by J. Thorn
Krea’s scream came unstuck, her shrill cry unheard by human ears in the desolate lowlands. The night descended upon her.
Chapter 26
Thom awoke to a scream reverberating out of the world of dreams and fading like a distant echo. His body dripped with sweat, his shirt and pants sticking to his skin. The night pressed down black and starless. Great oaks and ash stretched into the sky, reaching for the clouds. Thom sat up on his elbows and noticed Rowan watching him. Kira and Delia mumbled in their bedrolls.
“You were talking in your sleep, lad,” Rowan said.
“Was I?”
“Aye.”
“I’m awake. Why don’t you try to get some sleep now? I’ll stand watch.”
Rowan crouched next to Thom, one finger pressed to his lips. “Perhaps we should both stay awake for a bit,” he said, nodding toward a clump of trees near a clearing one hundred paces away.
Thom stood up into a low crouch and clipped his belt around his waist. For the first time, he noticed a gray line of water splitting the clearing, nearly invisible without the aid of starlight. The brook passed down a gentle slope and into the woods. Overhead, the clouds masked the moon’s position, like lamplight viewed through a blanket.
“What is it?” Thom asked.
“Two, maybe three people hidden within the trees. They ain’t moved in the longest time, but they’re there. I can feel ’em.”
“Why didn’t you wake me sooner?”
“No reason to yet. At first, I wasn’t sure there was anybody out there. But when you started to talk in your sleep, I caught movement between the brook and the trees.”
“They heard me?”
“Maybe.”
Thom shook his head free of the cobwebs of dreams. He listened to the shallow water riding over rocks worn smooth through the ages, gliding around curves, cutting through the terrain and rushing for the cover of the forest. The darkness in the woods lessened as his eyes adjusted and pulled contours out of the gloom. A row of bushes bordered the incline to his left, separating themselves from a grove of spruce trees whose scent wafted sweetly toward his position. To the right, the forest marched away into the night like an army of soldiers. Straight ahead, a cluster of young ash fronted the far edge of the clearing. His eyes traveled down the thin trunks and found a thicker darkness clustered around the bases. Somebody hid out there, spying on them from dark seclusion, waiting for the right moment to attack.
Rowan stood inside the murk oozing from the branches above. The shadows wrapped around Thom, too. The cover made it almost impossible for them to be seen from the opposite end of the clearing, but if enemies heard him talking in his sleep…
Thom remembered the scream that frightened him out of his nightmare. Like so many of his dreams as of late, he woke up in a panic for his missing daughters. He wondered if Kira had the same dreams.
“Should I wake Kira and Delia?” Thom asked.
Rowan pressed his finger to his lips again, nodding toward the ash cluster.
At first Thom saw nothing but the distant trees. The shadows shifted around the trunks and an image of a giant spider crawled across Thom’s imagination. He visualized a man-sized tarantula with hairy legs as thick as tree trunks and fangs dripping with venom. At any second, the monstrous spider would crash out of the trees, skittering across the clearing toward his wife and daughter. He heard his heartbeat speed up, thunderous amid the silent forest. Thom refocused his attention on the ash trees.
A man crawled out of hiding, staying low to the ground beneath a stand of tall grass. Something else moved behind the trees and the man signaled with his hand to the others to circle around the left and right flanks of the clearing.
A massive shape bounded over the brook running behind the man, racing with alarming speed toward the trees.
Dread wolf.
The other monster circled left, blending into the shadows and disappearing into the forest.
Rowan nodded at Thom, having seen the three figures.
Thom woke Kira while pressing a hand over her mouth. He stifled her cry with his palm. Her eyes took on the dreadful understanding they were not safe. She nodded and he removed his hand. As Thom turned back toward to the clearing, Kira woke Delia in the same fashion.
Both men held their swords. Rowan wielded a massive broadsword that could chop down an armored man in one swing. Thom grasped a lithe bit of iron that whistled through the air like the wings of an eagle, with a blade sharper than any Rowan encountered before. Rowan watched Thom’s blade glimmer from the corner of his eye, observing the way the shepherd handled the weapon, the way it became part of him. Rowan smiled at his old friend despite the tension clinging to the night air.
Delia hid in her mother’s arms while standing behind Thom and Rowan within the gloom of the forest’s edge. The air bristled as though a storm brewed above.
For several minutes, nothing moved in the clearing. Had Thom not seen the shapes with his own eyes, he might have believed there was no danger. But he could still see the hidden man as a deeper shade of darkness behind the concealing tall grass. The intruder lay still, waiting. The dread wolves concerned Thom the most, for they could be anywhere, creeping along the perimeter of the woods and getting ready to strike out at his family.
Thom remained still. He rested the sword against his body to conserve his strength. Sweat beaded on his forehead. The clouds thickened, plunging the forest into black shadows.
The fury broke upon them in an explosion of noise.
The woods on both sides of the camp crashed with the attack of the dread wolves, branches cracking and splintering. As Rowan turned right to meet the gigantic dread wolf leaping out of the woods, Thom turned left toward the sound of heavy footfalls coming out of the darkness. Thom saw the man who no longer remained hidden behind the grass. The man approached with his sword raised, rushing across the clearing.
The dread wolf burst out of the gloom, its black fur blending with the night sky. Thom saw the glow of its eyes and heard its snarl. Rowan screamed and a dread wolf howled. Thom ducked as dangerous talons whistled over his head. He swept the sword across his attacker’s legs and the dread wolf cried out. Delia and Kira screamed, adding to the confusion.
The unknown attacker used his sword to slice at Thom’s shoulder. Thom rolled away at the last moment, sweeping the sword low to trip the man. The injured dread wolf pounced on Thom. As he felt the air leave his lungs and saw stars explode in his eyes, he stabbed the sword into the beast’s side. The dread wolf scrambled back into the darkness. Although Thom could not see the monster, he heard its labored grunts from amid the trees.
A sword ripped across Thom’s arm. As he clutched his bicep, a river of crimson flowed from the laceration. He heard a whistle as the sword swept toward his face. He brought his own sword up at the last moment, the ringing of iron heard over the women’s screams and the baying of the dread wolves. The sword swept toward him again. Thom rolled across the forest floor, rocks stabbing at his ribs. He sprung to his feet and the man rushed forward. As the gray light of the moon pulsed behind the massing overcast, Thom recognized Dain Felcik.
“Look out, Thom,” Kira said as Felcik swung the sword at his head.
Thom bent backward, feeling the wind from the blade on his face. He countered. Thom’s blade swept up and across Dain’s chest, gashing the man’s leather mail. Felcik yelled.
Rowan’s battle with the dread wolf moved into the darkness of the forest and Thom heard his friend’s desperate battle to survive. The second dread wolf exploded out of seclusion and Thom had just enough time to parry with his sword. The blade tore into the monster’s left arm, but the right limb crashed down on Thom’s shoulders, knocking him to his knees.
“Kill him,” Dain said from the darkness.
The dread wolf snatched Thom off the ground, raising him into the air like an empty grain sack. The dread wolf threw him. Thom struck the soil, his head narrowly missing a tree trunk.
“I said kill him.
End this.”
His sword laid beneath the trees several paces away. Ignoring the pain in his battered ribs, Thom crawled toward the weapon. He heard the beast coming, snout sniffing the air to locate him in the darkness. Heavy footfalls crunched branches like brittle bones.
Thom continued to crawl toward the sword. The beast came faster.
I’m not going to get the sword in time. I’m not going to—
Kira yelled and brought a thick branch down on the back of the dread wolf. The beast turned toward her, howling. Thom lunged for his sword. As the dread wolf attacked Kira, he plunged the sword into the monster’s back. The beast yelled. The tip of Thom’s sword protruded out of the dread wolf’s chest, blood splashing to the ground.
As Thom pulled his blade free from the dread wolf, Dain’s sword cut across his shoulder. Thom winced and rolled away as Dain swept the sword past his face. Dain advanced. Thom jumped to his feet and turned to parry before Dain’s sword could find flesh again. Iron rang against iron in the dead of night. Dain pushed Thom backward.
Thom parried the man’s attack while studying his now predictable blitz. When Dain thrust his sword toward Thom’s belly, Thom blocked the assault and swept his sword under Dain’s. Dain’s blade flew from his hands. It hurtled through the air, slamming against a tree at the edge of the forest.
Thom pressed the point of his sword under Dain’s chin.
Felcik’s breath came in heavy grunts. Sweat poured down his forehead and he blinked as the salt burned his eyes. “You are no shepherd, Thom Meeks.”
“Tell me where my daughters are and I will let you live.”
“Listen to you. Like some hero from a fairytale. You really think you can save them? You’ll never even find them.” Felcik laughed.
Leaves crunched and branches snapped as a lumbering shape approached. Thom pressed the sword tip upward, forcing Dain to raise his chin.
“Thom,” Kira said. “Another is coming from the trees.”
Rowan hobbled out of the woods, blood smeared across his face like war paint.
“Don’t say you doubted me,” he said with a wry smile. “My feelings would be most hurt.”
Thom nodded. “Didn’t doubt you for a moment, my friend. Check on my wife and daughter. I have some business with Dain.”
“Not until I speak with him first. I have my own business with this traitor.”
Dain’s eyes widened as Rowan stalked toward him, looking like a bloody, hulking giant.
“I spoke with your little brother on my way out of town.”
Dain’s eyes looked to Thom as though he expected help from him. Then he looked back at Rowan, now fully emerged from the shadows.
“My brother?”
“Aye. A misguided fool. But an honest boy in the end. He told me you burned down my inn. Is that true, Dain?”
Dain spit into Rowan’s face. He laughed again, his head fixed beneath Thom’s sword. “Your inn? Yes. Why yes, I did burn your bloody inn to the ground. Wake up, you fool. Your entire world is vanishing and you worry about an inn?” He laughed until his sides shook and tears welled in his eyes.
Rowan placed the edge of the broadsword against Dain’s neck.
“Easy now, Rowan,” Thom said. “He still has to tell me where my daughters are.”
Dain leaned his head back and laughed, the gray light turning his face pallid. “Your daughters. His inn. Neither of you get it, do you?” He glanced sideways at Thom, unconcerned with the blades pressed against his neck and chin. “Your daughters are hers now.”
“You’re nothing but a filthy liar. What did you do with the girls?” Rowan asked.
“For years I felt the hate from your eyes burning into my back. You all thought I was the dirt beneath your feet, the scourge of the village. And then I found a purpose,” he said. “I am a rat no longer. Now you are the rats to be scourged of the earth.”
Thom pushed the sword tip forward and a trickle of blood ran off the underside of Dain’s chin and down the blade. “Where are my daughters, Dain? And no double-talk. I will kill you if you lie to me. Who is the woman who has my daughters?”
A knowing smile creased Dain’s lips. “You know of whom I speak. What good will it do you to kill me? She will never give your daughters back.”
“Then you will lead me to her.”
Dain stared into Thom’s eyes, the moonlight reflected in them like pools of stagnant water. “You truly are the fool, Thom Meeks. One does not seek the woman. When she wants you, she will summon you. If you think you can stand against her, you are mad. Look around. No one comes or goes from the forest without her permission. Do you think you stumbled upon these woods by accident? She brought you here.”
“And why would she do that?”
“That is not for me to know. But I think she must see some use for you, shepherd.”
Dain emphasized the last word, letting Thom know he did not believe the man to be just a shepherd. “Release me and I will take you to her willingly.”
“Is that a promise?”
“You have my word.”
“Just as you gave the peddler your word in Drake’s Pass before you had him murdered?”
Dain smiled, his teeth glowing like gravestones at midnight. “You were there. I thought I smelled you on the wind. Matters not. It was the peddler who lied to me. How could such a simpleton understand the Shadow, let alone profess to serve it with loyalty?”
“You’ll not get a straight answer from him,” Rowan said. “I say we end it now and find your daughters ourselves.”
“Just a minute,” Thom said. “Dain, I am giving you one last warning. You will tell me where she took my daughters or the forest will run with your treacherous blood.”
Dain’s eyes turned into hollow sockets in the muted light, his gaunt face like a skull. “You will not find her. But she will find you.”
“Lead us to my daughters or I will end this. Do you wish to serve the Shadow in the afterlife?”
Dain turned his head, looking into the forest and past the trees. “I have nothing to fear from you. I have nothing to fear ever again.”
“Kill him,” Rowan said.
“He has told me nothing,” Thom said.
“I have told you everything,” Dain said. “But you are too foolish to listen—”
Boughs cracked. Heavy footfalls rushed out of the forest. The dread wolf bounded into the clearing, gore dripping out of its chest where Rowan’s broadsword tore flesh away. As it leaped over a log, howling with madness, Thom tried to spin away.
Kira saw the dread wolf first and she smashed into Thom and Rowan ahead of the beast, pushing them out of the way. The dread wolf came down upon Dain, jaws snapping blindly at anything in its path. Blood flew through the air like rain caught in the wind.
The beast turned, sniffing the air and catching the scent of its intended prey. Thom slipped out of the gloom, swung his sword high and sliced through the dread wolf’s neck. Its head rolled with a wet pop, jaws still biting at the air as blood bubbled out of its neck. The monster’s arms opened wide as though it meant to grasp Thom in its clutches when Rowan drove the broadsword into its underbelly.
The beast collapsed in a thud and shook the ground. Dain’s eyes stared lifelessly into the night sky, rivulets of blood trickling out of his mouth and down the sides of his face.
“Dammit,” Thom said. He threw his sword down next to Dain.
“Easy,” Rowan said, tearing a piece of cloth from Thom’s cloak and wrapping it around his friend’s lacerated arm. “He was never going to give you the answers you sought. The world is better without that piece of scum in it.”
Kira came to her feet, her eyes bouncing inside of their sockets. “Delia? Delia?” She peered into the gloom as she sought to convince herself Delia was still at the forest’s rim where she stood moments ago. “Delia? Where are you?”
Thom retrieved his sword and ran toward the trees, calling after his daughter. “Delia? It’s safe now. You can come out of hiding.�
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Delia didn’t answer.
The wind moaned through the trees like a lost soul. The trees came to life, swaying in the dark.
“Where has she gone, Thom? She was just here.”
Leaves rained down around them. Deep in the forest, the wind whistled through the trees and Thom tried to assure himself he didn’t hear a screaming child.
“I’ve lost her. I’ve lost them all.”
Rowan placed a hand on Thom’s shoulder. “She couldn’t have gone far. We’ll find her.”
The wind gusted in their faces, the smell of rot heavy and sharp. The three rushed into the trees, calling for Delia.
Chapter 27
Delia spun around. The forest silhouettes looked down upon her, branches grasping at her as they rocked with the sudden rise in the wind. Everything looked the same and she no longer knew in which direction to find their camp.
She rushed into the forest when the dread wolf came out of the trees. It came so close she could have run her fingers along its black fur. She ran forty paces into the woods while the sound of the dread wolf and the cries of her parents stopped, as though a wall rose behind her. She spun around, looking back and seeing only trees stretching for as far as her eyes could see.
She wandered back in the other direction, but she did not see the broken limbs or matted grass that marked her retreat. The dark night cloaked the trail but Delia knew in her heart that even if the sun rose to light her path, she would find no sign of it.
She walked back forty paces, then forty more, then another forty. The clearing disappeared as though it had never been there at all. She considered the possibility that she wandered in the wrong direction, but even if she tied a string around her waist leading back to the camp, she thought she would find the other end tied to a tree in the middle of an unknown forest. Or perhaps the string would have no end, stretching forever into the distance.
Delia sat upon a bed of leaves and pine needles and cried into her hands. She stumbled into an area of the forest that didn’t exist prior to her running off. It was as if she ran into a different world.