Valley of the Ancients: Book Three of the Restoration Series (4 page)

"Well, well. What do we have here?" the soldier nearest Keenan said. None of the men wore uniforms, but even in civilian clothes it was obvious who they were. "They want all of the escaped prisoners, but they really want you."

Keenan wished for a flippant response just then, but words failed him. If he was returned, he could only imagine the horrors that awaited him.

The soldier nearest Keenan grinned. He was an ugly brutish man, with a bent nose and oversized, jutting jaw. "I imagine you know why they want you. They want to make an example of you." His grin got wider. "Probably won't be too pleasant."

The other soldiers had not been idle. One went north and one went south, cutting off Keenan's escape routes. That left two soldiers near Keenan.

Enstorion stopped just short of the clearing, settling down in the bushes. He cursed silently at the sight of Keenan cornered.
Everything would have been just fine if he hadn't followed me.

He leaned forward, peering around the edges of the bushes. Two soldiers stood directly in front of him, but the other two had moved around the edge of the clearing to keep Keenan from getting away. The four men were spread out enough so that his spells couldn't affect the four of them without also affectiou.ng Keenan.

Chewing on his bottom lip, Enstorion considered his options, not that he had that many. Magic was a ritualistic art but many times the spell would require time to be cast or perhaps specific ingredients, thereby limiting magic's usefulness on the battlefield.

Sighing, he made up his mind as to what he had to do. If he could incapacitate the two soldiers in front of him, then that would dramatically better the odds for Keenan against the remaining two soldiers.
I hope he's up to it,
Enstorion thought. After he cast his first spell, the fight would probably be over before he got another one completed.

Taking a deep breath, Enstorion closed his eyes and began quietly casting.

Backing up to the edge of the gulley, Keenan looked down. Frantically he searched for anyplace that he could jump down to and get away. There was nothing. The bottom of the gulley was a stagnant bog. It would probably drag him down to a slow death. He looked back up at the soldiers, steeling himself for the coming battle.

Resigned, he took a deep breath, feeling the anxiety flow away. If all else failed, he would try to jump into the gulley. Drowning in the murk would be quicker than going back as a prisoner.

Stepping away from the gulley, Keenan assumed a fighting stance. "So, who's first?"

The soldier who had gone north and the one who had gone south were just standing there. Their sword tips resting in the dirt. Undoubtedly, those two would only get involved if the fight went bad for the other two soldiers.

Keenan turned his attention back to the two nearest soldiers and then he stopped, frowning. One of the men had taken out a rope, or more accurately it was several pieces of rope tied together. Small stones were tied in the ropes after different intervals. Keenan wasn't sure what it was but the only thing that made sense was that it was some kind of snare. They wanted their prisoner in good shape.

Keenan was on the verge of turning and jumping into the gulley when a form rose up behind the two soldiers. His mouth dropped open at the sight of Enstorion rushing the two men. "What the devil?" Something looked wrong. The elf's hands were a bright reddish orange. It reminded him of iron that was being worked by a blacksmith.

Either the two men heard something or they saw the look in Keenan's eyes, because they started to turn but Enstorion reached them first. The elf reached out and grabbed the two men, one with his left hand and the other with his right.

Immediately both soldiers screamed. Flames burst from the spot where Enstorion had touched them and the flames rushed across the soldier's bodies. The two men began to spin on the spot and one had the good sense to drop to the ground and roll around, but nothing they did had any affect. After a couple of moments, their screams stopped and they stopped moving, although they did continue to burn.

Enstorion staggered back near the bushes. "Fool," he called to Keenan, "I cut the odds in half for you, but now it's up to you."

Keenan blinked and looked around. The two remaining soldiers had not moved. They were standing there with their mouths hanging open, actually looking rather comical. With a sudden sense of embarrassment, he snapped his own mouth shut. He grinned then, they just might get out of this after all.

He looked in Enstorion's direction and his blood seemed to go cold. "Behind you!" he shouted, but it was too late.

Enstorion started to turn, but he never made it. The fifth soldier, the one who had continued along the length of the fallen tree, had finally arrived. He brought the hilt of his sword down hard on the back of Enstorion's head and the elf collapsed to the ground.

The new soldier stepped over the elf's body. "Didn't think it would be that easy. Did you?" This new arrival was an older man, obviously a veteran. He was thicker through the middle than the other four soldiers and he had a grey beard. What little hair was left on his head had white spattered throughout. He bent down and picked up the rope snare that had been dropped by one of the two men that Enstorion had killed.

Keenan cursed. He could not jump in the gulley now, not and leave Enstorion to these bastards but time was running out. He had to do something quick. He was just leaning forward on his toes, preparing to charge the older soldier before he could use the snare, when a new voice spoke out.

"And what are you doing in the forest?"

It was a woman's voice and it took Keenan a moment to locate the speaker. The woman stood on the edge of the clearing, halfway between the older soldier and the soldier on the northern side of the clearing. She was dark, with a wild mass of black hair. She wore a shirt and pants made from deerskin and had a sense of command about her.

The older soldier paused, on the verge of spinning the rope over his head. "This doesn't concern you girl. Leave us while we'll still let you."

"Oh, but it does concern us." Another voice said. This one was a young man's voice. The speaker stepped from the trees between the old soldier and the soldier on the southern side of the clearing. He was little more than a boy, scrawny and short, perhaps fifteen or so. His brown hair was long and stuck out at weird angles. Obviously the boy hadn't met up with a comb or brush in some time. His complexion was fairer than the woman's and he also wore a shirt and breeches made from deerskin.

The old soldier laughed an unflattering laugh. "Woman, take your boy and go, or else we'll gut him and make you wish we had gutted you."

The woman moved another couple steps into the clearing. She wore a knowing smile. "I don't like you much," she said, pointing her finger at the soldier.

The old man took a step towards her and tripped over a vine.

Keenan blinked. The old man hadn't tripped over a vine so much as the vine had wrapped itself around his leg. The vine was still tangling itself around the man's leg like a snake of some kind.

The soldier drew his sword and swiped at the vine, severing it in one stroke. Three more vines were already wrapping themselves around his other leg and he raised his sword to swing at those vines. A fourth vine lunged forward and wrapped around his sword arm. In moments, the man was covered in vines like a mass of wriggling snakes; he screamed once and then a vine entered his mouth and throat and he didn't scream again.

Keenan and the two remaining soldiers were dumbfounded, but after a moment the two men began moving. The soldier to the south headed for the boy, while the soldier on the northern side of the clearing went for the woman.

Keight="0" width="48">The first soldier had taken two steps toward the boy when he stopped. Something strange was happening.

Several shapes stepped forward from the bushes to stand beside the boy. A cougar stood on his left and a massive deer stood on his right. That was a rather unsettling sight; a cougar and a deer standing that close together and paying no attention to each other. They were focused on the soldier who was staring at them in confusion.

The boy patted the deer on the back. "Go get him," he said quietly.

The deer and the cougar lunged forward, followed by several smaller animals that Keenan hadn't even noticed. The other animals were about the size of a dog, dark brown in color, and barely coming to a man's knee but they had wicked looking claws.

The soldier swung his sword at the deer and the blow landed harmlessly on the creature's oversized antlers. The deer hit the soldier, sending him flying. He hit the ground and lost his grip on the sword, but it really didn't matter. No sooner had he landed on his back than the cougar pounced on the man's chest, biting at his face and neck. The smaller creatures weren't far behind and their claws quickly joined in with those of the cougar.

Keenan glanced away from this ugly sight and discovered that the remaining soldier hadn't fared much better. His body swung from a tree limb, held there by a vine wrapped around his neck.

The woman was standing there, her arms crossed as she watched Keenan. There wasn't any warmth in that look.

Keenan wet his lips nervously and put his sword away. Then he held his hands out in front of him. "We only entered your forest because those men were chasing us. We didn't mean any disrespect."

The boy chuckled, "You're smart to be afraid."

"Afraid," Keenan repeated, starting to dislike the boy. "Listen here boy. Fear and respect are two different things. You might know that if you had any manners."

The boy puffed up, looking like he might explode, but the woman spoke first.

"You have no reason to fear us. We were sent to help you."

"Help us?" Keenan repeated, ignoring the angry looks the boy was shooting in his direction. "Who sent you?"

"The Master of the Forest, of course. He wishes to meet you."

Chapter 2

Heather twisted in her saddle and looked back over the road they had been traveling. Well, calling it a road was actually being generous. It looked more like a shepherd's trail that hadn't been used in twenty years.

She was relieved to see that no one had been following them, although she really hadn't expected anyone to be back there. After Enton had helped them escape, the four of them had traveled east for two days. The road near Mynar ran north and south, so they had taken backwards farm roads. The roads weren't used much, but just enough that signs of their passing wouldn't be overly obvious.

In the afternoon of the second day, they came across a small farmer's road running north. They immediately abandoned the eastward path they had been following and turned north. Her plan was simple, travel br/;north to Aramonia while avoiding major roads. Once there, she planned on traveling east. She did not intend to follow the same road that the caravan had used to travel from Tyler's Junction. That journey would haunt her dreams till the day she died.

The journey from Tyler's Junction had started out well enough. She had the great idea to travel with a caravan, the thought being that the caravan would give them cover and protect them from the bandits who terrorized the roads south of Telur's border. It had worked for a while. The caravan had protected them and they made good time, but the night before they were supposed to leave the caravan, everything had changed. Feeling that something was not quite right, Heather, Aaron, and Mikela had tried to sneak away in the night, but the wagon drivers and guards had restrained them. It turned out that a rather hefty reward had been offered for their capture. They had been tied up and transported from Falda to just outside Mynar. On the verge of being turned over to whoever had offered the reward, Enton had arrived and rescued them in the dark of the night.

By traveling these back roads she hoped to avoid any more trouble, but there was another problem. They were already late for their rendezvous at Helum. Would Flare and the others have waited for them or would they have gone on? Her best guess is that they would have waited for several days, but not weeks. By now they should be searching for the sword. Hell, by this time, they might already have the sword and be headed back to Telur.

Enton caught Heather's backwards glance and he grimaced. Heather turned back around, trying to hide her grin. Enton had done a great job of coming to their rescue, but that did not completely forgive his earlier bad behavior. His attitude had been so bad that Heather had actually ordered him to return to Telur, an order he had not obeyed. He had followed them and rescued them from the caravan drivers. Nevertheless, Heather had taken great delight in giving extra chores to the big man, and she had been pleasantly pleased that he had not grumbled the first time. Well, at least not where anyone could hear.

She was still grinning and looking downwards when Aaron called out from just behind her.

"Hey, that road up there looks different."

Heather pulled her eyes from the ground in front of her horse, cursing herself silently as she did so. Her whole body had tensed up at Aaron's words, but she relaxed almost at once. It was a highway and it was the very road she had hoped to come across. She glanced up at the sun. They had made better time than she had thought. She hadn't expected to reach this road until tomorrow some time.

She looked backwards, "It's all right." Aaron and Mikela had been riding side by side behind her and Enton had pushed right up on their heels. "It's the road east of Falda."

"What now?" Enton called. "Are we going east?"

Heather nodded, "Yes. We'll follow the road east until we hit Alandell Lake." She cut off abruptly; she hadn't decided where they were going from there. Should they go southeast to Helum or north to Telur? Her gut wanted to go to Helum, but her mind said that her friends were long gone.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Mikela asked. "I mean, this is the very road we were supposed to take when we left the caravan."

Heather nodded, "I know, but I think that makes it the last road they will expect us to take."