Chapter Five
"You know, Doctor, we're going to run out of south real soon."
"I hope we find something in Tal-Rittan, Lib. It seems to be the source of the songs."
Peral said, "We'd better. Two days after that, we run out of land."
Tal-Rittan was a city in turmoil. Her livelihood was the sea, but fishing boats and merchant ships rode idle in the harbors. The people feared the sea.
They found the minstrel who sang of them. She was the daughter of an innkeeper and she'd seen them in dreams. She was a shy girl of fourteen. She knew he was there to chase the evil from the sea with the amulet of truth. No one seemed to know what this evil of the sea was, just that boats went out and never came back. No pieces or bodies washed ashore. They were not wrecked. They were gone. It was said a great sea demon took them, swallowed them whole.
"This time there's something here. I can FEEL it!"
"Doctor, you're absolutely elated! You've been bored!"
"Yes, Lib, for months. Tramping about the countryside from one end of a continent to the other isn't an activity I put near the top of my list of favorite things to do."
Peral looked thoughtful. "Maybe that's the whole point, Doctor. Maybe, 'tramping about' has a purpose. It's definitely making us well known."
"And it's BORING me to distraction."
"Maybe it's intended to. We're marking time. That wouldn't make sense unless we're being prepared for something, or something's being prepared for us."
"A great deal of my impatience is due to knowing something, very powerful and very nasty, is getting itself thoroughly entrenched."
"Do you suppose this feeling you have means we've found it?"
"No, Lib, I don't. There's evil here, but the source isn't. This is another situation that makes no sense in the time frame."
He restlessly began to pace the inn's common room. "The disappearances have just begun, but the child's been teaching the song to every minstrel that came through since before we landed. The story of the amulet is very old and the Old English word for truth, Weros, has no place in it. I want more pieces to this puzzle. I'm becoming very ANNOYED with the lack of information!"
"Doctor, Doctor!"
He turned and saw Amda running toward him. He'd decided to take a boat out and see if he could find what was taking the ships. "What is it this time?"
"I'm sorry, Doctor, but Leoht started stamping and snorting, then he handed me his tack and I saddled him. The other horses too. I don't think Nemir can hold
them much..." Her voice trailed off as Leoht trotted by her and nudged the Doctor. Nemir ran up beside Amda and smiled sheepishly.
"I see. Well, evidently, you have somewhere you want to go, Leoht." He swung up in the saddle.
"The horses wouldn't let us saddle the derkines. It won't take us long."
"Amda, I want you and Nemir to stay here." Peral and Lib rode up as he said, "I name you, Amda, and you, Nemir, squire. I declare your training complete. If we do not return in four day's time, I charge you to find knights worthy of you. The derkines and gear are my gift to you."
Lib slipped off Heort and gave each a hug. "Congratulations. If he says you're squires, you're the best." Lib remounted and they headed southeast toward the sea. They would see Amda and Nemir again, but it would be a long time.
"There's something very big and very smelly in that cave, Doctor." Lib wrinkled her nose at the odor of carrion.
They'd found what was left of the missing ships. They'd also found an encampment of scavengers. They had several aircraft and an electrified fence between themselves and whatever was in the cave. Peral's face told the Doctor and Lib he recognized the scavengers. He had said, "I think these people need to be grounded. Permanently." The Doctor had agreed with him, but told him they needed to stop the creature that was taking the ships first.
The Doctor edged into the cave. The smell of rotting flesh nearly gagged him. The darkness was stygian. He took a step forward and something wrapped round his ankles and pulled his feet from beneath him. He swung his sword down at whatever held him and something very large thrashed about in pain. His ankles were released and he scrambled for daylight. He ran for cover in the rocks at the side of the cave and looked at the blackened areas on his boots. They were acid burns. Lib said, "Doctor, the amulet is pulsing."
It came out of the cave and it was huge. It was a kerisp. A creature that filled the same ecological niche as the crab on the beaches of Earth. It had a long, acid covered, tongue which it forced into the shells of mollusks in the sand. It was its digestive organ. But the kerisp was only about five centimeters high, this one's eyestalks rose ten meters above the ground. The Doctor turned toward the sun and the amulet flared. "Perhaps it's designed to fight this creature. Well, I shall find out." They watched in open-mouthed disbelief as he walked down to the beach in front of the creature. It gave an ear-splitting screech and attacked him.
A kerisp fought its own kind with sharp-edged ridges of shell on the front two of its six legs. The Doctor dodged. Peral nudged Lib and they ran for the cave overhang. He wasn't sure what they could do when they got there, but the thing's carapace offered a few cracks. He thought he'd try pushing a sword through them.
The Doctor was trying to get the thing turned around so that the amulet reflected in its eyes. The thing was very fast and he spent a great deal of time just dodging. Just as he got it turned, Lib and Peral jumped onto its carapace. The Doctor looked up and it caught him with one of its legs. His breastplate protected him from the sharp edge, but he was thrown hard into the rocks.
Leoht screamed and plunged between the beast and the Doctor. The beast caught the horse across the withers and red stained his beautiful white back. The Doctor grabbed the amulet in his left hand, raised the sword in his right and ran forward.
The kerisp had begun to reach for Peral and Lib, tying to scrape them off its back. The Doctor caught the sun in the amulet and flashed it at an eyestalk. The eye bent forward to the light and the Doctor drove his sword into it.
He dodged the flailing legs and tried to catch the other eye in the reflected light of the amulet. The creature just would not cooperate. It caught him with another blow. This time cutting deeply into his thigh. He fell and, as it extruded its burning tongue to take him, the amulet reflected in its eye. It bent the eye toward the Doctor and he drove his sword into it. Ichor gushed across him and he rolled out of the path of the flailing legs. He rolled up against Leoht and Doctor and horse stood panting and bleeding and watched while Lib and Peral rode the thrashing beast and plunged their swords over and over into its back. They were climbing down from the finally quiescent beast, when a shot rang out and Lib fell.
The Doctor ran for her. Peral jumped to the ground and reached her just as he did. She'd been hit in the shoulder. The Doctor ignored the sound of weapons being cocked around him and he and Peral worked to stanch the bleeding. He wrapped the wound with bandages he had pulled from Leoht's saddlebag for his leg. When he was done, he looked up into a ring of gun barrels and ugly smiles. Peral said, "Doctor, you're not going to like the parties these guys throw."
The Doctor struggled to his feet, dropped his sword and said, "I'm the Doctor. I want to know where you got those aircraft."
Peral was right. The Doctor didn't care much for his hosts' idea of a good time. He lay in the back of the aircraft with his wrists tied to his ankles and hoped Lib and Peral were all right. He hadn't seen them since he'd been dragged into the central tent minutes after his capture. He had known what had been done to Peral. Now he knew who had done it. And he burned with anger.
Peral and Lib squirmed toward each other. They'd been dumped in a tent and left. They too had been loaded into one of the aircraft. When it had landed, they'd seen someone leading the horses off another. Peral had smiled. The horses had wanted to come along, or no one could have gotten them on an aircraft. They
had broken free as soon as their hooves touched the ground.
"My fingers are too numb to feel the knots."
"How's your shoulder?"
"Hurts, but I'll survive. I'm worried about the Doctor. These creeps were practically drooling when they drug him away. There. Try that. Peral? Peral, what's wrong?"
He turned away and pulled his wrists free. He didn't want her to see his face. It wouldn't be very pleasant to look at. "Let's get him out of there."
Lib had never heard him sound like that before. His voice was cold and the feeling of anger she got from him was so deep, it frightened her. He untied her and they began to assess the possibilities of escape.
The Doctor fought two battles. He was afraid he was losing both of them. He held onto consciousness and hoarded his strength. He had felt the ruby begin to draw on Peral and Lib. He'd found he could stop it by exerting his will against it, but, if he lost consciousness, it would take everything needed to revive him. Even if it was more than they had to give. Hands rolled him into the light and he ignored what was happening and fought the ruby.
"You take the one on the left." Peral nodded and they disposed of their two guards. They raced for the rotary aircraft. Peral intended to see their captors didn't just fly off again. This time they would pay the bill for the party. The aircraft made a very satisfying fireworks display. The dirty, yellow-toothed, men who flew them rushed from their tents and watched them burn.
Peral had told Lib to lead them away. She got them to chase her. Heort was waiting in the rocks and she laughed as she plunged her horse through them. She was through and back under cover before they could raise their weapons. Heort raced toward the forest and Lib could only hope Peral had found the Doctor. The anger she felt from him blocked anything else. It hadn't gone, only hardened.
Peral untied the Doctor. "You have to let the ruby help you. Take some of my strength. We won't be able to get you out of here if you don't."
"No, just help me up. Now, get me out of here." He'd been tied in the same position for days. He'd nearly escaped once. Since then, the ropes had been checked. Often. His arms and legs were leaden and his hands were numb.
Leoht and Wealdan were waiting when Peral sliced through the back of the tent. He'd found their swords and the coronets. The horses had still had their tack on when they escaped. Leoht knelt for the Doctor to mount, but Peral had to help him. "You'll have to tie me on.'' Peral tied him and the horses plunged into the forest.
Leoht stopped at the edge of a stream and nickered. Peral untied the Doctor and caught him as he slid from Leoht's back. He aided him into the stream and helped wash the caked ichor and blood away. The Doctor still wore the amulet. His captors had feared to take it. It pulsed in rhythm with his hearts.
Lib rode up as Peral helped him from the stream. She jumped down and ran to help support him. He whispered, "No." and lost consciousness. They stumbled and fell to the bank with him, as the ruby drew what he needed from them.
He awoke and shouted, "NO!" Lib and Peral lay beside him unmoving. He checked them. They were alive! The hard knot in his chest loosened. He didn't have the strength to move them. He turned a piece of his attention away from fighting the ruby and called the horses to him. He pulled himself up to search their saddlebags. He found clean cloths and crawled to the stream to moisten them in the cold water.
"Wow, I feel like I could sleep for a week." Lib smiled up at the Doctor. He lifted the cold cloth from her brow and smiled back.
He turned to Peral just as he groaned and lifted himself to his elbows. "It's a good thing you didn't take me up on my offer back there. We'd have been lying helpless when they came back."
"That's what I was afraid of. I'm sorry. I'll find some way to stop this. I can't let it happen again."
"Doctor, this thing has been set up for you to draw on us. There's something evil going on and you're going to need your strength and ours to defeat it. Now, I'm tired and hungry. Let's get some food and rest."
Peral didn't realize how weak the Doctor still was, nor that he still fought the ruby. He and Lib set up camp by the stream, then called him to dinner. He said, "I shall need a bit of help getting to the table."
That night, as they slept, he lay awake and fought the ruby.
They found a deserted hut in the forest. Lib and Peral stubborned and reasoned the Doctor into resting. They kept their promise to wake him when they became tired. As he got stronger, he began to push himself. Peral, too, pushed. Lib cut them all staffs and in two days they had built back much of their strength. They had to go back to the camp. Four more aircraft had flown over. The Doctor had known they were coming. The man with the painted face had bragged what he would do to the tiny kingdom the camp was in when the guns and explosives arrived.
When they were ready, Lib and Peral picked up their staffs. The Doctor left his behind. Lib could see the anger in the Doctor and she felt it in Peral, but anger wasn't the reason they were going back. It was her reason though. She was Turime. She was the one chosen and judgment was hers. Something had happened. She decided to put paid to the creeps who taken their laughter.
The Doctor got clear of the explosion when he blew the ammunition dump, but just barely. Peral did better with the aircraft. He got back to the horses. The Doctor didn't. Lib saw several people running toward him with raised weapons and she decided she'd had enough.
Lib's plunge down into the camp on Heort surprised Peral, but not Leoht or Wealdan. He hung on with one hand and hefted his staff with the other. Quarterstaffs against guns sounds like a mis-match. It wasn't. The horses plunged screaming into the encampment. Men were knocked down before they could raise their weapons. Lib's staff sang. She hummed along. The song was retribution.
Peral defended her back and the Doctor cleared himself a path to them. By the time he got there, they were the only ones standing. They heard a gun cock behind them. Lib turned and saw a filthy man with a painted face holding a gun to the Doctor's head.
"You have ceased to be enjoyable. You have forced me to return to my master without the gifts he gave me. It is a pity you are too dangerous to allow to live. You were most entertaining." He started to pull the trigger and Leoht screamed and knocked him to the ground.
The Doctor and Peral tried to stop Wealdan and Leoht. They couldn't. The two horses had judged the man unfit to live.
The men who awoke carried the tale to their master. In the east.