Unseen in the shadows, the party of five slipped away to the south.
* * *
After a quick flight across the grassy tundra, sweat covered bodies and lathered horses found the beginnings of a forest. Dense bush and tall dark trees surrounded them. The natural noise of the forest was disturbed only to the practiced ear by the gentle stepping of horses in their unnatural surroundings. The moon peaked through the foliage every chance that it could, trying to find the unwanted intruders with its fingers of light penetrating the canopy.
“Get down off your horses,” whispered Lief who had taken the lead. He was the only one who could see well in the dark, at home in the forest, even one so far away from his home. Stepping from tree root to tree root he deftly avoided every dried leaf and stray twig. Silently he took the group forward at a pace not as fast as he would have liked, but one that his comrades barely kept up with. It was he who first noticed the camp of the Dashagi. With a prearranged birdcall, they all stopped in their tracks. Like a ghost, Lief was beside Maledorian, whispering, before disappearing back into the darkness.
There were no fires amongst the sleeping Dashagi. Their horses grazed peacefully in a small clearing whilst their masters slept peacefully or guarded poorly, confident that their mounts could detect any encroachment on their camp before they did. Staring off into the darkness, Darci could not see the figure of her Elven friend but knew that he was there, somewhere.
After a few tense moments, hoping that their horses would not give them away, Lief returned to report. “This is just a scouting party,” he informed them in a barely audible whisper that seemed to float away with the wind. “There are around forty horses, which means just as many men. To detour around them will take another hour, and being so close to our camp, they’re bound to have people on watch somewhere.” Lief’s ears pricked and for a moment he froze, but whatever it was that had touched his senses caused no further alarm.
After a quick conference, Defyance and Maledorian agreed to follow the elf around the camp, trusting in his judgment. A one-hour detour was better than the chance of a possibly costly battle. Lief scouted a few steps ahead, silently leading the way. Lief cringed at every noise he heard. To his sensitive ears, his comrades sounded as if they were stepping on every available twig or dried leaf.
Suddenly, his ears twitched; an extra set of footsteps stumbled in the darkness. He listened harder, holding his breath. Silence in the forest behind them. No forest was ever truly silent unless something was wrong. Were they being followed? By the time he turned around, it was already too late. He leapt swiftly to the side behind the slim but ample trunk of a tree. His horse whinnied at the sudden movement, but did not follow Lief, content to stay with the other horses while its Elven rider barely avoided being seen, melting into his surroundings.
Darci felt the hairs rise on the back of her neck; someone was watching them. Her fear was confirmed when a harsh voice yelled out from the darkness behind.
“Stop! I have all four of you in my crossbow sight, so don’t even reach for your weapons.” In the darkness a flint was struck and a torch was lit. An eerie glow immediately illuminated their dire situation.
Two men stood behind them. One was hanging onto the torch with a sabre in his other hand, and the other stood with a crossbow, aiming it straight at Defyance. Sneering bald heads, with a singular plait down the back, were covered with the intricate patterns of tribal tattoos. Both faces were scarred from old wounds that documented the fighting experience of these Dashagi. Eyes as cold as ice looked over each of them, deciding whether or not their prisoners were capable of resistance. Shoulders were tensed, waiting for whatever happened next.
Maledorian slowly stepped towards Darci to try to place himself between her and their assailants. That way, if the situation got out of hand, they would have to go through him first. He doubted he had the ability to take a bolt at this range and survive, but even so, a grim smile formed on his lips as his chest lifted. He was ready.
The man with the crossbow again looked each in turn up and down, pausing as his eyes fell on Darci. He gave her a malicious grin that made her shiver. She then realised that she looked just like any other young male and not a helpless girl, a fact that scared her even more.
“We have to interrogate our prisoners before we decide their fate.” The Dashagi soldier’s mouth was open, ready to continue, but a flash of light off to the side distracted him.
In an instant, the Dashagi soldier could talk no more. A bolt of radiance, shaped mysteriously like an arrow, protruded from his chest before dissipating towards the heavens in a golden mist, leaving a gaping wound in its place. Lief had used his weapon of choice.
Maledorian wasted no time drawing his broadsword. He charged the man with the torch, leaving him no time to react. His severed head hit the ground the same time as the flaming end of his torch, unspoken words frozen on dead lips.
Lief ran into the middle of the group. “Stealth won’t help us now,” he said as he jumped up onto his horse. “The Dashagi camp is stirring and it will not be long before they are upon us. We have to try to outrun them.”
Darci had not heard what he said. She was staring at the twitching bodies of the two dead men. She wondered at the fact that she had witnessed so much violence in this world, and yet she still was not used to it. Her only clear thought was that it was something that she never wanted to get used to.
In an instant, she was back on her horse with a helping hand from her protector, riding at breakneck speed through the forest. The horse lurched forward as Darci clung on with her knees.
The sound of pursuit could be heard behind them, but flashes of light accompanied by a strange sizzling twang signalled that the young elf was doing his best to contain them. Thankfully, the Dashagi were used to riding on open plains, so their bigger, more powerful horses were not used to the confined spaces of a forest, allowing the group of five to escape into the night.
* * *
It was about an hour before dawn when they finally neared the edge of the forest and their horses slowed, spent from the rapid gallop through the trees. All of them dismounting, Maledorian lead the fatigued travellers along the path that he somehow knew to take. Constantly on the lookout for a place to rest, luck was finally with them as he almost stumbled into an unusually thick patch of forest. About the size of a house, the area was a mixture of thick large bushes and a fallen tree. After a closer inspection by Lief, he agreed that this would be their camp for the day.
All were glad to finally rest; both man and beast exhausted. Everyone had to duck as they led their reluctant horses through the thick foliage. Maledorian literally had to drag his charger into the trees, encouraging it with threats and foul language, while Darci’s mount had developed an obvious limp.
Darci was left to brush down their horses; pouring what little water they had into a makeshift cloth bucket so they could drink. The beasts grazed silently, only her horse suffering any lameness.
Lief and Defyance had taken it upon themselves to cover their tracks, making it impossible for them to be followed, breaking branches in the opposite direction as they laid a false trail. This gave time for Taslessian to draw the four corners to protect them from magical prying eyes. They knew nothing about how powerful the Dashagi group were in the arcane arts, let alone what Domati had in store for them.
Finally, as the sky began to lighten in the distance, blankets were spread on the ground, Defyance volunteering for watch as the rest of them collapsed onto their makeshift beds.
* * *
“Wake up,” Defyance whispered. She held her hand over the young girl’s mouth to stop her from yelling out. With her other hand, she gave her a bit of a shake.
“What?” Darci mumbled, opening one of her eyes just a crack, realising that she was not at home. She gave Defyance a sheepish smile that turned into a look of concern as she saw the dire expression on her friend’s face, etched into her father’s features.
“
We have to get ready to leave. There’s some ogres around, and although they don’t seem to be looking for us, we don’t want to be asleep if they are.” Quietly, the warrior woman crept over to the trembling horses. They smelt danger and were terrified. Maledorian’s steed was pawing the ground, eager to use its battle-trained hooves to fight off whatever was to come. With a comforting hand, Defyance whispered to Sahik, who in turn, whinnied comfortingly to calm the other equines.
Darci’s eyes were heavy and her muscles ached in protest, but all of that was forgotten at the sound of heavy footsteps. She snuck under one of the bushes next to Lief to see the creatures that had caused such fear. In an instant, the young girl could see how easily those in the injured scouting party could have been so utterly destroyed.
Ogres were large ape-like beasts with muscle-bound arms dragging knuckles along the dusty ground. Nearly twice the size of Maledorian, they stood at least nine feet tall. None of them wore any clothes, there was no need. Except for an occasional leather strap on their back or across their chest, the rest of their bodies were covered in shaggy, dark orange hair. The smell of death and decay assaulted their senses as the creatures passed.
Darci turned to see the face of one of the creatures. Yellow teeth protruded from a gaping mouth, much like the malevolent rocks at the entrance to a cave. A squashed, pig-like nose adorned its face, as it took a bite out of what appeared to be a rotting, human limb. Tearing a huge chunk of flesh from the bone, a string of drool dangled from its mouth as it chewed.
“Now I know why those men were better off dead,” whispered Lief, who had also never seen an ogre before. “A beast such as that does not seem capable of mercy.”
For a terrifying moment, one of the beasts stopped to sniff the air. With a grunt somewhat resembling a challenge, it signalled to the others to stop. All began to sniff the air then, looking for what they could not see.
A frightened whinny caused them to take a step towards their hiding place. In an instant, Lief was up, crawling back towards the now hysterical horses. Untying Darci’s mount, he took off its reins. Grabbing a handful of dirt mixed with herbs from his kit he rubbed its lathered body down. Making sure his friends had cleared out of the way, the quick-thinking elf slapped the beast on the rump, forcing it to lurch forward out of cover. With another terrified cry it ran, away from the startled ogres and into the forest.
Without hesitation the beasts were off, crashing through the forest after the live prey. Despite their hulking size their travelled swiftly, and bellows of victory were soon heard as the doomed horse fell silent.
By this time, Defyance had already saddled the four remaining horses. “They’ll be back as soon as they’re finished. Hopefully they won’t bother to chase us if they know we’re already far away. It’s not completely dark yet but we’ll have to risk it. We can rest again all day tomorrow, because tomorrow night, we will travel the last stretch to the fortress. Tomorrow night, we will end this…one way or another.”
Darci nodded her head solemnly trying to keep the tears from her eyes. Her poor horse had not stood a chance, yet she could think of no other action that would have saved them from a battle with ogres. A hand stretched down offering her assistance. She looked up to see Lief already mounted and ready to go. With surprisingly little effort, the elf hoisted Darci up onto his horse.
Together they bounced uncomfortably as the horse lurched into a gallop, away from their attackers and towards their destiny.
Chapter 5
The night was cloudless as the star-filled sky lit the grassy path before them, forest to one side, grassy tundra to the other. They continued along the edge of the tree line, not daring to risk the more direct, yet venerable path of the grasslands, where the eyes of the night could catch them unawares. A cool breeze whispered through the trees bringing nought but an eerie silence as Defyance rode ahead, trusting her mystical steed’s instincts for assessing the safety of their passageway.
The last step of their journey was at hand. After travelling so far and experiencing so much, the end was nigh. Peeking through the forest, a silhouette of a mountain began to loom. An occasional distant flicker of flame through the treetops suggested that soon, they would not be alone. Ogres that never appeared to tire were dragging themselves slowly but surely towards the direction of the impending battle while groups of Dashagi outriders would ride past, their sound like distant thunder.
At times, the group of five were forced to loop back onto the forest so they could give their foes a wide birth, at other times, they were forced to simply hunker down in the scarce protection of the trees and the night darkness until the danger passed. Yet all this only slowed their inevitable arrival while danger passed them by.
Soon, the forest began to thin again, browned grass crackling under their feet as their footprints were left in the underlying dust, unknown and unnoticed in the dark. Either side of them, less than a ten-minute ride away, were the camps of their enemy, as if a path had been left for them to the heart of evil.
Before the arrival of the morning sun, Defyance found a burnt out farm that had almost been reclaimed by the forest, a suitable campsite for their final day. It was an inconspicuous location because anything of value had already been taken or melted by a fire long extinguished. Blackened walls that threatened to collapse at any time hid any evidence of their occupancy. The roof had long since disappeared, leaving them open to the sky above.
By the time the sun had risen, everybody was ready to rest. Riding the horses all night was taking its toll on both person and steed. Yet, someone had to stay awake to keep guard. To Darci’s relief, Maledorian volunteered for the first watch. Being so close to the enemy, he wanted to make sure everything was as it should be. After the knight, Taslessian would stand watch, then in turn, Defyance, Lief, and finally, Darci.
* * *
Fear… everywhere, nowhere, gone. Back again, all around, behind… no to the side, in front, not again…
Darci was having the same nightmare again. Only this time it was different. Her heartbeat echoed all around her as she tried to get her ragged breaths under control. It was stronger, more terrifying… closer. Even with the experience of her last dream, it took some effort to bring her concentration to bear upon the thing that was tormenting her. Again, the darkness cleared as she was brought into the mystical world, surrounded by the rolling purple mist. In an instant, she stood face to face with the evil presence of Domati.
Without preamble the smaller but proud figure of Darci glared at her deadly challenger. The very air began to crackle as she concentrated on her feelings of fear and defiance. Lifting her chin, she was the first to speak.
“Enough with these stupid games, Domati! They’re not going to work anymore,” her heartbeat was a forgotten echo, as for the first time she began to feel in control.
“On the contrary, Offworlder, this is no game I’m afraid.” The wizard scratched his well-trimmed goatee. “I know how close you and your group of friends are, one of the Light. The master Demolish and I are eagerly awaiting your arrival. Your friends will make great experiments for some subhuman spells that I have recently come across, but you, however, will not live long enough to witness my genius.” Domati hissed his last words as he threw a fireball at Darci; this time it was bigger, large enough to engulf her entirely.
“Why do you even bother?” she asked the evil wizard as she put her hand out in front of her to catch the fire again, but she never got the chance. A new presence had entered void. To her surprise, Taslessian walked out of the mist and stood before her. With a wave of his hand, the fireball disappeared.
The boy wizard looked impressive, and despite the lack of wind, his cloak and robe flapped in the sheer force of his power as he focused his eyes on the ball of fire.
“Ah, I see you got your master’s little stick,” Domati scoffed. If he had been surprised by Taslessian’s appearance, he did not show it. “I don’t see what it’s going to do for you though. After all, it did
n’t help your master much.” The evil wizard turned to face the young man, hands on his hips as he tried to stare him down in challenge.
Taslessian was never going to get over the pain of losing someone so close. Helpless to save Belderon at the time of his demise, he had only been able to do as his master had wished, saving the girl who now stood beside him.
“It may not have done much for my master, but I am not he, and nor is his staff what it once was. Very soon you will witness its power and your head shall be its decoration.” With some intricate finger movements accompanied with soft chanting, Taslessian sent a small blue sphere of light towards Domati.
The evil wizard regarded the orb with contempt. “Your juvenile tricks are no match for my magic, boy, and your little stick will never touch me.” Full of bravado, Domati moved to close his hand around the little blue orb, only realising his mistake when it was too late. In an instant, the ball changed shape, engulfing his hand. Like living water, it crept up his hand and over his arm, finally wrapping itself around the evil wizard. Domati’s mouth twisted and his body writhed in agony before he faded into nothingness.
“Is he dead?” Darci asked, somewhat bewildered.
“No, unfortunately. All I did was send him back to reality. The longer he fought it, the more pain he would have endured. We should get back as well, we have a big night ahead of us.” With those last words, Taslessian’s presence faded from view.
* * *
Darci woke up with a start. Looking around to find Taslessian, she saw he was fast asleep in his makeshift bed. Now on watch, Defyance gave her young friend the slightest of smiles, unseen in the dull moonlight, as Darci returned to more pleasant dreams.
* * *
From the soft pastel colours of a mild day to the cloudy darkness of night, the last day of their quest passed. Staring sleepily up at the sky, Darci’s mind was blank. She knew she should be thinking of strategies, or miraculously coming up with the magic that she brought into the mix, being the prophesied Offworlder, but nothing came to mind.