by C. K. Rieke
THROUGH the thick snowfall a bright red figure stood out in the distance, like a single-thorned rose on a white sheet. She moved smoothly and effortlessly, and snow seemed to slide right off her dress. Gogenanth’s chanting was faint, but they seemed to be hidden for the moment.
Angela Dragus the Righteous grew closer. Zaan could not see anything from his vantage point, but the quiet scared him. It seemed that every animal for a mile had disappeared and the wind itself had fled. Then he saw her, and he started breathing heavily. Is this the woman who tried to kill me? Then he saw the girl on the horse behind her. “That must be Lily,” he said to Tilda. “I bet she is freezing.” Tilda gave no response.
Then he saw what they had all feared: Reizenthrōgz the Great Northern Ogre. Actually Zaan didn’t see the ogre yet, but he saw his snow-covered outline. Reizenthrōgz was indeed huge. He stood three times taller than Angela Dragus the Righteous. He moved slowly and quietly and carried an axe the size of a tree trunk, as Zelestiana had said. Then the sorceress and the ogre stopped.
“Well, I haven’t caught that scent in many years. Come out, out so I can lay my eyes on you,” Angela Dragus the Righteous called out. “I can smell you and your friends’ fear out there.”
Blue flames blew out in the wind, and Gildur appeared. He stood and walked toward her, front and center in sight of Angela Dragus the Righteous. He must have no fear, Zaan thought to himself.
“This is as far as you go, Angela Dragus the Witch,” Gildur called out sternly. “Unbind the young woman and hand her over.”
Angela Dragus the Righteous let out a screeching laugh. “You want me to give you my toy? What would you offer in exchange?”
“This is not a negotiation. Hand over the girl and you can live another day,” Gildur replied.
“Oh, but there are things to barter, man.” She gave the word man a pathetic connotation. “I will not give you my toy, but I see that you have brought me another.” She looked over slowly and peered directly toward Zaan, hiding in the bush. He knew she couldn’t see him, but felt she was staring straight into him. And he felt like he was going to die from the fear. “That one escaped me once. That won’t happen again.”
Gildur drew his long broadsword and held it out at her. “Give me the girl, you bitch!” The thick cloudy breaths of Lily were increasing.
“What do you expect to do? Hit me with your sword, man? You wouldn’t reach within twenty paces of me. My friend is not so well concealed now. Perhaps you would like a better look.” The colors of the giant ogre behind her began to fade into view. The snow on the large form shook to the ground, and Reizenthrōgz was now completely visible. He was the most hideous thing Zaan had ever seen. Something out of a nightmare, but worse. Along with his monstrous appearance, Zaan saw his two thinner arms bending backwards, in an unnatural way. Along with his giant axe, he had two thin swords sheathed at each side. His eyes were beady and dark, and he had dried blood stained on his face.
Reizenthrōgz let out a roar that shook the ground. It was so loud and frightening that Gogenanth must have lost concentration, for they were all now visible to Reizenthrōgz and Angela Dragus the Righteous. “That is better. Hmm . . .” She licked her finger. “My lord will be pleased with so much death.”
“This is your last chance, witch. Let the girl go!” Zelestiana yelled.
“I don’t think so,” Angela Dragus the Righteous said. As quickly as she said this she was already mounted and riding the horse with Lily on it, toward the Aurburn Plains.
“What witchery?” Wollen started to say. Gildur was already moving after her. He whistled for the horses, and another whistle followed from behind. He mounted the white horse quickly and was in chase. Behind him Zelestiana followed on the tan horse as they galloped through the tall, fresh snow.
Reizenthrōgz let out another mighty roar that nearly toppled Gildur over, then struggled to say the words, “I . . . Eat . . . Your . . . Bones . . .” His voice was like the sounds the furnaces made back in Gildur’s Armory. He took a step toward Gogenanth, who stood ten yards away from him. Reizenthrōgz moved surprisingly fast for his size. He swung his huge axe up into the snow-filled sky and brought it down toward Gogenanth, but Gogenanth moved at the last moment.
An arrow flew and hit the shoulder plate of the ogre. Reizenthrōgz let out a loud snarl and looked to see who had shot at him. He felt another arrow that just missed his helmet. He looked straight at Astor and moved toward him. The earth shook with each heavy step. “I . . . Eat . . . Your . . . Bones . . .” he said again, with a voice straight from hell.
Astor loosed another arrow and ran to the right, keeping distance from the giant. The arrow struck in between the shoulder plate and chest of Reizenthrōgz, who did not seem to notice but continued after Astor. Gogenanth, behind the ogre, brought his scimitar down on the Reizenthrōgz’s calf with both hands, and the monster let out a painful roar. Gogenanth pulled his bloody scimitar out of the giant’s leg, but before he could turn and run, Reizenthrōgz’s other massive arm came swinging down at him and knocked him away like an insect. Gogenanth went hurtling through the air, hit the ground, tumbled on his side, and then slammed hard into a large fallen tree. He slumped in dizziness and pain.
The ogre started heading toward him, surely to make a final kill, but Xersha, with great speed, ran up Reizenthrōgz’s back and grabbed onto his slick black hair. She took up one of her swords and cut at the thick-skinned neck of the giant ogre. He tried to shake her off while clawing for her with all four arms. “I . . . Eat . . . You . . .” he screamed.
Then an arrow hit one of the arms he was stretching to get Xersha with, and another came screaming at his head. It ricocheted with a dull thud off the shoulder armor and whizzed past his ear. Reizenthrōgz went into a mad rage, flailing wildly and roaring deafeningly. Another arrow struck him in the side. Zaan looked over and saw Tilda, holding her crossbow, reloading another bolt.
Xersha struck Reizenthrōgz again in the neck. “Die, you son of a bitch!” she yelled. Another arrow punctured another of the ogre’s arms. Astor and Tilda were both firing at the giant flailing monster from opposite sides. Gogenanth lay motionless by the tall, fallen tree.
Reizenthrōgz let out another loud roar as Xersha, still mounted on his back, slashed violently at his neck. Wollen stabbed into the bleeding calf muscle that Gogenanth had attacked earlier. Zaan, standing in the clearing watching with Gar, stared in amazement. We might do this! he thought to himself. Reizenthrōgz flailed even more violently and wildly. Wollen stepped back just in time, as the ogre turned completely around and charged at him.
Arrows continued falling on the giant as Tilda closed the distance between them. Xersha was still on his back, holding on tightly while he ran after Wollen. An arrow hit the ogre in the face, but bounced off its tough hide.
Reizenthrōgz screamed, and Zaan saw his eyes, which were now blood red. The ogre twisted and turned, having given up on his pursuit of Wollen and relentlessly trying to get Xersha off of his back as she scraped and sliced at his neck. Blood was now covering the monster’s back and chest, and Zaan felt excited but weakened by the sight. The ogre unexpectedly leapt into the air, then landed with a huge booming sound. It felt like an earthquake as his massive body hit the snow. Xersha lost one of her holds on him and swung to his side. Reizenthrōgz quickly grabbed her with one of his lower, smaller arms. She sliced at it quickly with her one free arm, but he took his large free arm and grabbed her firmly with it. He had her whole body in his one free hand. Reizenthrōgz did not seem to notice the onslaught of arrows or the screaming all around him. He only opened his giant mouth, inserted Xersha’s head, and bit down with his sharp teeth.
“Xersha!” Wollen yelled, and ran at the ogre. Reizenthrōgz removed the body from his maw and threw it down to his side. Blood spurted onto his face. The headless body squirmed for a moment, and then lay still. The ogre took a big gulp, then licked his lips.
Wollen was running with wild fury at Reizenthrōgz, bu
t Astor got in his way and stopped him. “Wollen, stop, he is going to kill you too! Stop.”
“Xersha! I’m going to kill that monster. Let me go!” Wollen yelled with hot rage. He looked at his friend dead in the red snow.
“Wollen, stop!” Astor continued to struggle holding him back.
An arrow whistled through the air, then landed in leg of the beast. Reizenthrōgz turned quickly to see Tilda resetting her crossbow with another fresh bolt. He started walking, then running, at Tilda, and the shaking of the ground made it too difficult for her to restring. She panicked, grabbed her dagger, held it out in front of her, and closed her eyes.
CHAPTER SIXTY
THE plains of the Aurburn were as white as the clouds in a spring sky. Heavy snowfall continued floating down as the horses struggled to gallop through the thick, soft snow on the ground. Gildur and Zelestiana were following behind Lily and her captor, but they were losing ground. Angela Dragus the Righteous’s horse was unnaturally fast through such horrid conditions for riding.
They had been trailing behind for close to fifteen minutes now. “We need to get closer,” Zelestiana yelled. Gildur grimaced.
“We have to do something; we need to get closer,” Zelestiana yelled. Her hair whipped behind her, and she brushed the snow out of her eyes. Then she saw Garmos Castle, its towers high on the horizon, cradled between two giant mountains on each side. The castle had high, impenetrable walls and tall, slender towers shrouded in darkness. The Great Sea could be seen on its left and the outlet of the Cariaan River on its right.
Angela Dragus the Righteous was nearly there. She lifted a staff, and the sky spun and turned red. Black clouds swirled, and the snow turned to ash. Gildur’s and Zelestiana’s horses got spooked and slowed to a halt. They kicked at them, but the horses would go no further. Lily was now dangerously out of range.
“We’ve got to stop her,” Gildur said. With this they both lowered their heads and started chanting softly, blue flames encompassing. The flames grew larger, and they began chanting louder. Then they looked up at the rider in the distance.
A thin slit appeared in the sky directly above Angel Dragus the Righteous, and a bright beam of white sunlight fell upon the horse and its riders. Gildur fell to a knee, put both palms firmly on the ground, and chanted loudly. “Hevenal,” he repeated, louder and louder. His eyes glowed iceberg blue. The horse in the distance winced from the blinding light and reared, then panicked and attempted to run.
Rock rumbled so loudly that even Zaan back at the outlet of the Hillspring Trail heard it in the midst of the fight with Reizenthrōgz. Boulders began to tumble from the mountain to their right, and Zelestiana looked up to see the top of the mountain itself cleave away. Strong veins crept along Gildur’s neck and arms. “Hevenal!” he yelled, and with that, the mountaintop roared through the air and landed with an explosion of power that knocked them and their horses over.
Angela Dragus the Righteous, temporarily blinded by the beam of sun from the slit in the sky, didn’t see the massive rock land directly in front of her, and she and her prisoner were thrown clear from their horse. Lily landed awkwardly in the snow. The horse struggled to get up, but only slowly was it able to limp away, holding one broken front leg up.
Gildur and Zelestiana mounted their horses again and rode out toward Angela Dragus the Righteous and Lily at full speed.
CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE
TEMPORARILY stunned by the sudden earthquake in the distance, the troop paused in battle with the ogre as they all tried to figure out what had happened with Gildur and the witch.
Then terror filled Zaan as Reizenthrōgz began crashing toward Tilda again, who held out her single dagger. She had her eyes closed and was yelling for help in fear. So quickly that Zaan hadn’t even noticed he’d run off, Gar rushed in front of Tilda with his sword and shield drawn. “Come on, you bastard,” he said.
Blue flames kicked and flickered as they swirled around him and Tilda in an orb of color, and then they disappeared. Zaan caught a glimpse of Gogenanth awake and chanting to conceal Tilda and Gar from the monster. Zaan felt a great sense of relief. She escaped certain death for sure.
Reizenthrōgz slowed and looked around for Tilda, out of confusion. He huffed and snorted, then caught sight of another target: Zaan. Zaan turned to run, but the Great Northern Ogre made a steady pace toward him, easily gaining on him. Zaan reached for his sword and unsheathed it while running as fast as he could in the heavy snowfall. Reizenthrōgz took large, easy strides, though, and was almost upon him. Zaan stumbled and fell face first into the snow, but quickly flipped over and held out his sword to defend himself as he struggled to catch his breath, panic filling him as the ogre approached.
The ogre raised his large axe and swung it down, trying to split Zaan in two. Then Wollen jumped in, and the axe hit his shield. He cried in pain as his shield cracked and broke, and he fell hard to the ground with the weight of the axe coming down on him. Reizenthrōgz was unfazed and slowly opened his giant palm toward Zaan, attempting, no doubt, to pick him up. Zaan tried to scoot back, feverishly trying to escape the ogre’s hand, and sure death. Then a single bolt flew by and entered the ogre’s nostril, disappearing into it. Reizenthrōgz winced back, screaming deafeningly, and grimaced with great pain on his face. Zaan looked over and saw Tilda holding her crossbow, ready to reload. Reizenthrōgz now had all of his attention focused back on Tilda and Gar, beside her, as she started to restring another bolt. At the panicked expression on her face, Zaan lifted his sword and ran at Reizenthrōgz, stabbing him in the front of his massive leg, his sword with its tiger’s head hilt gleaming in the sunlight. The ogre quickly grabbed hold of Zaan, gripping him with all five fingers on one of the lower arms. Zaan started yelling, but he was held tight.
Terrified, looking into the mouth of the man-eating giant, Zaan knew he was about to meet the same fate as Xersha. He felt the hot, foul breath of the giant ogre who was about to eat him. Then Astor’s arrow came whizzing into the mouth and throat of Reizenthrōgz, to little effect. Zaan screamed as the monster inserted his head into its massive mouth. A loud roar deafened him, and the next thing he knew he was on the ground, looking up at the ogre. Gogenanth was standing atop the beast with his scimitar firmly lodged into the ogre’s neck. He struggled to free it from the giant, and when he did, a burst of blood shot out of the monster. Gogenanth jumped down watching as Reizenthrōgz yelled and gurgled blood. The sight of it made Zaan’s entire body feel weak and his head foggy. Faster than seemed possible for its size, Reizenthrōgz had turned and was chasing down Gogenanth.
“Hey you!” Wollen yelled at the beast. “That girl you killed was my friend.” Reizenthrōgz turned and looked at Wollen, but then went after Gogenanth. Gogenanth stopped to square off with the ogre.
They were around six yards apart. Gogenanth yelled, “Is that the best you got? You’re bleeding all over the place! You won’t make it another minute with me!” While Gogenanth was saying this, Astor and Wollen snuck up behind the ogre. They both slashed at the monster’s back. He winced in pain, then reached up with his arm and undid a knot in his black hair to reveal a large eye on the back of his head. It was the size of a person’s head, and was black with glimmers of oranges and reds. His lower two arms both reached down to the sides of his legs and drew out two swords three feet in length each. Wollen and Astor were both taken by surprise, as they did not expect the ogre to be able to fight in front and behind simultaneously.
They went in anyway, each of them exchanging blows with one of the arms while the front eyes of the beast focused on Gogenanth, who had hurt him the most. Gogenanth took a step back, knowing he couldn’t stop a blow from the giant axe. The best he could do would be to dodge it and look to strike the monster down, although he didn’t know how. So he carefully stayed out of reach of Reizenthrōgz while the other two battled wildly with the clashing and ringing of swords.
Zaan watched all of this. He saw Tilda over to the side of him, yelling a
nd shooting bolts at the ogre. Gar stood at her side, stunned by the fight, watching his friends battle an impossible foe. Zaan looked at the streak of blood behind Reizenthrōgz and felt dizzy, as though he couldn’t focus. He tried to shake the dizziness but found it incredibly difficult. He tried to concentrate, lifted a knee to put a foot squarely on the ground, and gripped his head. The fogginess in his head felt like it was going to overwhelm him.
Then he saw, far in the distance, smoke rising from Garmos Castle, and the faintest wisps of it entered his nostrils. Clarity gathered inside of him, and he started to chant. He looked at his friends fighting the Great Northern Ogre from the fables, and they were losing strength, while the ogre seemed to be getting stronger. He chanted, “Herel,” then reached in his pocket and found the small red stone. “Herel.” It took him back to the Black Cave, where he and the other slaves had been tortured, starved, beaten, and murdered. “Herel.” He remembered that night he used the Azulūz for the first time, and his hatred of the guards. “Herel.” He remembered the smell of the torches in the caves, and the darkness of servitude. “Herel.” He remembered talking to his sister in his madness. “Herel.”
He opened his eyes and yelled louder: “Herel!” Zaan still saw the fight happening, but his attention was focused on the great fallen tree in the distance. “Herel.” Louder. Zaan was shaking. “Herel.” Louder. The great tree began to move. He could feel it cracking and splintering with its great weight shifting. “Herel!”
Zaan couldn’t see her, but Tilda was watching nervously in amazement at what Zaan was attempting to do. “Hurry, Zaan,” she whispered.
“Herel!” Zaan got to his feet and raised his arms. From his perspective, he was holding the tree in his hands. “Herel!” Louder. He took the tree in his hands and lifted it high into the air, then carried it over to where his friends were and held it above them. “Herel!” Louder. Stronger. “Herel!”
