Once they reached the lakeshore, Riyan and Bart had removed their packs and left them there with Chad and Kevik to await their return. Bart did put his lockpicks within his shirt. Riyan eyed him questioningly about that.
“My picks go where I go,” was the only answer he gave before they headed out.
Now, they stood behind the bole of a large tree at the edge of the goblin village. The buildings were similar in size and design to the ones Bart had seen in the settlement they had come across on their way to Algoth. The whole place looked peaceful with only a small portion of the windows having light.
“Looks like almost everyone is asleep,” Riyan whispered.
Bart nodded. Then he pointed further into the village toward the shore of the lake. There they saw a dock to which a dozen or so boats were moored in the moonlight. “Come on,” he said, “and be silent.”
Riyan followed as Bart moved quickly to the side of the nearest building. Its windows were dark and was situated closest to the water’s edge. Then after a brief pause to be sure they remained undetected, they repeated their dash to the next building. From building to building they repeated their mad dash as they drew ever closer to the dock and the boats secured there.
Suddenly, Bart placed an arm across Riyan’s chest and pressed him to the side of the building. A split second later, two goblin men emerged from the side of the building and began making their way toward the dock.
They were talking to themselves in their guttural language. One held a large net and the other two small boxes. From the looks of them Riyan guessed they were fishermen heading out for an early morning catch.
Bart and Riyan remained motionless against the building as the two goblins reached the dock and began removing the mooring lines from one of the boats. Other sounds began coming to them as the village started to stir and they could see where lights appeared in more of the windows. The village was waking up.
“We can’t stay here!” Riyan whispered earnestly in fear.
“Quiet!” replied Bart.
The two fishermen had finished releasing the mooring lines and were beginning to head out.
“Come on,” Bart said. Moving out quickly, he practically ran in the dark towards the dock. Riyan followed.
All around them they could hear goblins speaking to one another within their homes. Terror at being caught almost immobilized Riyan but he somehow kept going. They hit the dock and Bart immediately went all the way down to the small, four-seater moored at the end of the dock. “Hurry Riyan,” he whispered back to him as he reached the boat and started untying the lines.
Riyan quickly raced down the end of the dock and made his way into the boat. He glanced back to the village and could see goblins moving about, fortunately none were heading their way at the moment.
Then the rope that had moored the boat to the dock was tossed inside followed quickly by Bart. Riyan held one of the oars in his hand that had been lying in the bottom and handed the other to Bart. Working together, they began paddling the boat quickly out onto the lake.
Riyan kept glancing back to the village, but so far none of the goblins had yet discovered the theft. He sighed in relief and his fear began subsiding as the distance between them and the dock grew.
To the east, the sky was just beginning to lighten with the coming of dawn. They needed to find Kevik and Chad quickly before it grew light enough for the goblins to see them out upon the lake.
They rowed for another quarter hour as they searched the shoreline for the other two. The fishermen they had seen earlier must have gone to a different location to fish as they didn’t encounter them.
Finally, they saw the pair on the shoreline waving to them. They paddled harder and when they reached the shore, ran the prow of the boat up onto the beach. “I started thinking something had happened to you,” Chad said as he threw the packs into the boat.
“We need to hurry,” Riyan said to them. Gesturing back to the village he added, “They’re beginning to awaken.”
With the packs now in the bottom of the boat, Kevik hopped in and then Chad pushed them off the shore. As Chad jumped in, Riyan and Bart used the oars to turn the boat around and headed towards the mouth of the river leading to the larger lake by the Marketplace.
The sky continued to lighten as they rowed across the lake. The mountaintops of the range separating the two lands became more distinct and the darkness around the four comrades in the boat began to diminish. Also visible was a dark plume of smoke rising some distance away between them and the mountains. Obviously the fire still continued to rage.
“Look!” said Kevik and they turned to see several other boats now out on the water. Goblins were seen throwing nets out over the water as they gathered in the fish.
“Doesn’t look like they’re searching for the missing boat,” Riyan observed.
“No it doesn’t,” replied Bart. “It may not ever occur to them that it was stolen by humans. After all, how often do humans make it this far?”
“I hope you’re right,” said Chad.
They continued rowing hard until the mouth of the river appeared ahead of them. As the bow of the boat entered the river, Riyan glanced back one last time to see if any pursuit had developed. He was greatly relieved to see that none had.
While the sky continued lightening, they rowed. They kept on the lookout for a place to hole up through the day as they didn’t dare risk being on the river during the daylight hours. When the sky lightened to the extent that they dared not proceed any further, they beached the boat and carried it inland to hide among the trees.
The boat was fairly heavy but they managed to lift it and carry it into the trees so as not to leave a tell-tale drag mark on the shore. They carried it a hundred feet into the forest before setting it back to the ground. Exhausted and hungry, they settled down to wait for the coming of night when they would return to the river and make their way to the large lake before morning dawned once more.
“Riyan,” Bart said. “Why don’t you use your sling and find us something to eat?”
“I really don’t want raw meat,” Riyan said. “I’d rather go hungry another day.”
“With the smoke in the air from the fire downstream, I doubt if anyone is going to notice if we have a fire,” Bart argued.
Riyan knew they were all hungry, with naught but a few strips of meat a day or so ago to sustain them. “Very well,” he said, and took his sling. Picking up a couple stones he soon disappeared into the trees.
By the time he returned with two rabbits, the others had a fire going. They built it close to the side of the boat in order to hide it in the event a goblin passed by. But given the relative wildness of the surrounding trees and bush, it’s unlikely goblins have traveled through this area recently.
The meal of roast rabbit was one of the best meals Riyan had ever had in his life. His mother always said hunger was the best seasoning, and she was right. Once the meal was over, they turned in. Riyan took the first watch as the others began resting. He kept an ever vigilant eye out for possible incursions near their camp by goblins, but what was on his mind mostly was the fire.
Smoke rose high into the sky before the upper air currents began pushing it eastward. What little breeze there was blew towards the fire, so hopefully it would keep it moving away from them. But, whether it does or not made no difference come morning for they planned to ride the river south, directly into the flames. Riyan wished they didn’t have to come near the fire, but being on foot such as they would have to be in order to circumvent it, would take them far too long to reach another pass. And every extra day on this side of the mountains increased their chance of being spotted.
Throughout the day as the others took their turns at watch, they too couldn’t help but watch the smoke rising. One shift at watch led to the next until darkness came again and they deemed the time was right to go. Bart went to scout the area by the river and once he made sure it was clear, returned to help bring the boat back to the water.
The mood in the boat was somber as it began floating down the river. Each kept his thoughts to himself as the river brought them ever closer to the forest fire.
It didn’t take long before smoke began having more of a presence in the air. The further they went the thicker it became. Then from up ahead they saw the glow of the fire coming up ahead of them.
Sections of the forest were burning off a ways from the river on both sides. Smoldering areas adjacent to the river grew more frequent and in the moonlight they could see the burnt, smoking husks that had at one time been tall, stately trees.
Ash started to rain down on them as it settled back to earth and the heat from the fires began to be felt as well. Then all of a sudden, the boat came to a jarring stop as it ran aground. They were knocked off their seats from the unexpected impact.
“What happened?” asked Riyan as he got himself off the bottom of the boat.
“We ran into something,” replied Bart.
As it turned out, they had run aground at the spot where they had forded the river on their way in. They could make out the roads moving from the river on both sides. “Everyone out,” Bart said. “We have to pull the boat across the ford to deeper water.”
They climbed out and positioned themselves around the boat. Then altogether they pulled it across the ford to the deeper water on the other side. When the boat once again floated freely, they hopped back in and continued on.
Smoke thickened, ash rained down on them constantly, and the temperature was beginning to climb. Some of the pieces of ash coming down were still glowing red, even full blown embers began dropping out of the sky. Riyan wondered about that until a tree next to the river suddenly popped.
Embers flew in all directions and they saw that the interior of the tree was glowing red. Even though the fire had already swept through this area, some of the trees were still smoldering on the inside.
“Kevik.” Bart broke the silence as he said, “We need some light.”
“But they’ll see us!” argued Chad.
“We’ll announce our presence,” Riyan warned.
“Look, the smoke has all but obscured the moon’s light,” he explained. “We can’t see where we’re going. Besides, if there are any goblins in the area they’ll either be going to the fire to fight it, or moving away from it in flight.”
“Very well,” replied Kevik. Then his bobbing orb appeared and began dancing above the boat.
“Thank you,” said Bart. Kevik just nodded in reply.
Around them they could now better see the destruction left by the fire. Trees broken and smoldering, the ground a charred mess, and the ash raining down looked deceptively like snowflakes. Further along they began seeing small animals, or rather what was left of them, that had sought refuge by the fire. Some lay dead looking for all the world as if they were asleep, these must have died from the smoke. While others had their fur singed off and in some cases were still smoking, there was no doubt that the fire had gotten to those.
“Oh man,” Chad said.
Riyan turned his gaze from the dead animals and glanced to Chad. He saw that he was looking ahead of them in fear. Riyan turned his gaze downriver and saw the fire arcing to the sky. To either side of the river the forest burned. The river looked like it was going to pass through the fires of hell, which wasn’t that far from the truth.
When Bart turned and saw the inferno they were approaching, he immediately grabbed an oar and said, “Riyan, help me bring us to the shore.”
Riyan grabbed the other oar and began paddling. The boat turned and began to angle towards the riverbank. “Are we going the rest of the way on foot?” he asked.
“No,” Bart replied. “I was thinking we could soak our clothes and fill the bottom with water.”
“That won’t do any good,” countered Kevik. “Not with what we’re about to go through.”
“What would you suggest then?” Bart asked. He again glanced to the inferno that began a little over a mile away.
“Turn the boat over,” he said. When the others looked at him, he explained. “Turn the boat over and use it as a cover.” Reaching down, he grabbed the edge of the seat. “We can hold onto the seats to keep our heads out of the water. Then we allow the river to carry us through.”
Chad nodded. “That might work better than just soaking our clothes.”
Bart grinned. “I like it too. Let’s do it.” Paddling hard, he and Riyan soon had the boat grounded on the riverbank.
They stepped out of the boat and put their packs on. Then they all moved to one side of the boat and as one, lifted the edge until it tipped over. Riyan and Bart then each took the oars and carried them as all four of them dragged the boat back into the water.
When they had it out far enough that they could duck under the surface of the water and get inside, Bart and Kevik went first while Riyan and Chad held the boat steady. “I hope we survive this,” commented Chad.
“We will,” Riyan assured him. “This idea of Kevik’s is pretty good.” A knocking came to them from the inside of the boat telling them Bart and Kevik were set. The two friends then ducked under the water and came up under the overturned boat.
“Grab on,” Bart said as they broke the surface. Inside they found the bobbing sphere doing its annoying dance.
Riyan laid the oar he brought with him on top of the upside down seat and then grabbed on. The water wasn’t so deep that their feet couldn’t touch, so they began walking the boat out to deeper water. It didn’t take long before they were floating free and the current was taking them towards the inferno.
“You can get rid of the light now,” Chad said. A second later the orb disappeared.
Beneath the boat it was dark as they continued to float blind down the river. Then the water around them began to glow as they drew ever closer to the fire. Soon, the glow coming through the water was bright enough to allow them to see each other vaguely.
“We’re within the fire,” stated Chad. Indeed, the water was growing warm as the fire consuming the nearby trees heated it. The air within the boat grew warmer by the minute as well. Then falling debris began to patter against the topside like rain on a tin roof.
“We never would have made it through the fire if we were still sitting exposed in the boat out there,” Riyan said.
“It doesn’t look like it,” Kevik said.
Suddenly from the other side of the bottom of the boat, they heard pounding. It wasn’t the sound of debris falling, rather it sounded like the rhythmic banging a panicked person would do.
“Someone’s out there!” Riyan exclaimed. Fear of goblins again surged within him. Then he saw the light coming through the water near him become occluded as the lower half of a body was seen right next to the boat. It was unmistakably that of a goblin.
“We can’t leave it out there to burn,” Chad said. From the intensity of the glow coming through the water, it was clear the temperature from the flames had to be pretty hot.
Then it grew quiet as the pounding ceased. Riyan watched the shadow of the body as it began to sag into the river. The need to help someone in danger somehow overcame his fear. He reached under the side of the boat and grabbed hold of it. When he pulled it beneath the boat with them, they discovered it was a young male goblin. One side of its face was scarred pretty badly with burns, and it lay unconscious in Riyan’s grasp. The skin of the goblin was tougher than that of a human, to Riyan it felt akin to that of a reptile.
“Keep its head above water,” Bart said as he moved over to assist Riyan. Together they managed to hold onto the goblin lad as they continued down the river.
“Is it alive?” asked Kevik.
“Yes,” replied Riyan. He gazed at the face of the goblin youth and wondered just how old it was. It couldn’t be too young as its size was approximately two thirds that of an adult.
“What are we going to do with it?” asked Kevik.
Bart turned to him and said, “Once we’re safely past the fire and near the
goblin settlement on the shore of the larger lake, we’ll drop it off.”
Riyan nodded, “They’ll find him and take care of him.” He and Bart continued holding on to the goblin youth as they drifted further into the inferno burning on the other side of the boat. The glow in the water by this time had intensified from an off orange to a brighter white. Curious, Riyan touched the top of the boat and drew his hand back quickly.
“Hot?” asked Bart with a grin.
“Very,” he replied. “What do we do if the bottom of the boat catches fire?”
“If we’re lucky we’ll never find out,” said Chad.
They continued floating for some time as they worked their way through the burning inferno. The temperature within the boat continued to rise. Already it was approaching an uncomfortable range. The goblin youth, other than a few grunts now and then, remained still and quiet.
Wham!
They were startled as something slammed into the bottom of the boat. It didn’t inhibit their progress any, but it did scare them pretty good. “A falling limb perhaps?” guessed Kevik.
“Would think so,” replied Riyan. “If it had been a tree the boat would have shattered or been pressed to the bottom of the river.”
Still they floated on. From time to time their feet would touch the river bottom. When that happened they would try to move the boat back to the center of the river where the water was deeper. In some cases it was due to the fact that the river widened and thus the water level had dropped. During those times they feared running into another fording area where the depth of the river had diminished. They didn’t relish the idea of having to leave the protection of the boat in order to carry it across. For the water outside the boat still glowed from the light of the fire, though it was no longer the white hot light. The reddish glow gave them hope that they had passed through the worst of it.
Riyan didn’t worry too much about the eventuality of having to carry the boat over a ford. After all, rivers tended to grow in size the further they went, not diminish. It was during one of those times when they couldn’t touch the bottom that he began to notice a red glow coming from the bottom of the boat above his head.
“The boat’s on fire!” he yelled in a panic.
“What do we do?” Chad asked.
Riyan started splashing water on the glow in an attempt to inhibit the burning process. Some of the water hit the face of the goblin youth and it started to stir.
Bart stuck his hand under the side of the boat and moved it to the outside surface. When his hand broke the water, the air felt hot, but not lethally so. “Move us to the side of the river,” he told the others. “We may be able to put it out.”
Kicking hard, they worked their way to one side until they could feel the river bottom under their feet once again. “Hold it here,” he said. “I’m going to go check it out.” Without waiting for the others to reply, Bart ducked under the water and moved out from under the boat.
He stayed underneath the water as he looked up to see how bad the fire around them was. The banks of the river couldn’t be seen, but the glow of fire was all around him. He took but a moment to gauge the best location to break the surface. Once he made his decision, he kicked off the bottom of the riverbed and shot up fast. Waving his arms wildly, he splashed about to create a protective cover of water as he broke the surface. When he opened his eyes, he was amazed at what he saw.
The woods on either side were dark, the forest fire was a good mile behind them. What had been making the water glow and burning the bottom of the boat was a large clump of burning branches that was lying along the upturned bottom of the boat. He moved to the burning branches and removed his pack. Then using the water soaked pack, he began hitting the branches with it and knocking them off into the water. It took him a minute or so before the last branch was off the boat and floating down with the current.
Bart ducked back under the water and came up inside the boat. “We’re past the fire,” he told them. Then he explained about the branches and how they had left the forest fire behind them.
Riyan chuckled. “All this time we thought we were still in the fire, and instead were fooled by a bunch of burning branches.” The others broke into laughter at that. Not so much at what he said but due to the relief each felt at having survived to reach the far side of the fire.
“Now let’s move over to the bank and flip the boat upright again,” Bart said. He and the others left the warm, stale air inside the overturned boat and were soon once again in the cool, smoke filled air of the forest.
When Riyan ducked under the water with the goblin youth, it woke completely. Thrashing about, it almost broke free of Riyan’s grasp but he managed to keep hold of it until they broke the surface on the other side of the boat.
“Hold him still,” Kevik said as he moved behind Riyan and opened his pack. He had seen the burns on the goblin youth’s face and wanted to help him.
While Riyan held onto the youth, he removed the last of the healing potions and returned to Riyan’s side. The goblin’s eyes were opened wide in fear as he saw Kevik move the bottle towards him.
The goblin youth thrashed about intensely as he fought to free himself of Riyan’s grip. “Hold him steady,” Kevik said.
Bart realized what he was trying to do and moved to help Riyan in holding the youth still. Chad stayed where he was and kept hold of the boat to prevent the current from taking it away.
With Bart’s help, the youth was soon being held tightly and Kevik moved the mouth of the bottle to its lips. “Just a bit to help with your burns,” he said soothingly to the goblin. When the goblin wasn’t being cooperative in opening its mouth, Kevik said to Bart, “See if you can get its lips open.
Bart moved a hand to the goblin’s mouth and spread its lips apart. He tilted the goblin’s head back as Kevik poured a small portion of the potion onto the goblin’s teeth. It may not be perfect but at least some of it will get into its system. After that he moved the bottle to the burn covering the right half of the youth’s face. The goblin’s eyes widened as the bottle came closer. And then before the first drop left the bottle, the youth relaxed in Riyan’s grip.
Believing the youth was no longer going to struggle, Riyan relaxed his grip as well. As soon as the first drop fell onto the burned area of its face, it lashed out with a frantic struggle to free itself. Caught unawares, Riyan couldn’t hold him.
“Get him!” yelled Bart as the youth twisted out of his grip. Then it was free and made a dash for the trees. Before anyone could catch it, it was gone.
They stood there but a moment before Chad, who was standing by the boat said, “Let’s get out of here before he brings others!”
That broke the spell of the moment and the other three rushed to help him in righting the boat in the water. Once it was again floating right side up, they tossed their packs into the bottom and climbed aboard. Bart and Riyan quickly began using the oars to move down the river.
Riyan glanced back to the trees where the goblin lad had disappeared until they had moved too far away to see it. He couldn’t help but be amazed by the fact that he had actually touched and held an actual goblin. Surprised by the fact he hoped it would be okay, he returned his attention to his paddling and sent them quickly down the river.
Behind them, the glow from the fire was still quite visible and they were more than happy to leave it behind them. In no time at all they came to where the river flowed into the larger lake. “The Marketplace shouldn’t be too much further,” commented Riyan.
“We should be able to make it before dawn,” Chad agreed.
Once out onto the lake, they used the silhouettes of the mountains as a guide and paddled for them. It took them an hour to cross the lake before the shore where they needed to disembark appeared before them. Off to their right the lights from the goblin village they saw the first time they passed this way were visible. From this distance it was hard to tell but it did look like there was movement among their buildings. At least the
area where they were about to land looked quiet and deserted.
The dirt and rocks of the shore ground beneath the boat’s bottom as it ran aground. When they were out of the boat Riyan asked if they should hide it.
“No,” replied Chad, “it’s a goblin boat in goblin territory. Who’s going to care?”
Riyan grinned. “Guess you have a point there.” He tossed the oar into the bottom of the boat and then grabbed his pack. Once they were ready, they left the boat behind and entered the trees. Somewhere at the base of the mountains ahead of them lay the Marketplace and the pass leading home.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
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Shepherd's Quest: The Broken Key #1 Page 28
