“What the hell?”
“Lincoln, Matty's gone!”
“Cripes, look at all the blood!”
Lincoln leaped forward and pushed the men aside.
“Good God, where is he?” someone else asked fearfully.
The leader scanned the bushes that surrounded the clearing. There was no movement and no sound, but he drew his axe and pushed some of the undergrowth aside, peering into the darkness.
“Damn it,” Lincoln growled. “He's been dragged off by something. Arm yourselves, boys; we've got some kind of predator stalking us. Let's wrap this up and get out of here. This place is too open to defend easily.”
He turned around and walked back toward the center of the clearing. And stopped so abruptly that he almost tripped over his own feet.
Liliana was standing on the far side of the fire pit, sword in one hand and shield secured over her off arm. And even though she was only wearing a skimpy shirt and shorts, her grim expression gave all of the men pause.
“What...” Lincoln muttered.
“Looks like you're stuck between a rock and a hard place, gentlemen,” she said to the group, her voice as cold as death. “I suggest that you move on before whatever took your friend comes back for dessert.”
She raised her sword and covered her body with her shield.
“Or you can stay and have 'a bit of fun' and see how that goes. Your choice.”
Lincoln lowered his axe and raised a hand.
“Now, now. Dougie was just talking. He didn't mean nothing by it.”
Liliana laughed coolly.
“Did he not? And leaving me without my armor in the wild? Was that a joke too? Move on while I'm still feeling generous. Or don't. As I said, it's your choice.”
“Bah, we can take her,” the man, Dougie, said with a sneer. “A woman? Without armor? Forget the fun. Let's just kill her and get out of here.”
“Come ahead,” the paladin told him. “You'll be the first to die.”
She hated using bravado, but these men weren't killers, at least not brave ones. They were weak and frightened and she didn't want to harm them unless they gave her no choice.
“Don't be a fool,” Lincoln told Dougie angrily. “Haven't you heard the stories? She's faced dragons and survived. Can you say the same? No? Then shut up and get ready to move out.”
He looked at Liliana with grudging respect.
“You win this one,” he told her. “And I wouldn't have let them touch you, I swear it.”
The paladin didn't lower her guard but she nodded once.
“I believe you. Now you'd best move on while whatever took your man is occupied. Stay together and away from the underbrush. And if you'll take some advice, build yourselves a secure camp somewhere with walls that you can defend. Wandering the wilds will be your death.”
“Aye, I know.”
With a final glance at her, Lincoln gestured for his men to follow him and slowly left the clearing, watching the bushes carefully as he went. The others followed, several of them glaring at her as if their change of circumstance was her fault.
Liliana waited until she was sure that the men were really gone before setting down her sword and shield and hurriedly beginning to put on her armor.
A rustle of brush made her look up and she saw Grom slip into the clearing, his tongue lolling out. He looked rather pleased with himself.
“I thought that it was you,” she said as she pulled on her boots and stomped down hard. “Are you all right?”
The wolf walked up to her, gave her hand a quick lick and lay down with his head on his paws.
“I assume that means yes. I'm sorry that you had to kill that man, but what's done is done, I suppose.”
She finished getting dressed and felt an immense sense of relief.
“I won't sleep without armor again in the wild,” she vowed.
After a quick meal, Liliana and Grom set off again. Lincoln and his men had headed toward the west while the paladin went straight north. She was happy that they wouldn't cross paths again, but she was bothered by the fact that they had met at all.
What were the odds that, in this entire country, we'd stumble over each other, she wondered. Very unlikely. Was it possible that the men were somehow steered in her direction? By whom? And why?
“Well, if some malevolent force wanted to use Lincoln and his gang to eliminate me, they picked poor tools,” she said to Grom, who flicked an ear at her as they walked to show that he was listening. “Better to send some monster to attack me; at least then they could be sure that it wouldn't have a crisis of conscience.”
She was probably wrong though. Just as the lords of Light had lost influence on Earth, so too had their counterparts, the gods of Chaos. Evil things still existed in the world, absolutely, but they weren't organized like the necromancers had been. Except for the goblin hordes, of course.
Liliana frowned at that thought. One day they would have to face those creatures. If they ever found a way to invade England, the human race was finished. Goblins bred like rats and overwhelmed their enemies by their viciousness and sheer force of numbers. Not even Nottinghill would be able to stand against them for long.
The ground was still rising steadily, at a gentle pace, and when it finally leveled out, the paladin and the wolf emerged from the forest and Liliana stopped to stare in awe.
“Oh my, I'd forgotten how big this was,” she murmured.
Stretched out as far as the eye could see were undulating grasslands. The wind blew the tall grass into waves that made it appear to be a viridian ocean. Liliana almost expected to see a distant ship sailing across the emerald sea.
She smiled at her own whimsy and laid a hand on Grom's back.
“Are you ready to dive into the grassy waters?” she asked him.
He looked up at her quizzically and answered her question by trotting forward to lead the way into the deep grass.
“Well then, here we go,” the paladin stated resolutely. “Let's hope that somewhere out there, the horses from my vision are still alive and roaming the prairie.”
She loosened her sword in its sheath, settled her pack across her shoulders over her shield and followed the wolf.
Liliana used the sun to guide her once she and Grom were out of sight of the southern forest. It was easy to stray off-course in the undulating expanse and she was trying to search the plains in an organized manner.
Although the prairie appeared from a distance to be unending fields of grass, there were many types of plants growing in the open lands, as well as large stretches covered in thick carpets of clover and other small plants. Flowers added rich colors to many sections of the land and attracted fat bees and clouds of insects.
Liliana's nose was constantly being tickled by the rich smell of so many growing things. She was delighted by the experience and would have found the journey very pleasant if her quest hadn't been so urgent. She never lost sight of the fact that she was trying to save that small herd of horses from a horrible fate.
On the other hand, Grom was having a wonderful time. The plains were thick with game; deer, rabbits, hedgehogs and voles abounded. He never had to spend more than an hour hunting for game and always brought something back for the paladin.
Flocks of geese and ducks criss-crossed the sky, as well as countless other small birds that sang from dawn to dusk. And whether it was a discreet blessing from the gods or just good fortune, the weather remained clear and warm.
Three days after her confrontation with Lincoln and his gang, Liliana stood in what she thought was the center of the Scottish plains and slowly turned in a complete circle. Grom was sitting nearby, watching her curiously.
“Well, my friend,” she said as she scanned the horizon. “This is where we must make our decision. In which direction should we travel? I have this ominous feeling that if we choose wrong, those horses that I saw will meet their fate and I will arrive too late to save them. The problem is...”
She shaded her e
yes against the sun and squinted into the distance.
“I can't see a single sign of that high, pointed hill that I remember from my vision. If I only knew where that was, I could be sure that we were traveling the right way. But all I see is unending prairie. Damn it.”
She dropped her pack and her shield and removed her gauntlets. Taking a moment to stretch out the kinks in her back, Liliana ran her fingers through her hair. She was pleased that she'd finally had it cut short enough to fit inside her helmet comfortably, but it still felt weird not to have her massive mane flowing to her shoulders.
Well, if I ever settle down, I'll grow it back, she promised herself. Although the odds of that actually happening are virtually nil.
She met Grom's eyes and gestured at the distant horizon.
“Any ideas?” she asked.
The wolf tilted his head to one side and she grinned at him. Huge wolf or not, sometimes Grom looked more like a puppy than a dangerous predator. And right now he looked like he was trying to understand her question.
“By that I mean, what direction do you think we should travel in to find that small herd of horses? Or at least find the high hill that I saw in my vision. Any clue?”
Liliana hadn't really expected a response and was surprised when Grom stood up and spun around to face toward the east. The sun was still rising and the paladin was almost blinded as she turned in that direction.
“That way?” she asked. “You want us to go that way?”
Grom barked once, a deep-throated choking sound, and then froze in place as he looked back at her.
“Hmm. Are you sure?”
He remained immobile but replied with a low growl.
“Okay, okay,” Liliana said, raising her hands with a smile. “You win. East it is. It's as good a direction to take as any, I suppose. And who knows, you might just be right.”
She slipped her shield and pack over her shoulders, put on her gauntlets again and nodded at the wolf.
“Very well, my friend. Lead on.”
Grom leaped into the tall grass to guide her forward and she followed him.
The day passed pleasantly as the pair headed east. It wasn't until the sun rose to midday that Liliana stopped to eat and rest. She had some leftover cooked rabbit that she shared with Grom, who ate the sizable piece in a single gulp. Then she sat down and watched the flocks of wheeling birds cross the sky, listening to their chorus of songs.
“Do you find it strange that we haven't run across a single predator since we entered these plains?” she asked the wolf as he lay next to her, his eyes half-closed.
Naturally Grom didn't reply but it occurred to the paladin that he actually might be the answer to her question. Few creatures, no matter how fierce, would willingly tangle with a dire wolf. Monsters were, of course, another matter, but they hadn't seen any so far.
Well, there are those hyena-looking things that I saw in my vision, she thought with disgust. I doubt that something like that would be intimidated by either Grom or me. Just like gangs of people, packs were brave in numbers. And the larger the pack, the more bold the creatures within them. That could prove challenging if they actually crossed paths with the hyenas.
Once they had rested, the pair set off again, Grom taking the lead. He might just have been heading east on a whim, but Liliana noted that he hadn't deviated from his course at all during the hike. And that was somewhat encouraging.
The sun was setting, changing the colors of the world around them into a rainbow of pinks and reds, when the paladin suddenly stopped and stared ahead in amazement.
Jutting out of the flat plain in the distance was a point of light that reflected the setting sun. What was it?
She hurried forward, trying not to trip on the thick grass that was trying to tangle itself around her ankles. Grom looked at her and then trotted ahead, clearly unsure about the reason that she was suddenly running.
The distant object slowly grew up out of the ground as she ran toward it and she was finally able to identify the landmark just as the sun dipped below the horizon. It was the hill from her vision.
Out on the plains, the transition from day to night was almost immediate, and Liliana was quickly unable to see more than a few feet in any direction. But that didn't matter now; at least she finally knew that she was going the right way.
She looked around for Grom and saw his eyes glowing in the darkness a few feet away.
“You, my friend, are a genius,” she told him fervently. “You actually got us to where we needed to be. Thank you.”
The wolf whined softly and then disappeared as if by magic.
Gone hunting, Liliana thought. Well, he's earned it.
The evening was growing cool but not cold and she simply camped where she was, eating some dry rations and sipping from her water bottle. The plains were ribboned with small creeks and streams and finding water hadn't been a problem.
Then she wrapped herself up in her cloak and lay with her head on her pack, staring up at the carpet of stars wheeling slowly above her.
Tomorrow, she thought. Tomorrow we'll see if this has been a fool's errand or not.
Liliana woke up at sunrise shivering and covered in dew. Grom lay next to her, his black fur glittering with water droplets in the red light of dawn.
They had been undisturbed all night, probably thanks to the wolf's presence, and now it was time to see if their journey had been in vain.
More than likely those horses had already been eaten by the pack of hyenas, she thought as she shook the water out of her cloak. But maybe there are more herds out here somewhere. Instead of one small group of horses, there might be several scattered across the plains.
She smiled at her own whimsy, shook her cloak again and rolled it up tightly to slip into her pack.
No, horses were rare beasts now. It was a fantasy to believe that there were more than that small handful still roaming the prairie. But she could hope.
As she ate her breakfast, Liliana watched Grom stand up and look around, blinking slowly.
“Sleep well?” she asked as she chewed.
He whuffed at her and then the paladin turned away quickly as the wolf shook violently, spraying water everywhere.
“Thanks a lot.”
Grom opened his mouth to give her a toothy grin and then trotted off into the deep grass.
Liliana watched him go, knowing that he would catch up with her later, and then hurried to get ready to leave. It was time to learn the truth.
She set off toward the pointed hill on the horizon. Distances were deceiving on the plains, but she guessed that the tall landmark was at least an hour's steady walk away. The spiky peak was outlined by the rising sun behind it and seemed to beckon like a huge finger sticking out of the ground, urging her on.
The paladin wondered what would have caused such an anomaly to appear in the middle of an otherwise featureless plain. Certainly it wasn't because of volcanic or seismic activity; this area really had none. Magic? No, that was ridiculous. As tall and sharp as the hill was, it looked to be a natural formation.
Well, I'll find out soon enough, Liliana thought as she walked toward it steadily.
The sun rose above the hill as the morning went on and the hill itself continued to grow as she approached it. Liliana had to revise her estimate of its height several times before giving up and just accepting that it was really, really big.
“It's more of a small mountain than a large hill,” she said to Grom, who had rejoined her after his morning hunt.
The wolf kept his gaze fixed firmly on their goal and the paladin wondered what he was thinking. Clever or not, did Grom really understand what they were doing? She had no idea. All Liliana knew was that she was happy that he had come along with her on the journey.
She kept scanning the plains around them as she went, looking for any sign of the horses, or the pack of predators that she had seen hunting them in her vision. But except for several groups of deer and hundreds of birds criss-crossing th
e sky, the vast expanse was fairly empty of animals and the grassy green sea continued to roll on endlessly.
It was midday by the time they reached the base of the tall hill. Liliana stared up at it and decided that, as long as the slope didn't become too steep and it wasn't slippery, she should be able to climb it while wearing armor. It was going to be a grind though.
She took off her pack and dug out her water bottle. After several swallows, she repacked it and looked at Grom.
“Ready for this?” she asked, pointing her chin up the hill.
The wolf wagged his tail once and effortlessly began to trot up the slope.
“Show-off,” she muttered. “Ah well, here we go.”
And with that, she slung her pack over her shoulder and started to climb.
Chapter 5
The first fifty feet or so of the slope was easily scaled and Liliana only slipped once or twice. But then the surface became steeper and she had to slow down and advance one careful step at a time.
About two-thirds of the way to the top of the hill, the paladin stopped. Even without armor, the top third of the slope was simply too steep and sheer to be climbed.
Unless I was an experienced mountain-climber, Liliana thought ruefully. Which I most certainly am not. No, this would have to do.
She grabbed hold of a sturdy bush to steady herself and turned so that she had a view of the plains as they stretched out to the west, the direction that she and Grom had come from. With the sun directly overhead, she could see for miles and her breath caught in her throat at the sheer beauty of the expansive vista before her.
Again, the unending waves of grass looked like a vast sea, and the birds dipping and weaving overhead added to the illusion. In a world that had been devastated by dragons and monsters, that had seen the human race decimated and almost extinguished, it was somewhat reassuring in a bittersweet kind of way to know that such a lovely place still existed.
The First Paladin (The New Earth Chronicles Book 1) Page 6
