Wind Rider

by Teddy Jacobs

  Kara squeezed my hand, and then she was moving across the river, more swiftly than the others, holding her bag, with the precious book, to her side. I watched her walk and tried to commit to memory every step she took. She reached the other side, and waved me on.

  I walked into the river. The water was cold, and my feet and shins went numb; the cold water seeped through my leather shoes. I kept my feet moving, balancing my bag on my shoulder, my sword trailing in the water by my side. My eyes stayed on the water, trying to remember where Kara had stepped, looking out for hidden dangers. There came a point where the water deepened to the height of my knees, but I kept walking, following the same course that Kara had, and then it grew shallow again. I came to the stone patch where the others had slipped. My foot gave way, but I relaxed, and let myself slide, without falling over. I moved forward slowly, as if skating on ice, until the riverbed was softer and less slippery.

  I looked up, smiling, expecting to see smiles all around.

  Kara’s face was filled with fear and horror.

  I turned around.

  Something surged out of the water.

  Turning back to my friends I ran through the shin deep water, glancing back behind me as I approached the shore.

  But it was too late.

  Two enormous jaws were opening and moving towards me faster than I could run.

  I fell face down in the water, got back up again, sputtering, ran a few more feet. My hand went to my side and I grabbed for my sword, but there was nothing. Nothing at all.

  The blade had fallen into the river.

  The great water lizard was just feet away from me. I spoke a word of power, imagining my blade. Komm!

  The blade surged forth from the water just a few feet away from me. The hilt was in my hand and the scabbard flew away onto the shore, just yards away.

  Just in time.

  The blade burned blue, blue fire that I swung down onto the creature’s snout, cleaving off the top half of its jaw. Hot blood spurted out into the cold water as the creature thrashed back and forth, snapping what was left of its jaws at my feet. I danced around it, and swung again, chopping its head clean off. The body thrashed about, and the head snapped several times, as I backed up and onto the shore.

  I sighed in relief.

  Too soon.

  The water seethed. There were more of the creatures, and for a moment I thought they would surge into and out of the last of the shallow water and attack me.

  Instead they converged on the animal I had slain, feeding on their own kin. The water frothed and then was still.

  I felt Woltan at my arm and looked at him as I continued backing up. Then Kara was there too, and she handed me my scabbard. I cleaned the sword and sheathed it.

  When we were a good hundred yards away from the river, we stopped on what must have been the beginning of the rest of the road. “Crocodiles,” Woltan said, then, breaking the silence. “I have read of them in our library. It is far too cold here for them to be here. I wonder if someone sent them.”

  Kara shrugged. “Perhaps they have adapted magically to our cold climate.”

  But then she was staring down at my legs, and I looked down as well.

  There were little black wriggling shapes attached to the bare parts of our legs. “Leeches,” Kara said. “Best to remove them before they feed further.”

  I reached down to pluck at them, but Kara shook her head. “They’ll leave their teeth inside and infect you.”

  Without thinking, my hand moved and I spoke a word of power. Geh!

  I looked down at my legs and the leeches had all fallen to the ground, where they wriggled.

  Kara glared at me. “Didn’t you see how Woltan has been avoiding using magic?”

  “How was I supposed to get rid of them?”

  “Smoked them off, or put a stinging powder. But now that you’ve used magic, I might as well too.”

  She reached down and touched her legs, and said a word so quietly I could not hear her. The leeches disappeared.

  Then Woltan was upon us, scowling. “Why are you using magic? The dark lord has his eyes open, and he looks for you. Your magic will have put a marker here for everyone to see. We have to get moving now, to avoid unwanted company.”

  “Leeches and crocodiles are not unwanted company?” I asked, hoping for a smile.

  Woltan shook his head. “I am glad you’ve regained a sense of humor, Anders, but I see nothing funny here. There are a lot worse things that can come to call than leeches and crocodiles. Magical creatures, more evil and far stronger than anything we have met. And since my people have been in our walled city for so long, we are ill-equipped to deal with them.” His face flushed, and he turned away.

  Kara put her hand on his shoulder. “Woltan, it must be hard to leave a city for the first time in your life. But remember there is evil here that none of us have seen. And your people have kept alive knowledge and wisdom that the rest of us have lost.”

  Woltan nodded. “We must work together. But for now, let’s get out of here, and in the future, avoid magic when not strictly necessary.”

  “At least until we reach the relative safety of our people,” Kara nodded, putting her hand on my shoulder.

  Our people. Kalle wasn’t here with us, so why was she saying that? I couldn’t help smiling then, because I realized she was talking about me, too. Suddenly, I wanted nothing more than to meet my kindred, explore what it meant to be Kriek.

  Woltan was looking at me. “So I have your word, too, Anders?”

  I nodded.

  Woltan looked worried. “If your life is threatened, use magic. But go first for your sword. And remember, we are being watched. Let’s get out of here.”

  After the excitement of the river crossing, it all seemed to blend into one long road. There were tree roots and other impediments, and my feet felt numb and sore at the same time. My eyes numbed too — there was little to see except trees on both sides. Finally we came to a small clearing. It was getting dark, and Woltan called a halt.

  We all sat down and let our packs fall. Cullen began digging a pit with a small shovel, then lining it with rocks. Elias and Karsten collected wood from the clearing, and the woods nearby. Soon they had a big fire going, and Karsten went with Cullen looking for food in the dying light.

  The rest of us huddled around the campfire. Woltan and Kara made soft beds of old rotting leaves covered with newer smooth ones and lay down. Woltan lay flat, facing the sky. “In a few hours we will set watches. Everyone needs to rest, and the watches will be short. We will need to keep a fire burning.”

  I got to my feet and started gathering firewood from the clearing. My feet still hurt, but it felt good to do something besides walk for hours upon end. It was definitely more pleasurable to travel the Kriek way — there in an instant. But then I remembered my uncle’s eyes upon us, and how we all had been frozen, our bodies burning up with energy, our brains frying.

  Perhaps it was better to walk a bit.

  There was also something satisfying about making a great pile of wood, ready to be turned into heat and light. All without magic, unless you called fire magic — there was something magical about the heat and light it gave, when you contained it.

  Elias and Karsten returned with food they had gathered nearby: mushrooms, and a few roots and tubers. Woltan examined and pronounced them all edible. And there was meat; some dried salted pork that Karsten had brought along to flavor everything. It all went into the soup; Karsten and Elias had found a small stream, and even caught several small fish, which Karsten would clean and then bake in the coals. It was amazing how much they foraged and scrounged up in such a small period of time; I figured it must be exciting for them to be outside the gated city, for the first time in who knew how many generations.

  Soon it was completely dark, but you could barely tell with the fire there, lighting and warming us. We slept around the fire in a circle, and I fell asleep watching Woltan, taking the first watch, and then befor
e I knew it Woltan was waking me, and I sat there, rubbing my eyes, and then I stood, until my watch was over; and although several times noises in the night startled me, and a few animals walked across the clearing, nothing approached the fire and I saw nothing all hour with my third eye. When I woke up Karsten to take my watch we talked for a little bit, in whispers, mostly about how cold it was, but then Karsten told me to go to sleep. I fell back asleep almost before my eyes were shut.

  I felt the morning before it awakened me — felt the light on my cheek and my eyes, the sun’s light and warmth. Then I was sitting up, staring at the campfire. Woltan was up, and so was Elias. They were talking quietly a few yards away, but I couldn’t hear anything but the crackling of the campfire. It was almost as if there were voices in it, speaking to me. The flickering flames too seemed to beckon me in. I stared at the flames and felt something change in me, felt like I was leaving my body and falling into the fire. But it wasn’t fire. It was my home, and there was my uncle, smiling at me…

  Come home. You belong with me, not with those traitors. You know the one truth; we will rule together. All the rest is lies and half-truths.

  I felt confused and lethargic; I couldn’t move my body. I stared at the fire and saw my uncle. My uncle beckoned to me with a fiery hand. His face smiled and his laughter crackled in the fire. Come. Together we will free your mother, and live together, all three of us.

  It was then that I felt something. I realized how numb I had become, and felt a buzzing at my side. I reached down and then the sword was in my hand, and then it was out of the scabbard, and I swung it in between myself and the fire. At last my mind was clear again, though I still saw the eyes and the face in the fire. I held out the sword like a wand, facing the fire, and the face smiled at me. Bring the sword with you. With it, we can rule everything and everyone.

  I felt all the power I possessed move from my body to my mouth, and follow my arm to the sword: “VERSCHWINDEN!”

  A bolt of blue fire shot forth from the tip of the sword, hitting the smiling crackling face of fire straight in the forehead. For a moment the face looked panicked, shocked. Then he held up a hand, a pentagram on the palm, and then the fire was just a fire.

  I sat back down again, exhausted.

  Woltan crouched down next to me, and Elias with him.

  Elias looked me in the face, concerned. “What happened?”

  I shook my head. “I saw him, again. Through the fire. He was trying to get me to come with him again.”

  Woltan looked disgusted. “Fire gazing is an old art, another way of scrying. You must keep your mind focused and alert. The dark lord will obviously stop at nothing to find you, and to bring you to him. Could you see where he was?”

  I shook my head, again. “I only saw his face, and his palm.”

  “His palm?”

  I nodded. “When I spoke the spell, it hit him in the head. But he brought up his hand to ward it off.” I got to my knees, and stood up then, and they stood up with him.

  Elias touched my arm. He looked worried. “Was there a design on his palm?”

  I nodded. “A pentagram. Why?”

  Elias shrugged. “A recurring dream I have. Of a hand, with a pentagram on it, raised, and I scream, and then I wake up.”

  Woltan put his hand on Elias’s shoulder, and we stood there for a moment, watching the campfire that was now only a campfire once again.

  Then he was waking everyone up, and Elias was throwing dirt on the fire; we broke camp in all of ten minutes.

  IV

  It started to rain just as we hit the road, and the rain followed us all morning. The clouds above us were so dark and full of wrath that Woltan did not discount Elias’s suggestion that perhaps the dark lord had cursed us. Soon everything we had that was not protected in a bag was soaked through and through. The rain became torrential by mid-morning, and when the road became more of a small stream, Woltan suggested we seek shelter. But we found nothing but trees …

  Now I stood huddled with the others under a huge pine tree, just twenty paces from the road. The smell of sap and needles mingled with the rain, and although we were soaked, I felt a little better huddled next to the others. The pine tree was big enough for us to all stand huddled around it, and the pouring rain slowed around us. I wished I could cast a spell, to dry myself and the others off, but if the dark lord knew more or less our position, any spellwork would only make it clear to him exactly where we were.

  Elias spoke then. “This tree is very very old. I can hear its thoughts.”

  Kara nodded, wiping water off her face. “It’s a good tree.”

  Woltan spoke then. “Let’s rest here a bit, and eat and drink a little, and then seek more permanent shelter for the night. If I remember right, we’re coming to mountains. There, even if the dark lord sends all the bad weather at his disposal at us, we shall find shelter among the rocks. If luck is with us, perhaps we will build a small fire.”

  Karsten brought out the rest of the rolls. My hands were numb as I leaned back against the tree and fumbled with the roll — it was soggy, but once I got it in my mouth, chewed it up and swallowed, it brought warmth to my stomach, a warmth that spread out slowly but wonderfully to the rest of my body, until I could almost feel my hands and my toes.

  I stood up then, and looked around. Through the rain I could see Karsten, Woltan and Cullen, chewing and staring out into the rain. Elias and Kara were invisible, their backs against the far side of the tree.

  I heard something then — it sounded like singing, or laughter, or singing laughter. It came from all around us, and it came from above us, in the tree. I shook my head. My mind must be playing tricks on me – I was losing my marbles in the endless rain. But when I turned to the others, I saw Kara with her head cocked to the side, and then Woltan too, looking around, searching.

  Elias spoke again then: “The tree is not the only thing old here; can you hear the laughing voices?”

  I could hear them, through the noise of the rain; somehow they cut through the weather as though they were not part of it, or were unaffected by it. I shivered. If only I could feel as happy and carefree as the voices sounded.

  There was a tap on my shoulder.

  Would you join us, then?

  We all looked up. Green semi-transparent people stood among the branches of the tree, beckoning to us.

  The answer came from Elias of course, and it was loud and strong. If you are friendly.

  The green people laughed, and arms reached down to grab and pull me up. They were hard to see, like glimmers in the air, movement in the mist. The storm clouds thundered above and lightning hit not far away. Someone must have sensed my worry, because I heard:

  The storms will not hit here, no matter who controls them.

  Soon we were all up on the first branch, and I tried to concentrate instead on the green people around me.

  If you looked at them directly, they disappeared. Out of the corner of my eye, though, I could see them laughing and pointing and singing. I closed my two eyes and opened the third.

  The world burst into color.

  The people I could barely see with my normal eyes glowed like green torches when I looked with my third eye, and their laughter and speech were like fireworks, exploding from their mouths. The tree was like a small city, and we were only at the entrance. There was a gate in front of us, open, and then a spiral stairway up the enormous trunk, between the branches. Already, a few branches up, I could see a kind of room, and above it, there were more.

  We had stopped for shelter underneath an enormous tree, an ancient living thing whose thoughts rumbled slowly along for those who would listen, and that held in its branches a small city full of voices raised in magical song. Looking at the trunk, not only could I hear the voices of the tree people — I could see as well how their voices sang to the tree, their voices bands of color that reached out into the trunk, mixing there with the multicolored thoughts of the tree.

  Elias tapped me on the sh
oulder. “There is as much energy here as in the city.”

  I nodded. There was strong magic here, and it was good, green magic. I could feel it, could see it, could smell it in the fresh clean scent of the evergreen.

  Suddenly lightning struck a nearby tree with a great flash and blast.

  There was a scream of rage from inside the tree, an explosion of orange inside it, and its branches shook briefly, knocking me off balance.

  The singing had stopped.

  The dark lord is angry with you. We must close the gate. Once we are all inside he cannot see us. Until then he can see all of you, and although he cannot strike our tree, he will do more damage to her children. Hurry, please.

  We hurried through the gate. I looked back to see the gate close behind us, and a web of green light take its place. Then the singing began again and when I looked out, I saw that the whole of the tree was covered in a web of green light, a web that touched every individual in the tree, and connected to the tree trunk. Everywhere, energy circulated. I could feel that energy protecting and also, somehow, hiding us.

  I heard Elias’s thoughts then.

  Yes, Anders, somehow we are safe here; we can do magic, or think aloud; and he cannot hear us or reach us or touch us. It is quite amazing, actually. Ancient magic.

  Woltan stood beside me, and pointed. It is all very amazing, but we would do better for the moment perhaps to concentrate on our hosts.

  I saw up just ahead a group approaching. They were all a little transparent, and green, and if you looked at them with your third eye they were bright burning green fires, so bright that you almost had to look away. They were strongly magical, whatever they were.

  Are they elves?

  There was suddenly much laughter again.

  Three of the group came forward and presented themselves.

  The tallest one, who had a long green beard and very little hair on his head spoke first in our minds. My name is Erik Fredrikson. As the eldest here, I will welcome you to the tree mother. Your coming is not unexpected, and we welcome the opportunity to help you in your quest against the man who calls himself the dark lord, and who has poisoned so much of our forest.