by Dean Cadman
“We’ll be swapping our horses that same afternoon, so hopefully the ones we leave on the beach will find their own way back. Horses are usually pretty good at finding their way home again. But I’m sure if they do get lost, they’ll find plenty to eat until someone eventually comes looking for them,” Renn replied.
“But what about the poor animal we leave tethered. We can’t just rely on the Nylians to release it,” Neala protested. Lusam thought about it for a moment, and realised he could solve the problem quite easily. All he would have to do was place an enchantment on the rope which reacted to sunlight. Then when the sun came up, the rope would automatically break, freeing the horse. He felt confident that he could do it, especially with two days left to perfect the enchantment. He explained his idea to the others, and they all seemed happy with his plan. Especially Neala.
Ten minutes later Renn announced that they had reached their intended campsite for the night. It wasn’t much to look at, just a flat patch of ground well away from the road. It did, however, give them a good view in all directions, even though it would have been very exposed if the weather decided to turn bad later. Lusam wasn’t too concerned about the weather though, as he fully intended to take Renn’s advice and use a magical barrier during the coming night, just in case the Nylians did decide to try anything while they slept.
Over the following two days, Renn slowed their pace slightly. His intention was to arrive at the crucial road junction no more than a couple of hours before dark. Although Lusam had not set any more of his pine cone traps, nobody in their party was under any illusions that they might have somehow lost their pursuers. Two hours earlier they had made their final exchange of horses, and now they rode steadily onwards towards their goal.
The sun had begun its slow descent towards the horizon, when the road junction finally came into view three hours later. When they reached it, they veered off to the left, and began to follow the steep road up the hillside. The road was just as Renn had described it, switching back and forth as it climbed towards the summit above. It reminded Lusam of the road they had followed high into the Elveen Mountains, when they had first discovered Coldmont, only this one was much shorter and steeper.
They took their time climbing the steep road, often dismounting their horses and walking alongside them when the road became too dangerous to ride on. The road had been crudely cut into the sandstone hillside, and over time many small and medium sized rocks had become loose with the relentless pounding of the weather. In places they covered the road’s surface almost entirely, making the going treacherous for the hoofed animals, and none too pleasant for their human counterparts either. On two occasions, Lusam had to quickly calm one of their horses using his magic, when it slipped badly on the loose rocks underfoot. Eventually though, they made it to the top unscathed, and just as the sun finally dipped below the horizon.
As planned, they tethered one of their horses in full view of the Nylians in the valley below, then set about collecting fuel for their campfire. They had done as Lusam suggested, and made a campfire for both of the previous two nights. So hopefully, the Nylian trackers wouldn’t think it was out of the ordinary to see another one lit tonight.
Lusam knew that for the ruse to work, their campfire would have to burn for as long as possible. So with that in mind, he searched out a much larger log than they would normally need. He soon found a fallen tree not too far from their camp, and used his magic to remove a good sized log from it. It was far too heavy for him to carry normally, so instead, he levitated it just above the ground all the way back to camp.
Neala was also on her way back to the camp carrying a large bundle of firewood, when she noticed what Lusam was doing with his log. She rolled her eyes at him, shook her head, and muttered something under her breath. Although he didn’t hear what she actually said, he thought he could guess, and chuckled quietly to himself.
It was almost completely dark before they got their campfire burning strongly enough to ignite the large log that Lusam had brought. At one point he thought he might have to help it along with his magic, but eventually it began to burn on its own. He had chanced an odd glance into the valley below using his mage-sight, but he still couldn’t see anything of the Nylian trackers. Taking that as a good sign, he began to make his preparations to leave the camp with the others.
Lusam had thought of a way to enchant the horse’s tether rope to break, shortly after coming up with the idea. But he had been unable to test it until the sun came up the following morning. Thankfully it had worked perfectly, and now he placed the same enchantment on the rope tethering the horse that they planned to leave behind. As soon as the sun came up the following morning, the rope would automatically break just below the horse’s bridle, and it would be free to find its way back home.
Lusam was the last one to back away from the edge of the road, leaving only a silhouetted horse against their campfire for the Nylian trackers below to see. After walking their horses several hundred paces away from the road, they mounted them and turned towards the cliffs. They soon run out of open ground, and entered a large wooded area. Lusam created a small light orb near the ground, just powerful enough to allow them to see where they were going, and they pressed on slowly through the thickening trees.
Lusam had chosen to leave his own horse behind, and was now riding double with Neala. But unfortunately, it didn’t remain that way for very long. The woods soon became too dense to ride through in the dark, and they spent most of their time ducking under branches, or trying to break them free so they could pass by. It soon became obvious that they would make much faster progress on foot, and so they abandoned their horses shorty after. From a few comments that Neala made, Lusam got the distinct impression that she was far happier to leave the horses in the woods now, than on the beach later. And he supposed she was probably right. After all, it would be easier for them to find food where they had left them, than it would on a beach.
It was fairly slow going trudging through the woods in the dark, and it took them almost five hours to cover the ten miles to the cliffs. They heard the crashing of the waves long before they saw the trees thin and the stars appear in the night sky above. About five hundred paces away from the cliff edge, Lusam had an idea which made him chuckle.
“What’s up?” Neala asked him quietly.
“Wait,” he managed to say, through his giggles. “I have an idea.”
“What?” Renn asked curiously.
“Everyone hold hands,” Lusam replied without explaining anything more. Then he walked everyone around in a large circle three times.
“What are we doing?” Durlan asked, sounding a little annoyed.
“You’ll see,” Lusam replied, still chuckling to himself. When they reached their starting point for the third time, he stopped. “When the Nylian trackers follow us into these woods, will they track our foot prints?” Lusam asked, knowing full well that they would. Before anyone could answer him, he levitated everyone off the ground. Neala squealed and slapped his arm, and Durlan muttered a word that he’d never even heard before. Only Renn seemed ready for what he’d just done, and given the number of times that he had played pranks on him before, he wasn’t too surprised by that.
Renn chuckled to himself, realising exactly what Lusam was up to. “They’ll be scratching their heads over that one, lad.”
“I hope so,” Lusam replied, laughing along with him. Neala and Durlan also realised what he was doing, and started to laugh themselves. But their humour was short lived, as Lusam suddenly began to levitate them all towards the edge of the cliff five hundred paces away. When they reached the edge, and the ground underneath their feet suddenly disappeared, Durlan swore loudly, and Neala held onto Lusam like a limpet, as they descended towards the beach far below.
Lusam didn’t see any point in walking along the beach when they could fly instead, but unfortunately Neala didn’t seem agree with him. After a couple of minutes of keeping her eyes tightly shut, and stopping the
blood in his arm with her iron grip, she finally managed to speak.
“Why aren’t we down yet?” she asked in a high pitch voice.
“Why walk, when we can fly?” Lusam replied, grinning in the darkness.
“Put me down, right now!” Neala demanded. Lusam thought his fun was over, but surprisingly, Renn stepped in and saved the day.
“No, he’s right, Neala. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t particularly like being up here either. But down there we will leave footprints in the sand that the Nylians can easily follow,” Renn said through gritted teeth.
Lusam thought about increasing their speed a little, but decided against it. “It’s probably better to just enjoy what I can now, rather than pay a heavy price for it later,” he thought to himself with a huge grin on his face.
It was a good couple of miles further along the beach before Lusam thought about bringing their flight to an end. He started their slow descent towards the beach, but Renn seemed to have other ideas.
“If you can manage to keep us in the air for a little while longer, it would probably help, lad. If I’m not mistaken, we should see the road very soon. Ah, yes. There it is now,” Renn said, pointing towards a break in the cliffs. The road itself wasn’t really visible. It simply looked like an extension of the beach. But the wide gap in the otherwise unbroken cliff face, suggested that Renn was right.
“Do you want me to put us down on the road?” Lusam asked.
“Actually, no lad. If you take us through the gap and then look to the left, you’ll see a path cut into the rock face. It would be perfect if you could drop us at the top of that path. That way, even if the Nylian trackers retrace their steps and come to the beach, at least we won’t have left any signs of our passing,” Renn replied.
Lusam agreed and headed directly for the gap in the cliffs. Even with his mage-sight it took him a few moments to spot the path in the darkness. It wasn’t a wide path like he had expected. Instead, it was little more than a narrow ledge, barely wide enough to walk on. And in places, the ledge vanished altogether, leaving only a series of hand and footholds to scramble across the face of the cliff. In fact, the more Lusam looked at it, the more he realised that it had been designed to look like a series of natural faults in the cliff face. He doubted that he would have even seen it if Renn hadn’t told him it was there.
Lusam followed the indistinct path up the cliff face, and saw that it ended at a narrow ledge near the top. As he levitated his group towards the ledge, he could clearly see a small cave entrance just above the ledge. By the looks of it, it was barely wide enough for a person to fit through, and most likely all but invisible from the ground below.
“Let me go inside first, just in case any of the Nauroe are guarding the entrance. They shouldn’t be, but you never know. Don’t worry about it being too dark inside the cave, there’s a large platform to stand on, so we’ll be safe until we have enough light to see properly,” Renn said, trying to reassure everyone.
“Okay, but I’ll have to be the last one to enter. I’ll need to be able to see what I’m doing when I levitate everyone else onto the platform. I don’t want to drop anyone short,” Lusam said, chuckling to himself.
“That’s not even funny,” Neala scolded him, still holding onto his hand as if her life depended on it. Lusam thought about replying with a witty remark, but decided against it, as he could still feel her hand trembling in his own. That, and the fact she would soon be back on solid ground, and make him pay dearly for it later.
Lusam split Renn off from the rest of their group, and levitated him towards the narrow rock ledge. Once his feet had touched down safely, he released his levitation spell on him. Renn wasted no time in crawling inside the small cave opening on his hands and knees. Next, Lusam sent Durlan over, and after he too had successfully entered the cave, he turned to Neala.
“Don’t worry, you’ll be fine on that ledge,” Lusam said trying to reassure her.
She laughed nervously. “I’m not worried about being on the ledge. I’m more concerned about getting over there in the first place.”
“Anyone would think you didn’t trust me,” Lusam replied, grinning at her. He decided to keep hold of her hand and take her over to the ledge himself. Mainly because he doubted that he could have convinced her to let go in mid-air anyway, but also because he felt sorry for her, trembling like she was. He heard the loud sigh of relief as her feet touched the hard surface of the rock ledge. She took a moment to steady her legs, then disappeared inside the cave to join the others. A moment later Lusam joined them.
As he entered the blackness of the cave, Lusam could hear the sounds of the waves lapping against the rocks somewhere far below. He created a small light orb to illuminate their surroundings, and when his eyes adjusted to the new light, he could clearly see a stone staircase leading down into the blackness below. He was about to start descending the staircase, when Renn placed a hand on his shoulder to stop him.
“Best let me go first, lad,” Renn said quietly. Even the smallest sound seemed to be amplified by the cave, and when Renn suddenly called out into the darkness, it startled him somewhat. Lusam had no idea what Renn had just said, but he presumed he had just spoken in Nauroean. A moment later an equally strange reply came from somewhere below in the darkness, and Renn began to descend the stone stairs.
As they descended deeper into the cave, the sound of the ocean grew louder, and louder. The unmistakable smell of the sea hung thick in the still air. And the stone stairs got more and more treacherous with the dampness and algae growth.
Eventually the stone stairs ended abruptly at a small shell beach, and it became instantly apparent to Lusam why the Nauroe had chosen that particular spot. They were now standing inside a large cave entrance that could only be accessed by the sea. It was maybe two hundred paces wide, and even larger from the water’s edge to the back of the cave. Seawater flooded the cave’s entrance for the first hundred paces, making it an ideal place to hide one or more large boats, just like the one that was there now.
Anchored in the deepest part of the cave, was a strange looking vessel. It was nothing like the Pelorus they had sailed to Prystone on a few months earlier. This vessel was only about a third of the size, and built much more crudely. It had only a single deck, and no immediately apparent accommodation for its crew. Nor did it appear to be particularly suited for carrying trade goods either.
Pulled up high on the shell beach was a small rowing boat, that was obviously used as a tender for the main vessel. And standing next to it, were four strange looking men. None of them were as tall as an average man, and all they were wearing, was a pair of ragged leather knee-length trousers. Even in the relative darkness of cave, Lusam could see how dark their skin was, and from where he was standing, they didn’t appear to have a single hair on their bodies.
Even though Renn had gone to greet the men, they didn’t seem especially relaxed about their presence there. But it wasn’t until Lusam and the others got a little closer, that he realised why. It wasn’t their presence that was making them feel uneasy, it was that of Lusam’s light orb. The men watched cautiously as it moved apparently unaided through the air towards them, but they didn’t back away from it. A moment later it became obvious to Lusam that Renn had just explained to them what it was, when all four of the men turned their gaze on him, instead of his light orb.
As Renn continued to speak with one of the men, he seemed to become more and more agitated with him. It wasn’t a full-blown argument he was having with the man, but Lusam could tell that Renn wasn’t happy about something. After another few minutes of animated discussions, Renn returned to the group with a troubled look on his face.
“Problem?” Lusam asked.
Renn sighed heavily. “They are insisting that we all travel below deck in the hold.”
“Why?” Neala asked.
“Because they wish to keep the exact location of their floating city a secret. Apparently they expect Lusam to be captured or kille
d by the Thule Empire, and they fear Lord Zelroth’s retribution,” Renn replied.
“Well, that’s understandable. But I’d have thought the whole point of having a floating city, would be so that it could be moved if need be,” Lusam said.
“Aye lad, I did point that out to him, but he told me that it takes a lot of time and effort to move the entire city. And even with the ridiculous amount of gold we’re paying them for this mission, it’s still not enough to warrant all the extra work and upheaval for them. The Nauroe are basically oceanic nomads. They colonise an area of ocean until the resources there are diminished enough to warrant them moving on to a new location. But once they’ve left an area, they don’t return there again until many years later. That way it gives the marine life time to recover before they start to plunder it again,” Renn said.
Neala laughed. “Well from what I remember, the ocean seemed like a very big place. Surely they can’t run out of places to live.”
“Aye, you’d think not, but apparently their choice of location is somewhat limited. One of the Nauroe explained it to me once. They call them Jeins, and their precise location has been passed down through countless generations of Nauroe. To you or me it would appear that the Nauroe had simply chosen a random spot in the ocean to live, but it’s much more complicated than that. It has a lot to do with the depth of the water, the currents, migratory routes of fish, and even the shape of the ocean floor below them,” Renn said.
Before anyone else could speak, one of the Nauroe called out to Renn. Lusam didn’t need his words translating, it was plain enough that they wanted them all onboard the boat so they could leave.
“I wonder if they know I can see through the ship’s hull anyway?” Lusam said very quietly to Renn.
“No lad, they don’t. And I’d plan on keeping it that way if were you, or this trip might be over before it even begins,” Renn whispered back. Lusam nodded his understanding, and looked out at the black expanse of ocean before him. Now only water and time stood between him and rescuing his mother. And of course, Lord Zelroth and the entire Thulian Empire.
