They set out early the next morning after a frugal breakfast of tea and some left-over roasted tubers. Nuala and her companions knew the way to the new Kharlin village and acted as guides.
As Dawn left the abandoned village, she felt a little twinge at leaving Aaron and his men at arms to the tender mercies of the demons. But Grinna had stated her position clearly. She and Teren wouldn’t go into the demon’s lair to free these men, as it would be fraught with danger and almost certainly suicidal.
As Grinna had said: “I neither have your blind optimism nor am I overly invested into the survival of these men. Maybe we would brave the spiders in these caves if you were the one they held captive, but I won’t shed any tears for these kidnappers.”
And that had been that.
As they threaded their way through the rock formations, Dawn enjoyed the warmth of the sun, tempered by a light breeze. Spring had given way to summer now, and the trees and shrubbery laid out a way before them were a riot of green. With the size of their group they didn’t even try for stealth, without all of them having the requisite skills it would have been pointless anyway. They had the rangers and Ankou as scouts , Grinna and Teren roaming mostly in front and to the side of the party and Ankou safeguarding their rear.
That awful sadness she had felt all day yesterday, had turned into a feeling of slight melancholy. As long as she didn’t dwell on the situation with her family overly, she was all right.
From today on, she would be focusing on growing strong enough to fight the demons. She hoped Nuala would be able to sway the Kharlins in Kharma’s village from their hostile stance. Evading the demons and hoping for the best was a tempting strategy, one that she would have liked to follow herself, if she had had the chance.
But if what Nuala had said was true, and Dawn had no reason to doubt it, then the queen would actively chase her. Which meant she would endanger any people near her, if she just tried to go away and put some distance between herself and the demons. Not an option, obviously. And she had had enough of living alone in the wilderness at the start of her journey, even if it had been only for a few days. It would be a sad and lonely life on her own.
But what concerned Dawn more than even the fact the demons would chase her, was the way the queen had changed her with her blood magic ritual. After all she had heard and learned about blood magic, she feared the consequences of that ritual. Nuala had told her she would not turn into a monster, but how could she possibly tell what the outcome would be? Nuala could see truth, but not the future.
Dawn dreamed of the queen all the time, and she had gained some resistances without knowing how it happened. Her knowledge of magic and runes was profoundly inadequate at the moment, she needed to learn more about magic, and blood magic most of all. Not to use it, but to get an insight into the consequences for herself, being the unwilling participant of a blood magic ritual.
So, the Kharlins were her best chance for support, be it in the fight against the demons or the acquiring of knowledge in magic. The demons had been preying on their tribe heavily, surely they would want to fight back. Dawn hoped their next meeting would go better than the last. But if Nuala would speak for her, she should at least have a chance.
Niko and Nestor almost worshiped the old priestess, and after only a few days in her company, she had to admit that she valued Nuala’s serenity and her good advice greatly herself. She admired the older woman and felt a deep sense of connection with her, that was unusual for the short time they had known each other. It reminded her a bit of her relationship with her old mentor Marja, but it felt even stronger than that. Marja had been kind to her and had taken the time to tutor her in the identification and uses of herbs and plants, and she had taught her some of her own recipes for medicines. But she was deeply steeped in the traditional mindset of the villagers, too. For her, the fact that Dawn would obey her parents, marry and be a good wife and mother had been a matter of course.
Nuala had lived an unconventional life herself, though it had been not entirely by her own choice. Her advice was practical and to the point, with no thought to tradition. Her own struggles with her truth skill over the years had lent her a deep wisdom and an unparalleled insight into human nature. She didn’t think Dawn’s choices unseemly or bad, maybe a bit impulsive and naive, but Nuala didn’t condemn her for her actions. And she was confident enough to tell Dawn the truth, even if it was an uncomfortable one.
During her musings, the group had left the rock formations behind, and had entered a lightly forested area, finding their way forwards through thick shrubbery and brambles. With the beginning of summer came the unfortunate reality of bloodsucking insects. Gnats and mosquitoes were buzzing around the party, leaving itching bites and turning into a general nuisance.
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They all breathed a sigh of relief when the abundant greenery finally gave way again to more rocky surroundings. They were climbing up into the craggy foothills of some mountains. When they arrived at a small lake, they took a break to eat some of their food and drink the icy, crystal clear water.
For the first time in days, Dawn felt a measure of contentment, sitting on a rock in the sun next to the lake in the midst of friends, a little bit drowsy after her meal due to her short sleep last night. Ankou sprawled beside her, contentedly warming himself in the sun, eyes almost completely closed and his ears flicking slightly from time to time, the tufts tousled by the soft breeze. His glossy fur was shining in the sun.
All too soon, their break was over and Grinna called for them.
“Hey, you two lazybones. Time to move on. We want to reach the village before nightfall after all.”
Sighing deeply, Dawn stood up. Ankou gave himself a big stretch and deigned to follow her.
They started upwards again, the small trail they were following was ascending steeply now, and the rangers stayed to the front of the group. There was no way to the left or right of the trail. To one side the terrain feel abruptly, to the other a naked rock face loomed over the trail, several meters high. When they came around the bend, the path widened out a bit.
Suddenly, they heard Grinna cursing loudly. Astonished Dawn looked over to the ranger who was standing over some lumps lying on the trail. When she arrived next to Grinna, she saw the reason for her anger. Lying on the trail were the butchered remains of a small herd of mountain goats. There were several partly devoured corpses lying in a pool of their own blood, apparently brought down in a frenzy of bloodlust. Flies were buzzing around them, and their blood wasn’t completely dried out yet. The attack couldn’t have been long ago.
The rangers exchanged a meaningful glance and Grinna said. “Let’s move on fast. This is not a good terrain to be surprised by a beast attack.”
The group hastened their pace up the steep trail. After several minutes of this, Dawn started to breathe heavily, her body not used to the speed and the exertion. She sent a short glance to Nuala, who was having trouble keeping up. They would have to slow down a bit, she thought.
Before she could talk to Grinna and Teren, dark grey bodies started to drop down on the trail from the top of the rock face next to them. One, two, three, many… Spiderlings. She just could not escape the gods-forsaken demons.
Panicked, Dawn saw that Nuala and herself had been cut off from the rest of the party, several of the demon spawn in front and as she whirled around also in the rear of them. Desperate, she took out her sword, but already she knew there were too many to fight. In the course of a split second, she thought of and discarded several possible options, but in the end she had only one possible way of fighting many enemies at once. It had been useless against the grown demons, but maybe the spiderlings weren’t as resistant, yet? She could but try.
She cast Call the Lightning on the pack of demons in front of them. They were a bit too close to Nuala and her for her liking, but she had no time to care about the niceties right now. If she didn’t get some of the demons out of the fight quickly, it was all over for them.
The searing white light of the lightning almost blinded her, leaving dark specks in her vision as it died down. The demon spawn in front of her sizzled, maybe half a dozen bodies sprawled out motionless along the trail.
Dawn didn’t know if they were dead or just paralyzed for a moment, but she had no time to find out. Already the spiderlings to their rear had reached them and she had to use her sword to keep them away from her and Nuala. As she turned to face their enemies, she saw the rangers fighting more of the demon spawn out of the corner of her eyes, aided by Niko.
The only reason she hadn’t been overwhelmed yet, was the narrow trail they all were standing on. There was only room for two demons next to each other on it. Even so she was hard pressed. Maybe she could have fought one of the spiderlings successfully. They didn’t have the bulk, the reach or the rock-hard bodies of their grown brethren. But they were a lot more agile in exchange. Only her own high agility gave her a chance to keep up with them.
Her sword took one of them in the head and the monster dropped down, dead. But its death made way on the path for another one, that leapt over the corpse swiftly and evading Dawn and her sword, tried to directly attack the old Kharlin woman behind her.
“Nuala!” Dawn cried. In a desperate move, she flung herself between the spiderling and the old priestess, going down as the body of the demon crashed against her. The next moment all she saw was the gruesome head of the spider next to her own, fangs glistening with venom, red eyes glittering maliciously. The spider struck, as Dawn turned her head away, trying to evade its bite. The fangs entered her neck, an icy cold feeling trailing down from the site of the bite.
‘So that’s it.’ She thought, ‘they got me in the end.’ In a last ditch effort, she cast Nurture on herself, not really believing it would help against the venom. The icy feeling retreated for a moment afterwards, but soon started spreading again. Dawn looked over at Nuala, who stared at her with concern, but was already confronted by the next spiderling. “I’m sorry,” she said, before the blackness encroaching on her vision caught up with her and she felt nothing anymore.