Delia shook her head, throwing Twit off, making him fly up onto Saxthor’s shoulder. The bird looked down at Delia. People shake when they walk, too, but not as bad, Twit thought, fuming. At least wrens have the good sense to fly or hop at the very least. You lumbering oaf! How dare you shake me off?
Twit looked straight at Delia for some sign of an answer, but she just kept pace with Saxthor, panting as she went along.
Well, if I were the size of a bug and pooped constantly, maybe I, too, could fly around in a feather coat all summer in the heat, Delia thought. You aren’t even big enough to smell trouble.
Twit caught the thought and flew up in a fluttering rage. How dare you, you lout, you can’t even walk or hop on two legs!
-
“What’s suddenly gotten into Twit?” Bodrin asked.
“You know how he is,” Saxthor said. “These days, you never know when he’s going to have a conniption fit.”
I’ll poop on each one of you if it takes me an hour, Twit thought.
He flew over and landed on Delia, deposited her remark on her head, then flew up again. Delia shook off the black and white bead and continued on, smiling with her left lip curled slightly up and under. Twit was beside himself and returned to his refuge in Astorax’s antlers.
“Well, I see Twit’s settled back down,” Bodrin said.
“Settled down,” Saxthor said. “I think he’s sulking about something. He does that a lot.”
Saxthor thumped off the pellet Twit left on his shoulder as the troupe traveled on across the northern plain of Sengenwha.
They kept to the forests and wooded streams, where cover prevented their discovery before it was necessary. Pastures and well-kept small farms dotted the countryside between the woods and groves, confirming the earlier discussion of Sengenwha’s prosperity.
“I’m certain the orcs are heading to Sengenwha,” Saxthor said that evening around a sheltered fire under a cliff. He stirred it with a stick then tossed it into the fire. “We need to determine whether the king sanctions their movement through the kingdom, or he’s forced to accept them. That will affect how we approach the capital.”
“In either case, I can’t imagine the country people liking orcs creeping across the landscape. Remember how they abused the Prertstenians,” Bodrin said. He sharpened his sword blade, carefully wiped it with oil, and lovingly slid it back into the scabbard.
As they went through the countryside, they saw neatly thatched, whitewashed cottages, where the people lived comfortable lives. The adventurers saw no orcs. The people didn’t seem frightened from a distance but increasingly suspicious.
“Where could the orcs be if they aren’t also traveling along this route?” Saxthor asked. Eventually, the band worked its way to the hills that divided northern and central Sengenwha. “We must be careful in these hills. Wherever the orcs pass through Sengenwha, they’ll come to passes in these hills and mountains. The coast is too heavily populated, and the plains people we saw from a distance don’t appear troubled. If the orcs are hiding, it has to be in these hills.”
One day, they came to a steep ravine that ran as far as they could see between two low ridges of hills. The band lined up along a cliff edge and studied the gorge below.
“What an unpleasant surprise,” Bodrin said. “It’s so narrow I can almost throw a rock across it.”
“I don’t suppose we’re going back?” Tonelia asked. The men frowned but said nothing. “Never mind, forget I asked.”
“We’ll have to cross the valley,” Saxthor said. “It’s so steep; no plants grow on the sides. We can’t climb down and up those cliffs, and there’s no cover if we could.”
“Looks like that 'small' river down there cut the canyon ages ago,” Tournak said.
The rest looked over the edge at the tiny trickle way down at the bottom.
“That’s a river down there?” Bodrin asked.
They all looked again, then looked up and down the valley, but saw no bridge or means of crossing the chasm in either direction. Finally, off through the afternoon sun’s haze, they saw a dark shadow.
“That might be the rock closing together,” Hendrel said, pointing to the shadow off in the distance. “It could be a natural rock bridge there.”
The rest of the afternoon, the group worked their way along the north ridge and just reached the converging rock area at dusk.
“We’ll stop here for the night and camp back from the ridge in case orcs or other hostile creatures come this way. It won’t be safe to have a fire after dark here,” Saxthor said.
Tonelia passed out dried foods and skins of water while she could still see what was what. She repacked as the quarter-moon cracked the horizon. Saxthor posted a guard in the rocks, and the group slept early to be rested and ready to cross the hoped-for bridge as soon as possible the next morning.
Before long, Tournak was snoring, tucked in his blanket beside a rock, still warm from the afternoon sun. Before going to sleep, Tonelia was snuggling with Bodrin on his watch up in the rocks overlooking the path below.
Without warning, Astorax put his hand over Tournak’s mouth. He tossed a pebble at Bodrin, who was whispering with Tonelia and not paying attention. Bodrin looked up and saw Astorax hunched down in the rocks. The deer-man pointed to the trail below.
Coming along the path was a cohort of orcs led by an ogre. The sound of orc boots on the rocky path had alerted Astorax. They were approaching the rocks, where the adventurers hoped to find a bridge across the chasm. Astorax pointed to Saxthor asleep behind Bodrin, and Bodrin put his hand over Saxthor’s mouth, awakening him.
No one spoke. The orcs were just below them. Astorax turned from looking at the orcs to see Bodrin, slipping back from the edge. A pebble rolled down the ledge onto the path between two orcs. Astorax ducked, as an orc looked up but didn’t break stride. Astorax watched the soldiers pass and disappear around the clump of boulders just down the path. Then the sounds tapered off. If the orcs camped in the rocks, I’d still hear them, Astorax thought.
“There must be a land bridge over the gorge, or the orcs wouldn’t have come this way,” Astorax said. No one slept for the next half hour, but then, all but the posted sentry fell asleep. The next morning the group packed up fast.
“I’m anxious to find out what’s beyond the rocks, and to get off this trail,” Bodrin said. “I’ll go first and have a look beyond the boulders; the rest of you stay here.” Bodrin left and returned soon after. “As we suspected, there’s a natural stone bridge on the other side of these boulders, but beyond the gulf, there’s a tunnel we have to pass through.”
“Tunnel,” Tonelia said. “Remember the last tunnel in the Talok Mountains? I can’t face those monster crickets again. I don’t know if I can go into another tunnel.” She shivered. Astorax saw the goosebumps.
Seeing her fear, Bodrin put his arm around her, giving a reassuring squeeze. “I’ll fight off any crickets to protect you.”
She flashed a trembling smile and pulled his arm tighter around her, holding his hand in hers.
Astorax was agitated. It might have been the deer in him, but he was apprehensive of going into a tunnel, too. Hendrel put his hand on the Astorax’s shoulder, as did Tournak.
“Astorax, you’re as much a part of the band as any one of us, as you’ve proven many times,” Saxthor said. “Every one of us will protect you.”
“Saxthor’s our leader; let’s tie a string to him and send him in. If we don’t pull back a foot, we’ll follow. How’s that?” Tonelia asked with a twinkle in her eye. She looked around the huddle for a response.
“I think that’s a great idea,” Bodrin said. They shared grins.
The humor relieved Astorax’s tension.
Saxthor nodded. “Great, you’re all volunteering me to go in there. So much for friends. Why not just tie me up neck to feet and toss me in the chasm as a sacrifice?”
“Tie a string around both legs,” Astorax said. He had the biggest grin of all. “If he do
esn’t come back, I’ll want both boots.”
They all looked at each other, then at Astorax’s hooves, and burst out laughing. Bodrin looked back up the trail to be sure no one was around.
“You ready to take on the tunnel?” Saxthor asked. He checked his sword and staff and saw the others do the same. Tonelia tested her finger torch. Bodrin mussed her hair, and she brushed him away.
“Okay, let’s get going,” Saxthor said.
“The orcs travel mostly at night,” Tournak said. “We can travel in the daylight, too, and that gives us a great advantage over wraiths that can’t stand sunlight.”
“Wraiths can commandeer a body and move about in diffused light,” Hendrel added.
“Yes, but exposed wraiths evaporate in direct sunlight, just as dwarves and trolls turn to stone.”
“Not rock-dwarves,” Bodrin added.
“Enough, time to go,” Saxthor said. “We should be safe traveling during daylight, but keep an eye out for the orcs that passed last night.”
Saxthor led the band along the path to the boulders. He crept slowly around the great rock pylons in case there was an orc-guard on the bridge. The others stood behind him with hands on their swords or staffs. Even Astorax carried a sword now. Tonelia chewed her lip.
*
Saxthor saw the trail narrowed between the boulders, but there was no guard in sight. He inched toward the bridge. A small contingent here could control who travels south into central Sengenwha, he thought. There was no sign of orcs or any resistance, though orc tracks lead into the tunnel.
With Saxthor in the lead, the group crossed over to the natural rock bridge to the other side and faced the tunnel entrance. Saxthor peered into the darkness; he couldn’t see the light from the other end. “Something is blocking the passageway. I can’t see in far, and it can’t be that long a shaft, judging from what we saw from up on the ledge this morning. Since the tunnel can’t be that long, there must be an obstruction.”
The adventurers stood in a huddle outside the entrance, trying to decide what to do.
“We might as well go in,” Bodrin said, hand on his sword. “We’ve found no other way south. We can’t stay here. When another troop of orcs comes along, and they will, we’re trapped here with no place to hide. Let’s rush the tunnel and take on whatever’s in there.”
“Something’s blocking the tunnel,” Tournak said. “We need to know if it’s stone or some enemy, waiting for us before we charge into that unknown. The immediate darkness will leave us temporarily blind and vulnerable.”
The band hemmed and hawed uncertain as to what to do.
“Let’s go,” Saxthor said. “We have to go in there. The longer we wait, the more likely we are to have more orcs come up behind us.” He turned and lowered his staff to go into the darkness.
* * *
The wraith had arrived at the tunnel two nights before, just one night ahead of the adventurers. It had determined this was the only place in these hills the Neuyokkasinian prince would find to cross into Sengenwha if indeed he were making his way back down the peninsula. No one saw the phantom come, as the night traveling vaporous form wasn’t visible except against the light of a full moon.
The specter hovered like trapped smoke high in the tunnel’s cool dank ceiling, watching for the prince to pass below. It hadn’t acknowledged the orcs and ogre the night before. The wraith didn’t wish to disclose its position and alert anyone to its presence. It decided to lurk there for a week. If no one came through the tunnel by then, it would leave and travel to the capital to find the prince.
*
“Well, we can’t stand here and chatter all day. We’ll still have to risk the tunnel. I’ll go first,” Saxthor said.
“No, wait, let me go first. If there’s something lurking in there, we can’t risk losing you and the jewels,” Tournak said.
“We wizards will go into the tunnel first, Saxthor,” Hendrel said. “We can use finger torches to see what, if anything, awaits us in there. We’ll have wizard-fire to protect us in case there’s a trap. You follow if we don’t find any problems.” He moved up to the entrance with Tournak, and that seemed to settle the issue.
“Perhaps you’re right,” Saxthor said. “I shouldn’t endanger the greater mission at this stage.”
The two wizards looked at each other for a moment. They flicked finger-torches and started into the tunnel, looking at what was blocking the view. Neither looked up. The others followed slowly after there was no sound of alarm from the wizards.
“Something is making my skin prickle,” Tonelia said.
The group moved along the tunnel for twenty feet or so. The black form of a huge boulder blocked the tunnel’s center and the light from the exit beyond. The path went around the boulder on both sides. The adventurers relaxed more with each step further into the tunnel.
Looking back to those behind him, Saxthor said, “When we pass the boulder, we’ll be able to see our way clear to exit.”
“Watch your head,” Tonelia said.
Saxthor looked ahead, almost walking into the lower ceiling. The boulder was just ahead. Tournak and Hendrel passed on either side of it.
“I don’t see anything between here and the exit,” Hendrel said.
Tonelia poked Astorax. “You see, we worried for nothing.”
*
The wraith took form atop the boulder in the ceiling’s gloom. Its dark figure blended with the shadows and charcoal-gray granite. One of this group must be the prince, he thought, the one leading.
Pow! The wizard-fire cracked.
-
“Come on,” Tournak said, “back to the others,” just as the bolt shot past him. He heard his beard sizzle and smelled the hair singe. The bolt passed by his face, exploding in a shower of sparks on the tunnel wall.
“Cripes!” Tournak ducked and jumped back. From the corner of his eye, he saw the black form turn toward Hendrel. “Get out of here, Hendrel!” In that instant, Tournak bolted back around the rock and retreated.
-
Pow! The second bolt struck Hendrel, just aware of the wraith. Instant pain surged from his hip as the blue flame burned through the bearded wizard’s thigh, searing the flesh as it passed. Hendrel fell to the ground. There was nothing…
-
As he rounded the boulder, Tournak sighted the wraith’s twisted face just as it fired at Hendrel.
“No!” Tournak screamed, but it was too late. He saw the bolt strike his friend. Blue fire sputtered from Hendrel’s hip. He didn’t move.
Tournak fired a wizard-fire bolt that struck the wraith returning to vaporous form. It shimmered, glowing blue for an instant. As the wraith absorbed the wizard-fire, the adventurers retreated from the tunnel.
“There’s no way to reach Hendrel exposed at the boulder’s base,” Tournak said. He beat his head against his fists, then looked at Saxthor. “I think he’s dead.”
“The wraith survived the strike and spread through the tunnel’s ceiling as a dark vapor,” Saxthor said.
“In that form, it can’t shoot wizard-fire, but it can move about invulnerable to wizard-fire,” Tournak said.
“It watched and followed us as we retreated out into the sunlight,” Tournak said. “We’re only safe until the sunset. Then it’s coming for us. Without Hendrel, I don’t think I can stop it.”
“We only have a few hours at most to think of something before orcs will again come down the trail and trap us between themselves and the wraith,” Saxthor said. “Trapped here, there’ll be no escape.”
“Poor Hendrel,” Astorax said. “He saved me, and I could do nothing for him.”
“We all loved him, but we can’t help him now. We must think of something, or we’re dead, too,” Tournak said.
“We can’t go back up the trail and hide,” Saxthor said. “After dark, the wraith will search the hillside for us, if the orcs don’t force us into the tunnel.”
“What can we do about Hendrel?” Astorax asked stamping about. �
��We can’t just leave him in there. We have to do something.”
No one had a response.
“We loved Hendrel, too, but we have no means of getting to him,” Tonelia said.
Saxthor went to Astorax and put his arm around the distraught man’s shoulder. Astorax looked at Saxthor, and Saxthor hugged him. In the embrace, the eyes of both men watered. Then Saxthor again faced the deer-man.
“There’s nothing we can do, Astorax. Hendrel is dead.”
Tournak saw Astorax swallow back his pain; life seemed to drain out of him. He shrank into hunched state.
Saxthor turned to the others. “We must think of a way to fight the wraith now. There’s no way to force him out.”
They looked to each other for solutions no one had.
Twit was perched motionless atop Delia’s shoulders, this time not bobbing. He and Delia seemed to be sharing some thoughts of their own. As Tournak noticed the two, Twit flew up on a limb and watched not the men, but the dog. Delia ran across the tunnel opening. The wraith reformed and shot wizard-fire at her, but it was too late. The wraith hovered just inside the tunnel, waiting for night’s darkness.
“If we could lure it outside, the daylight would vaporize it,” Saxthor said. “That’s about all we have that’s powerful enough to destroy a wraith, isn’t it, Tournak?”
“That’s about the size of it,” Tournak answered, his depressed tone hollow. “That’s an especially powerful wraith from what I could tell.”
Tonelia came to him and felt the singed beard stubble that still smelled of burned hair. She hugged Tournak. She stepped back, her face luminous among the gloom.
“Well, if that monstrous creation won’t come to us, we’ll go to it.”
“What’s that you say?” Bodrin asked. “Go to the wraith? Why are you so animated?”
-
Tonelia took off her pack and searched it for a pot, pulling out item after item as though looking through her purse at a shop sale.
The N Arc of Empire- Complete Series Page 77