By late afternoon they reached the road, where it was looped back and headed north, climbing up the mountain reaches surrounding the lake. “I’ll go scout the road ahead,” Stillwater announced, and he took off into the air, flying out of sight as he gathered information.
The others in the group all sat down to rest.
“What happens to me? When do I go home?” Woven asked.
Kestrel looked at the gnome, a terrible feeling in his gut.
“Woven, it’s too late for you to go home now,” Kestrel said. “Once we fought the Viathins and started the combat and chase, you became cut off from the way home.” Kestrel hadn’t considered the gnome’s plight, and he felt a terrible guilt.
“I’m going to stay with you? How long and how far?” Woven asked. His face was calm, but unreadable.
“Probably all the way to the end,” Kestrel said. “Your best option is to go with us when we go into the cave, to rescue the gods on the other side, in the other place.
“Corrant would approve,” Kestrel threw out his best answer. He believed it was likely that the god of the gnomes would approve; Corrant had shown favor and given assistance to Kestrel, and was a god who seemed to understand the need to work with others, even as he kept his people largely isolated.
“Is this what the village elders assigned me to do?” Woven asked.
“Probably not,” Kestrel admitted. “I think we thought you would be able to come home, but that was before we were discovered by the Viathins. Now it will be difficult for you to get back to the river without being caught.
“And I would value your continued help,” he added. “You’re a good person to have fighting on our side.”
Woven grinned. “Well, if this is about fighting and being a hero, then I’ll stay with you as long as you need.” And that settled the issue.
Stillwater came gliding into the small glen where the three sat resting. “There is no one on the road for miles. The way is completely clear.”
“Let’s make as much progress as we can before the sun sets,” Wren said, and they began jogging along the road as it provided a means of smooth progress towards their goal. When the sun finally set and the moon rose in the east, they decided to keep going, and did continue until nearly midnight.
“It’s time to get some rest,” Kestrel said, “and we can have a bite to eat. We won’t have far to go tomorrow morning until we reach the lake.”
“We’ll establish a watch duty tonight, won’t we?” Wren asked.
The four partners settled into a spot behind boulders piled among the trees that lined the road.
“What is this lake like, Kestrel?” Wren asked. “What will we see?”
“It’s the Lake in the Sky,” Kestrel answered. He went on to describe it physically. “It’s a long, slender lake, set between two arms of the mountain. From one end it releases a waterfall, and that water flows down to the Dangueax River, and then to Uniontown and beyond. Along one side there is a road along the shoreline, and at the far end of the lake there is a stream of water that pours into it from a cave in the mountainside.
“There was a waterskin above the cave, and it poured its water into the water of the lake. It is an enchanted skin, one that does not ever grow empty. Its water is poison to the Viathins, and it removes their influence over other people,” he explained.
“The cave is a portal to another world. The Viathins came through that cave to get to our world, and they went out of that cave to get to another world. After we figure out how to fix some problem with the water skin, we’ll go into the cave – we’ll visit the other world, and we’ll find where our gods are held captive, so that we can set them free,” Kestrel reported the full strategy they were expected to follow.
“Now,” he told Wren. “You explain all of that to Woven,” he said, then he and Stillwater listened as the girl translated Kestrel’s story for the gnome.
“What is this other world like?” Woven asked Kestrel.
“I don’t know yet,” the elf admitted. “I’ve been to two other worlds, but not this one. There must be something there, people of some kind, if the Viathins have managed to live there.” And with that unenlightening answer, they settled in to a quiet rest, each of them taking a watch turn during the night, as they awaited the coming of the morning and the next great challenge in their quest.
Chapter 9
Kestrel had the last shift of guard duty for the small camp, and he sat both pensive and anxious, waiting for the arrival of the dawn. Ironically, the dawn came earlier than he realized, as a heavy blanket of dark clouds moved over the tops of the mountains, cutting off the evidence of sunrise. Wren arose and came to sit next to him in the dark.
“It feels like it should be morning,” she said as they sat in the darkness.
“It is morning,” Stillwater’s falsetto voice piped up. “The sunlight cannot yet reach us through the clouds and the shadows of the mountains.”
“Let’s have a bite to eat, and then see if there’s enough light to return to the road,” Kestrel said. They awoke Woven, then had a meager bite of food from their supplies, and stumbled out to the road, as Stillwater flew ahead to search for possible dangers.
Kestrel led the others cautiously up the road as they waited for Stillwater; they crept cautiously along the edge of the dusty track, and watched as light slowly became present, changing the darkness to murkiness. They encountered no Viathins or danger, but after only a few minutes, the air grew misty, then a light rain began to fall. The road grew muddy, and their feet grew heavy with clinging mud on the bottom of their boots.
By the time they stopped to scrape the mud free, the rain had become a heavy downpour.
“Where’s Stillwater now, do you suppose?” Kestrel asked.
“He may have trouble finding us in this rain,” Wren suggested.
There was a peculiar ripping noise in the forest, making them all pause.
“Ouch!” Wren exclaimed.
Kestrel looked at her, and as he did, a streak of whiteness dropped beside him. He felt a sharp blow to his shoulder, and Woven stepped off the road and up against a tree trunk.
“It’s hail!” Wren said, as she stepped next to Woven, and was joined by Kestrel.
The few small hailstones quickly became a torrential bombardment of heavy white objects that fell indiscriminately to the ground. All three of them felt the pain of being hit by the high velocity hailstones.
“Kestrel, we can’t take much more of this; where can we go for protection?” Wren shouted, as they cowered down beneath the painful shower.
In response, Kestrel looked around; there was little he could see in the conditions. He knew that they had to do something. There was an option, one that he feared to exercise, but the conditions seemed to demand it. He raised a partial shield with his energy, a small blue roof above them that protected the trio from further harm as it glowed with a warm blue light.
Kestrel knew that the Viathins might very well see or detect his presence because of the energy he used, but there was no choice.
“Thank you, great one,” Woven gasped, as he rolled over on the ground, groaning as he did so. The hail stones continued to fall, egg-sized and even larger, covering the ground in an uneven layer of white iciness.
There was a sudden thump on the energy roof Kestrel held overhead, and they looked up, then Wren shrieked.
A bloody and unconscious Stillwater lay atop the glowing blue roof.
Kestrel immediately ceased the projection of the roof, letting Stillwater and hailstones fall down among his companions once again. Wren caught the imp as he fell, and Kestrel immediately re-erected the protective shield, while Wren gently laid Stillwater on the ground.
“I saw your blue light, and I knew where to go for safety,” the imp briefly awoke and gasped, then passed out again.
Kestrel immediately pulled his water skin of healing water off his shoulder, and dribbled some of the water into Stillwater’s mouth. “Help me get him undressed
,” Kestrel said as he began to remove the imp’s clothing.
“Why are you doing that?” Woven asked loudly, to be heard over the noise of the hail.
“I’m going to bathe him in more of the healing water,” Kestrel answered. He soaked Stillwater’s tunic in healing water, then rubbed it across his body, looking for the emerging bruises to give particular attention to.
“Here, do you have any sore spots?” Kestrel asked the other two. “We ought to use this while it’s still damp,” and all three took turns bathing their hail-caused wounds with the spring water.
The hail suddenly began to lighten, and within another two minutes there was only a heavy rain falling, as the dark clouds rolled away and left the travelers in a foggy forest. Kestrel, Wren, and Woven squatted beneath the protection of his blue roof, and watched the rain fall around them.
“Let’s try to find someplace with a little more shelter to it,” Kestrel suggested after several minutes of silence. “Stillwater’s going to sleep for a while, and we all could use some time to recover.”
They stood, and Kestrel picked up Stillwater to carry him as they began to seek a better site, but as they did, they all heard the sound of a voice, speaking in the foggy wildness nearby.
Kestrel instantly doused the glowing blue protection over their heads, and the rain began to fall down upon them.
“What was that?” Wren asked in a whisper.
“You go to the edge of the road and see if you can see anything,” Kestrel answered. “Woven, you go part way with her, so she’ll be able to see you to know how to get back here. I’ll stay with Stillwater.”
Wren and Woven removed their packs and laid them at Kestrel’s feet, then walked into the fog, growing invisible after only a few steps.
Kestrel pulled his knife free and held it in his hand, ready to throw it at the first sign of visible trouble. He heard another sound, and realized that the voice was a Viathin, a low rumbling voice that was indistinct. There was a sudden sound, a grunt and a shout, then a brief conflict, followed by silence.
Kestrel set Stillwater down carefully, then stepped forward through the fog – every tree that appeared seemed momentarily to be an opponent, but no real opponents materialized after a score of steps.
“Woven!” Kestrel called in a loud whisper. “Woven! Wren!” he tried to locate his companions.
“Kestrel, is that you?” Wren called hoarsely.
“I’m here,” he answered. “Are you okay?”
“Just a second,” Wren answered. “Okay, say something; let us find you,” she said.
“I’m here, in the woods, off the road,” he answered, and moments later he saw Wren and Woven appear. Wren’s knife was still in her hand, its blade dark with blood.
“There were two Viathins walking down the road,” Wren explained. “So we ambushed them, then hid the bodies in the trees on the other side of the road.”
“Were they alone? Are you sure?” Kestrel asked cautiously. Two fewer Viathins was a bit of good news, knowing that there shouldn’t be many of the monsters available to return to the land of the Inner Seas after the waters of Decimindion had wiped out all those in the lands less than a year prior. Yet he didn’t want the two monsters to be missed, to alert others to his presence so close to the lake.
“There’s no one else on the road,” Wren affirmed, her voice raising to nearly a normal level.
“Let’s return to Stillwater then,” Kestrel said as he turned, and they began to walk back through the rainy forest, searching for the unconscious imp they had left behind if the fog.
They spread out on a line to carry out their search in the woods, and finally found him, as the rain and the fog both began to dissipate. The imp still slept soundly, as Kestrel picked him up, and they walked deeper into the forest, climbing up a slope, then stopping where several boulders and stony slabs formed a small shelter they could huddle into.
“It’s not yet midday,” Woven said after a long silence. “Will we still try to reach the lake today?”
“Stillwater will need some more time to heal and rest,” Kestrel answered. “Let’s wait until mid-afternoon to make that decision.”
“I’m going to try to find some fresh food then,” Woven said, and he stepped out of the slippery hiding spot to forage for something to eat before Kestrel could say anything.
“Is everything going to work?” Wren asked, switching to the elvish language.
The language of his home felt comfortable, relaxing, and Kestrel felt grateful to Wren for making the switch.
“It may be harder, or it may still be simple,” Kestrel answered. “We’ll just have to reach the lake and see. I appreciate your help, whichever way it ends up,” he told her.
“Help?” she said gruffly. “I’m the main fighter here. Sure you’ve got an enchanted knife, god-like powers, and familiarity with the terrain, but I feel like you’re the one helping me.
“We’re going to end up just fine,” she laughed. “We’ll save this world, save the gods, and you’ll meet some pretty creature who you’ll fall in love with all over again.
“I’m glad our story will have a happy ending,” Kestrel said. They looked at one another and laughed, then sat together quietly and pondered their future.
Woven returned two hours later. “Do you like shadow ferns?” he asked. “I found a patch of them and ate my fill. It’s not far away.”
Stillwater moaned before the humans could answer, and all eyes turned to the imp. He blinked his own eyes, stared vacantly upward, then focused on his companions who were watching him. “Where are we?” he asked, and then listened as Kestrel and Wren explained what had happened that morning.
“I feel good,” Stillwater said, flexing his arms. “The water from the healing spring does marvelous things. Are we going to carry out our mission now?”
Kestrel looked around at the faces that were watching him. Even Woven seemed to sense that the question had been asked. Kestrel nodded. “Yes, let’s see if we can get to the lake and carry out our duty.”
Chapter 10
The members of the squad collected their belongings, then began to angle down the slope of the mountainside to return to the road.
“I forgot to tell you that I saw the lake!” Stillwater said as he flew low, under the tree limbs and alongside his companions. “We should be there in less than an hour.”
“Go ahead and scout out the situation on the road and around the lake,” Kestrel said, as Wren relayed Stillwater’s report to Woven.
The imp sped away as the others remained bound to the surface of the mountain, and climbed determinedly forward. They reached the edge of the road minutes later, and looked carefully in both directions, then started walking up the slope, towards their destination.
“Here comes the imp,” Woven said five minutes later, shading his eyes to look up in the sky.
They all waited for Stillwater’s report on the situation at the lake, but instead of descending to reach them, he flew high overhead, and disappeared behind them.
“That can’t be a good sign,” Wren said ominously, voicing the concern they all felt. They unconsciously increased the pace of their walk up the road, looking constantly over their shoulder for some sign behind them – either the approach of Stillwater or the approach of something else.
“Here he comes,” Wren said softly, looking back to see Stillwater flying low and fast in his approach.
“There is trouble ahead and trouble behind,” Stillwater told them as he arrived among them. “There are two of the monsters ahead at the lake; one is walking like a person, and one is in the water like the monster lizards we fought at first in the Swampy Morass,” the imp said.
“Just the two?” Kestrel asked.
“Yes, ahead. But behind there are a score of humans, wearing the red uniforms coming up the road, probably only half an hour behind us,” Stillwater added.
“And they have captives. They caught the other humans, the ones you were fighting with yester
day,” he said.
“Oh, that’s too bad,” Kestrel moaned as he felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. He respected Stuart and the others. They had been good fighters, and the duke’s daughter had not been kind to him, but had been a spirited girl.
“If we hurry,” he said thoughtfully, trying to create a plan, “if we can get the water skin reset in place and the water flowing again to destroy the Viathins and their influence, that might set the Uniontown soldiers free from the Viathins, so that they’d set Duke Listay’s men free.”
“We will need to hurry then,” Stillwater said. “The lake is long and looks difficult to climb around.”
Kestrel thought the observation was odd, but decided not to waste time asking more. The group turned instead and started jogging along the road for several minutes, until they reached the last sharp turn, and then the road opened up on the scene that Kestrel had been traveling to see for so many miles. The waterfall and the lake and the cave-fed spring of water were all visible, just as they had looked when Kestrel had last seen them.
But the roadway that hugged the lake’s shoreline, the route that Kestrel had expected to race along to reach the spring, the road was gone, covered by a large landslide that had fallen down from the mountain arm above and dropped huge heaps of stone and debris that reached into the water of the lake, leaving no access to the far end.
“There was a road over there!” Kestrel whispered, as he and his friends crouched in the trees on the edge of the road. “I need to get down to that end of the lake,” he explained, looking at the terrain around the lake, and seeing no easy path.
“There are the monsters,” Stillwater pointed out, calling the others’ attention to where a two-legged Viathin was crouched down conversing with one that was in the water.
“I’m going to run over the water to towards the spring at the other end,” Kestrel told the others. “When the walking Viathin watches me, you can shoot it with an arrow, or a rock,” he told the other two.
An Unexpected Deity (Book 7) Page 12
