Steve settled back under the covers and closed his eyes frustrated, not caring whether sleep would come or not.
The next morning, after eating of a hearty breakfast as a guest of His Majesty, everyone gathered in one of the courtyard gardens of King Gorium’s wing on the east side of the fortress. Haldorum, Haze, Lurin, Sonya, and Scott were already together when Eegrin, Kayliss, and Steve appeared. Steve was dressed in a dull red long sleeved shirt under his khaki vest and trousers. His boots ended just above his calves, and anointed with enchanted oil that molded the leather to the wearer’s foot. He noted with approval earlier that morning his clothing seemed as rugged as the outdoors itself while still maintaining comfort.
“Well, now,” Haze said cheerily. “If I didn’t know better I would swear you to be a woodsman.”
“Indeed,” Lurin agreed. “It seems the king has spared no expense to see you outfitted proper.” He looked at the youth for a moment more and then quite deliberately said, “But, you know, there is still something missing.”
Steve looked himself over and then at the others, though his gaze lingered on Sonya. Her long autumn hair fell loosely about her shoulders, over an emerald green tunic belted at the waist and ending several inches above her knees. The only thing incongruous against her striking beauty was the sheathed long-knife tucked beneath her belt. Seeing this, he caught the woodsman’s meaning; he had no weapon.
“I think you will need this where we are going,” Haldorum said. “There is more than just the Resistance hiding in the Granar.” The old wizard held an unmistakable weapon out to him horizontally in both hands..
Steve’s eyes went wide. “How did you get this?” He unsheathed Mr. Martin’s sword and the tempered blade gleamed silver-gray in the sunlight.
Scott, sporting a similar blade belted on his hip, said, “I suppose you could say it’s one of the reasons we took a little longer getting here.” He shrugged. “Haldorum insisted.”
“But this is a family heirloom,” Steve stammered, still amazed the blade was again in his hands.
“Steve.” Scott opened his mouth but paused, appearing uncertain as to his next words. “Mr. Martin knows…about everything. Haldorum explained the whole story. When he finished he asked if he could take the sword to you.”
“And he believed you? I lived it and I can barely believe it.”
“Well, not exactly,” Scott replied. “Haldorum did more than just narrate the story.”
Still holding the sword, Steve lowered his arms. “Meaning?”
“It was nothing,” Haldorum assured him. “An illusion projected into his mind. I need only touch someone for such a feat.”
Steve sheathed the sword and fastened the crude leather scabbard to his belt. Though he did not like the idea of yet another person on Earth knowing about Mithal, he could hardly be angry at the wizard for what he had done either. With Mr. Martin’s sword—the very blade that saved him against the Shangee—and Kayliss at his side, he couldn’t help but feel more prepared for the way ahead.
“And don’t worry about your mom,” Scott added. “We called her before leaving Mr. Martin’s house.”
“Damn!” Steve slapped himself in the forehead with an open palm. “Worry about her? I had totally forgotten she was even looking for me!”
“Well, everything is fine now,” Haldorum said patting him on the shoulder. “She knows of your decision to stay. And although she worries she also believes in you.”
“As do I, Steven.”
Princess Vessla approached arm-in-arm with her father, attired in a short linen dress of the Jisetrian colors blue and white, and a gold circlet about her head. Steve exhaled slowly as he admired the view. He hadn’t been wrong; her legs were every bit as attractive as he had imagined.
“I see only two things wrong with this picture,” Haldorum said casually. “First, princess, you will need to be rid of that. Although it is unlikely we shall run into them, the redcrests need not know we have royalty among us.”
Princess Vessla rolled her eyes and sighed, but reached up and removed the mentioned circlet of gold from around her head, and then handed it to the page standing to her right. The old wizard then approached her and with an idle gesture the air around Vessla shimmered briefly like a heat mirage, and the princess’s brightly colored dress changed to earthy tones of green and brown.
“There,” he said sounding satisfied. “Much better colors for a trek through the forest. Would not want you too easily seen from a distance, you know.”
Princess Vessla sighed once more, and her father mumbled protest but spoke no further on it.
“Princess,” Haldorum continued, “I do hope you realize what you are putting yourself in for. The next two or three days will be quite different than the palace life you are used to. And you, King Gorium, you know of the dangers of the Granar as well as the next man.”
“That is a fact,” King Gorium agreed. “And it is why Eegrin shall accompany you. He is a fine and brave soldier; and will protect his princess with his very life, if need be.” Though it sounded almost like an aside, he added, “Besides, it was the Third Power’s request he be the man tasked with the job.”
Steve clapped his winged friend on the shoulder with a confident smile.
“Just so long as we are clear,” Haldorum nodded. Turning to the others he said, “All right, then; if everyone is ready?”
Haze and Lurin each slung a pack over one shoulder and moved behind the wizard. Haldorum then extended his arms straight ahead and touched his forefingers and thumbs together. As they separated, the veil between the two points parted, forming a shimmering doorway.
They emerged in a small, grassy meadow surrounded on all sides by tall stands of old growth pine. A pond with pussy willows growing in the shallows added a humid, muddy scent. The surrounding forest filled the air with the sounds of life, very unlike the Memsherar Steve thought, and an occasional shrike swooped down from the cover of the treetops to snatch a minnow that strayed too close to the water’s surface.
“What a lovely little place,” Princess Vessla commented.
“And,” Haldorum said, “it serves as an excellent reference point within the Granar.”
“Can you go anywhere with such magic?” she asked.
“Only to those places I have already been. It would be too dangerous otherwise. You might emerge into a tree, or a rock, or some other such object. Some people might not mind living out the rest of their lives like that, provided you lived at all, but I find such prospects to be just a little discouraging.”
“You mean you might actually live through something like that?” Scott asked incredulous.
“Certainly,” Haldorum replied. “Magically speaking, of course. It is possible your energy would merge with whatever you appeared in. In fact, though only a theory of mine, if you were to walk into a tree your consciousness would survive for as long as the tree did.”
“Exactly how did this conversation get started?” Steve asked.
Lurin and Haze dropped their packs and headed into the forest, and Steve surmised it was likely to scout the way ahead. “Watch yourself,” the woodsman warned him before he left. They both glanced at Vessla and the younger man nodded, catching his meaning.
Haldorum laid out a blanket of sky blue, embroidered around every edge in an ancient script, and then seated himself cross-legged in the center with his eyes closed. And there he remained for the next hour.
Steve, Scott, and Eegrin passed the time in idle conversation while Princess Vessla simply sat on the grass and flirted coquettishly with her young fiancé. Steve, for his part, could swear Sonya’s dislike for the princess was only growing. He glanced occasionally to his friend and noted how Sonya watched Vessla’s flirtations—usually with a frown on her face.
Finally, Sonya stood and walked to where the winged royal sat on the grass. “Mind if I sit down?”
The princess lifted her gaze from the young men across the way and smiled. “Not at all.”
“Don’t look,” Scott said to Steve in a low tone, “but Sonya and Vessla are actually talking to each other.”
“They are?” Steve asked surprised, one hand stroking Kayliss’s fur. Never in his life did he want to turn his head more than at that moment.
“Well, don’t worry,” Scott said with a grin. “If Sonya goes for her knife, I’m sure it’ll be over quick.”
Steve raised his eyebrows and replied dryly, “Oh, you’re a funny guy.”
“But he does want to marry me,” Princess Vessla said. “He and I are destined to be together. And after he has met with the leaders of the human Resistance he shall return with me to the palace, and we shall be wed.” She looked back to Steve and her countenance became thoughtful. “There is something very different about him, though.”
Sonya ignored this last. “Why would you want to marry someone whom you don’t even know?”
“But I do know him—at least, as much as I need to choose him,” Princess Vessla replied. “Besides, I will know all there is to know very soon. It is my talent.”
“That’s not what I mean. What I’m trying to say is that you don’t even know him.”
“Things appear to be getting heated,” Eegrin said with a glance in the direction of the young women.
“Yep,” Scott agreed. “I’d give it maybe five more seconds.”
Steve looked puzzled. “Five more until what?”
“One,” Scott said, “two, three…”
Sonya then stood, shaking her head in visible frustration, and returned to sit in her original place with a drop to the grass.
“Hmm, I must be getting rusty,” Scott mused. “I missed it by two seconds entirely.”
Haldorum finally opened his eyes just as Haze and Lurin reappeared. The woodsman gave a nod, and the old wizard called for the others to make ready.
A third of an hour into their trek Eegrin asked, “How long before we arrive?”
“Not long,” Lurin answered. “The Granar is very large place—hence the reason we hide within it—but Haldorum brought us most of the way.”
“To be honest,” Eegrin admitted, “it isn’t really so much the time getting there as the total time we will spend there that concerns me.”
Lurin nodded from the front of their small party without turning. “You worry about the animosity between our respective races.”
“The bias that exists between all the races is no subtle thing, and history has proven time and again the slightest provocation is excuse enough for violence.”
“Your concern is noted,” Haze said, “but these men are mostly a disciplined lot. Even so, any who give you trouble, or choose to disparage your race, will answer directly to me. Whatever is left of them after that will report to General Corbett.”
Listening in, Steve had the distinct feeling the confrontation with Haze would prove considerably more punishing than with the general. “I don’t think you have much to worry about,” he whispered to his winged friend. Eegrin smiled his thanks, but did not appear entirely convinced.
The party walked in pairs with Lurin and Haldorum in the lead, followed by Princess Vessla and Eegrin, Steve and Kayliss, Scott and Sonya, and Haze guarding the rear, taking breaks every hour to accommodate their regal guest who was unused to such hardship. As they walked, Steve noted the trees of this forest were not as immensely huge as those of the Memsherar, and lacked the magic sense of it therein, but this area they moved deeper into conveyed a certain feeling of foreboding all the same. Moss-covered vines hung from the branches and thorny ivy wound around the trunks and along the forest floor amid the smell of rotting vegetation. Several times the young wizard caught a fleeting glimpse of movement from the corner of his eye but when he turned his head the forest remained still.
Don’t be paranoid, he thought to himself. Still, the feeling of being watched refused to abate.
They stopped in late afternoon to eat of the provisions provided by His Majesty, and Steve welcomed this as a chance to turn his mind to something—anything—else, if only for a short while. Conversation, however, remained sparse, as everyone now had that same anxious feeling of being watched. Haze and Lurin exchanged glances as the others ate quietly, and their eyes never stopped scanning the surrounding forest. Haldorum seemed the most relaxed of them all, but he, too, was less than his usual conversational self.
They marched on and as the sun dropped lower toward the horizon Eegrin moved closer to his princess, his hand ever near the hilt of his sword. Steve scanned his surroundings in earnest now, the feeling in his gut assuring him this was not paranoia. Something was following them – but, thus far, at a measured distance from their party. A slight breeze carried a strange and pungent scent that Steve inhaled reflexively, even though it was through Kayliss he became aware.
“They will wait until dark,” Haze said suddenly from behind, his voice moderate and level.
Haldorum did not turn and said, “I had hoped to reach the camp first but we will need more than the two hours of daylight we have remaining. We need a defensible location—and soon.”
“If it wouldn’t trouble you all too much,” Steve said slightly annoyed, “perhaps you could enlighten the group about who is stalking us?”
“Not who,” Lurin corrected. “What. It seems we have stumbled upon a band of grileden.”
“Dangerous?” Scott asked.
“Very. Short creatures, but fierce fighters – and quick. Their talons are deadly poisonous.”
Eegrin turned and grabbed his princess by the shoulders to face him with uncharacteristic gruffness. “Leave here. Now. Take to the sky above the canopy and do not return until I come for you.”
Haze moved quickly behind the two and started them walking again. “Forget it, lad. It is too late for that. Grileden move through the treetops as easily as you and I would walk through a hallway. For now it is best to keep her here with us and not let on we are aware of them.”
“Numbers?” Eegrin asked as he walked.
“They seldom attack without numerical advantage. We can count on three to one at least.”
“But there are nine of us,” Scott hissed through his teeth, and Haze nodded. “So you’re telling me there are at least twenty-seven of those things out there?”
“Give or take,” the warrior replied.
The group continued at a hurried pace and within the hour they chanced upon a jutting outcrop of rock forming a semi-cave out of the ground. A barren shelter at best, but something solid nonetheless to protect their backs. Haze and Lurin quickly threw down their packs and ushered both the Princess and Sonya into the lee of the stone shelter. The woodsman deftly strung his bow before taking a place beside Haldorum, behind the newly formed wall of drawn steel blades.
They waited in silence as the sun slowly dipped beneath the horizon, changing the twilight to orange-red and casting long, eerie shadows amid the forest growth. All about them the Granar was silent; motionless save for the stir of insects, and the sluggish, steady dissipation of the sun’s reassuring light.
The wicked hissing of Lurin’s arrow was Steve’s first warning of attack. The shaft sped through the waning twilight and struck home, dropping its target from the treetops above. The ape-like creature hit the earth with a dreadful thud and a fitful squeal of agony, its protruding brow, snapping jaws and coarse brown hair lending it a grotesque appearance. The talons at the end of its three-fingered hands clawed at the shaft protruding from its ribcage and its breath hissed past teeth black as ebony.
A second grileden leaped from the shadows and Steve lashed out more in surprise than intention. The blade found flesh and rent the creature a mortal wound beneath the arm.
More of the deadly creatures charged forth from the shadows in surprising numbers, and soon all of the men were engaged in the fray. Scott ducked when he heard the hissing of arrows above his head as he fended off two grileden, one of
which disappeared suddenly beneath the mass of another creature that dropped unexpectedly from above with an arrow protruding from its throat.
Haze’s broad blade severed the head from one and disemboweled another in the same powerful stroke. One dexterous animal ducked the broad blade on the backswing before launching to the attack, but his teeth found only the steel plate of the warrior’s forearm. His left arm immobilized, the warrior raised his sword hand then brought the pommel of the weapon down in a skull-crushing hammer strike.
More grileden dropped from the trees or used their claws in a controlled slide down the tree trunks, raking furrows in the wood as they went. Lurin’s arrows flew from his bow with lethal accuracy, his attacks timed to distract or hinder still others. Their hairy brethren rushed to assault from the shadows and soon Scott, separated from the offensive wall formed by human and Jisetra alike, was fighting one alone and still charged by three more. He kicked out wildly, catching one under the jaw and severing the slavering tongue caught between its teeth while the other two rushed past him without stopping.
Sonya stepped in front of Princess Vessla with long-knife in hand as the two charging grileden came on howling for blood. One died with an ear-splitting shriek as flames from Haldorum’s fingertips engulfed it with frightening speed. Sonya lashed out at the second but the attack was slow and clumsy, and the beast seized her by first one, then the other of her wrists, then bore her to the ground. She struggled mightily beneath the creature’s weight with her long-knife still in hand but it found no purchase in the hairy hide. Haldorum spied the young woman’s desperate position but could do nothing to help as three more grileden broke through the line of defenders and charged. A staff appeared in his hands with a flash of blue light and the old wizard moved in for the attack.
Princess Vessla watched terror-stricken as Sonya and the creature struggled on the ground before her. The grileden, though smaller, possessed greater strength and forced Sonya’s wrists closer to her throat, slowly bringing its own poisoned talons within reach. The young woman attempted to roll but the weight of the creature was too much. The grileden released her weaponless hand then slashed with its own, but its talons only raked three small lines across the side of her neck. Sonya bit back a cry against the burning pain and seized her knife hand with her free hand. With the combined strength of both arms, she plunged her long-knife down through the hollow of the creature’s collarbone. The grileden rolled away shrieking hideously and clutching at the hilt-deep blade imbedded, while Sonya rolled to her feet just as four more broke through the line.
Third Power Page 29