Windcatcher: Book I of the Stone War Chronicles

by A. J. Norfield

  As they came to the top of the slope they had been climbing, the path widened enough for Raylan to ride up to the front of the wagon and keep pace beside it. Gavin looked straight ahead, checking the quality of the road, as they slowly rode into the shadow of the mountain again. It looked like this next dip in the path would be the last one before they passed over the top of the mountain and moved from the northern slope onto the south side.

  It was impossible to scale the larger mountains with a wagon or horse; so, the path they traveled now was still quite low in comparison. They were basically scaling the edge of the mountain range. Still, Gavin was pleased with how high above sea level they had traveled in the last couple of days.

  Raylan looked at his brother.

  “How’s it looking?”

  “Once we pass the mountain ridge and reach the south side, I expect we’ll see the western coastline run south for quite a distance. I’m just hoping the weather stays clear. You know how easy that can change in the mountains,” said Gavin.

  “Oh yes, in fact, I remember us being very lucky when we snuck out of the city to explore the mountains behind the city when we were younger. That storm really came out of nowhere and pinned us on the side of the mountain without any warning whatsoever.”

  The boys had sought shelter behind a large boulder; but the rain soaked them in moments and, together with the wind, froze them relentlessly without any warm clothes or fire nearby.

  “I don’t think we would’ve made it, had the skies not cleared as fast as it had clouded over. What I remember most though was the wind. It came swirling around that boulder, bringing the rain with it, as if the drops were tiny little ice-cold blades,” said Raylan.

  As soon as he had given words to that memory, Raylan felt a cold shiver pass through his body. His horse shook its head, twitching its ears, as if the same chill passed through its body, too.

  “Not even the nights in this forsaken place felt as cold as I felt back then. Father was so glad we weren’t hurt that he completely forgot to punish us.”

  “You maybe. As the oldest, he gave me an earful after you fell asleep. It was my duty to protect my little brother, which meant to be smart about those things.”

  Gavin gave Raylan a small smile.

  “Yeah, we were pretty stupid. Sometimes, I wonder how we managed to reach our twenties at all, but here we are,” added Gavin.

  “Not that we find ourselves in a very safe situation now…” said Raylan, as he smiled back.

  “Let’s hope the south side of the mountains gives us a little bit more warmth and hospitality than the north.”

  Raylan noticed they had begun climbing again and looked up ahead. He saw that Ca’lek took the lead to check out the top of the slope. Pulling his cloak close, as he felt the wind pass underneath it, he urged his horse to speed up a little. The path running upward seemed safe enough, so he passed Xi’Lao and Richard, who rode at the front of their little caravan together with Ca’lek.

  Looking over his shoulder, he called back.

  “I’m going to meet up with Ca’lek and see what the other side brings us,” he said, after which he put his heels in his horse’s flank, taking off in a canter.

  He reached the top shortly after Ca’lek did. At the sound of his approach, Ca’lek turned around.

  “No enemy movement to report. Also, Gavin will be pleased. He can check out the coastline from here.”

  Raylan pulled his ride to a halt and looked to the south. The landscape that unfolded before him had a dark beauty to it; he had never seen anything like it before. toward the east, the mountains continued to stretch out, slowly turning to the south and eventually lowering into rolling hills. Large forests covered the land, the dark pines holding most of the high ground, the dark green slowly mixing in with richer colors of the deciduous tree species at the lower altitudes. The forests they had seen in Aeterra, even while riding north, always seemed brighter, in a way. Back home, rays of sunshine penetrated through the roof of leaves, and the trees showed a bright green color. Here, it looked like the trees swallowed every bit of sun. The absence of reflected light made the forest look like a dark green ocean of leaves that stretched all the way out to the southern horizon.

  The tree line on the south slope of the mountains seemed to be higher than on the north side of the mountain range. As he looked down the path, it would not take them long before they encountered the first tree stumps again, which was a good thing. Once they were below the canopy again, it would shield them, somewhat, from enemy eyes. Raylan figured the warmth of the sun on the south slope probably meant the trees could more easily grow to a higher altitude. Following the green sea of leaves toward the west, Raylan saw the horizon shimmer in the daylight. The Great Eastern Divide was out there, somewhere; he was surprised at how far they had actually traveled inland. The forests somewhat opened up toward the western horizon; but in most places, it seemed as though the trees reached all the way up to the coast.

  “Amazing…” he mumbled.

  “Just keep your eyes open. Don’t forget we’re in enemy territory.”

  “I know we’re in a bad spot; but these moments just make me love being out of the city, seeing lands almost no one has seen. It reminds me of the open oceans. It always feels so liberating to have all that space around me. I mean, just take a look. Have a real moment. Take it all in and say to me that you don’t find it amazing.”

  “What I see are difficulties. Dense forests which will slow our traveling down to a crawl again. No clear indication if there are any settlements out there that we need to avoid. And the area looks like it can sustain bigger wildlife.”

  “Well great, that hopefully means we can hunt again,” Raylan said, optimistically.

  Ca’lek looked at him.

  “It also means the predators have more food, so they will likely be bigger and more abundant. We’ll need to have constant fires during the night to ward off any unwelcome guests which, in turn, means we’ll be easier to spot by the enemy.”

  Raylan let out a groan.

  “I suppose you’re right…”

  He was aware of the danger of predators living in the world. Back in the city, he had heard stories about big striped doglike creatures, or large cats, with enormous teeth, that roamed in the wild territories south of Aeterra and the large bears up north. He just never considered nature as evil and dangerous. Animals were just behaving on instinct, for which you could not fault them.

  Following the coastline south with his eyes, he could not spot any three pointed rock formation along it.

  “Have you spotted the Drowned Man’s Fork already? I don’t think I see it anywhere.”

  “No, but the shimmering water might make that difficult. The sunlight is against us; so, we’re unable to see much detail of the coastline from this distance. It does look as though the coast is bending toward the west on the southern horizon, which could be the horn Gavin was talking about. The Drowned Man’s Fork should be at the end of the horn, at the most western tip.”

  Looking down the slope, Raylan noticed something.

  “Hey Ca’lek, do you think we need to pass that bridge?” he said, pointing down the slope to the east.

  “I don’t know if I would call that a bridge...” Ca’lek remarked. “From the looks of it, the path winds down toward the east. I lost track of it a couple of times, because of the elevated terrain, but I’m pretty sure—by reading the slopes—the path turning around that far side down there is the path we’re on. If that is so, it is likely we need to cross that rock arch across the ravine.”

  The rock arch they spotted extended over a large ravine about a third of the way down the mountainside. It was near the tree line, as Raylan saw the first trees growing around it. The mountain looked like a giant had brought down its sword, cleaving straight down into the slope, splitting it open in a deep chasm. The rushing of water could be heard, if he focused strongly enough, but only when the wind turned from the east for a moment. The edge on
the higher side was a sudden cut off with a sheer drop into the depths. On the other side, across the arch, the mountain had eroded more gradually over time. It sloped away from the path covered with trees and rocks, before stopping abruptly and dropping into the depths similar to the other side. Raylan pictured the strong currents running in the depths of the ravine. Rocks and raging water are never a good combination.

  “That arch looks awfully thin. Do you think the wagon will be able to get across it?” said Raylan, hoping that Ca’lek’s eyes could spot more detail than his own.

  “Impossible to tell until we get there. The distance makes it hard to be sure about something like that. I don’t see any other way across that gap though. And it is much too far to jump, even for the horses, so it will have to do.”

  “It will probably be a good idea to take a rest on that small plateau just before the arch. I think we should take our time checking out how strong that rock crossing is and probably go across one by one,” said Raylan.

  “I agree. You know Raylan…you’re smarter than you look…”

  Ca’lek gave him a large smile.

  “…but you’d better go tell your brother and see what he says.”

  Raylan pulled the reins of his horse to turn around and moved toward the north side of the mountain again. Looking down, he saw that the wagon was nearing the final stretch to the top.

  Calling out toward the forefront, he waived his arm to encourage them over.

  “Come on y’all! You got to see this!”

  The bone-chilling howl that answered made Raylan’s arm freeze midair. The howl was so unnaturally hollow, and without warmth, that the hairs on his neck rose instantly. He saw Xi’Lao and Richard both look around to see where the strange sound came from, as his horse shuffled its feet nervously.

  He did not see anything at first; but as soon as the black shape emerged from behind the last hilltop they crossed, he spotted it immediately. The dark shape looked like a wolf, much larger than Raylan had ever seen before. As it stood on the top of that hill, it threw its head backward and let out a second deep howl. As it echoed against the mountainsides, a deep rumble—like thunder—was felt beneath the sound; and at once, Raylan realized this was no ordinary wolf. His realization was enforced by the fact that he saw numerous men on horses come into view as they sped along the path they had been traveling now for days.

  “Soldiers!” Raylan screamed, at the top of his lungs. “Move!”

  He saw Xi’Lao and Richard put the spurs to their horses, to speed up, as Gavin cracked the whip at the horses in front of the wagon. The enemy troop was still a good distance removed from them, but the wagon would not be able to outrun them for long. They had to get to the rock arch as soon as possible. It was the best possible place to set up a defense against this new danger.

  He turned around.

  “Ca’lek, the stone arch, we need to make it!”

  The call to action was all that was needed for Ca’lek to speed off.

  As Xi’Lao and Richard flew by him, he shouted at them.

  “Keep going, follow Ca’lek!”

  The wagon took longer, but luckily it had already been quite close to the top. As Raylan turned around to line up his horse to the south side of the mountain, he saw that the large wolf was joined by another—even larger—and both jumped into motion, running along the path toward them. Their speed was incredible. They would be on them in no time at all. One last quick look counted at least twenty mounted enemies coming toward them. As he put his horse into motion, the first shouts of enemies encouraging their horses carried through the air. He quickly caught up with the wagon, and Gavin, which had just passed him at full speed.

  Shouting at Gavin loud enough for the other riders to hear, too, he yelled, “A stone bridge ahead! We can make a stand there. It’s our only chance! They won’t be able to attack us all at once!”

  He saw Galen and Peadar pass the wagon as soon as the path was wide enough. He heard Stephen cursing in the back of the wagon as it bounced roughly over the rocky path downhill. Behind the wagon, Harwin, Rowan and Kevhin pulled the spare horses they had taken from the encampment. The frightened animals had no trouble keeping up after hearing the wolves howl.

  Approaching a bend in the path, Gavin used all his expertise in horse handling to prevent the horses from going out of control and ending up slipping off the path into the depths. The wagon tilted dangerously on two wheels as they carried the wagon’s speed and weight through the turn. Raylan heard a loud bang, which was most likely—judging from another cursed outcry—Stephen being thrown into the side of the wagon.

  As both wolves came over the top of the path behind them, the larger one suddenly shifted and broke off the pursuit, diverting to its left, running along the mountain ridge out of sight.

  Raylan looked behind him and saw the single wolf coming down the path and the horsemen coming just across the top. The group had already closed the gap between them by half. The wagon slowed them down on the winding road, the lone horses could not keep up more speed without the risk of slipping off the path.

  “We can make it!” he shouted to Harwin and the two archers, “keep going!”

  All around him, Raylan heard screams hastening the horses to full speed and beyond. As they approached the stone arch, Raylan saw how thin it actually was. The thinnest part stretching across looked more than thirty feet in width before it thickened again at the other side of the ravine. It looked very unstable and so narrow the wagon might not fit across it at all; and if it did, the weight of the wagon and cargo might destroy it by sheer gravity.

  “Gavin! I don’t know if the wagon will be able to get across!” Raylan shouted above the thundering of hooves and the rattling of the wagon’s wheels.

  “It’ll have to!” panted Gavin. Keeping the horses under control took a lot of his strength and concentration.

  Both brothers were fully aware they stood no chance fighting the enemy on this side of the ravine. They needed the bottleneck of the bridge to fend off the attackers. Kevhin and Rowan would be able to take positions to fire arrows, while Galen and Richard would guard the bridge from the other side.

  Suddenly, a loud thud sounded on Raylan’s left side. An arrow stuck in the back end of the wagon and, an instant later, another whirled by his right ear. Looking over his shoulder, he saw the enemy’s archers riding at a dangerous speed, holding on to their horses with just their legs, pulling back their bowstrings to fire off another volley.

  Most of the arrows never hit their targets, as the horse riding and the distance made it challenging for the enemy soldiers, to say the least. Rowan and Kevhin both fired of an arrow, but directed their attention back to riding once they noticed the distance made hitting anything almost impossible; besides, they only had so many arrows. Unfortunately, the enemy archers did not seem to care about wasting their arrows, setting off volley after volley.

  Raylan turned his head as an abrupt sound behind him attracted his attention. It was the cry of one of the spare horses as it was unexpectedly struck in the left hind leg. Its pain could almost be felt as the scream of fear rose from the animal’s throat. The horse bucked and almost dragged Harwin, who was holding the reins, out of his saddle. Not knowing which reins were from the panicking horse, he let go of all of them. The second spare horse, suddenly with the freedom to move in any direction it wanted, swayed dangerously toward Raylan, almost pushing him and his mount over the edge of the path.

  “Hiyah! Hiyah!” Raylan shouted, to encourage his own horse, as well as to scare off the spare horse which was now out of control.

  The terrified beast slid back into formation between the riders, not daring to slow down with the black wolf giving chase.

  The wounded horse had no choice, however; crippled, it limped to a halt, unable to put any weight on its hind leg. As the enemy group came closer, the animal went into a frenzy of fear, trying to get out of the way. But instead of being attacked, it was just passed by the wolf. Speeding p
ast it, the wolf did not pay the wounded horse any attention, nor did the riders which shortly followed the black hunter.

  The gap shrank to less than five hundred feet.

  In front of him, Raylan saw the wagon knocked into the air, as one of the wheels hit a small rock on the path, resulting in another rain of curse words streaming out of the back. Dry wood flew out of the back, tumbling over the path and becoming moving obstacles; but none of the horses seemed to notice, as pieces of wood slammed into their legs and bodies.

  Even with everything going on—the enemy breathing down his neck, dodging small branches which managed to make it to his eye level—Raylan felt his thoughts go to the egg. A knot formed in his stomach, as a feeling of nervousness flowed through him. He was unsure, but it did not feel as though it was entirely his own emotion. He hoped the egg remained safe with the rough handling of the wagon.

  As the path bent around the final mountain slope, the stone arch came back into view. Before making the turn onto the natural bridge, the path turned onto the small plateau they had spotted before. The mountain’s side on the plateau rose straight up, giving the feeling they rode along the walls of a grand castle as they tried to make it to the drawbridge across the moat.

  We’re going to make it. We have to make it.

  Raylan saw Gavin steer the wagon left, making as wide a turn as possible to steer the wagon directly onto the stone arch. Ca’lek, Xi’Lao and Richard were already halfway on the plateau, speeding toward the stone arch. They maneuvered into a single line to pass over the smallest part of the arch and divide their weight up as much as possible.

  A shadow moved at the top of his vision, as Raylan steered his horse after the wagon onto the plateau. His eyes barely caught up with the dark shape, when he felt every fiber in his body react to the threat. As he pulled the reins of his horse, he saw the giant stone wolf land on the plateau with a loud thump. It did not even stop its movement, the black shadow sped ahead at full speed. Its leap from the higher slope placed it in front of Ca’lek, Xi’Lao and Richard’s group; now, it moved into position directly in front of the stone bridge. Its body turned toward them as it skidded to a halt, letting out an icy, hollow howl to challenge them.