“What happened?” she barked, waving the scimitar about in front of her. “Did someone sneak in?”
“Sath stepped on me!” Hack wailed as he dropped his axe and rubbed his leg. Elysiam smacked him in the back of the head with her hand before returning her scimitar to its sheath. “OW!” Gin covered her mouth to stifle a laugh, and then noticed Sath was watching her. She managed to smile at him, amazed at the relief that flooded his face as she did.
“Well, I suppose we’re off now, yeah?” Teeand said as he rose from his bedroll. He rubbed his head, frowning. “One of these days I’ll meet m’match in that tavern, but that day was not last night.” Sath grinned at his old friend. “What are you smiling at, Cat?” Teeand barked. “You were as much in the ale as I was last night, and yet, not a spot of a hangover.”
“Qatu accelerated healing,” Sath chuckled. “Also, I have a lot more room for ale than you do, my short friend.” Teeand scowled at Sath as he got to his feet and stuffed his bedroll into his haversack.
“Right then, off we go?” Teeand asked. Met with nods all around, he headed to the door of the grand hall. “This is going to be a long trip,” he muttered as he opened the door and took a long look over his shoulder at the rest of them. He shook his head. “A very long trip.”
A robed figure fell through the door as Teeand opened it. Swearing, the dwarf kicked the lump of a person back out the door as he drew his sword. “On your feet!” he called out as the figure quickly sprang up and dashed out into the lobby toward the door. “Bloody hobos,” Teeand said, re-sheathing his sword.
“Do you think he needed money or food?” Gin asked. “Should we have offered that instead of…” She snapped her mouth shut as Teeand turned to glare at her.
“You give them that and they never leave,” he hissed. Gin stood her ground, staring back at the dwarf. They were almost the same height.
“You give them that because it is right to do it,” she snapped back at him. Elysiam and Hack stared at the two of them, eyes wide, but Sath started chuckling. “And what is so funny?” Gin demanded as she glared up at the Qatu male, nearly twice her size.
“He treats them like he does his own young who are always hanging about, looking for a bit of money or ale from their father,” Sath said. “Oh, don’t look at me like that, Tee! You know it’s true.” Gin found herself staring at Tee in surprise. The boozy dwarf had a family at home. Her eyes narrowed, but then softened. He was probably out taking on work in order to support all those children.
The five of them filed out the door and then out into the streets of the outpost. They would take the long way around to Bellesea Keep, a place that Gin had heard of only in hushed and frightened whispers. Gin checked her map again as they made their way toward the front gates of the outpost. “Going to be our navigator?” Teeand asked her as he beamed a smile her way. Gin looked over at him, trying to smile back.
“Aye, we don’t want to waste time by going too far out of our way,” she replied. “Though we could travel through the edge of the forest, to the other outpost. I understand it is lovely and would be welcoming to a…well, a mixed group such as we are.” Emhlenor was a shared outpost between the humans and the elves, situated just between the forest and the grasslands with a clear view to the north of the foothills of the Volcanic Mountains. The views were amazing and said to represent the best of the homelands of both races that made it their home.
“Ah yes, the grand Emhlenor outpost,” Sath said, his words dripping with sarcasm. “They don’t exactly love me around there, don’t forget.” He regretted his words instantly as Gin and Elysiam shot him equally pointed looks. “A fact I’m working on improving, mind you ladies,” he said, his best toothy grin on display. Elysiam chuckled but Gin held his gaze a bit longer. I will have to work doubly hard on that one, Sath thought.
Teeand clapped a hand on Gin’s back as though she was one of his children. “There, there, flower, you’ll get used to it.” Mortified that he had noticed her discomfort, Gin swallowed hard and nodded in Teeand’s general direction. They ducked into a cave due to a sprinkling of rain that set Sath hissing. “Now let’s be having that map, if you please Pet?” Gin handed him the map and he spread it out on the root-infested floor of the cave. “Looks like we could go straight ahead into this cave as it leads to a tunnel, and then turn left at that junction there. I’ll take the lead and Hack, if you will, bring up the rear in case we meet anyone of a more nefarious purpose.”
They all agreed and soon were moving through the passageways as fast as they could. “Tee? Hold up a minute,” Sath called out. The group stopped and turned their attention to the Qatu, who began speaking in a language Gin had never heard before. Bluish light seemed to flow from his claws and surround him, and when it faded, Sath was just about as tall as Gin and Elysiam! “Now we can move faster and I won’t have to keep ducking.”
“I think it suits you,” Teeand remarked as they started again. “Pocket Qatu. I bet we could make a fortune selling little cats to people as pets.” A growl from Sath shut Teeand up, but also made every muscle in Gin’s body go rigid. She was walking right between the dwarf and the Qatu, and she did not like having him behind her, especially if he was going to be growly!
“Sorry, Gin…Ginol…wenye,” Sath whispered. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“I’m not afraid of you,” she hissed back. “And just call me Gin. I think Elys is the only one that can pronounce my full name properly.”
After what seemed like forever in the dripping, dark cave, the light at the exit that led to the Outlands finally came into view. Bellesea Keep, where they were headed, was the ruin of an ancient dragon stronghold, said to be inhabited by ghosts. It teetered on the edge, between the Outlands and the mountain home of the dwarves. Gin had kept up her silence as they walked; only making a sound when she tripped over one of the giant roots that surrounded the walls and floor of the cave. She blinked into the near blinding light that reflected off the alabaster snowcaps just past the Outlands. Suddenly Elysiam’s hand appeared in front of her face and Gin nearly fell over onto her sister-druid. “A bit of magical camouflage might be in order, don’t you think?” Elysiam said with a grin. Gin nodded.
“That and maybe some levitation and a bit of speed?” Gin asked. She began the chant in Elvish and soon each of them felt their feet lighten, ready to zip across the desert plain. Elysiam joined in just as Gin was finishing and soon the five of them faded from view. “Well done, my sister,” Gin whispered to Elysiam, who smiled. The group moved out into the boiling sun of the Outlands and made their way toward the imposing stone building just before the gentle slope of the mountains.
“That’s the entrance, there,” Sath pointed just before he realized that no one could see him. “The two stone structures with the statues in front of them. They are guarded by wyverns, but most of them cannot see as well as they can smell. If our invisibility drops, then…”
“If it drops? BAH! My spells don’t drop, Cat,” Elysiam snapped back at him.
“All I was going to say was that if it drops, run toward the entrance and don’t stop. Tee and I will take care of those minor dragonkind if needed,” Sath whispered back, making Gin jump. If he was imposing when she could see him, Sath was much scarier when she could not. She took a deep breath. “They walk upright though, and are bigger than I am. Don’t worry. Those things are nothing new to me and Teeand.” The dwarf chuckled.
“I can take them too!” Hackort wailed from the back of the pack. “You always forget me because I’m shorter than you two! Oof!” A giggle from Elysiam told the rest of the group that she had managed to kick the gnome even though she could not see him. “I’ll get you for that one, Elys, once I can see you.”
“How do we know if they can see us?” Gin said as they stopped directly opposite from the entrance to the ruin that had once been a magnificent castle. Wyverns stalked back and forth in front of the entrance, still adorned with carvings depicting the once powerful human empi
re that had dominated most of Orana. Giant statues of the conquerors, names long lost to history, stood like sentinels, ready to spring into battle against their enemies. Gin shuddered as she gazed up at the stone figures, and remembered seeing Dorlagar for the first time in Aynamaede.
“We don’t, until they do,” Teeand replied in a whisper. He sounded like he was right in her ear due to her inability to see him, and she backed up a step involuntarily.
“Oof, careful,” Sath whispered. Gin could feel his fur up against the back of her neck and she shuddered before moving away from him.
“Sorry,” she mumbled. She studied the guards at the door for a moment. “No sense in all of us having to waste energy on those wyverns is there?” she asked suddenly. “I mean there are two of us druids, so…” She broke into a run, straight up to the front door, only stopping when she nearly ran headlong into one of the wyverns, a large bluish-skinned one. Back at the group, the other four made various gasps and noises of disbelief and irritation at her apparent dash to the front door. Gin scampered back to where she thought the group was and skidded to a stop. “They can’t see us, I ran right up to them and nothing happened,” she said, grinning from ear to pointed ear.
“What in the Mother’s name was THAT, Gin?” Elysiam hissed as Gin hung her head. “Well, clearly they didn’t see you, so let’s head inside. This air is starting to make my hair frizz.” The five of them headed toward the entrance and slipped past the guards and through the massive stone doors. Once inside, they took a collective sigh of relief and as if on cue, their invisibility faded. “See, I told you, Cat, my invisibility spell doesn’t fade until it’s time,” Elysiam sneered. Chuckling, Sath took a swipe at her, missing her by a mile.
“Right, so where is this Gaelin?” he asked, looking over Teeand’s shoulder as the dwarf rolled out the map.
“Here, in the cells on the top floor,” Teeand answered. “Or at least that’s where Ailreden believes him to be, from…past experience.”
“Aye,” Sath said, his countenance grim. “We know right where those cells are, don’t we?”
“You’ve been a prisoner here before?” Gin asked, wide eyed.
“Aye, Gin,” Sath said. “It was during a darker time, wasn’t it Tee? That was before Elys here found us and dragged our sorry hides back to the Fabled Ones.”
“Not that long ago,” Elysiam said. “I came to get Tee out and got this fur ball in the deal.”
“You…brought Sath…the Bane of the Forest…?” Gin stared at Elysiam. It was too much to wrap her mind around. A wood elf druid saving the Bane of the Forest?
“Ginny, you are so wonderfully naïve,” Elysiam said, a look of genuine affection on her face. “When I was exiled from Aynamaede, I broke all my ties to our home and its people…well, save you of course because you were kind to me. But then some time in another prison made me…shall we say more understanding of the flaws of others?” She looked each of them in the eye in turn. “And if you ever dare repeat what I’ve just said I will not only deny it; I will probably kill you.”
“Probably?” Hackort said with a chuckle, and then dodged the business end of the staff that Elysiam was carrying. “Right, lead on, Tee! We’ve got wyverns to kill and wizards to save!” His axe swung up into his tiny hand as a wide grin split his features. With a nod, Teeand led the way into the dark ruin of a castle.
At the end of the shadowy entryway, they turned a corner and found the entrance to the castle proper, the actual Bellesea Keep, bounded on all sides by a moat. Two larger wyverns, both red-scaled with golden eyes, stood on either side of the drawbridge. “Do we sneak past them too?” Gin whispered.
“No,” Sath replied, grinning as he noticed that she did not jump when he spoke. “We could but there are undead past them that pay no mind to our magic.”
“What about the moat?” Gin said. “Can we just swim around to a better entrance?”
“Well, even if our feline friend here liked the water, that moat doesn’t go all the way around,” Teeand said. “It is very slight, but we are actually moving downhill the further we move into the castle. It’s built into the ground and the moat just leads around to a wall.” He swung his own giant axe into his hand and gripped the handle, cracking his knuckles as he did so. “Unless anyone here speaks Elder Dragon, I think we have to fight our way in, flower.”
Gin found herself shrinking back to the rear of the group. All of the bravado she had before when she had charged at the wyverns guarding the door was gone now that she knew they could see her. She glanced over at Elysiam who had already unsheathed her scimitar and was clearly itching for the fight to come. Why hadn’t she been born like that? “I guess I’ll hang back and be the healer, then?”
“You’ll have to, Pet,” Teeand said. “We don’t have a proper cleric with us, but I trust you and your magic to keep us alive.” He leaned in close to her, indicating Sath with a nod of his head. “All of us.”
“Of course,” Gin stammered, flustered. It had not occurred to her that she would have to heal the Bane of the Forest, but she supposed that the sooner she stopped thinking of him in those terms, the better. He was part of the team and he was just as responsible for her safety as she was for his. Just then, Sath glanced around at her, the smile that parted his feline features spreading up and into his teal eyes. Gin looked away, speaking magical words that summoned Beau, her preternatural pony, and was soon sitting in the saddle, her hands fiddling with the horn as she always did when she was nervous.
“Right! Elys, if you will, use your magic to slow these things down so that Hack and I can have at them at our own pace?” Teeand said, returning his gaze to the target. “Then once we’ve engaged, Sath, your pet can join us and you can work your own magic to deter their attack.” Sath nodded and Elysiam moved to the front of the group. She looked back over her shoulder at her sister-druid, mouthing the words You got this, Gin, in Elvish, and then charged ahead of them.
“HEY!” Elysiam cried out as she ran toward the drawbridge. The guards sniffed the air and then looked down at her, snarling. “Come and get me if you’re not all talk!” She spoke ancient Elvish words as the two pounded across the drawbridge with heavy feet, turning to run only when her spell was complete. Though slowed down by magical tangling roots, one of the guards was quicker than she had expected and it managed to get a good swipe in on her before she could get clear. The hit sent her sprawling into the dirt in front of the advancing wyverns and sent Hackort surging out ahead of Teeand, his axe swinging madly over his head.
“Don’t…hit… ELYS!” he bellowed, landing a good blow to the knees of the wyvern that had caught up to the druid. Gin gripped the horn of the saddle. To send healing magic to Elysiam too soon would get the wyverns’ attention and they would be on her in a flash, but she could not just let her sister-druid lie there in the dust.
Sath spoke something in Qatunari and a small tiger appeared at his side, and then bounded into the fray, snarling and hissing as it attacked the slower of the two wyverns. He continued speaking in the strange purring-laden language and a cloud formed around his hands, and then moved swiftly to surround the heads of the two wyverns who immediately decreased the speed and ferocity of their attacks. Gin watched, fascinated by the sound of his language.
Finally, however, something deep inside of Gin snapped and she knew what she had to do. She focused her attention on Elysiam, still curled up on the ground, and channeled the strongest healing magic she had in the direction of her fallen sister-druid. Light surged from her fingers, surrounded Elysiam, who moments later was hauling herself up off the ground, and rubbing her eyes.
Elysiam snapped right back into the rhythm of battle, shouting out her spells in a mixture of Elvish and Elder Elvish, the language of the high elves. Gin smiled sadly. Elysiam must have learned that during her time studying with Nelenie. She surveyed the rest of the fight and was dismayed to see that while the two warriors were almost finished with the wyvern that had attacked Elysiam, the other
one seemed to be making a mess of Sath as he took it on with only his magical tiger to help. She urged Beau closer and focused on Sath, forgetting who he had been and what he had done, and only thinking of making him stronger and well again. She spoke the ancient words in a whisper and soon the same white light shot from her fingertips and surrounded the Qatu.
Sath’s attention almost ripped away from the wyvern in his face as he felt the curtain of healing warmth settle around him. “Oh, now that’s better,” he said to the wyvern just before his staff made sickening contact with its skull.
The guard stumbled; Sath’s magical tiger took advantage of the situation, pounced, and ripped its throat open, leaving it a gurgling mass of scales on the ground. He turned back to the two warriors to find them standing above another wyvern corpse. Hackort was grinning from ear to ear and Teeand bore the semblance of a tired smile.
“Well done,” he said as he surveyed the group. “Gin, you can move up closer now!” Gin did as told, still with a death grip on the horn of the saddle. “You’ll want to dismiss your pony, Flower,” Tee told her. “Some of these passageways are not friendly to horseshoes.” The druid slid down from the saddle and moved close to the pony’s head, whispering magical words as she stroked his neck. He winked out of existence with a whinny. A female hand on Gin’s shoulder startled her back from her musing with her pony, and then spun her around into an embrace.
“Thanks,” Elysiam whispered in her ear. “Do you think anyone noticed me using Nel’s magic?”
“I did,” Gin whispered back, “but that’s only because I know Nelenie so well.” She pulled out of Elysiam’s hug and winked at her sister-druid. “It’s all good, Elys. WE got this.” The five of them moved further into the castle, across the drawbridge to four more of the waiting wyverns. Working together, they managed to end the lot of them, and took a moment to rest before moving deeper into the keep.
The robed figure that had been waiting outside of the great hall had made good time crossing the Outlands to the entrance of Bellesea Keep. Upon approaching the guards at the door, he spoke to them in their language, a deep and guttural form of communication that occasionally sounded like hissing and growling. “You saw no one?”
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