The Ruins on Stone Hill

by F. P. Spirit

  Aksel spurred his dog forward and the others fell in behind him. This time, they turned north then west, following that road out of town. As they passed Ravenford keep, Glo spied three riders waiting up by the front gate. One of them had long blonde hair and was garbed in a green riding outfit. The other two wore the uniforms of castle guards. When the riders saw them, they headed down the hill.

  Aksel held up his hand and called the company to a halt. They waited at the base of the hill for the riders to reach them. The center rider was the Lady Andrella. Accompanying her were Francis and Lieutenant Relkin. Each of the men carried a large basket in one hand. The young lady addressed the group of riders.

  “Good adventurers, we would like to wish you the best of luck on your upcoming endeavor. The Barony of Ravenford greatly appreciates your efforts in the name of our town and as such we would like to present you with this small token of our esteem.”

  The young woman snapped her fingers, and Francis and Relkin dismounted. They strode forward and presented the baskets to Lloyd and Titan.

  Titan dismounted and took one of them. “Why thank you, Francis.”

  Francis seemed a bit flustered around the tall warrior. “Ah…you’re welcome, Delara…but it was Andrella’s idea…”

  Titan opened the top and peered inside. Her eyes opened wide. “Andrella! You shouldn’t have. There’s enough food in here for a small army.”

  The Lady Andrella smiled warmly at the tall warrior. “Nothing’s too good for old friends, Delara. Or new ones,” she added, glancing around at the other riders. Her eyes finally settled on Lloyd.

  “Thank you, sir. This is more than kind,” the young man said as he accepted the other basket from the lieutenant.

  There was a trace of a smile on Andrella’s face.

  Aksel cleared his throat. “Ahem, good Lady, we very much appreciate this token of esteem from the First House of Ravenford. Please rest assured that our efforts will be strengthened measurably by your kind support.”

  “You are most welcome,” she replied, though her eyes drifted once more to Lloyd. The young man smiled shyly at her and her cheeks reddened slightly. As Francis and Relkin remounted their horses, the Lady addressed them one last time. “Good luck then. May the gods keep you safe, and may you return to us soon.” She spun her mount around and spurred it up the hill. Francis and Relkin followed.

  Once the riders were out of earshot, Brundon spoke up. “Well, my friends, this little group certainly has earned the favor of the House Avernos.” He glanced at Lloyd. “Perhaps some of us more than others.”

  “Jealous, Brundon?” Titan taunted.

  Brundon feigned surprise. “Me? No, love. Quite the contrary in fact. I like knowing someone in favor with the baron’s family.”

  Glo found his statement puzzling. “Delara, forgive me for asking, but didn’t you say you were old friends with the Lady Andrella? She seemed to refer to you as such.”

  A pained expression crossed Titan’s face. “Andrella and I are most definitely old friends. It’s just…complicated…”

  As Titan faltered, Brundon spoke up for her. “What Delara is trying to say is, sometimes being friends with the first family of Ravenford isn’t enough. There are others in the keep who can make things difficult, especially for mercenaries.”

  Glo raised an eyebrow. Brundon must have been referring to Captain Gelpas. After all, the captain was the one in charge of contracting out work. Gelpas seemed like a fair man though. So why would he have a problem with Brundon and Titan? He was tempted to ask more, but the duo had gone silent. It was obvious they did not want to talk about it further.

  Back to the Bendenwoods

  They call him the one-eyed god

  The riders resumed their journey down the west road and the little town of Ravenford was soon left behind. They followed the roadway northwest alongside the Raven River until the river branched off into two tributaries, the Berribrun and the West Raven. The road then continued to parallel the West Raven, past the Kelvan hills to the south and the Dwimmer Forest to the north. It was another beautiful day, the sun still low in the sky behind the travelers. Morning dew covered the grass, and the leaves glistening with residual moisture. Glo’s familiar flew overhead. She appeared over the party, circled for a minute or two, then shot out ahead of the little band over the treetops. The party crossed over the Berribrun and now traveled on the north side of the West Raven. They skirted the fringes of the Dwimmer Forest.

  The woods were a stark contrast to the Dead Forest. The trees rose high above the travelers, their boughs full with lush greenery. The floor of the woods was blanketed with dark, thick underbrush. The sweet smell of pine and the strong odor of cedar wafted on the gentle breeze that reached the roadway. The sound of birds singing their early morning songs filled the air—the avian creatures flitting from tree to tree. Occasionally an entire flock would rise up from one tree, make a huge airborne circle, and wing their way to another tree a short distance away, landing as a group. Squirrels danced among the branches, chasing each other, playing tag. They heard the rustle of an animal moving through the brush, often followed by a deer or fox sighting.

  Glo gave a heavy sigh. “Now that is what a forest should look like.”

  It had been almost two months now since he had left his woodland home of Cairthrellon. He had not thought about it at the time, but he was beginning to feel homesick. These last few days in the cramped town of Ravenford and the awful Dead Forest had taken more of a toll on him than he realized. The sights, sounds, and smells of the Dwimmer Forest drove the point home most poignantly.

  Aksel dropped back to ride beside Glo. “Are you alright?”

  He turned to Aksel and smiled. “I’m fine. Just a momentary bout of homesickness is all.”

  “I know what you mean,” Aksel confided in him. “I can’t believe how flat everything is out here. It just seems…unnatural.”

  Just then, a small black form winged out of the sky. Glo turned his head and spied Raven, angling down toward him. The wizard raised his arm, and the bird landed on his wrist. She hopped up onto his shoulder and perched there saying, “Ikotane vanima, ikotane vanima.” So beautiful, so beautiful.

  “Well, at least Raven is content,” Aksel said.

  “Yes, she is.” The bird’s happy mood raised Glo’s spirits as well. He sighed as tranquility washed over him for the first time in quite a while. “She is merely happy to be out among nature.”

  The little band continued to follow the road as it wound alongside the West Raven. Soon they passed the Dwimmer Forest and were back in open country. They saw a group of hills to the south of the river. Those were the Kelvan Hills, according to Brundon. They had passed through them on their previous journey to Stone Hill. North of the road, the Vogel Hills rose lazily to meet the sky. The rolling green hills were a familiar sight to the companions and would accompany them all the way back to the Bendenwoods.

  As the day wore on, the weather stayed clear. The riders continued westward, making good time on the smooth paved surface of the roadway. It was just shy of midday when they caught their first glimpse of the Bendenwoods. The edge of the forest spread out before them, reaching far to the south of the West Raven and all the way north to the foot of the Vogels. Aksel called a halt, and the riders drew together on the road.

  “Whew,” Lloyd whistled. “That is one large forest.”

  “The Bendenwoods is one of the largest forests on the east coast,” Brundon told him.

  “But not the largest,” Glo said. “If this little wood impresses you, then you should come with me one day to Cairthrellon. The great forest of Ruanaiaith puts Renesnyn to shame.”

  “Renesnyn?” Lloyd repeated.

  “The elven name for the Bendenwoods.”

  The young man stared at him skeptically. “And this Ruanai…”

&n
bsp; “…aith,” Glo finished for him.

  “Ruanaiaith,” Lloyd repeated.

  Glo nodded.

  “Is it really that large of a forest?”

  “Oh, most definitely. Ruanaiaith stretches from Cairthrellon in the west to Kai-Arborus in the east, easily thrice the length of Renesnyn. And it is home to some of the largest and oldest trees in Thac. They grow to enormous size. Some of them support the elven city of Kai-Arborus, sections of which rise high above the forest floor. Arcarion and Giant Oak, they dwarf anything you might see here in this forest.”

  “Well then,” Aksel chimed in, “now that we’ve had our lesson in elven forestry for the day, we should probably stop and have lunch.”

  “You can never know too much,” Glo responded. “As my father loves to say, knowledge is power.”

  Aksel nodded. “I couldn’t agree more. Speaking of which, maybe Raven can do some scouting for us and improve our knowledge of what’s ahead?”

  “Touché,” Glo conceded.

  He turned to the black bird currently perched on his shoulder and said, “Iquista ernthye de ale’quel.” Please scout up front.

  “Vee’lye iest.” As you wish, Raven replied. In seconds, she was winging skywards toward the rambling forest in front of them.

  A short way off the road stood a small grove of pine trees. Brundon scouted around the grove and found a small clearing in its center. The company left the road and set up there for lunch.

  They unpacked the two baskets the Lady Andrella had given them—each one filled to the brim with food, including breaded chicken cutlets mixed with slices of ham and cheese, sliced potatoes baked with some kind of cheese sauce, buttered corn giblets, apple and cherry pies, and some spiced apple cider to wash it all down.

  Brundon licked his lips. “Looks like a meal fit for a king, though I would have preferred ale.”

  Titan jabbed him in the arm. “Maybe Andrella wants us to keep sober on this mission.”

  Brundon gave her a hurt look. “Where’s the fun in that, love?”

  “Hey, food we didn’t have to catch ourselves, and pie! No complaints here.” A knife appeared in Seth’s hands and he began to cut into his lunch.

  Everyone ate heartily. The main meal was soon gone, and Seth handily sliced up the pies. That was soon gone as well, and the group began to clean up the remains. As they packed what little food was left, Raven returned from her scouting mission. Seth spotted her circling high above, and they all watched as she spiraled down and landed on Glo’s extended arm.

  “Ilyana tîn,” she told her master.

  “All is quiet, she says,” Glo happily relayed to the others.

  Aksel looked pleased. “Excellent. Let’s finish up here and move out.”

  Brundon put down his plate and stood up. “I’ll go ahead and scout out the ground.”

  “Shirking clean up duties again?” Titan taunted him.

  Brundon feigned offense at her remark. “Me? I would never do that, love. Besides, there is too much that cannot be seen from the air.” He cast a quick glance at Glo. “No offense to your raven, mind you.”

  Glo shrugged. “None taken.”

  Seth wiped off his plate and got up as well. “How about we both go. You can fan out to the north and I’ll take the south.”

  Brundon smirked. “Less work for me.”

  “Go ahead,” Aksel said.

  The duo took off ahead of the others. The rest of them cleaned up, packed everything away, then headed back out of the grove. Once back on the road, they continued their westward trek. The Bendenwoods drew closer, the trunks of individual trees now visible in the distance. It was early afternoon, the sun directly overhead. The travelers felt the heat of the orb beating down on them. The riders continued their advance but were still a couple of miles from the edge of the forest when Seth and Brundon returned. Seth had not seen anything to the south, but Brundon had quite a different story to tell.

  “I found some shoe tracks north of the road. Three of them to be exact; a bit larger than your average man, from what I could gauge. So we’re either talking Lloyd-sized men, or…” He gazed around at the others knowingly.

  “Orcs,” Titan finished for him. “Where do the tracks lead?”

  “Into the forest; I followed them about a quarter mile in. There they met up with four more sets.”

  Aksel stroked his chin. “So there are seven of them all together.”

  “So it would seem. The four tracks come down from the north, meet these three, and then all seven of them head south from there.”

  “From the north? What is up that way?” Glo asked.

  “Nothing but the Vogel Hills,” Titan said.

  Aksel continued to stroke his chin. “If they are headed south, they might very well be setting up another ambush.”

  Lloyd had been quiet up to that point. “I’ll wager they set up not too far from the last ambush, probably on the north side of the road. They might even have some scouts down the road, or up in the trees.”

  Brundon gazed at Lloyd with approval. “That makes a lot of sense.”

  “Indeed it does,” Aksel murmured. He gazed past Seth and Brundon, toward the forest. “If Lloyd is right, we should leave the road now. Any closer to the woods and we risk being spotted.”

  Brundon nodded. “I can take you to where I spotted those tracks. Then we can follow them south till we find the orc camp. If we’re lucky, we can sneak up on them.”

  Seth snorted. “Luck has nothing to do with it. Whoever is there will never see me coming.”

  Brundon grinned at the halfling. “Even I can’t even see you coming, and I’m no slouch at spotting things.”

  “No, you aren’t,” Seth admitted.

  Glo glanced at the halfling with feigned disbelief. “Seth? Did you just pay Brundon a compliment?”

  “Did I?” Seth responded glibly. “Guess I must be going soft.” He spun around toward Brundon. “And don’t let it go to your head. You still make as much noise as a boar crashing through the woods.”

  Lloyd let out a short laugh. “Now there’s the Seth we’ve all come to know and love. Don’t take it personal, Brundon. If he thinks you’re too loud, just imagine what he must think of me!”

  Brundon shrugged. “Frankly, I don’t care what he thinks of me as long as I’m getting paid.”

  Aksel raised his hands. “Gentlemen, fun as this all is, we have work to do.” He turned to Brundon. “Now please lead us to those tracks.”

  Brundon nodded. “Will do.” The tracker wheeled his horse around and headed back the way he came.

  Seth looked at Lloyd. “And you sound like a lumbering ox.” He then wheeled his dog around and took off after Brundon.

  Lloyd, Aksel, and Glo glanced at each other and grinned.

  Titan gazed at them with a bewildered look. “Am I missing something?”

  Glo turned to her and explained, “You have to understand, Seth always has to have the last word.”

  “Ah.” Titan nodded, then grinned as well.

  The party filed off the road and followed Brundon back to where he first spied the tracks. There they turned west and traced the footprints into the Bendenwoods. They continued a short ways into the trees before stopping. At that point, the tracks met a second set of tracks from the north. All seven tracks headed south from there, as Brundon had indicated.

  The riders dismounted and set up a perimeter. Aksel sent Brundon and Seth on foot to follow the trail south. The two of them were gone the better part of an hour before they returned. The group huddled together as Brundon reported, “It’s a party of orcs alright. They’re camped right where we guessed, about a hundred yards north of the road.”

  Seth added his findings. “As we guessed, there are scouts up in the trees; two of them keeping
an eye on the road.”

  “Well, they obviously know that the next caravan is coming soon,” Titan said.

  Seth’s voice was thick with suspicion. “Kind of makes you wonder who is supplying them with that information. Maybe someone in Ravenford even?”

  “Hmmm, you may have a point,” Aksel murmured. “We might want to look into that when we get back.”

  Seth and Brundon mapped out the orc camp in the dirt. The two orcs in the trees were on either end of the encampment. The other five orcs were gathered in the center of the campsite, preparing for a raid on the next unsuspecting caravan. Four of the orcs carried curved swords, but the fifth had a staff.

  “Probably some kind of cleric then,” Aksel observed.

  Lloyd appeared surprised. “Orcs have gods?”

  “Yes, as a matter of fact they do. I believe orcs worship the god Krieg.”

  “That is correct,” Glo said. “They call him the one-eyed god. According to legend, Krieg lost his left eye in an epic battle with the chief of the elven gods, Elwynd Cor’lessian. Of course, the orcs dismiss the tale, saying that Krieg always had one eye.”

  “I think I like this god of the elves!” Lloyd declared. “You will have to tell me more about him when you get a chance, especially about this fight with the orc god.”

  Glo grinned at the young man. Lloyd was interested in anything to do with battle, even legendary ones. “Sure thing, but for the present, I think I can help with the orcs scouts. If I put them to sleep, they should be easy targets.”

  “Then I can climb up and take them out, one at a time.” Seth fingered the sharp point of a knife that had appeared in his hand.

  Lloyd clasped Titan on the shoulder. “We can handle the warriors.”

  Titan’s eyes gleamed with anticipation. “Just leave them to us.”

  Aksel glanced around the group. “Well then, that covers everything except for the cleric. It wouldn’t do to have him casting spells about during the fight.”

  Glo had to agree. Clerics could do more than heal with divine magic. There were other spells they could cast which would paralyze or blind their foes. Aksel chose not to do so, saving his powers for healing, but there was no telling what this orc cleric might do.