This is not good, Alaezdar thought as he skirted behind the wagon, but all he had to do now was to get closer to the cart and open the bars. The closer he approached, the more the smoke thickened, but Aaelie was no longer screaming. He hoped that maybe she had passed out from the smoke and it still wasn’t too late to rescue her.
“Aaelie!” he yelled as he neared the cart.
He took his cloak and covered his face as he approached. The flames were now burning the bottom of the wooden cart and he feared he might be too late. When he got close enough, he reached out and touched the metal bars, looking for her, and instantly he regretted doing so when he burned his hand sharply at the touch.
He struggled to look through the smoke, but he could not see her body, burning or otherwise. Where was she, and how could this be? He saw that the barred metal door at the back of the cart was open and he heard another scream that was not a female’s.
“Gralanxth, come back!” Pencog shouted.
An immediate response came in a booming voice that permeated their surroundings as loud as any thunder that shook the trees. The loud voice filled the air.
“Your sacrifice is incomplete!”
The goblins stopped their celebrating, frozen in their tracks. Confused, they looked past the trees in fear before going from their hypnotic dancing trance to a combative frenzy. Some of the goblins charged the wagon while others ran deeper into the forest to retrieve their swords that lay in a pile near their encampment.
Morlonn saw the goblins scattering deeper into the woods and pinned his back behind a large pine tree. Something had gone wrong, but he knew that he had to take the new opportunity from this confusion and he nocked an arrow and came out from behind the tree. He took to his knee and started picking off goblins as they scrambled in even greater confusion now from his barrage of arrows.
Alaezdar was still behind the cart. He heard the goblins massing towards him and he rounded the corner of the wagon, sliced, and hacked through a dozen unarmed goblins as they ran to look for their escaped sacrifice.
“Aaelie!” Alaezdar yelled again.
He continued to hack away at the last of the unarmed goblins. He knew he had only a precious few minutes before the next wave of goblins came back with their weapons. The fire had now completely consumed the cart as the morning sun crested above the forested trees.
He watched for a second as Morlonn dropped goblins with great speed and accuracy, but he knew they were too outnumbered to come out of this unharmed. He had to find Aaelie and get out of there while he could, but he wasn’t going to leave Morlonn alone.
He heard footsteps behind him. Turning around he saw Tharn and Rivlok. They could not see him because he wore the cloak, but they were clearly on a mission. What did they see, he wondered, as they ran behind him and disappeared into another grove of woods. Whatever it was, he would have to ignore it for the time being. He needed to get to Morlonn and help him out before he found himself at a point where he could no longer be helped.
He crossed over to the area where the creature Gralanxth had been materializing, but he had turned into a puddle of black slime on the soft, pine needle laden ground. He found a few more confused goblins that he stabbed at and cut them down as he ran. As one of the goblins next to Alaezdar ran towards him, ready to strike, Morlonn dropped with another of his precise arrow shots.
“This way!” Alaezdar yelled to Morlonn and he removed his hood so Morlonn could see him better.
Morlonn knocked another arrow and ran towards him while releasing the arrow and taking out another goblin.
Alaezdar suddenly felt the ground shake so violently that it knocked both him and Morlonn to their knees. The ground sent dirt and debris up into the air and immediately, materializing before them, appeared Ra-Corsh.
“What do we have here?” Ra-Corsh smiled as he rubbed his chin. “The mighty swordsman has finally caught up to us.”
Alaezdar jumped to his feet and spun to face Ra-Corsh. He swung his sword downward to crush his skull, but his sword stopped inches from the unflinching wizard. At the same time, Morlonn shot an arrow from down on his knees, but the arrow never left the bow and the wood of his bow burst into flame. Morlonn stood up and dropped the bow and its blackened ash fell to the ground.
“Not possible!” Alaezdar shouted.
He tried a side swing at the wizard’s ribs, but again found his sword stopping just inches short of his body. Realizing Ra-Corsh had powerful magic at his use, Alaezdar turned, ran to Morlonn and grabbed him by his arm. They both ran from the wizard.
They had only escaped a few feet when Pencog jumped out from the nearest tree, swung his sword at Morlonn and sliced his side as he ran past him. Morlonn fell to the ground and grabbed his side in pain. Alaezdar helped him up and they continued to run into the forest, but they quickly found themselves surrounded by a group of goblins. Morlonn withdrew his sword, charged for the nearest group of three goblins and began to fight them. Alaezdar followed him and attacked one of the goblins just as he was about to take an unblocked swing at Morlonn. Bloodseeker crushed his head and began to sing its happy tune by sending sharp tingles throughout Alaezdar’s body. The swordsman slipped into a controlled rage, the type of rage he had found himself most comfortable with.
Alaezdar took out two more goblins as another group crowded around, eager to join the fray. Morlonn fought hard, but after the first few swings, his fighting turned into more of a defensive posture as the goblins began to take turns hacking at him. He knew he was defenseless in armor. He had no shield, and he only wore his hard leather tunic to block any attacks. His wound was now bleeding all down his hip, and he could feel his energy dissipate with every second.
Pencog caught up to them again and jumped in front of Alaezdar. He wanted to finish this battle himself. He had felt betrayed in his effort to bring Gralanxth back into this world and he now wanted to exact his revenge on the man who had somehow just disrupted his plans..
Pencog only had a short sword, but his small stature and quick reflexes prevented Alaezdar from hitting him on either of his first two swings. Pencog ducked, turned and twisted a number of times and kept narrowly avoiding even more swings from Alaezdar’s rage-like attacks.
Then Pencog bit with his sword on Alaezdar’s hip, causing him to stumble slightly. Pencog went in for a killing blow to the head, but Alaezdar recovered in time to block it. Bloodseeker screamed through his veins and he recovered quickly enough to send a furious counter attack that smashed through the top of Pencog’s head and split half of it off down to the shoulder. The goblin beside him dropped to the ground and much of the blood from Pencog’s head splattered onto the nearest tree.
The goblins that were fighting Morlonn stopped fighting and ran away after seeing their leader’s head in such a brutal state.
“I think Tharn and Rivlok have found Aaelie,” Alaezdar told Morlonn and he ran back to where he had last seen them, but he was once again stopped by Ra-Corsh.
Ra-Corsh raised his hands and Alaezdar thought he was preparing another spell, but instead he was motioning Alaezdar and Morlonn to stop.
“Alaezdar, wait,” he pleaded.
Still in his battle rage, Alaezdar did not hear him and instead raised his sword and prepared it to come down upon his skull. Ra-Corsh realized that there would be no stopping him and dropped to the ground just in time to miss the blow before he dematerialized away from the danger.
With the wizard no longer in their path, Alaezdar and Morlonn ran into the clearing toward Aaelie’s wagon. It no longer burned, but instead was a smoldering heap of blackened wood and metal. As soon as they reached the cart, they were surrounded by a score of goblins that were more than ready to use their numbers to rid themselves of these intruders, even if
it meant they would lose half their own number.
***
“There she is, Tharn!” Rivlok shouted as he ran through the woods. Tharn ran to keep up, but increasingly he lost his ground to the young and now very excited Rivlok.
“Are you sure?” Tharn shouted back. He felt this had been entirely too easy.
“Aaelie!” Rivlok shouted as he saw her running away with her back to him.
She stopped when she heard him call out to her, but she did not turn around. Rivlok caught up to her, grabbed her shoulders and spun her around to face him.
“Aaelie, you are safe now,” he whispered in her ear as he nuzzled his chin over her shoulders and held her tight. When she did not return his hug, he pushed her back to arms length, still holding onto her waist.
“Aaelie, you are safe now,” he repeated again.
This time Aaelie smiled and pulled him tightly to her. Rivlok put his hand on the back of her head and cradled her next to him.
“It is time we take you home,” he said, “but we have to hurry.”
“I am not ready to go yet,” Aaelie responded in a voice Rivlok did not recognize. “Rivlok, no!” Tharn shouted from behind him.
Rivlok pushed Aaelie away again and looked into her eyes.
“Aaelie, your voice…you sound different,” he said.
She wrapped her arms around him again, grabbing him tightly and then burst into flames.
Rivlok screamed and tried to get away. He felt her arms latch on tightly around him and he felt his waist and hair began to catch fire where she held him. The more he struggled, the more tightly she held onto him, and the more he burned. His clothes began to catch fire, scorching his skin, and his face began to be consumed by the flames as he tried to pull away.
The ball of fire around him grew in intensity and he screamed as he felt the world around him darken and his pain increase.
“Let go of him!” Tharn yelled.
He charged at the two of them with his sword, but was pushed away by a bolt of fire which hit him squarely in the chest and knocked him to the ground. Tharn pulled himself up on one knee as he watched Rivlok screaming and squirming within the grasp of the burning Fyaa, who had made herself look like Aaelie.
As if Fyaa had heard him, she let go of the unconscious and dying Rivlok and exploded into a bigger ball of flame which erupted in such a great area that a dozen pine trees erupted into balls of fire.
Rivlok crumbled to the ground, a burning heap of flesh and bone.
Tharn’s first instinct was to run to Rivlok to help him, but when the trees around him began to catch fire, he thought better of it. Rivlok was dead and could not be saved. Tharn ran, but he noticed that Fyaa, in the shape of Aaelie, had sucked in the ball of fire around her and had returned to the innocent looking girl Aaelie before she herself disappeared in a flash of bright orange and purple light.
Before Tharn had a chance to escape completely from the burning forest, he heard a loud crushing noise coming from a cluster of trees as if a large animal was running through the forest to escape the fire.
What came towards Tharn was not a large animal, but rather an army of ogres, forest ogres who were large muscular beasts with large mouths and fangs protruding from their faces. They wore no armor save vests of tough ox hide. They had black war paint on their faces, all in different designs that emphasized the terrifying features of their faces and bodies. Each carried a weapon, a wooden club, an axe, or a sword.
Tharn realized these were not ogres escaping a fire, but rather ogres charging into a battle. He ran a few feet farther, but heard the ogres gaining on him and he knew he was going to be trampled, if not cut down by them, in a short time. Being the warrior that he was, he did not want to die running.
He stopped in his tracks, spun around, withdrew his sword and swung at the first ogre that approached him. To his surprise, his sword found its mark quite easily and cut down the ogre facing him. Fifty more ogres ran past him, but only three stopped to avenge their fallen warrior.
Tharn took a defensive stance and waited for the ogres to attack. They did, all at the same time, with their short swords raised over their heads. Tharn blocked the first ogre’s swing, spun around to dodge the second’s swipe and came around to stab at the third ogre as he was caught off balance after missing his opponent. He pulled his sword out of his chest in time to block a second attack from one of the other ogres.
The two remaining ogres looked at Tharn and realized he was not a typical easy-to-kill human. They backed off a few feet to rethink their strategy.
Shortly, the ogres circled around him so that one ogre remained in front of him and another behind him. He watched them and smiled as he feigned a few attacks. Each ogre flinched under Tharn’s thrusts.
Now feeling confident, Tharn spun around and attacked the ogre behind him first and engaged in a furious melee of attacks and counter attacks. With every swing and block he encountered, Tharn backed out of the melee and moved to his side. He knew that the ogre behind him was coming in for the kill, but each time he pulled away just as the ogre came in close enough to strike.
Suddenly both the ogres were now standing in front of him, but they danced their way back to their tactic of one to the front and one to the rear.
Tharn knew in his youth he could have knocked these ogres out within minutes. He still had the skills, and he might even argue that his youth was now replaced with patience in combat. He laughed to himself as he realized what he was doing now, using his patience to rest a bit. He was too old for this intense a battle, and he suspected that the ogres knew it as well.
After taking advantage of the stalemate that had led to a small respite for him from the fighting, Tharn took the initiative again and charged after the ogre in front of him. He brought down his sword from over his head, but the ogre blocked his blow. Tharn had used all of his strength in the downswing and the ogre had to take a step backwards too quickly and he fell to a sitting position.
Tharn kicked the ogre’s sword out of his hand and brought his own sword down again with both hands into the ogre’s chest. The ogre let out a loud gush of air, followed by a squeal of pain, and his throat filled with blood. He died making gurgling sounds in his throat.
Tharn quickly pulled his sword out of the ogre’s chest and started to turn around to face the other attacking ogre when he felt a sharp pain in his back and then in his chest. He looked down and briefly saw the tip of a sword and then it was gone.
The ogre pulled his sword out of Tharn’s back and then used his foot to kick him face first into the dirt. The ogre growled and grunted, celebrating his kill, before he ran off to join the others in the battle they had initially arrived for.
As Tharn lay in his own blood, almost face to face with the ogre that he had just killed, he thought about his life as a warrior. He was satisfied in the way his life was going to end. He would die from a mission trying to save Aaelie, and even though he had failed, he knew he would die as a warrior and not as an old rancher selling goblin touched swords to a corrupt kingdom.
His chest began to tighten and his vision began to fade. The last image he saw was that of a dozen men on horseback riding through the heavy smoke of the forest fire.
***
Alaezdar and Morlonn had fought off and killed over twenty goblins while maintaining their back-to-back defensive posture. Goblins attacked from all sides, and Morlonn struggled to keep focused on the shimmering, camouflaged shape from Gartan’s cloak that he wore. Morlonn fought well, but needed Alaezdar’s help a number of times to finish off a few of the goblins that persistently attacked at him. The goblins had kept coming, as if they had nothing else to do but kill the ones who had disrupted their ceremony to bring Grala
nxth back into this realm.
Without warning, a massive surge of ogres came crushing in on them all and began to clash with the unsuspecting goblins. Alaezdar took advantage of the distraction and finished off the goblins that were still engaged in the fight with them. The two that were left were easy kills as they had clearly been distracted by the new development. Alaezdar stabbed the last one in the chest and slammed his shoulder into him before turning around and seeing that Morlonn had just finished off his last foe as well.
“We need to find Aaelie now!” Alaezdar shouted above the fray. “We might not get a better opportunity.”
Morlonn nodded and they both ran off towards the smoke of the forest fire. The goblins and ogres clashed noisily and Alaezdar and Morlonn almost could have walked casually between their battles and not received a single cut because the others were so engrossed in their battle.
The two ran through the forest searching for Aaelie and calling her name, but their effort was futile. The sounds of the forest burning and the clanging of swords and shields were too loud for their voices to carry.
Soon they came across their two fallen friends. They found Tharn first, face down in the dirt. Without a word, they stopped, saw the two dead ogres lying next to him, and they each gave a solemn nod to the fallen warrior. A few minutes later, they found the burned corpse of Rivlok. Alaezdar knelt beside him and touched his skull. His hair had completely burned away with only a few curling strands left to cover his skinless and blackened skull.
“He was too young, too eager to fight,” Alaezdar whispered. “I am sorry.”
Before Alaezdar could return to his feet, the battle between the ogres and the goblins had taken another turn and moved in on them again. This time Ra-Corsh’s gronts had entered the fray after they had come bursting through the burning forest and into the blackened area where Alaezdar and Morlonn stood.
The Warrior's Bane (War for the Quarterstar Shards Book 1) Page 36
