Windcatcher: Book I of the Stone War Chronicles

by A. J. Norfield

  “Now that we have a trail to follow, it would be best to ditch the heavy wagon. It’ll only slow us down. These two beauties will be more than capable of keeping up with a galloping horse. If the enemy group is in possession of the sacred item, they need a wagon to transport it. We will be able to catch up with them very fast, if we do not lose the trail. But such a heavy wagon is bound to leave tracking clues everywhere, so your scouts should be able to find them.”

  Corza opened his saddlebag and dug around in it until he finally pulled two sacrifice scrolls from its depths.

  Koltar’s mood darkened. He had no objection to the extra power a ghol’m gave to their hunt, but all that power at Corza’s disposal could mean real problems.

  “How fast can they move? You know the human ghol’ms are slow travelers when they aren’t in combat. They have that awkward stride, and it takes time for them to move between the forest trees.”

  Koltar was right…it had surprised them when the first test ghol’ms showed a complete difference in speed during combat and normal travel. They tried to find a solution, but in the end had to accept it as a flaw in the design. Corza theorized that in combat one’s energy was completely different from a normal state of mind. That combat buzz normal soldiers felt has the power to take away fatigue, pain and doubt. Corza figured it triggered a complete change in how the ghol’ms moved. It was one of the reasons why the ghol’ms were transported in wagons, instead of letting them walk.

  “Not to worry, High General Wayler,” Corza said, officially, “for these creatures, there is no difference between combat and no combat. There is only the hunt. Now, if you please, take a step back with your horse. This could get a bit dangerous and we would not want you to get hurt.”

  The sarcastic tone in Corza’s voice was barely noticeable, but Koltar was fully aware of its presence. Turning his ride around, he put some distance between him and the stone wolves. During their patrols, Koltar and his men had plenty of encounters with the timber wolves, enough to have a healthy respect for these killing machines of nature.

  Without further delay, Corza walked between the statues and stopped at the back of their necks. He raised his arms, a scroll in each hand. Corza softly mumbled the incantation of sacrifice. He felt the scrolls resonating while a faint blue glow originated from the sides of the scroll. In one swift motion, he brought down both scrolls; the sharp points hit each wolf statue accurately between the shoulder blades. The blue light immediately increased to a bright sparkling flare, as the resonating sound increased, making the horses neigh. Corza’s clothes waved in the wind created by the sound. He was now experienced enough to brace himself for what came next. Both sound bursts came almost simultaneously as the blue energy light rushed into the statues, expanding outward, echoing along the forests.

  Wrenching the scrolls out, Corza walked back to his horse and put some more distance between himself and the black wolves. Since it would be his first time seeing the transformation for them, he did not want to take any chances.

  After a brief moment, he heard the familiar sound of stone cracking. Small pieces crumbled from both wolves. Their heads started moving as one wolf turned its head sideways and back to stretch its neck. The other looked down as it ripped lose its front paws. Large nails shaped at the end of the paws as both tails broke loose and swept back and forth a couple of times. The cracking grew louder as a muffled growl became audible. The entire jaw formed, and their mouths split open, revealing razor-sharp teeth. Their two large canine fangs were almost the length of Corza’s lower arm.

  The wolves had an eerie appearance, with little color difference between their skin and their fangs. Both eyes glowed blue in their hollow caskets. It was like the entire beast was a shadow, which made it difficult to clearly see the details. Corza noticed a small difference in size between the wolves. The larger one was almost at the point that all paws were fully formed and ready to get up; the smaller one was currently snapping its head backward, trying to bite its own tail.

  Suddenly, the large wolf put its hind paws back and stretched forward, throwing its head backward in his neck. The howl it threw at the sky was like nothing Koltar ever heard before. He recognized the howl of a wolf but the sound was like it was inside a cave, bouncing off the stone walls that were its lungs, amplifying itself. He felt it resonate through its body. Instantly, he was back at the black palace near the dome, where that rumble had sounded so familiar and so unnatural at the same time. He wondered what the Stone King hid in that dome.

  The smaller wolf reacted to the howl and added its own. Ripping its paws lose, it stumbled to the side, crashing into the larger wolf. The impact was all that was needed to set the beast off. In an instant, the larger wolf turned sideways and threw itself viciously on the other wolf. Its jaws closed on the back of the other’s neck as the sound of stone scraping over stone rolled over the clearing. The smaller wolf rolled sideways, making the larger one role over it, and at once put in a counterattack directed at one of the front paws.

  Neither wolf did any real damage to the other with their teeth, or their claws; but Koltar had no doubt one bite would have enough power to bite through a man’s arm, leg, and perhaps even a torso, with ease. The wolves tumbled across each other, scrambling to their feet and launched another attack, right away. They both crashed into a large boulder, forcing them to split up again. The smaller one ran to the side, using the large boulder to run across it—horizontally—and get behind the bigger one. The latter immediately turned around to keep its competitor in front of him. It jumped at the larger wolf’s throat, but got pinned down by the full force of its larger foe. With its full weight on top of him, the smaller wolf finally yielded into a submissive position.

  The large wolf lowered its head and let out a low growl, at which moment one of the soldiers came around the boulder to see what all the ruckus was about. Instantly, both wolves forgot about each other and jumped at the unprepared soldier. He barely had time to raise his spear, as two pitch black wolves pounced on him. The larger wolf closed the full length of its jaw over the soldier’s right shoulder, its front canine teeth pierced all the way into the stomach, while the smaller wolf sank its teeth in his left femur, tearing the leg off at the hip. The soldier died in a pool of blood; so fast, no scream was heard.

  Fascinated by the spectacle, Corza had an immense grin on his face. His creations were more marvelous than he had dared to dream. The fact that the soldier had been one of Koltar’s men just been made it so much sweeter.

  As the wolves noticed their prey stopped moving, it dawned on them that they had no appetite to feed on it. Confused, they backed away and looked around, taking in the surroundings for the first time. Noticing both Corza and Koltar observing them, the larger one turned and started walking toward them slowly. Its head held low, it bared its teeth while slowly stepping toward them.

  “Corza! Don’t you have any control over them?” Koltar roared, as he drew his sword from his side.

  Corza did not bother answering. He kept his eyes on the large wolf approaching. The smaller wolf was now in its tracks, as they simultaneously increased their speed. The distance between them and the wolves closed rapidly, as Corza tightened his hands around both scrolls.

  Wertel better be right, or he has another think coming to him.

  Koltar’s horse started moving nervously from side to side, seeing the wolves come at them. Any untrained horse would have been long gone, even the trained warhorses had trouble following commands with ghol’ms nearby, and these were no normal ghol’ms. The wolves were fast, athletic and even more intimidating than any normal ghol’m. It was a wonder that the horse had not thrown him off yet.

  “Corza! You better tell me you have a way to stop these things! You bastard, say something!”

  But Corza did not turn around. His eyes were locked on the larger wolf, counting under his breath. Both wolves were at full running speed and would be on them at any moment. Corza considered, for a split second, letting the wolv
es tear through Koltar, right there and then; but that would mean instant chaos. One of Koltar’s soldiers might get away in the panic and inform Lord Rictor, and that would complicate things. Besides, he only had eyes on one of the Darkened, which meant they might be able to take him out if he was not careful enough. Reluctantly, Corza decided to wait for a more opportune moment, when there were fewer uncertainties.

  Just before the wolves were on them, Corza bellowed.

  “STOP!”

  Both beasts skidded to a halt, stopping right in front of Corza. They looked at him strangely, not fully comprehending why they broke off their attack.

  “Lie down!” Corza ordered in loud voice, and immediately both stone wolves sank their legs to lie down on the ground.

  “Excellent, this is working out perfectly, I would say,” Corza said to no one in particular.

  “You son of a whore, you let those things tear up one of our soldiers for nothing.” Koltar forced his horse to move in closer to Corza and the wolves.

  Corza turned around.

  “One of your soldiers, to be precise…you better be careful about what you call me, High General Wayler. We would not want the wolves to lose control again. Who knows what could happen...”

  With the slightest movement of his finger, Corza let the wolves rise up, after which they moved to either side of him and positioned themselves between him and Koltar. The larger wolf was almost as tall as Koltar’s own horse. Its hollow eyes stared at him from just below his horse’s eye level. The smaller one lowered its head slightly and let out a small growl.

  Not willing to push his luck in a situation like this, Koltar cursed audibly. He forced himself to turn his horse around and look backward.

  “Trust me, High General Setra, I’ll remember. Now if you can keep them under control, let’s see if they can truly keep up with the horses during tracking and catch these thieves as quickly as possible.”

  As Koltar rode off to whip their men into motion and get everything ready to set off, he gritted his teeth. These wolves would be trouble and not something he would easily be able to get rid of. All of a sudden, High General Setra became a much more dangerous person to control.

  Raylan was enjoying a satisfied stomach, when he looked up and saw Xi’Lao come up to him.

  “I need your help,” she said.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Stephen’s leg is getting worse. I need to do something, or it will be too late.”

  “Okay, what do you need me to do?”

  “Find as much of this moss as possible,” said Xi’Lao, as she pulled a small pluck of green out of her bag. “It seems similar to the moss back home that is known for its disinfection abilities. I want to make a paste out of it and apply it to Stephen’s leg.”

  “Sure, I’ll go right away. Where did you find that?” said Raylan.

  “I came across it today. It was on the shady side of the trees. Mostly in very wet spots…but that is not really a problem here,” she said with a small smile.

  A few moments later, Raylan found himself moving from tree to tree, looking for the moss. As he crouched down, he heard the echo of howling wolves through the hills. He wondered if they were greeting the first stars of the night, or perhaps they were sending a warning that they were going on the hunt.

  I’d better hurry up and get back. We shouldn’t let the fire die out tonight.

  After a short search, he found what he was looking for and picked as much moss as he could carry before returning back.

  Xi’Lao began making the paste as soon as he returned, asking Raylan to stay with Stephen until she was ready. The scout had slipped off into a restless sleep. He was tossing and turning as sweat ran down his face, sometimes incoherently talking to someone who was clearly not there.

  “Ready,” said Xi’Lao, as she came back from the campfire.

  “So what do we do now? Just smear it on?” asked Raylan.

  “No, I first have to relieve pressure from the infection, get the leg as clean as possible…which means making a hole to let the bad stuff out…”

  “You’re going to cut him?” said Raylan surprised.

  “It’s the only way to get the infection out,” nodded Xi’Lao. “I will go prepare my knife in the fire. Can you please wake him and put this knife’s handle between his teeth. It will prevent him from biting his tongue…”

  “Sure, but why place the knife in the fire?” asked Raylan, as he accepted the sheathed knife.

  “The fire cleanses the knife, so using it does not add to the infection while we try to get rid of it.”

  As Xi’Lao walked to the fire, Raylan woke up Stephen as softly as possible. Their injured friend seemed to be very far away, living almost in his own world. Xi’Lao explained what they had to do as best as possible, but Raylan doubted if Stephen understood any of it.

  “Okay, put the handle between his teeth and grab his shoulders. Richard? Can you hold his other leg? Gavin, put pressure on the injured leg’s thigh.”

  With the three of them holding Stephen down, Xi’Lao picked up the knife from the fire and let it cool slightly, so that it would not immediately cauterize the wound. As she made the incision, Stephen moaned painfully; but under the circumstances, Raylan thought he remained impressively quiet. The cut was deep and about an inch long in the thickest part of the swollen leg. Immediately, a white fluid came gushing out. A stench, like rotten eggs, filled the night’s air.

  “Alright, that was the easy part. Now grab hold, I need to push out as much of the wound’s fluid as possible,” said Xi’Lao.

  As she put pressure on the leg, the reeking, white fluid flowed out, mixing with blood from the freshly made cut. Stephen jolted under their hands, screaming from the sudden increase in pain. All haziness disappeared from his eyes as he looked Raylan straight in the eyes. Raylan saw Stephen’s jaws clutch the wrapped handle, as a tear ran down his cheek. Xi’Lao pushed on the leg for a second time, resulting in another muffled scream as they pinned him down with their full weight.

  Stephen hyperventilated, as his body tensed up from the pressure. Suddenly, his body went limp, while Xi’Lao kept pushing on the leg. He lost consciousness.

  The rancid fluid still came out but less now.

  “Raylan…check if he is breathing, alright! Put his head slightly to the side and make sure he does not swallow his tongue. Gavin, I am almost done with this. Can you get the pot with boiling water, some clean rags and the medical paste for me…oh, and the cleanest bandages we have, too, please,” said Xi’Lao.

  As Xi’Lao put the paste on Stephen’s leg and wrapped it up. Raylan was finally allowed to sit back. For the first time, he noticed his own heavy breathing. It had taken more energy than he expected to keep the scout down during the procedure.

  Xi’Lao wiped the sweat off her forehead and sat back, after everything was done.

  “Thank you all.”

  “Will he be alright now?” asked Raylan.

  “We will have to see. I have done all I can, so all we can do now is wait. Time will tell, sooner or later, time will tell…”

  As Stephen stirred in his sleep, Raylan looked up to the stars, reacting to the wolves, who were howling at the moon again.

  They seem closer…I wonder if they caught their dinner for today…

  Chapter 6

  Birth

  Small rocks crumbled away from the wheels of the wagon, falling into the depths, as it was pulled along the precipice. The horses neighed as they put their weight forward to keep the wagon in motion. Over the last three days, they steadily gained altitude while moving southeast. The forest opened up, which made traveling with the wagon a bit easier. Even more so, when they eventually moved above the tree line.

  The mountain range they approached was less intimidating than the peaks of the White North, which faded out of sight on the horizon. But, even though they were leaving the cold behind, it was still a dangerous road to travel. Crumbling paths, sheer drops and sudden wind gusts made for
unpleasant surprises and too many close calls.

  For once, the rain held off, which was a blessing; but the temperature dropped again as they traveled higher up in the mountains. Gavin explained to the group that the goal was to move over the mountain range to get to the south slopes. From there, he should see enough of the coastline to determine if they were close enough to the Drowned Man’s Fork to send the pigeons.

  Raylan made sure that they restocked the wood supply, before they left the forest behind. Although the wood was not very dry yet, it would be ready to burn by the time all the older wood was all used up.

  Riding behind the wagon, Raylan looked at Stephen, who sat with his back against the chest. He was trying to keep his leg up high and as motionless as possible, which was not an easy feat on the winding mountain slope. The path they traveled, if one could call it that, went up and down the side of the mountain; but up until now, it always provided enough footing for the wagon to continue onward. Raylan was not sure if it had ever been a proper road at all. If it had, it must have been ages ago, since there was no indication of recent travels.

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

  “Actually…I think it’s doing a little better now,” said Stephen, as he grabbed hold of the chest next to him when the wagon hit an unexpected stone. He smiled. “…it feels a lot less swollen and hot today. Though it still hurts like hell when I try to move it.”

  Raylan saw Stephen put on his best smile; but on the side of his head, Raylan still saw the pearls of sweat form, perhaps from the pain of traveling.

  “Does the cut still look clean?” Raylan asked, with a hopeful look in his eyes.

  “It looked clean this morning. I’m hoping we’ll be able to wash it out again with some boiled water tonight. Xi’Lao said enough moss was collected to apply a fresh paste to the wound.”

  “We’ll make sure it’s done,” said Raylan.

  He was glad to see Stephen indeed had more energy again. The color had somewhat returned to his face, but it was still quite early in the day and traveling would take a lot of energy out of him before they stopped for the night to rest.