Across the Kolgan Sea

by Benjamin R. Babst

  I took a few steps toward him as I lowered my shields. “I suppose I should come with you now?”

  “You are correct.”

  “Please, Kaihar, this is important. This isn’t about revenge or anything, I just want to know who ‘the servant of Aegir’ the old sea god mentioned in his curse is.”

  He bobbed his head up. “That certainly wasn’t what I expected to hear. Reokashothi told me you assaulted her with smoke last night. I suspected you were running to escape the consequence.”

  I paused as I thought that over. Of course she would have tattled on me, for just wanting to get away from her. No doubt she also left out that she was forcing me to stay awake when I didn’t want to. “Teacher, that was just an illusion, I didn’t try to hurt her. All I was doing was—” My statement was interrupted by a fit of sneezing from Kaihar. If he was any example of a normal alf, it was disgustingly obvious that their entire kind had no reflexes to cover themselves when they sneeze. A fine mist of snot had erupted from his nostrils, and as the chunks grew larger, the snow beneath him had taken on a pale green shade.

  After Kaihar had stopped and caught his breath, I took the opportunity to ask him a different question. “Why are you sneezing? I thought alfar weren’t bothered by cold weather.”

  “You are correct.” His eyes widened as he noticed a gooey string tether to the hand he wiped himself with. “It is the foul stench of burning of wood, however, not the air itself that irritates me so.”

  It took me a while to understand what he meant. “Are you talking about smoke?”

  He nodded.

  Come to think of it, there was the faint smell of burning oak in the air. Of course, I wouldn’t call the scent of smoke foul when it was this diluted. Perhaps, if I were back at home in the smokehouse, but short of that it was one of my favorite smells.

  I gave a smile as I closed my eyes and enjoyed the aroma.

  “How can you enjoy that malodor?” he said as he cringed.

  I gave a shrug. “Humans just aren’t bothered by it like alfar.” I turned around to lean against one of the trees. “That’s what made that illusion so good at making sure Reo would leave me alone.” It came as a great surprise to me when I fell down on a stump instead of being propped neatly against a tree trunk. Something occurred to me as I sat there rubbing my tailbone. It was one of those roundabout thoughts, starting with tree stumps and firewood, and ending with the smoke in the air. “I just thought of something, Kaihar.”

  “That you should make sure there is a tree present before you lean against it?” he asked half smiling.

  “No, there’s smoke in the air.”

  “So I have noticed.”

  “Yes, but to quote an old human saying, ‘Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, and where there’s fire, there’s often firewood, and where there’s firewood, there’s an answer to why the Agrians are ravaging the forest.’”

  He blinked hard and looked around himself at the lumberyard. “That is…an incredibly specific expression.”

  Knowing alfar aren’t familiar with our ways, I gave him the benefit of the doubt. I mostly ignored him and sniffed the air to try to find the source. What I found was a massive pillar of smoke on the horizon.

  “Look,” I remarked while pointing at the smokestack. “I doubt that’s just a friendly gathering the Juustos are having.”

  Kaihar narrowed his eyes as he searched for where I was pointing. “Hmm, and it is too far to the north to say it is from them either,” was how he responded when he did find it.

  I then slapped the splinters out of the seat of my pants as I got ready to take off in that direction. “I must require that you make a promise with me before we investigate, however.”

  I paused mid-skip at that remark. “What is it?”

  “I came here to make sure you did not get into trouble or worse, cause trouble, in your quest. You must first vow that you will flee back to Clafel the moment I tell you to.”

  That was something I couldn’t do. I knew the servant of Aegir was somewhere in that wretched peoples’ midst. “I refuse to agree to that.”

  Kaihar then began to pull out his sword. “Then I will be forced to take you back now.”

  He certainly just made things more complicated for me with that, forcing me to choose between spying but not getting my vengeance or going back and not getting it anyway. “Which will it be?” He took a step toward me.

  After thinking it over for another moment, I decided I’d have to settle for just figuring out who the culprit was. “Okay, I agree.” And with that, we made our way to the bonfire.

  * * * *

  The smoke trail led us to a large coulee filled halfway to its brim with the smoldering cinders of a dozen trees. I propped myself against one of the many still intact trees that surrounded the indentation, staring into the fires and watching the waves of red ripple their way throughout the charred mess. A stick was stabbed into the fire, causing hordes of embers to be chased out of their home and forced to die in the suffocatingly cold air.

  “Why, that’s the man I saw with Solas a while ago,” I whispered over to Kaihar as I noted the muscular figure of the man stoking the fire.

  Kaihar settled his way into the hollowed-out bottom of the tree to my right, peering carefully over the edge to observe as well. “The knowledge is appreciated, Erland,” he said quickly, looking at me for only a second before returning his gaze to the sight.

  Hognosht pulled the branch he was using out of the fire and set in down beside him. A hiss followed by a loud pop came as the bonfire found a pocket of air to ingest. He jumped a little at first, but after the shock left him he waved his hand over at that spot and muttered something to himself. He then adjusted the position of his feet slightly and shut his eyes to meditate.

  “Okay, I think he’s in a trance. Let’s sneak up from behind.” I leapt to my feet and started to run only to get my cloak snagged on Kaihar’s hand.

  “I do not think that is wise.”

  “Why?” I hissed.

  Kaihar pointed back to the fire. “Please, look into the heart of the flame and tell me what you see there.” I did as he said and glanced at the great pyre. I didn’t see much at first, nothing more than the coals of the burning as mentioned before and the fire which was consuming them. However, as my eyes adjusted to the glow, a third shape emerged. I couldn’t tell what it absolutely was at first, mostly that it was a shaft of glowing hot steel or stone, but as I looked more and more at it, the features became more distinct to the point that it became the hilt of an immense sword. The flame-shaped pommel alone was maybe two feet long. As I moved my sight down past all three ring-like indentations on the grip into its sooty scabbard, I realized the whole thing was maybe the size of a young tree.

  Hognosht then opened his eyes wide and stood up. He grabbed a green-laced horn and stared at the blade for a long time. He absolutely terrified me with what he did next, for without even wincing, he walked into the fire. Soot spat up and clung to his legs, the flames spat and exploded beneath him, some embers even rose so high they struck him in the face, but none of it bothered him. Hognosht unstopped the horn and held it high in the air by one hand, green wisps and steam rising from it. “Oh, woven flames alfwood, warm my flesh. Verily I ask of thee, break the curse I am held by.” He then held onto the sword by one hand and poured the elixir into the pit.

  My heart raced with fright. It no longer seemed he was the Feljust, but something far worse. “Only one thing could wield something that large.”

  Kaihar nodded. “Aye, and so hot. A fire…” His last comment went unfinished, as the flames flew uproariously into the sky. He didn’t need to finish, however, as I already knew what he was about to say…A fire giant.

  As the pillar of fire died away, the true form of the fire giant became clear. The black pearls that were his eyes glossed over the misty skies as tongues of flame descended. A frown occupied the giant’s expression, a somber oppos
ite to the downpour of fire that was now taking residence on all of the trees about me.

  He gave a low sigh as he caught one of the embers on the white-hot tip of his finger. “This forest is young and green.” The rumbling of his voice made my ears almost go numb, and judging by the low growl that it came in, the giant was only talking to itself. “If I were not bound by oath to do such, I would let this forest be for perhaps a century.” He pulled his great sword out of the now dying fire and began to smear the ember onto the foible of his blade like it was an oil. This “oil,” however, was not meant to make the sword shine, nor was it to allow it to sink into its prey more easily. This coating of embers was meant to wreathe the tip with fire, and surely to infect all it touched with that sickness known as fire.

  It was all too clear to me this was the servant of Aegir I was looking for. I cared very little for why the oceanic deity chose to send a spawn of Muspelheim, or even for how he managed to gain command of one. All I cared about was bludgeoning his head in with my shields. I carefully began to draw my shields, not wanting the fire giant or Kaihar to know what I was doing. The stealth was wasted on my teacher, however, as he clasped his hand against mine as soon as I drew them.

  “You must leave this instant.” The passive, polite face of the Kaihar I knew was gone. In its stead was the glare of an old veteran, too familiar with the demons of war to allow one such as I to try to enter it. He loosened his grip to try to shoo me away as he searched for something on the ground.

  Deep in my heart, I knew Kaihar was right. A mere student of alf ways such as I wouldn’t stand a chance against something like this, and wouldn’t even contribute a gnat’s sting to helping a master like Kaihar either. But the very idea of leaving Kaihar alone sent an ill feeling to my stomach, stirring up far too much. Looking into the face of the giant, I saw the snarling face of that Aegir-possessed ranis, and thinking about leaving Kaihar to fight this thing caused visions of Ahrad’s gored body.

  The tension of the demand almost made me jolt onto my feet, but I fortunately had the presence of mind to stop just before my head was over the stump. “I-I’m sorry,” I said, the excitement and ash in the air caused me to stutter. “I can’t let you take that thing by yourself.”

  Kaihar didn’t seem to notice my refusal at first. Whatever it was he was looking for on the ground was important to him. What the old veteran picked up seemed a little bit odd to me, a particularly large pinecone that was missing all of its seeds. “I thought we were in agreement, that you leave come the first sign of danger.” A pale mist rose from the pinecone as his hand orbited it. “I am preparing a warning to be sent to the others. It is important that you aid the entire community and not…just…me.” He paused after each of those last three words for emphasis. The warrior then huddled up toward the pinecone and began to whisper something into it, individual scales glowing pure white as he spoke into them.

  I was all prepared to run in obedience of my friend, but my body was fixated to that spot and the fire giant’s countenance. While we were arguing, the jotunn had planted its blade into the ground beneath it, so it could gather the falling embers into a great pile in its hands. These droplets of flaming rain had gathered together into a raging inferno in their invoker’s palms, and through its power they were stretched until they more resembled a rope than a fire. With a stare ever focused, the giant ran its fingers through the flames to move it in the directions it wished for it to go in. The rope of flame began to hover, on its own power or by the craft of the fire giants I couldn’t tell, but whichever it was, the giant was taking advantage of this so it could tie knots with the flame. By all my knowledge, the tether had become a great ball of fire again when the giant was satisfied with his work. I don’t know what the work of the other-worldly being was supposed to cause, but it was satisfied with its work and flung it deep into the forest with a swat from its hand. “Many more like you shall follow, my creation,” his voice rang.

  Did I honestly hear that correctly? Did he speak to that ball of fire like it was…alive? Whatever it was that it did, it intended to make more of it. “There’s no way you can survive alone against that thing.”

  Kaihar tossed the pinecone into the air and with a loud pop its many scales separated from the body and flew toward Clafel. “Do not worry about when this shriveled leaf shall fall,” he snapped at me for the very first time.

  Alas! Kaihar’s shout let the giant know we were there, and it announced itself with a roar. “What creature is it that shows itself with a shout and a flash of light? Whoever it is, know that this hearth holding the dimmest of cinders is Hognosht. And I have come here to bring rebirth to this forest and death to the Shaloor hiding within.”

  Not wanting this to continue any longer, Kaihar shoved me into the stump, shouting, “Now, back to Clafel.” I did not feel the stump against my back when I fell. In fact, I didn’t feel anything for a time. From what I could tell, I was shoved into a strange place that looked like the inside of a tree. There was also one opening, through which I saw Kaihar. His hand was glowing and he was standing still for a moment. Then he nodded and leapt up to fight the giant.

  Some force then pulled at my legs and drag me through another opening. I struggled to resist, but it was too strong. I was spat out of that strange place and into a snowbank. To my right was the mountain the alfar made their home in. Behind me was a tree, and amber color shimmering in the bark that slowly died away.

  “What sort of magic did Kaihar use? That it was able to carry me away from where he was?” I asked myself. To this there was no answer. Whatever he did, it was far beyond anything I had ever been taught. A searing pain landed on my arm, and it stayed on my arm for as quickly as a bird pecks, but the pain of its passing stayed for a while. A tiny ember bounced around on the ground as I reached to smear some snow on myself. Several of its brothers began to fall shortly after it came, becoming a flurry of ashen snow. I got up to rush to Clafel, when a loud clanging noise came from behind me. It was far away, the distant echoes of steel bashing against steel. I stopped dead in my tracks. I knew all too well it was yet another hallucination, but it brought to mind the duel between Kaihar and the giant.

  What was I to do? Kaihar made it clear I wasn't to help him and did everything he could to get me as far away as possible, but I couldn’t just leave him to die. Was it even possible for me to make it there in time? The flurry picked pick up its pace and made it difficult for me to see the small pass into the mountain in front of me. By the time I finished wandering my way through the obscurity, the battle would be done.

  It got warmer as I contemplated whether to obey my teacher’s orders, and a brighter orange glow covered the ash all around me. No doubt the two occurrences were related.

  I covered my face with my cloak so I could take a deep breath. “I guess that like it or not, I have to go help the others.” So, I set my sights on the pass leading to the ruined castle. The pass was narrow, leaving me barely enough room for me to hold my arms straight out. I still dragged my feet through a thick, white powder of ash instead of snow.

  Walking through a small canyon with the sound of fighting to serve as travel music is certainly not a pleasant thing, even if I had grown accustomed to the echoes this one produced. I walked through this little spot several times, but the noises it created were always from cheerful alfar music resonating into a magnificently different symphony. The echoes of war, however, were distorted into horrible noises, half by imagination, half by the acoustics of the locale itself. Though very faint and distant now, the scraping of those two swords multiplied into an entire army’s battle, and some of it was even turned into the sounds of screaming.

  All of this ruckus only served to give me reason to push on, despite the ever-increasing speed of the ash. It was a good thing, too, that I had all this incentive to move forward, as the storm was tormenting, if not begging for me to sit down and rest. The ash had dried my nose and mouth to such a point that both were bleeding, a rea
ction that only served to allow the ash to cake itself onto the open wounds. With my nose now completely jammed shut, I was forced to breathe through the corner of my mouth and endure the further chapping of my throat. Eventually, the struggle to keep my lungs filled was too great and I collapsed on my hands and knees.

  I couldn’t let myself stop yet. If I couldn’t reach the castle gates, I’d have to at least get as close to it as I could so someone else might find my corpse at the very least. As such, I covered my face with my shirt and crawled onward. The cloth may have had ash lodged in every pore but at least it kept my throat a little less dry. Things started to get tougher; I fought with every last ounce of strength I had to push against the pass’ winds and felt like I only moved forward a scant many inches in an hour. I closed my eyes, knowing they wouldn’t serve me with the lonely foot ahead of me they told me about and hoped that having them shut would grant a few more drops of energy.

  I was now fumbling around with my hands stretched out ahead of me to serve as my vision. This must have been how a blind man feels, safe with the use of his other senses but still worried he might run into something. Speaking of running into things, that was just what I did. As I scanned the area ahead of me with my hands, I found a large barrier in front of me. I opened my eyes for just a moment to take a look at it. There was no doubt about it, a landslide had blocked my path.

  That was just enough to overfill this ship. I swiftly fell into apathy and slumber as my muscles refused to try to climb the pile. Though it was still refreshing, I found several reasons to complain as I curled up there. The frozen river beneath me was too hard, and my cloak was giving my mouth a rash. I even realized it was getting cold after a while.

  Seemingly in response to that last one, a blanket of heat covered me and bright reds, oranges, and yellows began to dance in my closed eyelids, as if somebody just lit a fire. Whatever I saw when I opened my eyes didn’t seem to be a fire, at least not one completely. It stood like a man, but flickered and rippled like fire. Perhaps this was what Hognosht had woven from the fire, a flame that walked like a man.