by B A Fleming
“Soze,” he answered. “Ma’am.” Soze looked at the men across the table. His deep organ voice was measured as he spoke to them.
“Would you stand with me in a battle Soze?”
“Would you stand with me Ma’am?” he quickly answered.
“Check his credentials and sign him up,” said Thais, nodding to Soze before walking away.
“Will he be able to make it through the forests to the mountains?” asked Casperi when she returned to the table.
“Well, if he doesn’t, he’ll be dead,” she calmly replied. “If anything, he’ll intimidate the crap out of any bandits in the first place.”
Veer called Gameard over and after a brief discussion he shook Sozes’ hand. Gameard indicated that he’d fill in the details and both men headed over to the bar.
The following morning Veer gathered all of the new recruits to the inn after most of the residents had cleared off after breakfast. Vabnar was one of the younger men at twenty-five summers. Strong, alike the others, with short blonde hair and thick shoulders from growing up as the son of a woodsman. He had sought adventure at a young age and initially coming across as uneducated and brutish, and several of the soldier’s others were weary of him.
Gameard reassured Thais that he could be trusted, and more importantly, he would be loyal to her.
Nathe and Curran took charge of the conversation, pointing out that the young squire and his sister were the children of a rich eastern noble and that they were on a mission to retrieve medicine to save the life of their sick mother. The story seemed to be accepted and Veer outlined the details of the journey ahead.
“We’ll need to endure the jungle of those savages” mentioned Veer.
“Savages? What savages,” looked Casperi incredulously.
“The Triund and maybe some Grangol,” offhandedly remarked Veer. “We’ll pass right through their territory. It’s not like your lands boy where the humans have taken over every inch.”
Veer smiled. He wanted to test the mettle of the young prince.
“We have trolls,” replied Casperi, looking straight at him.
“Well, at least with trolls you know what you’re getting,” Veer drew his ale to his mouth to cover his smirk.
“The ones we have around here, they’re tough little guys. The Grangols will stab you before asking questions, and the Triund, well, like monkeys, but smarter and just as cheeky.”
“How cheeky?” asked Nathe.
“They’ll steal your bedroll and then sell it back to you,” replied Gameard. “Cheeky little shits.”
Chapter 7
Arthung, the Great Black Dragon, hung in the dark night air above the castle as King Edward appeared on the parapet below him.
“You have word great dragon?”
“Do you King?”
“Thank you for visiting me this evening great Arthung. I have no word as my men cannot travel the speed of the wind.”
“I would see them only on horseback, and those beasts are tasty morsels when I find them astray.”
The King looked up at Arthung who seemed hungry. He decided it was in his best interests to make the conversation as short as possible, and stood awaiting the dragons next words.
“But before I turn my mind to food King, I will share with you what I have seen.”
“Please.”
“Those of Catheridge have made their way to Tharkomad now. I saw them a day hence. I assume you have a plan for them?”
“There are plenty of challenges they will face, and I have men in Tharkomad awaiting their arrival. You look hungry dragon, so go find a Gozioxy to feast upon.”
“Then I will await your command.”
*****
Nathe and Casperi chose not to buy more horses. Of those they had left three had pulled up lame and were sold to a stable in Tharkomad. The rest would be used to carry the supplies of the party although most would be left in a village a few days up the trail. Most of the upcoming journey was through narrow and unwieldy paths and could only be done on foot.
Veer organized the mercenaries and liaised mainly with Nathe. The party moved out in small groups after breakfast of the second day.
Nathe claimed that he needed some last minute supplies and sent everyone off in small groups to meet up in a small village a few hours along the road. They had not seemed to be been noticed by the Tharkomad guard as yet and sought to not cause suspicion of such a large party exiting the town all at once.
He separated up the men so that Catheridge soldiers were mixed with mercenaries. If they came across any nosey locals the mercenaries had enough experience to know what to say and whom to say it to.
The valleys quickly closed in and not far after the meeting point the trail turned into a track. They moved cautiously through the trees along the thinning trail deeper along the valleys.
Thais rode on a horse with her hood covering. They had purchased a small cart and her, Casperi and Nathe were easily able to pass as local villagers on their way home. Only half of the horses that had started the journey now remained. Although they had brought along extra to carry the packs, the party was left with one between two, only some of which were battle trained.
There was still enough of the valley for the track to meander on an undulating course along the edge of a river, surrounded by steep, rocky outcrops, as was most of the area west of Caitawalaan. The river flowed wide and constant.
It would be difficult to find a spot where they could cross easily. They made their way upstream along the thinning track. Although it was not steep in this part, the large tree roots and earth-bound stones made the track undulated at best, slow, and often times difficult to negotiate with the horses.
Although the opportunity to cross presented itself on several occasions, Veer tried to keep the river on their left-hand side, except for a few hours where the party was forced by the track to cross a bridge, and then back over again further upstream. After almost two days of slow moving, they finally came to a ford in the river that allowed crossing with ankle to calf deep water and stone slabs, although the crossing was less than thirty feet from a large waterfall.
A few minutes past this spot they reached the village where they would leave the horses. The village consisted of a scattering of twenty or so buildings. There was a small ale house and the owner had a large barn that his two laborers rearranged whilst the party ate. Although not the comforts of a township inn, they were appreciative for the hay bale beds for the night.
Shortly after dawn they left the horses and cart in the care of the innkeeper and headed off into the dark jungle that surrounded the small farms. The valley swept through a series of small terraced fields and meadows across rising hills that formed small vales. The undulating countryside gave way to forests in the less hospitable corners, pushing upwards to rocky outcrops, steep pinnacles and sheer cliff faces.
In the whole of the western section of the Kingdom of the Valley, roads and paths were ruled by nature. The mountainous terrain was plentiful and steep, and the narrow paths wound along and in between rising buttes and prominences, box canyons and twice as many dead-end gorges as there are trails. Trees and shrubs sprouted incoherently from rocky crags and turned easily into dense, impenetrable forests, or the occasional mossy patch of green.
Curran and his remaining scout, Dwane, continued to run the trails ahead of the party. The jungles were treacherous, even to the best tracker. Without knowledge of each trail ten times over one wrong turn could place a wanderer leagues and valleys from their expected destination. With so many twists and turns there were also ample enough hiding places for even the stupidest group of raiders to make a decent living.
As the days progressed the gnarled branches and trunks continued to frustrate them with every step. The going was beyond slow and for every ten paces forward it seemed that five were taken to double back and create pathways around crags of stone and trees. With the experience of Veer, the path of the deep forest had descended into a series of r
andom marks made on trees, some of which had grown over such that only their scars remained.
Gameard had taken on board the trust shown in him by Thais and Nathe. He picked up leadership of the entire band, encouraging those that needed it. Nathe and Curran questioned Veer as to where he was heading the party. He seemed senile at times, stopping and staring at the trees and high up ridges as if either lost or trying to find his bearings.
As the party travelled up one steep ravine the river had flattened out into a small estuary as it approached some small falls. It had widened from twenty feet across to almost a hundred, and then back to forty feet across at the cascade. This meant that the speed of current slowed as it entered the inlet and a sand deposit had been created, which eroded and reformed with the height of the river where it thinned again rapidly before the falls. Some of the sections of water flowed gently yet others, only ten feet away, gathered speed before their descent.
Curran had decided to lead the party into the river, having grown up on a farm by a stream, and more experienced than the others in reading the currents and flows. He balked cautiously at first as the water was cold and moved rapidly across the stony inlets and sandbar towards the middle of the river.
He pitched forward, grappling at the clay soil of the opposite riverbank and then scrambled up the five feet of soil quickly. The others cautiously followed as he stood atop the bank, silently pleased with himself that it was now safe again.
Soze went next and stood atop the bank a few moments later, almost dragging some of the remaining men up the embankment, as others cursed as they struggled through the cool currents and more than one silently hoped that there were no more of these crossings to negotiate. With most of the party saturated they setup camp along the riverside, drying their clothes in the remaining sunlight that barely pierced the shrubby rock walls that rose above them.
They had rations of dried meat and even drier biscuits and fruits, which, although very chewy, were edible, and with the nuts and tea that they had carried up from Tharkomad they were easily supplied for the journey.
Dralan came to sit by Thais and Casperi, on the edge of their bedrolls. Two of the Catheridge soldiers, Orate and Edgar, sat nearby. Orate was a strongly built young soldier, the son of a local woodsman, and a good archer. He had bawled very early in his adult life. Edgar on the other hand was the third son of a local farmer, and had thought himself a fine swordsman until his first day of training. He had become a loyal soldier to Catheridge during the past eight summers, and had allowed his beard to thicken over the years.
“My lord, I’ve heard a few of the mercenaries grumbling about these endless forests,” Edgar casually mentioned.
“So, have I,” replied Casperi, still looking across the fire. “But then I’ve also seen glimpses of higher ridges, so there can’t be too much longer before we’re out of this maze.”
Dralan sat beside Thais, shirtless. Even in the cooling autumn temperatures he seemed unfazed by the cold. This was the first time any of them had been able to see his whole tattoo. He suddenly felt the soft touch of a finger running from the back of his shoulder, diagonally down to his spine.
“They are like folded up wings,” Thais casually observed as Dralan turned to see her smiling back at him.
“They appeared on my skin the moment I conquered the great blue dragon, Senath,” he answered to her as Veer and Nathe stepped forward to ensure it was a public conversation. Casperi casually observed the tattoo and the interaction. Several looked at him as if unconvinced.
“Well, burnt into my skin,” he offered looking up at them. “I collapsed from the pain for some time, and was only awoken a few hours later. My men thought me dead at first.”
“Well, it’s a mighty tattoo and an interesting story to go with it,” reproved Veer as he turned to walk away.
The three sat quietly aside of several of the men who had prepared the fire as Denue and another soldier apportioned rations to the party.
As they woke the next morning Nathe approached Veer. I’ve done a head count around those still sleeping and it seems that one of your men has disappeared.
Veer looked around. Nathe was correct. Additionally, a pack of food and rations for five men for a week was also gone. They called over Casperi and the three spoke privately for a few minutes.
“They were your responsibility,” hissed Nathe quietly to Veer.
“You picked them like I did,” he replied.
Veer called everyone awake, and although many grumbled, they sat up on their bedrolls and listened.
“It seems one of the party has taken it upon themselves to abandon the expedition and with a good deal of your food. We are almost to the end of this labyrinth and then will be into the snow within a few days’ time. If you wish to forgo this quest come forth within the next hour and we will pay you one tenth of your contract and provide you with rations for three days, which will last you until the village.”
Within ten minutes two more men approached Veer and were sent on their way. The rest of the party packed up the camp and they continued their climb. They passed through steep river and waterfall strewn caverns that often branched off to dead ends in many sections. Veer had been exemplary in leading them through the maze.
“I would have taken us through the higher trail,” mentioned another of the mercenaries. “It would have certainly been longer but possibly not as moist as the one this man has chosen.”
“Yes, that is true, but Grangol also inhabit many of the forests that those trails lead through, and from what I understand this party has already had their fair share of dealings with Grangols,” Veer indicated to Casperi and Dralan.
*****
The huge creature arrived in the Ice Gols village early in the morning. It had been running through the mountain passes all night. The village sat at the far western end of the high plains. The creature felt no fatigue, imbued with energy that almost radiated from its skin. It walked through the quiet streets, imposing in its size, slightly darker color than the few Ice Gols it passed.
After a few minutes, it stood in the middle of the town square, surveying the commotion. In an unusually loud voice, the creature called for all to gather to listen to its words. These were simple folk and although many grumbled at its command none felt that they could defeat it so they conformed.
These were uneducated Ice Gols who raised Gozioxy across the wide plains. The creature spoke for a few minutes of raising their offspring in great wealth and freedom, of lands so fertile they would never hunger. The gathered Ice Gols listened and nodded with interest.
The creature waved its right hand across the crowd. Laborers dropped their implements, as did shop keepers and others as all stood still, mesmerized. The gathered Ice Gols stood silently. Their eyes reddened.
*****
They climbed through the forest trail, bringing themselves around a corner to find colorful flags gregariously fluttering in the mountain breeze before them.
“This marks the boundary of those called the Triund,” Veer indicated.
“Who are the Triund?” enquired Casperi.
“They are an ancient people, mostly akin to monkeys, who speak an ancient tongue.”
The party looked about at the flags. What are these for?
“Oh, they carry wishes on the wind, spirits, and other things. Each color represents a different element. It’s a harmony and balance thing.”
“So, if they seek harmony and balance, then they are not violent?”
“I’ve heard sometimes they are but generally not,” he supposed. “Not many people see them as they tend to keep to themselves. I’ve seen some of their potato plots, berry bushes here and there. You can always feel them watching you, a few words spoken to each other in their strange language. I’ve met them twice in twenty summers. They might steal our food, but that’s about it.”
“Okay. Thieving monkeys. Got it,” laughed Denue. Gameard smiled.
He had already explained this to others in the
party a few days previously.
“Well, we are walking through their forest. I guess there is always a price to pay.”
The party walked along the rocky trail for another few hours. The forest was fairly dark and amazingly tranquil. What looked like the wall of a mud house could barely be made out through the trees and although they heard the sounds of branches swaying from the movements, no Triund had come into sight.
Veer spotted a small clearing some thirty feet from the path with a creek running a further fifty feet through the brush and suggested that although there was still a few hours of light, the Triund forest bordered the deep forest, and it would be much safer to remain here, and attempt the deep forest crossing early the next day.
Curran and Dwane set out to gather wood whilst Nathe and Veer started organizing the pitching of tarps across trees to make camp for the night. With still plenty of daylight left the fire had been set and the potatoes and beans were put into the pot for boiling. Casperi and several others drew out their swords and began sharpening them as the talk turned to the next few days of travel.
“The path steepens tomorrow, so we’ll need plenty of strength for the climb. If we break camp at dawn, we should be able to traverse the deep forest before sunset,” Veer commented, sliding his grinding stone down the long blade of his sword.
Nathe had turned out several loaves of bread and each person took a third, passing them around to dip in the thick potato and bean mixture. Curran and Dwane returned, as several of the others had searched the borders of their camp and similarly gathered a small pile of wood. As they sat Denue heard a slight noise in the forest. Curran nodded and disappeared into the darkness.
“Something is watching us,” he surmised as he returned a few minutes later.
Suddenly, from directly above Dralan, a Triund landed on the branch above him. It glanced at them but did not hold eye contact, talking as if muttering to itself.
The creature held a long pole in his hand, obviously carved. It was strong looking walking stick and he pointed at Veer’s bread roll, holding the stick up in the other hand.
