicing while he tracked Darcy and he had begun to control his new found powers. It seemed whatever it was that had opened the door for the druid powers to stir in Fintan had only gotten stronger the further he had got in his adventures. It was still a long shot but he might be able to help Calvin. “I came by ship. The ship was barely held together by time we reached Port Lust and I felt as sick as a dog. The crazy old captain even looked a little green but I didn’t have too long to recover. I found a horse by the edge of town and rode as fast as I could towards here. That’s when it got tricky.” Fintan said as he passed his hands over Calvin again hoping the druidic power would flow through him. Fintan had been practicing with the powers since he arrived on the mainland and had actually managed to get small shoots to sprout from the ground at command but the gift was still very weak. It was something he would have to work on as the people would expect him to be able to use his powers to aid the Alienage when he returned.
“ Tricky, how did you even track us through the ash?” Darcy asked interested on how it was Fintan had managed to find them in the ever shifting clouds of ash that hid their footsteps. Darcy watched Fintan as he continued to pass his hands back and forth over Calvin occasionally touching the old man’s chest or head. Fintan had been sent to steal the heart from them so Darcy was understandably hesitant of the sudden helpful and open nature he was showing.
“ To be honest it was down to luck, I relied on the Earth Mothers blessing and kept walking straight. That was until I saw the clouds swirling over head yesterday so I started to head this way. If it wasn’t for the Dragon up top I would have probably walked straight past the entrance to this place.” Fintan said giving another pass with his hands. He wondered if his power would even work here. He hadn’t trained as a druid but all Elfish folk know a bit about the lore of it. The whole thing was a blessing from nature and there were no living things in the Scorched Lands. Fintan could barely manage to get green shoots to grow in the open grasslands let alone heal a man in this desolate ash clogged place.
“ Yes, the Dragon.” Darcy said with a shudder that ran through his aching body like woodworm through a library. “The clouds you saw would have been Calvin. He used magic to kill the first of the Dragons.” Darcy said not wanting to tell the new comer of the shadowy demon Rinwid who had briefly appeared in their world. As much
as Darcy didn’t trust the Elf he was the only person who could help at the moment and the only one who had any idea which way led out of the Scorched Lands and Darcy wasn’t planning on letting the demon scare his only chance of escaping away.
“ That explains why I can sense power in him.” Fintan said still focusing on the old wheezing man in front of him. Fintan wasn’t sure if it was power he could feel or if it was just his imagination but he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was watching him and it wasn’t the continual untrusting stare of the well spoken Darcy.
“ What are you doing?” Darcy asked changing the subject of power and growing tired of nothing happening. He hurt all over and had planned to be half way towards the edge of the ash by now but instead he was sat in the cold watching as Fintan flapped his hands around slowly.
“ To be honest I’m not sure. I only found out recently I had any power at all but I should be able to cure him a little. Druids can often tend to the sick.” Fintan said pressing his hand against Calvin’s clammy forehead.
“ So you mean this might not even work?” Darcy said in frustration. The shadow might have scared the Dragons off but they would be back and he didn’t want to still be sat here when they did return. The hut was already mostly rubble and it would take little effort for the young Dragons to force it to collapse.
“ No it might not.” Fintan replied with annoyance. “Look by rights I should have just left you the minute you said you didn’t have the heart. It’s going to be hard to get back to my island as it is with the Poles making their way to Neeskmouth.”
“ What?” Darcy asked taken aback. Things had looked peaceful at the fort when he had left it only a week or so ago. His mind raced between his home town, the little inn and the pretty barmaid and his father. Oh creator his father. If the Poles were on their way to Neeskmouth then his father must have been captured or worse. Darcy slumped the shock dropping onto his shoulders like leaded weights. If he wasn’t so exhausted he might have cried.
“ When I arrived at Port Lust they were sending men to aid at Briers Hill as the Poles had taken it. By now they should be at Neeskmouth.” Fintan said flatly. He could tell the news had upset Darcy but he could not afford to get too attached. He had to keep himself detached from these humans if he planned to take the heart from them as soon as they found it.
“ My father was at Briers Hill.” Darcy said solemnly. He’d been thinking it had been the last goodbye but now it had been confirmed he wasn’t prepared for it. If only he had stayed at the fort. He could have sent the caravan onto the mages tower alone and stayed with his father. The mages could be out in the place looking for the heart and Darcy could have done something, anything to save his father.
“ I sense you feel you could have done something. Do not let this grief cloud your mind Darcy. I have never seen a Pole but I have heard the stories and you, one man, could not have turned the tide of battle.” Fintan said turning to face Darcy who he could tell was fighting back tears.
“ We need to get the heart. There is still time to save Neeskmouth.” Darcy said trying to force down his sadness. He could not and would not let depression creep back into his life. This was his new life. He could not morn for a father that he had lost in an old one.
“ Do you have any idea where it is?” Fintan asked as he slumped to the floor giving in on the old man for now. He was getting nowhere and he was tired to.
“No, Calvin was the one able to track it, though to be honest he didn’t seem to have much idea. I don’t even know where we are or how far we would have to go.” Darcy said in defeat. He rubbed his face with his hands hoping by time it passed over his eyes he would wake up back at home to Granny bringing in a warm bowl and this would all be an overly real nightmare but as the dull light hit his eyes again, he knew he was still in the hovel.
“Well I walked in from Port lust to the north; I travelled towards Raidaridin to avoid Briers Hill and came down almost directly east.” Fintan said thinking. He bent down and with his finger drew the crude boot shape of the Scorched Lands into the dust. “Then I had to turn south to head for the clouds you made while fighting the Dragons. So we should be about here.” Fintan said pushing his finger into the lower right corner of the upside down boot in the area that would have been the tongue, or laces.
“You say that like it is meant to mean something to me.” Darcy said looking at the scrawling. He could tell it was meant to be a map but he had never had much need to learn how to read one and unless the dust showed where the heart was he couldn’t really care much either.
“ You came in with a mage right, from the tower so you came in about here.” Fintan said tapping the top of the boot where the hole would be. “So you walked right out how?”
“How, with difficulty and straight mostly, at least I think so. For about two days or so and then we saw the mountains and started heading towards them.” Darcy said unsure of exactly what the Elf was getting at.
“ So you must have doubled back about there to get here.” Fintan said marking an X into the dust. “That must be where the Dragons come from. So it’s likely to be where the heart is” Fintan felt excitement for the first time since he had landed on this god forsaken place. It was short lived though as the realization that they would not have the supplies to make it there and back hit him like a pinecone falling from the tallest of trees.
“ So we have a map?” Darcy asked. “What happened when we get there then? I can’t let you take it from me.” Darcy said feeling for the dagger at his side. He had picked it back up while Fintan had been distracted with Calvin.
“We couldn’t make it now, not without supplies. We’ve gone far enough southeast though that we’re barely a day’s walk from the Goldhorn Mountains. We should make for them and restock with the Dwarfs.” Fintan said drawing out the path towards them in the dirt.
“ How is it you know all of this?” Darcy asked suspiciously. It seemed almost too convenient if life had taught him nothing else it was that it never went smoothly and anything that seemed too easy always ended up going wrong.
“I always wanted to be an adventurer as a child and we had a map left in the Alienage from before the war started. I use to keep it with me whenever I was out in the forest and pretend I was adventuring in one of the places.” Fintan said truthfully. He had spent so much time playing that he was off in the mountains that he actually knew the area almost as well as he did which branches to grab on his favorite climbing tree.
“I guess I’ll have to trust you for now. ” Darcy said defeated. He had known the moment that Fintan had slid quite literally into his life that he would either be his savior or his end. As he hadn’t outright killed him Darcy felt his best chances meant following Fintan’s hand drawn map.
Chapter thirteen – aftermath of war Harvey who was no longer remembering back to the battle sat defeated in his throne room waiting for the doors to give way to the thuds that beat against them like the second hands of the grandfather clock in the lower castle. It was all over. Harvey couldn’t believe they had really lost the war. The great Neeskmouth jewel of the north, home to the people that had repelled the Dragon overlords now sat defeated and waiting for the final blows to sunder it. The city that had little defense and was weakened by the many diplomatic wars had held out well for a few days, it had all gone to plan, but the plan had failed. The reinforcements had come from Port Lust arriving on the morning of the fifteenth but they were a lot fewer in numbers than Harvey had hoped for, but what more could be expected, Neeskmouth had been on its knees for years and the little money that had remained in the treasury had not been travelling to the small villages that surrounded the sleeping beast. So when it came time for Neeskmouth to call out for aid, many of its people had little love for it anymore and few would die to save it. A centaury is a long time and most had forgotten the true sacrifice the people of the city had made to free all of Northern Neeska from the Dragons but instead remembered the lack of warm clothes and poor diet that livi
ng outside the Neeskmouth Ridge meant for them. The few that did come as fast as they could had not rested and slow marched like the Poles. When they had arrived and been confronted with the might of the Pole army that still sat firmly on the trade route. Port Lusts best were exhausted from the long march and could barely muster the strength to charge. The skirmish had been over quickly and with next to no loses for the Pole’s. The small regiment from Port Lust broke ranks and retreated within hours of first being sighted coming over the hills in the distance and they showed no signs of regrouping for a second assault. That had been the beginning of the end. The trebuchets had been bombarding the docks day and night and most of the White Flag ships either lay at the bottom of the ocean or had retreated to the safety of the White Isle leaving the city to its fate and taking much of their gold and weapons back with them. William Boatswain to most of the cities surprise had been loyal to his word and had stayed to help secure the castle. Harvey wasn’t sure where William was now. He had last seen him heading to his men who were trying to hold the entrance to the noble section of the city. It had happened so quickly. The reinforcements gone had seemingly awoken the monster that was the Pole army. It had remained still at the edge of the city but the intrusion awoke it, and it had marched on the city.
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