by Dean Cadman
“Do you think it’s really gone?” Cole found himself asking, breaking the deathly silence.
“Why don’t you go and take a look?” Zedd replied tersely, finally dispelling his heat source and containment barrier. Neither of them had slept that night, but Cole knew without doubt that Zedd had used far more of his magical reserves keeping them both warm, than he had blocking out the effects of the Netherworld creatures’ mental assaults. He had no idea how many days’ travel it was to the relative safety of the cave they had once used. But he doubted that Zedd’s magical reserves would last if they had many more nights like the one they had just endured, especially without any sleep to regenerate.
They both waited a good twenty minutes before attempting to leave the safety of their magic circle, and when they eventually did, neither man took their eyes off the spot where the Carazhal had disappeared for too long, just in case it was a trap.
Zedd seemed to be in an especially bad mood this morning, and Cole put it down to a combination of having had no sleep, and the fact that he had been forced to ask for his help the previous night. Cole felt sure that even attempting to discuss their travel plans would likely result in a barbed reply from Zedd: one aimed squarely at him. So instead, he remained silent and began to make his own preparations to leave camp.
The undead-minions had stood motionless throughout the entire night, and still held all of the equipment in their arms. Once Zedd had collected a few items of his own, he commanded his minions to follow, then resumed their previous course through the forest without saying a single word to Cole.
Cole smiled to himself as he departed their camp, delighted to know that it had bothered Zedd so much to ask for his help. He knew it was petty of him, but it still felt like a small victory all the same. Zedd quickly vanished amongst the dense trees of the forest, and Cole hurried to catch him up. As he got to the edge of the clearing, he chanced a glance over his shoulder, back towards where the Carazhal had sought refuge underground. He didn’t really expect to see it there, but he felt he should at least check one last time. What he did see, however, was almost as alarming.
“Wait! Come back!” he shouted desperately after Zedd. He was very surprised that Zedd responded so quickly to his calls, and when he reappeared by his side a moment later, he almost felt like thanking him. Zedd arrived just in time to see one of his undead-minions attempt to take a step forward. But instead of lifting its foot to walk normally, it simply sheered off the lower part of its own leg, fell forward, and shattered into dozens of pieces on the ground like a life-size glass statue: it was completely frozen solid.
Zedd instantly realised what had happened, and immediately commanded his other minions to remain still. Unfortunately, he wasn’t quick enough to prevent a second one from fracturing its leg just below the hip. When it did eventually thaw out, the leg would now separate and fall away from its body, making it completely useless. Zedd roared with anger and frustration, and with a single word, he sent a blast of magic towards the now useless minion. It exploded into thousands of pieces, peppering everything in the vicinity with tiny pieces of frozen corpse, Zedd and Cole included.
Cole thought he saw something moving out of the corner of his eye, but when he checked, he realised it was only the remains of the Netherworld creature that the Carazhal had killed the previous night, smouldering in the early morning sunlight. It was mostly hidden within the shadows of the tree it had been thrown against, and as such, would probably take most of the coming day to burn away to ashes. Zedd was already busy chanting the incantation for a heat source again, but Cole broke him off midway through it.
“Wait. I have an idea,” Cole said, walking over to where Zedd was standing with his remaining frozen minions. “Why don’t you use that to thaw them out?” he said, pointing at the smouldering remains of the Netherworld creature. “If you levitate it over here into the stronger sunlight, it should burn much hotter and faster. There’s no point using any more of your magic reserves if you don’t have to.”
Zedd gave him a look of utter contempt, but a moment later decided to take his advice nonetheless, and began to levitate the Netherworld creature’s remains towards them. As the corpse left the deep shadows of the tree, it flared up in the morning sunlight, billowing black acrid smoke into the air as it burned. The smell it gave off was like nothing Cole had ever experienced in his life, and it made him gag violently. He watched from a safe distance as Zedd manoeuvred the now burning corpse into position, then enclosed it behind a magical barrier with his own minions.
Cole smiled to himself at the thought of Zedd’s frozen minions having to be thawed out like that, and couldn’t help himself as he jested, “Make sure you don’t over cook them, or they’ll become too chewy.” He wasn’t surprised to see Zedd’s body stiffen at his comments, but he was surprised to see him turn towards him with a smile on his face. It was the first time Cole had ever seen a genuine smile on Zedd’s face, other than when he was in his throws of rapture killing people. It was decidedly unnerving, Cole thought, as he turned his attention back to the less disturbing sight of the burning Netherworld creature’s corpse.
It took less than an hour for Zedd’s undead-minions to thaw out enough to move again, but in Zedd’s mind it was an hour wasted, and yet another hour they would ultimately have to spend amongst the dangers of The Dark Forest.
They were soon underway once more, picking their way through the dense trees and undergrowth as they went. Both men had been hoping the trees would thin out as they travelled further into the forest, but by mid-afternoon, that proved not to be the case, and the trees remained far too dense to create a campsite. Although Zedd would never have openly admitted it, he was beginning to grow more and more concerned as the hours passed by. He was acutely aware that if they hadn’t found that clearing around the fallen tree yesterday, it would have been very unlikely they would have survived the night. And now they only had half the number of undead-minions they had then. Four simply wasn’t enough to clear an area of ground sufficient for their needs, not within the limited time they had left before it began to get dark. They had long since past the point in the day when they could have returned to their previous night’s campsite. Either they found a suitable clearing in the next two hours, or they would be in serious trouble.
The relief which both men felt less than an hour later was quite palpable, when they emerged from the trees into an open area free of any significant vegetation. They had managed to stumble across a wide swift-flowing stream, with its banks clear of trees on both sides. Wide flat muddy banks on each side suggested a much larger body of water come the wet season, but for now, those muddy banks were dry and perfect for their needs. Both men knew that Netherworld creatures refused to cross flowing water. Many of them even chose to avoid its general vicinity altogether, and that gave them a great sense of optimism for the coming night. Then Cole noticed something even better.
“Look at that,” he said excitedly, pointing upstream at a bend only a few hundred paces away. At some point in its past, the fast flowing stream had been forced to change direction by a large flat rock, and now its water flowed around both sides of it, creating a perfect rocky island between the two muddy banks.
“Well, that’s a stroke of luck,” Zedd replied, spotting the small island for himself. The water flowed strongly around both sides of the flat rocky island, and was as wide as most city streets. There was no way that any Netherworld creature would attempt to cross it, but just in case, Zedd still intended to create another circle of protection on the island. After all, not being reachable by Netherworld creatures was one thing, but not being seen by them in the first place was always going to be preferable.
It didn’t take long at all for Zedd to levitate his remaining four undead-minions across the water, along with himself and Cole. The island was more than large enough to accommodate them, and after the previous sleepless night, Zedd was looking forward to some well needed rest. As he took in his surroundings more, he c
ouldn’t help thinking that the river looked familiar to him somehow. He glanced up at the open sky above him, and guessed there would be at least another hour before the sun began to set. More than enough time to check out a theory that had just occurred to him.
“Create the magic circle while I’m gone. I’m going to go check out something further upstream,” Zedd said, levitating away from the island without even waiting for a reply. He knew that Cole was less than useless as a mage, but he was sure that even he could create a circle of protection while he was gone.
Once Zedd’s feet touched the hard surface of the muddy bank, he set off walking upstream to see if his gut feelings turned out to be correct. He had only been walking about twenty minutes, when he stopped dead in his tracks, and a broad smile of satisfaction spread across his face. He found himself looking at the same natural stone bridge that his summoned Vesdari had used several months earlier, when it had hunted the boy-mage through that very forest. The river had contained much more water back then, but it was unmistakably the same river, and the same crossing. He had seen it clearly through the eyes of his summoned Vesdari, along with everything else which lay ahead of them on this route upstream.
He now knew with absolute certainty, that only a few hours further up the river they would find the location where his summoned Vesdari had been killed by the paladin. He had already seen the devastated area where the Vesdari had exploded, and knew it would be an easy place to create their camp the following evening. From there, it was less than a day’s travel to the relative safety of the cave they intended to use as their base to complete their mission. Then after they had recovered the dragon heart, and used it to reopen The Great Rift, it was only a relatively short distance to Helveel. From there he would plan his journey to The Badlands, south of Thule, where he would finally meet up with his waiting family, and bid farewell to the Empire forever.
***
Their night on the small island proved to be very peaceful for both Zedd and Cole. The only indication they had of any nearby Netherworld creatures, was the occasional distant wailing that came from somewhere deeper within the forest, but thankfully, none ventured anywhere near the river, or their camp. As a result, by the time the sun began to rise in the early morning sky, both men felt well rested after gaining a full night’s sleep. That couldn’t be said, however, for the following night.
They found the location of the Vesdari’s death easily enough, and as expected, the ground remained largely clear of trees and shrubs after the massive explosion there. But what Zedd had thought would be a prime location to make their camp, turned out to be almost the worst possible place imaginable.
They reached the campsite with plenty of daylight left, and set about clearing the small saplings and shrubs that had started to take advantage of the freshly cleared ground. But it wasn’t until the sun began to set, that they realised their almost fatal mistake. It soon became alarmingly apparent that the entire area had become a magnet for dozens of Netherworld creatures. Each one drawn to the clearing by the incredible amount of magic that had been released there when the Vesdari had died. Although none of the Netherworld creatures could see Zedd or Cole hidden within their circle of protection, that did little to stem the bone-chilling cold, or the incredible mental onslaught caused by the proximity of so many Netherworld creatures.
Midway through the night, Cole had begun to seriously doubt whether he could maintain his mental barriers long enough—on both himself and Zedd—to ever see the sun rise again. He had found it relatively easy to maintain his mental barriers against a single Carazhal and a handful of Shades, but against dozens of Netherworld creatures all at once, it was an incredibly difficult and taxing thing to do. By the time the first rays of light reached the forest floor, Cole was all but exhausted. Never before had he been so pleased to see an early morning sunrise, and he felt sure that Zedd would share his sentiments.
Cole watched with bated breath, as the last two Netherworld creatures sank slowly back into the ground under the deep shadows of a nearby tree. The incredible relief of being able to drop his mental barriers lasted less than a heartbeat, as the pain exploded in his head like a bolt of lightning. His legs gave way under him, and he dropped to his knees holding his pounding head in his hands, vomiting violently as his body protested against the abuse he had just wrought upon it.
Under normal circumstances Zedd would have despised anyone who openly displayed such weakness, but in this instance, he was under no illusions as to what Cole had just done. Incredibly, he had managed to shield both of their minds from the combined mental assaults of dozens of Netherworld creatures. And even more impressive, was the fact he had done it for an entire night. It was a hard thing to admit, even to himself, but there was no way he could have held out for more than a few minutes without Cole’s help. How Cole had managed to shield them both throughout the entire night, he had no idea. Zedd wasn’t often impressed by much, but Cole’s mental abilities and fortitude had certainly impressed him a great deal.
“Are you alright?” Zedd asked uncharacteristically, as Cole struggled back to his feet, clutching at his throbbing head. He didn’t reply, but Zedd noticed him nod slightly, and so took it as a yes. “Good,” he said, giving him a friendly pat on the shoulder. The unusually friendly gesture didn’t go unnoticed by Cole, and even though his vision was still blurred by the intense pain in his head, he couldn’t help looking at Zedd for an explanation. He didn’t get one. But nevertheless, he imagined it was as close to a ’thank you’ as he was ever likely to get from Zedd, and that was enough to make him smile, even through his pain.
Cole found the journey especially hard going that day. He felt constantly weak and nauseous from his previous night’s overuse of magic, and struggled to keep up with Zedd for most of the day. He knew that they needed to set a fairly quick pace to reach the cave before nightfall, and was very surprised by Zedd’s newfound patience with him. Not once did he complain or criticise him for his inability to keep up. Instead, Zedd simply slowed his own pace and waited for Cole to catch up again.
It was at least mid-afternoon before Cole started to feel well enough to increase his speed a little. His headache had subsided to a low level thudding, instead of a herd of galloping horses, and his stomach no longer seemed to want to turn itself inside-out at the slightest thought of food.
For most of the day Cole hadn’t paid much attention to how far they had travelled, trusting entirely to Zedd’s sense of direction. He soon began to worry, however, that his earlier inability to match Zedd’s pace, might mean they now fell short of their intended destination for the coming night. Even the mere thought of having to spend another night out in the open with the possibility of Netherworld creatures nearby, was enough to make him feel nauseous again. He was immensely relieved, when two hours before nightfall, they eventually came across the dragon remains which Zedd had discovered a few months earlier. And even more relieved to learn that the cave was only a relatively short distance to the north from there.
After the foreboding forest outside, the dark, damp cave felt like a welcome relief to Zedd and Cole. There was a ready-made circle of protection on the ground from the last time they had been there, and a welcoming firepit just waiting to be lit. A giant boulder partially covered the entrance, ready to be magically rolled into position and block the door entirely for the coming night. And more importantly, the ground inside the cave was made of solid rock, making it impossible for any Netherworld creatures to rise there when the sun went down. In fact, the only weak point was the door itself, but Zedd fully intended to mark the ground outside it with its own magic circle, making the entire cave a veritable fortress against the Netherworld creatures outside.
Cole slumped to the ground next to the unlit firepit, and watched as Zedd started to create a new circle of protection outside the cave entrance. They still had plenty of food left over from the various villages they’d pillaged along the way, and their water supply had been replenished only that mo
rning. That, along with the firewood now being collected by Zedd’s undead-minions, promised to make the coming night a much more relaxing one, than many they had endured lately.
Cole checked the lines of the magic circle he’d created on the cave floor the last time they had been there, and found them to be mostly intact. He only had to strengthen one or two of them to ensure their effectiveness. Not that he expected they would need to use it.
It had long since been proven that a Netherworld creature could not retreat underground through solid rock. And so it was commonly accepted that they couldn’t rise through it either. Various experiments had been undertaken centuries ago, where a Netherworld creature was contained within an area of ground that was made of solid rock. When the sun had risen the following morning, all had perished, unable to retreat into the safety of the ground through the solid rock.
There had also been attempts to prove the reverse theory true; that a Netherworld creature couldn’t rise through solid rock. A captured Netherworld creature had been allowed to retreat into the ground naturally at dawn, then the entry point had been covered by a large slab of solid rock. Although the creature didn’t rise through the rock the following night, sceptics soon pointed out that the creature might have simply moved to a new location underground, and risen there instead. That, of course, began a whole new debate on whether a Netherworld creature could actually move once it had retreated underground. The general consensus today, was that they remained completely dormant during daylight hours. But no definitive proof had ever been found, one way or the other.
Cole chuckled to himself, as he suddenly realised that they might have just inadvertently proven another long-time theory true. A famous ancient scholar by the name of Koshax, had theorised that Netherworld creatures would not be able to rise within the boundaries of a circle of protection. It had never been possible for him to prove his theory, due to the later lack of captured Netherworld creatures, and the natural, random dispersion of them in The Dark Forest. But given the sheer number of Netherworld creatures that rose outside their circle the previous night, it didn’t seem very feasible that the large circumference of their circle hadn’t contained at least a single creature. “Either Koshax’s theory is correct, or we’re quite possibly the luckiest people alive,” Cole thought to himself with a wry smile.
