“Calla!” Rhoyan called out again, “Calla!”
Dru took up the call once more and the two of them retraced their steps as far back as hope and exhaustion allowed. Rhoyan stopped, gasping for breath. They had seen no sign of her, and she was apparently too far away to hear their shouts. Rhoyan doubled over and rested his face in his hands. He drew deep, shaky breaths. After a moment he grew very still, and he looked up at the sky with a thoughtful expression on his face as though he were testing the air. Dru stood next to him for a moment, feeling somewhat helpless.
“I don’t…” Dru began but Rhoyan held up a hand to silence him.
“Hush! Listen!”
They both stood very still and listened as hard as they could to the silence of the forest. They hardly dared to breathe; the oppressive silence of the dark woods loomed around them. Rhoyan felt an eerie chill sweep over the back of his neck as though unseen eyes were peering out at him from behind the ominous trees. Dru shivered noticeably, but said nothing. Then it came again, the sound that Rhoyan had caught when he stopped to rest. It sounded like the echo of a voice being carried on the breeze.
“Did you hear that?” Rhoyan asked.
“Aye, that I did. But, Rhoyan, I hate to tell you this, it coulda been anything. A wild animal maybe, perhaps a wounded seheowk, or even an angry bird, just because you hear a voice don’t mean it’s Calla.”
Rhoyan hardly noticed the thickening of Dru’s accent as his friend grew more frightened. “It was Calla,” he said confidently, “and it came from over there.” He pointed into the forest.
“How can you be sure?”
“I just am. Come on!”
“Rhoyan! To follow that sound we have to go off the path! We both know how well that worked last time, and I don’t think you even know for sure which direction that voice came from.”
“All I know is that Calla is gone, and if she isn’t on the path then she is certainly in danger. We cannot simply abandon her!”
“Aye, you’re right, of course. Very well then, lead on.”
Rhoyan’s fear fell away from him, replaced with a selfless, sole concern for securing the safety of his friend. Filled with the invincibility of youth and sobered by his experience with Yorien’s Hand, the prospect of danger only served to inspire purpose rather than fear in his heart. With Dru following, he plunged into the forest.
Within moments the trees had closed in around them. They were hopelessly lost, but neither of them noticed or cared. Rhoyan continued to chop a path through the dense underbrush as the forest continued to close the path behind them, and with every step they took, the likelihood of ever finding the path again became increasingly slim. Every few yards, Rhoyan would stop and listen, and after a minute or two they would hear that same eerie wail. Dru could hear it now as well, and he admitted that it did sound like Calla.
“She sounds like she’s in trouble, bad,” the thief’s voice was subdued.
“I think we’re getting closer,” Rhoyan replied. Under his breath he muttered, “Hang on, Calla, we’re coming.”
The two of them pressed on with renewed energy. When they stopped again Rhoyan thought he saw Calla’s face dance before his eyes. Her blue eyes were wide and frightened and they pleaded with him to hurry. Without another thought, Rhoyan took off after the vision, not even taking a breath to tell Dru what he had seen. The thief barely managed to keep up with the young prince as he darted off in a new direction. Dru scrambled along after him, throwing all of his energy and thought into keeping Rhoyan within sight. For a moment Rhoyan disappeared behind a tree and Dru had sudden, horrible visions of being lost forever, stumbling alone through the forest until some wild animal decided he might make a good lunch.
“Rhoyan!” Dru shouted after him as he stumbled along. “Rhoyan, wait!”
Rhoyan stopped just long enough to allow Dru to catch up with him then he took off again this time at a dead run. Dru groaned and gathered all his strength as he pushed himself after his young friend. Suddenly, the woods seemed to fall back, and Rhoyan stopped as though he had hit something. He gasped and fell to his knees as though he lacked the strength that might have kept him on his feet.
Dru came up behind him, a questioning look on his face, but the words died before they ever reached his lips. The thief also staggered back and sank against a nearby tree, allowing it to support his weight. He felt as though the wind had been knocked out of him and his vision blurred.
In the middle of the small clearing before them lay Calla. At first glance she appeared to be merely sleeping, framed by the green grass and a few wildflowers, but a closer look revealed the long cut across her neck and the dark wound on the side of her head. Rhoyan’s shoulders shook as he struggled to conceal the great emotion that was welling up within him and threatening to choke him.
“Rhoyan,” Dru whispered, “we must leave this place.”
Rhoyan snarled and looked up at the thief, anger in his eyes, but the harsh words faltered as he saw the look of true fear in the man’s eyes. “What is it?”
“Seheowks, Rhoyan. This whole setup, it’s a trap.”
“Seheowks? But why? Why do this?”
“They are evil creatures, Rhoyan, creatures made from shadows themselves. No thought guides them. They only know to do one thing: kill, and kill they do. It’s sport and air and food for them, there ain’t no reason behind their killing; it’s what they were built to do.”
Rhoyan rubbed his eyes, wiping away the sudden moisture that had sprung into them. “I’ll not leave her here,” he said fiercely.
“Rhoyan! The seheowks will be here at any moment, they lured us here, you can be sure of that. Have you ever faced one? You have no idea what you are going up against, and I assure you, you’re not ready to. These evil things were built back in the age of the Dark Wars, created out of magic and shadows by evil wizards. They were given one purpose, and for one task were they created: to kill. You cannot stand alone against them, and as sure as I breathe, they will be upon us within minutes.”
“You’re wrong, Dru. I have faced them, them and creatures like them. It was my quest, my apprenticeship. I’ve faced were-folk of all kinds. But even if I had not, I’d not leave her here! I will stand alone against them if I must. You can go, if you are afraid. But Calla deserves better than this!”
“You’re right. I do believe this is a trap, but you are right, the little one deserves better than this. Well then, I will stay here and we will stand together, and if we fall, at least we will make it a battle to remember. ‘Tis just too bad that none will have been here to remember it.”
“If the battle comes, we’ll put up a fight worth a song, at least,” Rhoyan agreed.
The two of them crept into the clearing, swords drawn and every muscle tensed against the possibility of a fight. They had only gone a few steps when Rhoyan gave a soft cry of astonishment. Dru, who had been scanning the area around them with his eyes, jumped at the unexpected noise. He turned around, half anticipating an army of seheowks arrayed before them, but instead he saw that they were still alone in the clearing. Dru looked questioningly at Rhoyan.
“What is it?”
Rhoyan pointed, unable to voice his surprise. Dru glanced down and then he stepped back in shock, surprise clouding his face as well. Calla was gone. The body had simply disappeared, leaving the two of them standing alone once more in an empty clearing.
“Where…where did she go?” Dru asked in disbelief.
“I don’t know, but I don’t like this place.”
“I don’t like it either, let’s get out of here.”
“Rhoyan! Dru! Help!” The scream made them both jerk around in confusion. It was Calla’s voice, so clear it sounded like she was standing next to them. The two men exchanged a look, and then, without a word passing between them, they dove off into the forest in the direction of the scream. They ran swiftly towards the sound without any thought for themselves; neither of them noticed the c
liff until it was almost too late. Rhoyan saw the ground give way before him and managed to skid to a stop before he fell. With more strength than he thought he had, Rhoyan reached out and grabbed Dru’s shoulder just before the other man reached the edge of the cliff. He gave the man’s shoulder a great yank and Dru lost what precarious balance he had and fell backwards with a heavy thud.
“Thanks,” Dru whispered when he had regained his breath.
Together they crept to the edge of the overhang and peered over the edge. The drop was not as far as Rhoyan had expected. The Toreth lit the valley well, and they could make out dark shapes scurrying around. The sound of harsh voices reached their ears. Rhoyan slowly backed away from the edge and retreated a ways into the forest. Dru followed him and the two of them sat quietly for a moment.
Rhoyan spoke first, “We have to find a way to get closer.”
“This is insane, you know that.”
“If Calla is down there, we have to rescue her.”
“And if she is dead? I hate to admit the possibility, but there it is. The seheowks rarely take prisoners unless they have something great to gain.”
“We heard her calling,” Rhoyan said in a low voice. “I know we didn’t imagine that.”
“No,” Dru replied, “but they could have easily imitated her voice, just as they made us think that was her back there in that clearing. Seheowks are good at things like that.”
“Dru, how do you know so much about the seheowks?”
“They attack the borders of Llycaelon every now and then. My brother was in the patrol that kept them back. He fought them often.”
“I see,” Rhoyan’s voice was relieved. “I’d heard of the seheowks before I left Llycaelon, but I thought they were a sort of secret. My tutors never said much about them, just that I would learn all I wished to know when I grew up.”
“They are one of the many secrets of our great country,” Dru admitted. “The king’s sole wish is to protect his people, so he doesn’t tell them that we face such threats as the seheowks every day. That’s why the Border Patrol was invented, to keep the seheowks under control and the common folk ignorant.”
“What happens when a band of seheowks breaks through and attacks a village?”
“Mistakes like that are rare,” Dru said. “Perhaps it isn’t right, but there it is, right or not. Your father ordered my brother and his legion to protect our borders, and they followed their orders. Such is the loyalty of the aethalons, and such is also the power of the king.”
Rhoyan gritted his teeth. “It seems I have learned all the wrong things. I’m glad you know something about our enemy. Let’s try to get closer to their camp, I saw a place where we could climb without too much trouble.”
“Rhoyan, what if Calla is dead?”
“Then we avenge her death,” Rhoyan said grimly.
Dru nodded and followed the young prince as he crawled stealthily through the tall, grassy weeds. They pulled themselves silently to the spot where they could climb down: a dent in the rock face covered in the shadows of the forest above. For once, it seemed the forest was working to help them.
Rhoyan lowered himself down first, finding hand and foot-holds and pointing them out to Dru as he went. When they reached the bottom of the cliff they crept to the outskirts of the seheowk camp. They did not have to search long; Calla was tied to a stake in the center of the camp. The light of the Toreth was faint, but it was bright enough for them to see the fearful expression in her wide eyes.
“Hold on Calla,” Rhoyan whispered, “just hold on.”
For a moment he thought that perhaps she had heard him, because her eyes seemed to find his through the darkness. But then her gaze shifted again and her face remained blank and impassive. Rhoyan drew back into the shadows.
“This won’t be easy,” Dru said.
“It never is.”
“So what are we going to do?”
Rhoyan stared back at the seheowks' camp with a faraway look in his eyes. Quietly he surveyed the area, taking in every rock and tree between them and Calla as though he was trying to memorize everything about their surroundings. At last he looked back at Dru, determination written in the set of his jaw.
“We’re going to take the camp by storm.”
❖ ❖ ❖
Calla had stopped to examine something curious on the side of the path. She had been growing restless as they traveled along down the path, and a little careless. Because their journey so far had been rather easy, she began to make the dangerous assumption that the dangers of the forest were all imagined. She drifted out of the conversation with her companions and let her mind wander. The forest was beautiful, despite its darkness. She noticed that many of the trees had tangles of flowers growing around their trunks and a few very faint rays of light from the Dragon’s Eye managed to drift down through the leaves, speckling the ground with tiny, golden spots.
From the corner of her eye she saw something move, and without thinking, she walked over to see what it was. After that, Calla had no clear notion of what happened; all she knew was that she must have stepped off the path, for her companions suddenly disappeared completely. She looked around bewilderedly as she realized with a sickening dread that she was utterly lost.
In the instant she realized she was lost, Calla panicked. She raced back the way she thought she had come, shouting out for Rhoyan and Dru and hoping desperately that one of them would hear and return her calls. After a few moments of this, however, rational thought took over once more, and she realized how futile her efforts to find the path were. She stood still and tried to think calmly about how to find the path again. Rhoyan and Dru obviously could not hear her shouts, and her panicked running had only served to get her even more lost. She tried to remember what Rhoyan had done when the forest had tried to trick them before.
“Truth!” she said as firmly as she could, her voice wavering a bit.
The forest seemed to shake with silent laughter, and the path remained hidden. Calla sighed; it appeared that whatever magic Rhoyan had worked on the forest before was not going to work for her. Carefully, she began to retrace her steps, but shortly gave it up as hopeless. The forest resented any intrusion and her tracks had been wiped away as if they had never been. Despair threatened to overwhelm her and she sank down to her knees on the forest floor, she squeezed her eyes tightly shut, but the tears still managed to escape and slide down her cheeks.
A small noise put Calla on guard and she crouched down even lower, hiding in the dense undergrowth. A dark shape was coming closer, hunching its way through the forest straight towards her hiding place. A strangled scream rose in Calla’s throat, but she bit it back down with an effort. She crept back, away from the approaching creature. She slipped around a large tree and peered out from behind the thick trunk, every muscle tensed and ready to flee. The creature made its way near to the place where she had been hiding. It looked around as though perplexed and made grunting noises of frustration as it swung its head around. Three more dark creatures materialized and joined the first, and Calla pressed her lips tightly together in an effort to remain silent. She could not see the creatures very well, but she guessed they were seheowks, and that alone was enough to strike cold terror into her heart.
The creatures continued their hunt, and then one of them gestured at the tree where she was hiding. With astonishing swiftness and surprising silence, the four creatures converged on the tree. Calla let out a terrified sob and broke away from her hiding place. She raced deeper into the trees, hardly even feeling the branches that raked her cheeks and hands and caught in her hair as she fled. She ran wildly, knowing her pursuers were only a step behind. She ran because her life depended on it... and she was alone.
Even as she ran, Calla knew her effort was futile. She could not run forever, but perhaps the seheowks could. It was only a matter of time before she grew too tired to run and then the creatures would overtake her and she would be at their mercy. Even
as this thought came to her a treacherous branch twisted beneath her feet, tripping her. Her elbows and hands met the hard dirt of the forest floor with shocking suddenness and Calla could not contain her cry of pain.
She glanced fearfully over her shoulder and saw the dark shapes looming up over her. With a little sob of hopelessness, Calla scrambled away from the creatures, pulling herself along with her hands. She attempted to push herself to her feet, but a blinding flash of pain shot through her leg and she realized dully that she must have twisted her ankle when she fell. She whimpered quietly and her hands scrabbled at the forest floor, searching for something she might use as a weapon. Her fingers found something hard and they closed over it. She raised the object menacingly, it was but a rock, but her aim was true. She hurled the object at the foremost of the creatures and heard the thud of the projectile’s impact. The creature grunted quietly, but did not slow. Calla lost what shaky control she had over her fear and a scream ripped its way out of her. She caught a single, terrifying glimpse of the hideous face looming in front of her before the creature cuffed her on the side of the head, sending her into complete darkness.
❖ ❖ ❖
Dark clouds had rolled in, covering the forest in a heavy black blanket. The furious wind bent the trees low to the ground and lightning flashed murderously as though looking for an excuse to do some damage. At the far end of the seheowk camp, two dark figures carefully picked their way down the treacherous cliff face, oblivious to the sudden storm. They reached the bottom just as huge drops of rain began to fall, pelting the ground. Within seconds the two figures were thoroughly drenched and shivering.
“I can’t see anything,” Dru commented.
“Good,” Rhoyan whispered back, “that means the seheowks can’t see anything either.”
Together they slipped silently through the rain. They crept over to the shabby tent in which Calla had been placed when the storm hit. Rhoyan drew his sword as they approached the tent. All was still as they hunched down near the wall of the crude dwelling place. Dru looked at Rhoyan questioningly, even though he knew that the young prince could not see him through the pouring rain.
Second Son (The Minstrel's Song Book 2) Page 23
