Hatch stopped him. “I’m not taking us through the Fae Wood. It would take too long.
Wildflower is a Spirit Walker Troll.”
“What’s that?” asked Sai.
“A shaman, a priest of sorts, that can commune with the spirits of their departed ancestors.
They can also travel through portals. That’s why some troll raiding parties can be so tricky and
deadly.”
Von Wilding took Hatch by the shoulder and whispered, “And you’re suggesting we trust one
and enter their realm?”
Hatch nodded. “Yes, I am. Besides she could be big help in the Moor too. Muscle and primitive
brain that knows almost as much about the Moor as you do.”
“I still don’t think it’s a good idea. Seems dangerous. Like we’re asking for trouble,” Von Wilding said.
“Trust me, Wildflower wil change her mind and take us through.”
“Her? That’s a her?” asked Sai in shock.
Hatch grinned and nodded. “Yeah, I saved her from a party of Bil men when she was sorely
wounded. She owes me her life.”
Von Wilding broke in. “Still, I don’t like the idea of traveling through a troll portal. What if we
get trapped there or are ambushed by another pack of trolls coming the other way?”
“I don’t think it works like that.”
“Well, how does it work?”
Hatch looked to Sai. “I think Sai has the most experience with portals.”
Sai looked at each of them. “I can move.” She demonstrated for them, vanishing in one spot
and reappearing ten feet away. “But that’s as far as I’ve gotten so far.”
“What does it look like when you do?” asked Von Wilding.
Sai puzzled at that. She had never thought about it. “It always happens so fast. It’s so dark I
don’t see anything really.”
“Try again.”
She concentrated and ported several times around the clearing. Then she was in front of them
again. “It’s like a world of shadows and I see everything, but through a smoky mirror.”
“Any trolls?” teased Hatch.
“No. Just reflections of what we see here right now.”
“Is it safe?” asked Von Wilding.
“I think so.”
Hatch interrupted. “So, then do you agree with me that we should take the shortcut through the
Spirit Walker Troll’s realm and save ourselves days, perhaps weeks of travel? And that is just to
begin our journey through the Moor.”
Sai looked at the two men. Von Wilding shook his head, but Hatch was hopeful. “I don’t wish
to go that way,” she said.
Von Wilding grinned as if he had just won a bet.
“But, if it wil help us get this over with quicker, I think we should do it.”
Von Wilding snarled and stomped a few feet away but muttered, “Fine. I’m with you.”
“Good,” said Hatch. “I knew you’d come around.”
Wildflower exited the tent. She looked unhappy but said, “I’ve decided I’l help, but I don’t want any of you seeing how I do this or watching when we are traveling through the spirit path.”
The three of them gave each other puzzled looks. “What do you want us to do?” asked Hatch.
Wildflower produced three smel y sacks. “Put these over your heads and that way you won’t see
or hear much, and I’l guide us through.”
“I’m not doing that,” spat Von Wilding. “I’l not let you bash us over the heads because we
were foolish enough to put bags over them.”
“Wildflower isn’t like that,” said Hatch.
“Maybe she’s not, but what about the other trol s in there?”
Wildflower grimaced and said, “It doesn’t work like that, little man. We won’t bump into any
material trolls while traveling on the spirit path.”
Von Wilding looked suspicious.
Sai guessed this would be the best chance she might have to escape, so she gave the most
convincing disarming lie she could think of. “I don’t have a bad feeling about this, and if Hatch wil
trust his safety with a sack over his head, I suppose I wil too.”
Hatch gave her a warm smile for that.
Von Wilding remained quiet but begrudgingly took a sack from Wildflower.
The troll matron beckoned them to follow her to the bil owing tent. Inside, numerous roots and
plants hung from the ceiling to dry. Various smal jars and canisters of exotic substances filled the
shelves. A rabbit hung upside down, soon to be Wildflower’s lunch, or so it appeared.
“I’l begin the ceremony. You al put those bags over your heads and don’t try and listen too
close. When I give you a tug, stand and hold hands and we’l enter the spirit path and start toward
your destination. Inside, you don’t have to hold hands, but maybe it wil give you comfort. You
won’t feel anything, nor have any other senses of this journey. It wil be over before you know it.”
They put the sacks over their heads.
Sai’s smel ed like rotten potatoes. Though it muffled everything, Sai thought she could hear
Wildflower softly chanting, but even without the sack, she wouldn’t have understood a word of the
trol ’s language. Now is as good a time as any. I’m done with this nonsense. Let the princesses take care of themselves. She ported just outside the tent and took the sack off.
Pondering how to best elude Hatch if he came after her, movement caught her eye and she
squinted through the tiny gap in the trees that they had come by a short time ago.
Masked black riders emerged one by one from the thick woods. There had to be a dozen of them. Some didn’t look like they were even living.
They looked a whole lot more pleased to see Sai in the clearing by herself than she was to see
them. They drew swords, wands, and nocked arrows in bows.
Sai ported back inside the tent. “We’ve got enemies outside! At least a dozen!”
Wildflower frowned at Sai for having taken the sack off her head. She was so involved with her
troll ritual, she hadn’t noticed that Sai had ported out and back.
Hatch and Von Wilding leaned toward the sound of Sai’s voice with sacks still over their heads
but al she could hear was a mumbled, “What?” from Hatch.
Arrows ripped through the tent. Wildflower caught one of the shafts in her arm and she cried
out in anger.
A focused blast of magic threw the tent away like it was picked up by a hurricane. Only then did
Sai see the swirling blue and black circle behind the tent. It was like a cave in the air. It led beyond her sight into darkness.
Wildflower grated, “Take them in! Let’s go! Those are witches of the Dark Consul!”
Sai was unsure but grabbed Hatch and Von Wilding and led them into the portal. Wildflower
stood between them and the dark forces. She had magic of her own and shot a bolt of lightning
back at the witches, but she was hit by another pair of arrows and a purple blast of energy. She
screamed in pain and fel into the portal.
Sai watched the incoming rain of arrows and magic bolts move towards them, but the opening
blacked out and infinite darkness engulfed her.
Chapter 4: The Spirit Path
One instant she saw the light of the outside world fil ed with a wave of arrows and spel s, then
as the portal closed, she was surrounded by cold darkness. The interior felt sticky and unsteady, as if she was suddenly within a giant spiderweb tunnel.
The corridor ahead of them stretched on like a road at night as if stars were at the far end,
giving weak light. Behind them,
in the dark emptiness of the closed portal, everything fel into the
gloom of a bottomless precipice.
A strange sound sucked at her ears and she was momentarily petrified until she realized it was
Wildflower at her feet. She knelt, and warm, sticky liquid met her hands.
Wildflower’s breath was coming in quick gasps.
“Hatch! Help me!” Sai cried.
Muffled sound came from farther into the gloom and her eyes became accustomed to the dark
spaces. The tunnel was lit with scintil ating splashes of black and blue. Sai could not tel what the
tunnel was made of.
The warden took the sack from his head. “Are we on the spirit path?”
Sai nodded. “Wildflower was hit by arrows and some other kind of magic from the witch
coven.”
Hatch looked Wildflower over. “Don’t pull the arrows out yet. Put pressure on that open
wound,” he directed. “What kind of spel hit her?”
“I don’t know. It was like purple lightning.”
“Knockdown spel ,” said Von Wilding.
“How did you get her in?”
“She fel in behind us after opening the portal. What do we do?”
“I don’t know yet. She’s hurt bad,” said Hatch.
The troll beckoned to him. “Closer,” Wildflower whispered. “Guess I’m final y even with you
now.”
“No, not like this,” said Hatch, as he leaned in.
“My time was up a long time ago. You just gave me some to borrow,” answered the troll
matron with a wretched wheeze.
“No, Wildflower. Tel me how to patch you up.”
“I’m not going to make it. Go down the path. Be careful, the ancestors won’t be happy you’re here. Some may try and stop you. Worse things may be waiting too. Be wary.”
Hatch shook his head. “We can’t leave you, Wildflower.”
“You don’t have a choice. I am done and must remain. You must go on.”
“How far is it?” asked Sai.
Wildflower shook her head. “I’ve never tried to make a spirit path this long before. Might take
you an hour, might take you days.” She coughed up dark blood and cringed into the fetal position.
“We can’t leave her,” said Sai.
“We can’t carry her either,” said Von Wilding. “Especially if this journey takes us days. We
don’t have the horses or hardly any of our extra rations or supplies.”
“Go on,” croaked Wildflower. “I am where I want to be. You go, now.” She closed her eyes
with a shiver and was stil .
She had lost people before and tried to be thick-skinned about it, but this troll matron brought
back all the memories of her own lost mother: the gentleness, and smel of a warm home-cooked
meal. She was moved to a few tears that she quickly wiped away before the others noticed.
“We best get moving,” said Hatch.
“Shouldn’t we at least bury her or say a few words?” asked Sai.
“Can’t bury anyone on the spirit path. It’s probably etherium. Feel it, it’s like a sponge but there
is no penetrating it, no cutting or digging. It’s not like matter back in the realms,” said Von Wilding.
“It doesn’t seem right to leave her here.”
“You heard her. This where she belongs,” said Hatch as he stood and secured his sword belt.
“We don’t know what lies ahead or how long it wil take us, so we best hurry along.”
Von Wilding agreed and started down the tunnel. Sai frowned but didn’t move. Hatch looked at
her and gestured with his thumb to follow Von Wilding. She reluctantly went after him.
The shimmering dark blue and black swirled about eerily, but they didn’t hear anything except
their own breathing and soft footsteps for hours.
Finally, Hatch broke the stillness. He turned to Sai, “So, how did you know that witches were
attacking?”
“Maybe I poked my head out a little, to listen.”
“I doubt you were that curious about a troll ritual.”
Sai huffed in acknowledgment. “I wasn’t, but when I looked out in the clearing, the witch coven was coming and started shooting arrows and spel s at us. There wasn’t any time to think. I guess I
just sensed that they were out there, and I had to look,” she said, hoping that sounded reasonable.
Hatch grunted but didn’t appear convinced.
“Maybe there aren’t any dangers here and we’l have an easy time of it,” said Sai, trying to
change the subject.
Hatch shrugged and said, “That’s what worries me.”
“Why?”
“If I let my guard down and start thinking that way, that’s when it happens.”
“You don’t have to be paranoid.”
“I’m not. I’m being practical.”
Von Wilding turned and shushed them with a silent finger to his lips.
“What is it?”
“Something is coming, and we have nowhere to hide,” he whispered.
They waited a ponderous moment until a pale, shuffling figure came into view. It was semi-
transparent, a great toad-like ghost of a troll. It looked them over and moved a pale, frosty tongue
over its lips.
“Never have I feasted as I shal now,” it bel owed.
“I think not!” growled Hatch, sending his ax through the ghost. The handle and iron head went
through the ghostly mist and the troll came closer.
“I hunger,” it boomed as it reached for them with long icicle-like talons on the tips of its
fingers.
They dodged back and nearly tumbled over each other in the gloom.
The ghost laughed at them and came closer, waddling like a grotesque toad.
Von Wilding drew his whip and lashed out, but the troll ghost came on al the swifter, opening
its mouth with a long tongue that swept out like a flailing serpent.
Sai ported behind it and tried to stab with her twin daggers but caught nothing. The specter
noticed her, turned, and raked its claws toward her. She ported out of the way just in time to avoid
the looming death.
Hatch swung his sword, but it passed through the monster as if it wasn’t there. Worried at what
might happen if it touched him, he sprinted back before the ghost could get him.
“I’l feast wel on you,” said the ghost.
Von Wilding whipped the thing again, to no avail. “Maybe if we can’t hurt it, it can’t hurt us either?”
“You want to take that chance?” questioned Hatch.
“No, but there is only one way to find out,” said Von Wilding.
Von Wilding charged and slid between the ghost’s legs and cracked his whip at its rear. It
turned to look but decided to go after Hatch instead of Von Wilding or Sai.
Hatch raised his sword and charged right through the mass of the ghost. He slowed ever so
briefly but made his way through to the others. The ghost trol turned to come after them, albeit at a slower pace than they could run.
“We have to keep going this way anyhow,” Hatch directed them. “Let’s get moving.”
The troll ghost rumbled after them but was soon lost far behind in the gloom.
“Do you suppose that it doesn’t know it is dead?” asked Sai.
“Hard to say what any trol really thinks. Wildflower was the only one I was ever able to have a
decent conversation with,” said Hatch. “And for a troll, she was a genius.”
Von Wilding nodded at that. “I rarely ever saw one that could put together more than a simple
sentence.”
They walked on for what seemed like hours. Despite the softness of walking on etherium, Sai’s
feet were starting to ache. Inside the portal, nothing was as it seemed. It played with her memory,
sense of direction, and time.
“No way to tel if we are close yet is there?” she asked.
“No,” answered Hatch. “Wildflower said it might be hours or days. We have to keep moving.”
Voices whispered through the gray corridor ahead. They slowed and cautiously moved forward.
A curious being sat on its haunches. It was almost as wide as the tunnel itself, having very broad
shoulders. It had three heads and appeared to be having a conversation with itself.
“I want the last piece.”
“It’s my turn.”
“You said that last time. I think it’s my turn.”
“Well, I’m holding it, so finders’ keepers.”
Sai whispered, “What’s it talking about?”
“I don’t think we really want to know,” said Von Wilding.
“Well, at least it’s not a ghost,” she said.
“Worse, it looks like it’s an Ettin, though, I’ve never known one to have three heads instead of two,” Von Wilding said as he drew his blade.
Hatch added, “Doesn’t matter, we have to get past him. Sai, port in front of him while we
attack from behind.”
“That seems a might unfair.”
“You don’t know Ettins. We need all the advantage we can get.”
Sai shook her head, saying, “I’ll try to talk to it and see if it’s friendly first. Besides, you were
friends with a troll once.”
“It’s not the same,” argued Hatch.
“That’s bad idea,” said Von Wilding.
“I’m trying to tel her that,” said Hatch, drawing his sword. “Get ready.”
“We’ll see,” Sai said, as she vanished.
Sai suddenly appeared before the huge creature. “Hello.”
It looked almost like a giant baby with fat pudgy rolls but there were three big faces looking
back at Sai, and al three mouths hung open with twisted-looking teeth. Its eyes went big at the sight of her and all three heads said simultaneously, “Yum!”
It dropped the torn carcass of who-knew-what and lunged for her with fingers that turned into
suckered tentacles.
Sai ported backward ten feet, and stil the behemoth almost got her again. For something with
such big flabby arms, it was incredibly fast. It was al Sai could do to keep porting backward to keep ahead of the amorphous monster.
The Glauerdoom Moor_ebook Page 3