The Inner Seas Kingdoms: 03 - Road of Shadows

by Jeffrey Quyle

  “I will set you free,” Kestrel answered. “And I ask that as long as you are under the command of your own spirit, you do nothing to harm my friends and me. We are here to set the sprites free, and to find a way to defeat the monster lizards that have invaded our land, much as the Viathins have invaded your land and this one.”

  The guards looked at one another. “My lord,” one said. “We thank you for your mercy. We will do you no harm.”

  “The way we must travel to return to our land is the same way you must go to reach your friends, for much of the journey,” another added. He looked at the others, and watched them nod their heads. “We could travel with you for that distance.”

  “My lord,” another guard added hesitantly. “These monster lizards you talk of; the Viathins change when they move from world to world.” The others nodded their heads slowly in agreement. “Maybe your monsters are our monsters?”

  “When they were in our world their shape was more like ours and yours,” another said. “Their limbs were longer, their faces were flatter, and their skin was smoother.”

  “Changing worlds changes them?” Kestrel asked skeptically.

  “I haven’t changed. My friends haven’t changed. Did you change when you moved from your world to this one?” he asked.

  “No, but we are not dependent on sucking the life from others,” a guard replied. “They do not live self-sufficient lives. They have changed from that world to this one, in a way that they do not like, but it cannot be helped. They long to find a way to a world where they can change back towards their old form,” he continued. “I have overheard their complaints; we all have,” he added.

  “They are going to a new world, as this one is depleted, and they do not like the way they appear in the new world, but it is the only option they have for now,” he finished.

  The last sun dropped below the horizon, and only the starlight illuminated the roadside conversation.

  “Let us hide these bodies,” Kestrel decided that they needed to take action. He wanted to continue to question the red guards, and he wanted to talk to Tableg and the sprites. His mind was filled with possibilities, while his stomach was growling for food, after a day without a meal.

  “My companions are up in the woods. Let us hide these bodies, and then we can sit together and talk and eat our evening meal,” he decided.

  “As you suggest, my lord,” two of the guards agreed, and began to immediately drag the body of one of the dead Viathins up towards the forest. Kestrel walked forward and grabbed the arms of a dead guard, which he began to pull into the trees.

  “What’s happening, Kestrel?” he heard Tableg ask as he approached the trees. “How do you understand their language and speak it?”

  There were three languages present, Kestrel realized, and he was the only one who would be able to pass information back and forth between the different speakers.

  “These guards had their minds controlled by the dark creatures, the Viathins. Now that the Viathins are dead, their minds are free. They are not our enemies now. I have asked them to come talk with us. They plan to leave this place and return to their home, and we may be able to travel with them,” he explained to Tableg as he began to remove the pack from the back of the dead guard he had dragged into hiding.

  “Just like that, you want to trust them?” Tableg asked in astoundment.

  “You remember how your mind was tricked to throw that stone at me? That’s what’s made them attack us,” Kestrel explained. “These have no ill-intent towards us, I’m confident. Now let me tell the sprites, and then we can all gather together to eat a meal and discuss what we do next.”

  “Thorsee,” Kestrel paused before he spoke in the elvish language that was common to the elves and sprites and imps. “These guards,” he began, and gave an explanation similar to that he gave the gnome.

  “We will wait to see what happens,” Thorsee answered. “I know we all trust your judgment,” he said, as the others nodded.

  Sometime later all the bodies were dragged away from the road and the guards, the sprites, Tableg and Kestrel all sat together in a small clearing in the forest.

  “Can we build a fire?” Kestrel asked the guards, holding the stone on his ear stud as he spoke. “Will there be patrols on the road that could find us if they saw it?”

  “There will be no patrols tonight. This is not a busy road,” one of the guards replied.

  “Kestrel-friend! We understood your words, and so did the red ones, it seems!” Pumpkin spoke up.

  Kestrel cocked his head as he looked at the sprite, and suddenly realized that the ruby had to be translating his words into the languages of all three races that were present.

  “Do you all understand me?” he asked as he looked around. They all nodded their heads. “That makes this a bit easier,’ he muttered.

  “So, do you think it is safe to start a fire?” Kestrel asked the guards again.

  When they nodded their heads in agreement, he assigned the sprites to gather tinder, and they all sat and ate as the small flames crackled and Kestrel reviewed their situation.

  “So you think the large creatures here are the same as the monster lizards in our world, the ones we want to defeat?” Thorsee asked.

  “It seems possible to me, based on what the guards have said,” Kestrel agreed. “Maybe after we find Jonson and Dewberry and set them free, we could find the home of the guards and acquire the weapon we need to defeat the Viathins in our world.” He looked at Reasion as he spoke, troubled by the tears that had streamed down the sprite’s cheeks as he had recited the history of the Viathins conquering the world with two suns.

  “You are welcome to come to our homeland, Parstole with us,” one of the guards answered. “We do not know exactly what our leaders used to chase away the Viathins, but we will show you the way to our land so that you can ask for it yourself.”

  And so they planned their journey during the evening, until the fire had burned out, and they decided they needed to sleep. Kestrel set a watch rotation for the night, and took the first shift, while the others settled into their bedrolls and slept after the long day of extraordinary events.

  Chapter 5 – Maneuvers in the Field

  When morning came the band of mis-matched companions consolidated their supplies so that they had as many provisions as they could carry, and they set out on their way. Although the Parstoles believed the nearby road was likely to be mostly empty, they all agreed that cautiously creeping through the trees of the forest was a suitable way to travel. The group made slow progress, but during the first day of travel they only saw two other groups out on the road, and sat still and silent in the forest each time until they felt safe to resume moving.

  “This land used to belong to another race, a people who were small like the sprites, and dark in color. The Viathins have wiped most of them out; a few live in the hills, and some are captives and slaves, or sacrifices,” one of the red guards explained. “They’re too small to be useful guards or laborers, so the Viathins continue to use us in this world.”

  The great ceremony, when the sacrifices will be held, will be in ten days. Our journey to the small ones’ city where the ceremony will happen will take eight days.”

  Kestrel repeated the information to the others, and felt Reasion nestle against him. He looked down to see profound sadness in the little sprite’s eyes, and placed a comforting arm around his blue friend.

  “Kestrel, what if Dewberry and Jonson aren’t captives there?” Thorsee had asked.

  “We’ll try to find out where they are,” Kestrel replied grimly. He had worried about the same thing, but realized there was nothing that could be done beyond hurrying to the site where sprites were held captive, and hope to discover the best.

  “If only we could travel in this land! Our leaders think that the two suns here are the difference that prevents us from changing locations as we are used to doing,” the imp added.

  The stealthy squad moved on, and for the nex
t three days it spent each day moving slowly through forests, while in the evenings they slept uneasily. Kestrel made sure a watch was posted at all times, and they made no further campfires.

  On Kestrel’s fifth day in the land with two suns, his mixed group of followers came to a small village that they observed from the trees on the hills above the settlement. There was activity underway in the village, with both Viathins and Parstoles in evidence.

  “We have to pass near the village to continue our trip. Both the great ceremony and the great mountain are beyond it,” Gainue told him. Of all the red guards from Parstole, Gainue had proven most comfortable speaking with Kestrel, and seemed to be the leader of the small group of freed captives trying to return to home.

  “If we wait until after dark, things will be quiet in the village, and we should be able to get around without being detected,” Gainue added. Kestrel explained to the others, and they settled into a small hillside dell where they waited for the sun to set. Kestrel spent time with the sprites, urging them to continue to eat their food supplies at a meager rate; although the group had extra food available due to the packs they had confiscated from the victims of their roadside battle, Kestrel estimated that with more days to go to rescue Jonson and Dewberry, and then the journey to the land of Parstole, they would face lean times in the coming days.

  After darkness fell, the Parstole scouts kept a close eye on the village until they felt that the inhabitants had settled down for the evening, and then the group began to move out. Once they left the protection of the forest, Kestrel grew nervous. They were all out in the open, with few structures or features that they could hide behind, and his jitters were accentuated by his elven heritage, which relied upon trees for comfort and protection.

  Because Kestrel considered the double suns rising location each morning to be east, he considered their journey towards Jonson and Dewberry to be towards the north. As they entered the open fields around the village, they attempted to pass it on the west side while they continued north. “If there is any trouble, everyone keep going towards the forest on the far side of the village. I’ll try to distract anyone hunting us and lead them away,” he instructed everyone before they began to draw close to the village structures. “You keep going, and I’ll catch up.”

  The guards from Parstole led the silent parade that skittered across the fields, stopping and lying on the ground from time to time as they heard sounds nearby, or came to ditches that offered a place to crouch out of sight. An hour’s time was enough for the small moon to rise and begin its speedy journey across the sky, offering slight illumination and casting faint shadows; and in that time they crossed half the distance to the trees that offered their next shelter.

  As they remained low in the ditch, catching their breath, the sound of several pairs of feet nearby suddenly reached them. “There’s a patrol in the fields,” Gainue told Kestrel.

  “It’s coming towards us,” he added.

  “I’ll go back and distract them,” Kestrel told his guide. “You take everyone to safety in the trees and keep going.”

  Gainue nodded agreement. Kestrel moved back and told the sprites and Tableg as well, then sprinted backwards along the path the group had just traced.

  With his elven vision, Kestrel could see the patrol that was in the field. It was a large group, over a dozen, and he guessed there were at least two Viathins guiding the guards that were spread wide across a long line that was approaching his friends.

  Kestrel began to sprint at his highest speed, aiming for a Parstole guard who he rammed with his shoulder, knocking the unprepared guard down and causing him to shout in alarm. Kestrel bounced off his target, spun, and kept on running, moving back towards the village as cries rose from others in the line. He was counting on his elf-speed to allow him to elude capture, as he ran circles all around his pursuers, giving them no chance to focus anywhere but on him. He was confident that he could misdirect their attention for long enough to allow his companions to clear the vicinity of the village, and then he could safely make his escape.

  He stopped his sprint away from the line of guards, then cut to his left, towards the village buildings, aware of figures moving between the buildings, and determined not to get too close to them. He stopped in his tracks, and started to cut back towards the guards he wanted to entice away from his friends in the ditch, and as he cut, he heard a spear strike the ground immediately behind him.

  Kestrel cut sharply again, took four steps, then made another sharp cut. He hadn’t anticipated that his pursuers might hurl weapons at him, and he felt uneasy as he resumed running straight at the guards he wanted to confuse; he hoped that no weapons would be thrown if there were other guards who might be so close they could be mistakenly hit. It was a higher level of risk than he had expected to take, but it seemed prudent for the moment.

  He saw the line of guards very close by, running towards him, and then he spotted one of the Viathins in the field. He stopped and took a step back, then stepped to the side as he threw his knife at the creature that controlled at least a portion of the chase.

  He resumed running again, then decided that his friends should have been able to move beyond danger in the time he had been dodging, and he began to run to the southeast, around the far side of the village. Another spear landed in the soil next to him, and he swerved in surprise. He stopped and twisted, then stepped to his left, a little further away from the village again, as he checked to see that the guards were still on his trail.

  There were at least two extra squads who had poured out of the village to join in the chase after him, and they were moving rapidly to cut off his planned route around the far side of the village. One of the squads already in the field was presumably rudderless and no longer a problem, he hoped, following the death of one of the guiding Viathins. “Lucretia,” he called softly, commanding his knife to return.

  Kestrel turned again, starting to feel winded, and raced towards the southwest, back towards the forest he and his friends had left only an hour earlier; he raised his hand and caught his knife as it homed in on him despite his wayward movements. He found a ditch that ran to the east, and jumped down into it, turned to his left, crouched, and started heading east, towards the village once again.

  He could hear his pursuers draw nearer; all of his turning and stopping had given some of them time to draw close, but he hoped that he was out of sight and starting to draw away from them while he stooped below the level of the fields. As he raced along the ditch he heard noises in front of him and raised his head to see a new squad of guards that appeared to be in position to cut him off.

  He skidded to a stop, looked around in the darkness again, and took a deep breath. The only route that was open was to leave the ditch and head straight south, directly away from his friends. Putting distance between himself and them wasn’t bad, but it now appeared that he was going to have to go much further than he had expected, and it would take much longer to rejoin them than he had anticipated.

  With a snort of exasperation he hopped up to the top of the bank, leaving the protection of the ditch, and began to run south. He heard a shout behind him, and seconds later a pair of spears landed just ahead of him. Kestrel altered course and began to run southwest, then saw another spear cross his path directly in front of him.

  As he started to change course again, the shaft of a spear smacked savagely against his forehead, and he passed out.

  Chapter 6 – Escape from Captivity

  When Kestrel woke up, he was lying on a hard surface in a dark room. His head ached, and he was glad for the darkness.

  He lay on his back and tried to understand where he was. He had no memory of the room, despite his efforts to search his brain. He suddenly remembered Gainue, the red guard, and then the rest of his memories streamed to the forefront of his mind, and he realized he had been captured.

  He started to sit up, and his head ached tremendously. He stopped his rise, and sat on his pallet with his head resting
on both hands, a pose he held until the pain slowly diminished.

  At length he looked around. His cell had one wall of solid stone, and three walls that were thick metal bars; the ceiling was very low. Through the bars he could see a pair of lanterns on a desk, where a Parstole sat in a chair that leaned back against a wall.

  “You’ve arisen, I see,” he heard a voice behind him say, and he turned quickly, setting off another blinding headache.

  He looked through the bars of his cell and saw a small shadowy shape in the cell next to his.

  “Who are you?” he asked.

  “You do not speak my language?” the shape asked.

  Kestrel remembered the jeweled stud, the gift from Growelf. He placed his finger on the ruby and asked again. “Who are you?”

  “So you do speak our language! Well, the real question is, who are you?” the darkness asked, and then it moved closer to Kestrel, moving up to the edge of its cell, where Kestrel could discern some features. The questioner was about the size of a sprite, but dark in color; its ears were rounded and its smile was wide, while its limbs seemed longer than Kestrel considered usual.

  “You’re larger than the Parstoles, and smaller than the Viathins; your color is different from both. You’re being held captive here. I can’t figure this out,” the small being analyzed Kestrel.

  “I come from a different land. My name is Kestrel. I came here in search of friends who disappeared many months ago,” Kestrel answered.

  The small being stood and seemed to silently ponder Kestrel’s message for several moments. “You’re not going to do much to rescue your friends from the inside of this prison, are you?” it asked.

  Kestrel snorted at the snide comment.

  “I didn’t mean that in an unfriendly manner,” the creature hastily added. “I heard that there were other creatures who came to our land, but they were not reported to be as large as you. If you wish to rescue them, you’ll have to go to Gainsen, the great city, where they were taken as prisoners…once you get out of here.”