The ferocious heat of the day and the equally as ferocious cold at night took its toll on the Dernium contingent travelling northwards on the Colone Road. They were travelling at night, deciding that this would be far quicker than trying to compete against the day’s heat. But they could not truly escape the blistering sun during the day, despite their tents and camps, or the caves and crags they hid themselves in.
The endless beach of the desert made the road all the more difficult. The shifting sands caused ceaseless change; if the landscape looked one way during the night, it was very different the next evening. Landmarks helped – a certain collection of rocks, crevices, or perhaps even the remains of ancient ruins or villages; or lonely limestone pillars which were once archways. These were often seen and were peculiar. They were positioned in a way that made it seem that there could have once been a road paved all the way to the Twin Cities. At one stage they passed under an archway that was still unbroken, as wide as forty men and two storeys high. Most of the archway was still hidden under the sand.
It was even more uncanny when they passed beside a lonely pillar accompanied by a statue of a woman holding a ball above her head. All they could see was the face of the woman, or it seemed to be a face, for it was worn away considerably. It also looked as if there may have been something else attached to the ball at one stage.
They army travelled mostly on foot while the forty knights led in the front with horses. The Looin Warriors, who were not knights, were of the top eschelon of fighters in Dernium. These were trained by Outlanders who had a very strong relationship with Dernium; one that was closer than many of the other nations. That wasn’t always seen in a very positive light.
Looin warriors wore a plated half-armour, which was a similar to the Knights when occasion called for it. The Knights, though, preferred simple chain mail, which gave them speed and agility. The Knights also preferred the rapier while the Warriors used the broadsword. But neither of their battle-armour was conducive to the conditions of the desert. This made things considerably worse. They wrapped cloth around their faces and heads to keep the sunlight from burning them in the day, but it was only of little help. Three weeks of punishing conditions forced the army to be significantly weaker in heart and strength.
It was one early morning when they approached a ruin that looked like it could have been a flourishing town at one time; perhaps before the great war. Only a few gray walls and colonnades protruded out from the sand and the real form of the place was lost to the desert. It must have certainly been very large. Cadell ordered the men to find wells, but he knew that even if they did the water would be poisoned. He hoped they would soon come in contact with a nomad tribe and barter with them.
The gray of the sand and horizon in the early morning sun soon turned to a sudden yellow with an expansive blue sky. The last star disappeared. The men drifted off just as quickly to sleep, pitching tents in between the ruins of the stone walls and pillars. Gerald was part of the watch for the first half of the morning, taking his place under a small tent-covering up on some crooked rocks nearby. He didn't know the man who he was to watch with well, and neither of them were entirely in the mood for conversation, so they each sat silently under the mounting sun and heat.
It was not an hour before his fellow watchman got up, startled. “What's that?” he said, looking far into the distance ahead of them. Before them were mostly ruins and Gerald couldn't see anything peculiar.
“What did you see?” he asked.
“I'm not sure,” his fellow answered, snatching up the small mirror they held between them. The mirror served as a signal between the various watch points. He tilted it to catch the sun and then pointed it to the other watch point. They signalled back in a similar fashion. He then moved it to reflect against the nearest possible point that signalled more-or-less the direction of what alarmed him — a few gray pillars far off before them. It looked like it might have been some sort of court at one time.
Gerald stood up and wiped sweat from his brow. He grabbed his telescope and examined the point for himself. He saw nothing at first, but then noticed some slight movement.
“Yes,” he said, “I think I see something. Something moving amongst those pillars.”
“I knew it was something,” said his companion. “What do you think it is?”
“Wait,” said Gerald. “It must move again; I need to see it again.”
But there was no further movement. He thought for a second and then said, “Shine the mirror back there – a little back from the previous spot. That might alarm it.”
He did so and - true enough - Gerald saw an ominous figure scatter from its previous hiding place and move behind a wall further back. He couldn't make out the shape, but it seemed as if its back was hunched and that the clothes it was wearing were mostly rags.
“It can either be a nomad.” He took a deep breath. “Or goblins.”
“Should we sound the alarm?”
“No. We don’ want to trigger a battle. They may only be watching. It is said that they watch and study their enemies before attack.”
“I don't feel comfortable with even one of them watching us.”
“Nor me. But it may be a nomad too, for they study others prior to making contact as well. It would be good not to alarm them either. Look – there it moves again.”
The figure moved back towards its previous hiding spot.
“Go tell the captain at once,” Gerald said. As his companion moved off he put the telescope back to his eye. The figure stood at its spot for a while and then clamoured up the nearby dune, trailing over the edge and disappearing.
Gerald hoped it wasn’t joining a regiment just over that dune. He quickly packed his telescope away and sprinted towards Cadell, who was also running towards him.
“Is it still there?” Cadell asked.
“No, it has moved to just over that dune,” said Gerald. “We must send scouts to ensure that we are safe; I will go with them.”
“Make haste! Goblins are swifter than us on their bare feet!”
Gerald called for four men and they advanced to the mark where he had seen the figure, in amongst scattered remains of walls and pillars. They examined the footprints: large and flat, with what seemed like only three toes.
Goblins.
Swiftly they crawled to the top of the dune. Peering over they saw nothing with the naked eye, so Gerald drew out his small telescope and tried to see if he could see anything amongst the expanse of sand before him. He looked over the horizon and saw the goblin running behind another dune close by.
“My horse!” he shouted. He signalled to those below who were already bringing horses to them.
“Follow me!” Gerald commanded the four who were with him, running down the dune to mount his horse. They obeyed immediately but Gerald was way ahead of them already.
“Swiftly!” was his last command as he sprung his horse over the dune and galloped to the other side. He was a fair distance from the rest of them as he moved towards the spot where he saw the creature. The desert flattened out and he galloped towards the right hand side of the nearby dune, suddenly seeing five goblins before him – snarling and grunting at him.
One of the taller flung a spear which he managed to avert almost by accident. He looked back and saw the others still some way off; the goblins advancing hastily towards him. Quickly he withdrew his bow and knocked an arrow, shooting it directly into the forehead of the spear thrower. At once it fell. He tried to knock another arrow but they advanced too quickly upon him, so he drew his rapier.
He leapt into them on his horse without thinking about it and sliced one neck. The three remaining seemed confused. An arrow flew into one of them, maiming it in the arm. “We must take one!” Gerald shouted. “Perhaps it can tell us where its camp is!”
The goblins snarled, slashing at Gerald the best they could. Being on a horse he was higher than them, so it was difficult. One tried to spear the horse but Gerald averted its thrust. There was a dull
clang as he knocked the top of its small metal helmet with the butt of his rapier and it crashed to the ground, unconscious.
All of a sudden he heard a human scream. The two goblin bodies disappeared and the third started to sink quickly into the sand. The last two goblins panicked and scrambled away from them. Gerald kicked his horse to jump from the spot and he joined his four men close by.
“What is it?” he asked, looking around frantically.
Eyes wide open, one of the men shouted, “Quicksand!”
“Impossible!” Gerald said. “We would have--”
But one of the men's horses began to neigh and shriek as its feet started sinking into the ground.
“Flee!” Gerald charged. The soldier jumped off his horse which moaned and struggled frantically; and within a few seconds it disappeared into the sand. Deep in the ground they could hear a rumbling – something was underneath them!
They dispersed. Gerald knocked an arrow and shot it into the sand, the grumbling heard once again. The sand jolted. He shot another arrow into it, the rumbling now louder and more angry, the sand splashing and stirring about towards his direction – like a large mole on the surface.
His horse panicked and shied away, throwing him off. He crashed into the ground and quickly tried to crawl away. Out from the sand leaped a giant serpent, slithering quickly towards him, making an odd throaty noise as if it was loudly sucking air in. It caught up and got ready to pounce, opening its mouth and exposing sharp, poisonous fangs – its head was as large as a man's chest.
But Gerald was quickly shoved aside. Garth flung himself to the ground in his place, pointing the sharp end of a broadsword towards the serpent. It struck, but the sword pierced it through its upper jaw. The beast continued to make its throaty noise, despite clearly having lost. It shoved itself down the sword in a desperate and mad attempt to kill its prey.
“Foul creature!” Garth spat, moving himself away and letting it sink to the ground. He grabbed one of the goblin's fallen spears and thrust it into the back of its head. At last, it moved no more.
“Thank you,” Gerald whispered.
“This is indeed a treacherous place,” Garth said. “I suspect we shall see more of these, and perhaps other such foul creatures.”
“I've never even heard of a giant serpent,” Gerald said, looking over at it while Garth removed the broadsword and cleaned it on the sand.
“I must clean this sword properly at the camp,” he said. “What of the goblins?”
“They have made away. I do not think we could catch them now, even with one of the swiftest horses in Lexedore.”
Garth sniffed. “Foul creatures, goblins.”
“Thank you, again.”
“Helping others is the duty of every human being – as my father used to say. The goblins are only watching. It is our first sighting. I will not be surprised if they will attempt a raid in the next day or two. We must be prepared.”
CHAPTER NINE