It was still only early afternoon and the only reason one of them would have returned before they had set up camp was if they had spotted something that could possibly cause problems for the party.
On a couple of occasions over the last few days they had reported seeing Shaler scouts, but on each occasion they had merely reported the incident without doing anything to the scouts themselves.
The information allowed them to keep clear of being spotted, but Cal had raised the issue of leaving the scouts alive with Collett on the evening of the first day that one had been seen. The Royal Guardsman had explained that for them to move as easily as possible they did not want to leave a trail of dead Shalers to point their direction to any following force, tempting as it might be to kill a few of them.
Now, although Cal couldn’t hear exactly what had been spotted, it was obvious that something other than the odd scout had been seen just by the sudden alertness displayed by Collett and Farsighter. The four Rangers that were with the party on horseback dismounted without any verbal signal and used their mount’s reins to secure them to a medium sized gorse bush by the side of the faint trail they were following.
Within moments they started to move rapidly up the hill the way their compatriot had appeared from. Cal nudged his horse forward to the side of Farsighter’s mount to hear what news the Ranger had, but as he arrived the Ranger spun on his feet and raced to retrace his own steps.
“What’s happening?”
Farsighter turned his horse to face the rest of the group. “Shalers. A large group moving northward ahead of us.”
Collett looked troubled at the news. “The question I would like answering is what they’re doing heading north?”
Cal brought his attention back to the group rather than the disappearing figure of the Ranger. “Why?”
Luda answered. “Because the invading Shaler force are all heading southward. There’s no reason for them to be heading north.”
“Perhaps it might be as well if we cut further to the east to avoid them?”
“Sounds good to me.” Luda looked across at Collett, but the guardsman still looked troubled.
“Farsighter, how closely do you think you could follow them?”
Farsighter barely thought for a moment before replying. “I could keep within half a mile of their main force in reasonable safety. Any closer and I risk one of their patrols stumbling over me. I’ll take Cal with me.”
“What’s wrong with the Rangers?” Cal was surprised that the question came from Tamala.
“We’ll need the Rangers for our own group. There’s no way that we can delay our main mission to find out what the Shalers are up to, but Farsighter and Cal on their own should be able to gain the information we need and make it back to us without too much inconvenience.”
Cal thought he detected just a slight note of unease in Collett’s voice, but said nothing. Without knowing why he turned to face Tamala. “I’ll be alright. I found your room at the Keep without being told where it was; I’ll find you again. That’s a promise.”
Tamala said nothing, but Cal was certain that he saw a tear in her eye as she spun her horse about and moved several paces away.
“Perhaps you should stay.”
Cal looked straight at Farsighter as he replied. “Were any of the others given that option?” he swung himself out of his saddle and grabbed his bow and quiver.
“I think that the boy’s going to do all right.” There was almost a hint of pride in Farsighter’s voice.
“Not too bad.” Collett smiled as he spoke.
Their passage to catch the trail of the Shalers was hectic. Farsighter refused to slow their pace until they were well and truly on the spoor of the enemy and Cal found that he was hard pushed to keep up. He would never have believed that a man that was easily old enough to be his grandfather could keep such a pace without the need to slow.
They had been forced to take a hard choice as they moved. A direct line to where the force had been seen by the Rangers would have been faster, but each time they crested the ridge of one of the low lying hills that covered the area they ran the risk of being seen by Shaler scouts.
Instead, they traced a winding path through the valleys created between the hills. It probably doubled the distance they had to travel, but it also cut down the chance of being spotted.
The light was beginning to fail but Farsighter did not slack off on the pace. He was determined to catch up with the Shalers before the night set in and forced them to stop until the following morning. They travelled in silence as neither man had enough breath spare for conversation.
Without warning Farsighter slid to a stop and stared intently at the ground for several minutes. Cal stood just behind him, awaiting his decision.
“We’re less than an hour behind them.” Both men looked at the sky and instantly judged that if they were going to catch them they would have to risk following them in the dark, but they had little choice.
Without any further words they were off again, back to the punishing pace having had less than five minutes to gain their wind.
Collett and the Ranger sergeant had conferred for only a couple of minutes before deciding that they had reached probably the best place in the immediate area to set up camp for the night.
Four of the Rangers were away from the group in what had become the norm for them, patrolling ahead, leaving only the eight of them to pitch tents. There would be no warm meal this evening, Collett had already informed them of that as they travelled. With the increased risk of Shalers in the area it was just too dangerous to have any campfire illuminating their position for miles around. In fact, the Ranger sergeant had even complained about raising tents, as they would take time to break down if they needed to leave in a hurry but Collett had pointed out that in such circumstances no one was likely to bother waiting to pack their tent.
Tamala had steadfastly refused any assistance as she laboured to erect her own cover for the night. Both Dorrin and Luda shared a look with each other but said nothing until they were out of earshot.
“They’ve only known each other about three weeks. I’ve never even seen one speak to other, well, not privately anyway.”
Dorrin smiled at his old friend. “Sometimes it only takes a look.” Seeing the expression on Luda’s face he quickly added, “So I’ve been told.”
“I believe you.”
“Honest. Look, he’s the only one in the group her age, he saved her life back at the Keep, she regained consciousness seeing him standing with his bow drawn protecting her.
It’s just a bit of harmless hero worship.”
Luda stared across to where Tamala was shaking out her bedroll by the tent. “I’ve known Tamala for most of her life and I’ll tell you this Dorrin, she’s not prone to hero worship.” The grizzly warrior pulled his own roll out of his saddle. “It’s nice to see in some ways.”
“Oh?”
“Everything else that’s happening in the Kingdom and there’s still time for a little romance on the side. Makes you kind of glad in a way. Maybe that’s the reason I feel that we’re going to prevail in our task, the fact that we have the capacity to love even under the hardest circumstances.”
Dorrin stared at Luda totally astounded. “Have you lost something, like your brain? Gods Luda, I’d swear that you’re going soft.
I have the greatest respect for Cal. He saved my life as well, but he’s common born, holds no estates, and to top it all he’s dedicated himself to a mission that doesn’t provide good odds for getting out of it alive.”
Luda burst out laughing. “Gods Dorr, listen to yourself. We’re on the same mission remember. Besides, if we do succeed, what are the chances of him remaining a lowly Ranger with no rank or title?”
“Good point. I suppose anything’s possible.”
Dorrin left Luda to finish getting sorted whilst he went in search of the sergeant to find out what they had been able to scrounge up for a meal.
Tamala sat heavily
on her bedroll after Luda and Dorrin had left her. Damn it, she thought, why was she acting this way? She might only be eighteen but she knew about men. Why was this one different, he was little more than a boy, yet she found that now he had gone off with Farsighter she couldn’t think of anything else.
Grandfather would have called her silly, and he’d be right. The sudden thought of her grandfather brought the enormity of the events of the last few weeks crashing down on her. It wasn’t the first time that she’d had an attack of guilt about still being alive where so many others were not, but she just knew that if Luda and Dorrin saw her in this state they would instantly assume that she had been crying over that damn fool boy.
She felt like screaming, but knew that would only bring the others to investigate and thus provide them an excuse for more fun at her expense. When she had read romantic stories in her youth she never recalled the lady of the piece having these problems as she ensnared the dashing prince with her feminine charms.
She stopped dead in her thoughts right there, and then moaned quietly. Now I’m thinking of him as some heroic prince in a damned story. In silent fury she buried her head in the bundled clothing that was to serve as a pillow during the night.
Cal squinted intently from the low ridgeline he was lying atop of. Below them roared several fires and roughly forty Shalers shared their warmth. Several of them had been seen to come and go in a vague routine of watch standing, though Farsighter had been far from impressed by them. Admittedly, even Cal hadn’t been that impressed by what he had seen, and he wasn’t an experienced soldier.
He heard a slight noise to his right. Testament to how tired the pair were was demonstrated by the fact that it was Farsighter returning to their position.
He quickly dropped next to the prone youngster. “They appear to be settled for the evening. I’ll take the first watch, you get some rest. I’ll wake you when it’s your turn.”
Cal didn’t waste breath on a response but just turned over and quickly fell asleep.
Cal got maybe another hours sleep after he had taken his own turn on watch before he was shaken lightly awake by Farsighter.
“They’re moving.” He did not need to say anything else as both men gathered up their things and moved quickly to some small bushes on the east side of the ridge.
Glancing round Cal judged that there was perhaps another hour to go before dawn. The thought crossed his mind that the early start by the Shaler force pointed toward them being in a hurry to reach somewhere. They obviously weren’t concerned about being seen, as their sentries for the overnight camp had been little more than a joke. That very fact worried Cal.
From the bush they could see the Shalers pack up camp and in just a short while they had resumed their northward march. Cal found the pace now that they had caught the enemy a lot easier going than the previous day’s pursuit. They followed them closely for the morning, only having to make one detour to avoid an errant patrol that had actually fallen behind the main force and reappeared further south than they had intended.
By lunchtime they had remained undetected and had a good idea as to the routine of the march. Lunch itself was a hunk of salted beef and a slab of trail bread eaten whilst they both continued to watch the Shalers, but shortly after lunch things changed.
A patrol returned from the north amid much shouting and immediately they brought the small column to a halt. Neither Cal nor Farsighter could make out what was actually being spoken about, but the reaction of the Shalers was unmistakeable as they quickly placed their packs and unnecessary equipment into small piles on the ground, each guarded by a single pair of guards.
“Trouble?” Cal looked questioningly at Farsighter.
“Undoubtedly. I think we need to get ahead of them.”
Moving as swiftly as possible whilst remaining unseen, the duo made their way ahead before Farsighter angled their advance toward the direction the patrol had appeared from. Stopping on the northern side of a slight rise they waited for the enemy to come into sight behind them and were both relieved to see that they appeared to have chosen the correct direction.
“Quick.” Farsighter took off to the north with Cal only a step behind.
Less than twenty minutes later they came across the reason for the Shaler’s excitement. Spread out in the valley below their position they could see a caravan of eight tented wagons settled for their own meal break. A small fire was burning near the foremost wagon, though little smoke was rising from it.
From the direction the wagons were facing, it was obvious that they were heading south, toward the trouble that Cal and his friends were fleeing. That in itself was enough reason for Cal to want to move down to them and warn them away, even if they were not being followed. Something about the figures he could see moving around the wagons was throwing him though.
“Farsighter, is it me or are they all short?”
Farsighter stifled a laugh. “They’re dwarves, though what they’re doing this far south is a mystery. Come on.”
They both stood and jogged down the slope. Almost as soon as they cleared the ridge there were shouts from below and Cal saw several of the dwarves duck into their wagons and reappear with weapons held ready.
“I’d say that they’re about ten minutes behind us.” Cal didn’t reply but carried on running down the slope. By the time they reached the bottom close to a dozen dwarves were stood waiting for them.
“Ho friend dwarf!” Farsighter held his hand up in a gesture of greeting.
From the group one of the dwarves stepped forward. Surprisingly, Cal realised that he was only a foot or so taller than him. He’d expected his first dwarf to be shorter after hearing some of the jokes made by villagers. “Ho yourself friend. Mind telling me what you’re doing running toward our caravan carrying ‘nowt but weaponry.”
The dwarf may have been shorter than Cal, but the way he handled his axe and short sword made him realise that a dwarf would be a significant threat if he ever found himself pitted against one. Cal had the good grace to look sheepish as he imagined what they must have looked like as they ran down the hill toward the wagons.
“Friend dwarf, I am called Farsighter, my young companion is Cal, and in about five minutes you’ll have the company of forty or so Shalers coming charging over the same hill as we just did.
If I were you I’d unshackle your horses and use them to make good your escape.”
The dwarf had long brown hair worn in a plait and iron grey eyes. The eyes looked at the pair with fierce determination. “I am Vorston of Wendel’s clan, and I’m afraid we can’t. We have bairns in the wagons, we’d never get them all on the horses.”
“Children! What are you doing bringing children this far from the mountains?” Although Cal had no idea why, Farsighter looked shocked at the news.
“The passes are full of J’Dar tribesmen. We’ve lost the high plains to them and the Shalers.”
Farsighter’s face visibly paled. “The J’Dar fight for the Shalers?”
“Not so much fight for as fight alongside. Some foul treaty has been concluded and we are just the first to feel its touch.”
“You’re not the only ones. Holdur fell to the Shalers over three weeks ago.” The dwarves looked as shaken as Farsighter but further conversation was cut short by an undulating cry from beyond the ridgeline. “Cal, we must leave now.”
Cal cast his eyes over the few dwarves that stood in front of him and made a decision. For the life of him he didn’t know why he did it but he looked Farsighter straight in the eyes and spoke. “You go and warn the others. I’m staying.” Farsighter was speechless. Even the dwarves looked shocked at the suggestion. In fact it the head dwarf who spoke next.
“Boy, though I thank you for the sentiment you would do better to leave with your friend.”
“There’s no time for arguing. Farsighter, leave now and warn the others. If the J’Dar have taken alliance with the Shaler then even a country boy like myself knows that original plan of heading for
Miri is out of the window.”
Cal expected more arguing but he never expected to see what he did. Farsighter’s face shone with pride. “I’ll meet you at the Raven’s Head in Nibar’a. If you’re not there in two weeks we leave without you. You know where Nibar’a is?”
Cal nodded, recalling from the maps he had studied with Dorrin that it was a small port to the east of Bor’a.
“If you’re unable to make it in time, head for Bor’a and report to the Ranger barracks opposite the cavalry stables. Inform them that Old Wolf sent you.”
A lone figure appeared on the brow of the ridge, letting out another of the cries they had heard just moments before. “I think you’d better be going Master Farsighter.” The dwarf gave him a knowing look. “I’ll make sure that you’re young friend meets you at the Raven’s Head.”
Farsighter gripped the dwarf’s wrist. “I’d be indebted.” He nodded his head once at Cal and then was off. Cal didn’t take the time to watch him leave, but instead turned to Vorston.
“I guess you think I’m pretty stupid for not running away when I had the chance?”
“Depends why you stayed. Apart from which I got the feeling that your friend doesn’t run away from much. If there are others that need to know what happens here, then I begrudge no dwarf or man if they feel their priority lies in seeing that message delivered.
So, why are you staying? And I’d hurry with your answer, our friend on the ridge appears to have brought a few of his own friends with him.”
Cal glanced at the ridge and saw that roughly twenty Shalers now stood, crying out and waving their bastard swords above their heads.
“I guess I’m staying because I’m tired of running. I’ve already seen them attack women and children without mercy and yet we had to flee. I don’t want to flee any more. The further we run the further we have to fight back.”
Fall of a Kingdom Page 15
