Ragged Heroes: An Epic Fantasy Collection

by Andy Peloquin

  "Take heart," Nurias told the man. “The dead will kill you out here as quickly as kill you in there. At least there is more food to be found within these walls."

  They began their northern trek, following a broken road that led into darkening hills a far distance from their current position.

  The lands outside the town were mostly scorched earth. While there was some new growth here and there, it was not much to mention. In the times of the great war, the skies rained fire and burned most of the lands. Not to mention wherever the necromancers and their filth went, all life simply died.

  He thought back to the guardsmen at the gate, and while he gave him a hard time, he felt some level of sorrow for him. The man had agreed to be a guard because he had no other skills. Not that most skills would help. People either supplied security as best they could, or hunted for what could be eaten. Even worse, men and women had turned to simply selling themselves to whoever would take them to provide small comforts. There was no honor left in this world except for a few warriors willing to draw swords together.

  Lorlank pulled out a tough loaf of dried out bread. It wasn’t the best but it travelled well. He broke off a piece and tossed it at both Nurias and the young companion.

  "Tomu, you must get used to stuff like this. You had it good in town, eating your three times weekly rations of Salt Rock Stew. This hard stuff will be a bit of a change for you. But you might find that you can imagine flavors."

  The boy took a small portion of the substance and forcibly ate it, trying to hide the fact that he was upset and disgusted by it. Nurias did not blame him. It wasn't good but would keep their strength up. Funnily enough, Lorlank had kept his large size even with little food to be found. The disgruntled man smacked the portion of bread and then shook his fist at the ground.

  "I cannot believe a way to defeat these creatures was so close to us."

  "Well, I didn’t think the two of us could get into the elven lands. Frankly, I wasn’t expecting to have to go there. While we will enter what's left of the woods, I do not think we can actually get to the old elven home."

  "I doubt it. They say the necromancers opened a portal there, a direct line from the Sunken Lands to here. But I've heard little whispers of them moving much away from the already conquered lands. If their presence leaves an area, the portals close. Still, I'm surprised they have not come further our way."

  Lorlank laughed. "Give the bastards time. Rumor has it they were still chasing dwarves down into their mines. Others said that in the past few years, they have been simply building their forces in preparation for a full onslaught. I just do not get the point. Why come after us? We are already a beaten race."

  "They draw on our life force. It provides them some level of pleasure, or so it seems. Like a drunkard seeing their next drink, these necromancers seek to binge on the living."

  "Like a vampire?" Tomu asked.

  "No! Do not speak of those beasts," Lorlank said. "Vampires are bad enough on their own. We do not need to add to our troubles by summoning one!"

  "You can't summon one by saying 'vampire.'” Nurias laughed.

  "Close enough," Lorlank said. "I may not be of the Holy Order anymore, but some of their teachings were correct. A vampire lord can hear its own name. Some, like myself, would not be surprised if they could hear 'vampire' too. Damn, I said it again."

  Tomu seemed shocked, and Nurias just shook his head. At least the constant surprised face of their young companion was amusing.

  * * *

  Night was falling upon them. As the orange sky gave way to a pitch-black night, the moon having no light at all further caused a haunting drear to fall over Nurias and his companions. It was bad enough to be moving outside a town's walls at night. Not that he was particularly worried about the undead, but there was more in the world than what could be summoned by the necromancers. With the retreat of the other races, not to mention the Holy Order, which was an entity formed to keep those of dark creation and evil down, all forms of malice and dangerous beasts had free range of the lands and took to it with an insane passion.

  They lucked out and found a small ruined farmhouse and decided it would be best to pass the night here. They made a small fire, and though they intended to keep one of the two adults awake and on watch throughout the night, neither Nurias nor Lorlank felt they could sleep. They had only been back at the town for the past four nights. Obtaining new supplies was always something the town needed, and aside from earning greater favor for their work, they always gathered extra stuff for themselves. But they never went north. No one went this way. In fact, both of them had discussed moving further south. The danger was that the border towns were always a bit wilder and enabled a bit more lawlessness. To fit in near the other refuges, they'd have to make sure they didn't draw attention to themselves. Those in power retained their power through manipulation, and enforced rules in a much harsher form. In some ways, Nurias preferred that, just not when it applied to him. He was still surprised that he cared enough to try this crazy quest. A man reached a point in their sorrow that no matter the cause, there was no point. He thought of the family he once had and sighed, cursing that he had no fermented drink to deaden this pain.

  It took some time, but Lorlank and Tomu eventually fell asleep. Not much had been said between the three of them, but then again, they’d all had issues relaxing. Nurias lay staring up at the stars in the sky and noticing the hue of a red glow in the distance. It was a settlement burning their dead. A wise tactic not always followed in the past, leaving a fresh pile for the necromancers to summon new warriors. Some towns, like a town they were in before, were late to enact this belief. Thankfully, a landslide shifted their graves underneath the earth, and it seemed, for a time, the dead would leave them alone. An act of the two gods if Nurias had ever seen one. There were many towns not so lucky the previous years. Even one town that by some act felt is wise to keep the dead priests of the two gods upright along the walls of their city in a hope to ward off an attack. It worked as well as one might expect. They were all fools; at least, that's how Nurias saw them.

  * * *

  It had been a few hours, and now it was Lorlank’s time to watch. Nurias turned over and closed his eyes as Lorlank went around the side of the cottage to urinate. Nurias pushed away the images from the memories he had of his family. While most people had nightmares while they slept, his nightmares were unending be he awake or asleep. Being asleep just meant he was truly trapped within the dream world. A place of torment for him. He could only try to rest.

  Nurias had no more than closed his eyes when the heavy footfalls of Lorlank stirred him awake. His friend slid down to the ground, covering Tomu's mouth and glancing up above them. It was then Nurias heard a loud screech. He peered upward to see a massive bat flying overhead. It was a grotesque beast, barely visible in the predawn sky, but this was an example of creatures left unchecked in the world. The undead had claimed many of these beasts as mounts, but this one did not appear to have any rider. It was a wild bat, which was extremely rare but no doubt gave a little bit more comfort to their plight.

  They were fortunate to be lying along the edges of the ruined farmhouse. Their forms would not be too visible to the nearly blind creature sending sounds across the dunes, looking for prey.

  Nurias drew his blade as the creature flew over them again. It hovered, and for a moment, Nurias thought they were discovered. The bat darted away from them and grabbed another creature flying through the sky. Though it was dark and difficult to see what it was, two creatures fought high above them, and at one point, the bat bit into the other creature, splashing a luminescent green blood all over the sands around them. Snarls and hisses erupted around them, and it seemed the bat gained the upper hand, pushing its prey into a dune some distance away and silencing it. The green blood was beginning to creep to them. By some devilry, the substance was attracted to living creatures, and their spot was no longer safe.

  “This creature has some form of necr
omancer magic within its blood. We must go. We will use darkness to cover our escape while that creature enjoys its meal,” Nurias whispered.

  "Agreed,” Lorlank said.

  Avoiding the encroaching glowing blood that had nearly covered the ruins completely, they mounted their own beasts and began across the badlands once again.

  * * *

  Nurias was happy the sun was rising. He had significantly less worries in the daytime versus the night, and that was part of the reason they stopped. The region they were crossing had at one time been wide-open grasslands where hundreds of horses grazed. At the northernmost point of this region was the dried out basin of what was once a grand crystal clear lake. As they reached what was the edge, they could see no sign of the splendor worthy of the songs of old it once held. What little liquid remained within the skeletal stony deeps was dark and sludge-like. Where an island once was stood a tower of rock that reached down to the very bottom of the lake, almost as if a monolith to the destruction that had rocked the region.

  "I have not been this way in some time," Lorlank said, "but the last time I was here, there was at least water still in the lake. Can the world just not return to what it once was? Can life not come back?"

  It was clear to Nurias that Tomu was rather surprised by this. He did not know what the boy expected. The stories of once was were nothing but that, stories. He grew up in this world. There were no safe happy places in which to hide here.

  "I have read about this place. The ruins of the old high elves were said to have jutted out from tall trees on that island. It looks more like a spire," Tomu said. “I was hoping it wasn’t like this.”

  The boy stared at Lorlank and back to the sight before them.

  Nurias laughed, "This is our world. I knew it as you imagined it once was, but you must embrace what it is."

  Nurias knew his words were not harsh but true, and in time, the boy would understand the truth was much more important than the temporary pleasures he had no doubt indulged within some book.

  They moved around the lake, coming to what was known now as the Ash Woods. This was once the greater woodland region of the local elves. This grand forest had reached far into the north and east, surrounding the base of rather large hills. Though it was not the first place the necromancers attacked, it became a constant target for their raids.

  Moving to the rocky ground of the Ash Woods, they maneuvered their mounts through the broken trees and over several large logs.

  The bright sunlight that had encouraged Nurias quickly faded away as the storm rolled over them. As lightning flashed and random strong showers pelted them, they moved with haste into the hill lands, seeking refuge near large boulders to get out of the actual storm. With some luck, the rain gave way to simply a gusting wind around the same time they found cover. The dark clouds rolled above them, but they could at least continue their journey. They stood for a moment, starting into the ashy sludge of mud running in streams around them. As long as the storms were only raining water, they were safe. Nurias looked out to the far distance and to the dark clouds with towers of fire growing within them. He knew the necromancers were on the move.

  They went down from the hills and returned to the skeletal woods as fog rolled across the land, veiling most of their path. Fog in these lands could be strange. Most of the time, fog was a natural occurrence, but this far away from any form of civilization and going into a place such as this, fog could mean something much worse. Nurias drew his blade, much to the shocked bewilderment of their young companion.

  "We need to fight?" he asked.

  "Not fight, just prepare," Lorlank said.

  Nurias gripped the reins of this creature, moving in an arc away from their path and crisscrossing several times to try to keep them from being too blinded in the already dense fog.

  It took some time, but they finally emerged from the fog. The fog around them began to recede, and at that moment, he heard many footfalls on the ground. It was not the heavy thud of boots clicking, but the cracking sound of bones upon stone.

  He turned to the direction of the sound and spotted four skeletal warriors. The largest one, standing at least seven feet tall, had a massive spear. Before they could do anything, in the typical fashion of his friend, Lorlank was off his beast and charging the largest skeleton holding the spear. He shoved his axe into the spear, parrying it upward before closing the distance upon the bony form, smacking it back with a closed fist. He had done this many times, and it was the reason he wore strong gauntlets.

  Nurias looked toward the other two skeletons to see a single arrow plink into the bone of one of them. The skeleton rattled its jaw toward them.

  "A feeble attempt, boy. Not enough for something not of flesh,” Nurias said. He jumped from his beast, moving quickly against the angered skeleton.

  Skeletons were not known for their battle prowess, normally requiring only simple blade work with a parry and a strike of a hard object.

  Nurias rushed to its right side, parrying its half-hearted jab and returning the attack with a slash to its neck. Just as he had followed through, the second skeleton moved upon them, and Lorlank swung a low blow, breaking its legs apart. The skeleton fell to the ground, grasping upward helplessly. Nurias ran up to the skeleton, cracking its arms before flipping its ribcage and head back over.

  "What are you doing here?" he asked it.

  The skeleton clicked its teeth several times. "What are you of the living doing here? These lands are ours."

  "You're never too far from either your master’s army or ruins of a place you’ve been sent to. I see no army with you, so I know you are not an attacking force. What is your business?"

  "What are you going to do? Kill me again?" the creature said with a strange clicking laugh.

  Lorlank grabbed the creature by its skull before swinging its neck around in a circle.

  "No. If you tell us what we want, we will happily end your life, if you can call it that. You tell us what we wish, or we make you a permanent ornament that we carry with us."

  "I'd much like that. It gets lonely as a skeleton. I cannot get much deader."

  "Wait, no normal skeleton of the necromancers talks in any form of joke. You're not a summoned form."

  "No, but I still got what was once mine. My brothers and I were woodcutters in these woods, and while I do not remember exactly how we died, I do believe it was some type of large creature. When the blight of the undead reached us, life returned to our bones. Some skeletons had come through, but they were not interested in us at all. Two of them came upon a strange shadowy creature. They conversed in a way we could not understand, and then the shadow creature tore them apart. It is where my brothers and I got our weapons. You do not think you can fix my brothers?"

  Lorlank looked over to the skulls he’d made a point to crack, including the one decapitated by Nurias before breaking on the ground.

  "I'm going to guess no." the skull said.

  Nurias smirked at the strange skeleton head. "Since you are not the necromancers’, I can simply end your life. You do not have any other useful information?"

  The skeleton head clicked his mouth a few more times. "I know nothing except that it is cold all the time here. Even when I can tell the creatures of the living are hot and thirsty, I am always cold."

  "We can end that." Nurias nodded to Lorlank to smash the skull, the only suitable thing to do, when it seemed the head protested.

  "There is a bit more, but I won't tell you unless you take me with you. I'd much like to see the blight of the world. I have only wandered around here. Let me go with you."

  "We are not taking a skeleton with us," Nurias said. "We go north with more people already than I think we need. I do not need any other talking heads."

  "Then you don’t want my information," the head said. "You can call me Skull-Bone, if you wish, and you may destroy me at your destination. But, there are new issues near there, or so the dead have told me. But tell me I can go, and I will reveal the
information."

  "Fine, but I will put you on a tree where nothing can crack you if I discover you are lying. You can go. The boy will carry you."

  Tomu shook his head. "What? No, I'm not carrying a skeleton."

  "More like half of one," Lorlank said, "maybe only a fifth. And you will. It's part of the journey."

  Nurias took the head from Lorlank. "Tell me what you know."

  "Okay," the skull said. "There is a chance that a necromancer is coming this way. I had even heard the Plaque Reapers were moving down the coasts."

  "I had heard that. It is a rumor that circulates the streets of every township the moment the winds shift, but you are sure of it?"

  "Oh yes, they are searching for something where you plan to search. It is why others have come at times to scout the . . . other dead ones. There are traps, constructs invisible to living eyes. It is why I'd be useful to you. They believe for some reason that others might be coming for something, and I would say they are correct. But I am a lowly skeleton, not privy to actual summonings of the necromancers. But there have been more beasts in the woods of late. I have to imagine the necromancers and their kind are not too far away."

  "Well, aren't we all lucky."

  "Indeed, you are very lucky. Now, I tell you this only so that you'll kill me once we reach the elven ruins; well, kill me again."

  The skeleton head did another exuberant clicking laugh.

  "Fine, I'll smash you when we get there if you help us avoid the traps. No games, skull."

  They had already wasted so much time. They made a point to quickly mount their beasts and begin back through the woods. Having a talking skull was a first for Nurias, and he could only wonder what they would look like if they came across anyone of the living.

  They moved through the Ash Trees region and began into a deeper and taller region of trees that had been long scarred by the fiery rains from before. Black crag tips of the jagged towers of the once massive trees greeted them as they took the main rode to make their quicker pace easier. The skull did not protest, so they assumed there were no traps this way.