The Great Hearts II: A Game of Gods

by David Oliver

  It was not to be. The sniffing continued, the sound thick and syrupy, like the owner had a bad cold. As it reached where they had turned off the trail the sound increased in frequency, the creature recognising the more recent scent and a low grumbling hoot reverberated through the trees.

  Ella swore under her breath as the footsteps started moving in their direction. Sharing a glance the two set off again, hoping that they could get far enough away from the creature that it would lose interest or to find a stream that would allow them to get rid of the scent they were leaving behind.

  Whatever the creature was, it was tenacious. The thick and treacherous terrain that was slowing Ella and Scythe down seemed to hold no barriers for it, the sound of splintering trees echoing through the canopy as it continued its inexorable plod. Each footstep brought it closer, its pace increasing as the scent got more fresh, doubtless able to smell the hint of panic and fear that both of them were leaving behind.

  “It’s on us,” Ella wheezed, “we need to do something!”

  “I’m thinking,” Scythe growled, his eyes wild.

  A wide framed tree loomed out of the foliage and a terrible plan snapped together. “I’ll be bait,” Ella said, adjusting her direction towards the tree. “If it goes for me, use the time to fashion any weapons you can and strike when you get an opportunity. If it goes for you I’ll get it in the back and we go from there.”

  “That’s a terrible pla- wait!” Scythe barked, alarm in his voice as he realised Ella was no longer by his side but climbing up the branches of a tree.

  “Just go!” wheezed Ella as she climbed. “And if this works, don’t leave me up here!”

  Scythe gave an angry grunt and dashed further into the trees, leaving Ella to sincerely hope that the creature didn’t have the power to knock over her tree.

  Barely thirty seconds later the strange beast arrived, long limbed with a fat belly, short snout and pungent odour that had Ella’s eyes watering in moments. It sniffed the air and came to the base of the tree, its head reaching the second row of branches, before grumbling to itself and beginning to move in the direction that Scythe had taken.

  “Oy, shit for brains!” Ella shouted as she flung a stone from her pouch at its head. “I’m up here. I’m the one you want to eat. Got it?”

  The beast tracked the sound of her voice and small, beady eyes locked onto her position in the tree. If it felt the rock it didn’t seem to show it, but with an excited roar it leapt to the tree and began to batter it, sending twigs and branches crashing down on top of it and causing the tree to sway ominously.

  Best hurry please Scythe, Ella urged as she clutched onto the trunk of the tree. I’m getting tree-sick.

  ✽✽✽

  Scythe

  Scythe continued running until he found a small clearing that would allow him the space to move around unhindered. If the beast was as large and lumbering as it looked then speed would be his advantage. Hearing Ella shout behind him and the accompanying roar of the creature put extra spark into his efforts. Scanning the area he found a couple of thick spear length logs on the floor which he rapidly used a piece of rock to sharpen points onto. Some of the bigger logs he jammed into the ground, scrabbling at the loam until it gave way. Every now and again he heard shouting from Ella, letting him know that she was still alive and so giving him more time to prepare. Soon enough he had six logs embedded in the ground at an angle, each of them with a hastily sharpened point that could snap off as easily as penetrate the creature’s hide. Amongst the semicircle of stakes was a number of broken shards of wood that Scythe hoped would slow down the beast’s movement, but they could just as easily shatter into useless fragments of wood. He looked around for other things he could use but a scream from Ella accompanied by a splintering crack that resonated through the forest sent him running.

  The troll’s incessant shaking and clawing at the tree was taking its toll. Shattered timber lay at its feet, the thick trunk of the tree slowly narrowing and subsequently increasing the tree’s sway much to Ella’s dismay. The branch directly below her had cracked, causing the startled scream as it broke away and plummeted to the ground below. Scythe took this all in as he looped behind the beast and then swept forward, spear at the ready. At a flat sprint he buried the point of his spear into the base of the creature’s spine, the tip piercing through its hide and burying the shaft of the weapon deep into its torso, eliciting a pained roar from the beast and an angry swing that sent Scythe scurrying back out of reach. He tried to reach for the spear that was still embedded in the beast’s back, but with a sharp crunch the troll slammed the haft of the weapon into the side of the tree as it turned, snapping the end of the spear off and leaving the point deeply embedded in its flesh.

  Well damn, Scythe thought with a grimace. That didn’t last long. So he did the only thing available to him.

  He turned and fled.

  With a roar the strange creature followed, the shard of wood embedded in its back doing little to slow it down.

  Scythe ran as fast as he dared through the grasping undergrowth, knowing that one fall or twist at this point would likely spell his death. Making it to the small clearing he cleared the smaller shards of wood and spun, lodging a rock in his sling as he did so. The beast ploughed into the wider space and continued straight at Scythe without slowing. Whirling the sling, Scythe released and swore as the rock went wide. Grabbing one of the smaller sharpened stakes in one hand he stood behind one of the larger logs and hoped that the creature was dumb enough to impale itself in its fury.

  Without remotely slowing the troll ran into the raised log, the impact causing the wood to crack in half and sending the troll to the floor in a tangle of limbs and blood. Scythe stood for a second, astonished that it had been so easy. Then the limbs began moving and it slowly pulled itself back to its feet, the thoroughly crushed log left on the floor.

  Ah. Of course it wouldn’t be dead.

  The beast swung a razor blade hand at Scythe, causing him to dive out of the way. Raising his smaller spear he stabbed out at the creature, cursing as the hastily made point crumpled under the impact and doing nothing to penetrate the creature’s thick slabs of muscle and fat. A curse and another dive as the beast swept forward and then Ella was there, her spear lodged into the side of its neck. Gurgling growls sounded from the beast as it tottered around the clearing, Ella frantically trying to drive the point of her spear deeper. As the creature spun, its arm rising up to swipe at Ella ineffectually, Scythe picked up a jagged splinter of wood and sprinted towards it, leaping through the air at the last moment and burying the shard deep within its eye. It howled in agony and a flailing arm sent Scythe careening away with the bloody shard in hand, to land heavily on the floor, leaving him breathless and sending searing pain through his ankle.

  Pushing the pain aside Scythe rose to his feet and ran to one of his log spears. “Come on!” he screamed, hoping the beast would react to the sound.

  The beast spun, the mind-numbing agony thundering through its eye socket sending it into a frenzy. Ella finished driving the spear as far as she could and then dropped off its back, rolling as she hit the floor and immediately ducked into a sprint towards the nearest log. Scythe shouted again and the creature lumbered in his direction. It ploughed into the larger spear, the tip driving itself deep into its chest, Scythe’s foot on the log helping keeping it in place for the impact. A shout and Ella ran forward, one of the log spears levelled at her side, thrusting the point into the flesh of its back and driving it further onto the spear in its chest. Scythe followed suit, assisting Ella in grabbing another of the embedded spears and driving it into the other side of the creature, pinning it in place whilst it thrashed weakly, blood coating the floor beneath it. Finally they drove another spear deep into the top of its chest and lodged the base into the floor, leaving the unmoving beast propped up like a doll.

  Gasping heavily Scythe collapsed to the floor, the pain that he had pushed down amongst the roar of adrenaline re
merging with a vengeance.

  As Ella bent down to help drag him away from the corpse of the beast he pointed at its face and ground out between gritted teeth, “I could have sworn I got rid of that.”

  Ella followed his finger and paled. Where she had seen a blood-filled socket thanks to Scythe’s attack with the wooden shard, now there was now a red veined eye.

  “I-it’s a troll,” she said softly, as though fearing that it would wake.

  “What makes you so sure?” Scythe replied, half crawling to lie against the bole of a tree where he sat with a sigh.

  “Well unless it's a Great Heart or a skyren I don't know of anything else that regenerates,” she said softly, stepping away from the beast and coming to inspect his ankle.

  “Which means it could still be alive,” Scythe murmured, grimacing as she inspected the swelling around his ankle.

  Ella spared a look back at the impaled troll. “It regenerated its eye pretty quickly; I would hope that it would be moving by now if it was going to and we did a good job of sticking it in place. Let’s just not stick around longer than we have to eh?”

  Scythe gave a tight grin and a nod, pain flashing over his features. Ella glanced around and frowned. “I’m going to go and find you something that you can use as a crutch. Hold tight and don’t move. I won’t be long.”

  Scythe grunted in agreement and closed his eyes, letting his mind drift. When he opened them again there was a savage figure staring at him in undisguised shock.

  Calidan?

  “Don’t move!”

  He moved.

  Chapter 7

  Raid

  “Did you see it?” Scythe asked cautiously, hand on a spear.

  “See what?” I said as I slowly squeezed into the cave.

  “Something was out there a few hours ago, it tried to get in.”

  “A troll?” asked Ella, catching the conversation as she moved in whilst leading Rikol by the hand. Scythe was about to answer when he caught sight of Rikol and limping over he caught our little friend in a bone crushing hug. “Good to see you,” he said when he finally let go.

  Rikol just looked at him, eyes revealing the depth of emotion held within. As the tears began to fall we said nothing, knowing exactly how he felt.

  Scythe turned back to us. “I don’t know. If it was a troll then it was different to the other one. Less snuffling and grunting. It was as though it was testing whether it could get in and then, once deciding it couldn’t, gave up.”

  Ella and I looked at each other. “Not what a normal troll would do I think,” said Ella, “the other one stayed after Rikol for some time.”

  “Three days,” Rikol whispered, causing our heads to turn towards him.

  “What was that Rikol?” I asked.

  “Three days it stayed at the bottom of that tree.”

  We all locked eyes.

  “Definitely not a normal troll,” agreed Scythe.

  “So what now? Keep looking for Cassius and Sophia?” asked Ella.

  “Of course we keep looking! Why wouldn’t we?” demanded Scythe, frustrated at the notion.

  “Hold on Scythe, I’m not suggesting we aren’t trying to find them. It’s just that this forest is a big place and it has been pretty much luck that we four have managed to find each other,” said Ella placatingly. I nodded - Ella was right, even though I could cover a large distance relatively quickly I still couldn’t be completely positive that I hadn’t missed someone...especially if they didn’t want to be found.

  “So perhaps it is best to sit tight here and signal them to come to us?” continued Ella.

  “Not a bad idea,” I mused. “Build a smoky fire and wait? The problem is that we don’t know who or what else might be attracted to investigate that fire.”

  Rikol peeled himself away from the pile of dried venison long enough to muffle, “Well we know that something already knows where we are based. The only other things that I’ve seen around here are trolls and deer...and going by my recent experience if a troll thinks that we are inside this cave then it is going to wait a long time outside before giving up.”

  “That would be problematic,” said Scythe, his flash of anger cooled. “The entrance is narrow, which is excellent for defence, but if a troll is waiting outside...we can’t use spears around that corner. We would eventually be forced to leave for water and that would lead us right into its waiting maw.

  “How about building the fire further away from the cave?” I ventured. “I’m reasonably certain that trolls aren’t particularly intelligent, so we could build a large fire and leave directions to make our way here?”

  “Sounds viable,” agreed Ella, nodding. “Hopefully it won’t take them too long to come and join us.”

  “Are we agreed?” I asked, looking around the group. One by one the others nodded their assent.

  “Excellent. Let’s rest up and then tomorrow we start the fire.”

  “Calidan, Calidan wake up!” A hand roughly shook my shoulder and jolted me out of sleep.

  “Whaargh?” I blurted out, half confused with dream and reality. I sat up slowly and noted the complete absence of light outside. “Rikol - it’s not yet morning. What’s wrong?”

  “I couldn’t sleep,” he replied as he shook the others awake, “so I went outside to go for a walk. There was a sound on the air, a clanging noise like metal on metal so I climbed up a tree to get a better look. There is an orange glow to the south, like something is burning.”

  I looked at the others who were still rolling around in the pitch black and rushed to my feet. “We should check it out.”

  “What about Scythe?” said Ella, hands waving in the dark.

  “Leave me and check it out. I have enough water and food here to last me a few days...I would only slow you down,” he replied.

  “You’re sure?” I asked.

  “Positive. Go. If it’s Cassius and Sophia then they may need help. If it’s not then it might be others who are either friends or threats. Either way we need to know - it’s worth the risk.”

  I clapped him on the shoulder and dressed rapidly before helping the others to find their gear.

  Ella hugged him tightly once ready and Rikol gave him a squeeze before I led them from the cave into the starlit world outside, leaving our injured friend to sit alone in the darkness.

  Rikol was right. I could hear faint clashes and shouts carrying in the air and the smell of smoke and charred flesh tinged my nostrils. If my senses weren’t somehow deceiving me then there was a battle taking place ahead. Swiftly we moved towards the commotion, traversing snow filled undergrowth and frozen branches at a speed unmatched by all but the hardiest woodsman. After the first light of dawn started to tinge the sky I called a halt, allowing the others to catch their breath and have a small bite to eat. To my best guess we had travelled roughly eight miles in three hours, punishingly swift when travelling cross country in snow and ice. The smell of smoke and ash was much stronger now, though worryingly the sound had begun to die down. No longer could I hear the constant clash of metal, instead I could make out faint screams. One side had likely won. Hopefully the side that involved Cassius and Sophia if they were there.

  An hour later we emerged from the forest in a fog of ash. Slowly and stealthily we walked forward, eyes on the burning pillars of the fort that was slowly emerging from the smoke in front of us. A once wooden palisade and twin towered fort was now burning merrily in multiple places, charred ash in the rest. Corpses littered the floor along our route, massing in one area just inside the smashed gates. Most of the bodies were thickly muscled men, carrying large two-handed axes and wearing thick furs. I realised with a start that they looked strangely like Kirok had when the giant bastard had arrived at the Academy.

  Ella held up a hand as I started to move on and began to pat down some of the bodies. Realising what she was after Rikol and I quickly joined in, searching the corpses for any weapons that we could use. After a few minutes of tense searching, all the while h
earing the screams of those fortunate enough to still be alive but not to have fled, we came up with two daggers apiece. To a man the corpses had battle axes - too large and heavy for Rikol and Ella to wield, but each carried a sharp knife, presumably for the kind of close quarter alley work that sounded like was taking place inside the fort.

  “What’s the plan Calidan?” whispered Rikol. “Are we going in?”

  “It’s a risk,” Ella returned. “We don’t know anything about them, who these people are, whether they are good or bad, anything at all.”

  I grasped the handle of a discarded axe, its former owner no longer needing it, and gave it an experimental twirl. “We should try and move unseen, find out the truth of what is going on. But if we see rape and murder,” the two took a step back at the look in my eyes as I growled out, “then don’t get in my way.”

  I did not know these people, but memories dogged my every step. Memories of fire and blood. Of darkness and death. Only this time I was not a young and helpless child. This time I could fight.

  And make them pay.

  ✽✽✽

  Flitting from corpse to corpse we slipped through the unguarded gate. The inside was a charnel house, bodies sprawled across the floor; each frozen in agonising death. The fight for the gate had been fierce by all accounts; presumably someone in the fort had been awake enough to rouse enough fighters to counter the initial night attack. Or at least attempt to counter.

  The defenders of the fort were similarly as tall and well-built as their foes, many armed with axes but several looking to have used swords and shields. Shield maidens were also among the bodies, not just women picking up weapons to defend their homes and families but women with fitted armour and sharp blades. Looking at the number of axe wielding corpses around each one, they were a force to be reckoned with.