Lioness of Kell

by Paul E. Horsman

  His friend sighed. ‘For a moment I thought you meant something else. But yes, not burning your enemy’s neighbors would be nice, too, I suppose.’

  ‘Is it?’ Basil said absently. ‘I am more concerned with the loss of fire power.’

  CHAPTER 6 - THE LORN WITCH

  Maud spent comfortless hours in the narrow cave. She must have slept, for she woke as Jurgis’ hand touched her head.

  ‘Would you mind letting me out,’ he said, and he sounded embarrassed. ‘I need to piss.’

  She grunted, still half-awake, and with some difficulty, wriggled backward from the cave.

  ‘There y’ are,’ she said. It was still raining, a chill drizzle, and for once she blessed it. We’ve been lucky.’ She noted the blackened patches, the lightning-struck trees and the pungent stench of wet charcoal, and shivered. Damned lucky.

  ‘The rain stopped that wyrm from burning down the forest,’ she said when Jurgis came back. ‘We would’ve been broiled in our shelter.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Jurgis said, buttoning his fly. ‘Speaking of food...’

  Maud cocked an eyebrow at him. ‘Being broiled makes you hungry?’ She lifted her eyes to the sky. ‘First I must do something else. Give me the spear for a moment.’ She stuck the weapon point up in the sand, and placed Hala’s backpack next to it with the gun on top.

  ‘Veteran Hala,’ Maud said. She came to attention and sang the keening complaint that had eased the souls of so many Kell warrioresses into the blessed afterlife. When she was done, she lifted her hands and cried out in a voice loud enough for the gods to hear. ‘Hala of Clan M’Brannoe died today in the execution of her duty. She was a great warrioress of our people. Receive her, O Gods, for she lived and fought well.’

  Then she turned around, her face bleak as death herself. ‘Remember this day, boy, for today a champion passed over.’ Maud fell to her knees and sat there, motionless, hardly breathing. She didn’t cry, just sat there, letting the memory of the old veteran wash over her.

  After a while, she rose. She turned to Jurgis, who sat silently to the side, watching her, and smiled. ‘It’s done now. You can keep the spear in her memory.’

  Maud returned the pistol to her belt and searched through Hala’s backpack. ‘Even the veteran was unprepared for this,’ she said finally. ‘One apple and a handful of dried beef sticks.’ She broke the apple between thumb and fingertips into two parts, and handed half to Jurgis. ‘Here; and have one of these. You must chew it well. The meat is tasteless, but it fills your belly.’

  ‘I suppose it’s better than dead rat,’ Jurgis muttered. ‘Those taste horrible.’

  ‘You’ve eaten rat?’

  ‘Yeah. Food costs money; rats don’t.’

  Chewing bravely, they walked away from their temporary refuge.

  The trees in this part of the Lornwood were tall, with gnarled branches and rubbery leaves. Their overlapping crowns turned the wood into a gloomy world of dripping branches, where the rhythm of the rain and the creaking of water-heavy branches were the only sounds.

  ‘Want to talk?’ Jurgis said after a while.

  Maud started. Her mind had been filled with images of the exploding dirigible, so that the boy’s voice came as a shock.

  ‘I always imagined death as something glorious, you know.’ She looked sideways at his face. ‘One would fall on the field of battle, riddled with arrows or stabbed by a dozen swords, things like that. It was never being blown to bits while you were too sick to stand.’

  ‘These things happen.’ Jurgis grimaced. ‘Take Old Ghost, the one who taught me stealing. He was the best burglar in Brisa. For nearly sixty years he had worked the streets and the rooftops. Never rich, always in money. He was a legend; untouchable. Until, one morning, he walked home and this little girl leaning over the bedroom windowsill saw him too late. She couldn’t hold the well-filled chamber pot, so instead of emptying, she dropped it on his head. Is there a more inglorious end imaginable?’

  In spite of herself, Maud had to smile a little. ‘That’s rather awful, yes. But Hala ... Ah, the bog fever would’ve killed her in the end. It’s a vile disease, eating away one’s strength. I wonder if that’s why she went on all these missions, even when she was past the age of retirement. Perhaps she hoped to die in action, instead of slowly losing her brawn.’

  ‘Your strength is very important to you?’ Jurgis said, glancing at her.

  ‘It’s the center of our lives.’ Maud had never thought of it that way, but she knew it was true. ‘Our strength, our fighting skills, our lovers; that’s what makes a Kell warrioress.’

  ‘Your lovers?’

  Maud felt her face go hot. ‘Divine Otha! I shouldn’t have said that.’

  ‘Well, you did. Now tell me all.’

  ‘We have our ... passions,’ she said. ‘We’re born with them, and it makes us dangerous on the field of battle. At home, it can be troublesome. There we’re not supposed to fight unless in sparring. We don’t drink often, so getting drunk is no answer. Sex is the only way left.’

  Jurgis looked her up and down. ‘That’s quite a challenge,’ he said with an easy smile. ‘Are your men as strapping as you?’

  Maud snorted. ‘No. Kell males are small, soft and meek. They’re useful for a quick screw and not much else. I’ve had two lovers, and both were even less muscled than you.’

  ‘That sounds promising,’ Jurgis said. He stretched lazily, and Maud turned away, breathless.

  ‘Don’t,’ she whispered.

  Jurgis smiled. ‘Why not? I’d love making love to you.’

  ‘Damn it.’ She turned around in anger. ‘I’m a Kell, boy. I take the initiative.’

  ‘Not in my book.’

  ‘Shut up!’ I can’t fuck him. I mustn’t. He’s my charge, dammit. The inner conflict made her angry, and she broke into a trot.

  Jurgis followed her, and they ran in silence.

  Maud was the first to break their silence. ‘What’s that?’ she said, nodding to a sunlit glade just ahead.

  ‘A clearing,’ Jurgis said, surprised, ‘A clearing with a well.’

  Maud frowned. ‘So it seems.’

  As they neared, they noticed the overgrown ruins of a stone cottage and a curiously healthy-looking vegetable garden.

  Jurgis stopped and closed his eyes. His face became intent. ‘Wait!’ he whispered. ‘That’s not a well.’

  Maud stepped away from the well. ‘What do you mean?’

  He shook his head and brought a finger to his lips. ‘Hush. It’s not. Could be a trap, however. Whole thing reeks of magic.’

  Maud saw his face all tensed up, like that time they confronted those six footpads in Brisa, and her hand went to her sword hilt. ‘How do you know?’

  Jurgis moved his shoulders. ‘I can see the magic in objects, even if I can’t use them. I don’t trust this place.’

  Maud picked up a fist-sized stone and threw it down the well. An angry shout from below made her jump.

  ‘Don’t do that! Travelers, you’re lost. If you want to leave the woods, put aside your mistrust. Come, climb down and speak with me.’

  ‘Climb down?’ Maud said. She’d drawn her big sword and stood staring at the well. The unseen voice creeped her out and that made her angry. ‘You’re right; I don’t trust it either.’

  Jurgis nodded. ‘We’d better get going.’

  As one, they turned away and ran. Neither spoke, but Maud’s heart was filled with unease.

  While they ran, her discomfort grew. I’ve seen that tree before, she thought. And those flowering bushes.

  ‘Curse it!’ Jurgis said, gripping her arm as he slowed down. ‘We ran in a circle. There is the well.’

  Laughter from below greeted them. ‘Back again? I told you so. The forest isn’t called the Lornwood for nothing. Climb down or stay lost.’

  ‘No way!’ Jurgis cried. Again, they ran and now Maud let him lead.

  ‘Damn,’ the thief said after another twenty minutes. ‘We’re back again.’
/>
  ‘Don’t be such cowards,’ the voice mocked. ‘Come to me, or you’ll be walking in circles for the rest of your lives.’

  Maud stared at the well, scowling. ‘Damn, I must see who’s fooling us.’ She peered into the well. ‘There are rungs in the wall. You’re right; this whole thing is a sham.’ Hand over hand she climbed down, with Jurgis right behind her.

  ‘It’s a cave!’ she said when they reached the bottom.

  ‘Watch it!’ Jurgis muttered, gripping Hala’s spear.

  Maud squared her shoulders and walked inside. The cave was a comfortable place, with a draped bed, a large table covered with tomes, an easy chair, and in a corner what looked like an alchemist’s lab.

  ‘There you are then, at last.’ An old woman rose up from the chair, gripping a twisted cane. She shuffled toward them; her lumpy body was hidden in a long, dark green dress that had known better days. Her face was gray, a wrinkled steel apple, with matching hair in braids over her ears. The smile with which she received them set goosebumps rising on Maud’s arms with its falseness. The woman seemed unaware of the revulsion she caused, though, for she greeted them with the eagerness of a hungry hyena.

  ‘I am Sari, called the Lorn Witch. Of course I’m neither lost nor a witch, but the name sticks. I am a magician.’

  ‘You are? How marvelous,’ Jurgis said. ‘What are you doing here all alone, ma’am? Isn’t that terribly dangerous?’

  ‘Why, I have to,’ the woman said. ‘You see, I am a fugitive, young man. As a Vanhaari female with the gift, but born from non-warlock parents, I must live in hiding. Why? Because I possess powers the warlocks don’t want me to have.’ Her laugh was full of hollow gaiety. ‘Your pardon; I shall not bore you with my wanderings. Here in this cave I am free. Not a warlock, yet powerful enough to practice magic of my own.’

  Jurgis widened his eyes at her. ‘You’re a mage,’ he said breathlessly. ‘Have you bewitched the wood? We would like to continue our journey, you know.’

  ‘I can imagine,’ Sari said, and her smile widened. ‘But no, it’s not I who stops you from leaving the Lornwood, my dear. It’s the kobolds.’

  ‘Oh my, kobolds!’ Jurgis said and Maud had to suppress a smile at the boyish awe he put in his voice. ‘They exist then? I thought them just tales of the Long Ago.’

  The woman’s hands made an intricate gesture. ‘They do exist. There’s a whole horde of the little beasts living nearby. Nasty creatures, always planning misdeeds. A short time ago, they crept into my cave and stole my wand. The evil creatures used it to put a spell on these woods, hiding the way out.’ The old woman peered at Jurgis. ‘You’re a clever lad and the girl seems strong. Will you go and return me my wand? Then I can remove the spell, and you’re free to continue your journey.’

  ‘How are we supposed to do that?’ Jurgis said so innocently that Maud had to suppress a giggle. ‘A cave full of kobolds must be mighty dangerous.’

  Sari cackled. ‘Lad, there is no danger in it. If it weren’t for my bad knees, I would have done it myself. You can have this.’ She opened her pudgy hand and showed them a glass globule, in which a greenish smoke swirled.

  ‘This is a frozen spell,’ she said. ‘You go into the caves and then smash the little thing. Just throw it against a wall, or something. The spell will paralyze the kobolds for at least an hour. That gives you plenty of time to find my wand and leave. Here, take it. Don’t be afraid; it’s not as fragile as it looks.’

  Reluctantly, Jurgis accepted the tiny ball. ‘Where do these kobolds live?’

  ‘There’s a large oak not far from here. Lightning split it in last year’s storms. You must have noticed it.’

  ‘I did,’ Jurgis said artlessly. ‘We passed it three times.’

  There was laughter in the old woman’s eyes as she looked at him. ‘You should have come down to me sooner, young hero. No matter. Take a right turn at the foot of that tree, and after a bit you’ll see a stone hill. That’s where the beasts live. You enter their cave and break the globule; the spell will do the rest.’

  Maud pursed her lips. She didn’t like Sari’s silent mirth. There was something wrong with her story, but she couldn’t put her finger on the lie and that made her uneasy. ‘What does this wand look like?’

  ‘It’s about three hands long; made of silver, and looks like a birch branch entwined with a thorny vine. It should be in a leather case, together with a pair of gloves.’ Again, there was that strange smile on Sari’s face. ‘Mind you take them all, dear. Wand, case and gloves.’

  Maud nodded. ‘I’ll remember that.’ She turned to Jurgis. ‘Let’s go get this thing over with.’

  They hurried back to the woods above. To Maud’s surprise, the sun had set when they were in the cave, and a field of stars shone down on them.

  ‘We’ve been down there longer than I thought.’

  ‘Yes.’ Jurgis seemed sunken in thought.

  Maud studied him. ‘Why that Pretty-Little-Innocent act, boy?’

  ‘I tried to lure her into saying more than she intended. Not sure if it worked, though.’

  ‘She sounded phony.’ Maud looked sideways at him. ‘As if something amused her. Kind of weird.’ She stared at the globule. ‘We Kells have a reputation for attacking first and talking later, but that’s not true. We’re taught that she who attacks without knowing her enemy is inviting defeat to her bed. I am pickier in my bedmates.’

  Jurgis looked up at her. ‘I noticed. But I’ll succeed.’ Then he ducked under Maud’s attempt to slap him. ‘Uh-uh; keep your mind on the job, Lioness.’

  ‘You!’ Maud said with disgust. One more word and I’ll screw him on the spot. When he smiles like that ... She shivered. I mustn’t touch my charge.

  The mountain was a massive block of stone, overgrown with shrubbery, two thousand feet or more high. It stood forlorn like the leftover piece of a giant cake. At its foot, the kobolds’ entrance was a ragged hole, half-hidden behind flowering bushes.

  ‘Let me see that spell thingy again,’ Jurgis said.

  Maud handed him the globule.

  The boy stared at it and shook his head. ‘I don’t sense a whisper; the glass hides the magic within. Still, it gives me the bumps.’ His eyes went to the dark entrance in the rock.

  ‘Put it away somewhere,’ Maud said. ‘I don’t want to use it. I’m going to speak with those kobolds.’

  She wriggled her way through the shrubs and entered into a small cavern, illuminated by potted mushrooms that gave off a greenish light. At the other end, an open door led into shadows beyond.

  Maud crossed the first cavern. She stepped through the door and then stood stock still, gaping at the enormous cave before her.

  ‘It’s like the whole mountain is hollow,’ Jurgis said behind her. ‘And look at those mushrooms!’ Whole fungous forests lighted up the cave with shades of green, yellow and pale red.

  ‘Toadstools,’ Maud said. ‘I don’t think they’re edible.’ As if in a dream, she stepped forward. ‘It’s almost as large as Tar Kell.’

  ‘Halt!’

  At the curt command, she stopped. Six thigh-high kobolds emerged from the shadows; wiry creatures with leathery skin and big noses, wearing funny helmets. But there was nothing funny about their sharp spears pointing Maud’s way, or their leashed rats, big as sheepdogs, eying her hungrily.

  ‘Who’re you and what’s your business here?’ the leader of the kobolds barked, nearly poking Jurgis in the crotch with his three-foot-long weapon.

  ‘Friends,’ Maud said. ‘We come from Sari, the Lorn Witch.’

  ‘Then you’re no friends of ours,’ the kobold snapped. ‘Drop your arms, you’re under arrest.’

  ‘We’re not on Sari’s side,’ Maud said. ‘We come to talk with you.’

  ‘Tell that to the king. Now drop that sword of yours.’

  Maud put down her weapon, careful of the staring rats. ‘Your spear, too,’ she said to Jurgis.

  ‘Be careful with it,’ the boy said. ‘It’s a holy
weapon.’

  The leader stepped back. ‘Is that so? It will be safe here, stranger.’ He gave a grim smile. ‘Now march. And don’t tarry.’

  Surrounded by the diminutive warriors, they walked down a steep path deeper into the cave. ‘Slow down, woman!’ the kobold leader snarled after a few yards.

  Maud looked down at him and grinned. ‘You said don’t tarry.’

  ‘I didn’t say run, did I?’ Maud’s smile seemed to infuriate the kobold, and he shook his spear at her. ‘You slow down.’

  Obediently, she adjusted her pace to a crawl.

  They passed a pair of large boulders and came to a large open space. Here, Jurgis halted in surprise.

  ‘A village?’ Between the fungi, a cluster of stone houses huddled around a barn-like structure.

  ‘Why not?’ a kobold said truculently. ‘We’re civilized, buster.’

  ‘I’m sure you are.’ Jurgis eyed the rat walking beside him. ‘I just didn’t expect houses inside a cave.’

  ‘Did you think we’d sleep on the stone floor, like troglodytes?’ the kobold growled. ‘Walk, you.’

  ‘Enough,’ the leader said, as they halted at the barn. ‘Here’s the king’s palace.’

  ‘All buildings are our size,’ Jurgis said, looking around. ‘I would’ve thought you built them smaller.’

  ‘We didn’t build them,’ the leader said, sour-faced. ‘Of course we’d have made them our size. We’ve little use for you lumps, so we don’t need to accommodate you. But the buildings were already here when we arrived.’ He shrugged. ‘Now, inside with you.’

  They found the kobold king in a small room filled with books. One tome lay on a stout table, and the king stood poring over it. Two smaller kobolds waited to turn over the—to them enormous—pages.

  At their entry, the king looked up, studying them over the rim of his glasses. ‘Visitors? How remarkable.’

  ‘Prisoners, sire. They come from the Lorn Witch,’ the leader said.

  At that, the little king looked exasperated. ‘What’s the woman want now?’