Nino explained that the clan were called the Tallsteeps. They and the Lonehills had been in conflict for centuries, often turning to invasions and murder. Recently, though, Pendras had met with the Tallsteep chief, and they had agreed on something.
The wilds were harsh enough without them willingly adding another danger to it. The Lonehills and Tallsteeps would never be friends, but they would stop proactively attacking each other. They formed an uneasy truce that saved many lives in both of their clans, turning this into a Cold War-like situation.
The Tallsteeps were a clan who didn’t use magic, or at least didn’t use it much, and prized physical strength over it. They must have valued it enough that they had abandoned a child with a physical defect.
Man. The Lonehills could be practical, sure. They didn’t spend long on grieving over their dead, preferring to focus on the living. But would they just abandon someone who was born different, who didn’t meet their standards?
Wait. They would. I knew that better than anyone! As soon as Pendras had realized I couldn’t use magic, he’d told me to hit the road.
So why would he take an abandoned child, a non-mage, into the clan?
Maybe Pendras was different back then. Maybe something had happened to make him more cut-throat.
At least I understood why Tosvig had gotten so angry when Nino suggested we leave without Pendras. Pendras had saved Tosvig from dying in the snow when he was young, alone, and abandoned by his people. He’d taken him into the clan, despite his differences.
This meant that Tosvig felt an utter loyalty to Pendras, and wouldn’t leave him. That was something I could respect. But not only that; Tosvig was something of an outsider here, too. I felt some sympathy toward him.
Tosvig and Mardak’s voices settled now. Mardak held out his thumb, and Tosvig pressed his own gloved thumb against it.
“We are in agree,” said Mardak. “Tosvig and others, the fastest, will seek Pendras. Also, we will leave sign for him, should he return to find us as shadows already gone. Words only a Lonehill would know to seek, and understand. The rest of clan, we will head north.”
“North?” said Nino. “To the Tallsteep? Enemies?”
“Enemies, ya, but our kind. When the humans visit forest with arrows, all the wolf packs must join together. We go to the Tallsteep clan.”
Tosvig spat on the ground. “Na. Na Tosvig. I will seek Pendras and spread word. But I will only join clan again when time with Tallsteep clan is over. Now, which souls join my hunt?”
“Fastest. Take Harrien. Malin.”
“Ah. Good lads. Years since I placed my eyes on them. Growing strong.”
So, the bulk of the Lonehill clan would head north, to where another clan similar to them lived. They’d leave a message for Pendras and the others, one that other folks wouldn’t be able to see or read. Meanwhile, Tosvig and others would go look for Pendras.
It sounded like it covered all the bases. What else could they do, really? If they stayed here, they were vulnerable. Their best mages were dead or gone, and their camp was no longer hidden.
On top of that, the Runenmer had somehow placed his runes around camp. Staying was suicide. Maybe leaving was, too, but it gave them a chance.
Now, did I want to go find the Tallsteeps, or go with Tosvig? My head told me that heading north would be a safer path, but not by much. There was sometimes safety in numbers, sure. Other times, being in a crowd was more dangerous.
Besides, I wanted to talk to Tosvig more. I sensed there were things I could learn from him; not least, maybe I could pick up some pointers on physical combat. I could maybe round off my skills a little better.
“I’ll go, too,” I said.
“Isaac? Danger in search.”
“I understand. But I will go.”
CHAPTER 23 – Sticks and Stones
As much as I would enjoy the envious stares I’d get when I wore my geld deer robes, I packed them in my inventory bag along with my brown Lonehill robes.
We were going out into snow-covered wilds today, and the white robes I got from Nino were the best choice. I put these on over my coat, fastening them tight so the wind had no chance to get through.
Mardak gave me a few days’ rations of dried beef, nuts, and vegetables, as well as beans that would boil in water in twenty minutes.
With protection from hunger and the weather, I needed to think about protection from other, more sinister things.
I checked my elementals list.
Elementals
[Fire] x4
[Human] x3
[Ice x4]
[Speed] x1
[Mapping] x2
[Sight] x1
So I could cast four fireballs and four ice spells. I didn’t know if hrr-eisre would cast as a ball or just a shower of ice or something. I hadn’t cast it yet. I knew all the moves to make it work, but I wanted to save my elementals for when I really needed the spell.
I could use the human elementals for any spell. This meant three more uses of fire or ice. Alternatively, I could use them to cast a levita telekinesis spell, or maybe use hrr-barrer to form a shield in front of me. Using those elementals was a last resort since I guessed human elementals were the most precious thanks to their universal application.
There wasn’t much I could do with the speed, mapping, or sight elementals yet, since I didn’t know the spells. I’d just have to keep them handy.
The last thing I did was to pay a visit to Nino to say goodbye. The inventoryman was in his tent, and when I poked my head inside, he waved me over.
“Isaac,” he said, rummaging around in a wooden crate. “Hier.”
He gave me a sword. It was shorter than my arm from hilt to tip, but surprisingly heavy. There was nothing remarkable about it, except for where it came from. Siddel had taken it from the guys killed by the Runenmer’s demons. I guess that gave an otherwise ordinary sword a little bit of a legacy.
You have received: Iron Sword
A standard sword of middling craftsmanship. Sturdy, pointy, useful for killing when used properly. It can injure its owner when used by an idiot.
“Thankie,” I said.
“Na problem. Be always care in how you tread. Respect the wilds. Listen to Tosvig; he has wandered many moons. If Pendras strays within your sights, then straight back. If we are gone, Tosvig or Harrien or Malin will know way.”
“Got it. Thankie.”
I left the tent and found my soon-to-be companions waiting for me; Harrien and Malin were standing side by side. Harrien stared off into the wilds in the distance, his face graver than I’d ever seen it. Malin had his arms crossed and his hood up, trying his best to battle against the cold.
Tosvig looked impatient. He was wringing his gloved hand and staring while I walked toward them.
“Ready? Ged. Human with no color, caim hier.”
“Me?”
“No color in circle, yes.”
“What’s up?”
He fixed me a stare full of anger. So much anger that I sensed it wasn’t all directed at me, but a product of everything; his place in the clan, the things that had happened, the things he still needed to do.
“You come to make numbers, no-color. You move only when I lift your strings. If weakness shows, I leave you. I let wilds claim you. Injured? I leave you. Beg me to help? I still leave. Understand?”
“Crystal clear,” I said. “And if you’re hurt? I leave you.”
Tosvig growled, shifted his bag on his back, and started walking.
And with that, with no ceremony, no speeches, no goodbyes, we were off. The three of us following Toksvig’s lead, leaving the clan and heading west toward the wilds that spread out impossibly far, impossibly white, impossibly remote.
We moved quickly, but carefully. With all of us in white fur robes, it was easy to blend into the wintry landscape, but the mouse rarely knows when the cat is watching, and so we didn’t take chances.
Every set of tracks was checked. Every noise investigate
d. We spoke only when we had to, and even then we used as few words as we could to get our meaning across. Usually, points and facial gestures were enough.
Tosvig knew the wilds better than anyone in the Lonehill clan, even Siddel. Lacking any mage powers to cultivate, and never settling for a job like cook or inventoryman or tanner, it seemed that Tosvig combed the landscape day and night, week after week, months after month. He was searching. Always searching. Looking for a better place for the clan to settle. So far, the best he’d found was the one they already had.
So, when Nino told Tosvig the direction Pendras had told them he was searching in, the warrior scout knew which way to go.
He led us through dead forests where trees whispered to us. Their words weren’t of much consequence. We traversed vast plains of snow that, until a few weeks ago, had been colored with green grass and rainbow flowers.
We followed him across rivers, through valleys, and even through a village long-since looted of anything valuable, even longer-since abandoned by its people.
All this we did in just two days, and I guessed we must have covered forty miles. Maybe more, maybe a lot less. I was finding it difficult to judge distance. All I knew was that I was glad as hell that all my training for my spells had toughened my calves and thighs, because otherwise, I’d have regretted volunteering for this.
Tosvig rarely spoke, except to warn us about dangerous pitfalls or poisonous berries. “No eat, no-color,” he’d say. As if I was going to start chomping on strange fruit.
On the first day, as the afternoon wore on, he’d stopped us from marching and made us stand perfectly still. Not because of danger. Not because of wolves, or anything like that.
No, Tosvig wanted us to watch the sunset.
“When travel alone, sun is friend,” he said. “I wave. Bye-bye, friend. See tomorrow!”
The only conversation he’d started with me personally went like this:
“Isaac,” he growled.
This was the first thing on the second morning of our journey, and I woke up to Tosvig’s face inches from mine.
“Huh?”
“Isaac. Wake.”
I quietly sat up and spoke in a whisper. “What is occurring? Danger?”
“Na, Isaac. Question.”
I rubbed my eyes. “Go ahead. Ask.”
“Tell me word of swear, Isaac. Word to call a man who behaves worse than dog.”
“You want me to teach you a swear word?”
“Word of swear. Insult.”
“Bastard always works.”
“Bastard. Bastard. Thankie, Isaac.”
“And for me?”
“Say?”
“Teach me word of swear,” I said.
“Ah. Nafurt.”
“Nafurt. Nafurt.”
Tosvig gave me a smile and a nod and then went to take a piss.
On the third day, we were walking through a narrow gully that had hills on either side of it, forming a kind of natural tunnel with no roof.
“Hier,” said Tosvig. “When we reach end, make circle. End of search, no success. Head back to clan and tell we no see.”
“Damn god, Damn god,” said Harrien. “All walk for empty pocket.”
“Not every mile is equal,” said Tosvig. “Sometimes can walk a hundred, and find your prize only on the hundred and first.”
“What is that?” said Malin, pointing.
“Huh?”
I squinted. Malin was right; there was something ahead of us. Something on the ground, laying against the hillside.
I drew my sword. I had made a habit of holding it as much as possible since Nino gave it to me. The thing about swords is that they weigh more than you think, and I wanted to know I could rely on my strength when I needed to use it.
There was no question of me showing any kind of finesse with this weapon. I hadn’t learned any technique yet, and its weight meant it was like trying to swing a bag of bricks and then expecting accuracy.
So, lacking much chance to practice swordplay while we traveled, I did the only thing I could and just carried the sword. I wanted my arm to get used to the weight, and my body to get used to the shift in balance when I gripped it.
Now, I held it at my side in my right hand. I kept it at waist height with the blade horizontal. If I needed to use it, I was ready.
Tosvig stopped for a second. He stared ahead of us.
“Perhaps we go back,” said Harrien. “A fight, here, now…”
“Is not enemy,” said Tosvig. He was breathing faster now. “Is not enemy.”
He tore off in front of us. Harrien and Malin were ahead of me. I wanted to put my sword in my inventory bag, since the magic bag seemed to soak up the weight, but I wasn’t going to trust Tosvig’s word about there being no enemies. I had decided I would only trust safety when my own eyes saw it.
So I joined them a minute later, and I slowly edged forward.
The three of them were crowded around a figure on the ground. I got closer.
“Siddel?” I said.
It was him!
Man, he didn’t look good. And that is being generous. If I was judging it neutrally I’d say he looked like hell, and if I was judging him harshly I’d say he’d been dragged through hell by his eyeballs, tortured in Lucifer’s fields of torment for a decade, and then kicked out onto the curb.
His mouth and lips were covered in blood, his ribs had been pulverized, and there was a great wound on his belly, showing his red insides.
I couldn’t believe he was even alive. In fact, when he took a breath, I felt my legs go soft.
“Harrien, give liquid of heal,” said Tosvig.
“Na, Tosvig. See him? To give, would be to waste.”
“Harrien…”
“You have left clan too long, Tosvig. No understand ways. Pendras has ruled that we must not waste. And to give here, would be waste.”
“Young one, pass liquid of heal…or you will need it.”
Harrien sighed and gave a glass vial to Tosvig. Tosvig put his hand on Siddel’s forehead and wiped blood away from his forehead circle. “Shh, Siddel. Shh. Drink.”
At least I was learning something about Tosvig; he had more compassion than the rest of them. In a place like this, though, compassion was a dagger that could stab the man that wielded it.
He poured a little of the liquid into Siddel’s mouth and tipped the rest onto his ribs and stomach. Siddel groaned in pain.
I kneeled next to him. “Siddel? What occurred?”
He coughed, and he couldn’t help spitting blood into my face. I wiped it off and waited for him to speak.
“Pendras, dead. Others, dead. Ogres made pact, and sealed with blood. But then, ogres showed their second face.”
Showed their second face?
Two-faced? Is that what he meant, that the ogres broke their pact?
I mean, it wasn’t the time to say that I had been right to be suspicious of this. Not the time at all. But of all the people, races, creatures I imagined it was wise to make a pact with, ogres were somewhere toward the bottom of that list.
I just wished the Lonehills hadn’t had to find out this way.
“Runenmar is different now,” groaned Siddel. “On his return. Powers. Not. Same… More trickery. He leaves runes that aren’t real. Runes to scare. To make minds weak. Can lay them from afar.”
Fake runes?
Were the ones around camp fakes, then? Was Runenmar trying to cause chaos?
Yep, pretty much seemed like he was to me. He seemed like that kind of guy.
“Are the ogres in friendship with him?” asked Tosvig.
Siddel tried to speak, but all that came out was a groan. He tried again, but his voice was too weak.
I took his hand. I held his index finger and pressed it against my palm. “One tap for yap, two for na, Siddel. Understand?”
One tap.
“Does anyone else yet live?” asked Tosvig.
Two taps.
“And the ogres and Run
enmer are in friendship?”
One tap.
“When did you last see them?” said Harrien.
Malin punched his friend’s arm. “How can he answer with a tap?”
Harrien punched him back. “A question not asked is one not answered.”
Tosvig pushed Harrien over so hard his back hit the ground and then did the same to Malin. “Brains of bison-arse. If tongues won’t stop flap, they flap in my pocket after I sever them.”
“Are they far from here?” I said.
Siddel groaned. He let out a rasping sound and he was still.
Was that it? He was dead?
And then he tapped my palm.
And then tapped it again.
“They aren’t far away. The ogres have killed Pendras and everyone else, and they’re lurking,” I said. “How many ogres were fighting? Tap for each one.”
But Siddel didn’t tap now. His pulverized chest had stopped rising. His pulse was still, his eyes absent of life. I felt a deep, wrenching sadness for the hunter who had become sort of a friend to me.
This went way beyond my feelings, though. Siddel was a big enough loss to the clan, but Pendras? The others? And on top of losing the elder this morning…
The Lonehills were done as a clan. They had to be. How could any people survive losses like this?
“Ow!” cried Harrien.
He sat up, his forehead bleeding. He held up a rock. “The hill has done me a hit.”
“No it hasn’t,” I said.
I got to my feet. On either side of us, way at the top of each hill, were a dozen naked men and women, each with chains around their necks and stones in their hands.
I readied a spell.
The stones were pelting down on us by the time I cast hrr-barrer, forming a shield of blue light in front of me.
[Human] elemental depleted x1
[Shield] discipline improved by 2%!
Rank: Grey 4.00%
The shield wasn’t large enough to cover us all fully, but it was better than nothing. It moved along with me, always facing in front.
“Get back against the hill,” I said. Damn it, I had said it all in English. I could feel the adrenaline spiking in me, and it was stirring up anxiety in my body.
Everything Is Worth Killing- Isaac's Tale Page 20