Part Seventy-seven
Laurel sat beside Kato's bed in the house of Healing. He had not yet woken, though he had been seen by several healers and pronounced past the worst dangers. Local Wise Women had used their herbs on him and said prayers to gods, in manner not unlike that of Laurel's folk. The Doctors in the city had consulted with each other over his bed, prodded his flesh and wounds, and gone about their bloodletting and puzzling Wizard-like art. Most remarkably, though Laurel had not witnessed it, the King himself had seen to the injured Halfling. The rumors did not agree on what the King had done, only that the Halfling seemed beyond danger of death afterward. Some said it was healing learned in tutelage of Elves in the King's younger days, or that Rangers knew more of healing herbs than women.
Laurel did not know what the King had done, he might have reopened Kato's wounds and performed surgery as Tsuki was said to have done for others, but whatever the case, Kato's color seemed improved and not so pale, and though still fevered, the heat was slight compared to what it had been. They allowed Laurel to tend his bedside now and women staffing the House of Healing came in to look on Kato less frequently now.
He was still pale, too warm, asleep and would likely be able to move from his bed for weeks, even if he woke, but laurel was confident that Kato was now one who was mending, and not dying. Rather, he was dying no more than any mortal creature on any given day of life.
He would recover, with time and care. The Healers had said that if his condition continued to improve, they would move him to another bed. He was yet in a high narrow bed in a windowless room with blankets, but no stove or hearth. He was, his caretakers said, so fragile yet that he ought be kept away from smoke and drafts and fresh air and water and many other things. They fed a weak broth barely more than water to him through a hollow tube so he would not starve in his sleep. The Healers looked to his bedding to see if it had been soiled when they came to see Kato. It was a matter of some concern with them, and Laurel understood. When those who had suffered injuries or diseases of the belly did not pass waste after treatment, they did not survive. Laurel did not think there would be solid waste without solid food.
She read quietly from a book of romance poetry she had borrowed from the Ladies Room of her inn. They had such niceties in this large city and referred to such things as separate sitting rooms for women as 'proper' and such inns in which males and females mingled in the common room as 'improper'. Strangely, not a few of the stories in lyric form told of close friendships between males. One of these seemed rather like a story Lenaduiniel had reportedly heard from Beryl, though the characters were not named as gods. Presently she was reading about a Man who had been cursed by a witch such that he became a beast once a month with the full moon, which was a woeful misrepresentation of witchcraft if to be taken literally, and his friend who tried to talk him out of his beastly fits and endeavored to acquire an animal form himself, so that he might accompany his friend when he ran into the wilderness to spare others his uncontrolled animal urges. It seemed a most strange book to find in such a 'proper' place.
Laurel hoped that the King might check on Kato, so that she, waiting at his bedside, might as the King to see the Seeing stones in the tower again. She had not dared remove the stone she had used from the tower, but left when she knew Tsuki and Dale had hidden their stones and gone back to the Elven settlement.
Laurel felt a small hand upon her knee and lifted her eyes. Kato was certainly on the mend. She lifted his hand and dropped it back to the bed and saw Kato slowly open his eyes. He blinked several times and then made a small moan. She called his name.
"Laurel. Yes? Laurel? Where…? What…?" His voice was faint, his mouth and throat were dry.
"Yes, it is I. Do not try to speak too much. You were gravely injured. I shall call to the Healers and have them bring broth to ease your throat."
Kato made a tiny affirmative sound. He was awake! Laurel set down the book and went to the door. She found the Healers beyond and announced that their ward had woken and needed water. A woman among them brought a pitcher into Kato's room with her as she returned with Laurel and another went to carry a message that Kato was awake.
The Healer studied Kato's reactions carefully, as Laurel did, as the Halfling sipped water from a small mug. He seemed alert, but his face twisted with undisguised pain at the slight shifting of his body as he tried to rise. Both instructed him to be still.
The Healer made an examination of Kato and then announced that his condition was somewhat improved and that she would have her apprentices prepare soft foods and help him bathe.
"Tell me what happened," Kato said when the Healer left them.
Laurel explained what she was able, asked if he did recall the fight and being injured and reciting the message. She told Kato how they had come to the City and that she had found a way to reach the stone once and that she did not know whether the message had been understood, but that their former companions had decided that the Wizard had means to make a terrible weapon and that they had located his hiding place and that now their friends were likely on their way to face this Wizard.
"I should be with them."
"Kato, you did all that you could. You resisted the Compulsion such as you were able, more than most could have, and you gave our friends the information they needed to make things right. If it can be done, I have faith that Tsuki, and Dale and the others will put things right. It may even be that your Men have given them aid."
"Can you use the stone again? To help them?"
"It may be, but it is difficult…now that I know you are mending, perhaps I can take the risk onto myself again."
It was snowing heavily when Tsuki's party had reached the path into the mountains. As Tsuki and Aud had arranged previously, there were Men camped in a tent, beside the road, waiting to tend the horses and lead them to shelter. "If any have changed their mind and wish to part ways here, they may," Tsuki said.
No one spoke to accept the offer but stood on the road with Tsuki, surrounded by their horses.
The mountains rose up tall and dark to the east, a fence of shadows blocking the rising stars, and through them a steeply tilted valley and the road, if the ancient snaking ruts could be called such, and above a waxing Moon. "It used to be," Beryl said, "one could view the Tower from here. The King has had it razed, but once, it would have been a beacon through the pass in the night, with windows alight, as if containing moonlight itself. The Dark Lord's minions made it a foul place…tortured…and performed their Dark Art. Still, there is a clear path to climb."
"Let's be at it," Dale grumbled.
"Just a moment to rest," Tsuki said. The Men were breaking camp and already rolling their tent. "Duma, do you have your coat?"
The Half-Orc was shivering and flushed. "I did not think it fit so well with the armor."
Tsuki saw that the coat was on his horse. "Wear it now. I will give you time to adjust your armor. Dale will help you."
Dale hissed, but he went to aid his child. The full-blooded Orcs, even if among the newly spawned mixed-breeds, were bred to endure. They would sense the change in temperature, but they would show no physical disability. Elves also would sense the change in temperature, but their immortal nature kept them from being bothered. Men suffered in cold, but all those present of that race wore layers of cloth beneath their armor and cloaks besides. However the blood had mixed in Duma, he was mortal and not entirely like an Orc in body, even if similar. Tsuki was convinced the years of tending forge fires had changed for Duma's mind what seemed heat or cold from that which others perceived.
When Dale had helped Duma to put on his coat and strap his spiked armor over his sleeve, they were ready. The Men known to Aud had the horses tethered to each other and their gear packed. They gave a final report to Aud, saying they had seen no traffic on the road since arriving.
"Whatever awaits us has not been summoned from the west, or else not used the road," Dale said, "we are rested enough."
"Agreed," Tsuki said quietly. "Beryl, will you lead?"
"I will go before you," Dale said bitterly. "Beryl may have been this way before, but it was likely long ago, and I can better see in the dark."
"Very good for one not spawned an Orc," Ugarit said, "but not so well as us, and maybe not able to hear as well either. One of us should go first to watch for enemies."
Dale, Duma and Gorghash all disagreed at once so that their protests melded together and were little understood, except as protests that likely had to do with Ugarit's gender. "Fine," Dale said then, "Gorghash, you want to lead, go. I will find the way as easily after you die."
Beryl strode past the others and began to climb the path as it wound about
jagged outcroppings and sheer drops.
Gorghash grumbled to say that Dale was not his Chieftain and there had been mention only of following orders from the Wizard.
Dale climbed after Beryl, then the Orcs, with Ugarit making effort to stay between the males, and then Tsuki. He told Fei and Aud to stay close behind him, and for his part, did his best to follow the Orcs and keep his eyes on the path. There was moonlight, but the shapes of the rock cast shadows such that it was difficult to see the difference between a deep hole and an unlit part of the path.
After they had wound along the path some distance, Duma stopped, put an arm before Ugarit to keep her from going forward and whispered, "What is that sound?"
Some heard only wind as they climbed higher into the mountain pass, but then Beryl grunted once and called, "Arrows!" They were falling on Beryl and Dale.
"Duma!" Dale called.
As if they had practiced the move, Duma stepped sideways, raised his bow, drew and nocked the arrow, and then released, launching the arrow from his bow over Dale's shoulder. He drew another as quickly, seeing the faint silhouettes and gleam of armor and weaponry in the night, to aim, as Dale, more heavily armored, protected his body. They had not practiced the maneuver, and Dale had not given a command, other than to call his child's name. Duma had understood what was needed and had not thought at all on whether he trusted Dale or not. For his part, Dale had not doubted Duma would act as needed.
"The way is too narrow for us all to join battle," Tsuki called quietly to those still behind, "watch for attacks from behind or over the rocks." With Fei and Aud watching his back, Tsuki looked to those in front, waiting for one to fall, or an enemy to get through, so that he might be of use, yet he knew Gorghash would stand between him and coming enemies.
Tsuki did not know this Orc, but he believed he understood how the younger Orcs thought and acted. They had not been trained themselves by any Wizard and had not lived so long in a stronghold as to become content. These young Orcs, whether spawned half-grown, or born, had pride in their race and did care whether other Orcs lived or died. Gorghash believed that he could achieve status and glory and reward by saving the lives of many Orcs and that it was smart to do so. He had been sent to join their party by Marduk. He would defend Tsuki, because he had been ordered to do so, and if Tsuki died, this Orc might very well carry a bomb into the wilderness on his back so that his name became legend among Orcs.
Ugarit had joined Duma in firing arrows upon the enemy, standing with Beryl's armored body between her and the path ahead. Beryl could hear her frustration at being protected, but part of focusing on the battle was knowing not to allow her to shift position, for it might distract Dale and Duma enough to weaken defense of Beryl's flank.
Ugarit could see they were Men, even through the large damp flakes falling into her field of vision. She thought this might be storm as well as snow, but her previous winter had been spent sheltered in a cave, and snow was knew, though instinct and breeding told her much about it. Some of the Men approached, quickly on foot, with swords or battle axes drawn. How does one defend against a battle axe? Ugarit was taken by panic for a moment, but forced the arrow steady against fingers and bow. If arrows took them, she would never have to know how to defend against axes in close quarters combat.
"Tsuki!"
Tsuki understood what Dale wanted, but he knew Dale would have to trust the task to another, Gorghash was already watching him. The Orcs eyes shifted between the same points over and over, to the path, to Ugarit, To Tsuki. "When he moves, take Dale-Chieftain's place."
Gorghash grunted acknowledgement.
Dale hissed at the change, but did not object. Beryl danced forward to throw a spear and just as it found a body, Dale ran forward, body low, dagger in his left hand, one-handed grip on the sword held in his right hand. Tsuki had witnessed this before if the others had not. Dale was Death in such stealth offensives.
In short time, Ugarit lowered her bow. "I see no more."
A whistle came.
"We climb again, carefully," Beryl said, understanding the signal.
"If there are any more of that group, they are hiding in the rocks
and wait for us to show an opening."
Their party climbed again, none noticeably wounded. They looked to the bodies as they went, assuring that they were dead, or searching for useful items. Duma and Gorghash had a brief argument over whether the food Men carried on their persons would be poisoned as a trick, or safe because it was carried for their own use.
Dale announced himself as they came near his hiding place, crouched in the shadow of a crag. They found no more of the Mannish mercenaries and continued to climb, in the same positions they had taken earlier.
"They were Eastmen," Fei said to Tsuki as they climbed.
"Yes. The East is still unsettled. The people are no longer overlorded but they do not all yet have strong or good leaders to hold them together, and so some tribes and clans turn to work such as this."
They climbed further, and then Dale told the others that he smelled something.
"Apart from the Man blood covering you?" Ugarit asked.
"Wolves," Gorghash said flatly.
Wolves it was. They came loping down the mountain path, a pack of them, large in size, and vicious, of the type bred by Orcs for use in battle. "Maybe we can tame them," Duma spoke.
"Let us throw you to them," Gorghash said, "They will barely take commands from one who has raised and fed them!"
"You cannot win them with gifts of meat when they are already grown!" Ugarit shouted. "Fight!"
In their shouting, the Orcs missed Tsuki's bow firing an arrow. It found it's mark, in the eye of one of the wolves as it leapt for him. The Wolf fell heavily at Tsuki's feet. The bow was already lowered and Tsuki made a pass of his staff between himself and the remaining wolves and incanted. The wolves slowed, turned and bounded back up the mountain path.
"Will they return?" Beryl asked.
"Perhaps, but they will not kill…they will not serve either…not directly."
"Wizardry?" Aud asked.
Fei, beside him, did not know.
Tsuki did not explain, only asked that the others continue to climb.
"What manner of creature will ambush us next?" Duma asked as they climbed.
"Maybe one of those large tusked beasts," Ugarit guessed.
"I have heard of those. Have you seen one, Tsuki, or Beryl? I do not think they could get those animals to climb into the mountains."
"You would not think so," Beryl said.
"Yes, I have seen them," Tsuki said, "They are not so difficult to kill, once you understand their ways. One could stand beneath their belly and slice it open, or fill it with arrows. All you need is Men with spears, or an Elf. Elves are too agile to be caught by the large beasts. One could climb the tusks to attack the head."
"If one of those things next ambushes us, I will stand back and leave all of you to slay it," Dale said, "save your breath."
"It seems something should have come at us by now," Ugarit whispered. "How far are we from this Wizard Lair?"
"We have some way to go. The old tower would have been visible from below, but as something high and distant. At this rate, it will be dark again before we come to the place."
"Or sooner, if the Wizard has no more minions to send at us?" Duma asked.
"Peace, all of you," Tsuki said, knowing Dale was troubled. "We will come to it when we can. Do not fear. We are all armored and quite heavily armed. Stay together and keep climbing the path."
"I do not like this…not knowing if we will be set on again. If we survive the Wizard and return along the path, will we be ambushed all over again?" Duma whispered.
"Men and Wolves to not spawn from the ground as Orcs," Dale hissed over his shoulder.
"This ground is too rocky for breeding pits," Ugarit stated.
"Not that we have need of them," Duma said. Ugarit pulled at his hair. "I meant that we would not be breeding at all!"
"I hope we are beset soon," Dale complained.
"Imagine what it is like for me."
Dale huffed. "You are old enough to be grandsire to any of us; it only amuses you that anyone younger suffers what you suffered before them."
Beryl laughed.
"When this is over, we can go home," Tsuki said.
His words put Dale at ease, but then trouble found them again.
"I do not see Aud!" Fei called.
"Dark," Gorghash noted.
Tsuki and Duma turned and descended a particularly steep bit of the road, covered in a film of snow, and looked along its path. Tsuki looked then to Duma.
"I hear something," he whispered. Duma quickly shouldered his bow and drew the knife in his quiver. "It does not sound like a Man moving. Maybe an animal?"
"He did not become frightened and run home?" Ugarit asked.
"No. We stayed near each other. It happened fast. Something took him, I think."
"Something does not smell right," Duma said.
"Man, I have a bad feeling!"
"I do not know what…partly familiar."
"Something moved!" Ugarit hissed.
"Foes I can see I am willing to face!" Fei cried out. "It does not have honor!"
Dale huffed. "I will sniff them out!"
"No! Stay together!" Tsuki called. "There is something there, and it knows we are here, so there is no reason to hide our position." He called out then, "Aud! Aud, if you are able, answer!"
Duma moved past Fei, sniffing the air as he went and scanning the mountain road. Ugarit followed close behind, and then Gorghash followed her.
"I think I caught some movement," Beryl said. "I am no Orc, to see in such darkness, but I believe something is here."
"Stay together," Tsuki ordered. He reached out and put a hand to Fei's shoulder. "Put your back to mine and watch for enemies. Dale, Beryl, watch each other."
"I smell no Southman," Gorghash growled, "something foul."
"Spiders!" Dale yelled, and grabbed Beryl by his cloak to pull him down the path. The Elves stood shoulder to shoulder with the Men then, and Dale called out again to the others. "Cursed bloody spiders! I should have known! You get close enough to use a knife and it'll be close enough to poison!"
Tsuki reached inside his cloak for a match and then into the small pack on his back, beneath the cloak, to fetch a small lantern. They had avoided making light before, not wanting their approach known, but it seemed too late for such considerations now.
Even as Tsuki move to light the wick, one of the large dog-sized spiders rushed from the shadows and bit his arm. The match and lantern fell, the flame going out and the glass shattering on the rock. Dale turned and dispatched the spider with his sword before it could reach Fei.
"Avoid the fangs!" Ugarit screeched. She, Duma and Gorghash could see the spiders, attacking together unnaturally, as if ants, or controlled by some greater force. They had no room for bows and arrows.
Gorghash swung his sword to slay a spider and gorey chunks of spider sprayed over Fei and Tsuki. He had fallen slowly to the ground.
"Ugarit! Ugarit. Suck the poison from his arm! It may not be too late to save him."
Duma thought of protest, but had little time for thought as he drove his elbow spike into the body of a spider. They were as big as hunting dogs kept by Men, some of them.
Ugarit leapt to Tsuki, tucked her knives in her boots and looked to Tsuki's wounded arm and his sleeve. Duma and Gorghash backed up toward them, to offer what protection they could.
"Cannot…swords…your legs are less armored."
Ugarit understood, but she had not thought to protest the Order. Dale was a Chieftain, even if not currently her Chieftain, and Tsuki was important to their mission. For now, The Wizard was a Precious Thing. She pushed his sleeve up his arm to find the wound and bowed her head to draw poison from the wound. She did not know if she had come in time enough to keep him conscious, but she made the attempt, spitting the Man blood and poison on the slush-covered ground when it filled her mouth.
Ugarit was not certain Tsuki tasted like a Man. She had only had tastes of blood and never killed a Man to eat him. It did not seem as it had been described to her, but then, who could know what was good or sweat or bitter to another.
"It is not working!" Ugarit cried. "He is going pale! His eyes do not move!"
Dale spared only a second to look on Tsuki. None of them could spare more. There seemed no end to the spiders. The Sea must be skilled in the control of beasts, as Rumored, for even the large spiders in the Green Wood that preyed sometimes on Elves, as soon as outsiders, did not attack in such numbers or poison more than needed to collect prey to sustain their own life.
"Dale, one of them got me," Beryl said.
"Demons of the Dark! One of you black-blooded dogs carry the Elf! We are cutting our way out of here if it means…"
"I am not to be carried! Help me tie the blessed tourniquet! I may leave a trail of blood to follow, but I will not let the poison slow my heart!"
"Duma, get up here and tie of Beryl's Leg!" Dale slashed at a Spider, stomped forward, slashed another, kicked a spider out of his way, and continued.
Ugarit lifted Tsuki onto her shoulders and followed. Duma waved Fei before him, then walked along side Beryl, who limped, each driving blades into spiders beside them. Gorghash came then, dancing around, to keep from showing his back to any spider long enough for it to attack unseen.
They reached a point along the path where it seemed the spiders came only from each side of the path and not from ahead. Dale stepped aside, pushed Ugarit ahead of him, and guarded her back as she carried Tsuki up the road.
"There are not so many now," Gorghash said.
The spiders came infrequently enough that Duma could prop Beryl against a rock and take up his bow to shoot the spiders at a distance.
Ugarit continued up the road alone, a distance between her and Dale. The snow had not lessened any more than it had dissuaded the spiders from attack. It all seemed to reek of Wizardry. She squinted to see as she came around a curve in the road, and saw the figure silhouetted against the field of snowfall.
It was one of those mutilated Elves; she understood now, having been among a community of Elves from various homelands and seeing him. This looked like a creature disguised as an Elf of the west. And he was not alone.
Dale saw the first of them then, and Ugarit and Tsuki seemingly helpless between them. They had lost one of their party. Beryl was poisoned and growing weaker every second, even if he denied it, and the one with knowledge of healing potions was unconscious. He had three young Orcs, a Man, and a half-conscious Elf, and the last they had faced these freaks skilled in Eastern martial arts, the fight had only ended short of a death in their party because the enemy had retreated.
Dale did not expect them to retreat this time.