The Sorcerer's Ring: Book 05 - A Vow of Glory (27 page)

Most
of all, it was the sound of that music—it never stopped, ringing in his ears, luring
him in—it would have made him do anything she wanted. Some dim part of him knew
he shouldn’t be here, knew he should be thinking only of Gwendolyn. Of home. Of
his mission. Of a million other things—of anything but this place. Of this
woman.

But
try as he did, he could not gain control of his mind. The music drowned out all
thoughts.

The
woman led him to a hammock and laid him down gently on it. He leaned back and,
rocking ever so slightly, he looked up and saw the long, narrow leaves of a
fruit tree, swaying in the wind. Beyond that, he saw the sky, clouds drifting
slowly by.

Thor
felt himself relaxing, so deeply, he didn't feel as if he could ever get up
again.

"You
are a great and brave warrior," the woman whispered, kneeling down beside
him, running her soft palms through his hair, over his eyes. The sound of her
voice electrified him. As her skin touched his eyelids, they felt heavy, closing
on him.

"Who
are you?" he managed to ask, his voice hoarse.

"I
am everyone and no one," she answered. "I am your greatest fantasy—and
your worst nightmare."

At her
final words, Thor felt a sense of alarm. A part of him urged him to break free
from this place, from this woman’s grip, while he still had the chance.

But he
was too entranced: he could not get his body to follow his mind, which was overcome
by thoughts of her.

As she
finished speaking, Thor felt thick twine begin to wrap around him, again and
again; it wrapped around his shoulders, then his arms, his torso, his legs,
securing him to the hammock as if he were a fish hauled in from sea. He opened
his eyes and saw that he was completely bound, from head to toe, unable to move
even if he wanted to.

The
woman stood over him and looked down, smiling; Thor, confused, looked around
and saw all of his brothers were bound in hammocks, too.

"Brave
warrior," she whispered down to him. "Your days are over. Now you
will be food for a feast. A feast for us.”

A
bonfire rose up in the center of the courtyard, and two female attendants
appeared from a side door, carrying a man Thor did not recognize, bound with
twine. The man was held between two long sticks, and the attendants carried him
ever closer to the flames.

"No,
please don't!" the man shrieked, eyes wide in terror.

The
attendants continued carrying him, screaming, until they hoisted him and placed
him over the flames, propping his stick on spikes as if he were an animal. He
screeched as they turned him slowly, again and again, roasting him over the fire.

Thor
tried to look away, but he could not.

After
several minutes, after the screaming stopped, finally they pulled him out,
completely blackened, and he was carted away and laid out on a huge, marble
serving table.

"I
think we shall roast this one next," one of the women said, gesturing to
Thor.

Two
more attendants, carrying a new pole, walked towards Thor and lowered it,
preparing to bind him.

Krohn,
lurking in the shadows, suddenly leapt forward, snarling, and sank his fangs
into one of the attendant’s throats. She went down screaming, and Krohn pinned
her down, standing on all fours on her chest, and would not let go until she
stopped moving.

Krohn
then turned and pounced on the other attendant, who tried to run. He sank his
fangs into her calf, downing her, then pounced on the back of her throat,
clamping his jaws and killing her.

One of
the women took a burning hot spear and jabbed it at Krohn. He yelped as it hit
his rear right leg, leaving a nasty burn mark on his thigh. But he then turned
and leapt in the air, and bit off the woman's hand; she shrieked as she dropped
the spear down to the ground.

The
other women converged around Krohn, who stood before Thor, not letting anyone
get close, snarling as the women approached with spears, all of them jabbing
Krohn.

"Krohn,
over here!" yelled Indra.

Krohn turned
and took off, racing around the circular courtyard, dodging the spears, and running
to Indra, who laid stretched out, bound by her ankles and wrists.

"Krohn,
tear the ropes!" she screamed.

Krohn
understood. He pounced on the ropes, sinking his fangs into them and shaking
them violently until they severed.

“Now
fetch me that knife!" Indra yelled, looking nervously over her shoulder as
the other women began to bear down on her.

Krohn
seemed to understand: he bounded over to a large dagger sitting on a table,
grabbed it in his jaws, then ran back to Indra. She snatched it from his hand, reached
over and cut the ropes binding her feet.

Indra
rolled out of the way just as the first woman jabbed at her with a spear, then
rolled back around and stabbed her in the throat.

The
woman collapsed, wide-eyed, dead.

"I'm
not a man,” Indra sneered down. “And I don’t like music.”

The
other women, charging, suddenly hesitated, seeing who they were up against. Indra
didn’t pause: she jumped forward, snatched a spear from one of the women’s
hands, and spun it around and sliced her throat.

She
then lunged forward and stabbed another woman in the gut.

Not
wanting to waste any more of her precious energy on a confrontation with these
women, Indra turned, sprinted across the courtyard, and went right for Thor, Krohn
at her side. As she reached him, she saw his eyes were glazed over, that he was
still in a trance.

Indra
quickly sliced all the ropes binding him, then sliced the rope of his hammock,
and he fell and hit the ground with a thud. He looked up at her, his eyes still
glazed.

"Thor,
listen to me," she said. "You're in a trance. Do you understand? You
have to snap out of it! You have to save the others and yourself before it’s too
late. Please. For my sake. Come back to me!”

Krohn
leaned forward and licked Thor's face again and again.

Somewhere
deep inside of Thor, a part of him began to stir. He began to realize that he
was lost, deep in another realm. Slowly, the music of the sirens began to fade
in his head, and the face of the woman before him came into focus.

Indra…the
slave girl…she was speaking to him…telling him something…telling him to get up…to
go…to go now!

Thor
shook his head and jumped to his feet. Suddenly, he was free of the spell.

Thor
felt a tingling rise within him, rising up from his toes through the tips of
his fingers, felt himself overcome by a rush of heat.

As the
first of the women reached him, charging with a spear, Thor sidestepped,
snatched it from her hands, took the shaft, and butted her in the head with the
wooden end, knocking her down.

He then
spun around and used the spear as a staff, knocking the spears from the hands
of the other women, then spinning around again and knocking them down. He
didn't want to kill any of them—he just wanted to stop them, and to rescue his
friends.

“Free
the others!" Thor yelled to Indra.

Thor and
Indra split up, Krohn running by Thor’s side, as they went from one legion
member to the next, slicing their ropes, freeing them. They all remained in a
trance, but as Thor knocked out more of the women, slowly the spell lifted. The
boys finally became suggestible enough to at least obey Thor's command.

"Follow
me!" Thor yelled to each of them.

Thor,
Indra and Krohn ran with the others, leading them as they all crossed the small
island, back to their boat.

They
all jumped in, and Thor reached out with the tip of the spear and shoved off
hard from shore, Indra doing the same beside him.

The
other boys, all finally snapping out of it, began to paddle with all they had,
fighting the tide as they pulled away slowly from the island.

The
women left on the island ran to the shore, to the water’s edge, and watched them
go; distraught, they began shrieking and tearing out their hair. Their screams,
even more awful than the sound of their music, echoed off the waters, haunting
Thor as the tide finally picked up and carried them away.

*

Thor was
sullen as he paddled silently with the others. A somber feeling had permeated
the boat, as they paddled for hours, putting more and more distance between
themselves and that island. They passed by ever-shifting terrain, and Thor
could not help but contemplate how close they had come to being killed. He
still didn’t entirely understand what had happened back there.

After
they had left that place, for the first several hours they had all been riding
on adrenaline, their fear and excitement propelling them to keep the boat
moving. But now, as the second sun grew long, the excitement was wearing off,
and Thor and the others were feeling drained in the pervasive silence which had
fallen over them. Thor's shoulders were growing tired and his back stiff, as he
wondered if this paddling would ever end.

“How
long shall we keep going on like this?” O’Connor finally asked aloud the
question that had been on all of their minds, putting down his paddle and
wiping the back of his head. “It is useless. We are not getting anywhere.”

“And
we don’t even know where we’re going,” Elden added, in equal frustration.

“Yes
we do,” Drake said defensively, hoisting the map.

“You
and your stupid map,” Conval said. “The map of a thief. How do you even know
it’s accurate?”

“It
almost got us killed back there,” Conven said.

“We
should have listened to Indra from the start,” Elden said.

"Yes,
you should have,” Indra said. “We are going in wrong direction. I told you that.”

"This
slave girl doesn't know what she's talking about,” Durs snapped. “The map is
very clear.”

"Don't
you call her that again," Elden snapped, turning to Durs, reddening.
"Indra saved all of our lives back there, lest you forget.”

Durs
fell silent, and it was the first time Thor had ever seen him back down to
anyone. Then again, Elden was bigger and broader, despite his age, and it
didn't appear that Durs wanted a confrontation. Elden was also more heated than
Thor had ever seen, and in that moment, Thor could tell that Elden had really
fallen for her.

"The
point is," Dross said, "we know where they are taking the Sword. This
map leads us there. And this channel of water is the only way. We just have to
stick to the course.”

"I
will tell you where these waters take us," Indra said darkly. "These
waters will bring us to the Land of the Undead. An evil and uninviting land; a
place of the deepest gloom and death. Those who enter never come out. Ever. That
is for certain. Haven't you noticed the tides?” she asked, looking down. “They
have grown stronger. They pull us in one direction: to the great waterfall.
Once we go down it, there is no turning back. This is your last chance: turn
back now.”

They
looked at each other with apprehension.

"And
go where?" Reece asked.

"Back
to where we began,” she replied.

There
came a collective groan from the three brothers.

"All
the way back to the beginning?" Dross asked.

"So
you would have us fight these tides, all the way back, start over again,
without a map, without anything to go on except for your word?" Drake
asked.

"And
who's to say you don't have an agenda of your own?" Durs added. "You
are not one of us. Are we to put our lives into the hand of a wild slave girl,
a professed thief?”

"You
already have,” Indra remarked, “and you came out alive.”

“I
would trust her with my life before I would you," Elden said, sneering
back at Durs.

The
group fell into a tense silence.

Drake
sighed.

“So then
what would you have us do?” Drake asked, turning to Thor. "Since you are
leader of this mission. Would you have us all start again, follow this slave
girl’s word, this stranger who we don't even know, and ignore this map from the
Ring?”

Thor
sat there, feeling all the eyes on him, and debated. Some part of him, deep
down, felt as if something was not right with where they were going. But at the
same time, he wasn't getting a clear feeling. Something was obscured. He did
not know why—and that frightened him. He did not know for sure that going back
was the best route. And even if they wanted to, the currents had become too
strong, and they were all too tired. He didn't see how that was even a
possibility. At least the three brothers had a map, a destination, a plan.
Plus, they couldn’t risk losing more valuable time in searching for the Sword.

"We’ll
give your map a chance," Thor said to them. "Until tomorrow. If we
don't have progress by then, some concrete lead, then we will turn back around
and follow Indra’s way.”