by Joe Jackson
Max slipped his shield down from his back and advanced on the larger man. He took a few conservative swings, just enough to irritate the serilian-rir and gain his full attention. The others began to form a circle around their seemingly outnumbered opponent.
“Max!” Audrei barked. “He has a demon in him! Can’t you feel it on your tongue?”
The luranar paladin opened his mouth slightly and took a quick breath over his tongue. That was something new to Leighandra; they’d never mentioned having any other special sense of smell or taste. After a moment, Max glanced briefly at his wife. “Is that what the cold is?”
“Then we have a double duty to kill this monster,” Galadon declared.
BlackWing tried to rush Max but received a stiff thrust to the gut for it. The stab didn’t seem to do much other than stop the larger man’s momentum, and even then, he swung at the luranar’s face with a backhand. His reach was tremendous, but Max held him at bay. The luranar withdrew his sword and backed up, and Galadon moved in to cut off BlackWing’s pursuit. Delkantar circled around to properly flank and brought his blades to bear as well.
Starlenia darted side to side, biding her time until presented with a good avenue of attack. Max, Galadon, and Delkantar took up a lot of space with the number and size of their weapons, so Leighandra hung back by Audrei and Yiilu. The elf and the luranar were discussing ways to use the cavern to their advantage without threatening a cave-in, or else how to lure the demon under sunlight to see if that had any effect on it. Leighandra and Lion wanted to lend their blades to the fight, but they had the same issue Starlenia did for the moment. They stood guard over their less melee-inclined companions.
Blackwing punched Max solidly in the breastplate, but the cestus was ineffective against the heavy plate, doing little more than leaving the necrotic slime behind. The paladin slammed the larger man with his shield, then stepped in and shoved him with all his weight, driving BlackWing back into Delkantar. The ranger slashed brutally at the demon’s wings and tail, anything he could reach without his blades getting snarled in the cloak. He scored several hits, and then Galadon landed a glancing blow of his own, but the wounds didn’t bleed, didn’t appear to have any effect at all on the demon.
“What is this thing?” Leighandra muttered.
“I am not certain this is even a man, but a demon given rir form,” Max grunted, fending off another attack. “Begone, demon! The Lord rebuke thee! Return to the shadows.”
BlackWing laughed. “You can’t be serious…”
“Do it again, Max! He didn’t like that!” Audrei shouted, and she approached cautiously to lend her aid to her husband.
Max pointed the Sword of the North Wind at BlackWing’s chest. “The Lord rebuke thee, foul demon! Return to the shadows that spawned you!”
BlackWing backed away suddenly, but then spun and swiped at Delkantar with his cesti. He found the ranger gone. In his place was a much shorter woman, whose smaller stature let her duck under the backhanded swing easily. She cut across the demon’s knee with her little bone dagger, and continued with her momentum past him, only to turn and slash brutally at the back of the joint and then jam the dagger home into his thigh.
Each wound ripped free a wisp of black smoke, and BlackWing hissed in pain before turning his fang-filled snarl on the Okonashai woman. He snapped his envenomed jaws at her, but Starlenia angled back and retreated to Max’s side. The luranar intercepted BlackWing’s pursuit, slashing in a quick, up-down two-strike sequence. He slammed the demon with his shield and then turned partially and tossed his sword over to Galadon.
As soon as the human knight caught the sword’s pommel, it burst into brilliant blue flame. BlackWing backed away from Galadon, but his attention was in the wrong place again. Delkantar pressed the demon just enough to get his attention, allowing Starlenia to slip in sinuously and perforate BlackWing’s other thigh three times in quick succession.
This time, when the demon went to pursue her, he found she didn’t retreat. She stabbed him up under the sternum with the bone dagger, sinking it to the hilt. “Give our regards to Derus’Torg when you see him in hell,” she spat.
He tried to strike at Starlenia, but a well-timed slash from Galadon relieved BlackWing of the offending hand. Black mist fell from the wounds like blood, and though he raised his remaining arm, BlackWing didn’t strike at Starlenia. Nevertheless, she ducked back behind Max again. The demon seemed to be trying to escape or dispel the physical form it wore, but it was dissipating before their eyes. “Master! No!”
Delkantar stepped in and stabbed it a number of times for good measure, though his attacks still appeared to have no effect. Galadon thrust the flaming blade of the Sword of the North Wind into the demon’s side and, at last, its physical form came apart.
Audrei approached and held her hands up, that glowing aura emanating from her just as it did when she healed others. The demon screamed though it had no physical form, and its black, shadowy substance was consumed by the light Audrei emitted. It finally dissipated completely with a pathetic sigh, and the temperature and light of the chamber soon returned to normal.
The companions stood looking at the space their enemy had occupied, no trace at all that it had ever existed. “Great Spirit, did we really just do that?” Starlenia asked.
Leighandra walked up and put a hand to Audrei’s shoulder. “The first of many,” she reiterated her affirmation from Emerald City.
“The first of many,” the luranar woman agreed.
“Everyone all right? Anyone poisoned?” Yiilu asked. “We will have to go outside so I can create another poultice if so.”
“All fine here,” Galadon said, and Delkantar echoed him with a thumbs-up.
Max turned to the sphinx, who withdrew the seal and brought it over. “I believe you have more than earned this,” the creature said.
“Thank you,” Max replied. “Do you have a name, sir?”
“Do not concern yourself with me,” the sphinx said. “I am merely a guardian, a creation set to watch over this seal until it was claimed by one who saw the world properly. Go forth and gather the last of the seals. But know that the final test will be the toughest by far.”
“Never doubted that,” Starlenia grumbled, rolling her eyes.
“Do you know who BlackWing was? Or what?”
“A demon, young luranar. He was a demon. There are a number of them in these lands these days. Perhaps you will kill more. Perhaps not.”
“Let’s leave before he asks another riddle,” the rogue said, nodding back the way they had come, but she didn’t wait for anyone to agree.
“How did you leave tracks outside if you’ve been caged for months?” Delkantar asked.
“Oh, I did not,” the sphinx-like creature answered. “That demon took my form, I suspect in hopes of tricking other travelers, or waylaying you or whoever eventually came for the seal.”
“A shapeshifting demon? Terrific,” Leighandra muttered.
Delkantar patted the scroll tucked into his belt. “And he was apparently involved with another one: the succubus. We may have more trouble yet to come from him and whoever the succubus was.” He turned back to the sphinx creature. “Do you have another riddle? Maybe one that won’t kill us if we’re wrong?”
The Sphinx cocked its head, that predatory smile returning, but it said nothing.
“I’ve got one for you, then,” Delkantar said, undeterred by everyone’s shock. “A gnoll, a dryad, and a kitsune walk into a tavern…”
“Out!” Galadon said, shoving his companion along.
Despite the battle, there was scattered laughter at Delkantar’s attempt to tell a joke. “What exactly is a kitsune?” Audrei asked as they returned to the forest.
“Fox spirit of some kind, from ancient legends,” the ranger answered with a shrug.
“Are they real?” the luranar woman asked Leighandra.
“I’ve heard of them, but nothing widespread or indicative of them being more than myth. Might be
something interesting to look into the next time we’re in a big city…”
“I am curious to hear the rest of that joke,” Max said, fighting off a wolfish grin.
“Yiilu, where’s the seal pulling?” Galadon asked, as if afraid to hear it.
“My people’s land, if I am not mistaken,” she answered.
“Karinda?” Delkantar guessed.
“I’ll stab her if she has the final one, I really will,” Starlenia grunted. “Just, you know, not anywhere that’ll kill her…”
“There would be a poetic irony there, I think,” Max mused with a crooked smile. “And at least then we know we will not have to fight for it.”
“But the sphinx said this would be the toughest test, sir,” Lion offered. “So, either she’s going to make us work for it, or she’s not the one who has it at all.”
“Only one way to find out,” Starlenia said, and there was a silent accord.
Chapter XIX – Test of the Spirit
The end of their journey – or one portion of it, anyway – was within sight. The friends rode to the town of Farview, where they sold off their mounts in preparation to go into Laeranore on foot. Galadon kept his trusty steed, though he did joke about selling Galrinthor off for a couple of whetstones and a warm blanket. Amazingly, he only suffered a stomped foot and a slobbery “kiss” for his humor.
There was a never-ending air of excitement about the group as they traveled, the end of their quest for the seals within their grasp despite the fact that they didn’t know what it might yield. It took little time out of Farview for them to realize the seal was not leading them back to Karinda’s tower. As they pushed farther into Laeranore, they began to suspect that it might once again be pulling somewhere off the coast.
This is a serious issue, Leighandra mused. There aren’t any sizeable islands off the east coast of Terrassia, so where could it be leading us? If it pulls out to sea, we’ll have to turn south for Flora and commission a ship from there…
Yiilu led them confidently through the land of the tree-folk. Leighandra found it odd that her mother’s people had never come forth to greet the party in their previous travels. True, the elves were xenophobic to a large extent, but most of the party was elven, luranar, or half-elven, and the luranar were their friends. Leighandra didn’t understand the hesitance of the land’s guardians to at least say hello to their fellow elf in passing. It was possible such pointed to trouble somewhere else in the elven realm, but she didn’t think so.
“I’m starting to get used to this place a bit,” Delkantar said on their fourth day crossing the breadth of the wooded realm. “It doesn’t seem so spooky anymore.”
No sooner had he finished speaking than a tree uprooted itself and walked across their path, deeper into the forest. Its upper boughs tangled with those it passed, but amazingly, both mobile and stationary trees adjusted their limbs to make the passage easier. Yiilu watched as if it was commonplace, but Delkantar stood agape at what he’d just seen.
“You were saying…?” Starlenia grunted.
The ranger let forth a nervous laugh after a minute. “We could use some of those up in the northwest, that’s for sure…”
Farther ahead, golden eyes watched the friends from the crook of a tree. Leighandra tried to keep walking as though she didn’t notice, but then the surface of the tree bowed outward until a more human face manifested. In a fluid motion, a wooden woman stepped out of the trunk, perching seamlessly on a gnarled branch and watching the party with interest. She had the shape of a woman but none of the features or textures aside from the face, and her legs seemed to flow back and forth between being one and two separate limbs.
“What’s that?” Lion asked, pointing. The wooden woman’s face contorted when pointed at, and the shakna-rir youth put his hand down.
“A tree sprite,” Yiilu answered. “You may know them more commonly as dryads. They are the physical manifestations of the spirits of the trees.”
“Spirits of the trees? So, all of the trees have one?”
“Yes and no,” the druidess answered. “These trees are ancient, and all of them have spirits. However, not all of them manifest in this way.”
“Are they dangerous at all?” Delkantar asked.
“Only if threatened. And then the gods help you, for the Earth Mother will not.”
“There’s a place up near Chandler’s Grove they call Three Dryads Oak,” the ranger said. “I never knew what to make of the name. I’ve heard of dryads, but I didn’t know they were actually part of, or the spirits of, the trees. Makes me wonder how that place got its name.”
“A tree would not have three dryads. It must be a misnomer, or misconception.”
Max waved at the tree sprit as they passed. She didn’t react at first, but then her wooden face contorted again, this time in an approximation of a smile. She followed them as far as she could along the lower limbs, and then called out something into the forest.
Yiilu looked up at the calling dryad and then spun around. “What happened? Did one of you say something to her?”
“I just waved hello,” Max said. “Why, what did she say?”
The elf shook her head. “You will see for yourself soon enough.”
They continued on, and Leighandra’s jaw dropped in wonder. Nearly every tree they passed now had a dryad staring out from the trunk, standing on a thick limb, or perched within its branches, watching the party pass by. The chronicler wished she could stop and draw a picture, for she was sure she would never see such a sight again in her lifetime. There had to be dozens, if not scores or hundreds of the dryads all about them, golden eyes watching the passing people with rapt attention. It explained so much of the mysterious feel of the woods. Now, she and her friends understood what Yiilu meant when the druidess said the trees watched and listened.
The dryads watched their progress for a while, but soon enough, the forest returned to its more typical “spooky” state. Deeper in, Delkantar watched the tracks, measuring size, distance, and depth to tell what had passed and how urgently. Yiilu left the ranger to his task explaining what they might find and what they should avoid, never once contradicting his assessments. It underscored how well the man knew nature despite not being even part-elven, and Leighandra was impressed. Whoever the Ghosts of Liam were, she wanted to meet more of them.
They still had yet to come across anything resembling a settlement on the fifth day, and Lion asked Yiilu about it yet again.
“Our settlements are all closer to the coast, and not so much in this area,” the druidess answered. “We are near the czarikk lands, though they are likely still devoid of the lizard-folk for a while yet. They normally return when the northlands become colder, but with how late they began their migration this year, I am uncertain when they will this year.”
“Is it possible the czarikk have the final seal?” Delkantar asked. “Or is anything else down this way?”
“I am uncertain. We typically do not disturb the czarikk or their lands but to let them know that as their neighbors, we are happy to help should trouble befall them.”
Starlenia leaned in and stared at the jade seal in the druidess’ hands. “Just please don’t lead out to sea. I’ll give you five gold coins if you don’t lead out to sea.”
Not surprisingly, the seal neither changed direction nor responded to her bribe. After a little while, however, they passed a trail that must have been well-used by the czarikk. Delkantar knelt and looked for tracks or other signs of disturbance, but even with Lion’s help, he came up with nothing except for traces of animals’ passing. He looked side to side, up and down the path, and then rose to his feet.
“I suppose we could follow the path. It should lead us to a czarikk village, or at least where they establish them when they return,” he offered.
“No sense walking away from the direction the seal pulls,” Galadon said. “I know we’ve been on the road a while, but let’s keep moving forward. I suspect there’s only so far we can go before
we reach the coast, and then we’ll either head to Flora or one of the elven cities, should Yiilu approve.”
“If we must, we may,” she answered. “My people have seen fit to give us uninhibited passage this far into our lands; there is no reason to believe Queen Tiyaana would refuse us her aid should we require it.”
The conversation proved irrelevant not long after, as they came to a little cabin in the woods. Leighandra was immediately reminded of Senkiro’s Solace. Despite the abandoned look of the place, everything was still in remarkably good condition. It was a simple log cabin that sat in a narrow clearing, its roof and windows showing signs of neglect, but not damage. It was as if the forest had protected this place, much like the spirit of the old priest may have protected the temple on the island.
Delkantar began to snoop at a respectable distance, but Starlenia started forward. In a change for her, she stopped after only a few steps and then backed up by the others.
“What is it?” Leighandra asked.
“Just got a funny feeling, that’s all.”
“It is not just you,” Max agreed, sniffing about.
“Two graves over here. Oh, man, you’re never going to believe this,” Delkantar called, waving the rest of them over.
Leighandra stepped up and gasped along with her friends. “Is this… is this real?”
There were two gravestones beside the cabin on its shadowed side, and the chronicler read their inscriptions a few times, as if convinced she might be reading them wrong. Even Galadon stared at the one on the left, no doubt considering the tale of his own return:
Karian Vanador
Died: 2876
No greater friend or sister
could I ever want
Beside it had to be the grave of the cabin’s former owner, a name Leighandra figured all of them should be familiar with by now, to some extent:
Carly Bakhor
Died: 2941
I lay my body to rest,
but my spirit journeys on
“Don’t even say it,” Delkantar warned with an upraised hand as soon as Starlenia started to say something.
