by B A Fleming
A sound now started to echo through the passages. It became stronger and stronger with each breath. Casperi turned into a side passage and waited. A large white creature slithered past, so large it took up almost the entire width of the passage, and almost forty feet in length. Although he didn’t see its head he did see some white markings upon it and plenty of scars and scratches as it slid past. The creature exited down a passageway to the left and Casperi turned and ran in the direction that the creature had come from.
A game of cat and mouse commenced with the creature, never actually face to face with Casperi, although almost on several occasions. He was getting tired and his head throbbed so much so that he had started to become dizzy once again.
His pace had become slow and deliberate. It had been a crushing day and Casperi felt the weight of his loss more than he could have ever imagined. He held his torch up high and hoped for some luck. Listening for the beast as it slithered back and forth through the tunnels, he searched for an opening, any opening to remove himself from its path. Then there it was. Climbing into a hole above him, he found a small space just enough to lie down or half sit up. He knew he needed to rest.
He sat for a few moments. Tiredness weighed on him again. His torch had run low so he decided to extinguish it for a while and relight it again later. He sat back and closed his eyes. He fell asleep to the sound of some of the other creatures screeching as it chased them along a nearby tunnel.
A sound awoke Casperi. He had no idea of how much time had passed. His muscles felt as sore as they had previously and his feet still ached so he guessed that the sleep had not been for too long. He lay in the darkness. A creature slithered past the opening of another tunnel thirty feet from him. He sat in silence observing the shadows and the sounds. The darkness had added to his night vision and the shape of the creature could be clearly made out. A few minutes after it’s passing, he turned and climbed down, softly making his way down a passage away from the direction of the creature.
Soon after, maybe ten minutes of walking slowly half feeling his way upon the wall, he came to an opening in the tunnel. Almost door like in its shape, he stepped to his left and entered a room. The room had the sense of being hand carved with several top flattened stones. In a corner was a rough bag, a used campfire, and dug out shelf that could easily have made a bed. Upon the bed lay the remnants of a skeleton, half of one leg missing and an obvious bite mark through its torso. Behind the bag an old sword laid on the ground and fragments of cloth draped down the skeletons arm to the ground.
Casperi reached in the bag and opened it. His first hand touched a rounded stone like object and he relight his torch before reaching in again. He held a petrified loaf of bread in his hand, considering it for a moment before placing it on the ground and continuing his search.
The next few stones were much rougher cut and as he drew them from the bag. They shimmered, larger than any of the kingdom’s coins, each one was the size, or larger than the skimming stones he would collect as a boy. He put them into his pouch and drew out the same amount of stones again.
This time he removed his backpack and placed this second score of stones towards the bottom of that. Still more stones filled the bottom of the bag and within five handfuls a lifetime worth of riches were extracted before the spare clothes they were resting on disintegrated in his searching paw, leaving only a few scattered silver and gold coins in the musty dust in the bottom of the bag.
*****
“You’ve certainly surprised us there lass,” observed Gameard, coming to sit beside Thais whilst handing her one of two hot cups of honey tea that he held. A small fire had been built in a corner of the cave that couldn’t be seen from outside.
“I’ve known you all your life my lady and I’ve never seen anything like what happened back in the middle of that battle,” mentioned Curran joining the conversation, standing near her. Many of the others had gathered around her as well, mostly sitting, as if waiting an explanation.
She looked at the cup in her hand. “The soldiers of Catheridge here know the stories of Saith the Sorceress, so I guess you also know who she is now,” she mentioned, glancing up at Curran. He smiled back at her. Only a few people, including her father, older brother and the Priest Nolan had known of this secret.
“Now I know how you took me down when we met,” mentioned Gameard.
“But you probably still deserved it,” added Vabnar with a smile. Several others chuckled at this thought as well.
All sat in silence for a few moments, reflecting on the situation.
“Can you do it all the time, or only when you are angry?” asked Dralan.
“All the time, I guess,” offered Thais sheepishly, “although it seems stronger when I’m angry. The energy seems to flow easier,” she observed.
“So, you are still learning?” asked Edgar, another Catheridge soldier.
“Well, yes.”
“So, that’s why you want to see the Seer? To find out if he can train you?” asked Dralan.
“Yes, something like that,” she answered, still staring mainly at her cup.
“But then who trained you before Thais? The priest?” queried Curran.
Thais thought about this question for a few moments. “Yes,” she quietly answered. She put her head towards her hands.
“The girl is probably just as exhausted as the rest of us,” offered Gameard. “I think we can all do with some rest.”
Within minutes most of the party was asleep. Dralan started meditating.
*****
The statue opened its eyes. Following the same process as usual it breathed quietly, slowly stretching its solid legs and arms and keeping watch on the corridor about it. Several soldiers approached. Its eyes closed and they marched past none the wiser.
As they disappeared around a corner he looked again. Listened, waited and then strolled the fifty paces to his masters’ room. As it was still early in the evening and a guard was yet to be posted outside the bedroom door of the Emperor.
As the statue entered the room the Emperor quickly covered the face of the servant girl he had with a pillow. He told her to close her eyes or she would be executed, and she followed his command. He opened her mouth and poured in some liquid cup of spirit that he kept especially for such occasions on his bedside shelf. The girl was unconscious in a matter of moments.
“You’re early this evening,” observed Emperor Koguryo.
“Your highness, Prince Casperi has been disposed of. But we now face another problem.”
“You cannot undertake a simple assignment young knight?”
“The girl, the sister, seems to be a sorceress of some talent.”
“Then kill the girl as well!” he almost shouted.
“As your will highness,” he acknowledged, bowed, and left the way he had come.
Chapter 10
Arthung landed upon the stone as King Edward stepped out from the shadows.
“Great dragon, do you have news of these trouble makers of Catheridge?”
“You worry too much King. It is as if your life was in danger.”
“I worry that our freedom shall be arrested by those who do not follow my rule.”
“My king, you have little to be afraid. They have now left the valley up into the snow, but I have made conditions unfavorable for them. If they are to survive I shall deal with them when they return to face me. What of your spies? Are they not responsible to prevent success?”
“I have no word of them great Arthung. I guess, as you say, time will tell.”
“Then there is nothing for us to do but wait, and wait we will. The snow will have already descended upon them, and will sweep the valley in due time as well. I await their return, as should you king.”
*****
Morning arrived with snow and cold. The winter was moving further down the slopes and now a foot of fresh white laid outside the cave. The small amount of wood that had been gathered was almost exhausted and the injured were assessed
as all being of a passable state to continue.
Of the original contingent of royal soldiers only Nathe and Curran, the scout Dwane, Orate and Edgar remained, with five of the mercenaries recruited in Tharkomad. The party now contained a total of twelve souls with the loss of Casperi.
“Last time I trekked this path was over two summers ago. Nothing much changes in the mountains, but the number and frequency of Ice Gols is like nothing I have ever seen before,“ observed Veer.
“Twelve of us left,” mentioned Nathe. He, Gameard, Veer, Curran and Dralan sat around the dying campfire together.
“We can’t last another battle like yesterday, or we’ll all be dead,” added Gameard.
“So, then we go stealth. Chip our way through the mountains, set forward scouts to continuously plot our route,” suggested Nathe.
“I still have Dwane, and Orate and Edgar are pretty smart,” said Curran.
“Unfortunately, they are all we have left of our original guard, so they will have to do,” confirmed Nathe.
“I’m told Daak is a fine tracker as well, but maybe we’ll leave him as a backup, should one of the others be lost,” added Gameard. The others nodded.
“I’ll take Orate, and Edgar can tag along with Dwane. We’ll mark the trail up to thirty minutes’ walk ahead at any time.”
“It’s going to be slow going either way.”
The steep slopes of the mountains swept down onto a thin, forested slope which then dropped over another escarpment into vast, seemingly impenetrable forest of the western end of the Kingdom of the Valley. Even those trails that had been cut had been done so with every inch hard fought and won at some stage or other in the past. This was normally considered a no mans‘ land, but the high numbers of Ice Gols bode badly for the travelers.
They gradually made their way along the ridge, staying to the more covered areas that allowed stopping behind heavy clumps of trees and rocky outcrops. The foliage gradually became less dense and by the end of the day they had made their way north and crossing several ridges that ran up from the forest and the deep valleys below.
In the distance the faint light from Bardon’s’ Stockade could barely be seen down in the valley. It was the western most outpost with a small inn, a stable, and a garrison manned by the House of Tharkomad soldiers. Being so out of the way it was used mainly by logging parties, miners, and explorers. The garrison was an indifferent line of defense against mountain Trolls and Ice Gols, although few ventured so far down.
The first snow falls could be seen far below and winter was definitely on its way.
“The Ice Gols seem to have some amongst them that possess the ability to use magic at will, without incarnations or scrolls. We need to be weary of them and ready for whatever beast they conjure,” suggested Dralan.
“I’ve never fought another magician,” said Thais to him, “I was worried that I would lose. It was only when I realized that all of his magic was based on ice that I knew what to do.”
“So, do you think you can defeat them next time?”
“I hope so but I’d prefer to avoid them if I can,” she looked at him. He was the most interested of the party in her skills. Most were surprised at her talents but left her to her own thoughts beyond the initial conversation.
Thais sat back against the tree and thought but more so felt. She knew deep down that Casperi was still alive, she could feel it, sense it within. Although he had disappeared two days before she knew that he was still somewhere and that she would see her brother again.
This journey had become far more frightening without him and although there were still men of the royal house guard with her, she was most comfortable with her brother by her side. Thais drifted off to sleep as the scouts returned and the mercenaries finished setting up camp for the evening.
Her breath puffed like smoke in the predawn light. Veer was tending to the fire and made a cup of tea that he turned and handed to the girl. He had been awake well before her, gathering firewood, and making a pot of brew for the tired guards, preparing the camp for breakfast.
She thanked him and stared quietly into the metal, feeling the warmth of it through her finger and down her throat.
“He’ll be back again,” he observed, looking directly at her.
“Who?” she proposed.
“That troublesome brother of yours. You know who girl,” he smiled.
“Yes, I know. But I’m still worried about him.”
“He’s probably got himself into some sort of mess. He’ll come back when he works it out.”
“Thank you Veer,” she smiled. “I’m glad we found you.”
“Well, I found you highness, truth be told.”
“Yes, you did,” she smiled. “You’re a crafty old devil, aren’t you?”
“Well, I’m still alive, and I can’t say that for too many of my mercenary friends.”
The Catheridge soldier Orate exited his tent. Standing tall in the morning light pulling his breaches up full and tight, before raising his arms up to a stretch as he stared up towards the mountains with a yawn. He had been on guard duty until midnight and thus slept soundly through until now. He looked across the small clearing to the fire and Veer who had resumed his position of preparing the tea, and scrapping aside some of the charcoal to make hot beans. Thais sat, wrapped in her cloak with her back to him.
“Your highness,” remarked the solider as he approached her.
“Oh, good morning Orate, did you sleep well?”
“As best as could be expected. How are you fairing?” he enquired, regarding her.
“Yes, same. I’m sure he’ll be alright.”
“I’m sure he will be too.”
“I know he’s still alive.”
“You’ve always that that knack to know things. Your father and Nathe have made this comment on many occasions. If you know, then I believe it to be true,” he observed as he sat beside her. The man was six years older than her and hadn’t been close to either sibling as they grew, but he had guarded them on many occasions and had witnessed their close bond.
Casperi had also bested Orate when the boy was only fifteen, so his respect for the young Prince had only grown since that day. Veer poured the liquid from a boiling pot into one of the many cups sitting beside him and then turned to hand it to Orate. He half stood and reached out to accept it.
“Thank you Veer,” he offered. Veer handed it to him without expression and turned his attentions to the rest of breakfast. Within five minutes most of the party had arisen and come to stand or sit around the fire watching Veer slowly boil the beans.
A few minutes later they were offering the now emptied cups up to be refilled with breakfast.
The men stood silently, taking small almost unperceivable breaths. The stranger stood before them, looking, considering, Thais stood at his side as she described the layout of the valley to him from the lookout. They glanced at each other and waited for everyone to finish. Gameard stood nearby with a look of apprehension, sharing the occasional quiet word with Soze. Thais had requested that Dralan help make decisions. The young knight from a far land had considered the opinions of many and watched the valley carefully.
The party moved along a narrow trail that meandered through a steep rocky slope, ten paces below the ridge. Although the going would be easier upon the ridge all could see the benefits of their rocky trail in protecting them from the harsh wind that blew off the upper glacier slopes, and in providing a measure of secrecy in their path. Winter was definitely moving swiftly down into the valley and the icy cold wind penetrated deep within.
Both groups of trail blazers returned together and a break was called and guards set. The news from ahead was grim. A troop of mountain trolls were camped along the path.
Mountain trolls had long since left the Valley during the past hundred years, as the Ice Gols had slowly, but surely taken over more territory. Although not many humans had ventured up into the mountains, both because they had been picked off by the black
dragon, or were fearful of him; enough had returned to tell of this race of goblin like war creatures that had moved in from the west through the mountain valleys.
The trolls had been contained more to the Mountains of Sart with only a few humans having actually seen them. Legends told of large, sparsely clad brutes, similar to the Wood Trolls that inhabited the area to the west of Catheridge Castle, but with bluer, thicker skin.
They discussed their observations as an entire group. The layout of the trolls’ encampment and their guards. These mountain trolls were smart, well-armed, and a long way from home.
They were wide, strong creatures, with ugly faces and whiffs of hair across their undulating skulls as the hair covered them all over except the tops of their heads. The creatures generally snared and husked at each other. Unlike some of the Ice Gols that had managed to pick up pieces of the human language over the years, the mountains trolls seemed less interested.
This group of mountain trolls had been promised a feast of humans to come on this marauding by the Ice Gols. Weeks had passed and the mountain trolls had feasted on all the upland goats that they could find along with the occasional human shepherd who had strayed too high up the slopes. They sat around the fire arguing over what they should do as only meagre pickings were left in these parts of the mountains. They weren’t allowed to feast on the Ice Gols themselves, and walking to more abundant hunting grounds had seemed to become a further and further possibility with each passing day.
Curran had returned with the news. He had watched as the mountain trolls sat around their campsite arguing with their leader and each other as to whether to abandon this campaign or continue. The members of the group could sense fear in their leader and knew that they would have to abandon him for another once this battle had passed. An uncertain leader is a quick path to death and such a leader would be relieved of his duties and his life in short order.