The blood drained from Antoinette’s face. Her hands went cold. She took a careful step backward, holding her sword out in front. The beast pawed toward her and then rose up on its hind legs like a bear and howled. But the howl was cut short.
“Time for you to join your friends!” Mallik bellowed. And he swept such a two-fisted hammer stroke into the body of the wolvin that it flew over Antoinette’s head and up into the treetops. At that moment the rest of the team came stumbling to a stop behind them.
“Why do you halt?” Sir Oswyn asked breathlessly. “They are right behind us!”
“Where is Sir Rogan?” asked Tobias. “And what happened to Tal?”
Mallik growled and ran over to the sleeping warrior. “Tal is none the worse for wear, Master Pathfinder. He fares much better than the wolvin that delayed us!”
Sir Rogan returned to see what was delaying the others. He grunted at them as if to say, “Get moving, you slugs!”
Snarls came from behind and very close. “It is a pack, maybe two!” shouted Kaliam. “Go now, or we will be overrun!” Again, following Sir Rogan’s lead, the knights of Alleble sprinted through the Blackwood. The wolvins, driven mad by the chase, were steadily gaining on them.
Even burdened with the full weight of their poisoned comrades, Sir Rogan and Mallik began to pull away from the rest.
To follow, Antoinette took to watching the movement of the tree branches that swayed from the passing of their leaders.
Their course through the trees began to rise steadily. Keeping the pace on the hill was grueling, but Antoinette managed. She struggled over a large root, stumbled once, and kept going. Hearing a great echoing yell from one of the other knights up ahead, she pushed herself to a speed she did not know she possessed, surging forward until the ground dropped out from under her, or at least it seemed to. She had run off the edge of a berm and tumbled down a ragged hill. The others who came behind met with the same fate, crashing awkwardly down the slope and landing in a heap at the bottom. Only Nock kept his balance, and that just barely. He raced down the hill and came to an abrupt stop just before he would have rammed into Sir Tobias.
Antoinette rose awkwardly to one knee and then stood. Her heart jackhammered and her breaths came out in a mist. She shuddered in the sudden cold. Lady Merewen was there beside her, blinking rapidly and absently brushing soil and dead leaves from her cloak. The rest of the team stood, and they found themselves in a large round hollow, ringed by the most immense trees they had yet seen. But these trees did not have the crown of crimson leaves like the others. These were barren and seemed dead. They reached up with twisted arms into the twilight sky. Tendrils of fog began to pour like a ghostly waterfall over the edge of the hill and down into the hollow.
“What is this place?” Mallik asked. He looked around, a stranglehold on his hammer. No one answered at first. They simply stared as the mist began to curl around their ankles. Kaliam alone seemed to possess the ability to move. He walked as if in a trance to the base of one of the huge black trees and looked down.
“There is a stone here,” he said. “A rune is upon it, but it is ancient, beyond my knowledge.”
Sir Gabriel went slowly to the base of another tree. “A marked stone lies beneath this tree as well,” he said, shaking his head. “No scroll of Alleble records it meaning.”
Antoinette looked from tree to tree, wondering if a stone lay at the base of each one. She noted that there were seven massive trees in the hollow. Seven?
“Do you not see?” Nock asked. “Seven trees! And beneath them, seven stones! We have come to the place I feared the most. We have come to the Sepulcher of the Seven Sleepers. We would have been better off facing a dozen packs of wolvin. We must leave this place! Sir Gabriel, do you believe now?”
Sir Gabriel did not answer.
“I fear you are right in this judgment,” Kaliam said. “There is a foul presence in this hollow-an unknown malice all around us.”
“But what if it is that place?” Mallik asked. “Do not the roots of the blackwood trees hold the sleepers beneath the ground?”
“Yes, or so it is told,” Nock said with little certainty. “But look, the trees are dying. Once they were tall and secure. The kings of trees. If now they wither and perish, who can say?”
“You said they were just wolvins, right?” Antoinette asked. “If they did come up, we could take out seven wolvins, couldn’t we?”
No one answered. The mist continued to swirl as it rose, grasping at their knees.
“Well, couldn’t we?”
“The seven were of the first generation of wolvins,” Nock explained. “They would be larger, swifter, and more powerful than any wolvin that yet lives. And they were endowed with the power to change form-perhaps to the likeness of any living thing. There is no telling what other dark powers the Wyrm Lord gave them!”
Kaliam nodded and said, “We need to depart from this place with all haste. Sir Oswyn, you possess something in your pouches that would cure our two sleeping warriors?”
“Verily,” he replied, fishing two brown packets from his jerkin. “The spice I will use to revive them is so pungent it would indeed wake the Seven Sleepers!”
“Do not say such things!” Kaliam barked. “And make haste. I do not like it here.”
Sir Oswyn mixed together a series of herbs and managed to wake Aelic and Tal more or less unharmed.
“My head aches as if Mallik swings his hammer within my very skull,” groaned Tal.
“I feel the same,” replied Aelic.
“Be glad you are alive,” Kaliam said. “Aelic, from what Sir Rogan tells me, you owe Lady Antoinette a debt of gratitude for defending you when you fell. Had she not, the illgrets would have picked you clean.”
Aelic looked at Antoinette with wonder. “I will repay you,” he said.
“That’s not necessary,” Antoinette said. “You would have done the same for me.”
Antoinette looked away only to see Lady Merewen staring at her. But before Lady Merewen could speak, a piercing howl came from over the edge of the hollow, and dark shapes began to appear. One after another, until wolvins were all around the rim-jostling and clawing for space. They stared down with pale eyes and snarled.
Antoinette heard a strange noise, turned, and saw Farix a few yards behind her. He cracked his knuckles again, looked up at her grimly, and said, “Stay close to me, Lady Antoinette. I give you my word. Not one of them will touch you while I breathe. But if we are all to die, then let us die well.”
Antoinette swallowed, furrowed her brow fiercely, and nodded. “Never alone!” she said. Aelic stood as steadily as he could manage, drew Fury, and nodded.
Mallik hefted his hammer. “Let them come!” he growled. Tal and Sir Rogan stood beside him. The rest of the team made ready their weapons. They stood in the swirling mist and waited for the wolvins to charge.
They heard another howl-this one very different in pitch and punctuated by brief pauses. But where the sound had come from, no one would say. They were afraid to entertain the possibility that the howl had come from under the ground beneath their feet.
Antoinette thought that it must be a signal, that the pack would then pounce, but it was not so. One by one, the creatures began to withdraw from the edge of the hollow. And soon, they were gone.
“What do you make of that?” Farix asked, turning to Kaliam.
“I have never heard of a pack of wolvins to abandon easy prey,” Kaliam replied.
“It would not have been easy,” muttered Sir Rogan.
“Be that as it may,” Kaliam said, smiling, “we were outnumbered and surrounded with no easy escape from this dell. They ought to have attacked.”
Sir Gabriel sheathed his long knives and looked around. “It is almost as if they were content to leave us here,” he said.
“Or perhaps they were chasing us here all along,” said Tobias.
Antoinette looked at the seven trees, tall and dark, brooding over the hollow as if from a
long, miserable labor. And down at their massive roots, the mist churned, obscuring the pale stones that lay there like burial markers. She wondered what powers the Seven Sleepers could have that allowed them to live while buried over the long passage of time. And she thought of the hate they must bear toward all things that walk free in The Realm.
“My dagger is missing!” Sir Rogan grunted. “It broke free when I fell!”
“And I have lost two scrolls!” Sir Gabriel exclaimed while patting his sides and the pockets of his cloak.
“Search quickly beneath the mist,” Kaliam said. “If our sacks opened when we fell, we may be missing more than we can afford to lose.” The twelve began to scour the area. Antoinette lost a pouch of gold coins, and two of her waterskins had burst.
“Knights, you move too slowly!” Kaliam bellowed. “Finish your search, and let us depart from here!”
“What is your wretched hurry?” Sir Rogan yelled back from the base of one of the closest trees. “I cannot find my dagger in this accursed mist!”
Antoinette, who had been on her knees looking for her coins, stood up abruptly and stared at Sir Rogan.
“Serves you right!” Tobias said, and he spat on the ground. “A fine path you led us on. It is your fault we are in this ghastly place!”
Sir Rogan stood up stiffly and lowered his eyebrows. “I only led the way because you did not offer your pathfinding services at the time.”
“And a fine job leading you did,” Farix said, his words dripping with sarcasm. “I am quite sure Aelic appreciates your effort as much as the rest of us. Tell us, how many branches did you crack on his skull as you ran heedlessly through the trees?”
“I am bruised all over thanks to you, oaf!” Aelic said bitterly.
“Aelic!” Antoinette said, her eyes wide. “Sir Rogan saved your life!”
“Keep out of this!” he replied angrily. “I do not answer to the likes of you!” His eyes flashed angrily, and he turned back to Sir Rogan.
“No, she is right, you ungrateful imp!” Sir Rogan growled. “I am beginning to regret that I did not leave you for the teeth and talons of the illgrets!”
“Perhaps if Sir Rogan did not have to lug you around,” Nock said, his voice high and agitated, “we might never have come to the Sepulcher! Now, it is too late! We are all going to die!”
“We will all be drawn under the earth,” Lady Merewen cried. “Buried alive until the long sleep takes us!”
“Nonsense! You might die, you and the archer,” Tobias yelled. “But I will find a way out!”
“Tell me again, Pathfinder,” Sir Oswyn interjected, “have you found us any safe way to this point? Admit it. You are out of your reckoning here. You have not the skill to direct us on this mission, do you?”
“And what great role do you play?” Tobias asked. “The knights of Paragory will not be frightened by your lute-though your playing leaves much to be desired!”
Antoinette stared in disbelief from knight to knight.
“Miserable whelp,” Sir Oswyn fired back. “You would miss my fire powder-you all would-for you would have breathed your last were it not for my skills!”
“Close your bickering mouths!” commanded Kaliam. “This is getting us nowhere! The wolvins may come back, and we cannot traipse about waiting!”
“Is this counsel like your last?” Farix asked. “What magnificent wisdom it was to enter the Blackwood. Now look at us!”
“Why, you disrespectful wraith!” Kaliam drew his great broadsword and stepped toward Farix.
“Come any closer, Sentinel, and I will wash this hollow in your cowardly blood!”
“Wait, stop!” Antoinette cried. “Have you all gone mad?!”
Aelic shrugged and brandished Fury.
“No you don’t!” said Antoinette. She snapped the flat of her sword on Aelic’s hand, and he dropped the blade.
“You cut me!” Aelic screamed. “You witless wretch! You have cut open my blade hand! I will throttle you for that offense!”
Antoinette looked at Aelic’s hand. There was no blood at all. It was unblemished. “No, Sir Aelic! Look again at your hand! It is not even marked!”
“It bleeds!” Aidan shrieked.
“We are all going to die!” Nock exclaimed. “Whether by illgret or wolvin, we are lost in this horrid place!”
“Shut your mouth, I said!” Tobias yelled, and he brought his staff around sharply and struck Nock in the back. He flew forward and disappeared under the mist.
“Stop it, all of you!” Antoinette pleaded. “Fighting and quarreling? This is not how servants of King Eliam behave! Don’t you see? You are doing the enemy’s work! It’s this place-it’s the hate of the Seven Sleepers!”
The others lowered their weapons a little. Nock rose up from the swirling mist and shook his head.
“What a victory for Paragor this would be,” Antoinette cried out, “if we slay each other while he suffers no loss himself! Don’t you remember the slaughter at Mithegard? Sir Rogan, so many of your kinsmen were slain by Paragor’s minions-are you so anxious to join them? And Nock, you lost your brother to the enemy. Will you now fight for his killer against his friends?”
Nock stared absently, but then his eyes widened with recognition. “Listen to her!” Nock yelled. “She is right! This place is cursed with malice. Kaliam, you said it yourself. The ill will of the Seven took hold of me as well! We are not in our right minds! I am sorry to those I have offended. Rouse yourselves from this evil fog! Turn aside from your fury and appeal to King Eliam for aid before it is too late!”
Kaliam jolted and stood as one awakened by cold water. “May the King forgive me,” he cried, “for what I purposed in my heart to do!”
“Forgive us all!” bellowed Mallik. “No wonder that the wolvins left us here! They would return and feast upon the carnage we made of ourselves!”
“Has anyone lost anything so precious that it is worth our lives?” Sir Oswyn asked. “If nay, then let us be off!”
“Who needs a dagger?” Sir Rogan said. “I still have my axe!”
“Good, then,” said Kaliam. “Tobias, what direction?”
“You know very well that it is south,” Tobias answered. “But thank you for your confidence in my abilities.”
“Mallik!” Kaliam called.
“Say no more,” he replied. He swept up his hammer and went to work on the southern bank of the hollow. In a few moments, he had pounded out a steep stair from the hillside, and the twelve emerged from the Sepulcher.
“What will happen?” Antoinette asked Nock as she took a last look at the shrouded hollow. “Will they escape?”
“The roots of the blackwood are strong,” Nock replied. “Even in death they rival the strongest blades made of murynstil! But, if the Seven should rise, then… there will be trouble.”
“We must warn King Eliam as soon as we can,” Sir Gabriel said as they emerged from the hollow and began walking. “This is a serious threat too near to our city. Nock, I feel a fool for not believing you.”
“He is no fool who studies the word of King Eliam,” said Nock. “Your knowledge of Alleble’s lore is profound, but if the ancient legends are true, then we may be forced to confront evils beyond any of our wisdom. I believe the Seven Sleepers are stirring… slowly awakening. And I fear what that could mean.”
“The Wyrm Lord,” Oswyn whispered.
26
THE FIRSTBORN
H aving given up hope of reaching the Forest Road before the massive army from Paragory, the twelve trekked south and west through the Blackwood. The terrain did not improve, and so their progress remained slow. Kaliam did not want to stop, but he felt and saw the weariness that they all bore. He allowed the team to halt-but only for enough time to catch their breaths or eat something quickly from their provisions. There was no time for fires.
Lady Merewen handed Antoinette a full waterskin. “Please, take this to replace your own.”
“And one of mine,” Aelic said.
/> Antoinette smiled warmly at her friends and took a long drink from one of the skins. “Thank you,” she said to them. And they were off again, seeking the road at the best speed they could manage.
“Hold!” Nock suddenly yelled from the front of the team.
“Is it the Forest Road?” Mallik called out hopefully.
“Nay,” answered the archer. “But it may be something of value to us. Come and look.”
The rest of the twelve caught up and found Nock examining a broken blackwood sapling.
“How in The Realm did you see that in this ruinous forest of shadow?” Mallik asked.
“In Yewland, the finest archers train their eyes to hunt in the darkness,” Nock replied. “I am in my element among the trees. Tobias, come tell me what you think.”
They followed as Tobias and Nock slowly advanced. Branches of young trees had been roughly hewn, gouges had been cut into the base of the larger trees, and some saplings had been broken nearly in two.
Tobias bent very low to the ground and strained to see. “Look here,” he said. “There are the imprints of a small band of warriors. No more than a hundred, I would guess.”
“The Glimpses of Yewland would not dare to harm the trees in this forest,” said Nock. “So I can only conclude that the enemy made this path.”
“Nock, I do not believe it was the force we saw this morning,” Tobias said. “Do you agree?”
The archer nodded. “Tobias is right. This path was made by a force numbering a hundred or less-rather smaller than the several legions observed before. It is also clear from the cuts in the wood and the coverage of the tracks that this path is far too old-made perhaps even as long ago as a full season.”
“So what does that mean?” asked Sir Rogan.
“It means,” said Lady Merewen, “that the enemy has been prowling the Blackwood without our knowledge for some time.”
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