Windcatcher: Book I of the Stone War Chronicles

by A. J. Norfield

  Both wolves paced back and forth, restlessly in their cages. They did not like the look of their stone counterparts, at all. They had witnessed what happened to the member of their wolf pack, which had been locked up here with them, and recognized the statues for the unnatural evil they represented.

  The stone was the same deep black used in the palace and on other ghol’ms. This gave the stone wolves a very ominous look. Wertel had captured the long legs and pointed muzzle perfectly. With their long legs, timber wolves could easily grow bigger than the average height of a human being. It put their sharp flesh-tearing teeth right at face level, which was often very intimidating for anyone facing these beasts. Their strong legs allowed them to easily jump over small walls and other obstacles, often without slowing down their pace.

  Their normal prey consisted of the larger species of deer that roamed the wilderness, but they had even been seen attacking larger-than-life bears, if the pack was hungry enough.

  A wolf pack hunts together, swapping out the front positions to more rested members of the pack if one tired. Prey could be followed for days, with the wolves following their scent, showing themselves to the prey constantly. Being chased without a moment’s rest, the prey would eventually collapse from exhaustion, making it an easy kill. Corza intended to use that renowned tactic to track down the whereabouts of the dragon egg and to make sure the people responsible for stealing it were torn to shreds.

  Wertel saw from Corza’s facial expression that he was pleased. He felt uncomfortable bringing bad news at this point, but it would be much worse to lie about it now and be found out later.

  “I am sorry to say the tests could have gone better. The wolf that was sacrificed transferred easily enough into the third statue we made. It thrashed around some while settling into its new stone skin, so I suggest finding a spacious place to do the ritual. The person holding the scrolls was in full command, but make sure no one else comes too close, as it will not spare anyone else stupid enough to approach them carelessly.

  “Furthermore, it seems the wolf was unable to track the scented trail we set up. As expected, the nose was unable to pick up any scent. I think the stone wolf still had its old memories or instincts, because it looked thoroughly confused, not knowing how to react. After some time, it seemed to accept things as they were and hunted successful. As long as the prey was in visual range, the wolf used its wits and eyes to seek out and kill the prey.”

  Corza slowly walked past the black wolf statue, letting his hand slide along the stone skin.

  “That’s unfortunate, but it will have to do. Anything else I should know?”

  Wertel gave a wry, toothless smile.

  “Don’t lose the scrolls. Their animal instincts take over and they go on a rampage, if they are not controlled by the scroll master’s thoughts, at all times. The human ghol’ms seem to retain a little bit of intelligence and they go dormant, if their scroll is lost and their last task has been completed; but these wild animals are different.”

  “What a troublesome flaw.” Corza shook his head in disapproval.

  Wertel shrugged.

  “It is what it is, nothing we can do about it.” Wanting to quickly change the subject, he asked, “When would you like them to be ready, sir?”

  “Right away, we’ll leave first thing in the morning. Take the wolves to the sacrificial chamber and get the scrolls prepared. I want you to hand deliver them to me as soon as they are done. The statues should be loaded up now and sent out on the road toward the west. The transport will have an escort of six guards, which I will personally handpick and send over, right away. They should follow the western trade route and travel throughout the night. Our group will catch up with them tomorrow, after which we will travel together from there.”

  “As you wish. If you could please follow me back to the main cave, then I will get things moving along, so they are sent out as soon as possible.”

  While they walked back to the main entrance, Corza felt a bit better.

  With the wolves and the guards, I should have a strong enough force to break from High General Wayler’s group, if needed. But first things first, I need to find that dragon’s egg; until I do, I can’t risk anyone finding out my true intentions.

  I can use Koltar and his men to track down those bastards that stole my egg, and once they have outlived their usefulness, Koltar won’t know what hit him. As for those Shadows, they will be no match for my wolves.

  His mouth broke into a sly grin, which immediately triggered a jolt of pain in his bruised neck. Rubbing his neck again, Corza silently cursed the Stone King and hoped his neck would not be too stiff and unpleasant during the morning to ride.

  Chapter 5

  Lost

  “Do you need more firewood?”

  Raylan looked up with dreamy eyes and saw Harwin standing next to him with his arms full of dry wood.

  “What?”

  His mind had wandered while checking on the dragon egg. Ever since they retrieved it, he felt strangely drawn to the egg. Unfortunately, they had little time to actually rest, as the group wanted to stay on the move as much as possible. Tonight was an exception though, everyone needed a well-deserved break to replenish their energy.

  Harwin gave a laughing grunt.

  “Well, you’re miles away it seems. I said, do you need more firewood…to keep the egg heated.”

  “No thanks, it’s pretty filled up already. If you have wood left over though, put it in the wagon, as our stock is running low.”

  Raylan made it his task to take care of the egg and to make sure it was constantly kept at a high temperature. The egg was often the topic of conservation since they left the large clearing and the cave they found it in, little more than a week ago. At first, some of them did not want to believe it, but as others in their group had already seen it, Xi’Lao saw no point in trying to hide what it was. Everyone responded by asking lots of questions, but for some reason, Xi’Lao did not provide any detailed information on the subject.

  Galen laughed at the explanation and said he would believe what it was when he saw it come out of the egg. Peadar was very curious to learn the details of the dragon’s flight. Having such a bond with birds, it was his natural reaction to make a comparison with the pigeons they had brought. He could scarcely believe such a large creature could go up in the air, but he marveled at the possibility.

  Rohan cautiously speculated about the probability of the creature being hostile. How did they know it would not attack them? Xi’Lao ensured him that according to the old scrolls, few injuries happened—on purpose—during a hatching, but since no one had experienced an actual hatch event for centuries, she had no idea what to expect.

  The rest of the squad seemed to find the object intriguing, but Raylan could not fully determine their feelings toward it. His brother had this worried look on his face during the egg discussions, but said little about the subject.

  Although Xi’Lao mentioned multiple times that she just did not know more on the topic as everything was ancient history, Raylan felt she was holding back information, for some reason. He thought about confronting her about it, but in the end he decided that his time was better spent taking care of their precious cargo. Up until now, he had no reason to distrust her.

  Harwin returned from dropping the wood in the wagon. Raylan saw he was limping slightly on his injured leg, but it did not look too serious.

  “How’s the leg doing?” Raylan asked.

  “Well enough, it doesn’t really hurt, just a bit stiff. We burned the wound closed to limit the chance of infection and it seems to have done the trick. I’ll be skipping along in no time,” Harwin said with a grin, before adding, “How about you? It looks like you are quite fond of the egg. Are you worried about it? Or just wondering what it will look like?”

  Raylan closed the lid on the chest. He secured the metal clip, although it had not closed properly since he knocked the lock off. He wished he had another lock to secure it better, but the
y did not have any spare materials like that with them.

  “Both, I think. Who wouldn’t be curious about the creature? But it’s more than worrying or wondering. I feel this warm glow in my chest, it’s strangely soothing, even in this cold, foreign land. I mean…I’m still miserable with all the cold rain, don’t get me wrong,” he said with a small smile, “but I can’t compare the feeling with anything I know. It’s almost the way you feel when you’re young, being hugged by your mother, feeling safe but in a different way.”

  Raylan let out a sigh.

  “It’s hard to explain.”

  He had no idea why he told Harwin all of this. The old soldier would surely think he was a big softy. Raylan shook his head.

  “Maybe I’m mistaken. For starters, I barely remember my mother. Let alone what it felt like being hugged by her. It’s probably just the heat of the stones and wood or something, nothing more.”

  Harwin frowned.

  “Your mother died young?”

  Raylan’s face got gloomier for a moment, as he gave a short nod.

  “She died when I was very little. A disease swept through the city, both me and my mother got very sick. Somehow, I pulled through, but my mother was too weakened. Gavin and I had some trouble adjusting after that.”

  “Sorry to hear that, I didn’t know. I heard the commander had a rebellious phase when he was younger, but he never really talks about his family. We hope our loved ones will be with us forever, but reality is often much more cruel,” said Harwin. He spit on the ground, as if to insult said reality.

  Harwin put a firm hand on his Raylan’s shoulder.

  “Well, no matter what it is with this egg, I’m sure you’ll find out, sooner or later.”

  Harwin gave a soft smile that made Raylan wonder what kind of life he must have had. He knew Harwin had served in the army for more than twenty years already, but that was about all he knew about him.

  As Harwin turned to walk away, Raylan stood up, letting his curiosity lead him.

  “How about you? You seem to be in a good mood a long way from home.”

  Harwin looked back.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, aren’t you curious as to what the dragon will look like?”

  “Damn right, I’m curious. I must admit I would probably have been very skeptical about it being a dragon, if we hadn’t been fighting a living statue less than a week ago. Now, I figure anything is possible. I’ve served in the army for almost half my life already, normal life is something very strange for me, I grow too restless. Here, out in the wilderness, in unknown territory, this is where I feel good. Besides, I am just happy this life still has so many secrets for an old hand like me to discover. That dragon being one of them. Now come on, Kevhin successfully killed and brought back a great-looking deer of some sort. Richard and Peadar prepared the meat, which means we’ll not be going hungry tonight.”

  Raylan followed Harwin to the others.

  That morning, they had come to a river with fresh water, which they followed throughout the day. Ca’lek had rode ahead, to scout, and found nothing that posed an immediate threat. Recognizing the need for rest, Gavin had reluctantly approved a longer stop, so there was some time to hunt and to make a real meal. It was always a risk to have a fire in enemy territory, but as they had not seen anyone since they left the clearing, Gavin felt comfortable enough to approve a shielded campfire for cooking. The fire was contained in a cooking pit, surrounded by a ring of stones. As the others prepared the camp, Kevhin and Rohan were sent hunting—while Galen kept watch on the surroundings.

  As they moved further south, it slowly got warmer. It was still cold, but the rain stopped more often and ground vegetation increased, much to the pleasure of the horses.

  Their little caravan followed the path at the bottom of the hill where Richard stood on the morning of his scouting, but soon found it led nowhere—after a few miles, it simply stopped. They could not risk turning back, as the enemy’s forces could be following close behind. They resolved to slowly travel south, which meant they had to cut through the forest using the horses, swords and much sweat. They were only going a few miles per day, at most; but after a couple of days, they still had not seen any enemy forces and it was not likely they were moving toward an inhabited area. Even without enemies on their heels, they still had to be careful not to run into any patrols. They also had to be ever vigilant, as the ground was treacherous to travel on; they had to be careful that none of the horses missed a step and broke a leg.

  Gavin recovered well. It took two days before his headaches stopped, which did not make travel by wagon any easier. He grabbed his ribs, every now and then, but they seemed to bother him less and less.

  Although the squad had little trouble functioning, each member knew his or her role, it was still good that Gavin was fully assuming the leadership role again. A strong leader meant things got done more efficiently, which was what the current situation required.

  As they approached the campfire, Raylan saw Gavin, Xi’Lao and Richard standing at the back of the wagon which they had taken from the enemy camp. They looked at one of the maps they had brought with them. As he walked up to them, he heard Gavin speak.

  “These are useless. No one has ever traveled this far inland on the Dark Continent and come back to tell about it. Judging from the sun, we are still traveling south by southeast, which means we are getting further away from the coast. Problem is, without any reference points, it’s impossible to tell where we are.”

  Xi’Lao looked at the map, following the coastline with her finger, as Richard checked another.

  “What do you suggest we do?” asked Richard.

  “We can’t risk going back without knowing what we’re up against; and without knowledge of the area, we’ll just be moving around blindly. At least along the coast we’ll get a sense of how far south we have traveled. We might even be able to construct a boat and take to the water,” added Xi’Lao, as a suggestion.

  Without introduction, Raylan cut into the conversion.

  “That won’t do us any good.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Xi’Lao, as the three of them turned around.

  “None of us knows anything about boat building, and the Great Eastern Divide won’t be some calm lake water that you wish to cross. Storms might show up, even slightly rough water can be a problem if the vessel is not seaworthy.”

  Xi’Lao looked back to Gavin, disappointment showed on her face, if only for a moment, before she regained her composure.

  “That’s true, we hit some pretty rough weather when sailing to Aeterra, and it was not even storm season.”

  “It’s not only that, but the only one that has any sailing experience is Raylan here. I wonder if we would be able to correctly handle a ship,” added Richard.

  Raylan looked around the camp.

  “We would have enough hands on deck, but it won’t matter without a good ship. I don’t know how to construct a seaworthy ship from scratch.”

  Xi’Lao looked frustrated.

  “Okay, but what can we do? We cannot keep going south. We will just get further and further away from our home,” she said.

  “Well, I wanted to explain that before we were interrupted…”

  Gavin gave a glance sideways to Raylan.

  “I think I’ve got a solution, but it will require some planning.”

  The glance reminded Raylan of how much Gavin had changed from rebellious to serious when he joined the army. While Raylan had remained an energetic boy trying to get out of any responsibility, Gavin had completely turned around. When he finally joined the army, it had given Gavin a structure that spoke to him, giving him a goal to work toward. He wanted to protect the people he held dear to his heart, and the wish to be more dependable for his father had a deep impact on the behavior of his brother during those years. Looking back, Raylan saw it provided Gavin a certain peace of mind at that age, channeling his rage about losing their mother; but at the time,
he had been annoyed by the countless times Gavin had rebuked him, telling him he should help more, that he should be more serious and find something of value in his life to work for.

  It had made Raylan angry more than once. He had felt abandoned by his brother and nothing he did would go right. He could do nothing worthy of praise from his brother, nothing had been good enough. The result was their bond had stretched thinner and thinner until they barely spoke for a time; the distance grew with Gavin being away a lot for army training, and Raylan eventually heading out to sea to escape the city. Being out on the sea had given Raylan time to reflect on things. When he eventually got drafted, Gavin had looked him up in the training camp. They still had very different opinions sometimes, but the gap between them eventually shrunk to a negligible crack. Though Raylan still felt the sting of disapproval during moments like this, it was more the memories of that time than the actual rebuke that bothered him.

  Gavin continued.

  “Before leaving on this assignment, we discussed multiple strategies with the war council. Things rarely go as planned, and I had no intention for us to get stuck on this continent without alternative routes home.”

  Raylan looked at his brother.

  “So, what’s the plan to get us out of here?”

  “Two of the remaining pigeons we have aren’t bred in Shid’el but Azurna.”

  “How does that help us?” wondered Xi’Lao.

  “Azurna is one of the most eastern harbor cities in Aeterra. They’ll be closest to the Dark Continent. On a good wind, a ship could get to the western coast of the Dark Continent in three or four weeks. The idea was to have a ship ready in Azurna that can depart on short notice and get to the Dark Continent to pick us up. If it was not needed the pigeons could carry normal messages which would be relayed to the capital, but in this case we’ll sent them both out carrying the same message. As soon as they know we are cut off from returning to Aeterra over land, they’ll set sail for the most western point of the Dark Continent.”