Read The Sword and The Seven Stones: Diamond Page 25

  Chapter 23

  Alman heard Gavin shout out and turned just in time to see a claw come through the air. The impact threw him against the wall hard. Sword still in hand, he raised it in defense of the attack that was being bestowed on him. The cat wasn’t using his claws to hurt him. It was like a cat with a ball and Alman was the ball. He finally got back on his feet and as he avoided another attack from the beast, he took his chance and ran towards the far wall. The curve gave him the ability to get up to where he needed to be and as he ran up the wall, he flipped over and landed on the back of the cat. “You are going back to where you came from once and for all!” He lifted the sword up and as it glowed, he brought down into the skull of the cat. The cat stopped instantly and as if in slow motion, its body made its way down to the ground. Alman jumped off on the way down. Gavin, Jordon, and Luc stood to the side. This had not been their fight. Their swords were nothing to this beast and the only hope they had was for Alman to kill it. His sword was the only thing that could send it back to where it came from. “Okay, let’s get out of this place. I am done with animals for the rest of my life. Let’s get to the top. Luc, how far do we have to go before we get there?” He told Alman it would be a couple of hours and that they would receive help once they got there. “Well let’s go then.” Just as they were leaving, a green light flashed in front of them. They raised their swords but Luc shouted out to them. “No, don’t hurt it!” He ran in front of it. It was a tree fairy. He didn’t think that he would see it until they got to the place where they would venture to the top. He looked at the map more closely last night and figured out that they would meet up with one at some time. It was the only way they could get out now. Luc turned around and told her what had happened. She told him that the fairy king knew and had banished Wavoon. He would have to save a life if he wanted to come back. Luc didn’t think that would ever happen. He would never trust him again. After she finished explaining to him everything that had happened, Luc walked back to the men and told them what was going on. Once he finished, he turn back to see Tresha open up the earth. Stairs made out of the roots from the trees from above formed in front of their eyes. They followed the fairy as she took them to the top. The closer they got, they could smell the fresh air. The sun started to shine through and the fairy turned and Luc listened intently to what she was saying. He nodded and then turned back to the others. “She needs to cover our eyes. We have been down too long and if we surface now, our eyes will burn from the inside out.” Alman wasn’t sure if he wanted to trust another fairy but he didn’t think they had a choice. Either they let the fairy do whatever magic that was needed or she would stop taking them to the surface. Gavin told him that it did have a lot of logic to it. He had heard of men who had been blinded by flashes of light. They had been down there for over twenty four hours and to come back up to the top without protection from the sun could be harmful to the eyes. Jordon stepped up and the fairy waved her hand over his eyes. He could still see but with a faint light green color clouding his vision. Each took their turn and then they carried on. It was over an hour of climbing before they got to the surface. Alman couldn’t believe how far down they had really been. Jordon felt the sun on his face and smiled for the first time in days. As soon as all four finally had grass under their feet and fresh air around them, they finally felt so much better. Gavin just wanted to get the stupid tree and get Alman back to his father. He had enough of mystical creatures to last him a life time. Nicholis had a lot to tell his son and he couldn’t wait to get him back home so his friend could do so. Alman turned to Luc. “Do you remember from the map if we are too far away?” Luc looked at Alman and the others with a smile on his face. He shook his head and pointed to the right of him. “Just beyond that is a clearing and in the middle of the clearing you will find the sapling.” Alman wasn’t going wait to go. As he started forward, Tresha frantically started talking to Luc again. Luc listened and then turned back to Alman. “Tresha says that you can’t pick that sapling until the night before the new moon. To pick it before, it will wither and die within minutes in your hands.” Alman stopped. He looked at the tree line that kept him from the thing he need most. To get through that and then find the thing he was sent for, knowing that it was only a small distance from where he stood at that moment, was frustrating to him. He turned and looked at the fairy and Luc. “Why?” Alman shouted at the fairy. “Tell me why I am a mere distance to what I seek to save many and you tell me that I can’t have it until the day before I have to present it.” Gavin walked forward. “Can you ask the fairy when the next new moon is? I have lost track since being down there.” Luc turned back to the fairy. She was getting agitated now with them. She threw her hands in the air as she tried to make Luc understand what was happening. Gavin wasn’t sure that Luc was telling them everything. “ She said the next new moon is in two nights and that if it is not done properly then the next time this sapling will be at its peak will be another hundred years.” Alman walked over to the tree and took a seat. He raked his hands through his hair and shook his head. He couldn’t believe how much this sword had cost him. He made a commitment that he had to keep but why didn’t the old man tell him how much would be lost before he saw the sword. The haze was starting to fade and he looked around. It was really nice to see the sun again. He couldn’t understand how the dwarfs could live underground so long. “Okay, let’s camp here tonight and then in the morning we will go through the small forest and get the sapling. I am hungry, tired, and I don’t want to think about any more fighting right now.” Gavin agreed. Alman never really trained for any type of combat, yet in the last seven days he had grown into the one that they depended on to get them home. “Yes, Alman is right. We will rest here tonight and in the morning we will set out and get this tree.” The fairy started to fly around Luc once again, screaming at him and pointing over to them. Jordon had been quiet since they started out but after watching his two friends die, he wasn’t going to be quiet any more. “Dwarf! What are you not telling us because that fairy wouldn’t be flying about like this if you told us all of what she has been saying to you?” As he said that, Tresha stopped flying and stood there in front of Jordon with her hands on her hips, one toe tapping with impatience, looking at Luc. Luc looked at Alman. “It must be you to take the sapling.” Alman nodded. He knew that. Luc had to tell him more. He walked up in front of Alman. “We can’t go with you. You and you alone are the only one that can go through those trees.” Gavin looked at Alman, as did the others. “I can’t let you go in there alone. Your father will have my head if I don’t come home with you.” Alman got up and walked away. The question kept going through his mind this whole trip. “Why him?” He didn’t have the haze anymore in front of his eyes. They were now adjusted to the brightness around them. He looked out to where the palace would lay if he could see through the mountains. This was his land and he would fight for it. Fighting for it meant fighting for the people that lived within it. He stopped and closed his eyes and lifted his face to the sun. The heat of the sun is what he needed right now. Everything that he had done in the last seven days was something he never thought he would ever have to go through in his lifetime. At first he was a spoiled boy who wanted the sword but now it wasn’t about the sword. He opened his eyes and looked back at the people who were left. Now he did it for them and the ones who lived across his lands. He would give anything to make sure that they survived. He walked back to them. “Tomorrow morning I will go alone. There is no room for discussion on this. Let’s get some food and have a feast tonight because tomorrow will seal our fate.” Alman decided to go with Jordon and seek out some animals. He needed time to get away from everyone there. He knew that Jordon wouldn’t question him like Gavin would. Once they left, Gavin took the opportunity to talk to the fairy. She didn’t like him very much but they didn’t have a choice. As a child, he heard about the fairy magic but so did many others and no one that he knew had ever encountered one. “Okay both of you, over her
e. Luc, I want to know what’s going on now. I will not let my friend’s son walk into a trap with no one at his back.” Luc looked at Tresha and they both walked over to where Gavin was and sat down. Luc starting talking.

  It was another hour before Alman and Jordon came back. They had seven rabbits and they were big too. They would eat their fill tonight. Jordon took his knife out and had them skinned in no time. Luc had fashioned a grill on top of a fire out of long rocks so they wouldn’t have to wait so long to eat. As the rabbits sizzled over the flame, they talked about the trip so far. They finally had the time to mourn Churil, Nelvil, Harry, and Reed. Alman still couldn’t believe that his best friend was gone. Now he knew how Jordon felt when Reed was taken. He remembered the years of stupid things that they had done together. The times they stood in front of his father and took the punishment that his father had bestowed upon them both. Harry wasn’t just his friend but his brother. He was always there waiting to do something outlandish that Alman would have thought of for them to do the night before. He told the group how one time they went into the village and nailed the door shut on the local pub. They had thought of a way to nail it shut with wooden pegs that would make it impossible to get them out. They sat there the next day and watched at how many of the men struggled to get the doors open. Even Gavin laughed at that one. He remembered that day. Some of the villagers came to the palace to complain to the king that there was someone in the village doing damage to their lodgings. Nicholis knew that there wasn’t someone in the village doing harm to their own people’s buildings but he did find out who it was. Gavin told them how Nicholis had the boys brought before him. Alman smiled at what Gavin was going to say next. “He had Alman and Harry sit down at his table. A guard had brought a bottle of whiskey in and Nicholis poured both boys a shot. After about three shots, both of the boys started to talk. Nicholis didn’t even have to ask them anything. They spilled it all.” Alman and the rest of them were laughing. He remembered that too, well not after the third shot. His father got them so drunk that they thought they wouldn’t have a stomach left after they vomited all night long. Then he sent them down to the village to help construct with a new door. The guards who went with them had to report back to his father so they had no choice but to do whatever the villagers need them to do.

  The rabbit was cooked and they concentrated on eating instead. As the evening wore on, they traded other stories with each other. Laughter rang through the air as nighttime fell. The fire was big enough to keep them warm throughout the night. Everyone found a spot to settle down in. Luc took Tresha and placed her within his jacket. Tomorrow was a big day for everyone. Alman laid on his back, his hands behind his head and stared up at the stars above him. He was nervous about tomorrow. Did he have more to go through to get through the forest? Would there be more things he would have to fight? He knew that he could lay here all night and wonder a hundred different scenarios or he could sleep and get rested. He would need to make sure he could get though what the day would bring him. He decided on the latter.