by Brett Vonsik
“We be goin’ south, still?” Pax asked anxiously.
“I think,” Rogaan hoped.
“Ya still set on vistin’ the dark robes?” Pax asked with an accusing tone.
“We do not have many options, Pax,” Rogaan insisted. In truth, with the surge of excitement gone from fleeing the guards, and the closer they got to the Ebon Circle, the more Rogaan feared, and worried that he was making a mistake. What will the dark robes do to us once we show at their doorstep? Rogaan’s imagination ran wild with all sorts of torments and hideous things done to their bodies and minds. He shivered…so many stories about the Ebon Circle from folks all around Brigum, and almost none of them good. The bulk of the tales where the Ebon Circle was favored came from his father, but few others.
“I still no like this,” Pax protested. “They can no be trusted.”
Rogaan agreed, but saw no other choice. They needed help to free his father and Pax’s parents, and Imtaesus was without his light. How am I going to tell Mother?
“This way!” Rogaan stepped down the trail, his boots sliding in the soft soil of the uneven path. Pax quickly followed, while looking around nervously. Across the large clearing they went, following the trail before entering dark shadows of a thick stand of trees and tall brush. Rogaan became anxious, but did not understand why. It was more than just the darkness. Out of the deep moon-cast shadows a lone figure stepped onto the trail. He stood an average height, meeting Rogaan’s eyes almost level. His face was long and thin, with tilted eyes, and lacking any hint of facial hair. Clad in eur armor and armed with a long-knife and bow, the lean figure wore unkempt stringy hair to his shoulders.
“You two are loud enough to wake the lightless.” The lone figure spoke in hushed smooth tones, almost melodic. “Step no further and make no loud sound. We’re on a game trail and a long-tooth is sleeping just beyond me.”
Rogaan and Pax looked at each other, confused, then back to the lone figure. Pax asked a little too loudly, “Who be ya?”
“Quiet!” the lone figure scolded Pax in an angry whisper then looked over his shoulder, holding still for a little while, listening. When he seemed satisfied, his tense stance eased and he returned his attention to Rogaan and Pax. “Are you deaf, or do you wish death?”
“My friend’s question needs answering,” Rogaan demanded in a low voice.
“Urgillic,” The lone figure answered. “Urgillic, Kiuri’Ner and humble servant to the Ebon Circle. You two look to be lost or fever-sick, wandering around these parts...after sundown. What is your purpose in these lands?”
“No, Rogaan,” Pax pleaded in a wounded voice while shaking his head side-to-side.
Rogaan looked at Pax with apologetic eyes then said, “We are seeking the Ebon Circle, asking help in rescuing my father, Mithraam.”
Urgillic stood silent for a moment then appeared to nod. “Then Rogaan, son of Mithraam...and your companion…follow me. Take care where you step, and make as little sound as possible. Dangers surround us and are closer than you think.”
Urgillic turned and disappeared into the forest before Rogaan could say a word. Frustrated with unasked questions, Rogaan followed -- almost needing to run to keep up. Pax kept close on Rogaan’s heels. Urgillic passed through the forest as if a daimon, without making noise despite fallen limbs and dried sticks that Rogaan seemed to find at every step. Rogaan struggled to keep up and to hold sight of Urgillic, but just as often found himself looking about, hoping he was going in the right direction when he did lose sight of their guide. At times, Urgillic made it obvious where he was so they could easily follow; at other times he disappeared from sight, but was never long so, keeping them from straying from his intended path as they traveled up and down ridges radiating out from the mountain rising to their left. They kept the pace for hours before Urgillic came to a stop well after midnight. Urgillic stood motionless, looking off into the dark forest like a predator searching...sensing danger. Rogaan, gasped for air as he bent over with his hands on his thighs, sweat soaking his clothing and stinging his eyes. He felt embarrassed that he was not able to fare as well as Urgillic, and wondered just how far they had traveled, as he lost count after ten marches. Pax appeared to be faring better than Rogaan, able to stand with hands on hips, but showed signs of being winded with his heavy breathing. Rogaan wore numerous cuts and bruises from tree and bush limbs, along with a few lumps on his head and knees from tree branches and trunks he ran into face first, or from more falls than he cared to admit to while doing his best to keep up with Urgillic. Because it had slowed him through the forest, Rogaan long before broke down his bow and re-cased it.
Urgillic remained motionless, listening to the forest and looking as if he smelled at the air. He did so for a long while. The break gave Rogaan a chance to fully catch his breath, and he thanked the Ancients for it. The scent of burnt and musty forest was now replaced with an odyssey of sweet fragrances that threatened to overpower him. He was unsure if his tears were spurred from plant dust or sweat. Either way, his tears were unwelcome, yet flowed from his eyes unhindered. Once his breathing came under control, he grew concerned that something was wrong. Why stop now? What is Urgillic seeking? Urgillic slowly cocked his head side to side, listening for something -- what, Rogaan knew not. When he seemed satisfied, he motioned for them to follow. Urgillic took off again, setting a grueling pace Rogaan struggled to keep to. They passed from dense foliage to open forest lands, where there was little undergrowth except for sporadic thick patches of bushes and trees that Urgillic seemed to find easily. Soon, Rogaan found himself treading through increasingly dense undergrowth as he caught the scent of a forest burnt, though it smelled old. Few trees stood with living limbs, and the underbrush grew thicker as they went, making their going surprisingly slow. Rogaan found it difficult to keep Urgillic’s pace in the tanglefoot of thigh-high ferns and ground vines. Urgillic just seemed to ignore whatever lay in his path, though he suddenly slowed to a walking pace. Rogaan and Pax caught up to him, spurring Rogan to give another thanks to the Ancients in between gasps for the night air. After a little time, he sucked in enough air to rid himself of his hazy head as a breeze cooled his sweat-soaked clothing, causing a chill to ripple through him. Through distant trees, Rogaan saw large fires faintly outlining the side of the mountain or a massive dark structure that was otherwise invisible to his eyes.
Rogaan’s skin prickled and his nape hairs stiffened when he realized he must be looking at the temple of the Ebon Circle. It has to be, he realized with dread. Nothing else in these Wilds he knew of would be so grand or dark. He caught himself holding his breath, and the pit of his stomach felt as if he were falling. Fighting back a surge of panic and the fears of foul creatures and sinister kunsag springing upon them from the gloom, Rogaan swallowed hard, trying to gain control of himself and not run away. With an effort, he again deeply sucked in the cool night air. It helped calm him, a little. Until now, the temple had been only a place of stories and talk at the fireside. No longer. This place was real, and it stood before them and Rogaan found himself nervously hoping the many tales told of the Ebon Circle were not true.
Another figured stepped out of the shadows without any warning, dressed similar to Urgillic. Urgillic looked unsurprised and unconcerned at the baraan’s sudden appearance. The baraan looked young, maybe not twenty summers old. Rogaan realized the new Kiuri’Ner was an evendiir, with slightly pointed ears, oval eyes, and a lean build. He spoke also in a melodic voice fit for song. “You’re followed.”
“Indeed,” Urgillic replied flatly without taking his eyes off the temple. “They’ve been with us since I found these younglings.” With a wave of his hand, Urgillic signaled for everyone to follow as their protector strode off toward the Ebon Circle. Rogaan took a deep breath then hesitantly made to follow.
“Ya can no be serious!” Pax blurted out with angry conviction.
Rogaan stopped and looked at Pax with a quizzical expression. Pax returned his gaze with determined defiance,
his eyes almost glowing in the moonlight. Rogaan was at first confused then came to realize that Pax was not intending to step inside the Ebon Circle.
“Pax,” Rogaan pleaded. “We must. We need help to do what we intend.”
Pax shook his head and set his boots firmly in place. Rogaan did not know what to do. Pax had voiced his complaint about this plan of asking help of the dark robes, but Rogaan never thought his friend would outright refuse to try.
“No,” Pax said evenly. “I no be putting foot in dat place. And you should no be doing so, either. We find another way...other help, but no dark robes.”
“What has your feet stuck in the mud?” Urgillic asked in a subdued voice from the cover of a large tree some twenty paces in the direction of the temple. Neither Rogaan nor Pax answered. They simply stared at each other. Rogaan did not know what to say that could convince Pax to enter the Ebon Circle and ask for help they needed. Pax seemed to have already made his decision and was standing firm.
“My friend is questioning the wisdom of seeking help from the Ebon Circle,” Rogaan reluctantly answered Urgillic. The Kiuri’Ner betrayed a hint of agitation and disappointment...maybe frustration. The companion Kiuri’Ner quickly closed on Pax, covering the ten paces as if it were much shorter, grabbing his arm.
“We haven’t time for parley!” The young Kiuri’Ner declared as he grabbed Pax and started dragging him toward the dark temple.
Rogaan acted without thinking and grabbed the Kiuri’Ner by his armor at the shoulder, bringing him and Pax to an abrupt halt. Rogaan growled, “Take your hands from him.”
“Hands off!” Pax snarled as he ripped himself away from the Kiuri’Ner’s grasp.
The three of them stood looking at each other, each uncertain what to do. The young Kiuri’Ner had his hand on the hilt of his short sword, looking ready to pull it free.
“Hold your sword, Tamik,” Urgillic ordered sternly as he stepped closer.
Tamik glared at Urgillic, but kept his hand to hilt. He quickly turned his glare back on Pax and Rogaan. Pax looked all indignant and angry, and as if he had been wronged. Rogaan still felt anger toward Tamik, and frustration at the whole of things. Mostly, he realized, it was from the unknown...how his father fared, and Pax’s parents, too, and the safety of his mother and Suhd, and that they were about to enter into the domain of the dark robes in the heart of the Ebon Circle. Nothing was ideal. Everything was happening too fast. Urgillic halted his approach several strides from the three. Deep moon-cast shadows from the tall trees behind Urgillic highlighted the Kiuri’Ner with the moonlight bathing him, making him stand out all the more.
Urgillic cast a frustrated stare at Rogaan. “I have orders to see you to the Ebon Circle. You have little choice in this matter as I.”
“We no have ta go anywhere!” Pax snarled at Urgillic.
“You...I care nothing of, though your friend....” Urgillic leveled his gaze on Pax. “Not my place to defy. He has been summoned.”
“Enough talk, Urgi....” Tamik fell to the ground with an arrow run through his neck, right to left, blood spurting an arm’s-length in the air with every heartbeat. Rogaan realized he had heard the arrow in flight before it struck, but he had dismissed the sound as they argued. Now, with shock quickly fading, he wished he had not dismissed it. The whistling of another arrow off to his right found Rogaan ducking instinctively into a crouch. Two arrows struck to the sides of Urgillic’s eur chest plates. Both arrows sank in a hand’s width deep, with the fletched shafts vibrating from the force of the impacts. Urgillic looked surprised at the arrows in his chest as he fell to his knees, dropping his bow beside him. The Kiuri’Ner tried to say something, but only a croak escaped his lips before he fell sideways to the ground, gasping. Pax was in a half-crouch with a knife in each hand, looking for the assassin. Rogaan thought to find cover, but saw nothing close, so he remained couching, pulling his shunir’ra case from his shoulder.
“No need for that,” a voice said from the darkness.
“Who be out there?” Pax demanded of the darkness.
His bow not yet pulled from the case to be assembled, Rogaan stopped. The deep voice had a familiar mocking tone. Rogaan looked hard in the direction the voice came from adjusting his eyes to the deep shadows. A large, sandy-haired baraan with bow in hand, and dressed in red-brown wilds armor, stepped into the moon rays. It took a few moments for Rogaan to make out Kardul, to be sure it was Kardul.
“Kardul...?” Rogaan half stated, half asked.
“Kardul?” Pax asked Rogaan in an unbelieving tone. “How can ya see a thing? I see nothin’, only dark.”
“Gawking, still,” Kardul stated with a hint of disappointment.
Rogaan felt a flush of embarrassment, stood up and straightened his stance in an attempt to show he was alert and not surprised at Kardul’s appearance. Pax stared at Kardul with a skeptical expression that made Rogaan think his friend was unsure Kardul stood before them.
“It is him,” Rogaan said, hoping Pax would accept his confirmation that it was Kardul.
“Ya can be hopeful sometimes.” Pax was skeptical. He yelled out, “Who be out there?”
The baraan kept silent as he approached confidently. Pax visibly relaxed when he made out the Wing and Eye mark on the right side of Kardul’s sandy-haired face. Kardul stopped a few strides from them then spoke, “Time to leave these parts.”
Rogaan thought he glimpsed Kardul stealing a nervous look in the direction of the Ebon Circle. It was there and gone in a blink, or so Rogaan tried to convince himself. Then he was unsure he ever had seen it. Pax stepped over Tamik’s body without a care, making to follow Kardul. A flash of fear, anger, and guilt swept over Rogaan. Looking at Kardul, he said, “We cannot leave Urgillic like this. We need to get him help. And why did you have to kill Tamik?”
An arrow whistled from the darkness, sinking itself into Urgillic’s neck from an unseen location. Blood flowed from the wound as Urgillic gurgled his last breath.
“Why?” Rogaan glared at Kardul, remorseful and angry at such a callous disregard for those that showed them no ill. Two baraans emerged from the darkness from different directions. One was tall and lean, and the other average in height and stockier. Both wore striped green and gray shirts and breeches, and dull-green capes and wide-brimmed hats. They were hard to see even in the moonlight as they picked Urgillic’s and Tamik’s bodies clean of valuables and weapons. Rogaan felt a rage build inside as he watched their barbarism.
“They were of the temple and served the dark robes,” Kardul explained simply. “You would have been delivered into the hands of the dark master and become lost to us...and your family.”
Rogaan did not know how to respond to Kardul. Was killing them necessary? Rogaan was uncertain, but it angered him. Pax looked unmoved by their deaths. That unsettled Rogaan even more than the callousness of Kardul’s people.
Pax gave Rogaan an impatient look. “Let’s be goin’, Rogaan. I no like dis place or these folk. I want ta be as far from here as we can get.”
“Father gave instructions...” Rogaan argued and was cut off.
“Ya father is no here.” Pax was impatient. “Kardul thinks like me about this place and the dark robes. That be good enough for me.”
Rogaan stood silent, trying to make sense of everything. His father wanted him to seek out the Ebon Circle, likely to be protected in some way that Rogaan still did not understand. Mother wanted him to honor Father’s wishes. But so many stories told of the place being dark and of dark people, the dark robes, doing dark things. Pax believed the old stories of darkness and foul happenings -- and, Rogaan admitted to himself, he thought much the same of the Ebon Circle. So many people could not be wrong. Maybe Father feared the trouble he was about to get into more than the dark robes, and was choosing the best of bad choices for Rogaan. Protect me even though I would suffer in my safety. Rogaan shivered. Father, what have you gotten us into?
“No time to waste,” Kardul said with a tone of urgency
.
“Come, Rogaan,” Pax pleaded with a tone of frustration. “Let’s be gone away from here and go save our parents.”
“The lass is waiting,” Kardul announced almost matter-of-factly.
Rogaan looked at Kardul confused. What lass?
“What lass?” Pax asked.
“She calls herself Suhd,” Kardul nodded.
“Where she be?” Pax demanded. “What have ya done ta her? Take us ta her.”
“Hold!” Rogaan barked. He surprised himself and looked all of it before recovering and placing his focus on Kardul. “Why is Suhd in your care?”
“Ya. Why?” Pax added suspiciously.
“We rescued her from a caravan attack,” Kardul answered them flatly. “She’s the one who told us where you were going.”
“What of my mother?” Rogaan asked with a tight throat. “Suhd was traveling with her.”
“We heard the battle, but arrived at its end,” Kardul said quickly. “The lass was in the hands of slavers, being taken away along this side of the river. The caravan suffered a loss of a coach, but was fleeing south on the other side of the river. We killed most of the slavers and retrieved her.”
“Was anyone harmed?” Rogaan asked with an even tighter throat. “Was anyone in the caravan killed?”
“No way to know.” Kardul sounded irritated, with his short response. “We must leave. Follow me.”
“Wait...” Rogaan pleaded. “Kardul...my mother. I need to know she is safe.”
“You’ll have to ask the lass.” Kardul sounded confident.
“Rogaan, let’s be goin’,” Pax urged impatiently.
Rogaan decided to follow, to leave the road to the Ebon Circle and the bodies of the slain behind. Mother and Suhd are more important than…this or Father’s wishes.
Chapter 13
First Ride
The cool pre-dawn air was dry leaving Rogaan’s mouth parched by the time they met up with Suhd and the two sharur escorting her. Since Kardul’s companions made quick work killing the Ebon Circle’s Kiuri’Ners, Kardul had set a hard pace on foot, faster than Urgillic had earlier. Rogaan struggled to keep up. The length of the run did not bother him, but the pace left him winded. And Rogaan lost sight of Kardul more than once while running, then found himself being led back to Kardul by one of his sharurs. Rogaan guessed Kardul headed westward for marches, almost to the river that ran south from Brigum before they stopped. Rogaan sucked at the air with burning lungs, trying to fill them while bent over with hands on knees. Pax put a hand on Rogaan’s shoulder, telling him in pants to breathe deep and try standing upright. Rogaan tried, but found himself back with hands on knees as a slow breeze chilled his sweat-soaked clothes, causing him to shiver. Rogaan felt miserable. He heard echoing noises all about him: indistinguishable voices, heavy footfalls, snorts, and the rustling of the forest, but he did not care to look about. He just wanted to breathe without the pain. He forced himself to control gasps, slow them, deepen them. The pain in his chest diminished. The echoing in his ears was replaced by the thunder of his beating heart. Then the thundering eased. Rogaan looked up from his bent-over position.
