Read The Sword and The Seven Stones: Diamond Page 12

  Chapter 10

  As Jordon and Gavin looked over the horses for any scratches, Nelvil went over to check on Harry and Alman. They were still trying to get their bearings back from what had just happened. Nelvil knew they were dealing with magic once he saw the cats dissolve. Alman looked down at the pile of ash at his feet. As soon as he killed the leader, the other cats ceased to exist. Gavin looked around and couldn’t believe what had just happened. The five of them stood for a moment after the cats dissolved. “You must have killed the one in charge. That’s why they aren’t here now,” Harry yelled to Alman as he looked around. Jordon wouldn’t have believed it but after the sword that Alman carried pierced through the large cat, the others dissolved to ash. They just fell to the ground.

  Looking over the horses now, Jordon asked, “What do you think of this, Gavin? Do we have magic in our midst?” Gavin looked at Jordon, then again around at the campsite. He didn’t know what to think. Harry was talking to Alman and Nelvil started to walk around, picking up the arrows that lay on the ground now. Gavin continued to check over his horse. He didn’t know what to make of it. He watched the sword come to life. The sword’s stone glowed as if it were day light. The steel looked like ice and when it pierced the cat, it was like water and fire colliding. Now that there were none to be found and the morning wouldn’t be upon them for another three hours, he was worried. What else would try to ambush them through the night? Jordon looked over the other three horses. He wasn’t going near Nelvil’s. He would swear to anyone that he trained that horse to bite only him. Gavin called Nelvil over. Gavin told him that one more horse had to be put down. Nelvil took it to where he took the other and shot one arrow. Nelvil hated to do it but he knew that the poison in the scratch would be a more painful way for a horse to die.

  Nelvil walked back to the camp about twenty minutes later and that was when he noticed all the piles of ash that laid on the outside of their perimeter. There was one for every foot. They wouldn’t have had a chance if Alman hadn’t killed that big cat. The first thing he saw when he walked back into the campsite was Jordon checking the other horses and knew it wasn’t too often that he got a chance to do this and whistled to his horse. A moment later, Jordon was flying through the air. Nelvil laughed as Gavin smiled and shook his head. It took the tension out of what had happened. Alman and Harry walked over to them. Alman smiled as he reached a hand out to Jordon who was still lying on the ground, trying to get his breath back. “I guess you have had this happen before?” Alman asked him. Jordon took his hand and the help up. Bent over, still trying to regain his breath, he spoke out, “that I have, sire but he will not turn his back too fast now that he has started.” Jordon looked up with revenge in his eyes. Gavin put a stop to anything going much farther between Nelvil and Jordon. “Okay men, let’s get things to right here and maybe we might get a few hours’ sleep before the sun comes up.” They all agreed and put more wood on the fires and got the horses settled for the rest of the night. Alman and Nelvil would take the first watch. Gavin and Jordon joined Harry at the fire. They were asleep in minutes. After the fight tonight and the night before, it wouldn’t take anyone long to fall asleep. Alman took the first walk around the perimeter. As he walked around, he looked out across the valley when he got to the cliffs edge. He couldn’t see much at this time of night. He did notice that the air was cleaner here. It wasn’t until this moment that he realized that as soon as they got into the forest at the first mountain, there had been a rancid smell to the air. Over the days, he guess they just got used to it. He finished by checking the horses one more time, then joined Nelvil at the tree where he sat. Alman sat down next to Nelvil. “If you ask me what happened, I couldn’t tell you.” Nelvil did have it in his mind to ask him. He saw the sword glow bright and he wanted to know more. Alman took it out and as they looked at it, the only nice thing about the sword was the gem in the hilt. Nelvil reached out then stopped when he saw the anger build in Alman’s face from that one small gesture. He backed his hand away and continued to look at the sword. “You said that you got this from a blacksmith called Ishma?” Alman nodded as he held the sword up to the light. “Yes, he said that I have to bring him the sapling before the next new moon if I wanted it. It wasn’t until we stopped at the last village that he told me that people will die if I don’t. Then he was gone.” Alman took the rag from his pocket and wiped down the sword. There was not a drop of blood on it from the cats but the ash had gotten into the crevices. Nelvil believed in the world of magic. His parents believed in the winter and summer solstice and his father farmed by the moon. When he watched the sword glow, he knew that magic was with them that night. He was in awe as he watched the knife plunge into the cat. He heard stories from hundreds of years before them that magic was in this world where they lived. These mountains were filled with them at one time until greed took them over. His grandmother was the one that would sit in front of the fire and tell him and his siblings about Arie. She told them about the beauty of the lands and how everyone prospered until unknowns came. Seven men came with armies behind them and put up the walls. They built kingdoms where people of Arie were trapped to stay unless they could find a small crack in the wall. The walls were always watched by the guards and protected those who lived within. His grandmother told him of a small part that walls could not be built upon. The word had spread, she told him, and a body would never get close enough to walk through. Now he knows of the dangers that his grandmother talked about. He knew that they were traveling in that direction. As he threw another log on the fire, he realized just how much he loved her stories. Now he was sure that they weren’t just stories. She had been telling them the truth about what happened all those years ago. Nelvil got up and decided to take a walk around the perimeter. He had to think about everything that had happened so far. Nelvil walked around and couldn’t believe that he was actually in the grasp of magic. He had always had the burning inside of him to experience it. He was the only one out of all the children in his family that would ask his grandmother to tell him more. He didn’t talk to others about this, especially when he was the size of a tree. He knew that if he had, he would have only been laughed at. Now he would swear on his grave that the cats were mystical creatures. They would not have vanished in a pile of ash if they weren’t. These questions kept going through his mind over and over. He went over to the horses and he was glad that they had finally settled down from the approach of the cats. Checking the horses over one last time, he noticed a small nick just on the hind leg of one of them. He could only hope that it wasn’t from the cats or he would experience a lot of pain soon. He cleaned it as best he could and would look at it again in the morning. The other horses were fine. Walking towards the fire where Alman stood looking into the flames, he noticed that Alman had changed. He was no longer the young buck that they had to pick up and dust off. He showed courage and strength when the cats showed up this time. Nelvil was prepared to shoot the large cat as it jumped through the air but when he saw the look on Alman’s face, he knew the cat’s fate had been decided on.

  Alman had gotten up and stretched. He knew it wouldn’t be long till day break. Sitting back down, he leaned back against an old oak tree. As he wiped the last of the cat’s ash off the sword, he hoped the rest of this journey would be a little easier than what they had gone through so far. Looking over at his friend who was sleeping soundly, he wished that Harry had not come. Harry had been trained in the same course as he had been but this was beyond him. He fought hard tonight and Alman could see the strain that it put on his friend. They chased girls and drank cups with their friends at the local bar. They didn’t fight in wars. He just hoped he could get Harry back home alive. Alman put the rag away and put his sword back in its sheath. They only had a couple more days before the new moon was upon them. What if he didn’t make it in time? Would he get back to the palace and find his father had died because of him? Would the Kingdom fall because he couldn’t get there in time? Where would th
e old man be when he found this sapling? He never gave Alman a name or a place to be once he had it. How many more of them had to die to get this sapling and how many would die if he didn’t? He watched as Nelvil made his way over to the cliff’s edge. The fog came out of nowhere. It swirled around him and wrapped him in a cocoon of mist. He turned to look at Alman and then he was gone. Alman screamed out, which had both Jordon and Gavin up in seconds. Alman pulled out his sword as he ran over. He looked down and couldn’t see anything. Gavin had his sword out and ran over to the edge and looked around. The horses hadn’t moved. Jordon and Harry joined them at the cliff’s edge. “What happened?” Gavin walked back to the fire. Alman shook his head as he walked over to Gavin. “I don’t know what happened. He walked over to the edge and then he was gone.” Gavin didn’t like this. Something was around them. He could feel the cold penetrate his skin. The fog moved in and surrounded them. Alman stood with his back to the flames, sword in hand, waiting to see what was going to come from this. Jordon had Harry behind him, not taking any chances that he got wounded. Over the last few days, Jordon watched over Harry. The fog wrapped around all of them, including the horses and within minutes, it was gone and the only thing that remained in the clearing was the fire that was left burning.