The Callindra Chronicles Book One - First Quest (25 page)

“
Run you fool girl, RUN!”
Her master’s voice whispered in her ear, “I can’t hold for long
against Dergeras. You have to get as far away as possible before he
realizes you four are gone. He doesn’t want me he wants
you.”

“
We have to go.” She choked
her tears off, wiping them of with an angry hand. “He’s holding
Dergeras off so we can escape.”

“
But isn’t he going to die?”
Cronos asked in his usual blunt manner. “I mean that demon killed
me before.”

“
Don’t compare yourself to
him.” She laughed in spite of her frustration and fear, “He is in a
league of his own.”

“
Yeah. I can see that.” At
the tone of his voice, Callindra glanced over her shoulder. Glarian
was suspended in the air, crucified on a cross of emerald
flame.

Without hesitation she turned to run back, to
help him, to do something. Hands gripped her arms, holding her back
and she fought with every fiber of her strength. There were screams
of anger and fear ringing in her ears. Her screams.  

“
I will be waiting for you
little girl. When you want to pick up the scraps that remain of
this old man meet me at the Fang in the Teeth of the
Sky.”

“
Callindra we have to go. We
have to GO!” Tryst was shouting. He and Vilhylm were pulling her
back from the edge of the cliff. Had she just been about to leap
off that precipice?  

She allowed them to pull her back, her brow
creasing in sorrow when she noticed the sword wounds on her
friend’s arms and the blood dripping down Brightfang’s length. “I’m
sorry.” She said, her apology attempting to encompass them, her
Master, her inability to do anything.

“
Later. We can discuss it
later.” Tryst said.

“
It is nothing.” Said
Vilhylm, “They are just scratches.” She now saw the blood on his
arm as well.

“
That thing isn’t a man.”
Cronos said, and then continued almost grudgingly. “But that man
you call Master seems stronger than most. We will find a way to
help you if we can, but staying here is suicide and dead people
can’t help anyone.”

Seeing that Callindra was coming with them of
her own volition now, the two men let her go. They all ran, having
to leave their horses and gear behind. It was a bitter defeat, but
this only sought to increase the emotion Callindra felt building
inside herself. The shame and fear she had been feeling were being
replaced by a burning desire for revenge.  

-

Callindra fell back on her childhood skills,
snaring rabbits with simple traps. She was thankful for her
practice skinning and preparing small game with nothing but
Brightfang during her year in the wilderness. Her companions were
grateful and seemed slightly surprised, although she was glad of
Cronos’s ability to cook. Her efforts had always ended up tough and
charred, but he had a knack for making even just a rabbit on a spit
tender and juicy.

“
So, does anyone know what
Dergeras meant when he said the Fang in the Teeth of the Sky?”
Cronos asked, sprinkling some herb he had plucked onto the meat he
was cooking.

“
Yes.” Said Vilhylm,
surprising Callindra who had been about to say the same. “It is an
impregnable fortress in the mountains called the Teeth of the
Sky.”

“
Oh, well that sounds like
bad news for us then.” Cronos said.

“
It was destroyed from the
inside in the end. Treachery and deceit, greed and the lust for
power were what destroyed the Fang.” Vilhylm said sadly. “It has
become a home for fell things, the lost souls of the ones who
succumbed to that base nature are said to still stalk its hallways
and courtyards.”

“
Or what’s left of them.”
Callindra added somberly. At the other’s startled looks, she
shrugged. “I read ‘The Rise and Fall of Invincibility’ once when I
was laid up with a nasty injury. It was a good warning about what
can happen when you don’t surround yourself with reliable people
and let the desire for power rule your actions.”

“
I had no idea you were so
well educated.” Tryst said, “I’ve not read that tome myself,
however I know it was in the personal collection of my Biscop. What
else have you read?”

“
Glarian brought me many
books to read.” She said in a subdued tone, “I never knew how
valuable the lessons they contained would be, when he brought them
I only thought of them as a way to pass the time during my
convalescence.”

“
He was a wise man.” Tryst
said, “He gave you the tools you would need to survive in the
world, without you even knowing what he was doing.”

“
And now I’ve abandoned
him.” She said dully, “Left him to suffer while I escape with my
worthless life.”

“
We are all born helpless.”
Said Vilhylm, “Doesn’t your training tell you to list your age as
the amount of time you’ve been training?”

“
I am not yet two years
old.” Callindra said automatically, and then paused. “I suppose you
have a point.”

“
Some of us age faster than
others.” Vilhylm said, “You’re beyond training, the world is a
harsh place. You will either grow strong or you will
perish.”

“
Well that’s heartening.”
Cronos muttered, taking the meat from the fire. “You aren’t going
to die today at least, so how about we lighten the mood and
eat.”

Callindra felt some of her anger dissipate as
the banter of her friends soothed the hurt and loss away. They were
still with her. She could become the person she needed to be in
order to save her master. “Just hold on old man. Stay strong for me
until I have the power to save you.”

-

The bear rose before them on its hind legs,
roaring in animal rage. An unpleasant memory flickered in the back
of Callindra’s memory, but she forced it aside, now was not the
time for reminiscence. The beast must have young nearby to be
acting like this, normally bears were docile and avoided contact
with humans.  

Brightfang sang in the air as she ducked
under a paw that would have taken her head from her shoulders and
the shock of the blade striking the animal’s leg with the combined
strength of her swing and the bear’s. Something wasn’t right
here.

Tryst slammed his hammer into his shield,
getting the bear’s attention and Vilhylm appeared from behind it,
or at least Callindra thought it was Vilhylm. His tall shape was
covered in what seemed to be dripping mud. With exaggerated
motions, he slung gobs of the mucky mass to splatter on the bear’s
feet.  

The animal stumbled, the mud causing it to
falter and give Cronos an opening which he used to sink the edge of
his bastard sword deep into its side. At the same time, Tryst
struck from the other direction, his hammer fracturing bone. The
bear roared in anger, but seemed not to notice the grievous wounds.
Instead, it attacked the nearest target; in this case Callindra who
had been sneaking up to deliver the killing stroke.

The bear’s claws raked her across the
abdomen, tearing her armor and ripping into her flesh. Agony seared
through the wounds, but she kept her focus and struck with a blow
that used every muscle in her body in one desperate stroke. The
sword strike Avalanche Down the Mountain removed the head from the
shoulders. Callindra saw a strange emerald fire die behind its eyes
before they closed.

“
That was strange.” She
said, wiping the blood from her sword and trying to ignore the pain
of the slashes across her stomach. They had torn through her armor
and the skin beneath but thankfully only seemed to be minor thanks
to the boiled leather of her breastplate.

“
What was strange?” Cronos
asked, looking at her out of the corner of his eye.

“
It was probably nothing.”
Said Callindra, “But its eyes seemed to be a weird glowing green
color.”

“
I thought I was only
imagining it.” He replied, bending over the dead animal, “I swear I
saw the same thing.” 

The corpse of the bear erupted into brilliant
green flames. Before they could react, the headless body began
blindly striking out, sending Cronos and Callindra flying across
the clearing. She flipped in the air, grimacing in pain as the
effort of righting herself to land on her feet caused white fire to
spread across her wounded stomach muscles.

“
Begone from here fell
thing!” Tryst shouted, his polished shield flashing with a white
light of Divine origin.  

In response, the bear turned swiftly, seeming
to target him with unerring ease in spite of being headless. The
priest stood his ground, a grim look on his face. Callindra started
from her shocked state as she realized the young man was truly
willing to die for them. For her.

“
Haiiiii!” A battle shout
from ages before erupted from her throat and she flung herself
forward, dropping to a knee at the last moment in a devastating
stroke that split the undead animal’s Achilles tendons (Howl of the
Winter Wolf). It teetered uncertainly and at this moment, Tryst
struck it a savage blow on its neck with his hammer.

“
Oh hellteeth!” Callindra
swore, trying to spring out of the way as her torn abdominal
muscles gave out on her. The finally unmoving corpse of the bear
fell heavily on her, filling her nostrils with the stench of death
and a strong smell of brimstone.

Once her friends had stopped laughing, they
levered the beast’s carcass off her. Callindra climbed painfully to
her feet and wiped Brightfang on the bear’s fur before carefully
sheathing him.

“
There’s a small road over
there.” She said, pointing. “Maybe there’s a village or
something.”

“
Are you hurt?” Tryst asked,
concern on his too pretty face.

“
Some cuts from the claws.”
Callindra said and grimaced, “Maybe some fractured ribs from when
it struck me, or perhaps from when the bedamned thing fell on me.
Regardless I wouldn’t mind finding a town where we could at least
purchase bedrolls if not tents and horses.”

A rustling sound caused them all to turn as
one, A second bear flew out of the trees at them, moving at an
astonishing rate but strangely silent. Callindra could see emerald
fire shining from its eyes.

Moving Brightfang in a whirling double arc to
test her tender ribs, Callindra moved to intercept the creature,
grimly intent on disabling it as quickly as possible. Before she
had taken a half dozen steps, Cronos barked three words of Arcane
Power and a sheet of brilliant red fire burst from his outstretched
fingertips, washing over the bear and burning it to a crisp.
 

As it tried to rise again, Vilhylm and Tryst
smashed into it from either side, breaking bones and driving it to
the ground. Callindra looked at Cronos, who was rubbing his ribs
and grimacing in pain.

“
I didn’t want to deal with
it.” He said shortly, “Pretty sure the other one broke a couple of
my ribs too.”

“
I hope there aren’t any
more of them.” She said, looking around and not sheathing her sword
just yet.

“
Let’s get moving.” Vilhylm
said, no longer appearing to be covered in swamp muck. “If there
are other things that are … infected in the same way as this one we
should try and find a place where we can take shelter.”

They began moving down the dirt track,
looking around at every forest sound. As they rounded a bend, the
walls of a small keep came into view. The gate was closed and
guards were on duty along the walls. Callindra wondered if this was
normal for a remote outpost such as this. Normally her
understanding was a city that engaged in regular commerce had the
gates open all day.

“
This feels wrong.” Vilhylm
said, glancing at the closed gates. “Unless at war these gates
should be open. Where are the livestock? Where are the workers
tending the fields?”

Callindra followed his gaze and realized that
the clearings they were walking through were paddocks and gardens,
not just land logged for lumber or cleared for line of sight. Weeds
grew ankle high among the crops and there were no animals in the
fenced paddocks.  

They approached the gate and could see that
the stone wall and stout wooden gate showed signs of recent damage.
A few scorch marks marred the seasoned wood above the steel banding
that sheathed the bottom few feet of the door. The soldiers on the
walls trained nasty looking crossbows on them and called out for
them to halt.

Tryst approached, his spotless white surcoat
and gleaming shield shining like a beacon. “We are weary travelers,
wounded from fighting beasts upon the road and seeking
shelter.”

“
Come to the side door.”
Came the curt reply from above. Tryst complied, moving to a steel
sheathed door bolted into the stone wall. A slit opened with an
oiled scrape of steel on steel. “Look into the slit, I need to see
your eyes stranger.”

“
What is the reason for this
treatment?” Callindra demanded, “We are tired and
injured!”

Tryst waved her to silence, “Remember the
bears.” He said and she thought of the emerald flame that burned in
the infected beasts eyes.

“
It can affect humans too?”
She whispered, the implications turning her blood to
ice.

Tryst removed his helm and leaned forward to
look through the slit in the door. After a moment, the man on the
other side gruffly told him to step aside and allow the next one to
step forward. Only when they had all been checked for burning green
eyes were the heavy crossbows raised and door opened.