Darren groaned. “I suppose you want to continue, then?”
“Darn skippy,” I muttered. “But let’s try it as a group this time. Where are the others?”
“I came straight after you,” said Darren. “I’m afraid I became separated from them.”
“All right, then we should keep heading toward whatever is making that noise,” I said carefully.
“Pardon me for saying so, but that seems to be the exact opposite of what we should do,” Darren pointed out. “In every way.”
“No, trust me,” I said, waggling my finger at him. “The others know that we—that I—am headed toward the noise. So they should be heading there, too. Cautiously. Slowly. But they’ll head there. If we get close, we should run into some or all of the others. Just so long as we don’t go too far and run into whatever is making the noise, we should be fine.”
“There are far too many ‘should’s’ in your plan,” said Darren. “Three, in fact.”
“All right, whatever, County McSnarkypants,” I said irritably. “Are you coming or not?”
“Do I have a choice?”
Rather than answer, I set off in the direction that I was pretty sure the noises were coming from. I’d gotten a bit mixed up when Darren leapt on me, but I went the way I was pretty sure would lead to the creature—whatever it was.
In a few more moments, I heard the sound of ripping, tearing earth. Like a tractor was churning up soil for planting, but without the sounds of an engine or any other moving parts. The sounds were slow, but they were steady. And they were growing louder. We were headed in the right direction.
GRAAAWR!
The angry roar sounded once again. This time it was nearly on top of us, past just a couple of more trees.
“Leave this place be, you cursed thing!” cried a voice. “Begone!”
I froze. “What was that?” I whispered.
“I don’t know,” said Darren. “I didn’t understand the words.”
I glanced at him askance. “Didn’t understand the words? They were plain as day, they—”
Suddenly I realized what had happened. Whoever had spoken had done so in another language from the one Darren spoke. But part of the magic that made me a Realm Keeper included a little protocol that enabled me to understand the words of anyone—no matter what language they spoke. Thus, I’d heard what the person had said, while Darren had heard only gibberish.
“There’s someone up there speaking another language,” I whispered. “He’s trying to convince the…whatever it is…to leave.”
“Does that mean there’s only one?” said Darren.
“He said ‘thing,’ not ‘things,’ so my guess is yes,” I said. “Unless there’s more out there that he doesn’t know about.”
“Calvin!”
The harsh whisper drew my attention to the woods east of us. Miles, Raven and Sarah were standing there, along with their bodyguard. Sarah’s face bore a look of fury the likes of which I’d never seen before.
“Uh, hi, cuz,” I said weakly.
“Are you absolutely stark raving insane?” hissed Sarah. She actually stomped her foot, which I found incredibly immature given the circumstances—but I wasn’t going to say that. “You could have been killed!”
“We’re almost there,” I responded, hoping that if I didn’t respond to her accusations, we could all move on. “Come on.”
“Calvin!”
It was too late. I stepped carefully further into the trees, heading for where I’d heard the last roar. After a few more feet, I came around the edge of a huge oak and saw what I was looking for. It made me draw to a sudden stop, and the others pulled up short to stand beside me as we all gawked.
There was a grassy knoll in the middle of the woods, and on top of the grassy knoll there was an oak tree. Its gnarled, twisted branches reached for the sky like an old man’s grasping fingers. In the branches, a good twenty feet off the ground, sat a thin, lithe figure dressed in green and brown. It was a man. He carried a bow, but the quiver on his back was empty. Which was too bad, because on the ground at the base of the tree was a monster.
The creature, whatever it was, was huge. The thing stood at least twelve feet tall, and its arms reached up another six. Its grasping hands with their long, taloned nails, swiped uselessly at the air just a few inches from the feet of the man in the tree. The branches were too thin for him to climb any higher, but neither could the creature reach him from the ground. It was like a strange little standoff. The beast had thick, dirty, scaly skin, broad shoulders and comparatively tiny legs and feet. It was all upper body, and it looked like that upper body could uproot a small tree from the ground. It made a disgusting huff-huff sound as it breathed.
Back in Morrowdust, I’d read enough about this part of the world to know what we were looking at.
“They have a cave troll,” I said quietly.
Miles looked at me with raised eyebrows. “Oh, no you didn’t.”
“Holy cow, that thing is huge,” whispered Raven. “Bigger than a hellion.”
“Not quite as big, actually, and definitely less dangerous,” I remarked. “Trolls are dumber than even a young hellion like the ones we fought.”
“Okay, so what do we do?”
Sarah pressed her lips together tightly and gave an exasperated sigh. “Okay, Calvin. You’re still in big trouble for running off, but I guess you were right. We can’t just leave that guy there to get eaten or whatever. Do trolls eat people?”
“Oh, for sure,” I said.
“Okay. Here’s the plan. I’ll try to trap its legs in the ground. Raven, you keep it distracted if you can, but I don’t know how much good lightning will be against that thing—it looks too thick and ugly to be hurt much. If we can trap it and rescue the guy without killing it, so much the better.”
“Um, Sarah, that’s probably a really, really bad idea,” I said. “Trolls have an incredible sense of smell. If we escape with its food, it’ll chase us all the way to Wyrmspire. It won’t catch us on horseback, but we might lead it right to another source of food—someone that can’t fight it as well as we can.”
Sarah sighed. “Okay, fine. Then once it’s trapped, I’ll go for the kill. Miles, you spike it if you can, okay?”
“No, wait, Sarah, there’s one more thing,” I said quickly. “We need Blade.”
“Lady Sarah,” said Cara, ignoring me. “If the man in the tree sees you use your powers, you could be revealing yourself to Terrence. This is not wise.”
“I don’t want to take that thing on with swords,” Sarah said, looking at the troll nervously. “It’s either magic, or we let the guy get eaten.”
“Sarah!” I said. “Listen, we can’t go after it alone.”
Sarah arched an eyebrow, but before she could ask a question, I heard the same ripping, tearing sound I’d heard earlier. The sound of earth being uprooted. As I looked,I saw the troll rip a giant chunk of earth from the ground and fling it at the guy in the tree. The guy leapt to another branch with unbelievable speed, moving so fast I almost couldn’t even see him. As soon as the rock sailed through the space where he’d just been sitting, he leapt back to the first branch he’d been on. The troll’s claw swiped uselessly, smashing through another branch right near the tree and sending it crashing to the ground.
There was a pause for a moment as the troll looked down at the fallen branch. Then it looked up at the man in the tree. Slowly, it stooped to pick up the branch. I couldn’t see the face of the man in the tree, but even from the distance I was at I saw his whole body tense.
“It’s going to knock him out of the tree!” Sarah said. “Hit it with everything you’ve got—everyone, now!”
“Sarah, wait!” I said. “We need—”
It was too late. The others leapt out of the trees, the Runegard dashing forward to put themselves in front of the monster. Sarah gestured, and the troll sank a good foot into the ground, which then sealed into stone around its ankles. Raven fired a lightning bolt
directly at the thing’s head. Thunder roared as energy crackled around the troll’s skull, but it barely seemed fazed. It merely shook its head and tried to look back over its shoulder at us.
Water began to coalesce in the air before the troll, and as I watched it formed into a solid spike of ice. The ice suddenly launched through the air at the troll’s skull. At the same time, a giant shaft of rock leapt from the ground and impaled the troll’s abdomen, pinning it to the tree like a butterfly to a collector’s case on the wall. Sarah gave a shout of triumph.
But the spike of ice shattered into a million pieces as it struck the troll’s iron-hard skull. And even as Miles’ face twisted into a look of surprise, the troll looked down at the stone spear in its belly. It reached up nonchalantly with its vast, clawed hands and snapped the spear in two. Stepping away from the tree, it pulled out the rest of the spear and lifted it up, inspecting the blood gathered on the rock.
Then it shoved the stone into its mouth and began to chew.
“Oh my God,” said Sarah. “It should be dead.”
But it wasn’t, of course. And the gaping hole in its stomach began to seal up before our very eyes, the muscles and skin stitching themselves together like Wolverine.
“I tried to tell you,” I said, exasperated. “Trolls regenerate. We need to burn it if we want to kill it.”
The troll finished munching on the stone spear that had been in its gut just a few seconds earlier. Then it looked up, and its rheumy yellow eyes focused on the eight of us at the edge of the clearing.
“Maybe now we should turn and run.”
“Go!” screamed Sarah.
The troll charged, easily breaking free of its stone boots, moving surprisingly fast on its feet for such a large creature. But we were faster, flying into the trees. The Runegard stood stock still for a moment, looking as though they’d try to hold the thing off with steel armor and blades, but fortunately good sense got the better of them—that, and seeing their charges run off into the woods unprotected. They turned and beat a hasty retreat after us.
“Blade!” I screamed as I ran. “Blade!”
Darren caught up to me, hardly seeming to breathe hard. “Faster, my Lord!” he shouted. “It’s gaining on us!”
I gritted my teeth and didn’t bother telling him that I was already running as fast as I could. Miles was the track star, not me. But the thunderous sounds of massive footsteps behind me shot adrenaline through my system like NOS through a Formula One car, and suddenly my feet hit the ground at twice the speed.
“He’s coming after us!” I shouted. “Why is he coming after us? I’m not the one who stuck a spear in his belly!”
“Don’t try to talk, my Lord!” replied Darren. “It only makes you run slower!”
I grimaced and resolved to have strong words with Darren when this was over. If I was alive, that is.
GRAAAWR!
The beast’s roar almost made me leap out of my skin, and I put on a fresh burst of speed. But no matter how hard I ran, I could hear it getting closer and closer. It swept tree branches out of the way like they were matchsticks. I heard them crashing to the ground, some of them brushing my legs with their leaves as they fell. It was only a matter of time before one of them struck us, throwing us to the ground. Then it would be all over.
“Blade!” I shouted again. “Sarah! Anyone!”
As if in answer to a prayer, I heard a THOOM. Suddenly the massive footsteps behind us stopped. I wheeled around a tree trunk and stopped, fighting to catch my breath. When I still didn’t hear anything, I risked peering around the tree’s edge.
The troll was buried up to its chest in the ground, as though a hole had suddenly opened up and then filled in to trap it. Which, considering that Sarah was standing there with hands outstretched, was probably exactly what had happened.
With the troll trapped, Sarah summoned up a massive block of stone and dropped it on the things’ head. She swung the block back and forth through the air, pummeling the thing over and over. The troll swiped at the block of stone with its claws and roared its displeasure the same way a bull elephant roars when the gnat becomes just a little too annoying.
“Sarah!” I called out. “I told you, you can’t hurt it. We need fire.”
“I don’t have fire,” she said, frustrated.
“Well hitting it with a brick isn’t going to do anything,” I said. “Cut off its freaking head, and it’ll just grow a new one. We need Blade.”
“Find him,” she said. “I’ll try to hold this thing off.”
“Sarah, you can’t!” I said. “You can’t kill it, you can only slow it down for a second.”
“Then I’ll slow it down as long as I need to,” she said grimly.
As if on cue, the troll gave a mighty roar, and then its claws began to rip and tear at the earth that constrained it. It tossed earth and rocks aside to claw its way out of the ground, where it stood to its full height and roared one more time.
I couldn’t just leave her here to face it alone. Even with Cara, she’d be toast in no time.
It was time to break out something I’d been practicing for a while.
“Darren, I’m going to lead that thing away from here,” I said, slow and deliberate. “I’ll be able to keep ahead of it, but I need you to follow us. Close as you can, but far enough away not to attract its attention. If I mess up, I’ll need a quick intervention.”
Darren stared at me in shock. “My Lord, you can’t,” he protested. “With all due respect, you can’t run fast enough to keep ahead of it for long.”
“I’m not going to be running,” I said, unable to keep a small grin from my face.
I stretched out my hands and reached for my power. The gift of Air swelled into my mind, turning the atmosphere into my plaything. I felt the familiar rush of euphoria as every breath made me want to chuckle warmly, and the light breeze through the trees was like a gentle kiss on my skin. I summoned four streams of air and placed them under my hands and feet.
Slowly, I pushed the air upward.
I came off the ground to hover a good yard above the grass. Darren, distracted by Sarah’s battle with the troll, glanced over at me and did a double-take. Then he straight-up gawked.
“My Lord,” he said. “You’ve taught yourself to fly?”
“Pretty awesome, right?” I said, grinning. “I saw Greystone do it once and then kind of figured it out on my own. I haven’t had much chance to practice. Or any at all, in fact. It’s just theory, but hey! It’s working!”
Darren looked doubtful. “Can you control it?”
“It’s pretty simple, actually,” I said. “There’s four jets, and by using them in coordination, I can adjust my flight path easily. For instance, if I want to go left…”
I pushed left, but I put too much force into it. My body launched sideways, sending me crashing into a tree trunk with a grunt. My concentration broke, and I fell to the ground in a heap.
“Okay, so clearly there’s some kinks to work out,” I gasped. “But I can do this.”
“My Lord,” said Darren nervously. “I don’t know that this situation is the exact right time to be field testing this new ability. From what I understand, true flight normally takes quite some time to master. And, no offense, but you do tend to overestimate your own abilities. My Lord.”
I looked back at Sarah. She’d managed to trap the troll in the ground once again, but it was already fighting its way free. She couldn’t keep this up forever—she had to move a lot of earth to stop the monster, and eventually she’d get tired.
“We don’t have a whole lot of choice,” I said. “Either I lead this thing to Blade, or Sarah’s going to bite the big one. Remember: once I take off, you follow me.”
Darren gave a resigned sigh and nodded.
I reached out for Air again and lifted myself from the ground once more. I jockeyed the streams back and forth a bit, getting a better feel for them. It was like playing a video game for the first time—you had to learn
how hard to push the controller joysticks so that you didn’t fly around all over the place. And video games were one area where I was the qualified expert.
“Okay, I think I got this,” I said. “Wish me luck.”
“Destiny preserve us,” whispered Darren. It sounded less like a wish and more like a prayer.
I flew forward at the troll, who had just emerged from the ground again to stand over Sarah, roaring. Sarah was reaching out to move Earth again, but her concentration was broken by shock as I flew onto the scene, stopping just a few yards in front of the troll’s gaping maw.
“Hey ugly!” I said. “Why don’t you pick on someone several sizes smaller than you?”
“Calvin?” said Sarah, her voice a mixture of shock and amazement.
GRAAAWR!
The troll roared and swiped at me. I pushed up hard, and Air shot me above the swing of its talons. It roared again, this time in frustration. I darted to the right as it reached up, grasping for me futilely.
“Come on, mister big and scary,” I said. “I’ve got a friend I want you to meet.”
“Calvin, what are you doing?” Sarah shouted. “Stop it!”
I ignored her and turned, becoming almost horizontal as I pushed myself toward the trees at the edge of the clearing. All its dim-witted attention now focused on me, the troll followed, again at a pace that seemed far out of proportion to its massive size.
I coasted between the trees at the edge of the clearing, but immediately another trunk sprang up before me. On instinct I jerked too hard to the left, rebounding off the side of yet another tree. I gritted my teeth at the impact, but I was able to maintain my mental hold on the streams of air that supported me. The troll, on the other hand, merely swept its massive arm through the air and sliced through the tree’s trunk, sending it crashing to the ground behind me.
“What did that tree ever do to you?” I shot back over my shoulder. The troll didn’t see fit to reply.
I was pushing myself, and I knew it. In order to stay ahead of the troll, I had to move at a pace faster than running, but that gave me almost no time to react when I nearly slammed into tree after tree. Meanwhile, the troll wasn’t slowed at all by the forest around it, only having to divert its path for the very biggest trees.
Wyrmspire (Realm Keepers Book 2) Page 15