The Blasted Lands (16 page)

The king walked up to him and held out a hand, gesturing for the axe. “May I?” Andover was surprised to hear the man ask.

Just the same, he handed the weapon over.

Tusk looked at it for several moments, moving the blade so that he could look at it better in the red light of the great tunnel. And then he handed it back.

“That is a fine piece of obsidian. When you use it, you should place it within a weapon that you make yourself. Do you understand?”

Andover licked his lips and nodded. When they had met before Tuskandru had not spoken directly to him. And now the king had addressed him.

“I will, your Majesty.”

Tuskandru looked to Drask and spoke several words that meant nothing, followed by the phrase “Majesty.” Whatever he said, Andover suspected it was a question.

Drask made a few gestures and spoke a few words of gibberish back. When he was finished Tusk nodded his head and looked to Andover again. “I am King Tuskandru. When you speak to me as a leader that is what you call me. When you address me as a person you may call me Tusk. You understand?”

“Yes.”

“I am not ‘Majesty’. I am Tusk.” There was no room for discussion on the matter. “Now come. You are welcome in Durhallem and you need to clean yourself and make yourself presentable.”

“I do?”

“You are going to meet a god. It is best to be prepared for that.”

“A god?” he shook his head. “I’m going to meet a
god
?”

Drask spoke softly, “Durhallem wishes to meet you. You will meet a god.”

Andover nodded. He could think of no words to say to that.

***

“What did you call this? An ‘adventure’?” Nolan’s voice was a harsh crack as he looked to his left at Darus. His friend was crouching lower over his horse and holding the reins for dear life. The horse below him slid and stumbled on the icy, rough ground, but managed to keep running. He did his part by not falling from the saddle. His hood was up around his face and his eyes were squinted half shut. Beneath him the horse was squinting, too. That was almost inevitable. The winds of the Blasted Lands were utterly miserable to contend with and the cold had long since numbed Nolan’s exposed skin.

Darus waved one arm to the blackness coming their way from behind. “That will undoubtedly be an adventure.”

Vonders Orly was riding up on Darus’ other side and he bellowed to be heard. “We’re making camp!” Nolan started to say something but Vonders shook his head. “No choice! These are cutting winds! We stop now, or we will likely die out here!”

Vonders was from the Wellish Steppes, and if he was to be believed he and his family had made several raids into the Blasted Lands in the past. They’d gone looking for anything they could sell and they’d found things on a few occasions. He wore a ring made from a very odd piece of metal: misshapen and hammered by wind and worse, the circle around his middle finger was heavy and the myriad fragments of what looked like melted gems that ran around the edges and fused together into a multicolored lump at the center were unusual enough that Nolan did not doubt the origin.

There were two ways to get that sort of piece: be very rich or go find it yourself. Vonders came from a family that had gotten wealthy selling the pieces they found.

“How long?” Nolan’s voice sounded like a distant mumble to his own ears.

Vonders pointed back the way they’d come and Nolan saw that the wall of blackness coming toward them was eating the distances at a terrifying pace.

Seen from the top of the Temmis Pass the Blasted Lands had looked almost calm. There were whorls of mist and cloud, but they were hardly violent in appearance. The pass went far deeper than most people realized, several hundred feet down into the lower levels that held the raging storms of the Blasted Lands at bay. From the inside, the clouds of mist revealed themselves for the tips of the endless winds and the nightmarish dust and frigid air. Nolan preferred the view from above, really.

The four men rode only a hundred feet further before they scrambled to pull blankets for themselves and their animals. While Nolan and Vonders drove spikes into the merciless ground to anchor their tent, Darus and Tolpen quickly set about sliding the heavy cloth of the blankets around the horses and securing the straps that would keep them from blowing away.

Calling their shelter a tent was a bold exaggeration. It was shelter, yes, but hardly as noble a structure as a tent. The horses gathered together at one of the three posts that held the structure up. The supplies stayed at the second post and the men gathered at the third. Darus had pissed and moaned about hauling the posts along for the ride. Each horse had trailed one of the heavy beams, and Vonders’ horse had hauled the heavy leather sheets on a small wagon, and the beast had been bred for hard work, it also carried several heavy stones that they were using to anchor the sides of the shelter now that it was built.

Darus looked to Vonders and shook his head. “I was wrong.”

Vonders did not gloat. Instead he merely nodded. “Brace yourselves it’s coming.”

A few seconds later the harsh hiss of wind and grit and small stones slapping the leather and canvas sides of the structure drowned out nearly all other sounds.

Nolan shook his head, shocked by the violence being unleashed against their protection. The walls seethed and buckled and whipped in a frenzy as the winds tried to tear them down, but Vonders’ instructions had been very detailed and Nolan had listened. He was almost certain the tent would hold.

The horses stayed surprisingly calm and Nolan thought that a good sign. Not that he could be certain. He’d seen horses many times, and he’d been trained to ride one without falling off, but they were still a fairly new experience to him. His thighs and hips and backside were likely never to forgive him the sin of taking up riding.

When they’d been summoned to the palace in Tyrne he’d thought they were going to be questioned about the beasts that they’d hauled with them from the battle. Nolan could not have been more mistaken. He’d expected to see Merros Dulver, and on that front too, he was disappointed.

Instead of meeting with a general he met with the Empress and with her advisor, a sorcerous thing called Desh Krohan. He’d heard of the wizard, of course. Nearly everyone had heard stories, but the truth was so much worse. The wizard towered above them in a great cloak that seemed alive, and no matter how hard Nolan had stared he’d never been able to see a face within the cowl of that hood.

He’d almost ignored the wizard he’d been so busy looking at the Empress. That she was a beauty was a given. She had reddish hair and a lean body, and she’d been wearing a crown on her head, but she didn’t seem like she was capable of ruling the whole of the known world.

Tolpen was the one figured out how to bow properly and the others followed suit very quickly. There were two guards at the doors of the immense room where they met the Empress and the sorcerer. The throne she sat on was surely elaborate enough, and he supposed that she sat there should have been his warning, but the notion of bowing to a girl barely any older than him had not sat at all well until Tolpen did it and made him realize what was supposed to be done.

Empress Nachia did not show the least bit of concern over whether or not bowing got done. The wizard seemed less interested in that notion and more concerned with talking to the four of them.

After that it all sort of blurred. One moment he was focused on the Empress and the next he was trying to figure out what sort of nightmare was hiding under that sorcerer’s cloak and then Tolpen was nodding and promising that they would not disappoint the Empress or the wizard.

It was only when they were choosing horses from the royal stables that Nolan realized they were going somewhere.

Turned out they were going to the Blasted Lands. Something about being heroes of the Crown and needing to go on a mission to protect a young girl on a mission to find out more about the enemies of the Empire.

Nolan cursed himself for not paying better attention.

Vonders had opened his bedroll and was sorting himself. His ring kept catching the light from the lantern. They didn’t quite dare a full fire, but two lanterns burned in the tent with them and kept the entire assortment of soldiers and animals in semidarkness.

“How much did you say a ring like that costs?” Darus kept eying that ring like it was the crown on the Empress’ brow.

Vonders shook his head. “Didn’t cost me a thing. Found it out here in the Blasted Lands. Keep your eyes aware and maybe we’ll find you a treasure of your own.”

“You think so?” Darus managed to sound both hopeful and dubious at the same time. Like he couldn’t quite believe the pretty girl he’d been looking at might like him in return, only more so.

Vonders yawned and curled his furs around his shoulders to keep the cold at bay. “Trust me. It ain’t so hard to find stuff. You just have to know how to look.”

That was the last word spoken during the night. The winds were shrieking and being heard was almost impossible.

***

The next morning was more of the same and the men sat in their shelter and ate dry rations and drank water and then tended to their horses. Fresh water and oats and the animals seemed perfectly content to stay put. Vonders said that was a sign it was time to stay where they were, and not a man among them much argued with his logic. The winds and the screaming hail were enough to stop anyone from being foolish.

The tent was holding well enough, but Vonders instructed them on several occasions to beat at the sides when the storm seemed to grow quieter. His reasoning was sound. The silence was brought on by a thick sheet of ice building on the outside of the structure. Had it been left alone there was no doubt the entire thing would have collapsed under the weight. By the time the worst of the storm finally abated there were splits along a couple of seams and the taste of ash and dirt coated the inside of every mouth.

So far the beauty of the Blasted Lands did not impress Nolan.

Darus spoke up as he carefully rolled his gear back into a bundle that could be carried on his shoulders. “So where are we going again?”

Vonders pointed in a direction that meant nothing at all to Nolan. “That way. The Mounds.”

“What are the Mounds, exactly?” Darus did like his questions. No two ways.

“No notion as to what they might be, except they’re big and the Sa’ba Taylers ain’t much for ’em.”

“Sa’ba Taalor,” Nolan corrected.

Vonders nodded, taking the correction in stride. “The bastards that killed the Emperor don’t like ’em and that wizard sent his sister to go look ’em over. We’re supposed to make sure she gets back in one piece.”

“What? He sent his sister into this?” Darus’ voice squeaked at the very notion.

“Maybe they aren’t close.”

Nolan shook his head. “Long as we get there soon and get back. I don’t care much beyond that.”

Vonders shrugged and then secured the supplies in his wagon. The tent itself went over the top of the supplies and Nolan helped him tie the furs and canvas in place. Whatever else he might think, he’d never doubt the man from the Steppes when it came to the weather again.

They were on their way within another fifteen minutes. An hour after that the horse that Tolpen rode slipped the wrong way on the ice and broke its hind leg. Tolpen managed to roll free before the animal could crush him.

If Nolan needed proof that the man was a hunter he got it right then. Tolpen put an arrow through the screaming animal’s head, killing it instantly. Within ten minutes after that, he was hiding the carcass and cutting thick slabs of meat from the animal’s body. Much as the notion horrified him, Nolan’s stomach rumbled at the thought of fresh meat. Their dried rations kept them alive but tasted like the air in the Blasted Lands.

They packed away as much meat as they could on the supplies and Tolpen took turns riding behind the others to avoid exhausting the other horses. That night they ate fresh meat.

Not much more than a day later they met the woman Tega and the two guards who’d been watching over her.

***

When she was a young girl Tega’s parents had worried about her. They felt that she was too serious to be a child. Really, that was something that never changed. Even when she was lying to them and telling them that she was going to Trecharch and planned to visit with the amazing fauna of that area her parents felt she was too serious.

They’d have been far more worried along those lines if they’d known she was heading for the Blasted Lands.

There were six men traveling with her. All of them had eyed her with appreciative looks. They did so when they thought she wasn't looking, just as they made their uncivilized comments regarding how well they could warm her nights for when she was in her private wagon and they thought she could not hear them.

She did not let the way they looked at her or spoke of her affect her ego. As Desh had said more than once, the least attractive can be a beauty when compared to solitude.

In the public times they were very proper, but ultimately they were men and they were soldiers. The two often led to a problem with crude humor and occasionally with inappropriate behaviors. The latter was not a worry. Fear of Desh Krohan and of sorcery in general was enough to make sure they behaved, even if they hadn’t each been watching the others for foolish behavior.

They were soldiers, true enough, but they were also men who were promised extra monies if they returned their charge undamaged to her mentor.

Their expedition was much smaller than most that attempted to enter the Blasted Lands. Not small enough to be foolish, but very close to that in most eyes. The Pra-Moresh were a danger and a very real one. Several people had allegedly seen the great beasts in the northern areas of late, and Pella had heard them up in the Wellish Steppes. While it was not unheard of for the nightmares to wander those areas, it was a rarity.

The guards did not complain about their small numbers, not even when they thought Tega was too far away to hear them. They were grateful for the money and the opportunity to prove themselves to Merros Dulver. The new head of the Imperial Army was a harsh man to please, but gaining his favor and his trust could surely not hurt a soldier’s career chances.