***
To be certain of his freedom, all Dekor had to do was cross the wetlands and scale the Great Wall. He surveyed the wide open spaces, allowing his mind to hearken back to his field study classes and the many tomes written by the mysterious Stefry. Whoever Stefry was he had traveled extensively cataloguing every plant, animal, and species he could find. There were detailed drawings of all the beasts, such as the lagartos, found throughout the wetlands. Birds of all kinds and sizes, and the fen dwellers, who could camouflage to near invisibility until disturbed.
Being wary of the dangers surrounding him, Dekor frequently drank from the rivers to maintain his mana reserve. His life detection skills were developing far beyond the training at the University. He could now sense fish, crabs and other wildlife around him. Being sodden or having his feet buried in decaying matter no longer bothered him, so long as he was making headway through the marshland. Even the rains were welcomed; that was just as well as they came most every day.
His encounters with the lagartos were numerous and each one taught him something new about these formidable predators. The smaller ones were usually dispatched with a blast of fire or lightning, though his use of the latter decreased with every passing day. The bodies of the dead lagartos he cut open and left for others to devour, acting as decoys while he made his escape.
Repeatedly, his mind would drift back to the day when Magnus had told him about the inner fire and how it was not for mages or warlocks. The battle for his mind swung to and fro with every known argument. Often he recalled the time in the mountains of Meregith when the One had come and revealed the inner fire to him. But try as he might, Dekor was incapable of summoning the white fire by himself.
Sensing the presence of something large moving through the water just ahead of him, he halted. No matter how hard he tried he could not see the creature. Even the water where he knew it to be standing gave no indication of the creature's presence. Dekor decided to keep whatever it was at a respectful distance while retaining his focus on the point where he believed the creature to be.
The water erupted beside Dekor, and huge, gaping jaws came lunging at his body. Dekor side stepped the lagarto's heavily toothed maw as it surged forward. Without a sword, it was not going to be easy to fend off such a large creature at close quarters. The lagarto was more than four times his size and weight and many times his strength. Dekor struck the beast with a barrage of fireballs, then, after glancing quickly around, he headed for the nearest patch of dry land which by good fortune had a tree near its center.
The lagarto lashed at Dekor with its tail, attempting to swing its massive frame around in the small pool. Then, suddenly, the creature Dekor had been carefully avoiding revealed itself too. Rising from the churning waters it stood tall on its legs, thick pillars of muscle. A fen dweller, its face looked as though it had been woven from the surrounding plant life, it whipped its arms up beneath the jaws of the lagarto, knocking it clear from the water. Seizing his opportunity, Dekor rushed from the pool toward the tree. Clambering over the tall tangle of roots into its lower branches, he climbed quickly to a higher vantage point where he could see the fight between the lagarto and the critt.
The lagarto clamped its huge jaw on the critt's arm trapping the hand inside its mouth; the critt may have been immense in size, but it was no match for the lagarto's speed. With the lagarto fixed firmly on its hand, the critt spread its trapped fingers to grab hold of the lagarto's tongue whilst it reached for the beast's back with its other clawed, hand. There was the sound of the scraping of steel against armor, the critt dug its fingers into the lagarto's back and raked them up its spine. The giant reptile writhed, thrashing wildly as the critt's claw severed its nerves. Again and again the critt stabbed its claws into the lagarto's back while the reptile tore at the critt with its six scaly feet. The critt grabbed at the lagarto's snout, digging its immense fingers into its nostrils, pulling the reptile's jaws apart. With the roar of a thousand elephants, the critt yanked the lagarto to its mouth and bit into its head, grinding its huge, thick, slavering, fangs into the lagarto's skull. Before the lagarto could recover its senses, the critt carried it out of the water onto the island where Dekor had perched himself among the thicker branches of the tree. The lagarto began to, writhe like a snake, twisting and turning, as the critt raised it high above its head. With another guttural cry, the critt folded the lagarto in half, snapping its back. With a swift yank, its hand was free from the jaws of the lagarto. Looking over at Dekor it bellowed its fury, hurling the broken body of the lagarto at him. Then, with a final warning grunt, the fen dweller stomped back to its pool and disappeared from sight.
The tree shook to its roots as the dead lagarto came splintering through the branches knocking Dekor from his perch. Tumbling like a rag doll down a staircase, Dekor fell from branch to branch, his clothes snagging on the fractured boughs until he landed in an untidy heap beside the dead lagarto.
an unlikely friend
"Very dangerous," chirped a voice, startling Dekor who jumped to his feet. "Most dangerous indeed. Ice works best in water, not fire."
"Who are you?" Dekor asked the green-skinned creature hunched in front of him. Its claws dug into the soft earth as it leaned closer to sniff him.
"Icthus. Who are you?" The creature shuffled nearer, water dripping from his smooth skin, reaching out to poke at Dekor's torn cloak.
"I am Dekor, from Mor."
"More what?" Icthus brushed his skin with his long, spindly fingers. Blinking twice, his thick eyelids left a fresh coating of mucus over his bulbous eyes. His long pink, forked tongue flicked in and out of his broad mouth tasting the air.
"Mor is a place, a country." Dekor paused, twisting the toe of his boot into the soft earth, "My home."
"On the run, are we?" Icthus padded around Dekor, surveying his island.
"Wh... what makes you suggest that?" Dekor's words tumbled over his tongue.
Icthus picked up a stick and began poking about in the soft soil. The spines on his back rose and fell with his breathing.
Pulling a worm from the ground, Icthus responded, "You have no bags, no food, no weapons." He walked around Dekor checking his pockets and clothing.
Dekor shrugged. "Yes, I am on the run." I have done some wrong things, some by accident, others not."
Screwing up his face as Icthus flicked out his tongue snatching the fat worm from his own hand, Dekor shuddered.
"No one will find you here. No one comes here." Icthus walked back to his small hut made of sticks whose walls were splattered with handfuls of thick black mud. "Come in if you like, nothing will harm you here."
They walked over to the small hut which stood on the shore of a large open expanse of water.
"Does the marsh end here? As far as I can see there is more marshland to the east while a dark shadow obscures the horizon to the north. Everywhere else, there are swamps.”
"Wall that way, cliffs that way," Icthus replied nonchalantly hopping up onto the veranda of his home.
Dekor followed him inside.
"What?" he asked, looking at Dekor's puzzled face.
"Nothing, your house is much larger than I expected it to be." Dekor's eyes roamed around the hut taking in the neatness of everything.
Icthus responded, "I might be small, but my home does not have to be." Tipping his head to one side, he looked Dekor over from head to toe.
"Yes?"
"Where are you going in such a fine robe?" queried Icthus, reaching out to feel the fabric, "Exquisite is it not?"
"Yes, but not originally mine." Dekor wished he could stop blurting out the truth. It was becoming an irritating habit. Icthus looked at him, smiling.
"Problem with your tongue?" Icthus' smile broadened until his mouth had consumed the larger part of his face.
Dekor's mouth became a thin line. "You know what is happening? How do you know?"
"I am a tattlejack," Icthus shrugged. Dekor's bewildered expression told him the boy
had no idea what one of those was. "When creatures talk to me, they are compelled to tell the truth. Don't think of it as a bad thing. Our thoughts often betray us. That is why I live alone."
"I don't suppose you have made many friends then?" Dekor asked, feeling sorry for the little creature.
"None," Icthus replied curtly.
"Well, I'm certainly glad I met you. Quite curious," responded Dekor. Nowhere could he remember reading about such creatures; perhaps Stefry had missed this one.
Icthus stared at Dekor for a moment cocking his head from one side to another.
"Friend then?" he suggested, bowing his head.
"Friend," Dekor replied, returning the honor. "As I cannot lie to you, I may as well confess and give you my story. Are you hungry? I could cook the lagarto."
"How so, you have nothing to make fire with?" remarked Icthus, shifting closer to Dekor and poking him with a long, bony finger.
"Oh, I have plenty of fire! That is how I came to be here." Dekor stepped outside, beckoning Icthus to follow. "Come I'll show you."
Icthus leapt to his feet, the spines on his back standing erect. He rushed outside to join his new friend. Something else to see? This was becoming a very good day indeed.
Dekor carved a chunk of meat from the lagarto and impaled it on his dagger. He brought the tips of his fingers together creating focused jets of flame which rapidly roasted the meat. Icthus hopped from one foot to another his spines quivering, his tongue flicking in and out tasting the rich meat on the air.
"Warlock," he said in a very matter-of-fact way. "You are a warlock."
Icthus was beyond happy. He began tearing into the roast meat, pulling fistfuls of hot flesh from the carcass. "Eat friend, and," he waved the juicy meat in the air, "thanks."
Dekor bit into the succulent meat, wiping the juices from his chin with his sleeve.
"It is better when shared with friends."
"Tell me how you got here." Icthus' tongue flashed out at the pieces of meat Dekor was tossing into the air, a playful pup snapping at the tidbits.
Dekor sighed deeply. Stabbing at the carcass of the lagarto he began to prepare another haunch of meat. "Where do I begin?" Dekor lifted a fillet from the back of the lagarto and began, absentmindedly, to roast it. "I had been taught the ways of the mage, trained to be a wizard. Eventually to be a captain or something. I do not know where it would have led. I never gave it a thought. I had been at the University since I was nine." Icthus watched as Dekor cut piece after piece of the tender roast meat. "The day came when Magnus showed me fire."
"The Archmage." Icthus held a strip of dripping meat in his mouth tugging at it until it tore apart. "Magnus," he nodded.
"I was warned," Dekor said, his thoughts wandering back to the moment. "Beware the lust of the flame."
"Very dangerous is the mistress of fire."
"I would practice until the early hours down in the abandoned mines. Until one day, the hatchlings came out after me. Magnus had suspected that I was playing with fire, and right enough he caught me. I panicked and blasted him, then ran him through." Dekor dropped wearily to the ground with a heavy grunt. "So I fled." He caught Icthus' gaze from the corner of his eye. "Right through the Forest of Learmont." Icthus' eyes widened. "Then a dwarf helped me over the Dragon’s Teeth. I followed the mountains..." Fighting the compulsion to blurt out everything, Dekor skirted around the part about the One and the inner fire. "Then you found me."
Icthus pondered for a moment.
Dekor cut some more meat into strips but then his eyes felt heavy. "It has been a long day." Yawning he added, "If you do not mind I would like to retire for the night." Dekor stretched out his arms as the last purple band faded from the sky beyond the Great Wall.
"Now is as good a time as any." Icthus rose to his feet sniffing at the air. Smiling contentedly, he followed Dekor inside the hut taking one last look at the swamp before closing the door.