Rhania blinked as they emerged from the tomb. The sun was setting, but the light was dazzling in comparison to the gloom beneath the earth. She was still reeling from what she’d learned. She looked at Ricar, who was walking ahead of her. She still had serious misgivings about him and his lord. It would be difficult to proceed if they could not place their full trust in one another.
She frowned, knowing she should send word back to her order at Dinburn, but couldn’t see how without first returning to Yeryn. There was no time for that, though. There was no telling what could happen if this Glonn fellow brought the sword to the font of power. She followed Ricar outside and unconsciously breathed a sigh of relief when she saw an orange streaked sky overhead.
“I know how you feel,” Ricar remarked with a wry smile. “So, can you divine a way to the font of power?”
“Give me a moment,” Rhania said. Her heart began to pound as she attempted to clear her mind of unnecessary thoughts.
“Any true elf will be able to find the font,” the words echoed in her head. What if she couldn’t? What would that mean?
She took a deep breath and focused her senses. Her heart lightened as she felt the magical energies swirl and course through the ground below. However, her relief was short lived. The flow seemed chaotic to her, and she could discern no pattern or anything that might indicate the existence of a powerful source of energy. Her brow furrowed with concentration as she further honed her senses, desperately searching for any indication of this font in the swirling energy currents beneath her feat.
“That couldn’t be,” she thought desperately to herself. She could feel the flow of energy. Perhaps her mother’s teaching in the way of her people had been deficient. She had passed when she was so young.
“So, can you find it?” Rhania jumped when she heard Ricar’s voice in her ear.
She turned around to see that the wiry man was standing right next to her. She cursed herself. It was the first time he had snuck up on her, and she was lucky not to have his dagger in her back. She then found that the sky was dark and that she was bathed with sweat. She heaved a sigh before shaking her head. “No.”
Ricar bit his lip and nodded as he looked around. “That’s unfortunate. What do we do now?”
“Do you think the villagers are still loyal to your lord?” she asked.
“I wouldn’t trust them,” Ricar warned.
“What choice do we have?” Rhania asked. “All we need to know is the general direction in which they set off and I might be able to find the font from there. How many of those creatures did you see?”
Ricar’s features twisted into a look of disapproval but at length, he shrugged. “Just the one, but there may be more that I didn’t see.”
“Do you think these things need to rest?” she asked as she stroked her chin thoughtfully.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Ricar replied. He frowned before adding. “If we’re going to do it, we should do it quickly.”
Rhania nodded and led the way back to the field. She felt another twinge of melancholy as she caught sight of the bright red poppies in the dying light. She tore her eyes from them and looked to the village. The abomination was still standing guard. Lights were on in half of the windows.
“It’s as though it hasn’t moved,” Ricar mused. He paused before turning to Rhania. “Have you spared any thought to what we’re going to do if Glonn has won the villagers over?”
“He wouldn’t need that thing there if he had, would he?” Rhania pointed out.
“That’s a bit of a leap, Madam Arbiter,” Ricar began to protest.
“I shall destroy that foul symbol of the Dark Gods’ power and then we will play things by ear from there,” Rhania declared as she unslung her bow and turned to Ricar. “Will you assist me?”
“Are all Arbiters as impetuous as you?” Ricar ventured, shaking his head.
“Perhaps if they were, we would actually get things done,” Rhania snorted in reply before plunging into the field.
As she walked, stooped over in the long grass, she pulled an arrow from her quiver. She looked at it and heaved a sigh. Loathe as she was to call upon the God of Light, if they were up against the servants of darkness, His blessings could well tip the scales in their favour, and she had to know if that was the case. Her mind made up, she crept closer to the village and hid a grin when she heard Ricar enter the field behind her.
When she was within arrow range of the creature, she could make out more of its grotesque features in the rapidly failing light. It was a hulking creature, standing almost three times taller than a man and built like a gorilla. Its head looked comically small and sat at a strange angle and its face was twisted into a mask of agony and fury.
“Why have you stopped?” Ricar whispered into her ear.
The creature’s head jerked abruptly and Ricar paled. Rhania set her bow down and clutched her arrow in both hands before closing her eyes. She chanted softly and the creature growled as it sniffed the air like a dog.
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“What are you doing, it’s going to find us,” Ricar hissed.
Rhania ignored him and held the arrow up to the sky. Moments later, a yellow beam shot down from the heavens, imbuing it with divine power. The creature howled a blood curdling cry of alarm before thundering towards them. Rhania exhaled and slowly nocked the arrow. Its head blazed with yellow light as she pointed it at the creature.
She heard Ricar draw his sword and he planted his feet on the ground two paces in front of her. The creature was now fifty paces away and closing the distance rapidly. There would be no time for a second shot.
“Do you think you can fell it in one shot?” Ricar asked.
Rhania did not answer as she pulled the bowstring taut. She took aim and paused. The target was large, but there would be no time for a second shot like with the dogs on the first day.
Twenty paces. Ricar glanced at her worriedly. “Aren’t you going to fire?”
Ten paces and the creature raised a massive arm that was the size of a small tree. Ricar, however, held his ground and drew his sword back, prepared to swing. As the creature brought its arm down, Rhania released the arrow. The creature screeched and stumbled as the barb struck its chest. However, its momentum continued to carry it towards them. Rhania tackled Ricar out of its way and to the ground as the beast came crashing down.
She whirled around to see the beast convulsing as it shrank rapidly. Soon, it shrunk into a tall, muscular, man whose glassy eyes stared up at the sky. From his build, Rhania guessed that he was a soldier before being turned into that thing. The arrow that killed him was still buried in his chest and Rhania picked herself up before pulling it out. His blood was red, like a normal man’s and she couldn’t help but wonder if this one could have been saved had he been struck in a non-vital area.
“How many more times can you do that?” Ricar panted.
“I can’t,” she replied. “Not until dawn.”
“So should we wait until then before entering the village?” Ricar ventured.
Rhania turned her gaze towards the village. Silhouettes had appeared in the window where villagers stood to see what the noise was about. “We don’t have the time. Let’s see where these people’s loyalties lie.”
“I suggest we enter the village with our weapons drawn and prepared to flee,” Ricar said.
Rhania nodded and pulled the hood of her cloak over her head to hide her ears. As they approached the village, she could see the people standing at the windows, staring back at her. They looked frightened. That was an encouraging sign. The village proper was twelve buildings built on either side of a lane of trampled grass which served as a road. The people were still content to watch the pair from the windows. Rhania glanced at Ricar.
The wiry man looked around and took a deep breath. “Is Vint here?”
Silence.
“I am Ricar Zoldyn, Steward of Yeryn, and I am looking for Vint, the village headman,” he cried.
At length, a man opened the window a crack. “He has gone with Glonn.”
“Are there any more of those creatures here?” Ricar asked, gesturing at the field where the man Rhania had killed lay.
Rhania saw several heads shake and breathed a sigh of relief. “They don’t look happy to be liberated.”
Ricar nodded in agreement. “Tell us where Glonn went, and we will be on our way.”
“Is our Lord coming?” one of the villagers asked. “Is he on his way here?”
“Can we leave?” another chimed in.
“You are free to do as you wish,” Ricar announced. “But first, tell us where Glonn went so that we may bring him to justice.”
“He acted on his own, you know!” the first villager insisted. “We was forced to follow him.”
“I am not here to assign blame,” Ricar replied. “But I will vouch for you if you first tell me where he went.”
“To the east,” someone replied.
“What happened to the hundred Sir Ilian sent?” Ricar asked.
“Is that important?” Rhania hissed into his ear. “Time is pressing, and we should leave at once.”
“I think it is,” he replied softly. “We want to know how many we are up against.”
Rhania bit her lip. He raised a good point, and she should have thought of that herself.
“Most of them died in the ambush,” one of the villagers replied. “Five surrendered and were turned. They’ve gone with Glonn. One stayed here to keep an eye on us.”
“And how many villagers have gone with them?” Ricar asked.
“None,” came the immediate reply. “Many of us were turned when our lord’s armies came but they were almost all killed. It was a close fought affair. Since then, Glonn said we made poor soldiers and were a waste of his new Gods’ power.”
Ricar turned to Rhania who raised her eyebrows. “Well then, that sounds manageable enough, I suppose.”
“Do you think you can take five of those things at once?” Ricar asked.
Rhania shrugged. “It will be easier than taking on a hundred.”
“Thank you for your help,” Ricar called out. “We are going to pursue Glonn and advise all of you to make your way back to Yeryn, if you are able.”
“You’re leaving now?”
Rhania turned to see a slightly overweight young woman standing at the doorway to her home wearing a worried look on her face.
“Yes, madam,” she replied. “I’m afraid we cannot spare another moment.”
The woman bit her lip before stepping out of her home and into the street. In the periphery of her vision, she could see the other villagers look at her with various degrees of shock, and a boy around five years of age, peeping out anxiously from the window of the building she had emerged from.
“You can’t leave us alone after dark,” the woman gasped. “We will be defenceless against…”
“Wild beasts have come down from the mountains and inhabit these woods,” her neighbour chimed in. “Even Glonn and his guards don’t stray in them after dark.”
“If he is left to his own devices, he could imperil the entire region,” Rhania pointed out. “We must pursue him.”
“He will be sheltering for the night,” the woman hurried over to Rhania, who did not flinch but kept a hand on the dagger at her back, just in case. The woman whispered. “If you spend the night here, I can tell you exactly where he’s gone. That will save you time, won’t it?”
Rhania narrowed her eyes. “You hid that from us?”
“Yes,” she hissed. “Can you blame us? Glonn wiped a hundred of Lord Ilian’s men out and could return at any moment. He turns those who oppose him into those things.”
The woman paused and shuddered. “Stay with us until morning at the very least. We can fend for ourselves from there.”
Rhania looked out to the field where the abomination had died. “That thing was protecting you from them.”
“It was,” the woman admitted quickly. In the corner of her eye, she saw Ricar grip the hilt of his sword and shift to a more favourable position to strike at the woman. “Do understand though that none of us wants to be here. However, with the forest the way it is now, leaving simply isn’t an option.”
Rhania nodded and glanced at Ricar, who shrugged. In the periphery of her vision, she could see that the other villagers were still standing at their windows. This woman, for whatever reason, was the only one who dared leave her home.
“Stay the night,” she soothed. “It will be better for the two of you, and for us.”
“Will it now?” Ricar asked dryly.
“Yes,” her head bobbed. “The forest is dangerous, and how much progress can you hope to make at night?”
“We can even tell you a faster route to the font,” she added when she saw Rhania waver.
“Fine,” Rhania sighed. She had to sleep if she was to call upon Aertani’s power again, and though it was by a slim margin, the village seemed safer than the forest.