“Us?” asks Nathaniel, gesturing to the group. “Or us?” he points between me and him.
“Both,” I answer.
A twig snaps and we look to see Aela standing nearby with her pack and bow on her back. “We leaving?” she says coldly. “I thought you were in a hurry.”
I raise an eyebrow and look at Percival, who shrugs. As one we stand and join her.
She has trouble for the first part of the day. As I predicted, she finds a suitable stick to lean on, but she is slow. Her pace is persistent, however. She plows forward without stopping or complaining.
After lunch she begins to improve. Her strength begins to return, but she still is slow and the pace is painstaking for me. Every so often she stops and leans heavily on the stick. “Poison still hasn’t worked its way out of my system yet,” she gasps.
“Do you need help?” I ask.
“No,” she retaliates. “I’m fine.” Then we continue.
She gasps loudly as she sits when we finally find a suitable camping spot. Her breaths are long and deep and sweat lines her flushed forehead. She takes a long drink of water.
We don’t make her take a watch that night.
The mountains look familiar the next day. We will reach Terrace probably by midafternoon.
Aela still has a hard time. She leans heavily on her stick, but robustly refuses any offer to support her. Despite her hard effort, she manages to keep up.
“What are you travelling to Terrace for?” she asks me.
“Why?”
“You are Dragonhammer. What are you doing away from your legion, alone on the road to Terrace?”
I hesitate before answering. “Our spies picked up some information on the movements of Tygnar. I’m coming here to make sure it gains no ground.”
She accepts my answer.
Finally we reach the gates of Terrace, much later than I would have liked. The gates are closed, and the guards on top eye us as we approach. They recognize our armor and the gates open. Then we walk in.
As we walk through the streets, I confront Aela about a somewhat touchy subject. “Do you have family here?” I ask.
“No,” she responds flatly.
“Friends?”
“No.”
“Anywhere you can stay?”
She pauses, and then reluctantly says, “No.”
“And no money to get your own place, I’m assuming.”
She shakes her head, crinkling her nose slightly.
“Where will you stay?”
The question burns in the air. Then she says, “I don’t know.”
“Would you like to stay with us?”
Her face lifts slightly. “Why would you do that?”
“Because you need somewhere to stay,” I answer.
She nods. “I would like that,” she says softly.
“Good,” I answer just as softly.
We walk quickly. I’m not sure what I am expecting. Apparently the spies had just said that Tygnar was planning on harming my mother in some way. To find her gone would destroy me.
We come upon the little house quickly. My mother answers the knock.
I take a long deep breath when I see her. “You’re safe,” I breathe.
She’s frozen in shock. Her jaw drops and her eyes widen. Then she recovers and leaps on Nathaniel and me simultaneously. “My sons!” she cries.
“Mother,” I and Nathaniel both respond.
“What’s the matter?” she says, pulling away. “Why are you home? Is it over?”
I shake my head. “I have some… business to attend to here.” I deliberately avoid telling her that I came to specifically protect her. There’s no need to fill her with more worry than is necessary. “We needed to see our mother.”
She starts sobbing and holds us close. Everyone else is standing there slightly awkwardly; she has not even seemed to notice their presence. Aela is fascinated. She seems like she’s trying very hard to make sense of the situation.
“Come in!” says Mother. “Come in!” She gestures to everyone, including Aela. Aela is reluctant to enter; I stand behind her, waiting for her to go in.
“Who is this?” Mother asks.
“This is Aela,” I respond. “We found her by Dragongate Bridge. She has no place to stay.”
“Yes she does,” says my mother. “You are welcome here, Aela. Make yourself at home.”
She studies Mother, and then looks to me like she’s trying to discern a riddle of some sort or another. I nod and gesture towards the door.
“Thank you,” she says softly. Then she enters the house. Mother gives me a smile as I walk in.
“Will you stay here?” she asks as she closes the door.
There is no hesitation in my answer. “Yes.”
She smiles. “Good.”
“Do you have room?” Nathaniel asks.
“I will make room,” she answers.
My two younger brothers, Ethan and Nicholas, zing around the corner and cling to me. I wait patiently for them to release their grip, and then I move back to the door.
Aela stands next to the fireplace, with an air that makes her appear as though she is out of place. Mother invites her to sit down, and Aela sits after another request.
Mother looks back to me. “Where are you going?”
“I have business to attend to,” I respond. “I am a captain in the army, and I must make sure my duties are taken care of.”
“Very well,” she breathes with understanding. “Return quickly.”
“We should come with you,” says Percival.
Mother looks at Nathaniel pleadingly. He looks down and says, “I can stay.”
I nod and say, “I’ll try to be quick. It should only take an hour or two.”
“That’s fast enough,” she responds.
Then I, Percival, James, and Jericho leave the house.
“What are we doing?” Percival asks.
“We’re finding out what’s going on,” I respond. “Everything we know about what our spy overheard, so that we will know how and when they will strike.”
“And why they didn’t strike before we got here,” mutters James.
“Exactly,” I reply.
The portcullis of Nringnar’s Deep is lifted, but the gate is shut. The guards recognize me immediately and bang on the door before I even reach it. I don’t have to stop before walking in the gate.
Inside, I turn to the guard on the right. “Who is the commanding officer?” I ask.
“Commander Siegfried,” he responds.
“Where can I find him?”
The guard leads us around the too-familiar keep and into the dining hall where Jarl Hralfar had officially made each of us a soldier of Gilgal. The commander sits at the head of the table, messing with all sorts of papers and inkwells and quills.
“Thank you,” I say to the guard. Then I approach the commander.
He looks up from his work and the guards on either side of him tighten their grip on the hilts of their sheathed weapons. “Dragonhammer,” he says. “I was told to expect you.”
He is clean shaven with short blond hair and dark brown eyes. He wears the same armor that I do, but his shoulder pads are bigger and more ornate, as are his gauntlets.
“Then you know why I am here,” I respond. “You know what our spies picked up?”
He nods.
“Tell me everything,” I command, sitting in the chair on his left hand. “I must know.”
“I am busy,” he says. “Can this wait until-”
“No it cannot!” I bang my fist on the table as I say the last word.
He seems surprised and says, “Captain, that is-”
“I don’t care what that is,” I interrupt. “I came here as fast as I could travel. This is my mother’s life we are talking about, and by Khaoth I will know what I need to know to keep her safe.”
Siegfried’s eyes are wide. He puts down his papers slowly and takes a deep breath. “All we know,” he begins, “Is that one
of our spies picked up information that your mother would be killed in an effort to destroy your will.”
“I know that,” I say quietly. “Was there anything else? Anything at all? Any tiny little unimportant detail?”
“None that I am aware of,” he responds. “Simply that when your will was destroyed, they would be able to kill you in battle.”
“Then we must sit here and wait until they attempt it?” I question, ignoring the last part.
“You travelled with a small enough group that they may not know you are here,” he says. “They may still attempt a kidnapping or assassination, whatever they had in mind. I say you wait. Let them come if they will.”
“And if they don’t?”
He pauses. “Something tells me they will come, Captain. You are too great a prize to have escape.”
I nod. “I will take that as a compliment, Commander.”
“Take it as you will,” he responds. “Stay as long as you will.”
“I will stay until I know that they either will not attempt, or their attempt has failed. I will not leave until then.”
He nods. “I respect that decision.”
“Very well,” I say. “I will tell you as soon as I know when I am leaving.”
He nods again.
“Thank you for your time, Commander.”
“It was nice to meet you, Dragonhammer,” he replies.
I bow and excuse myself. The others follow me out.
“So that’s our plan?” asks Percival. “We’re just going to wait around until Tygnar tries to do something to your mother?”
“Exactly,” I respond. “No matter how long we must wait.”
“How do you know this wasn’t a front to get you out of the front lines?” he asks.
“What difference would that make?” I ask. “One man in thousands. No. Whatever information we intercepted is real.”
We find our way out of the keep and to its front gate. There we stop.
“Where will you stay?” I ask. “I and Nathaniel are staying with our mother.”
“We can stay here in the Keep,” Percival answers. “Your mother will want us to stay with you, but there is no room.”
“Agreed,” says Jericho. James nods his consent.
“Would you like to visit Gunther with me?” I ask. “I’ll go get Nathaniel and then we’ll go see Gunther together.”
Percival shakes his head. “I don’t know him very well. I’ll just stay here, I think. Grab a drink. Get some sleep. I’m tired of travel.”
“As am I,” says James. “But maybe I’ll go out later and…” He leaves his statement unfinished, but we don’t press it out of him.
Jericho says, “I’ll stick with them, I suppose.”
“Very well,” I say. “I will see you later, then?”
“Of course,” they respond.
“With what I expect to happen, however, I will not leave my mother’s house unless I absolutely have to. Feel free to join me there.”
Percival nods. “We’ll be there with you.”
“Farewell then,” I say. Then I turn and walk out of the Keep.
The day is waning quickly. I walk back to Mother’s house quickly, and let myself in. From there, I fetch Nathaniel and see if he wants to say hello to Gunther. He agrees, and we go off down the street. As we walk, I look up and find the sky is turning orange. Then red. There has been blood shed today.
Rachel answers the door. She recognizes me, though I do not think she remembers my name, and invites us inside. Gunther gives us each a warm embrace and we talk for only a minute or two. Nathaniel and I explain that we will be staying with Mother, but we leave out the details of our mission. I do not want to worry him with the knowledge that Mother is Tygnar’s target.
Then we leave.
“So what did you learn in the Keep?” asks Nathaniel as we turn from Gunther’s little house.
“Everything we already knew,” I respond. “I do not know when or how the strike will be, but I know that it is coming.”
“How will we stop it?” he asks.
“By being prepared,” I respond.
We walk in the door and ask Mother, “Where should I and Nathaniel sleep?”
“You can have my bed,” she says. “I’ve let Aela have the spare in the other room.”
“I can’t take your bed,” I respond. “I’ll take the chair.” She tries to protest, but I give her a look that says, It’ll be alright. “I’ll take the chair,” I repeat. She nods and gets some blankets and pillows for me. Nathaniel decides he will sleep in one of the three other chairs.
Aela comes out of the little hallway to the left, which leads to her room and the tiny washroom. The hallway on the right leads to the bedroom my mother shares with Ethan and Nicholas, though only the latter two have to share a bed. Mother gets one all to herself.
“You’re staying here?” she asks.
“Of course,” I respond.
Before either of us can say anything more, Mother pulls a pot off the fire and sets it on the table. Then she gets a couple of bowls from the cupboards and sets the table as nicely as she can. “Dinner,” she says. “I was planning on feeding a few hungry boys tonight!”
And indeed she was. There’s plenty to go around. I notice the quality and quantity of the ingredients and ask lowly, “Where did you get this?”
“I thought you’d know!” she says.
I search my mind and my brow furrows. Then my face brightens and I say, “Lord Archeantus kept his promise, didn’t he?!”
She nods slightly. “I never would have accepted it but the nice soldiers who brought the money insisted that I take it. Something about me being a…” She glances at Nicholas and her eyes water.
“Widow,” I mutter.
She nods, blinks a few times, and continues, “But what do you mean kept his promise? Lord Archeantus?”
I am unwilling to tell her, and she senses this. “Kadmus,” she urges. “What did you do?”
I can’t hold anything back from her. “Lord Archeantus wanted to repay me for… fighting well. So I, uh… I asked him to help you out.”
Her eyebrows go up. “You did that for me?”
“Yes,” I answer. “Why wouldn’t I?”
She shakes her head. “Well, I won’t need to work again. He’s provided us with much more than enough.”
“That’s good,” I respond. “You can be a mother. Especially with father being…” I glance at Nicholas. “…away, then you can be the mother they need, and still have everything to provide for them.”
She nods and her eyes start to well slightly. “Thank you,” she says. Then she hugs me tightly.
“It’s getting dark,” she says. “Time for little ones to go to bed.”
Nicholas overhears and slumps. He knows fighting is useless. “Am I a ‘little one’?” asks Ethan quietly.
“Yes,” Mother responds. “Go on.” She ushers them into the right hallway and all three of them go out of sight. Aela, Nathaniel, and I are left sitting.
“Where did you say you are from?” I ask Aela.
“Kera,” she answers flatly.
“Where do you stay if you have no family there?”
“I and a friend were staying together. The bandits have taken her. Now I suppose that I have the place to myself.”
“I’m sorry,” I say, contemplating her blank tone. I attribute it to shock.
She nods silently. “If I could, I would try to find her. But we know nothing of them. They could be anywhere.”
“It’s a sad thing,” Nathaniel says. I’m hit by his words, and struggle to think where I have heard them before. It takes me a minute to remember. It was the old man in the square, talking about the world at war. It’s a sad thing.
She gets up. “I’d best be getting to bed,” she says. “Good night.”
We echo her farewell.
I get up from the table, leaving Nathaniel there. I walk down the hall towards the room where my mother is reading a be
dtime story to Nicholas. My timing is perfect; she has just started. I recognize it immediately as one of my favorites, from a book she read to Gunther and me when we were small children. Despite my age and lack of need for a bedtime story, I find myself standing just outside the door and listening.
Grothingar the Mighty
“Once, long ago, when the land was ruled by dragons and giants, elves and dwarves, there was a king. This king was no man, or even an elf or an orc. He was stronger than any being, wielding a sword larger than any sword that had ever been forged. His blade was sharp, his armor shining, and his courage above all. He was the Lord of the Frost Giants, towering above all men and above his own kin. None could match him on the battlefield; he was a berserker, undefeatable, invincible. His Frost Giant blood granted him the ability to freeze objects solid with a single touch, and even from a distance with the mist he shot from his hands. He wore no helmet, as he was a Frost Giant, and like all Frost Giants had horns like a ram, great and curling, sticking from his head. His name was Grothingar the Mighty.
“The Frost Giants spent their time with each other. They built halls and castles to protect themselves and others. They were a productive and hardworking people, always striving to build and to protect.
“There was another warrior of another race. This race was in direct opposition to the Frost Giants, and so was one of fire, destruction, and mayhem. These were the Fire Giants. Though they did build forts and castles of their own, they constantly looked for their own gain and welfare above all others. Often they would destroy the villages of men and elves simply because they wanted the land. A great greed grew inside every one of them until they each wanted only to control all.
“The warrior of this race was a titan among the Giants. He could throw fire like a catapult, or simply burst his body into flame during battle. His armor was dark, his beard long and crimson. His sword was as black as his soul, with an edge red as blood. He was Avalkand the Infernal, Lord of the Fire Giants.
“The Frost Giants did not take kindly to the Fire Giants’ works of destruction. As builders and protectors, they rose up against the Fire Giants and soon peace reigned in the land.
“This peace, however, was temporary.
Dragonhammer: Volume I Page 28