IV
"Mother's grace," Valtaya whispered, her eyes almost welling with tears as she looked upon the scene. Not even her worst nightmares could have presented her with such an awful vista. Several yards ahead, through a screen of partially scorched brush that formed the edge of the fire, nothing remained of the forest she had once known save blackened, skeletal trees and ashes. Several trees and clumps of underbrush still smoldered or burned outright, creating ghastly candles in a sea of black. Embers still swirled on the winds the fires created, while a thick miasma of smoke hung in the air. What remained of several creeks were barely distinguishable from the charred, cinder covered ground and the charred trees, as ash had choked what remained of the creeks after the fire had evaporated most of the water. Even animals had been overtaken and incinerated by the inferno; on the edge of her sight Valtaya was certain that she could see the smoking remains of what had to have been a bear. In the darkness of late evening, the only illumination was supplied by the fires eating through the forest just to their northeast, giving the terrain an almost hellish glow. Indeed, if Valtaya had to choose an image for one of the Nine Hells, the fire blackened landscape that had once been forest would be her first choice. Soundlessly the young elf slumped to her knees, still leaning on the staff in her hands.
"Valtaya," Druce said quietly. Valtaya looked up to her teacher. "We have work to do. You may mourn the Mother's wounds later, but for now we must tend to Her."
"I have never seen a storm created," Fife said, turning to Druce as Valtaya slowly rose from the ground. Although the ranger did not show it easily, the young druid could still pick up on a note of dismay in his voice. "Will it take long?"
"Not very long," Druce replied. "From the time I begin casting to the first drops of rain should be less than half of an hour. But I will need to travel inside the fire's area, in order to affect as much of it as possible."
"We can follow along the leading edge of it here," Fife said, pointing to the skeletal remains front of them. Valtaya had no desire to venture into the charred area, but steeled her will to follow the others. "It would seem that most of the fire has died behind the leading edge, and we can make it to the center of the fire line with few problems."
Druce nodded his affirmation to the plan. Slowly Fife stepped out of the last of the underbrush and into the constantly widening dead zone. Druce and Dolan followed next, but Hefydd paused for a moment with Valtaya as the two elves looked out over the destruction.
"Guess I should have stayed in Oakenbough," the wizard said, trying to hide is horror at the sight. Hefydd forced out a bit of a laugh. "Well, I guess it's too late to go back now."
Valtaya nodded numbly, but could not bring herself to answer her companion's attempt to steady his nerves. Slowly Valtaya took a step into the dead zone, almost wincing as a puff of warm ashes rose where her boots touched the ground. Druce, Dolan, and Fife were already moving far ahead, while Keridwyn waited behind the group, her back almost constantly to the devastation. With a last deep breath of the smoke filled air, Valtaya forced herself forward, catching up to the rest of her group. To her right, the fires that had left the dead zone behind came into clearer view, eating through the trees and underbrush like an insatiable demon.
Although she knew she should be keeping up with the others and watching for any signs of orcs, goblins, or any other enemies, Valtaya found herself slowing several times as her eyes were drawn back to the spectacle of the fire raging to the east. Never before had she seen such devastation. Despite the wet spring and the large amount of water that the trees and underbrush should have collected, the flames continued to sear their way through the foliage with an almost supernatural speed. The hellish glow cast by the fires threw heavy shadows from the charred remains inside the dead zone, the alternating patterns of light and darkness playing havoc with even her keen eyesight. The inferno crackled and popped constantly, while the ground and remains around her continued to hiss as the cinders under her feet reluctantly disintegrated into ash. The constant noise drowned out the sounds of anything else around her, and Valtaya found herself growing more and more nervous in the presence of the unchecked conflagration.
"We will start here," Druce said, snapping Valtaya out of her uneasy thoughts. The young druid watched as Fife nodded and made a simple gesture to the forest with his bow. Immediately Keridwyn and Dolan rushed off into the darkness, disappearing almost immediately. Druce considered the flames ahead of him for a moment, then turned to Hefydd. "Cast your shelter to the west," the druid instructed. "We will need it close enough to watch the flames through the night, but not so close that we cannot escape if the fire turns back on us."
"As you say," Hefydd said with a nod. The wizard started back slightly from the fire, already drawing a scroll case from his belt. Valtaya hesitated for a moment, but finally approached her mentor as he and Fife made one last examination of the flames before them.
"What can I do?" the young druid asked, anxious to do something other than simply stand idly by while the fires continued to rage.
"For the time being, you simply have to wait," Druce replied. "Come the morning, your skill in healing and wood lore will both be tested as we restore this land to life, but for now there is nothing you can do."
Valtaya nodded uncertainly, wanting to do more, but Druce had already forgotten his apprentice as he focused on the task of conjuring a storm from the night sky.
"It isn't much, but it will keep us dry."
"It's fine, Hefydd," Dolan said with a smile as he looked over the simple cottage that the wizard had conjured into being while Druce summoned his storm. To Valtaya, the squat structure was anything but pretty, constructed of stone and mortar with only two small windows, a narrow chimney, and an iron bound wooden door.
"A human must have created this spell," Fife said, looking over the structure with a faint hint of distaste for the form. "No elf would make such a square, ungainly building."
"The roof won't catch fire from embers, will it?" Keridwyn inquired, looking over the thatched top of the cottage. Hefydd shook his head with a smile.
"No, it won't," the wizard assured the rangers. "The whole thing is as tough as iron, and although it isn't exactly appealing, it will certainly keep the storm off of us."
"That's all we really need of it tonight," Fife decided, looking up to the night sky as the wind began to rise. Already the smoke overhead was blowing to the south, clearing the heavens for only a moment before storm clouds descended from the north. "Everyone inside."
Although the cottage was hardly the place where Valtaya would have liked to spend the night, for the moment the human building and the rough hewn wooden furniture she could see inside was far preferable to the clouds of ash and smoke that the wind stirred up into her eyes. Hefydd quickly ducked inside, and within a moment all of the others, save Druce, had followed the wizard inside. Valtaya hesitated at the door and watched as her teacher stood outside, looking up to the sky as ashes and smoke swirled around him.
"Druce?" the younger druid called out. "Are… are you coming?"
"Yes," Druce said, finally turning back to the summoned cottage. The older druid cast one last glance to the sky, and Valtaya almost thought she saw a look of puzzlement on his face as he walked into the small shelter.
"Everything all right?" Fife inquired from where he had already taken a seat on one of the rough wooden benches set along a table in the center of the cottage. Druce hesitated for a moment, but then nodded slowly.
"I suppose so," the druid answered. Fife paused for a moment, giving Valtaya the impression that he did not quite believe the druid's answer.
"How long will the storm last?" Dolan inquired as he set his bow against the far wall between two of the four bunk beds lined along that side of the cottage.
"Until dawn," Druce answered, finally growing more comfortable. Valtaya grew more relieved as she saw her mentor relax. "If all goes well, the storm should drown out the fires during the night, and in the morning we can set about to repair the damage and check on the treants."
"We have some time to ourselves, then," Keridwyn said, smiling faintly. "Perhaps we should have included a bard on our journey."
"We'll make do," Dolan said, coming back to the table after dropping his pack on one of the bunks. "After all, between Fife and Druce, we have a half a millennium of experiences to draw upon for some interesting stories."
"I'm not that old," Fife said, feigning a bit of indignance. Dolan laughed at the comment, then looked up to the ceiling as drops of rain began to beat down on the cottage.
"Here's the test," Dolan said, turning to Hefydd. "If we get wet, you're to blame."
"Just trust me," Hefydd said with a grin. "It'll only leak where you sleep."
Dolan and Keridwyn laughed at the remark along with Valtaya, but the young druid's eyes were drawn to Druce as he continued to stare at the ceiling. For a moment the young noble was puzzled by her teacher's concentration, but she suddenly realized what was wrong as the rest of the group quieted down and took notice of the change.
The rain was already stopping.
"Get your bows," Fife ordered, instantly sending his rangers into action. Dolan and Keridwyn grabbed their weapons and pulled their cloaks tightly around them, relying on the enchantments imbued in the fabric to augment their already excellent skills at stealth. The three rangers swiftly disappeared through the door and into the darkness. Hefydd paused for a second, giving the rangers time to fan out from the cottage, then ducked through the door himself. Valtaya gripped her staff tightly, waiting for Druce to head out into the darkness. The older druid considered the door for a moment, then turned to his student.
"Be calm, and think clearly," the old druid advised her. "You'll be fine."
"Thank you," Valtaya said, calming slightly at her teacher's assurance. Then they too stepped out into the night.
A strong wind was still blowing as the two druids stepped out of the cottage, but in the few minutes that the elves had been inside it had turned completely on itself, once again blowing the fire to the north. Smoke and ash still billowed up around Valtaya; the rain had not even had a chance to settle the ash out of the air before it had ended. The fires still burned just to her east.
"I don't see anything out here," Hefydd said quietly, standing just north of the cottage between two scorched trees. Druce nodded quietly, but said nothing as he squinted his eyes into the blowing cinders. Valtaya caught sight of Dolan for a moment, but the rangers, for the most part, had disappeared into the remains of the forest. Slowly the young druid scanned the darkness, shielding her eyes against the glow of the flames as she tried to make out any shapes against the burned terrain.
Druce's scream of pain spun her back around, but she barely had time to react when something raked across her chest. The young druid barely spotted what seemed to be a being of pure shadow dart across her line of vision as a spike of cold punched into her stomach, sending a terrible chill through her and instantly sapping her of her strength. Valtaya staggered backward and almost doubled over with the impact even as Druce dropped to one knee, still crying out in pain as another shadow seemingly disappeared through the darkness behind one of the trees. Hefydd turned, already raising his arms to cast a spell, but a huge, shadowy dog was suddenly pouncing on him and driving him to the ground under its weight.
Dolan and Keridwyn both appeared from the forest, their arrows slamming into the shadowy mastiff as it gored the wizard. The monster roared in pain with the impacts and leapt away, fading once more into shadows before Dolan's second arrow could strike it. At the same moment Fife appeared, his swords darting into the inky shadows and somehow finding the huge hound in the darkness. Valtaya stumbled back to her feet and turned to Druce as the three rangers tried to keep the huge hound from escaping into the shadows, her mind racing for a healing spell as she saw the blood staining his robes from his middle back all the way to his knees. Hefydd was also badly mauled, and barely managed to climb back to his feet and steady himself against a tree.
Just in time to put himself in the path of a lightning bolt.
Hefydd had no time to scream as the bolt ripped through him and continued on its path to Druce. The old druid tried to shield himself from the worst of the bolt, but he was still knocked to the ground by the arc of electricity.
"Druce!" Valtaya screamed, racing for the older druid. She had only taken a step towards her mentor when she saw something appear behind Keridwyn as the ranger nocked an arrow and pulled her bowstring taut. Even as Valtaya tried to scream out a warning the shadow struck, driving its sword through Keridwyn's spine and tossing her to the ground. Dolan brought his bow to bear and quickly turned to fire on the small, fast moving shadow that had attacked Keridwyn, but before he could loose his arrow a pillar of incandescent flames erupted from the ground beneath him, incinerating the ranger. Valtaya skidded to a stop, frozen in terror at the amiable ranger's horrific death. Fife, the last ranger standing, lasted only a second longer as a fireball exploded almost directly in front of him, enveloping both the ranger and the shadow mastiff he had been fighting in a swirling inferno.
"Run, Valtaya!" Druce ordered, glancing over his shoulder as he struggled to his feet. The old druid had already unslung his shield from his shoulder and drawn his sickle, preparing to meet some hulking, misshapen creature barely visible in the charred trees. Druce's entire back was covered in his own blood, and his hair had been largely burned off in the stroke of lightning that had hit him, but still the old druid raised himself to full height to face the new threat in the trees. "Run, and don't look back!"
"I won't leave you!" Valtaya countered, raising her staff in front of her in preparedness for battle. Terrified by the sudden, brutal assault and still reeling with the icy chill of her shadowy assailant's strike sapping the strength from her body, the young druid was nonetheless determined to stand by Druce's side to her last breath.
"Someone must reach Oakenbough!" Druce shouted over his shoulder. A single javelin, short and slim, streaked out of the darkness, but the old druid somehow threw his shield up in time to knock the missile aside. Druce glanced back to his student, and a look of rage came over his face. "You go NOW!"
The sheer force of Druce's command jarred Valtaya into action. The young druid turned and raced south, sprinting for all she was worth into the darkness. Behind her, she could hear Druce casting a spell, but her teacher's rapid chant was cut off by a terrible roar of flames and another fireball's explosion. Valtaya stumbled and nearly fell as she hazarded a glance over her shoulder, but she could see nothing save a smoking crater where her mentor had been standing.
Tears were streaming down her cheeks as she continued her flight to the south. She had barely covered a dozen more yards when she heard the first sounds of pursuit; all around her, dark shadows darted between trees and swirls of ash and smoke gave away the positions of her pursuers. The young noble ran for all she was worth, but her foes were incredibly fast. With each step she took through the scorched landscape, her pursuers seemed to take three, and within too short a time she could hear and see glimpses of them to her east.
A terrible howl rose up from almost directly in front of her, throwing the young druid into a blind panic. Without even thinking Valtaya veered west, racing into the heart of the burned zone in her desperate attempts to outdistance her hunters. The young druid dodged through the skeletal trees and vaulted ash choked streams, stumbling several times but catching herself before she could fall headlong. Constantly the young druid threw glances over her shoulder or to the burned forest around her, trying to keep one step ahead of her speedy pursuers.
She should have been looking forward.
Valtaya's headlong flight ended with a sudden, stunning impact with some kind of net. The abruptness of the collision blasted the air from her lungs and numbed her for a long moment, but as she regained her senses she quickly tried to escape whatever it was that had grabbed hold of her. Valtaya's arms were held out from her body and only the tip of one boot touched the ground, while her long, silvery hair was now stuck to the gluey strands of the web that had captured her, effectively blinding her. In a panic the young druid fought desperately against the web that had trapped her, but she only managed to entangle herself even further into the sticky strands.
A voice behind her made her stop struggling. It was a masculine voice, but it was also as smooth and melodic as any bard she had heard in the court of Oakenbough. While the words were incomprehensible to her, they almost seemed sinister in their apparently offhand tone. Carefully the elf tried to turn her head to at least try and see the man that had addressed her, but all she managed to do was stick more of her hair to her face. The man behind her laughed, a horrid, melodic sound that carried over the sudden stillness in the charred forest. Then she heard him take a step closer, almost as though he intentionally ground his feet into the ashes to let her know where he was. Something was uncorked behind her, further confusing the trapped druid.
Strong brandy was poured over her head. Valtaya spat and choked on the liquid, trying desperately to free her hands and wipe at her stinging eyes. The glue holding her head and hair to the web dissolved, and Valtaya quickly snapped her head back to give herself a clear field of vision. For a long moment, all she could see in front of her were indistinct blurs, but finally her sight returned in full.
The man standing in front of her was not taller than Fife had been at Valtaya's most generous estimate. A knee length cloak, black with streaks of midnight blue and darkest green, shrouded most of the blackened leather armor he wore and largely concealed the swords on his hips. Long, snow white hair, carefully cut into an unfamiliar, sharply angled pattern, framed a face as black as coal and two eyes as red as blood. Pointed ears poked out of the mane of hair. As her captor, undeniably elven despite his ebony skin, saw the horror on her face, his lips curled into a malicious, terrifying smile.
"It can't be," Valtaya whispered, darkness eating away at the edges of her sight. She suddenly felt very dizzy. "Drow… don't exist."
"We are only a nightmare," the drow in front of her said, speaking her language perfectly. The dark elf's ghastly laugh was the last thing she heard before she slipped away into unconsciousness.