“They’ve admitted their defenses are weak, at best!” Tristam grated. “They’ve got more than enough men to take Highpeak! If the gate was solid stone, they’ve still got strength enough to do it!”
“These men are trained to fight an army of men, not creatures such as ogres and trolls,” Kar reminded him.
Tristam cursed and said, “There can’t be that many of them. Even the trolls can be slain. By Leander’s grace, Alto killed one and he’s barely more than a boy!”
Alto frowned but a glance from Karthor made him bite his tongue.
“Alto was the only one of us to kill one. Even Namitus, using that enchanted blade, could only secure his own escape,” the wizard said.
“For the record, I wasn’t trying to kill them,” Namitus interjected. He was ignored.
“He’s afraid of losing?” Alto risked the question.
“What? No, he believes he’d win,” Tristam said. Several of them shared Alto’s look of confusion, prompting Tristam to explain. “He doesn’t want the body count he fears he’ll have.”
Alto nodded. “A commander who values the lives of his men is a good thing.”
“Yes, but they’re soldiers. Fighting is what this is about. If they need to sacrifice their lives for king and country, then that’s what they do!”
Alto frowned. He could understand dying for a cause, but blind obedience sounded dangerous. “Would you do it?”
Tristam jerked and looked at Alto through narrowed eyes. His nostrils flared as he took a deep breath and let it out, and then he chuckled harshly. “No, but that’s why I’m not a soldier.”
“We take the duke’s coin and do tasks to help the Kingdom; doesn’t that make us one and the same? You expect us to do as you ask.”
“Mind your tongue, boy!” Tristam snapped at him. “I don’t take jobs that are suicidal.”
“Oh,” Alto said. He paused, letting it seem as though the matter was dropped before adding, “Never mind the mountains full of evil creatures and the dragon we’re supposed to find out more about.”
Tristam’s face flared red and he brought his horse about to face Alto. Kar burst out laughing, slowing the warrior down and drawing his attention. “What’s your problem, wizard?” Tristam growled.
“The boy’s got spirit and he knows how to slip a burr into your codpiece!” Kar said and then cackled a moment longer. “The difference between us and them is that we can walk away at any time. If a soldier does that and he’s caught, it’s off to the gallows for him.”
Alto winced at the pantomime Kar did of being hanged.
“So what are we to do?” Karthor asked.
“I say back to Portland,” William suggested. “All these men up here must mean they’ve left a lot of lonely wives back home.”
“You’re a dog,” Alto muttered.
William laughed.
“There’s not much we can do,” Tristam said. He’d calmed down from being livid to merely frustrated. “Set up camp and wait. There’s no way into the mountains save through Highpeak, at least not without weeks of riding to try to find another pass.”
“Yes, there is,” Alto said.
As one, they all turned to look at him. William groaned and Tristam swore. Alto said it anyhow. “Thork.”
Chapter 18
“We could have at least stayed for dinner,” William complained.
The Blades of Leander had ridden out of the camp that same day. They’d managed several miles until the sun was setting in the west and dusk was upon them, but the hard riding had left them without a chance to eat.
“Here’s your chance,” Namitus pointed to several shapes that were running across the swells in the plains to the east. “It seems the herds of elk are returning.”
“They’re running from us already?” Kar sat up in his saddle and stared at the distant shapes. “I thought not. Look behind them—something’s chasing them.”
“Wolves,” Namitus confirmed.
Alto watched the exchange and squinted into the distance to try to make sense of what the others had said. He shook his head, the shapes little more than blurs to him. “Too far for my eyes,” he admitted.
“Mine, too,” Tristam agreed. They both turned to stare at Namitus.
Namitus shrugged. “Don’t blame me, blame my grandmother! Elves are said to have far-seeing eyes.”
“Have you ever met an elf?” Alto asked him.
Namitus laughed. “They don’t come up this way much, but they get around. I’ve seen a few south of the Kingdom. Mostly they live in the west.”
“The wild lands!” Alto blurted out.
“No wilder than anywhere else, just unfamiliar,” Kar amended. “The lands to the west are less touched by the human kingdoms, but villages and even great nations exist. There are dwarven and elven kingdoms, as well as nations peopled by less savory sorts.”
“Goblins and ogres?” Alto asked when Kar paused to take a puff on his pipe.
The wizard nodded. “And other races.”
“William, think you can provide us with some elk for dinner tonight?” Tristam interrupted the lecturing wizard.
William grinned and reached for his crossbow. “Only tricky part will be keeping the wolves at bay.”
“Big wolves, too,” Namitus said.
“No worries, we’ve got our own wolf hunter!” Tristam said with a laugh at Alto’s expense.
Alto blushed but felt a surge of pride at the same time. With his new armor, fighting a wolf wouldn’t be so hard. Except they were fast and strong and would probably get inside his sword. “Broke my longbow,” Alto reminded them.
“Come, the world’s a better place with fewer wolves about,” Tristam said, ignoring Alto’s complaint. He spurred his horse forward, driving it into a run toward the herd of elk and the stalking wolves. William was the first to follow.
They made good time cutting across the plains toward the elk until Namitus cried out a warning. It was echoed by Alto and Karthor until Tristam and William heard it and slowed. By the time they’d closed ranks, Tristam saw what had given the rogue pause. Riders were spread out on the far side of the herd. The wolves ran on, unaware of being flanked by the two groups of humans on horses.
The wolves sprang their trap, felling an elk cow that strayed from the herd. She was brought down, one wolf clinging to her haunch while another leapt at her throat. A third on her shoulder finally tripped her up and forced her to fall. A group of riders from the east swept in and used their bows and spears to drive the wolves back.
“Kelgryn,” Kar stated the obvious.
“A lot of them,” Karthor added, proving he was his father’s son.
The elk ran on, leaving the two groups of riders facing each other with only a matter of a few hundred yards between them. A rider rode over to the elk that was struggling and flailing on the ground and drove its spear into the magnificent beast’s heart to end its suffering. The others approached Tristam’s group evenly.
Once they’d come within a score of feet, a small group of men rode forward. “What business have you in Kelgryn lands?” a man wearing a shirt of mail that gleamed red in the setting sun asked. He wore a mighty helm with the curved horns of a ram worked into it.
“Passing through,” Tristam answered.
He barked out a laugh. “Passing through to where?” A few men behind him echoed his laugh, and then they fell silent when Namitus’s horse stepped to the side and revealed him from behind Alto.
“Well met, Jarl,” Namitus said.
Tristam twisted in his saddle to look at Namitus. Alto saw the look in the older warrior’s eyes; he’d forgotten that Namitus had been banished.
Teorfyr, jarl of the northern Kelgryn said, “Are these the same companions that rescued my daughter?”
“We are,” Tristam answered. “We meant no disrespect, Jarl. Truth be told, we forgot about the banishment. Our quest only briefly intrudes upon your lands.”
“Which of you is Alto?”
Alt
o stiffened in his seat and then raised his hand. “I am, Jarl.”
Teorfyr appraised Alto for a moment and then nodded. “You will camp with us tonight and tell us of your quest.”
“What of Namitus? He’s pledged himself to my company,” Tristam spoke up.
“The Blades of Leander?” Jarl Teorfyr’s lip curled up in a smirk. “It wasn’t the Lady Patrina’s right to dismiss him from my service. We’ll discuss his fate.”
The jarl turned and rode his mighty stallion back, leaving the others to follow. One man turned and motioned for the Blades to follow him while the Kelgryn began to raise their tents and prepare their fires. The elk was butchered for roasting, though even such a mighty animal would not feed the hundreds of men that rode with the jarl.
Alto was impressed with the efficiency of the Kelgryn force as they made their camp for the night. The tents were raised and even the elk was roasted before the sun had dropped beneath the western rim of the world. They sat around a fire, eating and drinking, before the jarl brought attention back to the matters at hand.
“I thank you for aiding my daughter and my servant,” the jarl said after he finished wiping his beard and mustache. He cleaned his dagger and sheathed it. “She is bound for Holgasford against her wishes. She wanted to ride with me.”
Alto let a gasp escape his lips that Teorfyr caught. Teorfyr chuckled and took a drink from the skin at his side. “This surprises you? We Kelgryn value our women for more than washing our clothes and warming our beds.” He turned and gestured at women wearing the armor of men and carrying weapons of war. “They are dangerous warriors and even if they don’t have the strength of arm a man does, they make up for it with guile and skill.”
“Lady Patrina impressed upon me the importance of not underestimating her,” Alto offered to the laughter of the jarl and the others.
“Her fate is tied to that of my people,” Teorfyr said after a moment. He looked at them all to let the weight of his words settle on them. “We live simple lives and have to face the relentless waves of the ocean in the morning and the hungry eyes of your Kingdom in the evening.”
“He means the east and the west,” Kar whispered to Alto when the young man looked around in confusion.
The jarl appeared to miss the wizard’s hushed explanation. “My people look to us for leadership and they grow restless when there is uncertainty in the air.”
“That explains why she was taken!” Alto interjected. He shrank back when he realized what he’d done.
“Say on, young man; my daughter speaks highly of you,” bade the jarl.
Alto tried to push aside the fear of being the center of attention. He found the words came to him so long as he didn’t focus on the people looking at him. “These attacks from the mountains are organized. They’re not just raiding; they’re trying to put the Kingdom and your nation at odds.”
“This is true. We found evidence of Kingdom soldiers where Patrina and Namitus had been taken.”
Alto nodded. “By pitting the Kelgryn against the Kingdom, the forces to the north could do whatever they wanted and it would be too late for any of us to stop them.”
“We stumbled across your daughter by accident,” Tristam clarified the point. “Alto and another of my men found her in a mine that had belonged to the Kingdom before it was taken by men and goblins.”
“Men wearing Kingdom garb,” Namitus added.
“Aye,” Tristam conceded the point. “But we found evidence of far more while we explored the mines and caves in the mountains. A man by the name of Barador leads them, though at the whim of something else.”
“Something, not someone?” Teorfyr picked up on Tristam’s careful wording.
“One being we encountered in the caves had a name for it,” Tristam said while nodding his head. “He called it Sarya.”
“And what is a Sarya?”
“It seems the Northern Divide has spent too many years without a dragon nesting amongst the peaks,” Kar said while packing his pipe. He reached out to pull a brand from the fire and used it to light his pipe, rather than using wizardry amongst the suspicious Kelgryn.
Teorfyr’s jaw was set in a line. “I feared as much. Patrina insisted the same, but it’s been so long since we’ve had any fear of dragons I hoped she had too much wind in her sails. Tell me, what hope do any of us have against such a thing?”
“Little,” Kar said behind a puff of smoke that bore more than a passing resemblance to a flying lizard. “Dragon slaying is a profession few can claim, and none in these parts anymore. It’s often a short-lived career at best. The slayer is more often than not the slain.”
“So what quest are you on?”
“We’re to find out more about Barador and his forces,” Tristam responded. “We know a secret way into the caves they use, but to get there we must cross through your realm.”
He nodded and took another pull off his wineskin. “Then you’ll travel with my blessings. Ride on in the morning and learn what you may. Put a halt to this threat to both our people, or at least confound their plans.”
“What are you going to do?” Alto asked.
Teorfyr tilted his head slightly and then chuckled. “I think I see what my daughter appreciates about you. You’ve a stubborn courage about you.”
“More the lack of sense of when to keep his mouth shut,” Kar opined.
Tristam snorted at Kar’s ironic statement.
“I’m headed to join my men with your Kingdom’s and show we hold no fault against them. We’ll help them take back their city.”
“They need it,” Tristam said. “But take care, Jarl, that your men aren’t used as fodder.”
Teorfyr laughed. “We’re Kelgryn born and bred; we’re no man’s fodder!”
Tristam smiled ruefully. “I believe you, but all the same, take care.”
“Your concerns are noted. Come, to bed with you all. You’ve a long adventure ahead of you and this may be the last night in a while you can rest without fear.”
“Jarl, what of Namitus?” Alto inquired.
“Yes, what of the boy who’s not a boy?” Teorfyr’s eyes fell on Namitus. Alto could feel the power of his gaze and was grateful it wasn’t directed at him. “You’ve fought to protect and to save my daughter. You were like a son to me for a time, even if you look half starved. I’m glad I’ve had time to think on it. I wanted your head on a pike for the betrayal but now I see clearly. I grant you freedom, Namitus, and I rescind your banishment wrongfully exacted by the Lady Patrina.” He paused, a twinkle in his eyes. “All the same, I’d recommend you stay far from her for a while. Women may not be the equal of men in some means but by the ends they often find a way to be more than our equal!”
Tristam, Kar, and even Namitus laughed at the jarl’s words. Alto looked on, confused, but this time even Kar wouldn’t explain the mirth behind it.
“Alto, come, walk with me,” the jarl said as he rose from his place at the fire. He gestured and Alto had no choice but to fall in beside him.
“Your Majesty,” Alto stammered.
“Enough of that! Such titles are for the dandies in your Kingdom. Here I am Jarl, Thane, or Teorfyr.”
“Yes, sir.”
“My daughter fancies you,” Teorfyr said without preamble. “If she knew I told you as much she’d not speak to me for months, but I see it in her eyes.”
“Sir,” Alto swallowed, uncertain of what to say. “I thought, I mean. What about—”
“You saved her, lad, that’s earned you a place in my heart. She says you fight like a hog wallowing in the mud, but you’re strong and brave and that makes up for it.”
Alto blushed. “I’m learning. I was a farmer who’d never held a sword until my father was hurt by some raiding goblins.”
“She says you’re the same age as her?”
Alto nodded and then he stopped. He laughed. “I’m older! I mean, I just realized it. In all the rush going here and there, I forgot about my birthday. I’m seventeen now. For
a week or so now.”
The jarl laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. The friendly blow nearly knocked the stout young man off his feet. “Adventure, ale, and women! The three things that can be the undoing of any man.”
Alto grimaced at the mention of ale. It went unnoticed by the jarl.
“Well, lad, when you’ve finished this, if you wish to pay court to her I’m giving you my blessing.” The jarl stopped and turned to face Alto directly. “But remember this. I’ve been a young man once myself and I didn’t grow to be old without learning a few things along the way, including how to keep other young men in their place.”
Alto nodded his head. He felt he should say something but nothing came to pass. The jarl grinned again and turned, leading the stumbling young man back into camp. Alto followed him with his cheeks burning so hot he couldn’t feel the cold wind that picked up.
As much as he both looked forward to and dreaded seeing Trina again, he couldn’t get over the thoughts of Namitus. Would Namitus be upset or mad? Would he fight Alto, trying to duel him for the Kelgryn princess? Or would Namitus be hurt and betrayed, and then leave to go off on his own? Alto sighed and began to understand what Teorfyr meant when he talked of women being one of the things that could undo the greatest of men.
Chapter 19
“If we didn’t already know I’d say there was something going on in the mountains,” Kar said as he rode back to the others. He had the reins to Tristam’s horse in his hand. They’d ridden into the hills the next day in search of the secret entrance to Thork’s cave. Another pack of large wolves had burst upon them and spooked Tristam’s horse, unseating him.
Alto had fallen from his saddle a few moments later when he tried swinging his broadsword from the back of his steed. Nearly every day since they’d returned to Portland, he’d been training with his sword, but he had yet to attempt training with mounted combat.
The six-member wolf pack was a small one. The wolves made up for it in size and ferocity. Tristam and Alto fought the wolves back while William used his crossbow to keep them from being used as chew toys. Namitus and Karthor had dismounted conventionally and joined them, driving the wolves back until only the leader remained. She loped off into the hills to lick her wounds.
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