Child of Fate (13 page)

“Where are they?” William asked as he stared
past Tristam into the room.

“Or where is he,” Kar reminded them of the
possibility only a single man remained.

“In farther. Help me move this.” Tristam
started to push at the broken pieces of wood blocking the passage.
Central among them was a large wooden desk.

William tossed some of the smaller pieces of
wood aside, and then tried to help Tristam push the desk. It
shifted but wouldn’t yield. They stopped, breathing hard and at a
loss for how to remove it. Tristam reached for the hilt of his
sword, intent on hacking it into pieces.

“You can lead a horse to water,” Kar
muttered, pushing both men aside. He ducked his head and climbed
onto the desk, and then scampered across it and landed on the other
side. “But you can’t make them climb over it.”

Tristam muttered something regarding the
wizard’s similarity to a trailing end of a horse before he crawled
across the desk and drew his blade. The others followed and spread
out, investigating the room. The desk had been secured with piles
of rocks that were heaped around the legs, preventing it from
moving.

“Rocks,” William muttered.

“For brains,” Kar finished with a smirk.

“Be silent!” Tristam snapped. He turned
slowly, looking until he saw the dark opening of a tunnel that led
deeper into the mountain. He hurried over to it and stared down the
length of it. At the other end, he could see light and, after a
moment, something moving.

The others joined him and they heard what had
alerted him. The sound of steel on steel and then a moment later
someone shouting. The echoing of the sounds in the cavern made the
words indistinguishable but they could tell it was a man speaking,
not a goblin.

“Sounds like more than just one man,” Karthor
observed.

Kar shrugged. “Until we see it with our own
eyes, it could be a goblin, an army of men, or a dragon laying in
wait. Anything is possible; what matters most is what is
probable.”

“Be silent, wizard, unless you’ve a spell to
cast,” Tristam snapped.

The leader of the Blades of Leander started
down the corridor, and then stopped when a female voice carried up
the passage clearly. “You stupid farm boy!”

“Farm boy?” William echoed.

“Only one farm boy I know,” Karthor
responded. Tristam had already started down the passage again.
Karthor and William hurried to catch up.

Tristam led them into the large room and saw
Alto twisting and slashing at the goblins that pressed against him.
A girl and another boy fought side by side against the goblins
while half a dozen men watched and waited for an opening to join in
the uneven battle. To Alto’s credit, there were a few goblins that
already lay dead on the floor. The Kelgryn girl and her companion
had slain some of the savage creatures on their own, but still they
were outnumbered and hard pressed.

Tristam bore down on the man with the whip
hanging from his belt. He ran him through with his sword from
behind and then wrapped his arm around his neck. Tristam yanked his
blade free and pushed the doomed man aside.

William and Karthor hurried to his side to
protect him from the other men that had spun when their leader
cried out as he’d been run through. William blocked the man’s
attack at Tristam and Karthor felled him with a strike from his
mace to the side of his coif.

The humans cried out, alerting the goblins to
the new threat. Distracted, they were no match for the fury that
Trina unleashed on them. Alto saw her in the corner of his eye and
took heart from her valor. He pressed the advantage the arrival of
his friends gave him and laid out three of the short creatures
before the goblins realized what was happening. The others threw
down their weapons and fled, though only one escaped the reach of
the three youngsters to run into a tunnel that took them deeper
into the mines.

Tristam, William, and Karthor kept the other
four men busy, pressing them back in spite of their inferior
numbers. Kar picked up some small rocks and bits of ore and began
tossing them at the bandits, distracting them. It was only a matter
of time until the Blades of Leander’s victory was complete.

The first words out of Tristam’s mouth to
Alto were, “Where’s Drefan?”

Alto turned and ran over to the tunnel. He
returned slowly, his arm wrapped around the wounded rogue. Drefan
lifted his head and offered a weak smile, though his lips were
flecked with blood.

“What took you so long?” Drefan wheezed when
Karthor and Tristam rushed over to help him.

“Where’s Gerald?” Alto asked when he noticed
the warrior was absent.

“He’s lazing in the sun,” Kar said.

“Wounded,” Tristam said. “After you two
climbed away, a force of goblins rushed us. He was overrun before
we could drive them back. He’ll be fine, thanks to Karthor.”

“Our rope gave when we tried to escape the
mines; Drefan fell and broke his ribs,” Alto said.

Karthor nodded. “Aye, he’s not doing well.
There’s nothing I can do for him without resting and praying,
either.”

Drefan coughed weakly.

“There must be something!”

“If there is, Karthor will do it,” Tristam
said. “Now tell me, lad, who are they?”

Patrina and Namitus were standing side by
side, apart from the Blades. They stared at them, though their eyes
kept going back to Alto. “This is, um, Trina, of the Kelgryn, and
Namitus.”

“And what are you doing here?” Kar
inquired.

Trina’s wide eyes went to Alto. He nodded and
offered her an encouraging smile. “We were attacked by men wearing
Kingdom garb. Imposters, I know, but they killed our kin and
captured us, and then brought us here. Namitus slipped his ropes
and stole a sword; he cut me free and we made our escape. It was
short-lived—we were trapped in the mines until Alto and Drefan came
in through a hole in the ceiling.”

Alto nodded, corroborating her story. “We
tried to go back up the rope but that’s when it slipped and dropped
me and Drefan on our butts. That’s how Drefan got hurt.”

“We traced our path back and had to fight
goblins and these imposters. Alto fought valiantly,” she added,
refusing to look at him as she offered praise. “A bit like a
charging bull, but we’re here because of him.”

Tristam regarded the blushing farm boy and
nodded. “Well done, Alto.”

“There’s something bigger going on here,”
Alto blurted out. “Men wearing Kingdom tabards and Kelgryn weapons
left at Highpeak? Someone wants war between our nations.”

Kar grinned. “You continue to astound me,
young man. I think the arts of war are wasted on you. I’ve never
had need of an apprentice but for you I might make an
exception.”

Alto gaped at the offer, and then shook his
head. “Thank you, but no, I’ve no interest in that.”

Kar sighed. He waved his hand as though he
was clearing a table. “For the best; I’ve no patience for having
minions underfoot.”

“Tristam,” Drefan wheezed. He coughed until
Tristam knelt next to him.

“Save your strength. We’ll get you better as
soon as we can.”

Drefan grabbed Tristam’s arm. “Alto. The boy
did good. He’ll go far if you teach him how to fight.”

“Be silent,” Tristam scolded.

Drefan shook his head. He gasped for each
breath. “I’m done,” he whispered, his words sounding wet. He turned
his head and coughed again, blood running from his mouth.

“Karthor!” Tristam snapped. “Come up with
something! Anything!”

Karthor stared at him, his eyes wide. He
shook his head but Tristam’s steely gaze was unrelenting. The
priest bowed his head and grabbed his holy symbol. He began to pray
to Leander, calling for some small spark of energy he hadn’t yet
earned. He placed his other hand on Drefan’s chest, opening himself
up as a conduit for the divine blessing he was asking for.

If Leander intended to respond, Karthor never
knew. Drefan stiffened under his hand and then relaxed. What little
air he’d managed to hold in blew out and was followed with a
trickle of blood that ran across his cheek and onto the ground.

Tristam stared at the dead rogue and then
lifted his eyes to Karthor’s. The priest shook his head slowly, his
eyes red rimmed with disappointment. Tristam nodded and pursed his
lips to bite back his frustration. He stood and turned to Alto.

Alto stared at Drefan, his vision blurry at
the realization that he’d just lost a companion. More than that,
Drefan had been a friend. Alto didn’t have many friends. He started
forward toward the man but Tristam stopped him with a hand to his
chest.

“You’ve done a great service to yourself, to
Drefan, and to the Blades today, Alto. You’ve earned a right to
take your place in this company, if you’ll join us. Drefan won’t be
the last companion you’ll lose, but today at least I think we’re
safe.”

Alto pulled his eyes away from Drefan and
blinked the tears out of them. He sniffed and nodded. “I’d, um, I’d
like that. Thank you, Tristam.”

Tristam turned. “Now what about you two?”

“What about us?” Trina said, thrusting her
chin out.

“Feisty,” Kar muttered.

“You have no idea,” Namitus quipped.

Kar laughed, and then laughed again when
Trina glared at the boy.

“You’re free to go back to your people,”
Tristam said with a shrug.

Trina’s mouth fell open at the
suggestion.

“Tristam, they can’t just go back. We’re a
long ways away from their land!” Alto said. “By the time we get
back, what’s happened to Highpeak is bound to be discovered.
They’ll be found by Kingdom men and taken as enemies!”

Tristam frowned. He nodded at Alto’s words.
He turned to glance at Kar and said, “Kar’s right; you do have a
keen mind. I’m not sure I like it,” he admitted. The wizard
chuckled. “All right, you’ll come with us until we can be safely
back to Portland.”

“What now?”

“Now we collect bounties,” Tristam said. “The
grisly part of the business.”

“If someone’s plotting to put the Kingdom and
the Kelgryn at war, isn’t there more at stake here?” Alto
asked.

“Perhaps, and that would give us more
opportunities to make some gold,” Tristam said.

“What if we can find something out that would
stop it from happening?”

Tristam shrugged.

“Wouldn’t there be a reward for something
like that?” Alto persisted.

Tristam stopped moving. He turned to glance
at Kar. The wizard nodded, grinning all the while. Tristam sighed.
“All right, we’ll explore the mines then.”

“Is there more to it? We just found passages
that stretched out into the ground,” Namitus offered.

“That’s the nature of a mine. The tunnels
follow the ore. Where a large vein is found, a room or a junction
of passages may develop,” Kar explained. “Here at the entrance is
where the processing occurs.”

“A room deeper down,” Alto blurted out,
interrupting the wizard. “The goblins were digging through carts
filled with rocks and dirt.”

“They’d separated some of the rocks already,”
Namitus added.

“Goblins mining?” William said with a laugh.
“Lazy gobs are good for stealing and not much else.”

“Guess we’ll find out,” Tristam muttered.
“Let’s go see it.”

“What about Gerald?” Karthor reminded
them.

Tristam swore. “First we’ll get Gerald.” He
swore again. “Stay together; bad things happen when we split
up.”

Alto’s eyes fell on Drefan’s body. He
swallowed past the lump in his throat and nodded. He didn’t want to
lose any more friends for a long time, if ever!

Tristam led them back up to the entrance.
They paused long enough for Alto to work with Tristam and
Karthor—both of them on the opposite end from the former farmer—to
lift the desk and push it off to the side. Patrina and Namitus
stayed together and watched as they worked, and then followed as
soon as the way was cleared.

The afternoon sun greeted them as they left
the room that served as the entrance of the mine. Blinded by the
sun, they walked onto the road and turned away, looking up and down
the road. It was empty, with no sign of goblins or anyone else with
dark intent. Also missing was Gerald.

“Where’d that fool get off to?” Tristam
muttered.

“Our horses are gone!” Alto noticed next.

“Hold!” Kar snapped, pushing ahead of them
and looking around. He sniffed the air and reached into his pocket
to take out his pipe. He put a pinch of his special blend of herbs
into it and lit it with a gout of flame from his fingers.

“Kar, there’d better be a point to this,”
Tristam growled. “And is it wise to be lighting that thing with
what’s happened?”

“What’s happened?” Kar asked. “If someone—or
something—comes, it’ll be seeing us and us it long before it smells
my pipe.”

Alto studied the scene and took care to keep
his back to the sun. “William’s crossbow,” he said, pointing at the
discarded weapon. It was laying several feet up the side of the
steep wall, resting behind a spire of rock that thrust out from the
wall.

Kar nodded and pointed up the path to the
south, toward Highpeak. “A bolt is up there.”

“And the quiver is here.” Alto spotted the
quiver, with many of the bolts falling out of it, tucked beside the
entrance to the mine.

“What happened to him?” Tristam asked
again.

“There’s no blood and no sign of a fight,
aside from the scattered weapon and errant bolt,” Kar mused. “There
are scratches on the ground, though.”

“Scratches?” Tristam asked as his eyes
dropped to the ground.

“There!” Alto cried, pointing at a faint
gouge in the dirt. There was scrape marks in the rocks next to the
gouges.

“You’re our tracker, Alto; tell us what you
see,” Tristam ordered.

Alto sucked in a breath. He looked at Kar and
received a nod from the wizard. He moved forward and studied the
ground. Aside from the scratches, he had no idea what had happened.
He moved farther to the south along the road, finding spots where
the shod hooves of horses had kicked up the dirt. “The horses ran
away,” he said. “But I can’t find any other tracks to explain
why.”