by Sam Ferguson
“How often?” Kai asked.
Seldaric shrugged. “I believe the unit patrols from one end of the island to the other. So they should cross over any given spot at least once a week.”
“It was him,” Kai said as he hopped down from the wagon. “He killed these men for their horse. He left them and the wagon because he needed speed.”
Seldaric nodded. “I was thinking the same thing.” The elf sighed and looked back to the bodies. “We should move.”
Kai nodded emphatically. “I can run a bit more,” he said.
They turned to begin heading eastward again, but then they spotted a group of four riders coming toward them from the east. Kai and Seldaric stopped where they were and looked at the newcomers.
“The guards?” Kai asked.
Seldaric shook his head. “No. These are human riders.”
The riders pointed at Kai and Seldaric and shouted something. The four riders pulled weapons and began charging.
“I think they think we attacked these men,” Seldaric said.
Kai drew his sword. “I caught that,” he growled.
Seldaric turned to Kai and pushed the man back around the wagon. “Into the forest, go!”
Kai nodded and the two made haste for the trees.
The pounding hooves thundered toward them. The men shouted and cursed. One of them fired a crossbow, but the bolt slammed into a tree well behind Seldaric and Kai. The riders leapt from their horses and followed after Seldaric and Kai on foot.
“The forest is too thick for the horses to enter. We will be on even terms here if we need to fight,” Seldaric said.
“If?” Kai repeated skeptically. “I don’t know about elf traditions, but where I come from, shooting a crossbow is not a friendly greeting.”
Seldaric shot Kai a sidelong glance and then turned to hide behind a thick oak tree covered with moss and ivy.
Kai crouched in a group of ferns at the base of a hillock, his sword out and ready.
“Come out!” one of the riders shouted. “We know you are here.”
“Who sent you?” another rider yelled.
“No one sent us,” Seldaric called out. “We only happened upon these two men and their wagon a few moments before you arrived.”
“Right,” one of the riders mocked. “And I suppose you want me to believe that you don’t know who these men are?”
Seldaric glanced toward Kai. The ex-ranger could see the confusion stamped across his elf companion’s face. Kai shrugged. The movement rustled some of the ferns he was hiding in.
“There he is!” the crossbowman shouted.
Kai heard the tell-tale click of the firing mechanism and knew he had made a mistake. He rolled out to his right as a steel bolt tore through the green plants and bit into the dirt behind where he had been crouching. He came up behind a tree and looked to Seldaric. The elf held a finger up to his lips.
“Hey, the money is gone!” a man called out from near the wagon.
Kai and Seldaric looked to each other and Kai silently mouthed, “What is going on?”
Seldaric shrugged and silently readied his sword. Kai nodded. It was obvious that these men were not leaving without a fight.
“Killed Governor Kimmel and stole our money did ya?” one of the men shouted.
The voice was close. Kai closed his eyes and concentrated on the rustling foliage underfoot and the whoosh of swinging branches. Within a moment he heard the scrape of pine needles as they dragged across fabric. One of the riders was close enough to strike.
Kai wheeled around the left side of the tree and struck out with a quick thrust of his sword. He caught a wide-eyed, black-bearded man through the heart. The man dropped his sword and opened his mouth as if to scream, then he fell backward silently. Kai continued the spin until he was safe behind a nearby tree.
A crossbow bolt zipped through the space near him and slammed into a tree just a few feet farther away.
One of the men called out to the crossbowmen, giving his position away to Seldaric. The elf leapt out from behind his hiding spot and slashed the man’s throat. He then dropped into a somersault as the crossbowman fired at him. The shot missed. Seldaric came up and gracefully launched his scimitar. The blade spun end over end until it sunk deep into the crossbowman’s chest.
Kai saw his moment. He rushed out from behind his tree. He ran through the brush and darted around the many trees until he reached the fourth and final rider. The final enemy had only just leapt down from the wagon by the time Kai slammed into him. The ex-ranger drove his sword up through the man’s abdomen at such a sharp incline that the blade protruded out from the man’s upper back and bit into the side of the wagon. The man groaned and slowly turned his eyes to lock with Kai’s
“Who…” the man didn’t finish his question before his strength left him and his body went slack.
Kai removed his sword and wiped it on the fallen man’s clothes.
Seldaric emerged from the forest and went to Kai. “You alright?”
Kai nodded. “Never better.” He glanced back to the woods and then slid his sword into its sheath. “We should go,” he said.
The two of them started running down the road, trying to put as much distance between themselves and the battle sight as possible.
They ran for almost two miles before Kai had to stop. There was a pain in his side that had him nearly doubled over and heaving for breath. “I’m sorry,” Kai said. “I can’t run anymore today.”
Seldaric ran a few more yards before he was able to slow himself down to a stop. He jogged back to Kai and placed a hand on Kai’s shoulder, pulling him upright. “Put your hands on your head, it will help open your chest and you will breathe better.”
Kai nodded. He stretched upward, but then quickly felt the sharp, cramping pain in his side. He shook his head and dropped to a knee.
“Kai, we have to keep moving,” Seldaric urged. “Come on, at least walk with me.” Seldaric reached under Kai’s armpit and hoisted the man up. Kai shook his head in protest, but the elf wasn’t willing to consider stopping. He dragged Kai along until the ex-ranger started moving his feet with stumbling steps to keep pace. “We must press forward. According to the map, there will soon be a turnoff with a smaller road leading to the tower. Once we have gone onto that road for a bit we can rest, but as long as we are on the main road, we run the risk of being caught by the patrol. If they see what we have done, we will not be able to complete our mission.”
“I thought…” Kai began between gasps for air, “that agents were above the law?”
“Keep moving,” Seldaric snapped.
They hobbled along for a few minutes before Kai was able to walk without the stitch in his side. However, they never found the turn off.
After they had walked for another mile something caught Seldaric’s attention and he turned to look behind them.
“We are discovered,” Seldaric said. The elf stood and turned around. Kai turned and saw a group of seven running toward them on foot. Some of them had spears, while others wore scimitars upon their belts. Two of them stopped and brandished fine bows, nocking arrows and pulling the strings back.
“More bandits?” Kai asked.
Seldaric shook his head and drew his scimitar out, then he laid it upon the ground and backed away with his hands out to his sides. “The patrol,” he said. “Place your weapon on the ground.”
“We could run,” Kai suggested.
Seldaric shot Kai a disbelieving look.
“You could run,” Kai said, correcting himself.
Seldaric shook his head. “Even I could not lose them now. They know these forests, and would easily track me. If I run, it will be worse.”
Kai nodded and undid his sword belt with his right hand. He unceremoniously dropped the weapon to the ground and backed away from it, following Seldaric’s example.
“They won’t kill us,” Seldaric said. “They will arrest us.”
“Excellent,” Kai commented.
/> The patrol closed in with blinding speed.
“We will be taken to Telshir, and then stand before the council.”
Kai sighed and then tensed his body moments before an armored elf tackled him to the ground.
CHAPTER 14
“What are you doing?” Jaleal asked as he walked over to the cauldron and sniffed at the odoriferous sludge Phinean was cooking.
“This will aid us greatly. I have a recipe that will turn me into a large bear.”
“A bear?” Jaleal asked. He arched a brow and cocked his head at Phinean. “You’re going to turn yourself into a bear?”
Phinean nodded confidently. “I am not a warrior like you. So, if the plan fails and the Goresym doesn’t work, then I will need to be ready to fight.”
“A bear?” Jaleal repeated.
Phinean looked up and shewed Jaleal away with the back of his left hand. “Go on and settle in upstairs if you can’t be useful here.”
Jaleal shrugged. “You forgot the part that I don’t know how the Goresym works,” he said. “I told you before, I didn’t see Erik use it.”
Phinean wrinkled his nose and nodded. “So, give it your best attempt and then have your spear handy. I will be outside in the trees. If it comes to a fight, I will be quick to come in.” Phinean stopped stirring the pot and stood up as he stretched his lower back out and groaned. “Just, go upstairs and think about how to use the Goresym, maybe it will come to you.”
Jaleal turned and walked up the stairs. “Why didn’t I think of that?” Jaleal muttered under his breath. “All I had to do is just look at the stone and it will magically tell me how to use it.” He shook his head and slipped into a false panel in the wall that overlooked the upper room. He pulled the stone out and stared at it as he turned it over in his hand. None of the faces were cut evenly. The blue stone had a very rugged appearance. If not for the fact that Jaleal knew Erik had used it, he would have thought it was simply a large gem. “Alright, so I am looking at you and thinking. So are you going to show me what to do now?” Jaleal waited for a few seconds and then he laughed at himself. “Look at me, talking to a rock.”
The warrior gnome set his spear beside him. He had a feeling that the day was going to end in a fight.
He waited for an hour or so before Phinean came up to him, smiling wildly and holding a glass bottle in his hand that was filled with a greenish sludge that smelled like the back end of a wet dog. Phinean opened up the false panel.
“Phinean, shouldn’t you be out front?” Jaleal asked.
Phinean nodded. “I am going, but I wanted to show you the potion. Look at it!” Phinean held it up in front of Jaleal, but the warrior gnome pushed it gently back to Phinean.
“Smells horrid.”
Phinean frowned. “Well it isn’t a perfume,” Phinean replied. “It’s a potion that will turn me into a mighty bear.”
“Will you think like a bear too?” Jaleal asked. “If so, then you should drink it outside, after you close the door.”
“Nonsense,” Phinean said. “It will adjust my shape and strength only. It will not alter my mind nor my demeanor.”
“So I will have a scatterbrained bear to deal with as well as an assassin eh?” Jaleal quipped.
“What do you mean?” Phinean asked as he glanced from the bottle to Jaleal.
Jaleal shrugged and shook his head. “Never mind. Best of luck to you. Now, if you don’t mind, I am trying to hide. Remember, you said he could be arriving today.”
“Quite right!” Phinean said. The older gnome helped Jaleal replace the false panel into the wall and then moved a couple steps away. “Bottoms up!” Phinean said happily as he set the bottle to his lips and tilted his head back. The contents slid down the glass and into the gnome with a slight hissing sound. Phinean gagged and wiped his mouth after he finished.
Jaleal could hear a strong rumbling work through Phinean’s stomach. The gnome doubled over, apparently about to vomit and then he stood totally erect, rigid as a board. His face grew brown fur. Phinean smiled. “It’s working!” Phinean shouted as his body twisted and contorted into different shapes. Jaleal gripped his spear. He held no ill will toward Phinean, but he was not about to get devoured by a bear in case Phinean did in fact lose his mind.
He needn’t have worried.
Along with the brown fur on the gnome’s face, a pair of long, floppy ears grew out from his head. Phinean scrunched his brow together and lifted his hands to his head, feeling the long, fuzzy ears.
“Oh, now that’s not right,” Phinean said.
A puff of smoke shrouded the gnome for a second. Something thumped onto the floor. Jaleal gripped his spear tight, waiting for the form to be revealed from within the smoke.
“No, no, no!” Phinean shouted in a peculiarly high pitch. “This isn’t right at all!”
The smoke swirled and out hopped a large, brown hare.
Jaleal couldn’t contain himself. The warrior gnome burst out laughing and nearly started crying when he saw it.
“Laugh if you will, but it’s still an effective disguise,” Phinean said. The hare twitched its nose and hopped down toward the stairs while Jaleal continued to laugh for several minutes after Phinean was gone.
*****
This is it, Talon thought to himself. He looked down to the note whereupon Governor Gandle had scrawled the name of three relics needed to open the Netherworld Gate and free the Sierri’Tai from their imprisonment. Under the names were the locations of each relic. Talon rubbed his thumb across the second line, where it listed this precise tower as the location of the King’s Ring.
Talon smiled as he thought of the Sierri’Tai army. There were likely hundreds, possibly thousands, of Sierri’Tai warriors waiting to be released. If Talon succeeded in opening the Netherworld Gate, they would swear loyalty to him. Then he would have the power to take his revenge.
Since arriving on Selemet a few days before, Talon had imagined many times how he would kill Basei, the god of war. The feeling he experienced as he thought of that goal coming closer within his reach was almost indescribable. It was the ecstasy that compelled him forward on his quest.
Soon he would have the King’s Ring. After that there was only one more relic to find, as he had already taken the Tomni’Tai scroll from Jahre in Medlas. Then, after the Netherworld Gate was opened, he would lead his army to Basei’s door and take the demigod down. Perhaps then the nightmares and images of his mother, who had been killed by Basei after praying to him for help, would stop tormenting him. Maybe, just maybe, he could find peace for his soul after his mother’s murder was avenged.
He folded the paper nicely and stuffed it deep down into his left boot. He stood at the base of a large, dark stone tower. Ivy had grown over most of the lower half of the tower and some of it had ascended all the way to the top where a lone window promised to offer a nice view of the realm. Talon slipped his left hand into his satchel and stroked the Scroll of the Tomni’Tai. A surge of energy rushed into his body as he felt closer to accomplishing his goal.
Jahre had not held all of the relics in his old tower, but then Talon had not expected that. He had only expected to find the scroll in possession of the old sage. And right he was. The other relics were scattered to keep them safe. All three items were needed to release the Drow, the assassin knew, without any one of them it would be impossible to complete the task. Talon was not worried about it though. Thanks to the information he had taken from Raimus and Governor Gandle, he knew where to find each of the three items.
The King’s Ring, which had belonged to the human king who had fought Lemork, was finally within Talon’s grasp. Talon sniggered as he remembered Governor Gandle’s expression when he had killed him. The old fool never saw it coming. Talon smiled. It was almost too easy. According to the information, there was only a single, elderly elf in this abandoned tower guarding the ring. This wouldn’t even be a fight. It would be child’s-play.
Talon walked towards the tower’s door, a large, ol
d, oaken mass with a black iron ring to open it. The assassin gently pushed the door, expecting to find it locked, but the heavy slab of wood easily swung away from his fingers. The tiny hairs on the back of Talon’s neck started to rise. He froze instantly, his right hand reached for his scimitar and he strained his ears to listen for any movement. A small rustling sound came from the trees to Talon’s left. Without turning his head Talon focused his eyes to the left to see what was there. He eased considerably when a large hare came bounding out of the underbrush.
“Stupid rabbit,” he said. “If you are still here when I get back, you will be my supper,” Talon promised.
The hare twitched its nose and then leapt back into the bushes, disappearing into the forest.
“Smart rabbit,” Talon said.
Talon turned and entered the tower. An intense, musty odor assaulted Talon’s nostrils as he climbed the set of stairs to the main floor. The place reeked from the dung of mice and old, rotten grains. Mold dotted the few wooden chairs scattered throughout the room. It appeared as if no person had been here in hundreds of years, except for the odd smell that lingered on the air and seemed to be coming from a cauldron over a fresh mound of embers. Talon moved to it and held his hand out. The cauldron was still warm, but it was empty. Either someone was home, or he had perhaps just missed him.
Without wasting any more time the assassin silently climbed the stairs that spiraled along the far wall and led to the top room of the tower. Talon found the door locked, but it didn’t take him more than a few seconds to pick the lock and push the door open. He leaned in slowly, peering around the room. As he had thought, this room was still being used. It smelled of pine and cinnamon, and it was immaculately clean. There was a small, well-made bed with a red coverlet draped over it at the far end of the room. A couple of small writing desks stood in the chamber, one near the doorway, and the other near a window. Two large wardrobes were placed close to the far wall, but the assassin did not see any elf. Talon swung the door completely open and entered the room. He took a couple of steps toward the center of the room, his hand hovering over the hilt of Drekk’hul. After a moment, he realized that no one else occupied the room with him. He was completely alone.
