Vali's watch passed uneventfully, and morning came too quickly. He woke to the sound of Benno's booming voice, and felt a booted foot kicking him in the side.
"Get up, you lazy oaf! Or you're going to miss breakfast! Matka's Toes, but what I wouldn't give for a nice cold mug of beer right now!"
"All right! I'm up!"
For breakfast, they had similar fare as the night before, but Vali couldn't complain. It was better than having nothing at all.
They broke camp and began the day's march, making good time through the forest.
"So, Vali," said Benno. "What's your story, boy? What were you doing living out in that temple, when there was a perfectly good village a stone's throw away? You got a problem with trows?"
"Hardly," the boy growled. "I am a merchant's apprentice. Or I was. Two years ago, the Zokej attacked my caravan out on the Prazdny Moors. They killed everyone, except for me."
"How did you manage to escape?"
"I jumped into the Siroky, and swam out of arrow range. After they left, I was going to try to walk to Felsengarten, but once I reached Pilzstadt, I didn't have the energy to go any further. I found that temple and decided to stay there. The trows didn't want me. They wouldn't take me in. They just gave me some food and told me to go to Felsengarten. I figured they didn't want me in Felsengarten, either."
"They would have harbored you in Felsengarten. I'm sorry you didn't make it there."
The boy shrugged. "Whatever you say, Benno."
The ground began to slope gently downwards towards the Siroky. Vali had no idea what plan Benno had for getting across the river, but he was Zharastvi, as he often reminded them. The boy hoped to see some fantastic magic. A Zharastvi was a rare sight, and their magic even rarer. Vali wondered if all the legends he had heard about them were true. People said the Zharastvi could control the weather, shoot flames from their hands, and burrow through solid stone, among other things.
Before long, they reached their destination. The great, brown river spread out below them, wending its lazy way down through the moors on its long journey to the Navzdny Sea. Vali stared across the waters to the lush woods on the far side, to his homeland, Moravia. He realized at that moment that he hadn't missed it. There was nothing to miss. His parents, his relatives, and his master were all dead. He had no money, no land…nothing to gain by returning. He wanted to feel excitement and joy upon his homecoming, but he realized then that sometimes things don't turn out the way you want them to.
"So, great Zharastvi," the boy said, "what is your plan to get us across a mile's worth of deep water? Did you know it's infested with wodniks?"
"Har har, you simpleton! That's just fairy tales! There ain't no such thing as wodniks!"
"Well, I'm not swimming across, if that's your plan."
"It certainly is not my plan, boy. Any dolt can flounder in the depths. I intend on using a Word of Water."
"Benno!" Krina cried, and Vali whirled around. A horrid creature, armed with a long spear, came running at them through the trees. It was gray-furred and red-eyed, with a man's face and body, a fanged mouth, two curling horns, cloven hoofs, and immense, black wings.
"Sverak!" Benno yelled. "Quick, into the water!"
They ran down the embankment and splashed into the river, swimming as fast as they could away from shore. The horrible scream of the fiend sounded above them, and Vali glanced up to see it flying towards them. He dove underwater and swam furiously until he ran out of breath.
His head broke the surface, and he looked around. Benno and Krina splashed close by, and the sverak screeched again, passing low over the water towards them. At the last second, it veered upwards and passed them by.
Another shriek sounded from Vali's right, and another fiend flew towards them from the edge of the forest, about half a mile away.
"We're not done for yet!" the trow cried, as if guessing Vali's thoughts.
The newly appeared sverak turned in its course and sped at them only a few feet above the water. It held its spear ready to skewer them as it passed. It was a bipedal, wolfish creature with red wings and a black, serpentine tail. Vali's eyes stayed glued to the horror before him, and he resigned himself to a grisly death.
Benno pointed his sword at the fiend and cried out. "Zorya, tenaga kata jiwa!"
The creature's wings furled, its head drooped, and it veered downwards crashing violently into the river. The water boiled and hissed, and great gouts of steam rose into the air. The sverak thrashed and screamed in agony, trying desperately to free itself from the searing waters. Vali watched in utter horror as its flesh melted from its body, revealing the yellowish bones beneath. With a final, hideous wail, it sank down into the water, which continued to roil and churn. The stench of its boiled flesh made the boy nearly vomit.
"Look out!" Vali screamed, as the second sverak dove at them from on high. Benno repeated his spell, and the fiend went limp in mid-air, crashing down into the water a few feet from Krina. She struggled to get away from the thrashing horror as the river consumed it.
The three made it back to dry land, and Vali realized then that he had lost his spear in the river. He wasn't about to go back in after it.
"What spell did you use on them?" the boy gasped. "I'm impressed!"
"Har har!" The trow slapped him on the back. "So am I, boy, so am I. All I did was use a Word of Spirit on them. I was hoping to drown them. I certainly didn't expect the water to burn them up, but it makes perfect sense. Wicked creatures like that and water usually don't mix."
"Thanks be to Matka," Vali breathed, shaking in fear.
"That's enough excitement for one day!" Benno grunted. "Fighting fiends is making me thirsty!"
The boy couldn't help but laugh. "There's an entire river right there, Benno!"
"No, you dullard! When a trow says he's thirsty, he means for beer! I can't wait to get back to the monastery, where I can sit with my feet up to a nice hot fire, a tankard in one hand and a hot bowl of stew in the other."
"That sounds good to me…if we can get across the river."
"Blast you, boy! You still don't have no faith in poor old Benno, eh? I guess I'm just going to have to go ahead and make a believer out of you. Girl, get over here. You both need to touch my sword for this to work."
The trow unsheathed his blade, and immersed its point in the river. Krina and Vali both touched the hilt.
"Zorya, Dodola, tenaga kata perairan," said the trow.
Benno walked onto the water, and amazingly, his booted feet didn't sink beneath the surface. He turned around and waved, grinning mischievously.
"Come on in, the water's fine! Har har! See, I told you I had a plan! No river's going to stop a Zharastvi…or a trow!"
"Where was he two years ago?" Vali muttered to Krina, as they followed him out onto the Siroky.
The boy had never been spellbound before, and he found it a unique experience. His feet tread upon the water without sinking into it, and the surface felt just like solid ground, if a bit spongy.
"How long is this going to last?"
"Long enough, boy, don't worry."
Vali said nothing, but he was worried about the wodniks, whatever Benno said. The boy knew that the elusive water demons could latch onto his legs and pull him down beneath the surface. The boy tried not to dwell on it, and staying close to Krina and Benno, he muttered prayers of supplication to Dodola, the Goddess of Water.
Twenty minutes later, the three stepped onto the solid ground of Moravia. This side of the river, like the other, was composed of dense forest and undergrowth. They stood in Northern Moravia, in the forest named Dreva Tremova, which housed numerous tribes of barbaric varks, and dozens of renegade giants, criminals and outcasts banished from their island homeland of Gostivar.
"There's the Siroky Road," Krina pointed to a narrow trail ahead of them that followed the river's course.
"We're not taking that way," Benno said. "We're going northwest. If we make good time, we should reach the monastery this afternoon. But first, I need to find out if Ewa's still spying on us."
"I thought you took care of that last night?"
"So did I, boy, so did I," Benno grinned. "But like I said, that Ewa's tricky."
The trow touched his sword point to his head again, and spoke an incantation. He closed his eyes, and his head drooped to his chest. Vali watched him intently, but nothing happened for several long minutes. The trow's eyes snapped open.
"What was that all about?" Vali asked.
"I found another sense link," Benno grumbled. "After I found the first one yesterday, I didn't think to look for another. But it's gone now."
"That's a relief."
"It sure is. Now we should be able to elude those blasted sverak."
Vali grinned. "Did you check for a third sense link?"
The trow scowled. "Of course I did! Do you think I'm stupid or something?"
The boy chuckled to himself.
They walked on, heading northwest. After covering seven miles, they turned due west, and marched for another eleven. They came to an area of the forest dominated by giant fern-beds. Benno suddenly stopped them short by holding up his hand in warning.
"What?" Vali heard several harsh voices raised in laughter, followed by a man's voice, screaming in pain. It came from ahead and to the left. The boy could see nothing, for the land sloped steeply down ahead of them.
Quietly they crept to the edge of the slope, and stared down upon the scene before them.
Vali saw varks, six in number. Folk also called them dogheads, because they resembled nothing more than upright, walking dogs. They stood over seven feet tall, with hides of reddish-brown fur, and muzzles harboring sharp, yellow teeth.
These varks wore crude, leather cuirasses, with short swords in baldrics slung over their shoulders. Bows and quivers of arrows lay at their feet. These utterly vicious, stupid, and cruel brutes were fond of eating human flesh, and they delighted in torturing their victims before the kill.
They had captured a man, and used vines to bind him, upright and naked, to a tree. They now crowded around him, laughing sadistically as they took turns inflicting pain upon the man with their fists, their claws, and their blades.
"We must rescue him," Krina whispered.
"Of course, girl. I can stun them, or…"
She stood and raised her sword. "No need. This ends now. Moravia!"
The varks all whirled in surprise as Krina charged down the slope into their midst.
"Damn it all!" Benno unsheathed his blade and hustled down the slope after her. Vali stood mesmerized by Krina, as she took on three varks by herself. He had never a seen a warrior battle so well and so fiercely. Benno held his own against the other three, his blade whirling in a vicious arc that kept the varks well at bay.
The boy broke out of his stupor and ran down the hill towards the bound man. A sheathed sword lay on the ground near him, and Vali picked it up and frantically sawed at the vines holding him.
"Can you fight? My friends need help!"
The boy cut the last vine, and with a low groan, the wounded man toppled over onto the ground. Vali realized he couldn't stand, let alone fight.
The boy's eyes went back to the battlefield, just as Benno stabbed one of the varks in the gut, felling it. Moments later, Krina hacked another across the throat.
Benno cast a spell, and flames billowed forth from his blade, igniting his two remaining foes. They screamed in agony and ran from the trow, but before they took five steps, the magical fire engulfed them, and they dropped to the earth, smoking and burning fiercely.
The flames distracted Krina, and a vark breached her defenses, slashing her arm. She cried out in pain, but the wound only served to enrage her. Benno ran to her aid, and together they slew the vark. Moments later, Krina dropped the last one, impaling him on her sword. The vark screamed and his legs buckled. Krina yanked the blade free and buried it in his skull. The battle ended.
Vali ran to her. "Krina, that was incredible! I…"
She whirled on him, her red face contorted in hatred and rage.
"Where were you, Vali? Why didn't you fight with us? I taught you how to do battle! How dare you disgrace yourself and me!"
Vali stared at her in amazement. He had never seen her in such a state, and she had never shouted at him before.
Her hard eyes scanned the battlefield, resting on the wounded vark that Benno had stabbed in the stomach. Growling and whimpering, he tried desperately to crawl away. Krina strode over to him and plunged her sword into his back. The vark yelped, and went limp.
"Dung-eaters!" she cried. "You all deserve to die!"
She threw her sword to the ground in disgust, and ran over to the wounded human captive. Vali helped her roll him over, and she gasped in shock.
The varks had tortured him for hours. Innumerable bruises, bloody cuts, and wicked slashes covered his entire body. Vali felt sick to his stomach.
"Dragoslav?" Krina cried in a grating voice. "Is this Dragoslav?"
The man's head moved slightly, and his swollen eyes struggled to open. His mouth worked feebly. "I…am…he…"
Krina's face went white, then red, and she began shaking violently. Tears spilled from her eyes and down her cheeks as she struggled to compose herself.
"What have they done to you, my friend?" She screwed her eyes shut, but the tears wouldn't stop. Vali wished more than anything that he could help.
Benno came up behind her. "How is he, eh?"
"They've slain him, Benno. They've slain him! I vow that before my days on this earth are done, the bones of every vark in Nadani will rot in the sun!"
"I can heal him, girl," said the trow gently. "I can heal him. But it'll take time, and quiet. He can't be disturbed during the process. We need to find someplace to hide, in case there are any more varks about."
With a ragged breath, Krina quickly regained her composure. "Right."
They searched the surrounding area, and found a large patch of tall ferns nearby. Krina and Benno picked up the man and moved him as gently as they could. Krina set Vali the task of gathering the man's gear. Vali also stomped out the flames of the burning varks and moved all their corpses and their gear into another part of the fern bed. He covered the bloodstains on the battlefield with dirt, so that any other varks that came wandering by wouldn't find any evidence of their comrades' slaughter.
Once they settled into the ferns, Benno helped Krina bind the wound on her arm with some cloth from his satchel. He then pulled a glass vial from his satchel and removed the stopper. The vial appeared to contain water, or some other colorless liquid.
Dragoslav lay on his back on the ground among the ferns, and the trow knelt beside him. Lifting up the man's head, the trow slowly poured the contents of the vial into his mouth. The man feebly gulped it down, and his eyes closed. Vali watched him for a few minutes, but nothing seemed to happen, so the boy lay back in the ferns and rested. Krina knelt next to Benno, her worried eyes fixed on the wounded man.
Nearly two hours later, Benno stood up and groaned, rubbing his knees. "It is done. He is fully restored."
Krina touched the man's forehead. "Dragos? Can you hear me?"
The man's eyes opened, and he stared around groggily.
"Yes. I thank you for delivering me from the hands of those brutes. I am forever at your service…Krina?"
"Dragos!"
The man sat up, and they embraced warmly.
"It is so good to see you, by the grace of Matka! Has it been lifted then?"
"No, my friend," she said. "Not lifted."
Her gaze flickered from Vali to Benno before returning to the man. "But we should talk alone of these matters."
"Very well."
"I will let you get dressed."
Krina walked out of the fern bed. Vali looked at Dragos, now completely healed, with not a mark of trauma left on his body. He was muscular, and tall, towering over Vali by nearly a foot. He seemed to wear a perpetual scowl beneath his sunken, dark eyes and short, black hair. He wore a moustache and a black beard, braided into a single braid, which denoted his pure Moravian heritage.
"How you feeling, good sir?" Benno asked.
The man glanced at him in confusion. "I feel much better now, thank you, sir. But how? I was near death. I felt it…"
"I am Zharastvi," the trow grinned. "That's how."
"Then I am forever in your debt, Master Zharastvi." Dragos bowed his head respectfully. "Thanks be to you and to the Mother."
"Well, Dragos, get your clothes on, and go talk to the lady. Vali, come with me. We need to get you armed."
Benno led the boy through the ferns and toward the vark corpses.
"What's that all about?" Vali muttered. "She can't talk to him in front of us?"
The trow slapped the boy's back. "Har har! A girl's got to have her secrets, I guess."
"And she's got more than most girls."
"No matter, boy. Here, let's get you a proper weapon. We're getting into vark country, and we must be prepared."
He led Vali over to one of the dead varks. Taking one of their sword belts, he adjusted it to Vali's height and fastened it across his chest.
"There, how's that?"
"Good, Benno."
"You handy with a bow?"
"I'm not bad."
"Then grab one up, boy, and you'll be the proper swashbuckler."
Vali took a bow from the same vark and slung the quiver of arrows over his left shoulder. He chose a tree as a target, and fired an arrow at it. The arrow flew wide of the mark. Benno laughed heartily, slapping his knees.
"I spoke too soon, boy! By the love of all that is good and holy in this world, don't do that again! You'll embarrass yourself! Who taught you to shoot like that?"
"My master did, as a matter of fact."
"I'm so sorry," he chuckled sarcastically. "Keep the bow, but don't use it if we get into another fight. Unless you want to defeat the enemy by making them laugh themselves to death! Har har!"
"Very funny, Benno."
The boy didn't feel like joking. Something about seeing Krina with that man upset him. He didn't know this Dragoslav, and seeing that the two had a connection made Vali realize how little he actually knew about Krina. He felt that soon he would lose her to her old life, a life of which Vali knew nothing. He didn't want to share her with anyone. He didn't know what he would do if he lost her.
Benno wandered off somewhere, and Vali stayed and practiced his archery. After missing the tree on nearly half of his shots, the boy grew frustrated, so he went to find Krina. He saw her and Dragoslav standing close, talking in front of a hoary tree. Vali wondered again how they knew each other.
They spoke for a few minutes longer. Dragos went back into the ferns and armed himself. He emerged wearing a knee-length hauberk of chain mail over black breeches. Over the mail hung an orange tabard emblazoned with the device of a coiled black dragon. His diamond-shaped, wooden shield bore the same design. A sword hung across his back, sheathed in a black, leather scabbard. Vali looked upon the trappings of a knight of Moravia.
"I am Sir Dragoslav Krul, of Ostrava, at your service." He bowed in courtly fashion.
The trow returned the bow. "Benno Burkhardt of Felsengarten."
"I'm Vali Randa." The boy bowed awkwardly.
"I am pleased to meet you both. May the blessing of Matka shine upon you and your families for evermore."
"And you as well," said the trow.
"Thanks." Vali didn't know what else to say.
"So tell me, Dragoslav," Benno said, "what brings you to Dreva Tremova? It is no place to travel lightly, unless one is seeking misadventure."
"This I know all too well," the knight sighed. "I was adventuring in these woods, since we had reports down in this area of a giant sighting along the King's Highway. This afternoon, as I rested beneath the trees, I took a drink from a spring. Instantly, I fell into a deep slumber. The water must have been enchanted, or maybe poisoned by the dogheads. The next thing I knew, I was bound to that tree, surrounded by the vile brutes. It was by the grace of the Mother that you appeared when you did."
"Dragos," said Krina softly, as she came up behind us. "This giant, it wasn't…Zharko…by any chance?" Her voice grated, and her face darkened.
"No, lady," said the knight. "Unfortunately, no. We have yet to hunt down that monster."
"That's good," said Krina softly, turning away suddenly. It seemed that her entire body stiffened, and her hand went unwittingly to her sword.
"All right," Benno said, "now that the rescuing is done, we need to get out of here. I don't want to be the main course in a vark banquet tonight. The King's Highway shouldn't be too far away."
"Dragos," Krina said, "walk with us. Let us find the road together."
"As you wish, my lady."
As the group made their way towards the road, Vali noticed that Krina and Dragos fell behind so they could talk. They spoke so softly that the boy couldn't make out any of their conversation. Obviously, they didn't want to be overheard. Vali debated whether he should ask Benno if he knew anything about this Dragos fellow, but he didn't want to get into it right then. It still hurt that Krina had scolded him. He needed something to take his mind off these uncomfortable feelings.
"Benno, what was that drink you gave to Dragos?"
The trow glanced at the boy. "Healing water."
"Healing water? Is there really such a thing? Where did you get it?"
"There is," the trow grumbled. "Or I wouldn't have been able to give it to him, right? And the location is secret, and will remain so. Enough said."
"Sorry," Vali muttered. "Well, if you won't tell me about the healing water, then tell me about the Zharastvi."
"Eh? What's that, boy?"
"Tell me about the Zharastvi."
"Oh, okay, now Benno's a minstrel, eh? What do you want to know?"
"I don't know. How do you become one?"
"You got it all wrong, boy. You don't become one. At least not of your own volition. The gods choose you. And there ain't that many of us. Only those born under the full moon, and with the Secret Sign on their heads, are eligible."
"What's the Secret Sign?"
"A birthmark, on the scalp. Roughly in the shape of a pentagram."
"What happens if the gods chose you to become one?"
"They come in the form of a dream, a vision of a lady in silver, the Goddess of the Moon, Zorya herself. She beckons the dreamer to come forward and follow her into a dark and foreboding forest. If the dreamer has the courage to follow, the lady leads him into a dark cave, and there she teaches him how to access his innate mental powers. At the end of the lesson, she shows him a vision of where to find his very own elemental conduit. Then she hands him over to the elemental deities, Stribog, Zeme, Dodola, and Svarog, who continue his training."
"What is an elemental conduit?"
"This here." The trow reached over his shoulder and unsheathed his sword, handing it over to Vali. "There are four types of conduits: staffs, swords, amulets, and chalices. See the gems? Those allow us to channel our powers through the conduit in order to work the magic."
The sword had five round gems imbedded along one side of its hilt; a diamond nearest the blade, then a ruby, an emerald, a sapphire, and a deep blue azurite. The sword itself seemed amazingly light and well crafted.
"So this sword is magical?"
"I guess you could say that, yes. Without it, I wouldn't be able to channel the mystic Words."
"Where did you find this one?"
"Deep in the Zlostny Mountains, in the tomb of a long dead member of my order. That's usually where you'll found these things. Zharastvi usually arrange to have their conduits buried with them, whenever possible, so that another of their order may take them up when the time is right. This one's named Grundstof."
Vali handed the sword back to the trow. "Interesting. So, you commune with the gods?"
"I do. On a daily basis. Whenever I use a Word, I must first humbly beseech the appropriate deity to allow me to channel their respective element. I must worship these gods above all others, except Matka herself, and do my best to represent their interests in this world."
"So you're a priest?"
The trow frowned. "I guess you could say that. But we don't call ourselves priests. We are Zharastvi."
The boy nodded in understanding.
After covering a mile, they emerged from the woods onto the King's Highway. The wide, dirt road ran all the way from the capital city of Radovan, through the cities of Mila, and Ostrava, and continued north through the Dreva Tremova to the River Okraj, which marked the northern border of Moravia.
Dragos approached Benno and bowed respectfully. "And now, Benno Burkhardt, if you will excuse me, here I must take my leave. Fare you well. Fare you well, Krina."
"I will see you in Radovan," she said.
They embraced, and the knight turned and walked away, heading south down the road.
"I'm glad to know I haven't lost my sense of direction." Benno pointed to the north. Another road, this one smaller, branched off from the highway, heading west. The three walked down the narrow trail, and soon emerged into a great clearing. They stood before the monastery at Klid Zahrada.