Chapter 11 - Old Enemies
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6 May 483
We stood atop the ridge Aeron had spotted, gathered in a circle around the thin column of Qi we had found. The horses looked on from behind their riders, with the two spare horses staying close to Caiden.
Only Aeron was absent. Over the past weeks, I had come to trust him completely. I did not need to look up to know he would watch over us from above, looking for any sign of the Witch’s spies.
“Go through with weapons drawn and eyes open,” I cautioned the group. “There is no telling what will be waiting for us on the other side.”
Sara cleared her throat. “How long will the portal be open?”
“No telling, for sure. But it won’t be long, so the moment it opens, you all need to run like hell.”
The portal would be a tight squeeze, especially with the horses. But for safety's sake, we planned to go through it in pairs. Rhia and Loic would go first, followed by Caiden and Sara. Aeron would be next with one of the spare horses, and I would go through last with the other one.
We had unloaded some of our gear onto the two spare horses, making our packs lighter so we could move more quickly – which could make all the difference in a pitched fight. The horses were none too happy about it at first, but Caiden talked to them alone, and they seemed to have accepted their task, if perhaps a bit grudgingly.
I looked around at the faces in our company. They were tense, but everyone seemed eager enough, with eyes that shone from a mixture of excitement and worry - as is always the way before a battle when the outcome is yet to be known.
“Does anyone have any questions?” I asked. “Later will be too late, so if you are unsure of anything, ask me now.”
They all shook their heads in the negative.
“Right, then. Form a line behind me in your pairs, horses at the heel.” I waited for them to get into position, and then I stepped into the column of Qi.
It was far weaker than the last time. My skin did not burn, and I needed no shield to protect me from the energy. But I still felt the aura coursing through me, making the hair on my arms stand up and my skin glow a brilliant white.
Wasting no time, I quickly conjured the portal, causing the air to spin in a tight circle as the portal began to take shape a few feet to my front. Faster and faster, the air spun, sucking in some of the aura rising from the earth.
The ground beneath my feet shook as the portal burst to life, blue and grey with a swirling translucent centre like a pool of shimmering water. That will be sure to draw attention, I thought. A deafening blast shot from the portal like a clap of thunder as it reached its full strength.
Suddenly, the skies opened, and we became soaked by torrential rain that pounded the ground with such force that it bounced back into the air. The wind seemed to come from out of nowhere. It rushed past my ears with such force that I could barely hear anything else, filling the sky with heavy black clouds that blotted out the sun.
One moment, we were standing beneath a clear sky; the next, we were besieged by the rage of a howling thunderstorm.
Light from the portal cast a strange, green glow over our sodden group, and everything else around us went dark as night.
I wiped the rain from my eyes and focused on the portal. It was indeed small – perhaps only five feet tall at its core. It was as well that the Sprite horses were small, I thought as I uttered the spell several times over in case the opening might grow larger.
But it did not.
I motioned the group forward. “Now!” I had to shout to be heard over the storm. They seemed suddenly cowed by the intensity of the storm. “Come on!” I yelled again, punching Rhia and Loic on their shoulders to rouse them from their stupor. “Shift yourselves!”
They gathered together and ran into the portal, their horses following close behind.
The portal core had become opaque. There was no way of telling where it led or what might be waiting for us on the other side.
Sara and Caiden stepped through next, and then it was time for Aeron.
I looked at the sky, shielding my eyes from the pelting rain as I searched for any sign of him. Then I remembered he had cloaked himself. I signalled to him with the bird call we had used of late but saw nothing.
The portal flickered. Already, it was starting to fail.
“Come on, dammit,” I muttered to myself. The portal buzzed and flickered again. I called to Aeron once more as loudly as I could to try as I tried to pitch the call over the fury of the storm.
I tried to tap into the storm’s energy to boost the portal spell, but it was not enough. Only a wellspring of auric energy had the strength to power that spell, and this one was running out faster than I had anticipated.
Out of the darkened sky, I heard a faint answer to my call. Aeron had heard me! He called again, and this time, the sound came from closer. He was moving fast.
I grabbed Doethaf’s reins and ensured she was still tethered to the other spare horse.
“Hurry up!” I shouted at the sky. “The portal is almost gone!”
There was a sudden flurry as Aeron dove to the ground, crashing hard and rolling to a stop at my feet.
I stooped over, grabbing hold of him and hauling him to his feet. His face was ashen and streaked with blood. Our eyes locked, and his were filled with fear.
“I will tell you later,” he said in a rush before the question had even formed on my lips. He snatched the reins of his two horses and dashed for the portal.
“Pull out your weapon!” I shouted after him, but he disappeared through the opening before I knew if he had heard.
The portal flickered, and I knew it would not be long before it failed. I pulled Nghledd from the scabbard across my back and chased after him.
When deciding the portal’s endpoint, I had only had a rough mark on a map to go by, put there by Rhia from her vague recollection of the place, having been there once before with her father Greyleaves when she was young. When I asked how they knew of such a place, she answered proudly that Sprite’s move in wide circles.
Before creating the portal, I had grave reservations about using such an imprecise spot for our destination. A pitfall of portals – and one of many reasons I try not to use them unless it becomes unavoidable - is that they can be bloody dangerous when you do not know precisely where you wish to go.
My concerns were proving well justified. We had expected to arrive within the cover of an old warehouse on the seedier side of a town called Netherfall, which was in a valley roughly two days' ride southeast of the troll mountain. Instead, we ended up in a network of dank, stone tunnels lit by foul-smelling oil lamps that emitted a dull blue light.
As if that were not bad enough, the tunnels were filled with an angry mob of trolls who seemed thoroughly displeased by our sudden appearance and were already chasing us through the tunnels in hoards. Even though my ability of special sight was beginning to fade, I still saw a faint trace of the Witch in the aura surrounding the trolls.
Ironically, the trolls were the reason we were there - or rather, for what they were rumoured to have long kept hidden in the tunnels they had carved into the rock over millennia, deep beneath their gruesome troll mountain hideout.
That we had inadvertently ended up exactly where we had planned to go was both a blessing and a curse.
A blessing in that we arrived much earlier than expected and were well ahead of schedule.
A curse for our having arrived without the chance to make certain preparations that would have aided in our fight against the trolls. Our reason for wanting to go to Netherfall in the first place was to visit a particular shop well-known to the Sprites to acquire supplies and other secret items that would have helped us in our quest. Most unfortunately, because of our miscalculations with the portal, these things we would have to do without, and I worried what that might mean for us.
We would just have to adapt and make the best of it, I thought as I held on for dear life while Doethaf thundered down a long, straight section of tunnel.
Fortunately, trolls are quite tall, for it meant the tunnels they made were also tall, albeit narrow. The added height meant we could ride our horses for greater speed rather than try to make our way on foot, which was essential if we were to avoid an all-out battle with the trolls that inhabited the mountain. But the narrowness of the tunnels meant we had to go single file in most places.
It also meant it would take only a handful of trolls to block our passage and hold us up indefinitely. I hoped they had not had that same thought.
As the first of our party through the portal, Rhia and Loic led the way as we galloped headlong through the tunnels, moving ever downward into the mountain's depths. I brought up the rear, and the enraged trolls following behind were pushing hard to overtake us.
Trolls are a challenging foe to face. Lightning can kill them instantly if it is suitably powerful enough. But lightning is a dangerous thing to wield in tight spaces like underground tunnels - perhaps even more dangerous than facing an army of trolls.
All trolls hate the light, finding its unspoilt energy painful to the touch, but some races have been known to turn to stone if exposed to pure sunlight – which, I thought suddenly, would explain the blue light emanating from the oil lamps lining the walls of the tunnels. Since we were not likely to encounter sunlight so far underground, such knowledge did us little good.
Certain spells and magic can also be quite effective against trolls. But we were attempting to avoid using such things to make it more difficult for the Witch to track us.
I ducked and almost plunged from Doethaf as I tried to avoid a brace of black arrows shot along the tunnel by our pursuers. My clumsy efforts to stop myself from falling knocked Doethaf off balance, sending her careened madly off the walls for a dozen yards or more. Sparks flew as Nghledd scraped the hard stone of the tunnel until Doethaf finally regained her footing.
There was a yelp from behind, and I turned back just in time to see the trolls covering their eyes. I briefly wondered why, and then, it came to me - the sparks!
I whispered a quick apology to Nghledd and jammed the ancient sword hard against the stone walls. The tunnel lit up as a stream of sparks flew in a long trail behind us.
A chorus of wails went up from the trolls. I glanced back. For the first time, they were falling behind, unwilling to face the sparks of golden light created by Nghledd’s enchanted blade.
I leaned heavily on the sword until the tunnel was filled with sparks from the ceiling to the floor. The trolls retreated even further, and soon, we were alone, with nothing but the sound of the horses’ clip-clopping on the hard ground and the creaking of the leather saddles to mark our passage.
We continued deeper into the tunnels for another twenty minutes, with no sign of the trolls behind or ahead of us. I hoped Rhia remembered the way, for I was utterly lost. My usual unerring sense of direction had been diminished ever since the time I spent inside the column of Qi energy at the Sprite mountain, and I could not help wondering what other abilities had been diminished. Or enhanced.
After a while, the horses ahead of me stopped, and we bunched up at a broad intersection of five tunnels. Rhia dismounted and stepped into the junction, which was perhaps twenty feet in diameter, where she began to look down each tunnel in turn.
Sounds seemed to echo loudly in the tunnels, so after a few minutes of watching Rhia repeat this routine several times, I whispered as I called to her.
“What is happening?”
Rhia returned to the group and leaned close to us. “You had better dismount,” she whispered. “The tunnels have changed from what I remember. Or perhaps it is my memory at fault. Either way, it will take some time to figure out which way to go.”
That was not good news. The trolls could be upon us at any moment, but there was nothing to be done.
“All right,” I whispered to the group. “Everyone pick a tunnel and stand watch in case those trolls appear. Rest while you can. That goes for the horses, too. They will need water after that run. But keep a close eye out and be ready for anything. Trolls can be a tricky bunch at the best of times. These have the mark of the Witch about them, so there is no telling what they might be capable of.”
Loic cocked his head curiously at my comment but said nothing.
I let my senses drift out into our surroundings as far as I dared without risk of being discovered. Nothing but layers of mountain rock stretched far beyond my senses, down to its roots deep within the earth’s surface. I placed a hand against the damp tunnel wall, feeling the mountain’s disgrace at being so long inhabited by the detestable trolls.
I sensed, too, an ancient and proud core, still unsullied by the troll's filth. The mountain had no love for the trolls, and I wondered how we might use that to our advantage.
There was a commotion at the tunnel entrance guarded by Caiden and Gryff’s horse, Gwynt.
Gwynt nickered softly as I approached, and I patted his neck as I passed.
Caiden had taken a few steps into the shadows of the tunnel entrance, with Rhia close behind him, peering intently over his shoulder.
“See anything?” I asked, touching Rhia’s shoulder and feeling her jump.
“Hell’s blood!” she whispered hoarsely with a wild look in her eyes. “You do move quietly when you want to!”
“Sorry. I did not mean to startle you.”
Rhia wiped the sweat from her cheeks with the back of her hand. “I am the one to be sorry. This place has me a little jumpy.”
I felt the same way. There was something unsettling about the wind that blew gently through the tunnels. “Have you figured out which way to go?”
Rhia shook her head and looked exasperated. “There were only two tunnels when last I was here. With five of them now, I have no idea which is the correct one.”
I looked past her down the tunnel. It was pitch black, with no lamps to light the way and only the first few yards visible in the spill of light from the junction. I had no knowledge of that place, so I was of little help. But I thought I smelled something coming from that tunnel – something different from the rest. I said as much to Rhia, who agreed.
“Yes, I have smelled it, too,” she said. “Though, I have been unable to place it.”
It smelled like burning flesh to me. But I said nothing of that to Rhia. She was unsettled enough as it was.
“Why were you staring so intently down there?” I asked instead.
“It was Gwynt. Caiden noticed his ears twitching - as if he heard something coming from the tunnel. Then I heard it, too. It sounded like chanting - but from far away.”
“Goblins,” interrupted Sara from where she stood guarding the entrance to her tunnel.
“How do you know that?” asked Loic, intrigued.
“In places like this, it’s always goblins.”
Loic huffed his disagreement, but there was something to what Sara said.
I sniffed again, trying to identify the smell seeping out of Caiden’s tunnel. Other things had the smell of burning flesh, I thought. One was leather as it was tanned over a flame.
The only goblins I knew of anywhere close to that region lived in a place called Noblin’s Bog, a dark and dreary swamp in the lowlands of northern Rancour, almost a week’s ride further northward. They were renowned for making steel weapons and armour. Leather armour, as it happens. And for being as nasty a bunch of goblins as you are ever likely to come across this side of the Five Mountains.
I shuddered as I recalled something else. Wherever you find the goblins of Noblin’s Bog, you are sure to find another equally wicked race - the Knights of Dyfed. A once noble race of men long ago corrupted by the Witch’s evil lure, who had grown in violence and viciousness through the ages as their minds became more twisted by her spell.
I had encountered their like on the battlefield several times before. The last was at the second siege at the ruins of Arawyn Castle. Only I and four others had survived. And even then, it had been a near thing.
It was an ill omen indeed if the Knights were present in the tunnels, especially if they were there to acquire weaponry from the goblins. I feared our task had suddenly become far more difficult.
I sighed as I resigned myself to our fate. “We go this way,” I whispered, pointing down Caiden’s tunnel.
“How can you be sure?” asked Rhia.
“The how is not important. Just trust that this is the way we must go - quickly, quietly, and with weapons drawn.”
“Why do we have to go down the scary, smelly tunnel with something in it?” moaned Sara. “My tunnel is quiet, and the air within it is clean.”
“Where is the fun in that?” chirped Rhia.
A chorus of angry howls echoed from down the tunnel guarded by Loic, followed by the stamping of many running feet.
Two arrows suddenly shot across the open space, lodging in the wall beside Caiden. The trolls were back.
“Move!” shouted Loic to the group. “I can already smell their approach!”
“Follow me!” I called as I leapt onto Doethaf and grabbed the reins. “Run, my friend,” I said to her. “Run like the wind!”
We plunged headlong into Caiden’s tunnel, the thudding of the horse’s hooves reverberating in that closed space. We were running blind in the dark. Doethaf did not flinch, and with their better night vision, I hoped the horses had some sense of where we were headed. But we were not running silently, and a curt voice called out from up ahead as though challenging our noisy approach.
I withdrew Nghledd, resting the glowing tip of the blade between Doethaf’s ears and crouching low against her neck. It was still pitch black, and I could see nothing beyond the soft pool of glimmering light radiating from the sword.
I felt myself leaning in the saddle and realised we were turning in a broad curve to the right. As we straightened out again, a vague greyness loomed out of the dark. At first, I could not figure out what it was. But as we got closer, a wooden door appeared out of the black, illuminated by the faint light of a luminescent moss hanging from the ceiling.
The ancient runes etched on the sword flared in a blaze of red, and my ears buzzed with a sudden hum of energy that I instantly recognised as a low-level barrier spell, put there as an alarm for whoever was behind that door. I shook my head in anger, knowing I should have sensed the spell in plenty of time to avoid it and wondering why I had not.
Doethaf skidded to a halt on the slippery stone floor, coming to a stop a few feet from the door. There was an outburst of cursing as the others fought to come to a halt without piling into one another in the tunnel behind us.
The moss darkened, and the door disappeared into the tunnel's blackness. Despite the patch of light from Nghledd’s blade, the gloom up ahead was almost blinding, so I slipped from the saddle and groped my way forward until I felt the damp wooden door with my hands. I faked about until I found a handle and gave it a sharp tug. Nothing. I grabbed the handle again and pushed hard in case it opened the other way. Still nothing.
Sara jostled me as she fumbled her way up to me. I lifted the sword to get a glimpse of her in the dim light.
“What is happening?” she whispered breathlessly. “We are in a right mess back there. Why did we stop so suddenly?”
“We have come to a door. It seems to be barred from the inside.”
“What can I do to help?”
I smiled in the dark. We had become such close friends by then that Sara had not questioned if the door was important or why I wished to get it open.
Feet stamped on the ground in the tunnel behind us. It was the trolls. They sounded far too close for comfort.
“Get everyone around this corner!” I said to Sara. “Until we can open this door, we have no choice but to make a stand here against those trolls.”
“I have a better idea,” she said and disappeared back along the tunnel, squeezing through the narrow space between the tunnel wall and Doethaf to get past.
Trusting her to know what she was doing, I turned my focus to the door. There did not appear to be anything bewitched about it. It was just locked from the inside. Firmly. I rammed into it with my shoulder, trying to force it open, but only succeeded in giving myself a sore shoulder. Then, I tried hacking at it with Nghledd but that made only a few small scars on the heavy wood door.
“You should hurry,” called Sara. In the dark, I could sense the others gathered around me. Behind them, the trolls were closing fast, their awful smell preceding them. Time was running out.
I quickly weighed my options. There was Morning Star, who could likely blast her way through the door. But I would have to use magic to retrieve her from my special keeping spell, and we were trying to avoid that. It occurred to me that if I were going to use magic anyway, I might as well cast an Angor* spell, so that is precisely what I did, hoping as I did so that we were far enough underground for the spell to go unnoticed by the world above.
Before I could finish the spell, there was a sharp thud, and I ducked involuntarily as three arrows stuck in the door beside my head. Trolls can see just fine in the dark, I thought bitterly.
I glanced back but saw nothing in the darkness. With a deep breath, I completed the spell, uttering it three times as is the custom for maximum effect. At first, nothing happened. Then, the wood creaked, and the door groaned on its hinges.
A throwing axe clattered off the floor at my feet. The hairs on my neck stood up as my senses triggered a warning. At the same time, I spotted a sudden, shadowy movement out of the corner of my eye – nothing more than a lighter shade of black blurring across my vision. I looked up as a troll leapt out of the dark beside me. The crafty buggers had snuck up on us from further down the tunnel, beyond where it turned!
I still held Nghledd in my hands. Without thinking, I lifted the blade as the troll lunged toward me. The troll had no time to react. Its momentum carried it forward onto the razor-sharp blade, which sliced clear through its chest and burst from its back in a spray of troll blood.
The next instant, we were swarmed by trolls from both sides. They attacked at close quarters out of the pitch black with a ferocity that took us by surprise. We had no chance to fight what we could not see, so I cast a Lleufer** spell on the ceiling. The spell spluttered, and I had to apply additional energy before it would ignite. As soon as it took hold, the tunnel was illuminated with a weak yellow glow for about ten yards in each direction.
The light from the spell should have been bright enough to scare off the trolls, but something about that place seemed to restrict it, leaving us barely enough light to see by, and even then, only for a short distance.
Barely had I pulled my sword from the dead troll’s body when two more swung at me with double-headed axes. The light did not bother them, and I wondered why until I saw they had partly shielded their eyes with cloth.
There was little room to manoeuvre in that space and nowhere to run, for the trolls had us pinned from both directions. To our advantage, only one or two trolls could face us at a time – which was just as well since there appeared to be dozens of them, or perhaps even hundreds, in the tunnels on either side of us.
I ducked and stumbled backwards against the wall. The trolls swung again, but this time, I parried their strikes and pivoted until my back was against the door. Doethaf was caught, blocked on one side by the other horses from escaping back the way we had come, and faced with a hoard of trolls advancing from the other. She whinnied unhappily and tried to turn herself around to kick at the trolls. But there was not enough room and no time, though she did manage to block a portion of the tunnel, making it harder for the trolls to outflank us.
Rhia vaulted feet-first over Doethaf with only inches to spare. She was already swinging her sword as she landed beside me. Her blade severed the head of the nearest troll and came to rest lodged in the shoulder of another on the follow-through.
Using the wall as leverage, I launched myself at the wounded troll, running him through the chest with my sword. Pivoting as I pulled it out, I raised my hands high and clove him in two from his neck to his waist with a mighty downward swing.
The runes on Nghledd flared as the troll died.***
Side by side, Rhia and I hacked and slashed at the trolls attacking us until the tunnel was thick with their bodies. How the others were faring was not clear, though they seemed to be holding the line. But it was only a matter of time before one of us fell, for the supply of trolls seemed endless, and for each one we dispatched, another took its place.
As Rhia and I fought shoulder to shoulder, I thought about the wooden door. Despite my spell, it had not yet yielded. But it was fast becoming our only way out.
“I need to get that door open,” I shouted to Rhia over the din. “Do you think you can hold them on your own for a bit?”
Our heads jerked around at a sudden cry from one of the others in the darkness. “What do you think that was?” Rhia asked.
“Nothing good. That is for certain.” I stabbed a troll who was trying to flank us in the tight space, twisting my sword in his stomach and then thrusting upwards through his torso with both my hands. Nghledd flared red again as the troll’s life drained from him, and he went limp.
Rhia parried a troll’s axe and swung at him with her sword, narrowly missing him as he jumped back.
“How about it?” I said as I struggled with another troll. “Can you hold them while I have another go at this door?”
Before she could answer, Loic and Caiden appeared out of the gloom. Loic had his arm over Caiden’s shoulder and was limping badly. They stopped on the other side of Deothaf, unable to get past.
“What has happened?” asked Rhia as she fought with the trolls.
Loic’s face was ashen. He did not look well as he leaned against the horse. “Damned troll got me with his axe.”
I momentarily forgot the door, feeling sick about my old friend. “How bad is it?” I asked.
Neither answered, but Caiden shook his head solemnly from side to side, a grim look on his face.
“How are the others?”
Loic seemed too weak to speak any more than necessary, so Caiden said, “Sara and Aeron are holding on. They are fine warriors. You are lucky to have such friends.”
I slashed at a troll pressing forward, ripping off the cloth shielding his eyes from the overhead light and was glad that he pulled back briefly, retreating from the glow.
Caiden helped Loic sit on the ground, leaning him up against the damp tunnel wall.
“Sara counselled me to say two words to you as a reminder,” said Caiden. “She seemed to think they would hold meaning for you.”
“Oh, yes,” I said noncommittally.
“Star Stone.”
My mind instantly jumped to a memory of Star Stone in the Standing Stone Caves and how bright she was. Of course! It was bloody brilliant - if you will pardon the obvious pun. I should have thought of it myself, but I was still not thinking straight. It was becoming difficult to ignore that I had been far more greatly affected by the loss of Gryff than I cared to admit.
“Hand me my pack,” I said to Rhia, who was closer to my horse.
Without a word, she grabbed the pack and gave it to me. I rummaged through it until I found a vial containing a healing elixir I had taken from the Thaumaturge beneath Stone Keep, which Sara, Gryff and I owned together.
The Star Stone was not just a source of light; it also had powerful restorative powers – powers that I intended to mix with the elixir in hopes of healing Loic. Or at least keeping him alive until there was more time to attend to him.
My friend Eli – who had given me the Star Stone - was in my thoughts as I summoned the Stone and unfolded the cloth that encased it. The tunnels were instantly filled with a pure white light radiating from the Stone, and I had to hold my hand in front of my eyes while acclimatising to the startling brightness.
Growls of pain and anger could be heard from both ends of the tunnel as the light engulfed the trolls and overwhelmed their senses. They ran, stumbling over one another in their haste to flee from Star Stone, disappearing into the darkness of the far tunnels beyond the reach of the light.
If I had wielded a Sun Stone that day, the trolls would likely have been turned to stone instantly. We were fortunate it was not, for their bodies would have blocked the tunnels.
Suddenly alone, I paused momentarily to listen to the fading sound of the trolls as they receded deep into the mountain.
Loic whimpered in pain. I pushed Doethaf out of the way and knelt beside him, placing the Star Stone on the deep gash on his thigh. He inhaled sharply but did not cry out, even though the pain must have been excruciating.
“I am sorry, my friend,” I said as I uncorked the vial and sprinkled a few drops of the thick, clear fluid into his wound. “Had I thought to use the Stone earlier, perhaps you might not have been injured.”
He smiled weakly at me. “Do not punish yourself,” he said through gritted teeth. “Had I moved as quickly as I would have in my youth, I would have avoided being struck by these filthy vermin in the first place.” He managed a brittle laugh, then burst into a fit of coughing.
Sara approached from back along the tunnel, still blinking rapidly and squinting against the glare. “How is he?” she asked.
“The wound is deep,” I said, "but I am hopeful the healing powers of the elixir and the Stone combined will have the desired effect.” I slipped the vial into an inner pocket and stood.
“Aeron is guarding the tunnel,” she said. “Is there anything I can help with here?”
I nodded, glancing down at Loic. “You could take over here if you would not mind. I wish to open this damned door before something else comes down these tunnels.”
“Yes, of course.” Sara knelt over Loic and gave him some water from her pouch.
Suddenly, a heavy weight pushed me from behind. It propelled me forward with such force that I smacked my head against the wall with a sharp crack. “What the hell?” I muttered as stars briefly filled my eyes.
The weight pinning me against the wall slipped away as though it had dropped to the floor. I spun around, ready for anything and found that Rhia had collapsed at my feet!
“Rhia!” I called and knelt beside her, gripping her hand. She was cold to the touch, and her eyes were shut. I put a hand on her chest and prayed she would be okay. Her chest rose and fell. She was breathing! It was shallow and erratic, but she was breathing!
I ran my hands gently over her, looking for some reason for her collapse and found the bloodied tip of a troll arrow protruding from below her left breast.
My eyes welled up. “Hell’s teeth, we are taking a beating,” I thought.
“Somebody go get Aeron!” I called out. “He is needed here urgently.”
I heard someone running as I opened Rhia’s tunic and lifted her inner garments. The blood was already dried beneath her breast. She must have been wounded early on and said nothing as she continued to fight the trolls.
“Hang on, Rhia,” I whispered to her. “We will get you patched up in no time.” I rolled her onto her side to examine her back. The shaft of the arrow had been snapped in two. There was no sign of the fletching, which was good – without it, the arrow would be easier to remove.
A shadow loomed over me, and then Aeron knelt and examined Rhia’s wound. I leaned back to give him space to work.
“This will have to be removed,” he said of the arrow. “Then we must clean the wound to remove the troll filth. After that, I will attempt to heal her.”
He lay Rhia flat. “Do you have any alcohol or healing mixtures?”
“I do,” piped Caiden. He slipped a thin silver flask from his pocket and handed it to Aeron. “Builechinn****. Good and strong, that.”
Builechinn! I had a new-found respect for our friend Caiden.
I gave the vial of healing elixir to Aeron. He uncorked it and gave it a sniff.
“I suppose this will have to do,” he said disparagingly, obviously not thinking too highly of the elixir.
Rhia’s body jerked as Aeron yanked the arrow from her chest. Though I had seen more death in my lifetime than anyone should have to bear witness, I suddenly found myself feeling ill around the edges at the sight of my friends being so seriously injured, all because of their desire to join me on my quest.
That bloody Witch would have a lot to answer for, I vowed. The guilt surged inside me for what was happening to my friends. Not wanting the others to see in my eyes what I felt inside, I turned away and focused on opening the wooden door.
There was no longer any reason to hide our magic – the trolls and any other occupants of the tunnels certainly knew we were there. And if they did, so too would the Witch. No longer restrained, I put all my strength into casting another Angor spell. This one had the power of the Star Stone behind it, for I had grabbed the Stone from Sara just before casting the spell.
The incredible power of the Stone overwhelmed whatever dampening existed in the tunnels, shattering the door into fragments as if it had been struck by a battering ram. A gust of stale wind blew out of the opening. It was putrid, carrying with it the sickly-sweet stench of recent death and causing our company to gag.
Summoning Morning Star, I stepped into the space beyond, allowing Star Stone to light the way. It was a cavern - so huge that I could not see the top or sides. In the centre, at the base of a small, dead tree, was a set of stone steps leading down. Rubble littered the floor. The sound of water falling as if from a great height could be heard from somewhere off to the left.
I coughed – the air was heavy with the reek of death and decay. I spotted the source of the smell not far from the steps; even from that distance, it was a terrible sight to behold.
Doethaf nudged me from behind, then pressed her muzzle into my hand. I glanced back. She nickered softly, her ears flat.
“You are right,” I said. “This is not a pleasant place.”
She moved forward until my hand slid up to her ears. I patted her neck and looked around that foul place as Doethaf leaned against me. In hopes it might help, I tucked the Star Stone into her bridle, allowing its light to both soothe her and illuminate the cave.
Morning Star vibrated in my other hand. It was her way of letting me know she was charged and ready to go.
“Loic is on his feet.”
I turned at the voice behind me. It was Caiden, peering through the wrecked door.
“Rhia has awakened and is attempting to join you,” he added. “Aeron is concerned she is not yet ready, but she is stubborn, that one.”
I smiled, even though I did not feel like it. “Yes. She is.”
Caiden coughed and covered his face. “Gawd, that smell is awful.”
Inside, I felt an almost overpowering and irritating impatience to hurry up and get on with what we had come there to do – so much so that I wanted to scream aloud. Outwardly, I patiently waited for him to continue. The only sign of my inner turmoil was a nagging twitch developing in my left eye.
He cleared his throat and said in a raspy voice, “Your friends would follow you to the ends of the earth. Such loyalty is both commendable and easily taken advantage of.”
I looked hard at him. “Your point?”
“You push them too hard. Take unreasonable risks that put them in harm’s way.”
There was no denying it. What he said was true. “Again, what is your point?”
Caiden took a step forward. “Should you not pause to gather your strength? Allow your friends to recover before pushing forward. I only say this out of my responsibility for Greyleaves' daughter and my sincere concern for the success of your quest.”
I was in no mood for debate. I walked up to him, looking him straight in the eyes, and said coldly, “There are many things I should do. Slowing down is not one of them. If you cannot keep up, you are welcome to find your own way home.” I brushed past him into the tunnel where Rhia was on her feet and busy reading herself for our journey. Next to her, Loic, Sara and Aeron were tending to their horses and cleaning their gear after the battle.
My determination faltered the moment I saw them. Their eagerness to help and their constant friendship so freely given to me, no matter the cost to themselves, tugged at my leaden heart. How could I put them through any more of that? What kind of friend was I to expose them to such risks? There was nothing else for it – I had to release them from their duties and carry on alone.
Such words were on my lips when Rhia suddenly saw me, and her face lit up. “Ready when you are, boss!” she said cheerily. There was still a bloody hole in her tunic from the arrow, and I could tell from how stiffly she held herself that it was still causing her considerable pain despite Aeron’s healing efforts.
Loic came forward with a big grin on his face and hugged me. I almost broke down as he squeezed me in his arms.
“Still in one piece!” he laughed, slapping his healed leg. “Those blasted trolls will need to work much harder to get the better of us, eh, lass?”
They gathered around me - Sara, Loic and Aeron – so obviously worn out yet eager to get a move on. I could not think of what to say. Any words I might have had were caught in a throat that had suddenly constricted.
“Well, what are we waiting for, girl?” asked Sara. A bloody invitation?”
She did not wait for an answer but instead led Aeron and the horses past me and out through the shattered door into the cavern, leaving Loic and me alone in the tunnels.
“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” he said, seemingly reading my thoughts. “We each have our own reasons for wanting to fight the Witch. Deeply personal reasons. It is not just about helping you.”
Just then, Rhia stuck her head back through the shattered door. “You folks coming, or what?” She disappeared again without an answer.
“Thanks.” I tapped Loic over his heart. “You always were a big softy.”
After deactivating my Lleufer spell and leaving the tunnels in the dark, we followed Rhia into the cavern, where the group had gathered at the top of the steps. They were speechless, having spotted the source of the deathly stench permeating that place. The dead – theirs and ours - gathered from the battlefield at the Sprite mountain and dumped there in an enormous, revolting, rotting pile of bodies at least a hundred feet high and almost as wide.
Sara sobbed quietly. The others remained silent until Rhia angrily said, “Why have they done this?”
Caiden put his hand on her arm. “It is how the Witch sustains her army,” he said matter-of-factly.
Sara sobbed, “You mean they intend to eat them?”
“If you did not have sufficient reasons to fight the Witch before, now you have one more,” said Caiden.
“Come on,” I urged. “No good will come of staying here.”
I grabbed Doethaf by the reins and her them down the steps. One by one, the others slowly, almost reluctantly, followed along behind me.
As we left that evil place, taking Star Stone with us, the light in the cavern faded, leaving the dead alone in their dark misery.
We walked ever downward into the troll mountain, our hearts hardened by what we had seen, feeling even more determined than ever to follow our quest to its bitter end.
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