by Sam Ferguson
Paavo nodded. “What was that like? I have never been on the seas, let alone out to New Konnland.”
“It’s hot, humid, and wild,” Aikur said. “The soil is good, thanks to the volcanoes in the north. The ore is also plentiful for weapons and the like.”
“Gold?” Paavo asked.
Aikur shook his head. “Some, but not enough to tempt most people. Besides, there are too many Kottri and minotaurs in the lower half of the island to do much exploratory mining. Our economy runs differently. Every person has a duty to contribute to the society. We have fighters, smiths, physicians, hunters, farmers, everything you would expect, but we don’t use much in the way of money.”
“You share everything?” Paavo asked.
Aikur nodded. “We share enough to ensure everyone has their needs met. We do have some money, with which we can buy extra things in times of surplus, or to trade with merchants that come and bring unnecessary things like jewelry or exotic clothing.”
“Interesting concept,” Paavo commented. He stopped then and held out a hand. “So, if you don’t need money, how could you afford to buy a place here?”
Aikur shrugged. “That’s why we couldn’t settle in the cities farther west of here. The only land we could afford was out here. I had just enough to buy the land, and then I built the house with the materials found on the land. It took time, but it is a fine home, and I don’t have to worry about minotaurs coming to knock it down.”
“Minotaurs, no, but there is an army of goblins out there with the same idea,” Paavo said.
“We shall see,” Aikur replied. “If there are goblins looking for trouble, I will give them more than they can handle.”
Paavo smiled. “It will be good to have another veteran in the unit,” he said. “I was worried that Krip would be the only man worth the effort of taking along.”
“If you were worried about that, then why not leave the townsfolk behind to defend the town?” Aikur asked.
“Because I am a soldier. Lord Consuert makes the orders, and I follow them. That is my lot in life.”
Aikur nodded. The two continued out through the main gate and headed north from the town into the forest. “Have you fought in many battles?” Aikur asked after they had passed the turn off to Dremmond’s farm.
Paavo nodded. “I have encountered my fair share of nasty things in the forest,” he said. “Most of my time has been spent patrolling the borderlands. As you can imagine, I have run into a number of brigands, fugitives, and less favorable creatures. I once fought an ogre, even,” Paavo said. He motioned to the two short swords hanging from his belt. “I put two arrows into the creature’s chest, and then had to finish him with my blades. It was a ghastly business. They smell something horrible before you open them up, but once their blood spills out it’s as if you are consumed by a fog of their stench. It really is unbearable.”
Aikur laughed. “Minotaurs are like that sometimes. Not all of them, but some clans are less cleanly than others. They reek of filth and can often be smelled half a mile away, or even farther depending on how strong the wind is.”
“Ugh,” Paavo put in. “You know, one time I ran into an orc, and he was the filthiest—”
Aikur stopped and thunked Paavo in the chest. “Is that smoke?”
Paavo looked up and nodded.
Aikur’s heart sank as the thick column of black smoke rose up above the green pines of the mountain. “It looks to be near my house,” Aikur said softly.
Paavo’s mouth fell open and he turned to face Aikur. “Are you certain?”
Aikur nodded and then broke into a run. Paavo quickly caught up and then kept pace with the large warrior. They ran the last three miles to the turn off to Aikur’s home in just less than twenty minutes.
“Nolan!” Aikur shouted as they followed a bend in the road around a grouping of trees and found his friend’s wagon overturned in the road. The two horses were slaughtered and mutilated, their legs cut off and strewn about the road. Two of the wagon wheels were broken, and the front half of the wagon had nearly broken off from the rear.
Aikur ran around to the front and found his friend face down in the dirt, pinned beneath the wagon.
“Is he alive?” Paavo asked. Paavo now had his bow out and an arrow at the ready.
Aikur reached down and lifted the wagon up and off of his friend’s back. “Pull him out!” Aikur grunted.
Paavo dropped his weapons and quickly dragged Nolan out from under the wagon.
“Nolan, can you hear me?” Aikur shouted after dropping the wagon back down.
“He’s gone,” Paavo said. “Look at his neck.” Paavo turned Nolan over to reveal a nasty gash across the front of Nolan’s neck, and two broken arrow shafts protruding out from Nolan’s chest. “I’m sorry,” Paavo offered.
Aikur took two steps back. “No… there aren’t any goblins here!” he said. Aikur then turned to look at the smoke. “Karyna!” The large warrior sprinted off down the road as fast as he could. His feet pounded the ground beneath him as he covered the last half mile to his home in just a couple of minutes. As he emerged from the thick forest and came out into the clearing well enough to see his home, he gasped and fell to his knees, skidding across the road as his mass struggled against its momentum. “No!” he muttered. His heart pounded in his chest and his lungs burned in agony. His once beautiful home was now nothing more than two blackened walls of charred wood and a smoke-stained column of stones that had once been his chimney.
“Come on, keep moving!” Paavo shouted as he passed by Aikur, bow in hand. The scout turned back and tossed one of his short swords down in front of Aikur. “Come on!”
It might have been Paavo’s urgent words, or perhaps the sight of the blade landing in front of Aikur that shook him from his terror-filled stupor, but whatever it was, he now found his strength returning. He grabbed the short sword and got up, charging down the road and leaping over the short stone wall he had built with his own two hands. He saw the many arrows littering the garden, but he didn’t see Karyna or Dezri.
Perhaps they survived. Karyna would have fought them!
Aikur launched himself into the rubble, screaming their names as he frantically kicked burned beams and boards aside, but he found nothing.
“I have something,” Paavo called out from outside the rubble.
Aikur turned and ran to the scout only to find a goblin with an axe sticking out of its chest. Aikur recognized the axe, for it was his. “Karyna did this,” Aikur said. He looked up toward the tree line and saw two more bodies. He rushed up and was relieved to see that they were goblins as well. Their slight chests had been slashed through with shallow cuts and then stabbed with something that made a large hole. Her spear. “Karyna is alive,” Aikur said.
“Do you think she went after them?” Paavo asked.
Aikur turned back to the house. “She wouldn’t have left Dezri unprotected.” The large warrior turned to Paavo. “Search the fields, and I’ll search the rest of the rubble.”
Paavo nodded and started making increasingly large circles through the tall grasses while Aikur ran back to the house and searched through what had been his bedroom. The wood remains of boards and beams were too hot to touch with his hands, but he found he could kick them away with his boots or flip them with the short sword with some efficacy. Unfortunately, he didn’t find anything.
Aikur left the rubble and started toward the tree line.
“I found a toy,” Paavo called out. The soldier bent down and came up with a stuffed bear.
“That’s Dezri’s,” Aikur said. “Is Dezri…” Aikur couldn’t bring himself to finish the question.
“No, I just found the toy,” Paavo answered. “Maybe they took the child and your wife went after them.”
“Here,” Aikur said as he tossed Paavo’s sword back. Paavo caught it with his left hand and twirled it once before sliding into the sheath. Aikur ran back to the goblin body where his axe was stuck and wrenched the weapon free. He tu
rned his dark eyes to the woods and felt a fire within his chest grow hotter than any other time he could remember.
“To the hells of Hammenfein with Captain Marsten; I’m going after those goblins right now.” He ran northward into the trees without turning back to see whether Paavo was following. He darted between the trees as nimbly as a deer, though his footsteps were heavy and hard, snapping twigs and crunching leaves underfoot as noisily as a New Konnland bugbear. He ran for a mile, easily tracking the trail of dark blood and goblin bodies left in the forest.
She did follow them! Aikur realized. They must have taken Dezri. That’s the only reason she would have gone after them alone. He ran as fast as he could without stumbling as the underbrush grew thicker. After twenty more minutes of running, he found a goblin pinned to a tree with the front end of a spear, Karyna’s spear. The back half was broken off and had been used to stab another goblin through the throat.
“Karyna!” Aikur called out.
He spun around, scanning the forest with his eyes, but he couldn’t see any sign of her.
“Is she here?” Paavo asked as he caught up and bent over to catch his breath.
Aikur shook his head. “No, but that is her spear. She must have kept going. Come on!” Aikur turned northward and continued following the trail as best he could. He ran for another ten minutes, until his legs begged for rest and his lungs burned for air. Even after a couple years of living in the mountains, Aikur was still not able to run nearly as far as he could have in New Konnland with its lower altitude. The mountain incline was becoming steeper as well, which didn’t help.
The large man stopped next to a large white pine and sucked in air.
Paavo caught up with him and slapped his shoulder. “I’ll take a look around. It can’t be much farther.”
Aikur nodded. The thought of his wife out here alone, battling for the life of their son, caused his stomach to flip and tie itself in knots. If only he hadn’t been so stubborn. If he hadn’t argued with Krip, he would have been home with his family. He pushed thoughts of death out of his mind. Karyna would be alive, he knew it. She was a better warrior than he was, and was not about to fall victim to a bunch of goblins.
“Aikur!” Paavo shouted from a ways off.
Hearing the urgency in Paavo’s call, Aikur ran on, ignoring the growing stitch in his stomach muscles. “What is it?” he asked as he came closer.
Paavo turned with his head hanging low. “I’m sorry…”
Aikur looked down to Paavo’s feet and saw a tiny, brown-skinned arm that had been cut off at the elbow. The tiny fist was still clenched, as if Dezri had fought his captors.
“NO!” Aikur shouted. He rushed forward. “He can’t be dead!” He bent down and scooped up the tender, soft arm and held it to his chest while his eyes frantically darted around. “I don’t see any other bodies. Maybe he’s just wounded. Karyna must have fought them here. There should be goblin bodies—there has to be—”
Paavo bent down and set his bow on the ground. “Aikur, it’s over,” he said.
Aikur looked up at the scout and his rage boiled over. The large warrior balled his left fist and socked Paavo in the nose, shattering it out to the right and splattering blood across the ground as Paavo flew backwards to land on his rump.
“They’re fine!” Aikur shouted as he stood up. “Stay if you like, run back if you’re afraid, but I will find them!” Aikur looked to the north and set his jaw. With his sons severed arm in his left hand and his axe in his right, he continued on. Karyna’s all right. She has to be. She has Dezri safe. She got him back. Everything will be all right. He kept repeating the thoughts over and over in his mind as he wound his way up a narrow game trail that ascended to a small peak littered with boulders and fallen logs.
A large amount of dried blood stained a white and gray rock in front of him. On the ground next to the rock was a necklace made of leather and blue beads. Aikur bent down and dropped his axe so he could pick up the necklace. It was Karyna’s, which meant the blood was likely hers as well, and there was far too much of it staining the rock and the ground.
“Karyna?” he called out, his voice cracking. He wandered around the top of the hill, looking between boulders. He couldn’t bear the thought of finding either of them dead, but his feet compelled him to continue searching. As he stepped over the top of a fat, half-rotten log, he saw a brown hand sticking up over a boulder in front of him.
“Karyna!” Aikur shouted. He ran around the massive boulder, hoping he had arrived in time to help her. He rounded the rock and came to a stand-still. His mouth hung open, too weak to utter a single word. His legs quivered and then he collapsed to his knees before vomiting on the ground. His heart beat faster and faster as his vision darkened and he gasped for breath, choking on his own vomit. There was nothing he could do for her, because all he found was her arm, hacked away from her body just above the shoulder joint, with a bit of scapula bone hanging along with the limb which stood on the torn end, leaning against the boulder so that the hand and fingers managed to stick out above the rock. There was no hope that anyone could have survived such a thing. Karyna was gone, and so was his little Dezri.
“NOOOOOOOOOOO!” Aikur roared at the sky.
Aikur reached out and took Karyna’s arm, holding it along with Dezri’s next to his heart as he fell to his side on the ground and wept openly. Paavo came around the rock some time later, but could barely utter his sympathies to Aikur when he saw what had happened.
The large warrior cried until he passed out from emotional fatigue.
When he woke, the sun was hanging low in the sky, and the forest was growing dark. He slowly sat up and looked to Paavo, who was sitting on the large boulder with his bow across his lap.
“I hit you,” Aikur said.
Paavo nodded. “I’m sorry,” he said.
Aikur looked to Karyna’s beautiful, blood stained hand and let tears stream down his face. “Why didn’t I listen?”
Paavo sighed and slid off the rock to kneel next to Aikur. He reached out and grabbed the large man by the chin, turning him so that they locked eyes. “This is not your fault,” he said.
“But it is,” Aikur replied. “If I had been home, if I had listened.”
Paavo slapped Aikur across the face.
For a second, Aikur’s anger flared and he almost reacted by punching the man again, but Paavo’s stern, blue eyes stared into his and found the fire within his soul.
“You listen to me,” Paavo said. “We’ll go in and get the green-skinned demons that did this. It’s their fault. You and me, we’ll kill them all.”
Aikur nodded.
“We will avenge your family, don’t you doubt it, not even for a second.”
“I will kill every last one of them,” Aikur said.
Paavo then moved his right hand and poked his index finger into Aikur’s chest. “You keep your family right here. In the meantime, remember, they’re in a better place. They’ll be waiting for you when your life is over.”
Aikur looked down at Paavo’s finger and shook his head. “No, they won’t,” Aikur said. “Konnons can’t go to heaven unless last rites are performed at their burial.”
Paavo scrunched up his face. “So, perform the ritual then. I can help you if you need.”
Aikur shook his head and pushed Paavo back. “No, you don’t understand. I need their whole bodies. I can’t perform the last rites with only…” Aikur looked down to the severed body parts and the tears flowed harder than ever. “If I can’t recover their bodies, then they’re damned to Hammenfein.”
Chapter 7
Aikur sat next to the shallow graves that held all he could find of his wife and son. He stared at the stone markers, clutching his wife’s necklace in one hand and his son’s stuffed toy in the other. Paavo had helped dig and bury them as he had promised, but he was quick to return to town. He had asked Aikur to come, but the large Konnon refused, opting to stay by the small graves through the night and into the foll
owing day.
A large monarch butterfly gently came down and rested upon Dezri’s grave. Aikur closed his eyes as tears fell out across his cheeks.
“See Dezri, you have to be still and let them come to you,” Aikur whispered. He took in a breath and reached out to lay Dezri’s toy on the grave as the butterfly fluttered away. “I will see you again, soon.” Aikur then moved some of the earth covering his wife’s severed limb and placed her necklace into the ground. “And I will see you as well. I swear it.” He choked on a lump in his throat and had to growl in order to clear it from his neck. “I will brave the fires of Hammenfein if that’s what it takes, but first, I will find those that did this to you, and I will cut their heads from their bodies and build a wall on the edge of our land that shall forever warn the goblins not to set foot on Anarin land again.” He bent down and kissed the stone markers, and then he got up and gathered his few belongings that had survived the fire and started walking down the road away from his house.
He was nearly to the main road when he saw Paavo, Grais, and Wallace approaching on horseback.
“Aikur!” Wallace called out as he urged his horse to move faster.
Aikur stood still and waited as they drew nearer.
“I’m so sorry,” Wallace said. The town master hopped off the horse and moved in with his arms outstretched as if to embrace Aikur, but Aikur did not move to return the gesture. Wallace wrapped his arms around Aikur’s shoulders. “We had no idea the goblins were so close,” Wallace said as he stepped back from the large Konnon.
“Too bad your defenses didn’t keep the green-skinned devils out,” Grais said.
Aikur looked to Grais with fire in his eyes. “You dare make jokes?” Aikur said.
Grais held up a hand. “No, I mean it, sincerely!”
It was too late. Aikur’s anger had boiled beyond containment, and it needed release. Aikur dropped his things, took two steps and punched Grais’ horse in the eye. The horse turned to bolt away, but not before Aikur snatched Grais and ripped him down to the ground.
