“Found ya.”
The storm overhead was already too loud to hear him, but mom and i regularly practiced lip reading so we could communicate in silence.
The human shaped figure in leather reinforced with metal bands pulled itself—himself—atop the wall. A large mace, glowing with enchantments hung at his side, but instead of reaching for it, he pulled free the horn beside it and lifted the instrument to his lips.
It must have been magic because the sound was so loud and deep and warbling that it drowned out the raging wind overhead.
In the distance, more horns answered his call. My heart hammered and my limbs froze. There was something about the glint in his eyes as he pulled a crossbow from his back that scared me more than any monster I’d encountered. Something bad. Something cruel.
The storm overhead crackled and my limbs refused to move even as he leveled the weapon in his hands at me with a crooked grin.
Why wouldn’t my body move?
Time seemed to slow down as I waited for my death. In the clarity of that frozen moment I finally saw the strangeness of the moment. If that creature was bonded to orcs, why was a human here? From everything mom had told me Orcs were universal enemies to humanity. They ate us.
A massive boom deafened me, a flash of light blinded me, and something sharp pierced into my shoulder, knocking me to the ground.
When my senses returned, craned my neck to look at the quarrel protruding just above my heart, I then followed its trajectory back to a smoking corpse on the rock wall that was only just now collapsing to the ground.
Mom was at my side so fast that she brought a gust of wind with her. Her amber eyes fixed on my shoulder and the crossbow bolt sticking out. She knelt beside me and placed a hand around the shaft, looking into my eyes with a stoic expression that couldn’t hide her welling tears of rage and pain.
“What do we do with impaled objects?” She asked, her voice quiet but somehow still cutting through the howling wind.
“Leave it in and stabilize it until I have proper medical resources to rinse the wound and prevent any bleeding.”
“Good.” She smiled and kissed me on the forehead. “Remember that for the future and disregard what I’m about to do.” Before I could ask what she was talking about she lifted my shoulder and pushed the arrow the rest of the way through.
I screamed, but she held me firm, cutting the head of the bold off cleanly and tossing it to the side. It had a pair of nasty barbs that would have torn me up if she’d tried to pull it out the way it had come in. In one smooth movement, she pulled the now-headless shaft out from the front and placed a hand on my armor over the hole. I smelled the sharp iron tang of blood magic as she cast on me. This time I didn’t cry, even though it hurt even more. But when she was done, there was no more blood coming out of the opening.
My head spun as she hauled me up and put me on the sled. Next, she harnessed the wolves.
“We shouldn’t have come back here.” She muttered to herself. “I should have known better. I do know better. I can’t believe I let it happen all over again.”
I reached for her. I had so many questions, but I settled for the one that mattered most. “Mom, what are you doing?”
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She squeezed my hand, and the stern expression on her face cracked. “There is no way we can outrun them, little sun. I’m going to hold them back.”
“No, let me fight with you. You can’t-”
“I can’t fight them and protect you at the same time.” I opened my mouth to protest again but she cut me off once more. “We don’t have time to argue. Just stay alive Rowan. I’ll come find you. I promise.” But I saw the doubt in her eyes.
Mom freed my bow and several arrow, placing them in my hands along with a vial of dark liquid. “If any get past me, they’ll be on mounts. Use the poison. Don’t worry about the meat. Survival is all that matters.” With one last kiss to the forehead she stood and whistled.
My stomach lurched as the wolves sprang into motion. I wiped away tears and grit my teeth as we hurtled down the back side of the mountain, snow spraying in our wake, even as the column of clouds overhead spread out and because to shower the earth in a pristine white coat.
After a few minutes of focusing on my breathing I started to feel centered again. The wind was screaming and the trees creaking, and beneath it all I could have sworn I still hurt the clashing of steal and roaring of monsters.
But I’d just have to trust her. My mom was invincible. More powerful than anything I’d ever seen. She would survive. She had to. I needed her to.
I shook the unhelpful thoughts out of my head and uncorked the poison, pinching the arrows between my knees to steady them as I coated the sharp metal heads between bumps as I was dragged further and further away. I corked the bottle and put it in a pouch on my belt. My hands carefully plucked one arrow from where I had them pinched between my legs and nocked it on the bowstring. My instincts told me I’d need them sooner rather than later.
The key to detection in the woods was to relax the mind. Instead of a razor sharp focus, as I might have while whittling, I spread my attention, not letting my focus rest on anything, but keeping my thoughts silent and attention centered on my senses. If you already knew what you were looking for, you’d miss any other signs. Mom called it ‘soft focus’.
The wolves, led by Scarface, continued to haul me backwards for what felt like forever. Snow covered pine tries flew past in little more than a blur of green and brown and white.
Maybe I was in the clear? How long had it been?
My mind had grown tired from keeping it in this hyper aware state, but I didn’t let my doubt distract me. And it was good thing too, because minutes later A flash of something different drew my attention.
Something was wrong with what I was seeing but it wasn’t clear what. There were no wrong colors as I focused in on the spot about fifty yards back and to the left, but as I softened my gaze again, I only grew more certain that I was missing something.
As mom had drilled into me, I trusted my instincts and drew the bow back, angling it towards the general area that was giving me this feeling. I waited until something in me clicked and I loosed. The arrow soaring back and impaling—nothing.
It stopped mid air, the tip disappearing.
Curses. It was a mirage lizard.
But at least I knew where it was now.
With the arrow to anchor my perception I was able to make out it’s leaping gait as this impacted the snow. Remembering the size of the previous one, I made an educated guess about where the head and mouth might be, hoping that it ran with an open maw like wolves did as I loosed another poison arrow.
This time my effort was rewarded with a scream, though the beast sped up even more. Pounding through the snow as its camouflage began to fade. The wolves must have sensed it because they too sped up with whimpering yowls of fear.
What I hadn’t thought to expect was the massive grey-blue humanoid shape atop it. Apparently the lizard could extend its mirage to a rider.
My eyes met dark red eyed full of bloodlust on a horrific, tusked face just as the lizard collapsed mid-stride, face planting at full speed and sending the blue orc flying into a tree.
I’d done it!
As my focus broadened again I felt a tingle on the back of my neck. I spun just in time to see a ledge fast approaching. The wolves were in a panic and had started to run blindly. The snow now so deep that they likely could barely see over it.
I reached for the reigns, jerking to the side and calling as loud as I could for them to stop. The wolves swerved just before the ledge, but it was too late.
I leapt from the sled just as it passed over the lip of the cliff. Momentum carried me forward, scraping and clawing in the snow for purchase as I followed my supplied off the ledge.
Still tied to the falling sled, the wolves were pulled after it just as my hand flew free of the cliff.
We flew out into empty air and everything seemed to freeze for a moment as time stretched out like elastic before it snapped back.
And we fell.