by Pedro Urvi
“Of course, master.”
He nodded toward Ona. “If you’re honorable and loyal to her, she’ll be the same to you. Trust is a path that leads in two directions.”
“Yes, Master.”
“Respect your familiar, defend her to the death, because she’ll become your family, your sister. In the same way, she’ll defend you from all harm.”
“She’ll defend me?”
“Yes. As a mother defends her cub. It’s her animal instinct. But for that, we need to teach her. It’ll take some time, but don’t worry, we’ll get there. The link between the two of you is a strong one. And the stronger it is, the easier it’ll be for you to teach her and for her to obey.”
“I understand, Master.”
“Now let’s go on. Tell her to come over here.”
Ona was lying on the snow, protected against the cold by her thick fur. They had been practicing with her so that she would accept certain simple commands, and although it was not so complicated with dogs, it was very much more so with cats. In particular with wild great cats like Ona.
Lasgol gave three short whistles: a cat-like one, unlike the one he used with hawks and bloodhounds. For each trained animal he had a different call.
He patted his thigh three times with two fingers, as the Elder had taught him. “Ona, here.”
Ona looked at him and moved her ears, but did not get up.
“The sound needs to be more penetrating, more urgent,” Gisli explained.
Lasgol had seen the Elder teaching Ona the command, and when he had done so the panther had obeyed in a matter of days. But of course, Gisli had a level of experience and skill with animals that was simply amazing.
Lasgol tried again. He whistled three times.
“Ona, here,” he repeated, this time more sharply and more urgently.
Ona looked at him, and this time she got up. Slowly, she came to him with feline sinuosity.
Lasgol went on tapping his thigh with two fingers.
Ona came to his leg and rubbed herself against him.
“Very good! Great progress,” Gisli said warmly.
“Thank you, Master.” Lasgol stroked Ona’s neck and she began to purr, with a fiercer sound this time.
“Now send her to those trees,” Gisli said. He waved toward the beginning of the forest east of their position.
Lasgol nodded and whistled quickly three times. “Ona, there!” He pointed to the trees. In the same way he had called her, he now tapped two fingers against his palm.
Ona watched the signal, but did not move.
“Keep going, you’re doing it well,” Gisli encouraged him.
Lasgol repeated the signal several times, tapping two fingers against the palm of his hand and then pointing to the trees with them.
“Insist.”
“Ona, there,” he repeated, this time more penetratingly and urgently.
And suddenly Ona ran to the trees. Lasgol’s jaw dropped.
“That was very well done,” Gisli congratulated him. “You have an innate gift for this. Very few manage this much progress in so little time.”
Ona reached the trees, inspected their surroundings and gave a questioning call.
“Make her come back. She’s wondering why you’ve sent her there. Cats are curious, but at the same time they don’t like being ordered to do things for nothing. It annoys them. They’re temperamental. Make sure that if you order her to do something there’s always a reason for it, and that the command’s always clear. That way she’ll know that what she does is meaningful.”
Lasgol tapped his right thigh with two fingers, three times. He gave three whistles.
“Ona, here.”
The snow panther looked at him and flicked her long tail. A moment later she was running to him.
“It’ll get easier all the time and come more naturally. Don’t forget to reward her when she does her job well.”
Lasgol waited for Ona to reach his side, and from his Ranger belt he took out a strip of dried meat and gave it to her. She gulped it down in two bites.
“Let’s see how she does with the ‘fetch’ order,” Gisli said.
From his belt Lasgol took a ball of wool and resin they had been using for training. Ona loved to go after it when it was thrown for her. She liked the game, but bringing it back afterwards was another matter entirely. She would stay with the ball and play with it in the snow.
Lasgol drew her attention by whistling. “Ona, fetch.”
He tapped the ball three times with two fingers. Ona looked at him when she heard the sound. Then he threw it some distance away, and she shot after it. Her speed and agility as she ran over the snow were impressive. Her cushioned paws were acclimatized to the environment and prevented her from sinking too deeply into the snow.
Unfortunately, once again she kept the ball and began to play with it like a kitten. Lasgol was reminded that really she was no more than a big kitten, even if she was growing more formidable all the time, already beginning to look like an adult panther. Luckily it would be another year before she was fully grown.
“Keep trying.”
“Ona, fetch,” Lasgol repeated.
The panther looked at him. It seemed she was going to do what he wanted, but instead she decided to go on playing with the ball.
Lasgol repeated the order, more sharply and urgently. He began to tap his thigh with two fingers.
Ona stared at him.
Lasgol went on tapping.
And to his surprise, Ona picked up the ball in her mouth, bounced up to him and dropped the ball at his feet.
“She fetched it...”
“Excellent work.”
Lasgol petted her. “Good girl, Ona.” He gave her another strip of dried meat.
They repeated the exercise several times and Ona fetched the ball every time, which left him surprised and very pleased.
“Change the ball for your short axe and throw it hard,” Gisli said.
He did so and repeated the order. He tapped his fingers on the axe and threw it. Ona ran after it, and it fell in the snow a fair distance away. Ona went up to the weapon, but seemed to hesitate, staring at it and then sniffing it.
“Ona, fetch.” Lasgol tapped his thigh three times.
Ona looked at him and understood. She picked up the axe by the handle, brought it back and dropped it at his feet.
Lasgol was delighted. He rewarded her with another strip of dried meat, which the panther gulped in the blink of an eye.
Gisli smiled. “We’ll go on practicing.”
They spent the rest of the day teaching Ona a series of simple commands which would be very useful to Lasgol in the future. The more they practiced, the greater their mutual understanding became. Ona treated the commands as though they were a game, which made the teaching much easier. If she had understood them as orders, they would have had problems. Making a wild mountain cat obey was a thorny business.
When night began to fall, Lasgol assumed they were going to retire for the night, but he was wrong. The Elder had another surprise in store for him.
“Now we’re going to practice tracking.”
Lasgol looked up at the sky, which was darkening quickly. “Now, Master?”
“You didn’t think we were just going to do Beast Whispering, did you?”
“Um... no...”
“It’s time for Tireless Tracker.”
“It’s getting dark...”
“A Tireless Tracker follows a trail by day or by night. Today we’ll do it by night. You’ve still got plenty to learn and to get better at.”
“Of course, Master. What about Ona?”
“She’s coming with us. From now on, wherever you go, she goes. You’ll be inseparable. Besides, snow panthers are excellent mountain trackers. She’ll help you in this discipline.”
“That’s fantastic.”
“We’ll teach her the command ‘track’.”
The three of them spent the night tracking around the nearby forest
and mountain. As they came back, the sun was rising. Lasgol was exhausted, but filled with delight. He had had a great time and had learned an enormous amount. Gisli told him they would be repeating this night-time exercise frequently, so he needed to be ready. Lasgol knew that it would be very hard to train day and night with barely any rest.
At the entrance to the Lair three silhouettes were waiting for him. Astrid, Viggo and Ingrid were watching him with worried expressions. They had been waiting for him all night when they had seen he had not come back.
“All’s well,” he reassured them when he reached their side.
Astrid nodded, and the three of them went back inside.
Lasgol took his leave of the Elder, then led Ona to the Cave of Autumn. He was given no chance to sleep for more than a short while before his training began again. Exhausted, his muscles aching but his heart full of joy, he took his place in the new day’s first training session.
Chapter 40
A week later, just after dinner, Lasgol was chatting with Erika and Luca in the Cavern of Runes. He was telling them how he had fared in Wildlife Instruction that day, before going on to see Ona in the Cave of Autumn, where she was resting. Suddenly he saw a figure crossing the river outside the cavern and was surprised.
Luca had seen him too. “And who’s that?”
“That’s the stranger you see hanging around the Lair,” said Erika.
“Where’s he going?” Lasgol wondered, more to himself than to his friends.
Luca narrowed his eyes. “He’s carrying a bag over his shoulder. He’s heading north, to the woods.”
“Well, it’s night,” Erika said, “it’s snowing, and there’s a storm threatening. Not the best time to go into the woods.”
Luca agreed. “Yeah, very strange.”
“He’s a strange, grumpy individual,” Erika went on. “One day I bumped into him and excused myself, but he just grunted and then went on his way. Very rude.” She looked offended.
Luca scratched his chin. “I wonder what he’s doing here.”
Lasgol watched Enduald disappear into the distance and suspected that he was up to something. Going into the woods at night, with a storm on its way, was not normal. Something was going on, and this was a good opportunity to find out what it was. He decided to solve the mystery involving Enduald once and for all. It had been nagging at him for some time, and he wanted to find out what treachery the man was planning and whether it had anything to do with him or Camu. He considered the risks. He could get into trouble over this, so he decided to follow him alone, without involving any of his friends. He did not want to put anybody else in danger.
He said goodnight to Luca and Erika and went to fetch his winter cloak from the Cave of Spring, where Viggo and Astrid were talking about the best way to position long knives when attacking someone by surprise. Ingrid and Molak were laughing as they checked elemental arrows for next day’s lesson. They all had their backs to him, so he took his cloak and weapons unobtrusively and went back out. He felt guilty about not telling his friends where he was going, and he knew Astrid would be angry, but he felt that they had already risked enough for him. He would sort this out this by himself. Perhaps it was not the best idea, but it was the way he felt. He set off in pursuit of Enduald.
It did not take him long to find his characteristic trail in the snow. His footprints were small and shallow, like those a twelve-year-old would leave. All the same, Lasgol was not confident; there was something about the dwarf he did not like, something arcane. And the arcane always involved great danger.
He followed him at a distance so that Enduald would not notice that he was being tracked. The snow was falling heavily, and he could hear thunder in the distance. The weather was going to get worse before dawn. Lasgol huddled in his hooded winter cloak, arranged his Ranger medallion around his neck, and felt fine: he was a Norghanian Ranger, in the middle of a storm, pursuing a traitor to the realm. What more could he ask for? It was with this sort of thing in mind that he had joined the Rangers, and it was to be able to confront this kind of situation that he was training as a Specialist. Then he realized that he was not that yet, and he began to feel a trace of doubt. Maybe he was not yet ready to confront what he was about to find, but all the same, he felt encouraged.
Enduald was not trying to hide his trail through the forest, so it made it easier for Lasgol to follow him. The snow and the cold began to affect his body, but he kept going. Then, suddenly, at the way out of the forest, the trail vanished.
“It can’t be,” he said under his breath.
In front of him was an area of flat land, completely covered with snow. There was no mark of any kind on it. He shook his head and retraced his steps to see if this was some maneuver to throw him off the track, but there was no sign of any such thing. The trail had vanished completely.
Lasgol gave a snort of frustration. There could only be one explanation: Enduald had used magic to wipe out his trail. How could he have done it? And if he could do this, what else was he able to do? What powers did he have? He readied his bow and narrowed his eyes, looking for any sign of danger. The icy wind hit his face like a frozen slap. He used his Gift and summoned up his Animal Presence skill. There was a green flash, and the tracking wave left his body. He was able to pick up several animals sheltering from the storm, but not Enduald. He felt easier now; the man he was pursuing was not here. He had used his magic so that nobody could follow him. Luckily, I don’t need to find his trail. I know where he’s going.
Without stopping to puzzle over it any further, he made his way northeastward, to Enduald’s cave. He crossed two forests and a gully rapidly so as not to freeze to death in the storm, which was growing stronger all the time. The last stretch in front of the rocky wall which hid the cave was bare, which meant that he would have to bear the full force of the storm.
He hurried to cross the field, barely able to see. He used his Gift and called upon his skills of Hawk’s Sight and Improved Agility to manage the slippery terrain better and deal with the limited vision which was all the weather conditions were allowing him. What with rain, snow and wind, he could barely see, and running on that terrain in such poor visibility hardly seemed a good idea.
Ten meters or so from the entrance to the cave, he stopped. He could not see it, but he remembered the spot and knew it was there. Better not to run any risk. He called upon his Animal Presence skill again, because amid the storm he could not make out very much and he did not want any surprises. He could find no human presence, and this made him feel easier; his quarry must already be inside the cave. The entrance turned out to be shut, but he could make out the mark on the wall, so he had no doubt that it was really there.
How do I open it? I don’t have Camu with me. He knew it was a door that responded to magic, but how? A gust of wind nearly thrust him to one side. The wind was blowing more strongly, more bitingly, every moment. An idea occurred to him, and there was nothing to be lost by trying it. He pulled off his right-hand glove with his teeth, and immediately he felt a biting cold. He placed his hand over the black mark on the wall and concentrated. If the door could be opened with magic, then perhaps he too could open it, since he had the Gift.
He concentrated, seeking his inner energy. He found it in his chest, in the form of a calm blue lake. He was aware that none of his skills would be any use in this situation, as each of them had a specific function and none of them had anything to do with opening the hidden entrance to a magical cave. Even so, he tried, not invoking any specific skill, but trying to sense what the opening mechanism could be. Something happened, and his energy met another within the mark on the wall.
He looked up at the sky, and the storm slashed at his face with an icy claw. I don’t have much time left. I’ve got to hurry. If he failed to seek cover soon, he would freeze to death. He had no idea how to interact with the energy in the mark on the wall; it must be some type of rune, and from what he knew about runes, they were activated both by magic and by s
ome specific form of answer. This rune was really a key which would open a door. So he deduced that he needed to act as though he were trying to open a door, and he himself were the key.
He concentrated and sent his energy to the rune, making both energies meet. He had no idea how to interact with a rune of power. He was not a mage, and from what Egil had explained to him, the mages were the only ones with the knowledge to deal with runes and other objects of power. The cold meanwhile was creeping through his winter cloak and making him shiver. He began to feel that perhaps what he was trying to do was beyond his ability.
As he was failing, he thought of going to fetch Camu. His little friend had already opened this door once before, when they had both gone in to investigate. But in that storm he would never reach his cave; it was too far. In any case, he had no desire to put Camu in danger unnecessarily. He would carry out this mission alone. He would fail or succeed by his own means, without putting any of his friends at risk.
He tried again. Sometime before, in an attempt to heal Astrid from her poisoning, he had used Natural Healing. At the time the goal in his mind had been to heal, to eliminate the poison, but in this situation the goal was different. He sent his energy, this time with the aim of activating the power of the rune so that it would open the door.
Nothing happened. He was freezing on the spot and consuming a great deal of his inner energy, and he did not have much of that left. He breathed out heavily and tried again. The energy of the rune shone with a blue radiance, surrounding the mark on the rock wall. Now he sent his green energy and placed it on top of the blue, fixing it with his mind over the rune, trying to make his own energy act on it. Then suddenly something happened at last. There came a blue flash, and he heard the sound of rock scraping on rock.
He opened his eyes. The door to the cave was open in front of him.
I did it! I don’t know how, but I did it!
He followed the tunnel which led into the cave, and at once he felt his body regaining some heat now that he had left the storm behind. He stopped for a moment, pleased to be inside the shelter of the cave and out of the storm’s reach.