It is close to nightfall, and Mashaun gets so far in front of the group loses sight of him. He comes upon a large group of wolves plowing their way through the snow. He watches them in disbelief as they walk upright like humans. Using the forest as cover, he watches them slog through the snow-covered forest. He sees over twenty Tsaub marching through the snow, carrying spears, and large swords, and wearing large packs. A few times they stop, put their noses up as if sniffing the air. After they drop over a hill, he spends over an hour following his tracks back to the group, where he reports his findings. Shad strokes his chin before telling them they are Tsaub. He tells the party that they need to follow them to see where they are going and stop them if necessary. Following the plan, he sends Mashaun back to the village in the morning, who does not want to wait, but Shad insists, telling him that they all need a good night’s sleep as they make a cold camp.
Early the next morning, Mashaun heads back to the village while the group continues to follow the trail down the mountains. It takes Mashaun all day and late into the night before reaching the Myelikkan, his energy all but spent. The guards take him immediately to the main building and given some hot food and drink. Moments later Llewellyn and Wilmer arrive to see an exhausted Mashaun covered in melting frozen sweat, from sixteen hours of hard skiing. He tells them what they found and that the rest of the patrol is going to follow the Tsaub. The two listen intently as Mashaun tells his story, and when Mashaun describes the creatures, Llewellyn shakes his head, muttering “Fools” before telling the guard to get the captain.
Shortly a middle-aged man about Wilmer’s height enters the room, wearing a chain mail suit that does not make a sound as he walks. Llewellyn tells the captain to get his most experienced “airborne” ready and have them leave at first light. He tells Mashaun he can stay, but Mashaun declines, that is his patrol and needs to go back to them. Mashaun tells them that he just needs a nap and that he would be ready at first light, before returning to his quarters to get some rest.
Mai is surprised when he walks through the door since he has only been gone a few days. He quickly summarizes what has happened and lies down to sleep. The morning knock comes way too early, but he is up and ready in a flash. He slept in his clothes as he jumps out of the bed and heads out the door. With his skis in hand, he heads through the brambles to find a group of twenty archers in a line on snowshoes, holding a rope. He just shakes his head as he wonders how they are going to keep up on snowshoes. Wilmer is on the other set of skis with the rope tied around his waist. Mashaun takes the lead with Wilmer following close behind. The archers seem to float above the snow in tandem, not offering any resistance as Wilmer pulls them along.
During the day, Wilmer tells Mashaun that each archer has an ornamental bracelet that splits around the middle. When the two halves line up, the wearer floats. He also tells him that it takes a lot of training because the wrong move can send the wearer off in an undesirable direction, and Mashaun understands why they call them the airborne. That night, the group makes camp, even though he wants to continue, but his body is too tired to do so. Mashaun gets a firsthand look at one of the bracelets. The owner tells him that each one is slightly different, making them unique. The owner needs to gather the components themselves, and even then, a mage can make them only for that person. The bracelet connects to one person only; however, it can be used as a component for a new one. That is how they are usually handed down from one generation to the next. Hers has been in the family for three generations. The next morning, they awake to a light snowfall as they are breaking camp and hurry down Mashaun’s old path.
By midday, they reach the spot where Mashaun left the patrol. The wind picks up, and with the falling snow, it quickly becomes near whiteout conditions, making it nearly impossible to see the trees, let alone any tracks, and the archers on the ropes have problems keeping their orientation in the air. Cautiously they head down the mountain the same direction that Mashaun had followed just a few days before. Night falls, and there is still no sign of the patrol. All they can do is make camp and discuss the next course of action. The storm passes during the night, leaving the next morning cold; however, the wind has blown the snow around, leaving a glassy, smooth surface, covering everything, including any tracks.
The group decides to continue traveling down the mountain. The thin frozen snow crust offers little resistance as they slide down the slopes, careful not to go too fast for the archers, who float like kites on a string, each one getting higher until the last one floats along the treetops. Toward the end of the day, one of the archers suddenly drops, hitting the ground quietly, pulling everybody else down while stopping Wilmer dead in his tracks, and almost knocking him over. The archer puts his finger to his lips, and nobody says a word. He signals that he saw some movement up ahead in the brush. One of the archers unties himself from the rope and goes back up to have a look, moving forward, pushing from one tree to the next like a ball in a pinball game. They wait in silence for what seems like hours before he returns. He tells them that there are about thirty of them well armed, making camp just ahead.
They set up a cold camp and prepare to attack just after dark. Before they leave, Wilmer tells the group that Tsaub are mean and will eat anything, but it is unusual for them to travel this far west. Shortly after dusk, the archers move into their locations, using the trees to control their movements, silently gliding through the air like a bird. Mashaun and Wilmer ski down to the camp for their attack—setting up a cross fire on the camp. Dalistra tells Mashaun that she has a bad feeling. They should attack them hard and fast, and she makes a couple of good points. However, the most compelling argument is her knowledge of them. She knows them from her childhood when they roamed the lands, raiding and pillaging unchecked; they decimate everything in their path.
Just as they are getting into position, Wilmer notices that on a spit over a fire is what appears to be a human body. Thinking that it is one of the patrol, and he lets the first arrow fly, hitting one. Mashaun quickly follows as the other archers send their arrows into the camp from different directions, but they don’t fall as easily as humans do, and it takes several well-placed shots to kill one. Several charge the two, but the skis make it easy to outdistance them in the deep snow, and the relentless rain of arrows hampers the Tsaubs’ movements. They return fire, throwing spears with deadly accuracy, hitting and killing several archers, who remain floating in a limp position. The group uses a hit and-move tactic, effectively keeping their opponent running in circles.
The two on the ground easily stay out of reach from any who tries to charge them, and the trees offer good cover from their spears. The battle rages on for some time before all the creatures lie dead or dying. Wilmer tries to speak to one, but it is like talking to a dog, literally, with growls and whines, then nothing. They find the remains of the patrol’s weapons and armor. On the spit is a human cooked well done. It appears that they cooked him alive. This makes most of the archers sick, and some even throw up.
They salvage what they can and collect their dead before setting the camp ablaze. All thirty-three Tsaub, the patrol, and eight archers dead—it is the worst attack for Myelikkan in over a generation. They wrap the dead in cloth with the spoils of the battle on makeshift sleds and return to camp. No one speaks during the long journey back, which takes several days. When they arrive back at the compound, joy turns to tears, as they carry the dead into the village. The group goes to the main building to file their reports. They return the dead and their possessions to their families.
Berg categorizes the spoils before the group can divide it. They brought back one head as proof. Berg takes one look and says Tsaub questioningly. When Llewellyn asks him how he knows, Berg gets an ancient book and shows him a sketch with the word Tsaub written underneath, and Berg reads what is written about the Tsaub.
CHAPTER 14
Lost and Found
It is customary that when a patrol returns with treasure, that everything is recorded in t
he logbook. Then the members of the patrol choose what they want, in order, starting with the highest rank. Llewellyn starts the dispersion by getting the first choice, the leaders follow, and then the rest of the surviving members, and last is the immediate family of any who did not survive. It continues until everything is gone. In case there is no family, then it is included with the rest of the loot. Frequently the family member will not want the weapons and armor returned, and it is included in the distribution. It may sound cold, but that is what Wilmer tells Mashaun. After a couple of days, Berg tells Llewellyn that one of the patrol’s gear is missing.
After talking to Wilmer and the others, they decide to wait until the current patrol returns. The extended patrols are shortened to just a few weeks, they might find the missing member, and it would only be fair to wait before dividing the equipment from the Tsaub. Hope runs high, as the village is ablaze with the word that one of the patrol might still be alive. After a few hours, speculation is that it could be Tera or Darnel, with most betting it is Tera. Not because of her experience, but because she didn’t carry a sword and would not get close to the fight.
That night Mashaun sees Tera hiding on the downward side of a tree, shivering and scared. He sits straight up in bed in a cold sweat. Barely getting dressed, he runs to the big stone structure and pounds on the door until a guard opens. He excitedly blurts out that he needs to speak with Llewellyn to tell him that Tera is alive and he knows where to look. Llewellyn summons Wilmer, and Mashaun tells him the story. Wilmer listens intently before suggesting the two of them go and check it out. Llewellyn agrees and assigns two of the airborne to go with them. They are on their way in less than an hour, even though it will be several hours before sunrise.
Shortly after sunup, the rescuers pass the returning patrol. They look worn-out and ready for a rest. The party doesn’t stop to chat but just hurries on, acknowledging them as they pass. The little group arrives at the outpost that night and waits until morning to begin the search so they could take advantage of the daylight. In the morning, they start searching for the tree that Mashaun saw. They start in the ravine before making their way up to the ridgeline. By the end of the first day, they are exhausted and choose to make camp on the northern ridge. The night is clear and cold, realizing that if they don’t find her soon, she would probably freeze to death if she hasn’t already.
On the fringe of the usual patrol area that they come upon a half frozen and barely alive Tera under a tree that fits Mashaun’s description. They wrap her up in furs and give her some warm drink before slinging her between the airborne and head back to town without resting. With medical skills and magic, they are able to save her. However, frostbite has taken its toll. It takes days before Tera is able to hobble around her room. It will take much longer to get used to missing two toes and a finger due to frostbite. After recovering a bit, she tells Llewellyn, Wilmer, and a few others what had happened the night of the attack.
***===***
They had followed them for another day when the tracks showed more than a dozen creatures joining the main party. The Tsaub’ small raiding party that they were following continued to grow as several small raiding parties joined them. At one point, there must have been close to a hundred. It was hard keeping track of them; there were groups coming and going. Most of the time, the returning groups brought back large sacks that they would dump into an open area. Most of the time the sacks were full of plunder, but on the third night, they had two bound people in the sacks. There was a lot of howling and dancing in the Tsaub camp that night.
“We sat there and watched as they tied one to a pole and started to cook him alive. Before anybody knew what was happening, Darnel shot and killed the captive on the spit. Everybody froze, hoping that the Tsaub would not be able to locate us. They must have a keen sense of smell because after they put their noses in the air, they started charging in our direction.
“Four against fifty or so isn’t much of a battle, so Shad told everyone to scatter. As he shot at the Tsaub, everyone ran in different directions, it was chaotic. We managed to drop a couple of them, hoping it would slow them down, but they fired back with their spears. They were accurate and threw them farther than expected.”
She saw Darnel go down with a spear to the back. After that, she just ran, never seeing any of them again. The snow slowed them down a lot, but they were persistent. They chased her all night through the trees.
When all she could hear her own breathing, she stopped to look back, and then she heard a cracking sound and saw a wall of snow heading at her. She scrambled behind a large tree, falling into the well around it, where she curled up and waited. She could feel the cold snow rushing by, covering her with powder. Hearing the tree snap over the roar of the avalanche, she bent over, covering her head. It seemed like hours before it got quiet again.
She found herself in a snow cave with the tree trunk on one side. Using her dagger and bow, she managed to dig through snow next to the tree. She spent the rest of the day and that night in her makeshift snow cave, praying that it wouldn’t collapse.
The next morning, she climbed out to get her bearings but soon realized that she was lost. She would have headed down the mountain except that is where the Tsaub was, and she did not want to run into them again. She made her way up the valley, hoping to get back to the outpost, but it started to snow, and soon she was in a whiteout. After that, all she remembers is roaming the mountains and thinking that she is going to die. At some point, she went to sleep and woke up here. Tera feels extremely lucky to be alive, having avoided death three times in the last few weeks.
CHAPTER 15
The Prize
The day before they are to divide the plunder, Mashaun is summoned to the main hall with his bow. There are three people already in the room, waiting for him: Llewellyn, Wilmer, and two others that he does not recognize. They offer him a chair at the end of the table. Llewellyn sits at the other end of the table. To his left sits Wilmer, and to his right, an elfin lady introduced as Lidi, Myelikkan’s mage. Her wavy long brown hair is a stark contrast to her long forest green robe; her skin is almost bronze in color, leading him to think she might be part elf.
He hangs Dalistra over the side of the chair and sits down, waiting for somebody to tell him why he is there. Shortly Dalistra tells him that Llewellyn knows about her. The sword that is hanging on his chair is another, Silmara Gensius, an elfin spirit sword that dates back to a time before the Thesilan’s. “Correct,” Llewellyn, says as though he could hear Dalistra. Mashaun gives him a surprised look. Llewellyn just grins.
“I don’t have to hear Dalistra to know what you are thinking. I have the similar bond with Silmara Gensius. That is why I have such a good relationship with the elves to the north,” Llewellyn tells him.
“Most spirit weapons will require a quest to prove the person is worthy, has she?” Lidi asks him. Mashaun thought for a moment before asking Dalistra if that is true.
Dalistra remains silent.
“It is usually one of the first things that are required by a spirit weapon. What did she ask you to do?” Lidi continues. Mashaun thinks about how to answer the question.
“She just wanted to go outside,” he tells them.
“There has to be more to it than that, who or what was your first kill with her?” Llewellyn asks him.
“I don’t remember,” he says.
The three look at him with total disbelief and skepticism.
Wilmer tells him, “Everybody remembers their first. What you say in here will stay here, and Magdalenia will never know.”
Mashaun looks at them while wondering if he should tell them, while Dalistra remains silent. This is one conversation he will be on his own. There is a long pause before he tells them that he does remember his first kill. It was a person of prominence, and he would keep more than that a secret. They speak quietly among themselves for a moment before Lidi speaks. “We are fairly certain it’s you who killed Magdalenia’s clone, Magda.”<
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The statement catches Mashaun by surprise as he just sits there not saying a word. The clone had a name. He thinks. His mannerisms reveal it all and after a brief uncomfortable silence. Llewellyn asks Mashaun how long he has traveled with Dalistra. He tells them a few months. They mutter among themselves before commenting that is about the same time that someone killed Magda. Again, Mashaun stays quiet, realizing that he has just divulged what he wanted to keep a secret.
Lidi looks at Mashaun for a long time before telling everybody that the world will go through a major shift again as they all nod their heads. When Mashaun starts to ask a question, Llewellyn interrupts, telling Mashaun that only time will tell.
Lidi asks Mashaun about the dream he had a few days ago, the one where he saw Tera by the tree. She wants to know, how often does he have these dreams? Mashaun tells them that he has had them for a few months. They look at each other before asking if he had these dreams before finding Dalistra. He understands the implication, and that is not something that he has even considered. He asks Dalistra if she has anything to do with the dream. She emphatically tells him no. Mashaun tells them that according to Dalistra, she is not responsible for the dreams, telling them that he has only had six or seven over the last few months.
Mashaun can tell that they are surprised and want to know about each dream. He doesn’t see any harm, so he starts with the dream about Magda then the bandit leader. They realize that dream occurred before he found Dalistra—recounting each dream in order as best he can.
As he tells them about the dreams, it becomes clear to him and them that each dream becomes clearer with more details. They listen intently for several hours as he takes them through the dreams until he finishes with the dream about Tera. Lidi asks if he has thought about trying to develop his talent. He never considered that and would have to think about it. After mumbling among one another, Lidi tells him that if he decides to develop the talent, she will be willing to help. Mashaun acknowledges her before asking if there is anything else. They tell him just one more thing, asking if he has ever had any dreams about Magdalenia. He emphatically says no.
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