Soon I was tracking with what both teams were doing, at least enough to cheer when the blue shirts would make a first down or groan when their quarterback got sacked. I could see what people saw in this football thing. It was fun watching grown men beat the tar out of each other for your entertainment.
“Gotta say, I could get used to this,” I said.
“Well, we probably won’t have time,” Blade said ruefully. “Our other life keeps us pretty busy. I just wanted to have a chance to relax for once. But now we’ve gotta get moving on to the other side.”
I looked at the clock on the wall. “Yikes, we sure do,” I said, leaping up from the couch. “Good idea, though. It was nice to just be a spectator to someone else’s battle for once.”
“My pleasure,” said Blade. “We can do it again some time. You know, if we’re still alive.”
I laughed. “Yeah, right. Of course we will be.”
“At least one of us,” Blade said ominously. “But maybe not both. Don’t forget about that prophecy, bro.”
That dampened my mood. I had forgotten the prophecy. The oracle Aurora had given it to us weeks ago, but with the siege of Morrowdust I’d almost forgotten about it.
One shall leave this life for death if Shadow be defeated.
The words were out of my mouth almost before I knew I was saying them.
“Yeah,” Blade nodded. “I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately. If the dragons are supposed to end the war once and for all, then that means the stuff in the prophecy is going to come true a lot faster than we were all probably planning.”
“I didn’t think about that,” I said, feeling a sudden chill in the air. “It’s not exactly a happy thought.”
“I’m not always exactly a happy guy,” Blade said. “Come on. Let’s head over.”
I woke up in Midrealm with a palpable sense of relief. It was funny when I thought about it. During the siege of Morrowdust, I’d felt more comfortable in Midrealm, but for a different reason. Then, it had been because I wasn’t sitting on Earth wondering if my body was safe back here in Midrealm. When I was here, I was in control of my own safety. No one was going to sneak up on me in my sleep and stab me.
But this was different. This time, I was happy to be in Midrealm because it gave me something important to do. And that kept my thoughts from straying back to the fact that the Association was even now looking for us on Earth, and they had a lot of people and a lot of money with which to do that. If everything I’d been taught growing up was true, people and money were the only things you needed to get anything done in life—whether that life was on Earth or not.
“Morning,” I said to Darren as soon as I sat up.
“Morning indeed,” he said.
“What’s on the agenda today?” I asked through a yawn, stretching my arms as high as they would go. “Breakfast with the king? Maybe some more combat training, or meditation? Oh, right, never mind. More horseback riding.”
“It does seem to be dominating our schedule these days,” Darren said easily.
I stood up and rolled up my bedroll, tying it tightly with the leather straps. I brought it over to my horse and strapped it in to the saddle. As I stepped away, Darren took my place and tugged on the straps to double-check them.
“I know how to do it,” I grumbled.
“I just don’t want it to fall off again, my Lord,” said Darren.
“Okay, that happened a couple of times, and it hasn’t happened in three days.”
“Six times, my Lord. It happened six times. And the last time was yesterday. My Lord.”
I sighed and went to the fire where the others were already chowing down on breakfast. Wordlessly, Cara held up a bowl of something hot. Not much caring what it was, I grabbed it and began to shovel it into my mouth with my metal travel spoon. It was good. Tasty, piping hot, and fresh from the pot that sat in the coals of the fire. It had been spiced, too. Samuel had a stash of spices, and on special occasions he’d break them out. The guy could have been a gourmet chef in another life, and he made road food somewhat more bearable.
Cara and Sarah had planted themselves on the trunk of a fallen tree. I squeezed myself in between them, forcing them to scoot aside—Sarah with a look of annoyance, Cara with indifference. “Hey, so Cara, I’ve been thinking,” I said around a mouthful of stew.
“Gross, Calvin,” said Sarah, wrinkling her nose. “Finish chewing first.”
“Okay, mom,” I said, snickering. I swallowed and turned back to Cara. She seemed undisturbed by my manners. “If you still want to teach me how to fight, I want to learn,” I said.
One of her eyebrows went up. Oh, really? Even after the wild success we had last time?”
I shrugged and rolled my eyes. “Okay, maybe I reacted a bit harshly last time. And too soon. I didn’t really give it a chance. But you’ve got to understand, I was kind of freaking out. I thought the Association had me. I was under a lot of stress.”
Cara smirked. “Indeed. And now your life is much more relaxed, yes?”
“Well, no, of course not,” I said awkwardly. “It’s just that I’ve had time to think and calm down a bit. And I think I’m ready—”
“Relax, my Lord,” said Cara. “I’m only toying with you. You’re so easily flustered.”
I gave a resigned sigh. “Yeah, I guess so. But does that mean you’ll teach me?”
Cara nodded. “It would be my honor. We shall begin our lessons tonight, after supper and before sleep.”
“Don’t you want to start now?” I asked, my voice plaintive. “We’re going to be exhausted after traveling all day, and I’m feeling fresh and ready to go.”
“Practice first thing in the morning can lead to stiff limbs and joints,” Cara said, shaking her head. “You would hate yourself later on when you were riding. And besides, we must be on the road. There are many long miles ahead of us yet.”
After breakfast we mounted up and moved on. Darren kept eyeing my saddle, but much to my delight, my bedroll stayed securely fastened all morning. Despite the others’ continual mocking, I actually was becoming a much better rider. When we’d first arrived in Midrealm, horses had terrified me. I was always afraid I’d fall off of the saddle and make a fool of myself. But once you got the hang of holding on to the horse with your thighs, everything else came easily. I still had a little difficulty making the thing go where I wanted sometimes, but at least I wasn’t teetering around like a baby.
The countryside we were riding through was now thick with trees, a vast forest that stretched beyond recognition. The landscape rose up and dipped down, and every time we topped a rise we would pause for a moment to get our bearings. We were heading east and slightly north, looking to loop around the top of the Black Sea—interestingly, it had the same name here in Midrealm as it did on True Earth. From there we’d be heading South once more until we found Wyrmspire, wherever it was. We knew the general area that we hoped it was in, but not a specific location. Fortunately, during my days in Morrowdust before the siege, I’d read up a lot about that part of the country, hoping to learn more about the Elves. Hopefully it would become more useful the closer we got.
Everyone seemed to be in pretty good spirits. We’d been through a lot before we left Morrowdust, and then had a couple of scares on the road, what with finding out about Terrence and me being abducted. But now it seemed like we were finally catching a bit of a break. Nora sang in a clear, bright voice whenever the mood seized her. Tess would stop her and ask for her to repeat some of the words, but she’d never join in the singing, despite Nora’s urging. Melaine and Miles seemed to be getting along much better than I’d ever seen them. Whatever beef they’d had when we first arrived seemed to have disappeared since the siege. That made sense. When you fight for your life beside someone, it’s kind of hard not to build up at least a war buddy sort of friendship, whether or not you grow exactly close.
As the day wound on and the miles disappeared beneath the hooves of our horses, we passed down and into the thick o
f the forest again. A narrow trail was all that was keeping us from being lost among the trees, and we had to ride two at a time because of how closely the woods pressed in on either side. After a few hours of silence, Barius turned in his saddle to look at me. “Little Lord,” he called out. “Why don’t you tell us something of True Earth?”
I looked around at the others, confused. “Really? Why me?”
“You’re the one who seems so interested in tales of our land, but you never tell us about your own,” he replied. “Tell us something of True Earth. We seldom hear of its wonders. The last Realm Keepers never seemed interested in talking about it.”
“Well, that makes sense—Midrealm is way more interesting to someone from True Earth,” I said. “What do you want to know?”
“I’ve heard that though all magic has seeped out of True Earth, you have some wonders of your own. Tell us of these horseless carriages that you all ride around in.”
I chuckled. “Cars? Not much to tell. They’re metal boxes with four wheels. But inside, they’ve got what’s called an engine. Basically, it’s a system of gears and levers that move the wheels without anything having to pull the car. They work on a liquid that explodes when it’s set on fire—the explosions are controlled to make the whole thing work.”
Melaine looked back at me in disbelief. “You travel with explosions? Isn’t that dangerous?”
I shrugged. “They were invented a century ago. We’ve had a long, long time to learn how to make them safe. Still, yeah, if the gas gets out and is exposed to fire, I guess it can be dangerous.”
Darren was looking at me with an expression of wonder. I realized with a shock that that was probably exactly what I looked like when I saw all of the awesome things Midrealm had to offer—things I’d only ever read in books before in my life.
“If the car moves with explosions, how do you stop it?” he asked. “How do you stop the explosions?”
I hemmed and hawed, searching for the right words to explain. I felt like I was trying to describe color to blind people—no amount of words would really get the point across. “We don’t really stop the explosions, exactly. You know when you chock the wheels of a wagon to keep it from moving?” Darren nodded. “Well, we’ve got something like that. We press a pedal, and big pads called brakes press down on the wheels and keep them from moving. The fuel in the engine still explodes, but the motion has nowhere to go because the wheels are held still. Then we turn off the car, and the explosions stop. When we want to go again, we turn the car back on and press another pedal.”
Even Cara was looking at me by this point, clearly impressed. I won’t lie—it felt pretty cool to talk about what was probably the most mundane and uninteresting thing on Earth and have all of these mighty warriors staring at me like I was talking about space travel.
Which gave me another idea…
“Say, do you guys know that on True Earth, we’ve been to the moon?”
That drew all of the Runegard’s attention, while Sarah and the others merely looked at me and smirked.
“Oh, wow, I guess the last Realm Keepers never told you about that,” I said, grinning. “Yeah. We invented a thing called a rocket—it’s like a car, except it uses the explosions to fly—and used it to fly some people to the moon. It’s pretty awesome. We’re trying to go to another planet next.”
“Another…planet?” asked Nora, astonished. “Like Earth?”
“Well, no,” I said. “The closest planet to us is Mars. It’s not like Earth at all. People can’t live there.”
“Well then, why are you trying to go?” asked Barius, whose brow had drawn fully together.
I looked at him like he was crazy. “To explore, of course! And to learn new stuff for science. Science stuff. You know, like how the universe came together, that sort of thing.”
Each of the Runegard looked at each other, small smiles on their faces. “But everyone knows how the universe came together,” said Darren, looking suspicious, like he thought I was playing a joke on him. “In the beginning, there was—”
A sudden roar cut through the air, startling Darren to sudden silence. In an instant, the Runegard fanned out, and the air was filled with the hiss of drawn blades. I fingered my quarterstaff, which was slung across the back of my saddle.
“What was that?” asked Miles, who had already hefted his hammer and was trying awkwardly to balance it as he stared wildly into the woods on either side of us.
“Silence!” hissed Cara, startling me with the urgency and lack of deference in her tone.
Absolute stillness settled on the road around us as we waited to hear the slightest sound.
GRAAAWR!
The same roar burst out from the trees once again. It was south, and I could tell from the echo that whatever was making that noise was a good ways off. But still, it was too loud to be anything small, cute and cuddly. I had no idea what was making the roar, but I knew it was huge. Huge and dangerous.
“Do you think that’s a dragon?” I whispered nervously, feeling sweat gather between my clenched fist and the hilt of my sword.
“I don’t think so, my Lord,” Darren responded quietly. “I think a dragon would sound quite a bit bigger.”
“It sounds plenty big to me,” said Blade darkly.
“Whatever it is, it’s far from the road,” said Cara. “We’ll ride on, quickly, and leave whatever it is behind.”
That’s when I heard a sound carried on the wind, coming from the direction of the roars. The sound of a voice shouting in alarm.
“Wait, Cara,” I said. “There’s someone over there.”
“That doesn’t matter,” said Cara. “We’re leaving.”
“We can’t,” I said, looking at her angrily. “Someone’s in trouble over there. We need to help them.”
“The Captain is right, my Lord,” said Darren. “Our priority is your protection. We can’t risk this whole mission to run off into the woods trying to save every person who’s in trouble.”
I turned to Sarah. “Come on, Sarah,” I said. “We can’t just walk away when someone out there is in trouble. We’re the Realm Keepers. It’s our duty to help.”
Sarah looked uneasy. “Calvin, we don’t even know what’s out there. It could be something way too big for us to handle. And we can’t use our magic, or whoever’s in trouble will know who we are.”
I gaped. “You think we should leave, too?”
Sarah was looking more uneasy by the second. “I don’t want to,” she said quickly. “It’s just that…”
“Calvin’s right,” said Blade, not bothering to keep his voice lowered like the rest of us. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but if we keep going, I’m going to hear that cry over and over again. I’m not walking away.”
“Lord Blade…” Samuel began.
“Forget it,” I said. “I’m done arguing. You want to protect us, Cara? Good luck doing that from here on the road.”
Without another word, I leapt from my saddle and darted forward into the woods, sword held before me. The startled cries of protest behind me vanished as I lost myself in the darkness below the boughs.
THE TROLL
CALVIN
ALMOST IMMEDIATELY, I BEGAN TO regret my decision. Within a few seconds of running into the woods, I could no longer see the path when I looked back. All I could hear were the sounds of something large—and presumably angry—crashing through the trees ahead of me. I assumed that was whatever had been roaring earlier.
Once I was away from the others, I began to creep more cautiously. I flitted from tree trunk to tree trunk, keeping an eye out in all directions for any sign of movement or threat. I saw nothing. I was alone in the forest, stalking toward an unknown, unseen danger, and I had no idea if I was capable of handling it.
“Brilliant, Calvin,” I whispered to myself. “How do you always get yourself into these situations? First the hellion, and now this.”
GRAAAWR!
As the beast roared again, I leapt
into the air and shrieked like a little girl. I would have been embarrassed, but I was too busy being proud that I hadn’t also wet myself.
The sound had given me another bearing, and I adjusted my direction of travel to the left a bit. The creature couldn’t have been more than a dozen yards away now. I thought I could see the vague signs of something moving between the trunks ahead.
Then I heard a crackling of leaves and twigs to my right. Much closer than the sounds ahead. I started away from the sound, sword held before me. Were there more than one of these…whatever they were?
I backed away slowly from the new threat, keeping an eye out in all directions. I checked behind myself occasionally just to make sure I wasn’t backing right into another danger like some teenager in a stupid horror movie. The woods were clear.
Of course, I forgot to look down, and I promptly tripped on a tree root jutting from the ground.
With a yelp, I fell to the ground. My sword clattered to the grass beside me, just out of reach.
Without a sound, a shape leapt from the woods on top of me. I opened my mouth to scream—
—but the sound was immediately smothered as Darren put his hand across my gaping mouth.
I let out a massive sigh of relief. The effect was somewhat lessened by having my mouth blocked. Once Darren saw that I was calm, he removed the hand, staring down at me with a mixture of resignation and annoyance.
“I say this over and over again not because I enjoy repeating myself, but because I hope that one day, one time, it will finally sink in,” he said. “Please, for the sake of almighty Destiny, stop running off and trying to get yourself killed, my Lord.”
I gulped. “Yeah, this has been seeming like a worse and worse idea with every passing second.”
Darren sighed with relief. “Good,” he said. “Give me your hand. I think I know the way back to the path—”
“No!” I cried. Then, looking around and realizing that some other, large creature was still out there, I lowered my voice. “No,” I repeated. “Coming out here to save someone’s life wasn’t a mistake. Doing it alone was.”
Wyrmspire (Realm Keepers Book 2) Page 14