“You scruffy boffers are with me,” Thegdol said. The sergeant had positioned himself by a line. He beckoned to them as they came forward. Tovak had seen Lieutenant Benthok just go down the same rope, walking his way down the cliff face. “Use this rope here. Dagmar, you are up first. I’ll follow just after you’ve all gone down and pick up the pieces.”
“Awww … Sarge,” Dagmar said as he stepped up to the rope and took hold, “your concern is touching. It just warms my heart. Really it does.”
“If you don’t get that gnome-bitten ass of yours down that rope,” Thegdol said in a growling tone laced with clear menace, “you’ll find my concern for your welfare reach new levels, as in a charge and punishment detail. I’ll be sure to come up with something really creative to keep you busy for the next year. Understand me?”
“Understood,” Dagmar said with a grin and began lowering himself down the rope. Tovak realized Dagmar’s grin was forced. His comrade was feeling anything but amusement. That, Tovak thought, was sobering.
Gorabor stepped up to the rope next, grabbed it, and glanced down into the darkness with what Tovak thought was more than a little trepidation. There were no safety harnesses that the Academy used in training, and it was a near vertical drop. What they were doing was incredibly dangerous. They were a mountain people and were trained as children to climb, but one mistake would still mean death.
“Get moving,” Thegdol said, and with that, Gorabor started down, following a few yards behind Dagmar.
Tovak waited for Gorabor to get several yards ahead before taking hold of the rope himself. He sucked in a deep breath of the cool night air and looked down into the darkness below beyond his friend. He wondered, with no little concern, on what the coming hours had in store for him, for all of them. He started down.
Chapter Fourteen
Mountaineering at night was tricky business and more difficult than Tovak had supposed. Even with the light from a partial moon, which wasn’t all that much, he still found it a serious challenge. In some places, the going was steeper than he expected, becoming a complete vertical drop. The face of the rock was in places smooth and slippery with lichen. Tovak moved carefully, slowly, and worked his way steadily down.
The rope gave an unexpected jerk that was quite violent. Tovak’s feet slipped against the weather-smoothed rock and with it his hold on the rope gave slightly. Instinctively, he grabbed hold hard, as tight as he could.
Thankfully, the rope was knotted. His grip slid only a couple of inches and stopped at such a knot. Holding on for dear life, with his feet dangling precariously over open space, Tovak looked down. Fear of falling tore at his heart. Reason returned a heartbeat later, and he hastily wrapped both feet around the rope. He shifted his weight from his hands to his feet on the rope.
For a moment he felt like he was swinging free, hanging from one of the thick forest vines. Gazing down again, he saw Gorabor was looking up at him in clear concern. It appeared as if his friend had slipped too, which had caused the rope to jerk in the first place and nearly knocked Tovak to his death. Gorabor had just gotten his feet back on the rock. A moment later, Tovak’s friend began to continue working his way down.
Heart hammering in his chest and pulse seeming to thunder in his ears, Tovak remained where he was for a moment, frozen. Looking down beyond Gorabor, he still could not see the ground. The darkness and the trees obscured it. He got the sense that it was still a long way down. Any type of fall would clearly be lethal. There was no doubt in his mind about that. He tried to mentally calculate how much distance he had traversed. It couldn’t be much farther, could it?
Taking a calming breath, he let it out slowly through his nose, then swung his feet back onto the rock and once again began walking his way down, eager now more than ever to get to the bottom and plant his feet upon solid ground.
“What I wouldn’t give for the safety ropes and harnesses we used in training back at the Academy,” Tovak said to himself.
Step by step and hand over hand, Tovak continued to make his way down the rope. Sweat beaded his brow and made his hands slippery. It seemed to take hours before he reached the canopy of leaves, then he climbed down through the branches. The ground finally came into view and Tovak felt an intense wave of relief at its sight. His feet touched solid ground a few heartbeats later. Tovak released the rope and rubbed his hands together, working the hurt from his palms. They felt slightly burned from when he had caught himself. His forearms also hurt. He rubbed at those too.
Tovak looked around. The forest spread out before him, dark and impenetrable. Lieutenant Brund was standing between the rope Tovak had come down and the next one over. As climbers came off the ropes, he was directing them on where to go.
“You are to gather over there,” he said in a low hiss to Tovak, “with the rest of the Baelix.” The lieutenant pointed. “You’ll find Lieutenant Benthok that way.”
Tovak started off in the direction indicated. He found Lieutenant Benthok directing the skirmishers into position. They were being arrayed in a line that faced out into the valley. Benthok was organizing them into groups of threes and placing each group a few yards apart.
The line of skirmishers, as far as Tovak could see, covered about sixty yards of forest. There were hardwoods all around, many with thick trunks. The trees appeared old to Tovak, perhaps even ancient. Some of the trunks were twisted and gnarly with the weight of ages. They gave the forest a sinister feel.
“I want you with Gorabor and Dagmar over there, at the end of the line,” Benthok said in a low voice to Tovak as he came up to the lieutenant. “Take cover, keep your eyes open, and wait for orders to move out.”
“Yes, sir.”
With the darkness, he could not see Gorabor or Dagmar from his current position. He began moving along the line indicated and passed by Logath, who was moving between two positions. Logath paid him no mind as he stopped and knelt down next to three skirmishers already in position. He started speaking to them in a low whisper that Tovak could not hear.
Tovak continued on and quickly found Gorabor and Dagmar where Benthok had told him they would be, on the extreme right side of the line. They were about forty yards from where he’d come down the rope.
Gorabor had taken a knee behind a large granite boulder located next to an even thicker tree. The boulder was almost as tall as Tovak. Gorabor was peering around the side of it, scanning the darkness to their front intently. Dagmar kneeled by the tree, doing the same.
Tovak knelt beside Gorabor and realized they were on the edge of what looked like a narrow cart path, just on the other side of the boulder and tree. In fact, now that he’d noticed it, the path seemed to run across the entire front of the line. It clearly traveled in the direction of the canyon and defensive wall. In the opposite direction, the path moved deeper into the valley.
Fresh wagon ruts in the dirt exposed hard-packed soil, along with what looked like paving stones. These mostly had become partially buried. Poking up out of the dirt at odd angles, a few of the stones appeared to have come loose with age. That the path had once been a paved road, Tovak thought, was eye-opening. It meant there had once been a people strong and skilled enough to not only build the wall that protected the valley, but also pave what had once clearly been a major road. Once again, he wondered on the people who had lived in these parts so long ago. Those same people had likely built Grata’Dagoth.
“Sorry about the rope,” Gorabor whispered to him. “My feet slipped and I almost fell.”
Tovak glanced over at his friend. He was surprised that he was not angry about coming so close to death. “Don’t worry about it. One day we will laugh about it over drinks. The important thing is we made it down in one piece.”
Gorabor looked like he was about to say more. Tovak forestalled this by placing a hand on his friend’s shoulder armor.
“I will talk on it no more tonight. We have more important things to worry on.”
Gorabor gave a reluctant nod.
&n
bsp; The moon had traveled farther into the sky and by the moment was beginning to illuminate more of the land. To his left, and through the darkness, Tovak could just barely make out Dagon’s pioneers, where they had taken up a position and were extending the line along the road. He had to assume Greng’s strikers were off to the left of the Second, but he wasn’t sure. It wasn’t his problem to worry on.
Tovak turned his gaze back to the front and scanned the dark forest ahead on the other side of the path. Nothing moved or seemed to stir. The forest around them was unnaturally quiet. He strained every sense, searching, scanning, listening … nothing.
Dagmar moved over to them.
“So, what do we do now?” Dagmar hissed.
“We wait for orders.” Tovak thought it was obvious. Though at the same time, he was beginning to understand Dagmar was feeling the stress and tension of what was to come. Tovak looked over at his comrade, his face lined with worry. This veteran, with all his experience and time with the company, was seeking reassurance from two recruits nearly fresh off the yuggernok. It was an eye-opening insight that worried Tovak.
How many others tonight felt the same way that Dagmar did? Were they just concealing it better? It was something to think on.
Dagmar gave a grunt and returned to his original position. Gorabor shot Tovak a strange look, but then turned his gaze back out to the forest.
Even though he was well secluded behind the boulder, mostly shrouded in the darkness, Tovak felt the tension too. He really did. It was as if they were being watched. It seemed unnatural to just do nothing. He wanted to do something, anything. But, as he’d just told Dagmar, there was nothing to do but wait for orders. And so, Tovak settled in and waited as patiently as he could.
A half hour passed with no orders.
Tovak tried to mentally reconstruct in his head what he’d seen of this area from above with Brund and the pioneers before it had gone completely dark. If he had his bearings correct, to the left, about three to four hundred yards, the canyon began as the two ridges started to come together. About six hundred yards beyond that was the large wall the enemy held and the camp with the ruins behind that. He could not recall any features around where they were currently positioned, other than forest. Heck, he’d not even seen the path from above. It had been completely concealed by the tree canopy.
Movement to the left drew Tovak’s attention. A pioneer was working his way behind the line. He went up to Benthok and knelt at the lieutenant’s side. The two put their heads together for a long moment. The lieutenant gave a nod as the pioneer stood and then returned the way he’d come.
Benthok signaled and motioned for Thegdol and Logath to join him. The two sergeants made their way over to the lieutenant and took a knee beside him. Benthok began gesturing towards the front of the line, clearly giving them instruction.
“Here it comes,” Dagmar hissed. “We’ll be moving out in a short bit.”
Tovak had no doubt about that. It was clear something was in the wind.
Going separate ways, the two sergeants left the lieutenant. Logath began moving down the left side of the line, stopping at each grouping of skirmishers, while Thegdol went to the right side. He too stopped at each of the skirmisher positions, said something, and then moved on.
“Alright,” Thegdol said as he joined them. “On the lieutenant’s signal, we’re going to move forward, cross the path, and then advance a hundred yards. At that point, the line will pivot, or really wheel, to the left, so that all three companies are facing the canyon. Once that’s done, we will hunker down and wait.”
“Wait for what?” Dagmar asked.
“Orders, you fool,” Thegdol hissed. “Remember, our job here is to screen and not only keep word from escaping about the assault on the defensive wall, but also stop or delay reinforcements.” Thegdol fell silent for a long moment, then let out an explosive breath. “If you must know, while we’re busy doing that, the Fifth are going to push forward and try to storm the wall from behind as the warband makes their attack. I expect that bit to happen sometime around dawn.”
“As long as we’re not the ones doing the storming,” Dagmar said. “Assaulting a wall sounds hazardous, Sarge.”
Thegdol spared Dagmar a hard look that spoke volumes. For a moment, he looked like he would respond, then he turned his attention to Gorabor and Tovak.
“After the Fifth moves forward, both the pioneers and Baelix will be extending our lines,” Thegdol said. “There will be more ground to cover with less. That means you will have to keep your eyes open. Nothing can get through our net, understand?”
Almost as one, they gave a nod.
There was an owl call to the right. It was Benthok. He stood, made an exaggerated movement with his hand, pointing forward, and began advancing across the road. The entire line of skirmishers came to their feet and started moving with him. Thegdol left them, moving behind the line, clearly with the intention of making sure no one, in the darkness, was left behind.
Tovak crossed the road, eyes searching the shadows for threats. So intent was he that he almost tripped on a partially buried paving stone. Pausing, he glanced back at the boulder they had been behind and almost missed a step. The face of the rock was illuminated by the pale moonlight. The stone, though weathered, had been carved into. Gorabor saw it too and hissed out a surprised breath.
The carving was of that of a Dvergr warrior, beard braided neatly and complete with prayer knots. He wore armor that looked nothing like anything Tovak had ever seen. Once again, Tovak found himself wondering on the people who had lived here. They were his people, cousins to be sure. What had happened to them? Where had they gone?
That was a puzzle for another day. He turned back to the job at hand and continued forward. As he crossed the road, with his boots crunching on the dirt and small stones, he itched to draw his sword, but the order had not been given. He saw no movement amongst the trees, nor even a hint that they were under observation, which made him even more edgy. He found it deeply unsettling. One step at a time, they moved slowly, cautiously forward. Then they were off the cart path and back into the forest.
Amongst the trees, there was undergrowth, but it wasn’t too bad, as the hardwood canopy made it difficult for much to grow in its shade. The forest floor underfoot was a mix of rotting leaves and thick beds of moss.
With the moonlight filtering through the thick layer of leaves and branches overhead, the forest had a spooky, almost surreal feel to it. Tovak felt like he was being watched, but he knew that was just his imagination. It had to be. The enemy did not know they were here.
There was another owl call, and with it, the line came to an abrupt halt. Then the lieutenant set about pivoting the line around, wheeling it, so that they were facing the canyon. When they came to a stop, Tovak placed himself behind a large tree. Gorabor knelt down beside him. Dagmar took a position on the other side of the tree. They searched the forest with their eyes and listened. No one spoke or, it seemed, dared to breathe for several moments.
With a slight rustling of leaves, Thegdol returned to them. The sergeant took a knee behind the tree.
“Your position is the end of the line,” Thegdol told them in a hissing whisper. “There is no one to your right. Keep that in mind and stay alert. Got that?”
“Yes, Sergeant,” Tovak said, eyeing the darkened woods to their right. The other two gave a nod.
“When we move forward to the mouth of the canyon, being on the end of the line should not prove much of a problem, as it will be more difficult for someone to flank you, what with the slope of the ridge ahead,” Thegdol said. “That said, no one can get by you. If the enemy tries to do so, don’t wait for orders. Understand me?”
“Yes, Sergeant,” they said quietly.
“Packs off,” Thegdol said. “We should be here all night. I will check in on you later.”
And with that, the sergeant left them, going back the way he’d come. Tovak shrugged gratefully out of his pack, as did Dagmar an
d Gorabor. It felt good to have the heavy thing off. He, along with the rest of the skirmishers of the line, settled in to wait.
The night turned out to be one of the longest in Tovak’s life. Sitting around in a dark and unexplored forest was stressful enough, especially with the enemy nearby. Waiting for the action to begin just added to the tension, especially when there was nothing to do but sit there, listen, and watch. Every breeze that rustled the branches out in the forest drew their attention, as did any little sound.
Tovak imagined a horde of the enemy coming out of the darkness, rushing them, but none came. Time passed and with each hour, Thegdol stopped by for a brief visit to check in on them. Tovak found the sergeant’s presence and calm demeanor comforting.
They were ordered to drink and eat. Though Tovak did not feel like either, he downed a dodder. Afterwards, it seemed to sit heavily in his stomach, refusing to be digested. Eventually, the sky began to lighten, then the first streaks of pink appeared.
The rough peal of an orcish horn shattered the dawn, sounding from the direction of the wall. It startled everyone. Tovak froze. The horn was rapidly joined by another. Both sounded like a desperate call to arms.
He had been sitting down, as had Gorabor and Dagmar. They shared a look as they came to their knees. The fight at the enemy’s wall had likely begun or was soon about to. Tovak could only imagine how difficult that would be.
An owl hoot floated out of the trees somewhere ahead. It seemed wrong for an owl to hoot at this time in the morning. Since the lieutenant had used the same call earlier in the night, Tovak was sure a bird had not made it. He searched but saw nothing. He suspected it had been made by a pioneer.
Lieutenant Benthok gave out a matching hoot to get everyone’s attention. All eyes turned to the lieutenant as he raised his hand and signaled for them to stay hidden and be ready. The lieutenant also made a show of drawing his sword.
Tovak drew his own sword. Dagmar and Gorabor followed suit. The rest of the skirmishers along the line were doing the same. Then, motion caught his attention through the trees. He squinted and spotted two goblins jogging along the path that was now about a hundred yards away from them.
Forging Destiny Page 20
