by B A Fleming
He had not contested the Valley Games since his time as a soldier some six years before. Daak was a fine archer and a capable swordsman who often sought a challenge. He was blonde haired and second generation after his father brought their family from Vasa out to Tharkomad to invest in the emerging merchant trade. Daaks’ father had died at the hands of bandits taking a delivery to the lake towns. His father had always loved the forest and taught his son and daughter how to live off the land. The parcel of land that they had purchased north of Tharkomad allowed the family to work the land and still undertake the merchant trade.
All three were caught in adrenalin of the battle, swinging, stepping, striking in whatever room they could create for themselves. Casperi stepped aside as his opponent fell. He was then hit on the side of the head by a glancing blow. He stumbled for a few moments and then turned to face a mad Ice Gol jumping towards him. He stepped again, taking most of the second blow as a deflection off his shield.
The Ice Gols unfurled a giant crossbow, at least one and half times the size of a longbow. The magician stood next to it, lifting a shard of ice from the ground, and with a wave of his hand fashioning a large, sharp tipped bolt that they set in the crossbow and let go. The first hit its mark as the soldier that had just moved next to Dralan flew backwards into an ice wall. He stood upright, dead, a large hole through his chest, with the arrow pinning him to the wall. Denue moved across to where several others had joined the battle as one of his soldiers fell.
A six-legged creature made its way into the valley and approached the battle. Its handlers stood back at the entrance to the clearing. It was hairy, the size of a small dwelling, with tusks and razor-sharp fangs that extruded from its upper gums. The Hexapoda was on top of two attackers within a second. Its ice claws lanced into the torso of both victims, leaving them screaming and withering before death. It stopped momentarily to bite the screaming head off one before it was lanced in the rear by one of its Ice Gols masters back into attack. The second victim was left dead on the ice glacier as the animal advanced again upon the rest of the group.
As it jumped towards another attacker, Thais unleashed a steel tipped arrow that sunk deep into its torso just behind its front leg. The seminal screamed in pain and turned to face it's aggressor as Nathe ran up, stepping on the creatures knee to launch himself into the air and onto its back, planting his sword into its middle ribs just near its backbone.
The creature fell instantly as its spinal cord had been severed, turning vainly onto its back and trying to attack the latest assailant, who defiantly continued with momentum to roll off its back and land in a somersault onto the ice and quickly stride from its reach.
The creature groaned as its eyes rolled up almost reluctantly towards the Ice Gol masters, who hesitated a few moments, waiting for it to die, before recommencing their attack. The humans stood back from the creature, knowing that it would quickly expire, turning their attentions away once they knew they were far from any last potential strike it could possibly make.
The Ice Gols magician cast a blue pulse of light towards the creature, hitting it on the head and allowing a quick death.
Another bolt of blue lightning shot from the Ice Gols magicians’ arm as two of the kingdom soldiers fell without even raising their shields in defense. Thais now stood on the firm ground on the left edge of the battle. Her arms stretched upwards, eyes glowing and the rest of her body trembling as the inner depths of her power surfaced. She screamed the words "fire" and orange bolts exploded from her forward moving hands exploding at the Ice Gols magician, destroying his crossbow.
He bounced backwards, rolling in a ball several times before coming to a stop against the edge of a rock wall, motionless. Several of the Ice Gols warriors ran to his aid. They rolled him over and lifted his half limp body. He was alive, but dazed. He stood with the assistance of two others, shaking, and took deep breaths as he remained half bent over.
Each side had sent a wave of attackers forward. Some still equipped with the ice swords that he had fashioned earlier in the battle. The magician slowly raised himself and stood, taking deep breaths. After almost a minute he let fly a volley of over thirty ice spears towards his attackers.
"Shields" yelled Veer, as those not engaged in the battle reacted raising their shield just in time as ice spears landed on or around them. Thais had remained still during the recovery of the ice magician as if recovering her own power. She raised her arm up towards the incoming volley of spears that now shattered into a thousand particles that rained down upon the party.
Another spell was quickly cast by Thais using three simple words and with a circular wave of her arm. The crimson ball briefly danced in the air before she thrust her arm forward and the ball turned into flows of crimson that stuck two of the Ice Gols attackers, the smell of burning flesh filling the air as they shrieked in pain before crumbling to the ground.
Gameard shot down another two with his short bow before swapping back to his sword as others came closer. Veer, stunned by the turn of events, looked at the girl.
He was standing five paces from her with another in between them.
The ice magician released a second volley and Thaïs’s face seemed to redden with anger yelling "fire" once more and waved her arm horizontally across the face of her body and heat wave steered from her arm extending into a large sweep of the area from a foot above the ground into the sky. Warriors from both sides shrieked at the blast of heat, mid battle, the ice swords in many hands instantly melting, the ice spears instantly disintegrating to water. The slippery glacier transformed into a puddle.
The humans now had the upper hand of the battle and Thais looked directly at her horrified opponent, almost knocked over again by the blast of heat. Twisted, her hand formed whiffs of energy encircling into an evil ball that she launched straight at him. He collapsed instantly. Dead.
Another ten Ice Gols had arrived from around the corner of the valley and quickly sought to join the battle. Dralan called to Gameard. “You come with me and we’ll take on those three. He can take on these two,” he said, pointing at Casperi.
Dralan and Gameard moved across the line to face more of their foe forming up on the right flank. As Gameard swung he fell a burning sensation as someone had struck his side.
“I’ve got him,” yelled Dralan.
Daak quickly joined them as they disposed of their attackers.
A few minutes later Nathe called out across the fray. More appeared before them.
“There’s too many. Fall back down the hill.” Veer grabbed the arm of Thais and Curran joined him and another soldier. A group of mercenaries and Casperi were caught in a fierce battle with an equal number of opponents as they slowly moved away.
Veer turned to Thais. “We can’t stop, or we’ll all die. We must leave him to defend himself. He’s smart. He’ll find his own escape. We can’t do anything for him now or we’ll all die:”
Dralan, now fighting alongside Casperi turned to leave, glancing over his shoulder to see most of the remaining
party fleeing down the hillside into the forest in almost the opposite direction.
He called Casperi and the other two still fighting to lead the Ice Gols along the trail so that the rest of the party had time to escape. They lead their remaining attackers for fifty feet along as the path started to bend and twist along the gorge. Casperi was struck again in the head and tripped, falling down the steep slope to come to rest within a rocky outcrop over a steep ledge.
Chapter 9
With hazy vision he slowly rose to his feet. First he lifted his buttocks, using his hands and feet, all placed on the ground to steady himself. Then he lifted his hands one by one to his knees and spat out blood that lulled in his mouth. Finally he lifted his torso up to a three quarter posture.
Every muscle ached in his body as he pulled himself up over the ledge. He collapsed again, taking in deep breaths before lifting himself up onto his elbows. He sat up. His left knee and right leg ached. Slowly h
e repeated the process until he was standing. Shaking, he trod forward one foot after the other.
Casperi looked around. The landscape looked foreign to him and he was unable to get his bearings from any possible landmark. He decided that he had fallen, although he was unsure of just how far, so he carefully crawled his way up the steep slope until he eventually found a path, collapsing in the last step onto the packed trail of mud and solid stone. He raised himself again, his head swum with the altitude and possibly the several knocks that it had taken.
He walked clumsily along the path trying his best to move at a steady pace and remain upright at the same time. His leg wretched in pain and his head wound although dried, seemed to ooze the occasional rivulet of blood down across his cheek. His world was fuzzy at best but he knew that he needed to keep going if he were to remain alive and have any chance of helping his comrades.
*****
A wave of shame and anger rolled over her, and she kicked the ground and cried, feeling the warm pain through her. Her breath was stuck in the back of her throat and she gasped to breathe.
“It’s okay lass. It’s a horrible business,” said Curran, the soldier that she had known for almost ten summers.
She was trembling and afraid. Both with the thought of killing others and also losing her brother within the past hour. She wiped her mouth and cried a bit more, constantly walking around, staring at the ground, afraid to look up at anyone.
“The scouts are out looking for any others,” mentioned Nathe in an empathetic voice. Baron Archivy had given him the responsibility of looking after his children and he too was shocked to lose the prince.
“Once we know the area is clear, we should go back up and look for your brother,” suggested Veer.
The remnants of the battle were obvious to see. The slushy pink and brown stained snow, footprints and broken branches. Everything would be gone in a week or so, but Thais couldn’t bear to dwell on the lives that had been lost, on both sides.
The corpses of the Ice Gols had been dragged to a stack on one side of the clearing. Those that had been wounded and left had been finished off with a blade to neck.
The mercenaries and Catheridge soldiers that had perished in the battle were laid side by side in a shallow grave, and four of the men were in the process of covering them with rocks when the princess had returned to the scene. Casperi was not amongst them. Dralan was making his way around to each of the bodies, giving them last rights with the small prayer he performed with each one.
“That soldier there, Denue, taught me how to use a shield when I was ten years old and snuck out arrows from the royal armory for me before I learnt how to make them myself.”
“They fought bravely my lady,” observed Veer. “But without your magic we would have lost more. You saved most, if not all of us.”
Nathe made no attempt to console her now, completely absorbed in his own tactical thoughts, examining and re-examining each observation of the battle in his mind. He now worked with Soze and Daak to examine the scene for any clues of their lost prince.
The snow had commenced falling again.
Only softly for a few minutes, then heavier as the moments past. Broken arrows would soon disappear under the cover of white.
“We’d better get moving, before we get trapped in this,” recommended Veer.
“Where do you recommend?” asked Nathe. It seemed to all that their differences had finally been put aside, at least for the moment.
“Up towards that outcrop over at the beginning of that valley. It is a short trek in the wrong direction, but if my memory serves me there is at least one cave that we could rest in for the night.”
“How many wounded do we have?”
“Three. All should be able to continue by the morning, but they will need to be carried up to that cave you are talking about.”
“Well let’s assign two men to each and we’ll get moving.”
Darkness was closing in by time the party made its way into the cave. The two forward scouts had located two caves and chose one for its depth and aspect. Black charring signaled that it had been previously used, although not recently, and a guard was immediately set in case anyone else had the same idea. The men laid wearily against the stone walls of the cave. Their bones ached and more than one was wishing for a warm bath and a hearty whench down in the valley where the air was still reasonably kind.
*****
The creatures’ eyes had long ago evolved to the low light and even without a torch he could easily navigate his way through the tunnel at a jog. He stopped, the thin dirt of the floor left traces of those that had passed. He examined the footprints, and although not an expert tracker, he had a clue of the types of animals that visited these tunnels and the types of tracks they would leave. His father, like all fathers in his tribe, had passed on these skills to his young. It was a survival mechanism that all childling were taught, even if they didn’t stray far from their dwelling.
There was only one fresh track but these patterns of human footsteps seemed strange, as if the person was stumbling, sometimes falling. He followed it knowing that tunnels of these mountains could quickly separate and the chances of finding this human decreased with every passing breath. He continued to jog, following the steps, and cursed quietly under his breath as the dirt floor slowly was replaced with solid stone.
The light of the torch danced across the pattern work of scrapes and crags as Casperi ran down the passage. In this darkness, and his haste to escape a small band of oncoming Ice Gols, he had run into this tunnel by accident, whilst trying to hide. At the time, he had been trying to fashion some sort of torch and as they had come closer he had panicked and run deep into the caverns. He now knew that finding his way back to his companions was already near impossible, even if he was to evade the adversaries who followed him.
Casperi ducked into a left side corridor and ran quickly, continuously scanning his surroundings and looking for another turn so that he might evade them. The first few minutes in the tunnels had been difficult but now he had slowed and found a way to use the walls to keep him more upright. It had seemed like forever but even in this groggy state he estimated that the chase had been unrelenting for only a short time over twenty minutes.
Almost turning back on itself he stepped to his right into another passage, took four more steps before a left into another and then paused. Intently he listened for the sound of the creatures. They had seen him turn down the first corridor but not the rest. He could hear them yelling in strange grunts to each other as they rushed past.
He was exhausted. His head, arms and legs ached. He breathed then listened.
Nothing. No sounds, no movement.
Waiting a few minutes, he crept around the first corner, listening intently for any sound of the creatures. His breath was heavy but he held it quietly as he approached the corridor, holding the flame lower and behind him as not to cast too much of a shadow.
He drew a deep breath, leaning forward to peer around the corner in the direction the creatures had taken. Nothing. Nothing the other way either. He leaned back, his head throbbing as he adjusted his sweaty grip on his sword and slowly, carefully, slipped back into the corridor and the direction he had come from. After less than a minute he had arrived at the junction onto the main path. He stopped a few steps from the end and listened to the sounds of a creature quietly singing a tune to itself.
He took the sound in, placing his origin a best could, just around the corner to his left, most probably leaning on, and more likely sitting against the wall of the path.
Another deep breath. He leapt forward, securing his right footing with his sword held over his right elbow. Perfect, he thought, slicing down towards the creatures’ face. It let out a sudden shriek that echoed through the corridors as his blade sliced through its lower jaw and most of its throat. Dead, almost instantly, but not instantly enough.
Casperi stopped momentarily and continued down the passage away from the direction he had c
ome. The stone was hard enough here that tracks would be difficult to find whereas he knew that the path had been sandier closer to the opening. Good trackers would have doubled back towards the opening to search for tracks leading out. That would give him enough time for an escape of sorts or at least a few minutes’ head start.
He kept running, always to the left in hope that he could double back and find his way out eventually. His pursuers were still around, somewhere, in the darkness. He stopped after every fifty or so paces, listening to any sound of their grunts.
Finally, after another long period, he sat and rested for a while. As he sat, he scanned the cave with his torch. He spied a small hole in the wall almost at chest height. He stood up and walked across and around the corner slightly. He stuck his torch through and then his head. It was narrow but a definitely another tunnel hidden behind the wall.
Nothing in the tunnels he had been in thus far had lead him to anywhere of note so Casperi decided that there would be no harm lost to explore this tunnel and climbed
through the opening. As he pulled his hands through he realized that this tunnel stood a good foot higher above the one he had just been in and thus allowed him to rest on his back as he pulled his legs through.
The tunnel curved away from the hole where Casperi had just come as if the diggers of this larger tunnel had broken the hole through and decided against continuing. This tunnel curved around like a flattened ‘u-shape’ and headed in a direction seemingly completely opposite to the tunnel he had previously been in. The tunnel was also much smoother than the previous series of tunnels as if cut by a different hand.
He still measured his footsteps, listening for the Ice Gols. Although he figured that he would be less likely to come across them, he wanted to be sure and carefully followed the same process he had done before.