Shepherd's Quest: The Broken Key #1 (28 page)

Clang!

The goblin struck out at Chad who brought his sword up to block the blow. When the goblin’s short sword struck Chad’s, the force of the blow knocked the sword out of his hand. As he watched his sword go flying, Chad tried to backpedal quickly to avoid the goblin’s next strike.

The goblin moved incredibly fast as it pressed forward to attack. Chad watched as it came and raised its sword for the blow that most assuredly would end his life. Then all of a sudden, the side of the goblin’s head exploded outward from the impact of another of Riyan’s stones.

The apprentice had moved as close to his master as he could before the heat from the burning tree grew too great. “Master!” he cried out.

Riyan moved closer to the apprentice and could see his master clearly inside the glowing protective circle for the first time. His master had an arrow through the right leg and another protruded from his side just above his left hip.

“It’s not going to hold,” the master said weakly to his apprentice. From where Riyan was standing he could tell the man was in a tremendous amount of pain. Blood stained his robes and more kept flowing. The man obviously wasn’t going to last much longer.

Reaching into his tunic, the apprentice produced a vial and held it towards his master.

The master saw it and shook his head. “The shield which keeps the burning tree from me also prevents the vial from passing through,” he said sadly. “Go on.” Then for the first time he saw Riyan standing there. “See that he gets out of here,” he said as he locked eyes with Riyan.

Not knowing what else to do, he nodded.

“Here,” the master said to his apprentice. He tossed his staff through the glowing circle towards him. “Take Wyzkoth,” he said. Then he glanced at the glowing circle around him, “Won’t last much longer. Remember what I taught you.”

“Yes, master,” replied the lad, “I will.”

“Riyan!” Bart hollered, “We can’t stay here.” He pointed over to where the goblins had been frozen.

Riyan glanced over to them and saw that they were beginning to stir. He went to the apprentice and placed his hand on his shoulder. “We must leave.” The apprentice turned to Riyan with his master’s staff in his hand. “I can’t leave him,” he said in anguish.

“You don’t have a choice,” replied Riyan.

Then the shield surrounding his master gave out and the burning tree crashed down upon him. They heard him shriek as the fire touched him then there was nothing but the crackle and roar of the flames.

Bart and Chad joined them. “Come on,” Bart said. Chad was putting his recovered sword into his scabbard.

The apprentice nodded. Rushing over to the side of the clearing, he grabbed two packs that were lying in the midst of what must have been their camp before the goblins showed up. Then he joined the others as they raced from the growing inferno.

“They’ll be after us sure as anything now,” stated Bart.

“With any luck they won’t know in which direction we fled,” offered Chad.

“Let’s hope,” said Bart.

Back where they left the horses they found that they were no longer there. A quick check in the direction away from the fire turned them up. They mounted quickly and Riyan offered the apprentice to ride with him. Once he was up behind him, they rode quickly away from the raging fire. Pushing onward, they made the best time as they could to put as much distance between themselves and scene of the battle as quickly as possible. Behind him, Riyan could hear the apprentice sobbing at the loss of his master.

They rode in silence as each listened for the pursuit that they feared would materialize at any moment. What words that did pass between them were hushed and few. Once they had ridden for an hour and still no pursuit presented itself, they began to relax.

All attempts by Riyan to engage their new companion in conversation was met by silence. The apprentice didn’t seem really there, he was drawn inward dwelling upon his own misery. Another hour of riding had the fire far behind them. Its glow could still be seen where it raged in the night. Riyan figured the fire wouldn’t come their way seeing as how a gentle breeze was blowing from the north. If it had been blowing in from the south he would have been more worried.

“I can’t believe he’s gone,” the apprentice suddenly said.

So shocked by the declaration was Riyan that at first he wasn’t exactly sure what was said. He remained quiet as the apprentice continued to speak.

“We came here to gather components for a spell he was working on,” he said quietly.

“He lost his life for nothing.” Bitterness, anger, and sadness could all be heard in his voice.

“What was his name?” asked Riyan. He wanted to keep the apprentice talking so he wouldn’t withdraw back into himself again.

“Allar,” he replied.

“I’m sure Allar felt the need was worth the risk,” he assured him.

“He did,” the apprentice stated. Then he quieted for a moment as the sobbing returned for a short time. “He said they had to be harvested this time of year. That to do so at any other would negate their usefulness.”

Riyan waited for him to continue but he had lapsed into silence once more. When it didn’t look as if the apprentice was going to continue the conversation, he asked, “What’s your name?”

“Kevik,” he replied. “That’s not my true name. Magic users aren’t supposed to go by their true name. Kevik was the name my master gave me when he took me on as his apprentice.”

“Very well then Kevik,” Riyan said. “It might be a good idea for you to travel with us until we can return you back across the mountains.”

“Thank you,” he replied. “I would appreciate that.” They rode in silence for some time after that. Kevik seemed to have his emotions under control for there were no more outbursts of sobbing. As they rode, the moon overhead continued its arc across the star filled sky.

Then in the early part of the morning, from out of the trees before them, three goblin warriors suddenly appeared. Both sides were startled to see the other. Kevik cried out a word unintelligible to the others and green goo suddenly materialized around the goblins.

“Ride!” yelled Bart and he kicked his horse into motion. As he raced past the goblins, his horse accidentally brushed up against one of the goo coated goblins. His horse stumbled when the goo covering the goblin attached itself to the upper part of his horse’s rear left leg. Bart looked back when and saw where the goblin was being dragged along with every step his horse took. The goo was acting like glue as it held the goblin to his horse’s leg.

Turning in his saddle, Bart kicked out with his foot in an attempt to dislodge the goblin but only managed to get his foot stuck in the green mess. The goblin was screaming as it struggled to free itself but the goo was too strong, making its attempts futile.

“Riyan!” Bart yelled to his friend who had already disappeared into the trees ahead.

“Chad!” He tried to get his horse to move forward, but the added weight in the position it was, made it all but impossible for it to keep going.

Suddenly Riyan and Chad reappeared out of the trees and immediately saw his predicament. “Kevik!” Riyan yelled to the apprentice in the saddle behind him. “What can we do?”

Kevik looked around him and saw the goblin, the horse, and Bart all stuck together. “I can cast a counter spell to dispel it,” he explained. “But it will remove it from the others as well.”

“Do it!” shouted Bart.

Kevik nodded and with a wave of his hand and two words of magic, the green goo vanished. Immediately the goblin fell free and Bart righted himself back in the saddle.

“Let’s go!” Riyan yelled. From the direction they had just fled, he heard the other goblins that were just freed from the goo shouting as they crashed through the brush in pursuit.

They turned their horses away from the sound of the approaching goblins and bolted through the trees. Behind them the goblins shouted in their guttural tongue as they gave chase. Then from just ahead and to the right, other goblins were heard as they begun moving to intercept. In the darkness of the forest they were unable to see exactly where the goblins were, but they couldn’t be very far away.

“Find us a way out of this!” Chad yelled to Bart who was now back in the lead.

“What do you think I’ve been trying to do!” came the reply.

The goblins chased them for what seemed like an hour. Though they never saw their pursuers, they could tell by the continued calls and shouts the goblins made that they weren’t increasing their lead.

Light slowly began to brighten the sky and the stars winked out one by one as the coming dawn hid their beauty. In the light of dawn, they were able to catch glimpses of their pursuers from time to time running behind them. It was incredible that they could still be in pursuit and haven’t fallen behind by now. The only reason Riyan could come up with was that the sheer size of the horses hampered their movement through the tangled undergrowth of the forest. While the goblins, being smaller in stature, were better able to forge through on foot.

“Stop!” Kevik suddenly yelled.

Riyan failed to heed his warning as he glanced back to him over his shoulder. “We can’t!” he yelled. “If we stop they will kill us.”

“But you don’t understand…” he began.

“We’re not stopping!” Bart yelled from his position at the lead.

Kevik opened his mouth to urge them to stop once more but instead kept silent. He knew it wouldn’t do any good. How could he make them understand that it might be worse to continue than to stand and face the goblins.

He had seen the totem that they just passed and understood its significance. The goblins have many totems and his master taught him the meaning of the more common visages they used before setting out. Each of the visages held different meanings for those who understood them. Also, the meanings could convey varying degrees of warning depending upon which visages were combined onto the totem and which position each of them held.

The one that they just passed had been overgrown by the forest and he had caught but a glimpse of it as they rode past. His master had been most emphatic about one certain visage, one that should they come across it, must be avoided at all costs. Kevik wasn’t able to see the other visages on the totem due to the brush and the speed of their passing, but he had seen the one at the top very clearly. Goblin totems always have three visages or other representations that give the totem its meaning. The one on top is the primary message the totem is there to convey while the other two give added emphasis as to either the degree in which the top one should be taken, or something else.

The one that he saw simply meant, Death.

Riyan was soon to realize that the sound of pursuit behind them had begun to fade away in the distance. He wasn’t sure why, but the goblins were breaking off their pursuit.

“Looks like they finally gave up,” he said. They began slowing down to an easy walk now, seeing as how there was no longer any immediate danger.

Chad grinned. “Guess they realized they couldn’t catch us,” he said.

“No,” announced Kevik, “that’s not the reason they are no longer following us.”

“Oh?” asked Chad. “Care to enlighten us?”

“Back when I shouted for us to stop I saw one of their totems,” he explained. “You may not realize it, but the totems are like markers, warning signs if you will. The one we passed proclaimed that to proceed beyond it meant death for any that do.”

“Death?” asked Bart. Bringing his horse to a stop, he turned around and came back to Riyan and Kevik. “What sort of death?”

“It didn’t go into that much detail and I only saw the visage at the top,” he replied.

“My master warned me about that one. He said that they only used it when extreme danger was present.”

Chad glanced around at the forest around them. “It doesn’t look all that dangerous,” he commented.

“Be that as it may, it warned of danger and I think we should be on our guard,” asserted Kevik. “Just because there is no visible danger now, doesn’t mean we won’t run into what that totem was there to warn us about further in.” At that Riyan and Bart suddenly grew quiet. Riyan glanced at Bart and could see that he was thinking the same thing he was. Perhaps the totem was warning them about where they were heading.

Chad saw their expressions and asked, “What?”

Ignoring his question, Riyan asked Kevik, “Do you know anything about this area?” He shook his head. “No. My master said he’s been here a couple times gathering various spell components. He probably would have known more than I.”

“Did he ever mention someplace old in these parts?” Riyan asked. “Say ruins or anything like that?”

Kevik’s eyes widened. “Is that why you’re here?” Glancing first to Riyan then to the others, he knew that it was. “You’re a bunch of treasure hunters.”

“I suppose you could call us that,” nodded Riyan. “We’ve been told there is a place around here that may hold great wealth.”

Kevik thought about it a second and nodded. “He did mention that there were ruins of a place called Algoth somewhere around here,” he said.

“What did he say?” asked Bart.

Kevik noticed that they were keenly interested in what he was about to say. “Nothing much,” he replied. “Just that it was old.”

“Old?” asked Chad. “That’s it?”

“Yes,” Kevik said. “He said and I quote, ‘There once was a realm here long ago, long before the goblins came. A colleague of mine years ago told me that there were ruins of a place called Algoth on this side of the mountains…’ From there he went into a lecture about various spell components that grew in this region, the best time to harvest them, that sort of stuff. Did you know that the…”

“Yes, yes, yes,” Bart said as he cut him off. “That must be the place we’re looking for.”

Riyan nodded. “Would stand to reason.”

“Then if this Algoth is where we’re headed,” Chad said, “why would the goblins mark this place as deadly?”

Shrugging, Bart said, “Who knows? Could be they’re superstitious about this area.