Outsider

by Klaire de Lys

  ‘We’re there!’ Halvard yelled, riding back towards them. Jarl dismounted and helped Knud from his pony. The poor boy, quite unused to riding, was sore all over. The inside of his legs felt like the skin had been peeled clean from them. He swore he’d never ride another pony again.

  ‘You...you are evil, you know that?’ Knud hissed at it. It shook its head and snorted loudly as if in agreement.

  They strolled to where Halvard was waiting for them. Ahead of them, through the clearing, was a small cluster of houses by the riverside, five in total, the fifth so small it could technically be considered a shed. A feeble stone wall surrounded them that looked like an attempt to re-build it was underway, the newer part of the wall not much better than the old one. Two small barges were docked at the small pier.

  ‘What do you want?’ a voice bellowed from behind the wall, and several tall humans stood up behind it, longbows in their hands and aimed straight at them.

  ‘We’re here to trade for passage on the ferry,’ Jarl replied, his hands raised slightly and his palms extended. The humans eyed him warily.

  ‘You’re not a goblin are you?’ one of them called out, and Halvard snorted.

  ‘Look, I know he’s ugly but he’s nowhere near ugly enough to be mistaken for a goblin, you fool! Halvard retorted. The humans lowered their longbows slightly and Jarl stepped forward.

  ‘We’re just here for the barge to Einn. We can trade the ponies for passage.’

  Cautiously, one of the humans emerged from behind the wall, looked them up and down and inspected the ponies.

  ‘Lower your bows!’ the human called out. ‘They’re not goblins.’

  ‘Oh well done! Capital observation there!’ Halvard said. Knud grinned and Jarl flashed him a look to be silent, worried at how agitated the humans were.

  ‘The ponies aren’t enough; we need a Heit per dwarf too,’ the man said, his eyes peering over their shoulders towards the forest. Halvard turned to see what the man was looking at, but there was a disturbing lack of noise coming from the trees, with not so much as a single bird chirping.

  Jarl reached into his bag and passed three gold Heit to the man, then grabbed Knud’s hand and climbed over the wall towards the barge. He had been cheated, he knew that, just one pony should have been more than enough for passage to Einn. But they could not risk another night in the forest and were not in a position to argue.

  ‘That one’s too shifty for my liking,’ Halvard whispered .

  Jarl nodded. ‘I don’t think I’m the only one to notice the goblins have gotten more daring.’

  Halvard shook his head. ‘Nah! If the goblins had come this far, nobody would be alive here.’

  No sooner had the words left his mouth, a third barge further out in the river came into view, half burnt and half submerged. The side that was still above the surface of the water smouldered gently.

  ‘What happened?’ Jarl asked casually.

  ‘Goblin attack last night. We were just about to leave when we heard you. Thought you were them coming back,’ the man muttered. ‘Come on,’ he said, beckoning them. ‘Get on. We’re leaving now.’

  They filed onto the barge. The deck creaked in protest as they stomped past the peeling painted walls to the rough seats built into the sides. Looking up, Jarl saw the roof had collapsed.

  The four remaining humans took the second barge along with the ponies, having to coax the nervous creatures onto it.

  The barge they were on was old, and Jarl worried that it was slightly too old to be carrying so many of them. But the humans seemed to feel safe enough as they crowded onto the top of the barge and pushed away from the pier. Two men at the rear turned the hand-wound paddle and the barge gradually moved forward.

  ‘Uncle...can you swim?’ Knud asked worriedly, as they passed the smouldering remains of the barge.

  ‘Don’t worry Knud. The goblins don’t attack in daylight.’

  ‘I’m not worried about the goblins, I’m worried about drowning!’

  ‘Knud! Don’t worry!’

  ‘Well you look worried.’

  Throwing his arm around his nephew, Jarl kept his other hand as close to the hilt of his sword as he dared, with the humans watching him suspiciously.

  It doesn’t make sense, Jarl thought. Why would the goblins destroy one of the barges, but not the houses?

  ‘Would you mind not pointing that at me,’ Halvard growled at the human who was standing alongside him with his eyes on the shoreline, his bow still drawn.

  Without a word, the human strolled further down the deck, barely noticing that Halvard had even spoken.

  Other than the rhythmic slapping of water against the side of the barge, and the occasional bird-call, there was silence. But suddenly, a flock of birds rose up swiftly from the forest floor near the bank. The black crows shot over them, their piercing screeches almost deafening, and flew into the distance before everything returned to a deathly silence.

  ‘Uncle?’

  With a loud thud, an arrow shot up from the bank, hitting the third human squarely in the centre of his head. Three more arrows followed and hit the two humans who had been pedalling before they even knew what was happening.

  Without saying a word Jarl dropped to the floor, pulling Knud down with him, and placed his hand over his mouth to stop the young dwarf from screaming in fear. Halvard followed suit, falling to his knees, and flashed Jarl a worried look.

  ‘Don’t make a sound!’ Jarl whispered. He let go of Knud and began to crawl cautiously down the centre of the barge. The ponies on the second barge screamed as three more arrows found them, and judging by the terrified sounds the animals were making, the arrows had not been as well aimed as for the humans. Knud covered his own mouth and tried not to whimper in fear as the ponies continued to screech and squeal then finally gurgle as they began to choke on their own blood.

  Reaching the small porthole at the end of the barge, Jarl looked down at the three dead humans lying on the boards next to him. Their eyes were glazed and staring up at the grey cloudy sky, and small pools of blood puddled around them.

  At least they didn’t suffer, Jarl thought to himself. If they were caught, they would be lucky if their deaths were as quick. Goblins were not known for acts of mercy.

  Peering through the porthole, his breath caught in this throat.

  Lining the bank were at least thirty goblins, all of them with their arrows raised and aimed at the second barge. The screams of the ponies were cut short as the arrows rained down, puncturing every square foot of surface.

  We’re next!

  He motioned at Halvard and Knud to join him, and as they crawled forwards, Jarl pushed the body of the nearest human towards them.

  ‘Get underneath!’ he ordered. ‘Quickly!’

  Knud stared at him, aghast, but Halvard did what he was told without question.

  Hearing a goblin shouting a command on the bank, Jarl grabbed Knud and dragged him to the floor. He took hold of the closest human body and heaved it over them both, just as the arrows rained down on them. Within seconds, the entire deck was speckled with arrows, and Jarl inhaled sharply as one of them pierced straight through the body of the human and protruded right between his fingers, which were holding the body up.

  ‘Don’t say a word!’ Jarl whispered. ‘Don’t move an inch!’ He could feel Knud trembling beside him as the goblins shouted and hollered from the riverbank.

  Everyone waited tensely, not daring to breathe, not sure if the goblins would try and board the boat or not. They prayed that the river’s current would keep the barge in the centre of the river and not let them drift back to the bank.

  After what seemed like an eternity, the voices on the shore diminished and eventually disappeared. Jarl crawled out from underneath the human but instructed Knud to stay where he was. He inched his way to the side of the barge, maneuvering around the dozens of arrows that riddled the deck.

  Peeking through the porthole, he saw that not only was the bank clear
of goblins, but that the barge was being carried firmly down the centre of the stream by a strong current.

  ‘Are they gone?’ Halvard asked as Jarl crawled back.

  ‘I think so, but we should wait till we’re a few miles downstream. I don’t want to take any chances.’

  ‘Agreed!’ Halvard said, shuffling a little to try and get more comfortable. He lay back as if he were taking a nap, the fact that he had a dead body on top of him not bothering him in the slightest.

  Knud, however, was not so comfortable, with the open eyes of the man on top of him clearly upsetting him. Jarl reached over and tried to close the man’s eyes but they sprang back open.

  ‘Why are they doing that?’ Knud whispered, his voice shaking.

  ‘Some people just die like that.’

  ‘Please close them! He’s looking at me!’

  Ripping a thin strip off the human’s tunic, Jarl tied it around the man’s eyes like a blindfold, and Knud breathed a sigh of relief.

  ‘There, you can’t see them now,’ Jarl said. ‘Now stay there. I’m not risking anything until we’re at Einn.’

  * * *

  Knud awoke with a start when the side of the barge slammed into the riverbank. Jarl jumped onto the grass and held the ropes taut as Halvard clambered from the deck with their bags, Knud’s being the only one lucky enough to have avoided being decorated with one of the goblins’ arrows.

  ‘Come on, Knud,’ Jarl called. ‘We haven’t got all day!’

  They had decided to sail the barge downstream overnight, and Jarl and Halvard had pedalled quickly, stopping and dropping to the floor the minute they heard any kind of noise coming from the forest.

  Knud got to his feet and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. Yawning, he watched as his uncle tied the mooring ropes to an old, wooden post on the side of the bank, as Halvard, on his knees, splashed water onto his face from the river. And then as he turned, he saw it: the second barge drifting slowly towards them. From where he stood, Knud could see the limp bodies of the humans and ponies sprawled across the deck, pools of dark red blood encircling them and staining the planks. There was a stream of red flowing from the side of the barge into the water, where one of the humans had tried to crawl over the side having been struck with an arrow through his neck. His body was bent in half, slumped over the side like a sack. A second arrow protruded from his forehead.

  ‘Jarl!’ Knud shouted. ‘Look!’

  Jarl looked up and saw the barge, lapping in the current and drifting towards him.

  ‘Halvard!’ he said, shoving the mooring rope into his hand. ‘Get this tied up!’

  Halvard got to his knees, saw what the others were staring at, and shook his head. ‘We don’t have time for pleasantries,’ he growled.

  Jarl ignored him, and with Knud’s help, they pulled the second barge to the riverbank.

  The next twenty minutes were spent pulling arrows out of the humans and respectfully laying them on their backs. Next they removed the arrows from the ponies. Knud watched Jarl at work and nervously copied what he was doing, but he gagged several times as each arrow came away in his hand, the horrible squelch of the arrow being pulled from flesh, and the stream of blood that followed, making him nauseous. He worked slowly, unable to look at what he was doing, each tug of the arrow and the resistance against the flesh making him urge. Halvard shook his head at him. The boy needed to toughen up.

  Jarl collected all the remaining arrows from the deck and handed them to Halvard. ‘I’ll be one minute.’

  He jumped from the barge onto the bank, leapt back onto the one they had travelled on, and knelt down to remove the blindfold from the human who had protected him.

  ‘Jarl! We don’t have time for this!’ Halvard snapped.

  ‘One minute!’

  He worked quickly, removing arrows and dragging bodies to the middle of the deck so they rested alongside each other. He moved their arms so they crossed peacefully on their chests. Finally, he gathered the humans’ bows and the goblins’ arrows and joined the others.

  Halvard glared at him.

  ‘Come on, it only took a moment,’ he said, sliding the arrows into his bag.

  ‘I don’t care!’

  ‘They deserved at least a little dignity!’

  ‘They are not our own!’ Halvard yelled. ‘We care for our own!’

  ‘If it wasn’t for them we’d be dead! This was the least we could do!’

  ‘I swear, one day your ridiculous sensibilities are going to get us killed!’ Halvard snapped, taking off down the path and kicking at the ground.

  Jarl let out a breath he hadn’t realised he’d been holding and slowly unclenched his jaw.

  ‘How far are we from Einn?’ Knud asked quietly. Jarl turned to him and for the first time noticed he had splatters of blood on his face.

  ‘Only a few hours. A few hours and then you can have a nice warm bath, some warm food-’

  ‘And a warm bed!’ Knud finished, smiling. ‘Forget the food and the bath. I’ll settle for just a pillow if I have to.’

  Both Afraid

  39 years ago...

  Dag watched Astrid cautiously out of the corner of his eye as she slept. She moved every few seconds in her sleep, wincing, flinching, holding her parents’ blanket tightly around her with one hand, and loosely grasping her father’s hammer axe in the other. Sylbil’s bow was standing ceremonially behind her. She had been like this for the past three weeks, trying to sleep, but every few minutes jolting awake, screaming from the nightmares. The only thing that seemed to calm her were having her parents’ weapons close by. She held them as lovingly as if they were her favorite dolls.

  Felix whinnied, nervously switching hooves as Astrid stirred again. The pony didn’t trust Astrid any more than Astrid trusted the pony; the skin on its neck where she had touched it was now shrivelled and wrinkled in the shape of a small hand.

  Dag still did not know what to think.

  He had never, in all the thousands of years he had lived, seen anything like what he had witnessed in the Aldwood. To be so strong so young; to be able to take energy whilst still a child; it terrified him. He had seen others, many centuries ago, who had been as able and strong as Astrid was now, but not at her age. And their stories had all ended violently. The thought that Astrid could be travelling the same road terrified him almost as much as the realisation that he now had a child to raise.

  Getting to his feet, Dag pulled an apple from his bag. He held it out to Felix who promptly began munching it from his cupped hand.

  ‘Don’t worry boy, it’s ok,’ Dag muttered. ‘She didn’t mean to hurt you. We’ll be home in a week, I promise.’ Finishing the apple, Felix settled back down onto the grass and Dag growled to himself as it started to drizzle. He strolled over to Astrid, muttered a few words under his breath and raised his head to the treetops. The branches creaked and cracked as they twisted above him, and although they looped around on each other to create a thick covering of leaves, he hoped they were adequate enough to shield Astrid from the rain.

  Dag tucked the blanket around Astrid more tightly as she shivered in her sleep, the temperature having suddenly dropped several degrees with the rainfall. He sat down next to her and stroked her head fondly, gazing at his glowing palm, the magic circling beneath his skin like a neon fish swirling in his hand.

  He had always planned to teach Astrid how to use magic when she was older, but after today, he didn’t think that would be possible anymore. She was too broken, too angry. Teaching her magic was out of the question. To master magic one required self control, especially control of one’s emotions. It was something Astrid didn’t have.

  Waking with a start, Astrid peered up at him, the fear in her face quickly diminishing as soon as it registered he was there.

  ‘How long till we get there?’ she asked.

  ‘Only a few days now, goldheart.’

  Nodding her head, Astrid stared blankly into the middle space between herself and the trees, her eyes va
cant and lost. Dag racked his brain for something to say, tired of seeing that look in her eyes, wishing he could think of a way to bring back the excitable and innocent goddaughter he had once had, rather than struggle with this hollow shell of a child.

  ‘I’m going to build a room just for you! It’ll be as big as you want! And I’ll make you your favourite meal when we get there. Do you still like rabbit pie?’ Dag asked.

  Astrid said nothing, but eventually realised he had asked her a question and nodded vaguely, still gazing blankly into the distance.

  ‘What do you want me to make for your room?’ Dag asked, hoping to coax just a little conversation from her.

  ‘Nothing,’ she said. And then for the first time in days, she sat bolt upright and looked at him, her green and grey eyes shining with a sudden intensity in the firelight.

  ‘I want you to teach me how to fight,’ she said firmly, her jaw set in a tight line. ‘That’s what I want! Teach me how to fight!’

  ‘Fight?’ he said, part of him overjoyed that she had finally spoken, but feeling totally unprepared for a response.

  ‘Yes. I want to be strong.’

  ‘You are strong, goldheart!’

  ‘No! No I’m not! I couldn’t help them! I...I need to be strong!’ The tears slid down her cheeks and Dag pulled her into his arms, holding her close to his chest. He rocked her gently back and forth, over and again, whispering in her ear that everything would be alright, until finally she slept.

  Astrid was exhausted, her feet red, swollen and blistered from all the walking she had done over the previous few days. Her fear and stubbornness had prevented her from riding Felix, and even when the skin of her heels had begun to crack and bleed, she had hobbled on determinedly.

  The fire spluttered slightly, and Dag let go of Astrid for a second and moved his hand across it, muttering some words under his breath. The fire roared into flames again, despite the lack of wood to burn.