Trespass
A change had come over Ciara, and Kyner was glad for it. He smiled as he watched the girl from the stern of the boat. Since the rains had passed, she had made it her habit to spend most of her time above deck as the river boat progressed south. Had Kyner known how much Ciara craved the open horizon and the free air he would have never have cooped her up has he had. Then again, he thought grimly, I never asked.
Kyner looked past Ciara and to the southwest, then he stopped smiling. The grassy hills of Jutonfar loomed over the river there. They would pass very close.
On an ordinary journey Kyner never would have worried about the gnolls that inhabited the Jutonfar hills but he had his ward with him now. She must learn to defend himself, Kyner reminded himself, the gods know I want that girl to see no harm but she must learn.
The worst part, Kyner knew, was that the gnolls became increasingly desperate as winter drew near. They plundered whatever passing ships they could for food. The winter was drawing on quickly. It's only a matter of time. Then Kyner remembered that gnolls ate human flesh and–if need be–each other.
Kyner tried to keep an eye on Ciara at all times as the river boat drew closer to the Jutonfar hills, and he berated her whenever he found her not carrying her weapons. She still thinks she can get through this and not kill anything, Kyner thought sadly.
When the river boat passed under the shadows of the Jutonfar hills Kyner encouraged Ciara to stay below deck and stayed on deck himself nearly all day and night. He realized that, although old, he was still quite tireless when need arose.
The inevitable happened on the second day as they were passing the Jutonfar hills. A bolt of lightning arced from a clear sky to strike the rudder and the river boat shuddered. Kyner took the axe from his belt and began scanning the river banks for enemies. They showed themselves soon enough, standing from behind dying shrubs, half-man and half-hyena, each of them over seven feet tall.
They charged forward, bounding toward the river boat as it floundered helplessly toward the shore. Kyner hurled his axe at the gnoll leading the charge and the creature let out a fearsome howl as it fell forward into the river. Water and blood mingled for what would not be the last time today.
Crewmen scrambled to find what weapons they could as the river boat beached on the wrong side of the river and gnolls began to climb aboard. Kyner had no words of encouragement to offer the crew. He knew it would be a slaughter.
The boatswain charged toward the first gnoll to clamber aboard. Short sword in hand, he showed no fear. That gnoll impaled the boatswain on the spike of his halberd before he had even closed in, then withdrew his weapon and clove the boatswain's chest open with the weapon's blade. Then the gnoll made a horrible sound that must have passed for laughter among gnolls.
Kyner shook his head and hefted Issgar, the great sword. The other crewmen, including the captain, tried to make themselves seem as small as possible behind Kyner. More gnolls began to climb aboard the river boat.
A trio of gnolls walked forward as one, their heavy boots thudding on the deck and Kyner could see the hands of more reach up onto the ship. Kyner shrugged off his cloak and moved forward to meet them. The one in the center laughed as he swung his halberd.
Kyner ducked beneath the swing and thrust the last two feet of his greatsword through the gnoll's gut. Kyner withdrew his sword and pushed the gnoll backward onto the halberd spike of one of his fellows. Another made to skewer Kyner, but the warrior brought his weapon around in an arc that clove the gnoll's halberd in two and then back again to hew off its leg. More gnolls climbed aboard behind Kyner and took the fight to the crewmen who had been using Kyner as a shield. Kyner saw a gnoll attempting to climb up the side of the boat and hacked at it's hamstring. When the animal fell writhing to the deck Kyner cleaved apart its skull.
Spinning about, Kyner saw a gnoll bringing its two-handed sword down and raised his sword above his head to parry the attack, then sidestepped the gnoll and slashed at the beast, a cut that tore through leather jerkin and spilled the gnoll's intestines onto the deck. When the beast had fallen Kyner noticed a small wand hanging from its belt and took it. Good, thought Kyner when he recognized the design of the wand, if they had a shaman with them things might have gotten really messy. Kyner stowed the wand quickly enough to sidestep the heavy flail ball that would have reduced his head to nothing more than bloody pulp and did just that to the flail's owner.
Ciara exited her cabin when she heard the sudden bolt of lightning and had a feeling that something was wrong. When she heard the screaming and the ring of steel on steel–as well as the thuds of steel on flesh–she knew something was wrong and quickened her pace. She opened the door to the short staircase that led up to the deck and, on reaching the top, saw a number of hyena-like humanoids at least seven feet tall making sport of the crew. She thought she saw Kyner further down the deck, surrounded by the creatures, but he seemed to be making sport of them.
Without thinking, Ciara drew the sword Kyner had given her and walked to the closest gnoll. Ciara saw the beast hack off a leg from the crewman it had been fighting with a sword bearing a heavily curved and broad blade, and then split the man from scalp to navel. The gnoll kicked over the corpse and turned its stare to Ciara, saliva dripping from between its long, bared teeth.
Ciara thought she should have felt frozen by the hungry stare of the creature but she felt no fear. The creature made a cackling noise as it slowly, confidently approached Ciara. It did not raise its weapon, thinking the girl defenseless. Ciara felt coldly amused as she lunged forward and sliced at the creature.
It was a clumsy, shallow cut across the thing's chest. Kyner would be disappointed, she thought. Ciara expected the gnoll to ignore the wound but instead the creature let out a wail of agony and backed away from Ciara, clutching its side as if there were some burning pain there. It seemed to hesitate before making a reckless charge and hacking downward. Ciara sidestepped the gnoll's sword and made a short chop that clove the gnoll's sword-arm off while it was overextended from the lunge. As the gnoll tried to back away Ciara imapled the creature and twisted her sword. Her blade went deep and Ciara thought she could feel the ribs of the creature's chest ripping as she twisted her weapon and then brought it out of the gnoll.
The creature fell onto its back and tried to back away from Ciara, its eyes were filled with animal fright as it looked at her and then relief as it died. Ciara was fascinated.
The girl heard heavy footsteps behind her and sliced as she wheeled about. The creature spilled all the organs once contained in its chest cavity onto the deck as it collapsed. Ciara watched its eyes: fright, relief, then nothing.
There was a loud thud as Kyner dispatched the final creature and its massive carcass fell. Ciara looked away from the corpse of the thing she had just killed to see that Kyner was making his way toward her. More crewmen were on the ground than were standing.
When he stood before her, Kyner examined her grimly, as if looking at a totally different person. Ciara seemed distant, even to herself. Kyner checked Ciara for wounds before he spoke.
"How many?" was all he asked.
"Two," said Ciara. Kyner's eyes spread wide. She speaks of killing gnolls as if she were stepping on ants, thought Kyner, I couldn't have stood up against gnolls on my own when I was just beginning. But she had, and killed two of them. What is stranger, she doesn't seem phased at all.
"We must go," Kyner said, and he went down to the cabin that had been home to Ciara for a few days at least. He seems to be saying that a lot lately, thought Ciara.
Kyner was the first to step into the small cabin he and Ciara had occupied. The furniture had not been bolted down and Ciara's bed had shifted aside. That was when Kyner saw it, and his face blanched. Ciara's eyes betrayed her surprise that Kyner had found it.
A figure had been carved into the wood planks on the wall beside the bed with a knife. Kyner pushed the bed all the way aside and knelt down to get a better look. Dark tendrils stretched out from a body masked with shadow. Kyner had no idea what it was supposed to be but the poise that the figure carried belonged unmistakably to Ciara.
"I'm sorry," Kyner heard Ciara say as he studied the figure, "I don't mean to do these things but," she paused, groping for words, "I need to," was all she could come up with, "I'm sorry," she said again.
Kyner faced Ciara, and could see that the girl he had tried to raise was still very much there. Kyner stood and closed the distance to Ciara with two steps to embrace her.
When he released her, Ciara saw that his eyes had softened, and there were restrained tears within them. "Ciara," he said, "do whatever you need to do," he hesitated and looked at the wall carving, "If drawing these things helps you to obtain some peace of mind then . . . by all means," Kyner's voice trailed off and he embraced Ciara again. What Ciara had seen of his expression said the same drawings would do nothing to ease his own sleep.