* * *
Brand was in a foul mood. Telyn had brought him here, and he had expected a fight. Instead, he’d found a lot of stinking pigs and a cold trail. She had neglected to mention the giant hadn’t been seen in a week. The thing could have been anywhere by now. He had no desire to trudge about in the Deepwood on the barest hope they might encounter the creature again. He was no tracker, no huntsman. He (and the axe, very definitely) preferred a stand-up fight. Brand found himself nostalgic for the circumstances of his earlier battles. Rhinogs didn’t make you go hunting for them! They came up and did their business and died where they stood, at least you could say that for them.
He walked with Telyn and her two cousins, glowering fiercely. His chainmail, the same shirt he had taken from the redcap’s armory, glinted and jingled as he walked. The Fobs all exchanged worried glances, eyeing him in concern. He tried not to notice this, as it would only irritate him further.
They led him up to a spot under a rowan tree and showed him where the earth was trampled down. They explained the giant had often watched them from this spot. They figured that he might just come back at any time.
In fact, they stared at the trees around them and gripped their bows tensely, as if they thought the monster might burst out upon them any second. Brand snorted. They weren’t cowards, not exactly. Cowards would not have come out to a giant’s favorite spot in the first place. But they were a nervous bunch of farm folk. Telyn nosed around in the trees, showing more bravery than her cousins.
“Come out! Come out! Come on, worthless, fat oaf of a giant!” shouted Brand at the trees. The Fobs looked at him, startled. He grinned at them. He thought suddenly, strangely, how easy it would be to pull out the axe and slay them both. He would make quick work of it, that was for sure.
He shook his head and took a deep breath, trying to settle himself down. His mood dampened somewhat. He told himself that was the axe talking. It was bored, and had been promised a fight, and now it wanted blood. Any source would do.
The Fobs were staring now. They weren’t staring into his eyes, but rather…. He looked down and noticed he had the axe in his hand. He could not quite recall having pulled it out of his pack.
Even the axe made him angry. He gave it a good shaking, cutting about at the air with it. His throat burned with a growl.
“Brand?” asked Telyn from behind him. He almost whirled, but caught himself. He didn’t want to face Telyn like that, with the axe in his hand and having a good grip on his mind. Lavatis, which still rode in his pocket, wasn’t helping. The Blue Jewel was not in contact with his skin, but his mind was affect just by carrying it. His mind, for its own part, squirmed.
“Brand, I don’t see the giant. Why don’t you put that away for now?”
Brand took another breath and nodded. He put the axe away, slowly.
“Sorry,” he said briskly, “the axe is just bored, that’s all.”
He noticed the Fobs were all a fair distance from him. This made him grin. They were afraid of him. Telyn blinked and smiled in return, hesitantly. She took a step forward, but only a single step. Brand figured there must be a wolfish quality to his grin.
He threw his hands up and laughed a true laugh, shaking his head. “It does that sometimes,” he explained, “if I become moody, just back away. Telyn will handle such moments, she’s very good at it, as you have just witnessed.”
Before any of the Fobs could speak, however, a great cracking sound came to their ears. The sound was rather like that of a tree being felled in a forest. It came from the direction of the farm, behind them.
“The giant!” said Brand, and the grin slashed open his face again. He showed all his teeth and flashed out the axe.
“Brand?” said Telyn at his back, but he didn’t stop. He was running and the axe was out, and life was good again. The others ran after him. Let the fools follow. Let them play with their bows. He would give them a show.
When he came out of the forest and first saw the giant he felt surprise. Not shock, but surprise. It was bigger than he had imagined. Its head rode even with treetops, as high as any farmhouse chimney. The legs would be all he could reach, most likely, the belly being too high, about ten feet up.
He ran faster.
The giant, having finished with the smokehouse, advanced upon the sagging farmhouse. Children and oldsters ran from the windows and doors.
Brand gritted his teeth and ran hard, wishing he had a horse. He had less than a quarter mile to go when the giant took hold of the roof. The giant’s arms bunched, then relaxed as the roof came away. Brick walls shivered and fell partly to rubble. A plume of smoke and dust curled around the huge head as the giant dipped its face down into the interior, looking for something.
“What do you hope to find, monster?” roared Brand, hoping the challenge would slow it. The monster showed no sign of hearing. Taking up its great club again it beat down the walls with methodical swings. Brand was surprised at its power, but didn’t slow his step or feel even a thread of fear.
The giant was digging now, tearing into the floors. The second floor pancaked down onto the first. The giant smashed its way further in, standing fully in the house’s remaining walls. Suddenly, it went down to one knee. Brand realized that it must have driven a leg down into the basement.
Roaring, the thing continued to smash downward with its club, widening the hole.
Brand raised the axe, he was near the monster now. He commanded the axe to flash, and was gratified to see the great head wince. A thick-fingered hand came up to shield a misshapen face.
Brand was winded, but cared not one whit about it. He began slashing. A huge hand batted at him, as if he were an insect to be shooed away. The ends of two great fingers fell into the barnyard. A great gout of blood burst from the severed fingers and the giant loosed a howl of pain.
The giant threw handfuls of bloody bricks at him. One struck his head and his skull rang inside as might a bell. He saw arrows sprout from the giant’s face and chest, but both of them knew arrows were insignificant.
The giant had its foot free of the cellar. With its good hand, it lofted a massive club.
Twrog turned to face the Axeman, and the Axeman did what he had to do. He did not step back, he did not quail in fear, he did not worry about the brick that had that left one eye shut and swollen. He charged in close. The club whistled down, striking explosively where he had stood a moment before.
Brand came close enough to slash at the legs, making the giant back up. It smelled of sweat, blood and crushed leaves.
The giant’s leg slipped into the hole it had made so recently. Brand swept with the axe once more, slashing open the great belly which was now within reach.
An ear-breaking roar sounded. The great oaken club swung and Brand’s axe flashed to intercept it. Brand was shocked that club didn’t give way to the sharpness of the axe. Any normal wood should have parted, but the club was not a normal club. It caught Brand and sent him sprawling. Only the giant’s awkward position kept Brand from being dashed to death upon the ground.
Struggling to rise, Brand wondered if he lived his last moments. One more swing and the giant would have him. But the giant had other concerns. Holding his slashed open belly up with one hand and dragging his club with the other, he yanked loose his foot and ran for the Deepwood with a rolling gait. As he ran, he gave great honking cries, like blasts of a huntsman’s horn.
Brand judged the giant’s pace, and decided he could never hope to keep up. He thought vaguely that he needed to get a horse for these adventures.
He let himself sag down in the dust. Bricks pressed against his back, but he didn’t care.
Telyn came to him and ran soft light fingers over his face. The fingers felt nice and he smiled with bloody teeth at her. She was saying something, but he didn’t know what it was.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Tree-bones
When his eyes fluttered open again, he saw a different face looming over him. It was Myrrdin
. He struggled and sat up, grunting. Telyn and her cousins had dressed his wounds. He found himself leaning against the side of the barn in the shade. They must have dragged him here.
With a sudden jolt of worry, Brand looked for his axe. He found it still in his white knuckled grip. He had not released it, even when his mind had left his body behind. He sighed and put the axe into its sack and rubbed his face. The axe did not complain, as it had let blood flow today.
“Welcome back, Myrrdin,” he said, trying to sound cheery and failing.
Myrrdin chuckled and pulled a kitchen chair with a missing leg from the demolished remains of the farmhouse. He propped the broken chair against the barn and sat beside Brand. “I came to see how you were doing as the bearer of two great burdens. Not so well, it appears.”
“I’m doing quite well! You should have seen it. Did the others tell you? The thing was huge. Not as huge as the Rainbow, of course, but bigger than anything else I’ve ever faced.”
“I’m told that before you caught up with that unfortunate giant, you nearly turned the axe on the Fobs.”
Brand growled. “That’s gratitude for you!”
“Oh, they are thankful. But they are still afraid. Of both you and what may come out of the Deepwood next.”
“Afraid of me?”
“Brand, you are not acting as your normal self. You are bearing two Jewels. Many minds would break under the weight of just one.”
“I only wield the axe. I never touch Lavatis.”
“Yes, that is wise. But the Blue Jewel is still affecting you. It magnifies the fury of the other. It makes it harder for you to resist. You must give it up.”
“The Fobs all live and the giant is gone,” complained Brand. “What more do people want?”
Myrrdin shook his head sadly. “They want peace, not vengeance. None of this had to happen. Many have died here.”
Brand eyed Myrrdin coldly. His eyes were slits. “So, what do you really want, wizard?”
Myrrdin took a deep breath, but Brand put his hand up to stop him from answering. He struggled to his feet. “Don’t speak, for I know the answer. It is plain on your face. You want the Blue Jewel for your own.”
“No Brand,” said Myrrdin gently, as if he were addled. “I want to return it to Oberon, who has wielded it for so many years. He kept creatures like this out of the Haven for two centuries.”
“I think we can handle our own affairs now. As should be self-evident from the state of that giant.”
“Oh yes, he was mortally wounded, of that I have no doubt. But it’s a sad thing to be forced to take a life, Brand. Oberon kept this tragedy from occurring without killing anyone. He could have kept the giant in the Deepwood, where it has dwelt for so long. Even I took pity upon Twrog long ago when I found him there.”
“So, you once took pity upon that giant?” asked Brand becoming furious. Every time a story of Myrrdin and the Faerie came to his ears, the tale ended in deep sorrow and death for the River Folk. The pity was always bestowed upon some other creature. “You admit yet another mistake that has caused my people yet more grief. Come with me, we will find the truth behind this giant.”
Brand stood up and didn’t want to listen to any more nonsense from the Fobs or the meddling wizard. He marched into the Deepwood following the blood trail. Myrrdin followed him quietly.
They marched for hours, until at last the shadows stretched long between the trees. Night fell, and still they kept marching. Brand’s axe lit the way, showing the giant’s trail clearly. Brand marveled at the giant’s vitality. A man would have succumbed to death miles earlier. It was early morning the next day when the two of them finally came to an open glade surrounded by vast thickets of spiny vines. The giant had run through these, blazing a trail through the twisted morass of wild growth. In the center of the glade was a massive oak tree. The giant’s corpse rested against the trunk amongst the black, snake-like roots. So large was the oak that it dwarfed even the giant’s body. The tree itself had been broken, the top half having long ago been torn away. Like a broken black tower, the trunk stood alone in the center of the glade.
Brand stepped out into the glade and eyed the giant. The slack face drooped down upon the chest. Somehow, seeing the great being in death caused him to feel a twinge of pity for it. There were so few of its kind, and he could see that in many ways it was like a huge lonely child.
“Why did he come here?” he asked aloud as the Myrrdin came out of the forest behind him. He turned to Myrrdin. “Why did Twrog come here to die?
“I’ve told you about this spot before. Recall the story of Vaul. This is the spot where I came to possess the Green Jewel.”
Brand marveled at the tree, circling it. He remembered the tale well. Myrrdin had told him that he had found it inside a huge tree in the Deepwood. He had dug it out of the tree with the help of a giant. Brand nodded slowly, understanding now. Twrog was the giant who had helped Myrrdin dig the Green Jewel from its living encasement.
“And the club? It is a piece of this great oak, isn’t it? That is why it didn’t shatter when I struck it with the axe. It was enchanted by your Jewel.”
Brand mounted the tree, climbing up some fallen limbs.
“Sometimes Brand,” said the wizard, “it’s best not to look too closely at the past.”
Brand ignored him. He climbed up until he could see into the rotted core of the huge trunk. He saw where the Green Jewel must have been discovered. Encased inside the core of the trunk were white bones.
But the bones enveloped in six feet of solid oak did not surprise him. He had known that the previous owner of the Green Jewel had been overcome by it, and had been consumed by it. The power of the Jewel was the creation of huge, roiling growth, and that was also the danger of it. Unless one mastered the Green Jewel fully, the wielder could become one with the greenery it so loved to create.
So, what surprised him was not the presence of the bones, but their size. The finger bones, each as thick as his own arm, were upraised from the core of the trunk upon a wrist of even thicker bones. Clearly, he looked upon the entombed skeleton of a giant, a giant that was even larger than Twrog. The upraised hand had once held Vaul and in a final act, had lifted the Jewel up to keep it from being consumed by the uncontrollable growths. The love the owner had for Vaul was beyond all else in the world. Even as Vaul killed her, the giant had reached up to ensure that the Green Jewel was the last thing to be consumed by the great tree’s trunk.
“She loved the Jewel more than even her own life, didn’t she?” asked Brand.
Myrrdin looked troubled. He had come to stand near Twrog’s foot, which was still caked with black forest earth and dried blood.
“The hand is here, Myrrdin, just as you said,” Brand said, “but you left out a critical detail. The hand is that of a giant. One even larger than Twrog here.”
“Yes,” said Myrrdin. He did not raise his eyes to meet Brand’s.
“She was his mother, wasn’t she? The giant you slayed to take the Green Jewel.”
Myrrdin sighed. “It was a very long time ago, Brand.”
Brand laughed. “You lied! No wonder you took pity upon Twrog. Compared to you, this creature was an innocent.”
“The Jewel consumed the she-giant. I didn’t slay her.”
“Nonsense. Come clean, man! Don’t you have enough riding on your conscience without more pretentions and deceptions? You did something. Something that caused her to wield the Jewel before she had mastered it, perhaps.”
“Brand, you have to understand the times. I was much like you. Young and new to battle. The last armies of your people were following me. They needed strength to stop Oberon.”
“Something vile. That’s what you did,” said Brand. He hopped and slid down the branches of the great oak to look up at Twrog’s corpse.
“Brand, you should understand better than anyone. What would you have done to save your people when we faced Herla in the Dead Kingdoms? Or, to put it more clearly, what would y
ou not have done?”
Brand rubbed his chin with the attitude of one that was puzzling something out. “Oh, I’m not saying I’m better than you, wizard. Not that at all. I’m not saying I would have done anything different. But I am enjoying your discomfort. Let’s have it all out now, the truth.”
Myrrdin sighed and shook his head.
“None of that now. I’m going to get to the bottom of this. Corbin could do it, and so will I. First, there was how you found the place. The Deepwood has a thicker, more lush growth of trees and brush than anywhere else known to us. That’s what attracted you here, to search for the Jewel. You knew it must be here somewhere.”
Myrrdin flashed him a look of sheepish annoyance and did not answer.
“Ah-ha!” shouted Brand. “I can see I’m on the right track. Let’s see, you figured out the she-giant had the Jewel. But giants are a simple folk, probably it would be difficult for her to master Vaul. Apparently, she knew this and you had to force her to do use Vaul’s power. So you…you went after her child, didn’t you? You captured him, tormented him perhaps. And so she used the only power she had, the Jewel, and it consumed her. After that, all you had to do was dig it out of the trunk. Am I missing any important bits?”
Myrrdin glared at him. “Let’s talk of other things.”
“Let’s finish the tale. Out of pity for the giant child, you cut him a great branch from this trunk and fashioned him a club from it, so he could survive alone in the wilds.”
Myrrdin looked up, thrusting his chin high. “Your deductions are close enough. But let us finally talk of current events. That’s what matters now. What do you plan to do with the Blue Jewel?”
“Oh, that? I’m supposed to hand it over to you. Perhaps you would be so good as to transport it for me to Oberon.”
Myrrdin shrugged. “You can walk the mound in Riverton and give it to him yourself, if you like.”
“No. No, I will not.”
“And why not Brand? Why not return it to the rightful owner and cause ruffled feathers to lie flat again? You might achieve another century of peace for your people.”
Haven 3 Shadow Magic (Haven Series 3) Page 18
