Through the Wildwood (12 page)

A battle they did fight

across the land and in the sky.

Against dragons and dark demons

By the thousands they did die.

– The Ballad of Ornspike

I
t was full dark, with very little of the moon’s light filtering through the trees, but Vanx saw just fine. The odd, grisly scene he found was startling but not unexpected. There were three dead horses and five dead kingdom men, all of them starting into the process of being reclaimed by the earth. Most of the bodies had been looted of belt and pack. Only a broken bow and an almost empty quiver of arrows lay about. Not even a dagger remained, and some of the clothing and boots were missing as well.

The bodies were too far gone to tell what had killed them, but Vanx found a few sets of huge, deeply pressed footprints and had to assume an ogre had been around, either during the skirmish, or just after. The only thing that was discernible was that one of the horses fled the scene, possibly with a rider, and someone on foot had started away from the massacre and then vanished in his tracks. His first thought was that the disappearing tracks belonged to the wizardly owner of the pack they’d found earlier. Then another idea occurred to him. An ogre could have plucked a running man right off his feet and hurled him, or if the ogre were hungry enough, worse.

As Vanx surveyed the forest around the area he found only two stray arrows. He managed to startle off some hissing thing that had come to feed on the rot. He hadn’t even noticed the creature and had to spend a moment letting his thudding heart settle back in his chest before he continued. The beast’s presence completely surprised Vanx and he took that as a sign of warning. Other carrion feeders, both large and small, would come around before the night was over. Some were possibly lurking in the darkness this very moment. Wood trolls were sometimes drawn to a decaying carcass. A whole pack of trolls might come to this feast.
Why hadn’t they already come?
As Vanx asked himself the question, his nose picked up the musky scent of a wolf. He cursed himself for not bringing one of the bows with him this time. A scan of the trees around him revealed the shadowy form of the wolf and its Kobalt rider. When he caught a tiny glint of amber-yellow eyes, he froze.

There was only one of them. For a few heartbeats both were still, taking the other in. The Kobalt finally barked out a grunt and pointed in the direction the disappearing foot tracks led.

Vanx saw that this creature wasn’t the one with the bandolier sash. This Kobalt did have a dagger in its clawed hand, though. Before Vanx could take in any more details, the wolf bounded away, carrying its rider into the darkness.

Not sure what else to do, Vanx cautiously explored the forest in the direction the Kobalt had indicated. The tracks didn’t pick back up immediately, but after a short way he found an area of shrub and thicket that had been broken and trampled, as if a body had fallen from the trees and landed there. His assessment of an angry ogre hurling the fleeing man came back to him and he wondered if Zytha herself wasn’t guiding his perceptions this night.

From the trampled undergrowth a set of foot tracks led haphazardly through the forest. This person was either bewildered from injury or no experienced forester, for the trail Vanx followed led right through a thick patch of itch-ivy. Vanx circumvented the growth and found where the trail continued. Broken branches, kicked leaves, rubbed bark, and a well-munched apple core marked the way. Oddly, the trail eventually led right back to the stream bed. Vanx estimated that he was about a mile upstream from the campsite where his companions were resting.

He decided that the pack they’d found had been on this man’s back when he ventured into the camp. He also figured that if he looked close enough he would be able to see where the man left the camp the second time.

He was walking along the stream’s edge on the whitewashed rocks when he noticed a faint lavender glow emanating out of the trees. More curious than alarmed, he eased closer to the inexplicable phenomenon. As he drew nearer he picked up the faint smell of charred meat, and a clean ozone scent prickled at the hairs on the back of his neck. It was magic. He knew the sensation well. Master Bylizar, a scholar of the archaic arts back on the Isle of Zyth, had constantly reeked of the smell. It was potent here. Vanx was more careful as he crept in, but it turned out that the caution wasn’t necessary.

A glowing lavender dome rose out of the forest floor in an open space barely big enough to contain it. It was head high and appeared to be perfectly spherical, but only half of the globe rose above the earth. The thin-looking skin of the magical force was translucent. Lying still at the center of the protective field was a man.

He looked frail and thin in his wizard’s robe, and the boots he wore seemed to be far too large for his feet. There was an explosive splay of grey hair and beard poking out of the robe’s collar and neck, and the robe was hiked up at the legs and sleeves, revealing spindly limbs swollen and covered with a rash. Lying alongside the humming magical globe was the body of an ogre. Only this ogre had been charred to little more than ash.

Vanx decided right then not to touch the magical barrier that protected the wizard. Apparently the ogre had made that mistake and paid a heavy price for it. The beast had been charred to an ashy husk so quickly that not even a trace of grease or body fluids remained. When a body is burned so badly that it doesn’t even attract carrion or give off a scent, it could only have been burned by wizard’s fire or other magical means. Vanx found the tracks of another ogre, but these led away from the lavender dome in a widely-spaced pattern that Vanx envisioned as an ogre’s terrified run. It probably bolted away after seeing its companion’s life so violently taken away. Vanx didn’t sense any immediate threat in the area so he decided to attempt to communicate with the wizard.

“Ho there,” he said in a loud whisper. “Are you alive?”

Obviously the man was alive. His chest was rising and falling as if he were in a deep sleep, but still he didn’t stir.

“Wake up, man,” Vanx said a bit louder. There was no response.

Vanx stood there a little while pondering the situation, then he bent down and picked up a small stone. He tossed it at the wizard’s stomach area. When the object hit the glowing lavender field he ducked away and covered his face. Nothing happened to the stone as it passed through the shield and landed on the wizard’s belly, but still the man didn’t stir.

Vanx didn’t want to leave him there, but saw no other choice. The others would be worried about him. He had been gone for quite a while. He doubted any harm would come to the wizard; the man seemed to be better protected than he and his companions were.

As he made his way back down the stream bed he decided that the wizard was what the Kobalts wanted him to find,
but why?
Obviously the man would eventually die, or the power of his shield would exhaust itself, once again exposing him to the elements. Maybe they just wanted the glowing dome removed from their forest. Surely it bothered the strange little creatures. He doubted they understood the arcane nature of such a thing. If they did by chance have some magical ability, like being able to charm a wolf into being ridden, the trait was probably natural to them.

Why his thoughts had drifted to the Kobalts and their wolves from the unconscious wizard, Vanx wasn’t sure, but when his mind snapped back into place he was sure he had been affected by magic.

The magical dome’s shielding properties were more than they seemed, he guessed. It was a truly potent protection that not only shielded the physical body, but also misdirected the thoughts of those who came near so they would forget what they had seen altogether.

“HALT!” Trevin’s voice split the night, causing Vanx to drop into a defensive crouch. “Who is it?” he asked the darkness. “Vanx, is it you?”

If the situation were less dire, and the tension of knowing they were at the mercy of the Kobalts wasn’t weighing on him, Vanx might have had some sport with the young soldier. He could easily sneak around and creep up to tap him on the shoulder. As it was, Trevin was at the limits of his sanity with worry over Gallarael and the need to get her to Dyntalla.

“Don’t put an arrow in me, Trev,” Vanx called ahead. “I have far too much to tell you.”

“By the gods, Vanx,” Trevin sighed with relief. “You scared me. I expected you to return a while ago. We thought you were lost.”

“I found the owner of that pack and what’s left of his companions.” Vanx eased into view.

“What? Companions? Never mind that.” Trevin’s tone grew serious as his gaze finally found Vanx coming up the creek bed. “Gallarael’s fever has returned. I think it’s worse than before. We need more of your remedy. I—I—” His voice cracked and faltered, and Vanx could clearly see the tears pooling in his eyes. “I don’t know what to do, Vanx. What do we do?”

“I wish I knew,” Vanx mumbled under his breath. What he said out loud was, “Come, let’s have a look at her.”

Trevin was right, Gallarael’s fever was back. Vanx could tell before he even gained her side. She was brightly flushed and looked worse than she had after the initial bite, if that were possible.

Matty had Gallarael’s head cradled in her lap and a worried expression on her face. Darbon took a piece of cloth and a cup to the stream. The fire had burned down, so Trevin went about adding some deadfall while Vanx examined Gal. It didn’t look good. She was so feverish that heat radiated from her as if she were literally burning.

“We need to put her in the stream, and quickly,” Vanx proclaimed. He wasn’t sure that it would help, but he knew if her body didn’t cool down she would lose her mind or die from it.

As he and Trevin carried Gallarael to the water, Vanx decided that Gallarael’s best chance didn’t lie in Dyntalla anymore. It lay in the woods a half-mile away under a glowing shield. The wizard, if he was revivable, was obviously somewhat powerful. The kind of components in his pack and the complexity of the shield he had constructed around himself attested to his capabilities. Most wizards knew herb lore and throughout the history of the kingdoms they’d often served their lords as healers during battle. At least that’s what Vanx had been taught in the history books he’d read.

Gallarael was laid by the stream, instead of carried out into it. “We can’t just dunk her,” Vanx explained. “The shock of hot to cold could do more harm than good. Use the rags and the extra blankets to cool her off slowly.” He stood and looked up at the sky. The moon was behind the clouds, but he could tell that it was already sinking below the mountains. Dawn would be upon them soon.

Darbon watched helplessly, still clutching the cupful of water he’d come to fetch. Vanx saw him and was suddenly struck with an idea.

“Come on, Darby,” he said with a trace of hope in his voice. “And bring the cup with you.”

“Where are we going? How will we see?” the young apprentice asked as Vanx stalked upstream into the night. “It’s dark as pitch out here.”

“We’re going to fetch a wizard. Just follow me closely,” Vanx ordered. Then back over his shoulder he added, “And don’t spill the water from that cup.”

They hunt gray bears and ogres

and they kill them with bare hands.

You’d be better to slap the kings own face

than to cross a Highlake man.

A Highlake Mountain Man.

– Mountain Man

“T
hey went into the Wildwood,” Kavin Karcher, a mountain of a man who was also known as Bear Fang, said with no emotion showing on his overly hairy face. He was a head taller than most men and smelled wild, like a boar or an ox. His hair and beard were unkempt and his dark eyes were as hard as iron. He wore clothes made of elk hide and shin-high lace-up boots. Beside the long dagger at his hip hung a one-handed crossbow, and his thick walking stick looked like it could easily be used as a club.

“No need to follow them in there,” Commander Aldean said with a sigh of regret. “No one has ever survived the Wildwood and lived to tell of it.”

“We’re talking about my daughter,” Duke Martin barked. “I don’t care if they walked into a dragon’s mouth. We will follow them until we find her.”

Since Duke Martin learned that Gallarael was among the caravan members he’d insisted on personally conducting the search for her.

“Duke Martin, I understand and respect your persistence, but it’s more likely that Gallarael is in the group the others are tracking.” Aldean let out a sigh to cover his unease. “Why would she travel away from civilization?” He looked to Coll, the duke’s dark-haired, black-clad advisor for support. The strange man seemed to be somewhere else in his mind and was no help.

“If your blood is too yellow to come with us, Commander, then you can return to the ambush site and wait on the others.” The duke glared at his one-time most trusted friend with contempt in his eyes. “Master Coll, Commander Karcher and I can continue just fine without you.”

The placing of his title before the treacherous trapper’s name wasn’t lost on Aldean, and what Coll was the master of, he had no idea.

Aldean was no coward, but to traipse off into the Wildwood following a trail that was probably made by escaped slaves or wounded haulers was suicidal.