by T Nisbet
We set out the next morning in the quiet before the world wakes up with the dawning of the sun. Johan and another guardsmen closed and bolted the gate behind us as we started into the pass. Lazy smoke rose from smoldering trees on both sides of the road, draping the forest ahead in an un-natural fog. Not many of the pine trees that hadn’t been tarred had caught fire. I wondered if it wasn’t because of the altitude, but it might have been the humidity.
Gill rode ahead to scout the path before us. The day passed slowly as we rode through the forest. Like before, I kept my bow strung and an arrow at the ready as we rode.
At midday we found Gill sitting atop his horse waiting for us. We dismounted and ate some cold meat and bread. We were on the downward slope of the pass, just inside the edge of the forest. The view from this side of the pass was spectacular. I could see where the road wound down the mountain and beyond to a great plain that extended all the way to the horizon.
“It’s open country from here on until we reach Brighton,” Gill said, nodding down the mountainside. I hope you are all getting accustomed to the saddle, because we need to get to the base of the mountain before nightfall and off of this road.”
“We’ll be lucky if we get down the damn mountain now. That idiotic fire was probably seen all the way across the stupid plain,” Coach McNally grumbled.
“I say again, it was necessary. That outpost is the first line of defense. It will be there that Captain Marchon will engage the enemy,” Gill sighed, as if explaining something to a child for the twentieth time.
“That is where this ridiculous plan fails, Corporal,” Coach spat. “How do you plan on returning once this mission is over, when an enemy army is crowded into the only pass back into Ceneria?”
Gill smiled as though he were still speaking to a child. “It isn’t the only pass old man, just the only one big enough for an army and all of the wagons it takes to support an army, to pass through these mountains. There are other ways back. Other passes.”
“None big enough for my wagon,” Coach cursed.
“Who said you will be able to take your wagon?” laughed Gill, enjoying the dark look that crossed Coach’s face.
We ate quickly, urged into action by Coach’s sour curses and vile grumbling. We had to stop several times on our descent down the mountain to let convoys of merchant wagons filled with trade goods from the kingdoms of Alissia and Kri’Stin pass. Each wagon train had stopped momentarily and given us warning regarding rumors of army movement at the southern end of the plain near the lands of the Blood Elves. We thanked them and hurried as quickly down the slope of the mountain as the wagon could safely travel.
We reached the bottom of the pass and turned off the road into the tall grass as dusk settled in over the plain around us. I’d never seen grasses so tall. They grew past the horse’s withers, some strands reaching as high as the pommel of my saddle. Gill stopped us twenty yards into the tall grass and went back on foot to straighten the trampled rushes behind us. I dismounted and helped him the best I could. It didn’t look perfect, but I doubted anyone would notice when it became fully dark. Once we’d done the best we could to conceal our path off of the road, we mounted back up.
“Try to keep your horses in the path made by the wagon wheels just in case. It might help to hide our numbers if someone tries to track us,” Gill said, and then moved in front of the wagon. “Follow me.”
Coach grumbled something but followed the guardsman further away from the road out into the plain. Toby and Carla fell in line behind one of the wagon wheels, while Brianna, Ivy and I fell in behind the other.
Darkness fell over the plain. Total darkness of a kind I’d rarely experienced in my life. Again I was reminded of the camping trip to Idaho with Toby and my family. There had been a new moon, and the lack of moonlight had made it impossible to see your hand in front of your face. It was the first time I’d ever really seen the Milky Way. Toby and I took a couple of folding chairs to a clearing and stared up at our galaxy, but I hadn’t glowed then.
Ivy and I were glowing so brightly that even the hoods of our cloaks did little to hide the brightness. Gill stopped and had us dismount and walk until we got further away from the road. We mounted again a couple of hours later, after the moon came out from behind the mountains, casting a somber light over the plain.
We rode through the night crossing deep into the seemingly endless plain. I didn’t know it was possible to sleep in the saddle like they sometimes did in the movies, but I must have dozed, because one minute my eyes felt heavy and I was fighting to keep them open, the next I found myself waking up as the sun slowly rose over the horizon.
We ate breakfast in the saddle, passing around bread and smoked sausages, while the horse’s grabbed mouthfuls of grass as they walked. I looked around chewing on some dried beef. Did the damned plain go on forever? There seemed no end in sight. The mountains behind us were little more than a long purple line in the distance.
“How far is it to Brighton?” I asked Gill when he rode back to offer us more food.
“Another day-and-a-half if we could keep this pace and avoid any plainsmen, but we can’t continue without damaging the plow horses. They are already showing signs of fatigue. We’ll have to stop before midday to give them some rest.”
“Indians?” Toby said. “We have to avoid Indians?”
“I know not of what you speak. What are these… Indians?” asked Gill, confused.
“You said we have to avoid plainsmen. Where we come from they are called Indians,” said Toby.
“Boy, you really were asleep during our anthropology class,” Carla laughed.
“It was boring. What can I say?” Toby shrugged.
Even though Toby was a sophomore and Carla a senior, she had somehow managed to get in the class with him.
“’Plainsmen’ could mean any nomadic group or people who chose a simpler way of life, you big oaf,” Carla laughed. “But you go right to Indians.”
Gill nodded at Carla. “The plainsmen are nomads, gypsies, refugees and criminals from nearly every known kingdom. Somehow they find their way here, adding to the numbers of the plains tribesmen. They consider these plains to be their own and don’t recognize Cenerian rule. A treaty exists that basically says the road is Cenerian land, and gives them control of the plains, aside from a four-league boundary around Brighton. Officially they are part of Ceneria though, and fall under Cenerian rule for what it’s worth.”
“So we are trespassing on their lands?” Brianna asked
Gill nodded to her, bowing slightly in the saddle, “In a manner of speaking, Lady Brianna. yes.”
“Does that mean we’re in danger?” she continued.
“Let’s just hope we don’t find out,” Gill said.
At midday we stopped in an especially high stand of grass, near a brook. Coach took the harnesses off the plow horses and tethered them on a long line so they could reach the water, and eat their full. The rest of us dismounted and Gill hobbled our horse’s front legs so they couldn’t do more than walk and then set them free to graze.
“Set a watch. We’ll get moving at sundown,” Coach growled getting in the back of his wagon and laying out his bedroll.
Gill shook his head.
“I’ll stand watch.”
Sleeping in the saddle didn’t count as refreshing, but it was probably more than anybody else had.
“I’ll take the first watch Gill. I dozed off last night, so I’m not very tired.”
Gill argued with me for a few minutes but ended up relenting, though only if I woke him after an hour or two.
Everyone settled down in the tall grass as I went to the wagon and climbed up into the seat so I could see the plains around us better. A light breeze rippled the grasses like waves on an ocean. It was serene and beautiful. The vastness of the plain surrounding me made me feel small and somehow, insignificant. It was a refreshing perspective given all the focus that had been put on the quest and me.
Some strange species of
black bird with an iridescent, deep blue throat, occasionally flew up out of the grasses surrounding us, then darted back down to disappear again. I watched this strange behavior repeated hundreds of times all across the plain. Other than that, there was no sign of life.
I woke Gill as the sun started setting. He wasn’t very happy with me, but was thankful for the extra rest. We woke up the others and ate a meal consisting of dried fruits and bread. Gathering the horses, we set off as dusk settled over the vast grass-covered plain. We spent the entire night on horseback without a rest.
As dawn approached, Coach stopped the wagon near several, tall mounds of grass. Gill turned his horse around and came back to the wagon.
“What are you about old man. This is a burial site. We can’t stop here!” Gill yelled.
Coach ignored him and got off of the wagon.
“I’m sure I’m not the only one that needs to relieve themselves, guard,” he growled, stalking off into the tall grass between two of the mounds.
“Great,” I muttered shaking my head. “Piss off the ghosts of plainsmen.”
“Good pun,” Toby laughed.
“What a donkey’s ass,” Gill grumbled riding around the wagon to where we sat on our mounts. “Does he just not get it, or doesn’t he care about anyone but himself?”
“Both,” Toby answered.
“I totally don’t understand why father keeps him around,” said Brianna, shrugging at the guard.
“Good thing nobody is around to see,” Carla said.
“Oh, they are around,” Gill said, “Nothing happens on their lands without their notice.”
“Seriously?” I said in disbelief. “I haven’t seen a sign of anyone.”
“Either have I, Jake, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t watching us. I wouldn’t be surprised if your Coach doesn’t find an arrow or two in his back for defiling their sacred ground.”
“That would be a tragedy,” Toby said sarcastically.
Coach returned through the grass and hauled himself up into the wagon.
“What! No one else need to go? Suit yourselves!”
Gill rolled his eyes and rode out around the wagon to take the lead again. I didn’t know about the others, but I had to go pretty badly. I wasn’t about to relieve myself on someone’s grave though.
As we started out again I grimaced. I saw Toby looking pained as well. When we had gone several hundred yards past the burial site I pulled up and dismounted unable to take it any longer.
“I’ll catch up,” I told the others. The girl’s giggled.
“Me too,” Toby agreed, hoping painfully down from his horse.
“The power of suggestion,” Carla giggled. “Do you need some powder for your noses?”
We walked into the grass a little apart and relieved ourselves. We both sighed aloud at the same time, then started laughing.
“Having to pee and riding a damn horse, don’t go together at all,” Toby laughed. I had to agree. The rocking motion put a great deal of pressure on the bladder.
“How the girl’s manage it, I have no idea,” I said, walking back to my horse.
“Girls,” Toby sighed painfully, mounting his horse beside me.
We caught back up easily and fell into line behind the girls.
“That waterfall back at the inn was amazing,” Toby said loudly. “All that water, pouring down off the mountain, splashing down in the gorge.”
I saw immediately where he was going with that and joined in.
“I think it was bigger than Niagara Falls. Wonder how much water discharges off that cliff per day, splattering against the boulders down in the ravine?”
“Millions of gallons I’d say, shooting down… it was like an ocean of water…”
“Or a lake!” I interjected.
“Yeah, like a lake of water just poured out off the mountain, falling down, so far down…”
I noticed Brianna squirm a bit in her saddle, then Ivy.
“Assholes!” Carla said, stopping her horse.
Brianna and Ivy stopped their mounts too. Then they all dismounted and ran off into the shoulder high grass. Toby and I stayed nearby to guard them, laughing hysterically while we waited.
Ivy was the first to return, followed shortly afterwards by Carla.
“Really funny Tob!” said Carla, smacking him the arm after she mounted. Toby was laughing so hard I thought his red cheeks might explode.
Ivy mounted and we sat on our horses waiting for Brianna.
“To arms!” came Gill’s shout from far off in the grass. “To me!”
“Oh shit!” Toby said, pulling his huge war hammer off of his belt.
“Go Jake!” Ivy implored. “We’ll find Brianna.”
I looked quickly at Toby as I pulled my strung bow from over my shoulder.
“I got them, Jake.”
“Ride to the wagon as quickly as you can!” I said kicking my horse hard in his sides.
The chestnut gelding took off like a gunshot down the track left by the wagon. Riding with no hands, I managed to pull an arrow out of my quiver and notch it to string before the wagon came into view. My heart dropped out of my chest as I saw the bodies swarming over the back of the wagon. I let an arrow fly, pulled another and let it fly before I was close enough to draw Gwensorloth out of the scabbard, discarding my bow.
An arrow buzzed by my cheek, its feathers slicing my ear just before my horse careened into the group of wildly tattooed men clad in green and gray, fatigue stained tunics that were clambering up into the back of the wagon. I slashed down twice, scattering the attackers, then swung to my left around the wagon towards where Gill stood engaged with four men, his sword a defensive blur. I rode two of his attackers down and leapt from the saddle landing on a third spear-wielding tribesman. My sword cleaved through his neck sending a fountain of crimson up into the air. I rolled backwards away from the grisly spray, coming to my feet beside Gill. More fatigue clad figures erupted from the grass before us. I didn’t have time to reason or think about it, I cut three of them down as Gill downed two more. Behind us several tribesmen had climbed up on the wagon.
“I’ll get the wagon!” Gill panted, turning to climb into the seat. “Keep them off of me.”
“Where’s Coach?” I yelled as more warriors leaped through the tall reeds.
This wasn’t anything like sparring. It wasn’t a dance. There was no grace in it at all. There wasn’t room to move, or to test a defense. My strikes had to be quick, offensive and decisive.
Gwensorloth stained the grass with their blood as three more men fell screaming before me. I backed towards the wagon parrying a wooden club, slicing through an elbow, then slashing down quickly through the attackers thigh, he shrieked and fell, dropping his weapon. I heard the fight in the wagon behind me.
“He’s gone!” Gill yelled.
I took out two more attackers and climbed into the seat. With a flick of my wrist, I knocked two arrows away from Gill’s back then moved into the wagon bed beside him. Together we drove the tribesmen out of the back of the wagon. Staining the sideboards crimson.
“We are easy targets here. Get out!” yelled Gill, as several arrows sizzled through the air over our heads.
We jumped.
I heard the whistling sound of arrows cutting through the air above the wagon where we had just been. I knocked an arrow away from me with my sword while I was in the air, narrowly avoiding being skewered.
I landed near my bow, sheathed my sword and picked it up, sending arrow after arrow into the grass along the same path the enemies darts had come towards us. I heard a voice cry out in pain and then there was silence.
“I’m hit,” Gill said from the other side of the wagon.
There was no sign of any new attackers, just their dead and wounded lying on the ground around the wagon. I dropped down and crawled under the wagon’s belly coming out on the other side. Gill leaned against a wagon wheel, a tan shaft with brown feathers protruding from his shoulder. I
pulled him under the wagon.
“The girls!” I panted, trying to catch my breath.
“I’ll be okay!” He grimaced. “Go, go!”
I handed him my bow and pulled the quiver from around my neck. “Can you draw it?” I asked.
“I‘ll figure it out! Go!” he winced.
I nodded and scrambled out from beneath the wagon, Gwensorloth once more in my hand.
Gill’s horse was the closest, so I took a few steps and leapt, pulling myself into the saddle. Digging in my heels, I took off back down our trail in the tall grasses toward where I’d come from only minutes ago.
I arrived in seconds and dove from my horse before it was stopped, rolling to my feet in a crouch before Ivy. Toby stood on the other side in front of Carla. Before him several deformed shapes littered the ground.
“Is everyone okay?” I asked, scanning the grass.
“Toby has an arrow sticking out of his leg, Jake!” Carla cried.
“He’ll be okay,” Ivy said with her eyes closed, her hands extended towards the grass. “They’re leaving, one of them is pleased. He thinks they have done what was asked of them. Another is complaining about a blonde devil who killed his friends. He wants revenge. Others are coming, they need to leave quickly.”
“Others? What others? Who is coming?” I asked, standing a little straighter, sword still out before me just in case.
“I don’t know… wait, the tribe is coming. They are afraid of the tribe. They have to set the fire before the tribe arrives.”
“Holy crap!” Toby cursed. “That wagon won’t be able to outrun a fire.”
“Not a chance,” Carla groaned.
“Not with two dead plow horses it won’t. Where is Brianna?” I asked pulling Ivy to her feet.
“She went willingly, Jake.” Ivy whispered. “It was with someone she knew.”
“Coach!” I growled, incensed.
“Coach?”
“Yeah Tob, the bastard left Gill to fight all by himself when they were attacked. Gill’s wounded. We need to get back to him, now! Gather the horses.”
I helped Ivy mount Gill’s horse and grabbed Brianna’s. Toby snatched his horse’s reins then snapped off the arrow sticking out of his leg with an angry grunt, so he could mount. Carla mounted as well, tears streaming down her face as she looked at Toby. We rode as quickly as we could back to the wagon. We found Gill sitting on the wagon’s tailgate trying to pull the shaft from his shoulder.
“Where’s Lady Brianna?” Gill asked, a stricken look crossing his pale features.
“Gone,” I said, hopping out of the saddle.
“Gone? She’s.. dead?”
“Don’t do that Corporal Gillian!” Ivy ordered, dismounting beside me.
Ivy hurried over to Gill and examined his wound.
“Hold his arm, Jake,” she ordered.
“Coach took her Gill,” I said, and did as asked.
Gill grimaced in pain, the scar across his face more pronounced.
“I assure you young lady, that the arrow will not kill me. Let me pull it out and we can get out of here.”
“It’s barbed corporal. It will do more damage if you pull it out, than if you push it through,” she whispered gently.
“Easy for you to say!” Gill said, attempting a laugh. “Just get the thing done.”
Ivy ripped Gill’s already torn tunic wider and placed a hand on the bloody skin surrounding the shaft. I felt a surge of magic and watched in amazement as Ivy’s hand began to glow brighter and brighter purple despite the midday sun. The glow transferred slowly from her hand to Gill’s skin and relief crossed his pale, scarred face. Bit by bit she pushed the shaft of the arrow through with her other hand. It slid easily through, as if his body was made of butter, the barbed arrowhead coming out of his upper back.
“Pull that slowly, Jake,” she said.
I grabbed just behind the wickedly barbed arrowhead and continued pulling the blood slick shaft at the same speed that Ivy had been pushing it.
“Okay stop,” she ordered. “Come cut this side off. These feathers shouldn’t pass through, they’re disgusting.”
I pulled the Zil’Kris blade from my boot and cut the through shaft before the greasy brown feathers.
“Okay, pull it through,” Ivy said her eyes closed in concentration.
I swallowed deeply, and reached around drawing the arrow the rest of the way through Gill’s shoulder.
“What the hell?” Carla whispered.
I watching in shocked amazement as the hole in Gill’s bloody shoulder slowly closed.
“Wow,… did that really just happen?” Toby said, limping over to get a better view.
Gill sighed, stretching his arm.
“I’ve seen a healer work before, but it was nothing like that. It feels… like new.”
“It’s not, Gill,” Ivy smiled. “You’ll need to take it easy to let your body fully heal itself, there was only so much I could do.”
“I’m next,” Toby said, pulling himself up on the tailgate.
Ivy eyes grew wide. “No time! They’ll be here in minutes.”
“Who will be here?” Gill asked.
“The tribe,” I answered. “We need to get out of here!”
“Too late for that!” Carla shouted pointing.
I followed her arm down the wagon’s tracks through the grass and saw them. A large group of men on small horses rode towards us cautiously through the already trampled grasses. The first rank of riders held short horn bows drawn back, ready to shoot. I stepped in front of our group and drew Gwensorloth slowly. I didn’t think I could knock so many arrows out of the air, but it looked like I wasn’t going to have any choice but to try.
“No Jake!” Ivy said. “They aren’t going to attack unless provoked. They’re wondering how we managed to kill so many of the rebels. They’re anxious.”
“Rebels,” Gill growled. “I figured as much.”
As they approached, one of the tribesmen in front of their group shot an arrow through the back of a wounded attacker’s head, killing him instantly.
They stopped less than ten feet away, fanning out in a circle around the wagon. I slowly lowered the blade of my sword. There was virtually no way to tell them apart from the men who had attacked us, aside from a band of iridescent, deep blue feathers attached to their right bicep over the top of their camouflaged tunics. Their skin was intricately tattooed in rich earth tones where it showed on their hands and faces.
The man who shot the wounded foe gestured to three men who dismounted their ponies and started searching our attackers lying around the wagon, slicing open their throats. The wounded and the dead were treated no differently. When they had finished their grisly task, the leader spoke.
“I am Durmack of the Plains People. These were not our warriors, not of the People. They are mercenaries, clan-less rebels,” he said nodding at a body before him in the grass. “You did us honor by slaying them.”
Gill moved forward slowly holding his hands before him, palms upward.
“I am Gillian of the guard in Lockewood, and these are my friends. We apologize for leaving the road and trespassing on your lands. Our need was great, and we had little time to seek your permission,” he said bowing slightly at the waist.
“Does your need have to do with the army of dark elves massing at our border?” their leader asked.
“It does Durmack,” Gill replied.
Their leader placed his bow over his shoulder and the rest of the war party released the tension on their bows, but kept their arrows notched.
“My father has need of the magi. You will come with us,” he said.
Ivy stepped forward keeping her eyes down. “May I speak Durmack?” she asked submissively.
I could see Carla bristling at Ivy’s actions, but she had the sense not to say anything feminist.
Durmack regarded Ivy as one might a prized pig. “If you must,” he grimaced.
Ivy spoke softly not taking her eyes from
the ground.
“The rebels plan on setting fire to the grass.”
I felt a lance of anger that she felt she had to act this way to him. My protective instincts rose up, and I suddenly felt weakened, helpless. I hated the feeling worse because of how I felt about her despite what she’d done to me.
“They wouldn’t consider such a thing, woman! Even the rebels know what fire means to our lands,” Durmack spat as though it was beneath him to listen to her.
“She speaks the truth,” I said, trying to contain my anger.
Durmack regarded me and laughed. “Even a mage can’t see into the heart of a man and know what he is planning. It is certainly beyond a mere woman.”
“She can,” I argued. “Perhaps if she read your mind you would be convinced of her words?”
The men around us muttered darkly, and a cloud passed over the leader’s eyes as he looked angrily at me. Gill sighed deeply and shook his head.
“Do you suggest that your woman has power over me?” Durmack growled, his hand going to the handle of a saber at his waist.
Too late I realized what I’d done. I’d challenged him in such a way as to put his leadership on the line. I didn’t know how to extricate myself from the situation and tried to open myself to the intuition. Maybe thallium could help. A thought popped into my mind and I went with it.
“I didn’t mean to offend you, or challenge your authority in any way, and I certainly have no wish to slay you Durmack, you will be needed in the battle to come. But I know this woman. She is a very powerful mage and can, in fact, read a person’s thoughts. Maybe the truth of what she has told you can be divined by letting her read the thoughts of one of your trusted warriors.”
Durmack dismounted from his small horse and drew his saber. “I would not offend one of my warriors in such a way, and there is no need for you to worry about having my death on your hands, for I cannot be killed by one such as you.”
He started forward towards me, then stopped dead in his tracks, raising his head and sniffing the air. Other men in his war party inhaled the air too, obviously upset. Suddenly, I could smell it too.
“Fire!” Durmack growled furiously, sheathing his saber. “She speaks the truth. Quickly, bind their eyes and put them on their horses. Leave them their weapons for now. We must get back to camp ahead of the fire!”
Chp. 24
