The chief guard gestured with her hand and the rest of her troop relaxed a little.
‘We are under orders not to let anyone enter or leave the elf forest. Farmers along the forest border have been found murdered. Whole families have been cut down, bored through with arrows. The baron is of the opinion that the elves are about to start a war and so he is preparing accordingly’, she said in a strained voice.
Ahren noticed that most of the hostile looks were trained on Jelninolan and so he pushed his horse forward, shielding the elf’s body.
‘Let’s get out of here’, hissed Uldini.
Falk nodded imperceptibly and addressed the chief guard again. ‘We spent quite a few days in the company of the elves and didn’t notice any tension in the air. And the trade route along the Red Posts is still open and secure. Perhaps there are bandits wreaking destruction around here. I wouldn’t judge the Evergreen elves quite so quickly.’
The Forest Guardian was about to continue when the woman cut him off with a commanding gesture.
‘Enough! I will brook no more discussion concerning my master’s commands. Turn around or bear the consequences. Brother Ansilmus has warned us that friends of the elves would try to lull us into a false sense of security. The Illuminated Path is only for the righteous – the elves are no longer considered such.’
Murmurs of agreement could be heard coming from the armed ranks.
Ahren had tensed up when he heard the woman’s words, and the others had too.
The Illuminated Path was a religious cult used as a smokescreen by the Adversary’s servants to lure the desperate and the foolish into his control.
It was only recently that one of their recruiters had spoken to Ahren at a trading post. Later, the man had been discovered to be a High Fang, a man under the dark god’s control, who had then set a gang of highway robbers on the apprentice and his companions. The fact that the cult had extended its influence as far as the border patrols was certainly an ill omen.
Falk acknowledged the guard with a silent bow and Selsena turned and trotted back into the forest. The others followed, turning their heads every so often to make sure a bolt hadn’t been fired off by an excitable guard who had had lost his or her self-control.
As soon as they were out of sight of the forest border, Uldini stopped and let forth a terrifying torrent of maledictions and obscenities.
Ahren couldn’t suppress a grin at the wizard’s unflattering commentary concerning the family trees of the guards in general and the baron in particular. The apprentice was about to join in, but as he was about to issue his own invective, he was stopped by a steely look from Jelninolan.
Falk listened carefully and when the childlike figure paused for breath, he asked softly, ‘are you feeling better now?’
‘Not really. But it was necessary. Otherwise I would have ridden back to them and transformed them all into turnips’, grumbled Uldini and carried on with his cursing.
This went on for another while until Culhen started running around them whining, and Jelninolan’s face took on a pained expression as the expletives became ever more creative. Finally, even Ahren didn’t find the wave of obscenities entertaining anymore and so he tried somehow to stop the Arch Wizard’s tirade.
‘Why turnips?’, he asked, unable to think of anything better.
‘I hate turnips!’ Uldini spat out, stopping his own torrent of words.
Jelninolan used the pause by raising her voice while giving Ahren a look of gratitude. ‘This development is really disturbing. The peace between the Knight Marshes and Evergreen was always fragile. I bet you anything the Illuminated Path are responsible for the murders and have set us elves up. This has to be stopped immediately.’
Falk scratched his beard ruminatively and looked off into the forest.
‘You have to admire their tactics. They incite a baron to turn against the elves. Either the other barons will support him and we have a war between the Knight Marshes and Evergreen, or they go against him and it comes to a skirmish amongst the barons. If the rest of the nobility are squabbling, it could end up in a civil war. Either way, the Knight Marshes will be weakened, and many people will have lost their lives for nothing, for absolutely nothing’, grumbled the Forest Guardian.
Uldini had calmed down and now he conjured his crystal ball to rise up until it was floating in front of his eyes.
‘I’d told Elgin weeks ago to take care of the Illuminated Path, right after the High Fang’s ambush attempt. How, by all the hells, can they operate so openly?’ he spat.
Then he mumbled an incantation and the inside of the ball glimmered red. Uldini shook his head, rubbed his eyes and repeated the incantation. Again, there was a red glimmer. Exasperated, he pushed the crystal ball aside, until it was floating unnoticed over his right shoulder.
‘I can’t make contact with him. What’s going on?’ he complained.
Jelninolan’s face betrayed complete disapproval as she began to scold the wizard, gesticulating wildly.
‘You know exactly what’s happened. Elgin is working at some magic again so that he can outstrip you. I’m sure your little job for him was embarrassing and so he ignored it. Or his self-delusion regarding his own importance led him to believe that you only set him on the Illuminated Path to sabotage his own plans because you were afraid you might be knocked off your pedestal’, she responded forcefully.
Ahren had never seen the elf so angry before and he was glad that he wasn’t the object of her rage.
‘Who is Elgin?’ he asked quietly, looking over at Falk.
‘One of the Ancients. There are seventeen of them at the moment if memory serves me correctly. There’s a definite pecking order among them. Whoever has the most magical power is the leader and can dictate to all the others what to do. Added to that, a more senior Ancient can give commands to one lower down the pecking order as long as these don’t run counter to a more senior Ancient’s commands. And so, the pair have been tussling over the higher positions for centuries like two dogs fighting over a bone. Uldini has been at the top for so long that most of them have given up trying to replace him as leader. But every few decades Elgin tries to push his way past with an exotic ritual of a particularly powerful magic spell’, explained Falk.
The other pair had stopped talking and the Arch Wizard turned towards Ahren.
‘The perfect example of an obsession that is out of control. Elgin is so obsessed with his goal that he hasn’t the least idea, I’m absolutely convinced, of what he’s meant to do if he gets to assume command over the Ancients. Remember this, Ahren: first, be sure you know why you want something, then how you can achieve it.’
The childlike figure rubbed his face with both hands.
‘This is a great start’, he said in a resigned voice. ‘We’d better travel a bit further eastwards. ‘There’s a fortified road in Baron Restelan’s territory which reaches as far as Evergreen. As long as the Illuminated Path’s influence hasn’t reached anyone there yet, we can go from there back to our planned route. If that doesn’t work, then we’ll stay in Evergreen until we’ve reached the coast and then we’ll battle our way through to King’s Island.’
He waited for a few heartbeats, then looked expectantly around him.
‘Any better suggestions?’, he asked curtly.
Nobody answered and then all nodded. Satisfied, Uldini set off on his horse.
Ahren was surprised that his master hadn’t said anything. It was normal for the old man to take every opportunity to contradict the wizard, almost as if it were an ingrained reflex.
Ahren thought the matter over for a time, and then the penny dropped. Uldini’s authority, it seemed, was being challenged by one of the Ancients. The last thing he needed was further criticism. To his surprise, Ahren was beginning to understand that Uldini was still only a man, in spite of all his power and his long life. Falk was sparing him. When the apprentice gave his master a look of understanding, the Forest Guardian winked back at him.
&
nbsp; A moment later and Falk’s expression had changed completely. He pointed sternly at Ahren’s saddlebags.
‘Now that we’ll be riding for another while, you might as well be using your practice arrows. We’re not here on a pleasure trip and your training is far from over. So, get up you lazy bones and hit that branch over there or I’ll be looking for a good high tree this evening that you’ll have to climb up ten times’, he said severely.
Ahren quickly pulled out the blunted arrows and raised his bow. He sighed quietly. This was going to be a long ride today.
Chapter 4
94 days to the winter solstice
The next three days passed by with a calm regularity.
They kept an eye out for the Doppelganger and any surprises he might have in store, but the harmonious, peaceful air of Evergreen still had a relaxing effect on them.
Ahren’s days were filled with training exercises given to him by Jelninolan and Falk, which he was allowed to carry out while riding along. Sometimes it was target practice, sometimes it was balancing a pinecone on the fingertips of his outstretched arm. Sometimes it was something as banal as untying his saddlebags without looking. Before decamping, he practised his swordsmanship, and in the evenings Falk made him climb until he was exhausted. Ahren was sure that he was only allowed to remain on horseback because it would have cost too much time otherwise. At least his master exempted him from gathering wood, cooking, setting up camp and dismantling it.
Ahren was impressed by the equanimity with which Uldini and Jelninolan, who were hundreds of years old, performed these simple, everyday tasks and he vowed that he would perform the tasks given to him with the same stoical calmness.
Uldini continued trying to make contact with Elgin, but to no avail. The Arch Wizard’s demeanour remained sour and Ahren avoided burdening him with questions. Jelninolan too was tight-lipped, and Rillans whizzed back and forth several times a day, exchanging news with the elves in Evergreen on the fraught situation and ideas on how to deal with it. Falk viewed each of these magical spheres with concern and when the Forest Guardian was riding a little away from the others, Ahren seized the opportunity and rode up to him to quiz him on the situation.
‘Why doesn’t Uldini simply ask one of the other Ancients to investigate the Illuminated Path? He has the power to do that.’ It seemed illogical to him that the Arch Wizard was spending so much time and energy trying to contact this Elgin, instead of giving one of the others the order.
Falk looked over at him and smiled wearily.
‘It’s not that simple. Elgin has been advisor to the royal house of the Knight Marshes for over two hundred years. He is highly rated and respected everywhere. He has the necessary influence and knows exactly whom he must talk to and how, in order that the barons will enforce a prohibition of the cult. As far as Uldini is concerned, if he sent any of the other Ancients to King’s Island to involve themselves in the destiny of the country, they would meet with considerable resistance. The Illuminated Path has already used very devious tactics, and any failed attempt at prohibition would only draw more followers into its grasp.’
Falk took a deep breath and gathered his thoughts.
‘I can only hope that Elgin will keep his ambitions in check this time and act promptly. Uldini holds him in high regard in spite of the way he’s been cursing him. I, on the other hand, think Elgin is indeed scheming, just enough to allow the Illuminated Path to operate, so that Uldini will appear weak, thereby damaging him.’
Ahren’s heart raced, and the thought that one of the Ancients would consciously play into the enemy’s hands made him incandescent with rage.
‘How could he do something so horrible?’ he whispered, grinding his teeth.
Falk shrugged his shoulder and gave a tormented scowl.
‘Elgin is still young for an Ancient. He has been ageless for slightly more than two hundred and fifty years and never experienced the Dark Days. I think he’s underestimating the damage he’s causing. Or he’s over-estimating his ability to control the cult once it’s gained a foothold. Or both. Whatever his motives are, we’re carrying the can for the shemozzle.’
The old Forest Guardian glanced over at Jelninolan.
‘At least the Elf Priestess has been responding in the right way. She has informed the other Ancients, so that the cult won’t spread out beyond the frontiers. And the elves are going to offer their wares at much lower prices for the foreseeable future. Good trading relations always mean your neighbours are more likely to support you than attack you. Apart from that, a delegation of elves is going to travel to the Green Sea to strengthen their alliance with the Clan Folk. We need to be able to strike quickly and hard in the event of the Knight Marshes falling under the control of the cult’, said Falk darkly.
Ahren was appalled. His master was talking of war with a whole kingdom. And not just that, but one that was supposed to be their ally in their conflict with the Adversary.
‘We have to find a way of stopping that!’ he called out in a louder voice than he had intended.
The others turned their heads and Uldini spoke in a grave voice. ‘We’ll do that, Ahren. You will become the Thirteenth Paladin as soon as it’s feasible. When news of your Naming spreads, courage and hope among the people will be reignited. The Illuminated Path feeds on those who are desperate or who can’t find their place in the world. Your Naming will reduce the basis on which the cult can act.’
Jelninolan and Falk nodded in encouragement, and this calmed Ahren somewhat. The apprentice was beginning to understand that the world was considerably more complicated than he had previously experienced, and that even ageless Arch Wizards couldn’t command kingdoms willy-nilly. His face took on a determined look and he saw a look of pride in his master’s face. Falk understood that his apprentice was taking on this additional burden without complaint. Up until now the boy had seen the battle against HIM, WHO FORCES as something isolated, detached from the affairs of the world. The realisation that everything that they achieved or failed to achieve had an effect on countless lives was a heavy burden, and Falk would gladly have spared his protégé from this. But as this was not possible, there remained only one thing to do.
‘That’s enough questions for today. This branch up here can’t just strike itself. I want to see three arrows hit it before we’re beyond reach and I want your lazy wolf to get his act together by bringing them back to you again’.
Then Falk picked up speed and smiled as he saw through the corner of his eye Ahren frantically drawing his bow.
The old Forest Guardian might not be able to spare Ahren his fate, but he’d be damned if he was not going to prepare the boy as well as he possibly could.
The edge of the Evergreen forest lay before them again when they reached the trade road that would lead them into the heart of the Knight Marshes. There wasn’t a soul to be seen far and wide and the moss path of the elves was seamlessly replaced by the rough cobbled road which wound its way through fields of golden wheat.
Ahren saw that it wouldn’t be long until harvest and he realised sadly that there wouldn’t be any Autumn Festival for him this year. He felt a stab of pain in his chest as homesickness suddenly hit him. He had a lump in his throat as he thought of Likis and the others he had left behind in Deepstone. He yearned for the days when the Eastern Forest had seemed to him to be high and vast, and his friend had lived a stone’s throw away. Now, with his brief impression of the sheer size of Eathinian, the wood in which he had begun his training seemed no more than a motley collection of trees, and Likis many leagues away.
They pulled up and Falk began his transformation into Knight Falkenstein, a sight that had dumbfounded his apprentice only a few weeks before. His master put on his shimmering whitish armour, covered Selsena’s head with the decorated battle armour, which gave her the appearance of a horse armoured up as a unicorn, and pulled a tabard over himself.
Jelninolan, in the meantime, had some good news to report: a herd of Titejunanwas had sp
otted the trail of the Doppler in Evergreen and had ascertained that the creature had left the elf forest two days previously and had gone in a south-western direction, away from their planned travel route. It seemed as though they could continue their journey reasonably safely.
‘Now that Jelninolan is with us, our group is just that little bit too colourful for any meaningful disguise. So we’ll try to make our appearance as worthy of respect as possible. When a knight travels through a village in full regalia, then his followers are usually spared inquisitive questions’, Falk explained.
Uldini didn’t seem particularly persuaded but didn’t have any better tactics at the ready.
Jelninolan, on the other hand, leaned down towards Culhen, whispered something Elfish into his ears and performed some magic on him. The effect was as surprising as it was subtle. The colour of his fur changed ever so slightly, took on a darker and slightly dappled tone here and there, just enough that within a few moments Ahren’s companion looked like one of those wolfhounds that are used for shepherding. The young wolf sat on his hind legs and looked at his dappled grey forelegs. Then he snorted scornfully and gave Ahren a begging look, all the while whining pathetically.
‘Our vain little friend doesn’t seem to think much of his clothing. It seems he wants his glorious old self back’, laughed Falk, and Selsena showered them all with a wave of merriment.
‘Good job, auntie’, said Uldini in wonder. ‘The shadings hide his origins, without the necessity of changing his form. A true masterpiece of illusion.’
Jelninolan smiled, gave a little curtsey and ruffled Culhen on his head as he continued to whine.
‘Stop behaving like that. I’ll undo the spell once we’ve reached the Silver Cliff. The dwarves love wolves, and there are so many more dangerous creatures in Kelkor that a wolf doesn’t bother anyone’, she said airily.
Ahren felt queasy when he heard her last sentence, but he had decided to tackle only one thing at a time on their journey and so he refrained from asking questions.
The Naming Page 5
