* XIV *
With night drawing in, they made a collective decision to stop for the night in the fort that they had taken. Corpses littered both floors of the main structure; mostly Hobgoblins, but the two Ogres that had been slain on the ground floor piqued Gravak's interest.
Before they had returned to Drellin's Ferry, he had been forced to abandon the skeletal Dire Wolf that he had been commanding. Coralyn and Taran had both objected to him even raising the corpse in the first place, but they simply refused to go any further with him once they had gotten to within about ten miles of the town. They voiced their objections loudly, and the rest of the party had begun to agree. When even Elantar and Taldir tried to talk him out of taking the wolf any further, Gravak eventually took the concerns on board and ordered the wolf skeleton to lie low in a remote section of the Elsir River. He'd begun to understand well that inhabitants of so-called civilised towns had no patience for the magic he was using, and that if he were discovered doing so, he would likely be thrown into a jail, eventually to be executed.
Gravak was far more interested in his intentions for these tools that he was creating: he would never set them upon an innocent populace, and didn't understand the hysteria around what he was doing. He was creating powerful allies to help to win this coming war, and perhaps eventually to guard his home, if he were ever able to reclaim it. He'd tried to explain this to Coralyn and Taran to no avail, and suspected strongly that this was part of their decision to depart separately from the rest of them: if not for Taran, then almost certainly for Coralyn.
He was still learning about this magic, but had been impressed with the robustness of the reanimated Dire Wolf, which he linked to the size of the original creature. He reasoned that one of these Ogres would make a quite able replacement, and would hopefully be tough enough to help shield him and his friends as they assaulted Rhest. He did not expect that fight to be an easy one, and was determined to use every weapon at his disposal.
"Something on your mind?" Taldir asked, interrupting his train of thought.
"Just wondering how much onyx one of these would need to stand again…" Gravak answered. Taldir nodded slowly in response. He remembered the Wizard's warning to him at Vraath Keep, but quickly dismissed it. He was in control.
Buttercup and Boshley had begun to move the corpses from the upper room, bringing them down to the ground floor, while Elantar and Arden started a fire upstairs, preparing to cook an evening meal. They planned to strip the enemies' bodies of anything useful or valuable, leaving any newcomers in the night to be greeted by a scene of carnage. Those on watch could keep look-out from the upper floor, where glass-less windows had been built into the walls on both the northern and southern approaches. The tops of the staircases would be the easiest part of the fort to defend if anyone got in, they reasoned.
Gravak took out his pouch of onyx, and forced open the mouth of one of the dead ogres.
"Not that one…" Taldir commented. Before the Wizard had even spoken, Gravak had realised that this was the head that Buttercup had separated from shoulders at the beginning of their combat; somebody had since placed it back in an anatomically correct position. He stood and moved to the other instead, placing seven or eight small stones inside its mouth.
He stood, spoke an incantation, and felt power course through him. Seconds later, the corpse jerked, with several faint wisps of black smoke emanating from its nostrils, and between its teeth.
"Stand," he commanded firmly. The Ogre rose, and glared blankly at him. Three small onyx stones fell from its mouth, which Gravak reclaimed and replaced in his pouch. "Get the others," he added aside to Taldir, who moved to the bottom of the nearest stairs and called them down.
Elantar and Boshley both made to draw weapons when they reached the ground floor, but soon caught up with what had happened. Boshley kept his sword drawn and ready nonetheless. Buttercup and Arden took a little longer, but finally understood.
"Looks like you won't need to keep watch tonight after all, Elantar…" the Bard quipped.
Their five horses were led in a few minutes later, after the reanimated Ogre had dumped all of the corpses of its former allies outside, along with the flesh from its own body that it no longer needed. He could have kept the Ogre skeleton animated with its tissue on its frame, but this would quickly decay, and within the next few hours would only begin to smell unpleasant. Gravak instead preferred to keep the skeleton in a relatively clean state, hoping that this would be more acceptable to his companions. They closed and barricaded the doors, with everyone back inside.
"If anyone besides us enters this room, kill them," Gravak ordered the skeleton.
They had been able to make slightly quicker progress since leaving Brindol: the three dogs that had accompanied them from the Wychwood had been left behind with an animal handler in the city. Boshley, and Boaz besides him, were riding in the cart that Gravak had salvaged from the swamp where they had killed the Hydra. Even with two horses drawing this as extra weight, they were able to move at a faster pace than the Dire Badger could have managed. The Ogre skeleton that now travelled with them had to sprint to keep up with the horses, but it was tireless and able to maintain this pace indefinitely.
"Halt!" Elantar called, bringing them to a stop about three hours into the journey north. Everybody drew in towards the cart to see what she wanted. Elantar took out a map that one of Jarmaath's men had supplied them with, and judged their location.
"We're heading for this area," she declared, pointing out an area labelled as 'The Blackfens': Rhest sat on the banks of a lake, at the western edge of this. "If we continue this way," she continued, "the road will curve in the wrong direction, taking us perhaps… ten? A dozen miles out of the way?" Taldir took the map from her, made some quick measurements with a wand and his fingers, and nodded in agreement.
"So you want to go cross-country?" Arden asked.
"Well…" Elantar began with a frown. "You didn't see it?" she added. Everybody looked around at each other with confusion. "That's why I stopped us here…" she continued, as she trotted back a few yards to the edge of the road. She bent back an excessively leafy branch, revealing the beginnings of a well-trodden path.
"This isn't on the map," she explained, "but Rhest was once a major city. It'd make sense if there were old roads that led to it."
"I'm not sure that the cart will cope with this path…" Boshley said.
"If that's the case, it'd be slower going for the horses anyway," Taldir observed. "Boaz would be able to walk."
"Would it be worth it?" Arden asked.
"To cut twelve miles off of our journey?" Elantar retorted. "Absolutely."
Elantar told them to wait where they were, and rode off alone up the path. Everybody else took the opportunity to take on food. The Red Hand at the fort they had left that morning had been well supplied with good provisions, and they had carried all that they could with them. The Rogue returned twenty minutes later.
"The road holds firm for at least the next few miles, plus as far as I could see," she declared, patting the spyglass in her breast pocket. "I think we have to try it," she added with conviction.
"Whose stupid idea was this?" Taldir demanded. A few faces turned to Elantar, who smiled, slightly nervously.
"The road was just as good as we've had from Brindol for over twenty miles," she stated. "I couldn't have predicted it would turn to this…"
They had been forced to abandon the cart several miles behind them. The path itself still held quite solid, but had narrowed too much, and become far too rocky for the cart to be of any use. Boshley's badger, now acting as a mount to the Gnome again, looked sullen, if it was possible for such an animal to do so.
The Blackfens opened up around them; their name should have provided more of a clue to the terrain, really. While the old road that they were using was solid enough, they were surrounded by waterlogged marshland. Between the reeds, larger pools of water could be seen.
And then it rained.
It was heavy too; the going became miserable, with pools of water collecting in divots on the road. The ground became softer, and mud began to spray up at them. They were becoming soaked, from above and below. Arden attempted to lift the mood with some music, but nobody was in an accepting state. The horses were all beginning to struggle, both to carry their charges, and to find good footing on the muddy path. They all dismounted to lead their animals by bit and bridle, and progress slowed to a crawl.
A growl caught their attention, just seconds before a green blur scattered water before it, and shot at Buttercup. She didn't have time to react, and a bladed wing carved at her, sending her sprawling with a deep gash in the shoulder.
The beast that had attacked her skidded to a halt in the mud, and turned with another growl. Everybody dropped the reigns of their mounts and drew weapons.
"Kill that scaly beast!" Gravak bellowed at the skeleton under his command. It moved mindlessly and obediently towards it. Gravak had never seen anything like this beast: it was slightly dragon-like in appearance, but its wings looked more weapons than means of flight. He flung a javelin at it, which it batted aside effortlessly. Boshley and Buttercup raised swords and headed straight for it, while Elantar moved quicker, but in a much less direct route, giving it more directions to face and splitting off its attention a little.
Arden continued to play, but seemed to put a little something else into her tune. Gravak felt immediately invigorated, and a little more confident. Elantar and the Ogre skeleton had almost reached the beast, but before they engaged, Taldir landed a fireball perfectly on its back. He had hurt it, but it didn't appear to be seriously hindered. If anything, Taldir had only angered the monster.
The beast lunged forwards to bite at the skeleton, swiping a wing in its direction at the same time. It reeled at these blows, but remained standing, swinging a club back at it. It reared, and opened its jaws, breathing gas across the skeleton that began to corrode its bones. Elantar jumped aside, avoiding most of the gas cloud and swung her swords into the side of the beast's neck. It howled in agony, and turned to threaten her.
The Ogre Skeleton swung its club again, making a solid thud with the beast's head. It snapped its jaws at the skeleton once again, and bought both wings around, swinging though its body, and cutting it down. Its bones collapsed into several smaller pieces, just as Buttercup reached it, slicing into its opposite flank. It turned again as Boshley arrived seconds later, plunging his sword into the monster's mouth and up through the top of its head. He withdrew his weapon as the beast collapsed and lay still. The Gnome rested a foot on its neck and raised his sword in a gesture of victory.
"Wot was dat?" Buttercup asked. Gravak was not alone in his ignorance of the beast's identity: nobody recognised it.
"Was it sent for us?" Arden asked. "Or were we just a potential meal?"
"Let's see what it eats…" Elantar said, taking out a dagger. She cut into its gut, releasing a foul smelling gas. Gravak kicked at the remains of his skeleton. He had to find tougher creatures to raise if they were going to be successful… although arguably, it had done its job of protecting everyone from harm very well.
"Well… it's meat," Elantar declared, after poking around for a minute or so. She couldn't be more specific than that. "Hold on," she added after a few more seconds. She lifted her dagger; there was a dirty, yet valuable-looking ring on the end of it.
"Company!" Taldir called, spinning and pointing skyward.
The rain continued to hammer down, and with it came…
"Owls…" Elantar observed. She had taken out her spyglass, and was gazing through it up at the sky. "Six Giant Owls…" she added. "No; seven."
"They're descending," Arden observed, "Guys; we have nowhere to hide…"
"Hide?" Boshley asked. "From Owls?"
"There are Elves riding them," Elantar answered. "They're as likely to be hostile as friendly." Gravak didn't think this was particularly likely, but given the Rogue's experience of Elven culture, forgave her scepticism.
Not long after they were first spotted, the first of the Owls landed, the Elf riding on its back dismounting gracefully with a leap. She was quickly joined by the rest, all brandishing spears in their direction.
"Weapons down," the first Elf ordered, "and names," she added. Nobody was quick to obey.
"Given that you've just descended on us without warning," Arden responded after a few moments, "quite aggressively, I might add – how about you lower your weapons and give us your names first?"
The Elf leader raised her eyebrows and smirked. At a clipped word in Elvish, her companions slowly began to close in.
"Oh, come on!" Boshley called, and pointedly put his sword down, quite vigorously into the corpse of the recently slain beast. Other weapons followed, and soon everyone was unarmed, save Elantar who still brandished her dagger.
"You!" the Elf in charge pointed at her. She closed with the Rogue, and then stopped short. "Where did you get that?" she asked, concern evident on her face.
"This?" Elantar asked, flicking the ring from the end of her dagger, and catching it in her other hand. "In the gut of that…" she answered, gesturing to the beast with her dagger.
"You recognise it?" Arden asked, in a softer tone.
"It was my brother's…" she nodded sadly.
Further investigation by the Elves led them to discover the remains of another Giant Owl, and an Elf called Braemir Nightshadow. Trellara, who had identified as his sister, wept bitterly at this, but said it had confirmed her suspicions: he had not been heard from in almost two weeks. She sang a soft lament, which was one of the most beautiful things that Gravak had ever heard.
Trellara Nightshadow claimed her brother's ring from Elantar, who gave it up gladly. She was rewarded with a potion, which Trellara claimed would give her concealment when she fought. Talk soon turned to the beast that had been Braemir's demise.
"There have been a number of these on the roads between Starsong Hill and Rhest in the past few weeks," Trellara explained. "But never this far south, until now."
"We've never seen anything like them before," Taldir responded. "Are they common in these parts?"
"Not until recently…" she answered. "Greenspawn Razorfiends," she said, giving them a label. "There are Hobgoblins occupying Rhest, along with The Wyrm… They are breeding them."
"The Wyrm being?" Arden asked.
"A Black Dragon…" she answered.
"Regiarix," Elantar added.
"You know of him?" Trellara asked with surprise.
"That's our target," Arden replied.
"You're Dragon Hunters?" she asked.
"For now…" Arden answered. "There's something much bigger going on; Rhest is just part of an upcoming invasion. Are you familiar with The Red Hand?" Trellara gave a tentative nod.
"The Hobgoblins in Rhest are wearing that emblem…" she replied cautiously.
"Well…" Trellara added after a short pause. "If you're enemies of The Wyrm, you'll find welcome in Starsong Hill. This road is not the best way to get there though." Taldir scowled at Elantar, who shrugged with a small grin.
"The North Road?" Boshley asked, also glaring at Elantar.
"That's much further," Trellara replied, "but easier going. I meant that we'd take you by Owl."
"Great," Elantar grinned, and approached the nearest Owl, which quickly backed away with caution. Arden also looked happy at this prospect and approached a different Owl, who regarded her on friendlier terms.
"What about the horses?" Gravak asked.
"And Boaz!" Boshley added. "Besides…" the Gnome continued, "I don't think you'll get me on one of those things!"
The last few hours of the journey had been the hardest. Gravak didn't want to be petty about it, but he definitely felt a slight twinge of resentment at being one of those left to walk while the others had an easy flight to the Elven village. He had been pleased to get some distance from the Elves though. One of them had spotted the crumbled Ogre Skeleton, and was asking far too many questions. Arden had lied pretty convincingly to tell them that they had no idea what it was, and that the remains had been there before them. It had held off the questions, but Gravak was glad for the reduced scrutiny on the issue.
"We made good time in the end," Mithranir smiled. Starsong Hill rose before them, and they'd be at a fireside in just a few minutes time. Mithranir had accompanied him and Boshley, along with all of their mounts, from the site of their battle with the beast: the Elves had actually drawn lots to decide who would have to walk back with them, the loser being roundly mocked by his friends.
Greenspawn Razorfiends…
He ruminated on them for a while. The beast had been an incredibly tough adversary, and Buttercup had needed a great deal of attention from Arden, who'd healed her afterwards. Trellara Nightshadow had said something about them being bred in Rhest. Facing more of these monsters was not something that Gravak was going to relish.
The long trudge to this village, which was bringing them a little out of their way for Gravak's liking, had consisted mostly of more rain. There was a little excitement when a pair of crocodiles attempted to make a meal of some of the horses, but they had beaten them back. Mithranir had proved himself a decent fighter in the process, and he gained some respect in Gravak's eyes. Still; the thoughts of a good rest in a welcoming village, and a decent meal of crocodile steak at the end of the hike, had kept his spirits up.
"Mithranir!" Trellara called to him as they passed through the town gate. "Well met again," she added, to Boshley and Gravak with a small bow. "You are summoned to Illian's hut," she declared.
"Who's Illian?" Boshley asked.
"The most powerful Cleric in Starsong Hill," Mithranir answered.
"He and Sellyria, the leader of our community, await you."
"We can't rest first?" Gravak asked.
"There will be time later," she promised.
Trellara delivered them to Illian, and then departed, still singing the same lament for her brother. They discovered the rest of their companions finishing a hearty meal and drinking wine.
"Did you save us any?" Boshley asked as they entered.
"Elethrin!" a male Elf called. "More food for our guests." A young Elf waiting at the side of the room left, and returned a couple of minutes later with bowls of fruit, cheese and bread.
Talk of Rhest continued for another twenty minutes or so, while Gravak saw to his empty stomach. The conversation had evidently been going on for a while already. Gravak learned little that Jarmaath and his people in Brindol hadn't already told them. What he did learn was that Starsong Hill feared the Dragon, and felt that they were ill-equipped to deal with it. There was no telling how much resistance they would find in Rhest, and Gravak began to feel apprehensive at the chances of the six of them surviving the coming fight. When Sellyria began to speak of sending help with them, he began to pay more attention again.
"I'll introduce you," she declared, standing and waiting for everyone to join her.
She led them across the village, towards a larger wooden structure that looked like it was functioning as a tavern.
"Who is this that you're taking us to?" Arden asked.
"My son," Sellyria answered with a smile. Gravak considered this an impressive gesture: the leader of the community sending her own son with them showed great confidence in their endeavour.
"Wait here," she said when they reached the building.
She opened the door to a noisy room, which quickly fell quiet. "It's time," he heard her call.
"I think you'll like him; he's spent a lot of time away from the village, so is accustomed to your lifestyle," she explained.
A familiar figure stepped out of the building and smirked at them.