by J D Franx
“Look at those spearheads,” Brenna whispered, chewing her bottom lip. “They look as if they’re made from black metal.”
“There is no black metal on Sokn,” Eira stated.
“Exactly,” Brenna said. “A new type of weapon, perhaps one that will last longer than that pathetic silver Skeyth shit.”
“I told you making a spear from the spikes was pointless,” Eira muttered. “The metal softens as the magic fades.”
Brenna frowned at the woman but didn’t bother arguing. “We need to get one of those black spears, Engier.”
“If we can.”
“I’m more concerned about the people shaped hides hanging from some of those spears than the weapons themselves,” Eira added, her words heavy with disgust. Drengr suggested the Skeyth wizard accompany them and he was glad he listened. “I have never before seen what my eyes show me in this village,” she said.
Engier couldn’t agree more, the settlement had all the signs of belonging to a migratory, but dominant and heavily predatory race. “Nor have I, but that tent clearly belongs to their leader,” he pointed out.
“We should ghost him, Engier,” Brenna whispered. “Use the hooked blade, with the wizard to watch our backs we can kill their leader and confuse the enemy. These are not Northmen, it will work.”
“Easy, Brenna, take a closer look,” he said, offering her the council of his experience. “What do you see? Strategically?”
With a light huff, the young Jarl frowned and turned her attention back to the enemy village. It made him smile. Young Northmen were always brash, impatient, and prone to use violence first and always, but doing so usually meant living with the consequences when it turned out to be a mistake. He chuckled under his breath. Northmen pups always had to learn things the hard way.
“Well?” he prompted.
“I see the low lamps, probably because bright light hurts their eyes. Six guards are visible but I’m sure there’s more. A lot of tents, so it’s a large camp and on the far side there are slave pens. Can’t see if they’re occupied. That’s about it,” she said.
“Good,” he replied nodding. “But when scouting a village or camp before infiltrating it, look closer, to that which is less obvious.”
“Such as?”
“The guards for one,” Eira said, butting in. “There are several patrols, but it looks like they’re not meeting up, just passing close to each other.”
“Right,” Engier said. “They’re walking wide loops to give the appearance of a lightly manned patrol. Yet their routes also overlap and they are alert, ready, so they take their post seriously. The closest one keeps twisting his spear, not exactly expecting trouble, but ready to deal with it in a single second.”
Brenna smiled. “I see it,” she said. “Like they deal with trouble regularly. Also, I know it is late, but there are no stragglers in the camp and nothing obscuring or blocking the walkways between the huts. No visible weapon racks, no supplies—nothing to trip on or over during a fight. I bet some kind of warning method is close at hand too.”
“Some kind of horn would be my guess,” he suggested. “Similar to ours, or a drum perhaps? What about the surroundings?”
“The village is backed by steep mountains behind the big tent and the cages,” Brenna began. “Might be climbable, but they’re pretty steep, could use a rope if we need to escape that way.”
“So, what happens if we ghost the leader of such a disciplined camp?” Engier asked. “Warning drums or not?”
“Of course,” Brenna mumbled, as if disappointed in herself for not seeing it sooner. “If we are detected at any time, we’ll be fighting our way back out through the whole camp.”
“Not something I’m excited about,” Eira protested. “Skeyth magic has little effect on them apparently.”
“Agreed,” Engier said. “Notice anything else?” Brenna and Eira shook their heads, so he pointed to the backside of the large tent.
“Is that… I thought you killed...” Brenna started to say, but Eira took advantage of the pause.
“It’s Kayo,” the Skeyth woman said. “He’s alive, but he’s definitely hurt the way he’s limping towards the slave pens.”
Engier grunted. “You lied to us,” he said. “They are coming back for those taken.”
“Of course, they are for Tyr’s sake,” Brenna hissed.
“I didn’t lie,” Eira snapped in a harsh whisper. “I told you they would try to rescue them if they were important enough, so they must be. Wizards, or elders perhaps, it does not matter, we should stop him.”
“He seems to be alone,” Engier said and stepped forward. A sizzling blue light exploded before his eyes and electricity snapped, crackling through his body. Every joint and muscle locked solid and before he even realized what happened, he was staring up at the stars in the sky.
“Engier!” Brenna whispered, rushing to his side. “Tell me you’re all right, old man.”
It took several seconds, but he finally managed to unlock his teeth from his tongue. “Yes,” he muttered. “I’m here. What in Niflheim’s rotten soul happened?”
“Magic, some kind of shield,” Eira said. Kneeling at the spot where Engier hit the shield, she examined the glowing aura around the village by tossing dust in the air. As the finer particles came into contact with the magic, it became visible. “Incredible,” she whispered.
“If you’re done admiring it,” Engier growled, struggling to his feet. Brenna offered her arm and he gladly accepted. His mind was just as scrambled as his body, as if every bit of magical current he absorbed sparked throughout him and disrupted the commands his brain gave to his limbs. “Do something with it.”
“Can you get us through?”
“Yes, Jarl Brenna,” Eira replied. “But we must hurry, it is possible the spell is an active one. If so, the spell caster will send guards to check on what hit the shield.”
“Is that even possible?” Engier asked.
“By the laws of Sokn magic, no. But...” Eira stopped as Brenna interrupted her.
“We’re not in Sokn. Are we?” she said.
“No,” Eira agreed, as she opened the neck of a pouch that hung around her neck. “We most definitely are not.” Tilting the pouch, the Skeyth wizard poured a small amount of the contents into her palm and then blew softly, scattering a fine substance over the area where Engier had tried to enter the village. The crossing lines of magic remained illuminated for all of them to see and Eira held up her hand, as if asking them to wait. Sure enough, twenty-seconds passed and the lines of magic changed. “The caster is moving the magic, like some crazy shifting spider web. It’s keeping the patterns from repeating, making it harder to predict where the magic will be.”
“How come we can see it now?” Brenna asked. “The dust from your pouch?”
“Yes, it is the ashes of our ancestors and contains properties that adhere to magic, letting us see what cannot be seen. Here,” Eira said, quickly rushing to her right when the pattern changed. Dropping to her belly, she slid through the largest opening in the magic and safely rolled into the village. Engier and Brenna followed immediately and as they passed through, the pattern shifted again.
“Come, we must hurry,” Eira said. “That was a fast change, the caster knows something is wrong here. We need to find cover.”
With his senses nearly back to normal, Engier nodded and rushed forward, past rows of tents numbering close to a hundred. Ghosting their way closer to the main part of the village along its outskirts, he spotted a large pile of stacked firewood and signaled the others to head that way. At five feet in height, and as long as a barrack’s wall, the wood stack gave them excellent cover to safely locate Kayo without being seen by whoever came to check the magic barrier.
Engier arrived to see Brenna and Eira already eyeing the village and its surroundings.
“Big village,” Brenna pointed out as he arrived. “Way bigger than we thought, but even so, our army still outnumber them for fighters, nearly
four to one. For escape routes, that mountain range behind the main tent slopes away and heads deeper into the swamp. Without a rope, there’s no way to climb up that sheer cliff. The swamp looks just as bad too, lots of water means quicksand and sink holes, probable snakes and the gods only know what else.”
“All the more reason to stop that fool before he gets us all caught,” he said. “You two stay here, I’ll get him.”
He didn’t wait to see if they agreed. Instead he rushed forward, sneaking past a sentry by crouching in the darkness at the side of the large tent. Two more guards were coming his way, so he slipped quietly around the back of the tent to find that Kayo had retreated there as well, but his back was to Engier. The Skeyth warrior panted heavily and held his side. A hooked dagger was in his right hand. It was the same blade carried by a Northman ghostwalker and the old man looked ready to use it. Engier stepped away from the tent to get a better angle and saw the man in Kayo’s sights. A lone jotunn stood guard by the slave pens. It was clear Kayo had no idea two more guards were heading his way, so Engier rushed forward and grabbed him before he could leave the safety of cover, placing a hand around his mouth.
“Quiet and don’t move,” he whispered in Kayo’s ear. The man fought back immediately, forcing him to try again. “It’s Engier, you stupid bastard. Be quiet or we’re both dead,” he hissed. The older man calmed down seconds before the two guards Engier dodged earlier walked by. Both men were well over eight feet in height.
“Bastards are even bigger close up,” Engier muttered and slowly let the Skeyth warrior go, but not before relieving him of his sword and dagger. “Follow me,” he added. “You are wounded and in way over your head here, Kayo. Move when I move and do not hesitate. I mean you no harm, but I will kill you if you don’t do as I say.” Disarmed, the Skeyth warrior had no choice but to obey. Moments later both men ducked behind the wood stack, just missing the returning patrol.
“What are you doing here?” Engier asked. “This is a Jotunn village. Are you insane?”
“I am trying to free our people,” the old man growled. “And they are not the giants from your superstitious religion and childish fears.”
“How do you know that?” Brenna pressed.
Kayo refused to back down, though Engier was thankful he finally lowered his voice. “Giera believes they are a race native to these new lands, nothing more.”
“Sounds like Skeyth superstition to me,” Brenna snorted.
Engier held up his hand before a fight started between the two. “How many of yours did they get?”
“Eleven,” Kayo answered. “One of them is Giera.”
“That’s why you’re here,” Eira said. “The elders would not risk a rescue for anyone less.”
“It is nice to see you well, mistress Eira, but you are wrong,” he said. “I’m here alone. The elders voted against rescuing Giera, but I will not leave her in the hands of these monsters.”
“So, you do have some honor,” Engier said, with a scoff.
“How did they stop your magic?” Brenna interrupted. “What happened at the ambush?”
“It was a disaster. Most of the Skeyth magic affected them only in the slightest ways. Cuts, bruises. Those powerful enough to harm them were swarmed, attacked by all three at once and killed, or worse, collared by metal imbued with magic we have never seen before. Giera was one of the few left alive long enough to be collared before she ordered the rest of us to retreat.”
Engier shook his head in disgust. He should leave the Skeyth to their suffering. They were a people without honor, but they were also still holding Northmen children captive.
“Did any of our young get away with your main camp?” Brenna asked.
“Most,” Kayo said. “The oldest was taken by Giera as a novice and was captured at her side, both should be here in the cages.”
“We’ll help you free your people,” Engier said. “But you must return our young ones in exchange, including the one being held here.”
Kayo hesitated, as if taking a few moments to decide, but Engier knew he had no choice but to accept.
“You can trust them, Kayo,” Eira offered. “They are highly respected among their people, loved even.”
When the man finally nodded, Engier wasn’t surprised, but he nodded at Eira to thank her.
“What was your plan? To rescue them alone?” Brenna asked.
“Kill the guard at the cages and free our people. I didn’t notice the patrol.”
“Because they’re looping wide to give the impression that some areas are left unsecured, but other patrols are crossing through and they are prepared to act. See? Look,” he said pointing north just as another patrol passed within thirty feet of the main tent before circling back away.
“Getting out of here without a warning being raised won’t be easy, Engier,” Brenna warned. “If we’re seen...”
“I know,” he admitted. “But we need our young more than ever now. Starting over with only five hundred people we know survived will be tough. We need every single life we can save until we know whether others yet live.”
“Ideas?” Eira prompted.
“Perhaps,” Engier mumbled while scratching his chin. “The guard at the cages should be easy. He’s only my size and he looks a lot younger than those on patrol...”
“Right,” Brenna said. “He has no facial hair yet.”
“Exactly,” he answered, then continued. “I’ll kill the guard and Brenna can grab the keys. You get the prisoners ready to move while I hide the body. Then we ghost out of here.”
“Care to guess whether he has the keys to the cages?” Eira wondered.
“As disciplined as this camp is?” Engier scoffed. “I know he has the keys on him. Guard duty is not a punishment detail for these people, it’s a matter of pride. If you and Brenna can free your people, Kayo, then Eira can lead you out safely past that damn magic, the way we come in. I promised her she was free to return with you when we caught up to you. We’ll handle our own retreat and that of Giera’s so-called apprentice.”
“I can work with that,” the Skeyth warrior agreed. “Getting through that grid magic on my own was not easy.”
Eira shook her head at Engier. “If we are caught leaving, you will have no way out. You’ll be trapped.”
“Not likely,” Brenna said with a laugh. “If you’re caught the whole village will come down on you and we’ll escape out behind you. If not, we’ll sneak into the swamps undetected. I would just prefer not to. I hate bastard swamps and it’ll take more than a day to circle around it.”
“Right, of course,” Eira whispered, and her cheeks paled slightly. “Then we won’t get caught.”
“Meet up where we entered the swamp if all goes well?” Brenna asked, getting a nod from Kayo and Eira. “If not, I doubt we’ll see each other again until we come for our young ones.”
“Makes sense,” Engier said and Kayo simply nodded. “Let’s go.” They waited for the closer patrol to pass by and then crept forward in groups of two, from the wood pile to the rear of the large tent. While everyone else hung back at the tent, Engier crouched and silently worked his way closer to the young guard. Even though he was likely in his early teens, the young jotunn matched his seven feet in height, but topped his three hundred pounds by at least another fifty. It ultimately wouldn’t matter. The Northmen clans all had men and women capable of ghosting—moving and killing silently was sometimes essential in war. Engier and Brenna were two of the best ghostwalkers among all the Northman clans and he easily approached the young warrior from the rear without revealing his presence. Sliding a hooked dagger with a round molded handle from his rear waist line, Engier stood slowly and kicked the back of the young man’s knee. He dropped and Engier reached around, slitting his throat. He pushed the jotunn forward and used his own body weight to hold the guard still until the last spasms of life left his body. Brenna rushed to his side and immediately pulled a ring of keys from the body before he dragged it away.
Brenna slid a strange looking piece of metal resembling a cloak pin from the keyring.
“Here,” she said, handing the keys to Kayo. “Get your people out, you have fifteen minutes to get to that wood pile before the next patrol.”
“What did you find?” Engier inquired as he returned from stashing the body in some swamp rushes behind the cages. The body would remain hidden long enough for them to make their escape from the camp.
“Not sure,” she replied, offering him the double pronged pin.
He studied it while Kayo freed his people, but he stuffed it into his belt when Giera exited the cage with Vada Broad-Axe at her side.
“Jarl Engier!” The young woman blurted and ran to his side. He stepped in front of Vada as Giera made a grab for her.
“She will be returning with us,” he stated. Giera quickly changed her mind and instead offered a slight bow.
