by Philip Blood
"Yes, Gandarel has got to be warned, the Togs were sent here to take him. Gedin save us, I was sure they would be waiting in the Eigen Pass."
"You EXPECTED to find the Togroths?" Dono exclaimed.
Mara smiled sorrowfully, "It is all in the Dark Prophecies, but I've got to remind myself that things can change and details cannot be trusted. I've fallen prey to the same mistake others make in dealing with the prophecies, people either don't believe them at all or take them word for word as truth. They are really only likely outcomes."
Once the wagon was off the road and hidden in a small glade fifty yards away, Mara gave her students instructions. "You stay put until we return, if you don't see us by morning expect the worst, and stay hidden for a time. It is unlikely the Togs would ride this direction if they have captured their prize, and that is the only thing that would stop us from returning."
"Why can't we come back with you, Mara?" Aerin asked his teacher.
Mara didn't answer immediately; she was busy unhitching a third mount from the back of the wagon. "You're not quite ready yet, Aerin. This could easily turn into a battle, and I don't want to have to worry about all of you. And besides, we don’t have enough horses for all of you, and the wagon is too slow."
"What about you?" Katek asked, as soon as he heard the word 'battle' he had become interested. "Battle is no place for the elderly."
Mara fixed him with a withering stare. "Katek, just because my body is old, doesn’t mean I can't out think them. A day will come when you understand the power of knowledge."
"Still, wouldn't it be better to have our strength around you while you think?"
Mara mounted her steed and looked down at Katek, who stood by the left stirrup looking up at her. "Excellent point, Katek, except I have Tocor and Yearl, and they are more than enough protection for an old woman's body. Besides, I have a few tricks that even you don't know about. Now do as I say, we'll be back soon."
With that, Mara, Tocor, and Yearl trotted their horses toward the road away from the watching students.
"That's just great," Katek noted. "We train for battle, we learn to control our fear, and when the time comes for battle, we're left here with the wagon. This just cuts."
Aerin agreed with him, but he was too deep in thought to comment. Some of what Mara had just told them didn't strike him as the complete story. It wasn't as if he felt that she was lying, but there were half-truths mixed in, he could feel it. Unbidden, the doubts put there by the Dreadmaster came back to him and he heard that terrible voice replay in his mind, She does my work. There was no doubt in Aerin that Mara was keeping something from them; he just hoped she had sufficient reason.
Dono was gazing off toward the mesa, though it was hidden from view by the bushy trees of the glade. "I don't understand something."
Aerin noted Dono's gaze and went over to his friend. "What is it that you don't understand?"
"Togroths... Mara told us that they would leave the siege because they didn't have supplies, yet they are camped out here in the wilderness, too far from the city fields to forage for food. What are they eating?"
That made them all pause for a moment. Aerin thought back to his view of the Togroth encampment from on top of the mesa. There had been a square shape near the center of the camp, like a fenced in area.
"I saw a kind of corral in the middle, perhaps they have livestock," Aerin noted.
"Where would they get livestock out here?" Katek pondered, "There might be an occasional wild horse herd or some stray cattle, but enough to feed all of those Togs?"
"Togs eat people," Dono noted, voicing a thought the others had entertained, but not mentioned due to its horror.
Aerin suddenly nodded, it was the missing piece. "That's it; the corral had high sides, higher than any four-legged creature would need. They have humans in there for their meals."
Lor shuddered. "The poor fools, to know you were on the dinner menu for those creatures, ug."
"We've got to do something," Aerin decided.
"Whoa, who said anything about 'doing' something! There are thousands of those things," Lor exclaimed.
“Come on, Aerin, you and I can sneak in and get those people free,” Katek decided, going to the wagon to fetch weapons.
Lor scowled at their large friend, pulling at her lower lip unconsciously. “If you think I’m going to let you take Aerin away to be killed, so that I have to explain it to Mara, you’re crazier than I thought,” Lor exclaimed in a loud enough voice for Katek to hear in the wagon.
“So what are you going to do about it, girl?” Katek said, poking his head out of the back of the wagon.
One of Lor’s leather juggling balls hit him square in the forehead. Katek was so surprised he fell into the wagon, his head disappearing from the view of the others.
“Ow, you’ll pay for that!” he yelled from inside.
Lor grinned. “The answer to your poorly worded question is that I’m going along to make sure Aerin isn’t killed.”
Dono shook his head in disbelief. “And if you think I’m staying here to face Mara alone, you’re both crazy.”
Aerin smiled, noting how his friends had just talked themselves into the rescue mission. “All right then, we will all go. What’s our plan?” Aerin asked.
Lor poked him in the chest with her finger. “This is entirely your fault, and since you are the only one who has seen the Togroth camp, I guess it is up to you to come up with the brilliant plan.”
“How is it my fault? Never mind,” he added hastily as Lor opened her mouth to start in. “I’ll accept the blame, for now. OK, here is the plan…”
“Suddenly he has a plan,” Lor noted.
Aerin gave her a contrived look of hurt. “Hey, you asked me to come up with one, now don’t complain when I do! I suggest we climb back to the top of the mesa and take a detailed look at the situation. From there we can make further plans.”
Lor tossed another leather ball at Aerin, who caught it handily and tossed it back. Without even seeming to catch it Lor made the ball disappear somewhere into her clothing. “That’s your plan? It seems to me that you just sidestepped the issue. This way we’ll have to help you plan once we see what you have seen.”
“Hey, I didn’t get that good a look; we need to study this before we’ll know if there is some way to save them. Besides, I never really saw the people; we could be getting into danger for some cattle.”
Katek tossed a pile of weapons he had brought from the wagon in front of them. “I say we go with Aerin’s plan and get moving. If we just keep discussing this we won't even get up there before dark.”
“Agreed,” Dono said, picking up a sword and hefting it for balance.
The others started stowing weapons about their persons as well.
It took them two hours to walk to the mesa and another half-hour to climb to the top. They were dusty, and a little tired, when they finally crested the summit onto the plateau.
“OK, keep low and follow me,” Aerin explained, heading them for the southern edge of the mesa where they could look down on the Togroths.
Half way to the edge Aerin suddenly paused when he heard movement from off to their right. He used hand motions to signal his friends to be silent and stop moving. Again there was the sound of twigs snapping and a scuffle, as two Togroths came out of the bushes, headed for the sloped end of the mesa where they could climb down.
Upon suddenly seeing the four frozen youths before them the two Togs stopped, their red eyes squinting under the bony brows for a moment.
Before they could move Katek leaped at one of them, swinging his sword in an arc designed to hack the nearest one in the thick neck.
With a snort of surprise, the Tog struck at the swinging blade, deflecting it from Katek's intended target. The sharp blade cut into the Tog's arm, and it opened its black-toothed maw to bellow in rage.
Aerin jabbed the end of his quarterstaff into the beast's throat, cutting off the scream before it had a chance to eme
rge full force.
Katek saw Aerin's blow, and expected it to stun the creature momentarily, so he stepped in closer to ram his sword into its chest, but the Tog had other ideas. Its bloody left arm swept up with blinding speed and caught Katek under the right side of his chin. Katek flew backward into the brush, from the impact of the thick hairy arm.
To their left the second Tog leaped for Dono. Lor thought that Mara would have been proud of her student because Dono did not flinch from the seven-foot tall hurling beast, but used his moment of time to consider his move and act. He switched the sword to his left hand and at the last moment, Dono leaped to his right in a crouch, trailing the sword out to the side. The Tog had to try and cut across its entire body, with the sword held in its right hand. Its momentum carried it passed Dono before it could bring its weapon to bear. Dono's blade cut into its upper left thigh.
The Tog spun and Dono came to his feet and they faced each other again.
Lor had a quarterstaff and put it to good use by blind-siding the beast in the left side of its head, with a wicked roundhouse swing.
The Tog staggered from the blow and then shook its head while spitting out broken black teeth.
Dono lunged forward at the dazed creature in a perfect extension of his blade and body, piercing the Togs low placed heart dead center, right where Tocor had taught him it was located. Dead, without knowing it, the beast stepped forward, even though this caused the sword to slide further into its body. As soon as he was close enough, the dying Tog swung its sword at Dono's head.
With a yelp of surprise, Dono released his embedded blade and ducked under the creature’s swing, which caused the boy to fall to the ground to avoid the blade's path.
The creature staggered forward and then toppled toward Dono's sprawled body.
Katek lay stunned in the nearby bush, and the other Tog went to finish him off, but Aerin extended his quarterstaff and tripped the beast.
The creature fell to its knees, and with a snarl, it started to regain its feet. It twisted its misshapen head around to see what had kept it from its prey.
Aerin didn't wait for it to recover; he reversed his staff in a blur and thrust the end toward the beast's head.
The Tog's sword met his staff and cut halfway into the hard wood, which halted its motion. The Tog's blade was trapped, but it was too strong for Aerin and wrenched the staff from the boy’s hands with a jerk of its massive arm.
Aerin pulled a dagger from his waist and wondered how, for the second time in his short life, he had come to a point where he faced a Togroth with only a dagger in hand.
Suddenly Lor was there and swung her staff at the rising beast. It tried to bring its sword to bear, but Aerin's quarterstaff impeded the move, and Lor's staff struck the side of its head.
The creature bellowed and fell back to its knees in a daze.
Aerin leaped onto its back and used his dagger to cut the creature's throat.
Gagging, the Togroth reached over its shoulder, with its massive left hand, and threw Aerin a good ten yards. Aerin went into a ball and rolled across the gravelly terrain.
Lor danced back from the thrashing beast and watched in disgust as its slit throat spewed yellow blood until it finally quit kicking and died. Once she was sure it was out of the fight, Lor looked to Aerin and found him already regaining his feet.
"Dono's over there," Lor called to him, "I'll see how Katek is faring."
Lor went to the bush, and after checking to see if there was any obvious injury to their friend, she slapped the unconscious boy across the face lightly to try to bring him around.
Katek twitched and muttered something unintelligible, so Lor slapped him again, harder.
"Ow!” he exclaimed, groggily.
Lor slapped him a third time.
Katek’s eyes opened, and a look of anger came over his face. "Stop slapping me!"
Lor grinned at him, "Didn't I say that you would pay? Besides, I was just helping to bring you around, since you decided to nap during the battle with the Togs."
"Togs!" Katek said suddenly remembering. He began struggling mightily to get up and out of the bush, in which his body was entangled.
Lor stepped back and looked to see how Aerin was doing with Dono.
Her grinning cohort, from her youth, was covered with the Togroth's yellow blood, but proud of himself. Aerin was headed for Katek, but his worried expression relaxed as he saw Katek regain his feet.
"Victory!" Dono called.
Aerin poked him from behind. "Quiet, we don't want to call down any more Togs on us, or this might swiftly become defeat."
Dono's grin slipped and he looked around the bushes as if more Togs would appear at any moment.
"Everybody all right?" Aerin asked.
Lor and Dono both nodded. Katek touched his sore jaw. "I'm fine, just my pride is hurt."
Dono grinned again. "Nice bruise forming on your face, buddy."
Katek scowled at Lor. "I think that's more from Lor's gentle waking techniques, than the Tog's blow, but I'm not sure," he growled.
Lor did her best to look innocent.
Dono tried, ineffectually, to rub off some of the sticky yellow blood that stained the front of his clothes. "What were these two Togroths doing up here?"
Aerin considered for a moment. "Lookouts, and from the direction they were traveling, I think they were coming from the outer edge."
"They must be the ones I saw from the road!" Lor guessed. "Their armor, or one of their weapons, caught the sun for a moment."
"It could be, but there might be more of these things up here, so we need to be more careful," Aerin decided.
They picked up their weapons, and after a quick consultation, they decided to continue on their old plan, though they started to take more care to avoid another surprise confrontation.
As they approached the edge of the mesa the four young rescuers got down on their bellies and crawled until the Togroth camp came into view.
The Togs had cleared a large area of brush and trees to make camp. From the amount of preparation, and time invested, to build the wooden pen, the Togs had obviously intended to stay a few days in this hidden position. The mesa provided cover and a good position to spy on the road, or signal the troops below that someone was on the road. It would then be easy for the army to reach the road in time to engage their quarry.
Katek was the first to speak, as the four of them took in the scene below. "They're mounting up to ride out!"
"Gedin help us, those two we killed must have already signaled them about Gandarel's party on the road," Dono cursed.
"We've got to warn them!" Aerin decided as he started pulling back from the edge.
"Sure," Lor said sarcastically, "we'll yell real loud, and they'll hear us four leagues away." But she pulled back from the edge and followed her friend.
"We could start a fire," Dono suggested.
"I suppose you brought the tinderbox from the wagon," Lor said dryly.
Dono shook his head, "No, sorry."
Once out of sight from the Togroth army, Aerin started to run across the breadth of the mesa toward the road edge, and his friends followed.
When they reached the edge they could see the Blue column of soldiers strung out along the road. They were stopped at the moment. Aerin had hoped that there would be enough of them to withstand the Togroth attack if they were warned, but looking down from above, he got a good look at their total strength, about three hundred men. Having just fought two of the beasts, Aerin had a healthy respect for the prowess and sheer tenacity of the creatures. It took a lot to put one down.
"OK, oh brilliant leader, now what? Shall we moon them?" Lor asked.
"Yes, drop your pants," Katek said with a grin, the thrill of battle still lit the young gladiator's eyes.
Lor scowled at him, "Keep that up and you'll be enjoying the view from a falling position over this cliff."
Aerin ignored his friend's banter and explained his plan, "Get the shiniest thing
you have, like the side of your sword or dagger. We'll all try to reflect the sun onto the soldiers. If they see a constant reflection, they will at least know someone is trying to signal them about something. It's the best we can do. By the time we climb down and run to their position, the Togs would overtake us."
It was the best plan they had, so they all started signaling.
After a time, they saw two pairs of riders break off and head toward either end of the mesa.
"There, they saw us a signal, they're sending out scouts," Katek noted.
Lor started pacing. Watching this unfold from the top of the mesa, and being unable to do anything, had them all frustrated, but Lor was the most susceptible. It made her irritable.
"They're idiots; Mara will already have reached them by now and told them what is out here. When they saw us signal they should put two-and-two together and figure out to shake a tail and run!"
"What can we do, they're going to be slaughtered!" Dono whispered.
"Nothing, we've done what we can, so now it is up to Mara to talk some sense into them," Aerin decided. "What we can do is what we came up here for in the first place. Now that the Togs have left their camp we might be able to slip in and free their prisoners."
"Now you're talking," Katek agreed, "action! Let's get back to the other side of the mesa."
"How many times are we going to run across this thing?" Dono asked, but he was already running after the others before he finished his sentence.
When they again crawled to their observation position, they found the last of the Togs riding out. The Tog forces had split, with half of the beasts going around the southern end and the other half going to the north. They would trap the Bluecoats between their two fists.
"Perhaps, if Gandarel’s soldiers attack one of the groups, they can break through and get outside the trap," Dono noted to the others.
"Maybe, but they would take terrible losses," Katek answered.
"It’s better than being wiped out. I think Mara will have them head for Strakhelm, that way if they do break through they can run for the walls."
"It's a fair distance, especially if they have wounded. I doubt the Togs will slow down for their wounded," Katek said, in a fatal sounding voice.
