CHAPTER 5 - FRIENDS
The movement of the beast’s pounding feet was almost hypnotic to Athene. If it wasn’t for her head bashing off its sharp scaly back she would have probably passed out. The uncomfortable ride took them through bushes and brambles that brushed past her face and ripped at her hanging hair in a green blur. They had soon covered the ground out from the woods and into open countryside, Athene’s throat was now sore from her earlier screaming and with the constant boat-like motion she had to fight hard to retain her supper. Struggling in the beast’s iron grip was futile and she wondered what she had done in a previous lifetime to end up in this terrifying situation.
Suddenly a confident female voice called out in Tanarian. Was her imagination running wild or was she going mad? But no, the voice shouted again.
‘Going somewhere rock nuts?’
Athene strained to look up from her precarious position over the beast’s shoulders but all she could manage to see in the distance was the outline of an upside-down rider silhouetted against the sunshine appearing from the clouds. An arrow hammered against the beast’s leg, the shaft shattering on impact, it merely grunted and carried on its way, seeming to ignore the rider. Another arrow bounced off the beast’s skull, its thick blood oozed out down into its eyes. It now altered its course towards the newcomer, throwing Athene to the ground, it charged the rider who skilfully turned her mount and galloped back up the track, the rider turned and fired, this time the rider’s arrow penetrated the beast’s side. Each time the beast got close the rider would shoot and retreat again to a safe distance. She repeated this tactic several times until eventually the beast toppled over mortally wounded, as a final arrow found its mark.
Dazed from her fall, Athene watched in the distance as the rider dismounted and suddenly disappeared. Moments later the cloaked figure reappeared behind the fallen beast, her silver sabre swept down in a huge shimmering arc and the beast’s head began to roll back down the track towards Athene. She was further sickened by the flopping sound the head made as it rolled towards her. The rider collected her dappled pony and cautiously approached.
‘How are you doing?’ She called out; her Tanarian accent had a slight foreign touch to it. ‘Your choice in boyfriends leaves a bit to be desired.’ She said with a smirk. She looked like an interesting character thought Athene, the riders thick blond curls sweeping down onto her leather breastplate armour that seemed to enhance her bust line; she was the first armoured women that Athene had come across. She was difficult to place, she thought – with a near perfect skin complexion and high cheek bones she looked almost exotic and Athene thought to ask how she kept her skin so smooth in this harsh wilderness? She wore finely-made clothes with a tailored fit, expensive yet bland in colouration – her ridged leather armour moved with a precision that only a master armourer could produce and its surface was scrubbed to remove all shine from the leather. A silver sabre with an eagle engraved on its hilt completed her look. Her mottled brown cloak hid her curves; the side of her neck showed the beginning of some kind of tribal branding that her long curls of hair helped to hide.
She extended her hand.
‘Pleased to meet you young lady, my name is Tress.’
As she shook Athene’s hand, something screamed inside Tress and she instinctively withdrew her hand halfway through the introduction. Tress was no stranger in the ways of magic and could sense the same tingling of hairs rising on her skin that she felt around magic, except that somehow this time the sensation was different. This greatly intrigued Tress but as she was trying to interpret her new sensation, two figures burst out of the forest edge and into the open ground, sprinting towards them with roughly-cut wooden spears in their hands. Their pace slowed on seeing Athene, Tress levelled her silver sabre instantly and prepared to wrap her cloak around herself. Henrick waved as he spotted Athene.
‘Friends of yours?’ asked Tress.
‘Yes,’ said Athene, ‘Please sheath your weapon or they might take it the wrong way.’
Tress smirked, ‘I don’t think I have much to worry about with those two.’
The warriors approached, still dust covered from their escape from the building and puffing for breath from their sprint.
After a loud cough that sent some nearby birds flying Corvus managed to speak in between breaths.
‘I’m glad to say it looks like we are too late to rescue you Athene. They looked at Tress.
‘Our gratitude to you… you are one brave lady taking on that thing alone,’ said Corvus with a slight bow of respect.
‘I would like to think that you would have done the same for me, there have been far too many strange things happening in this land to pass good people by, what with the war and everything.’ Tress replied.
Henrick and Corvus gracefully introduced themselves, brushing the excess crud from their attire in the vain attempt to make themselves presentable.
‘The war?’ asked Henrick puzzled.
‘Yes – haven’t you heard? The Aristrian’s have just invaded the Mirelands of Tanaria and are now pushing deeper into our territory.
‘How did you hear of such things, we are in the middle of the wilderness?’ asked Henrick.
‘I have my sources, but it is no lie, I can assure you we are really at war.’ She replied seriously. Henrick screwed his face up at the news.
‘My God – it’s starting all over again - and we thought that we had troubles here. Anyway I suppose that there’s not much that we can do about it, but thanks for the heads up. On the plus side there will be a lot of employment available when I get back, thanks again for everything.’
‘No problem Henrick,’ she replied.
‘No, please call me Henk,’ he instantly responded.
Athene found her nose instantly put out, feeling slightly rejected with the arrival of the attractive newcomer – he had never once in those months on the trail ever told her to just call him Henk, nor had he ever used that charming tone of voice to her she thought, struggling to hold back the seed of anger that threatened to grow.
‘Tell me Tress, have you seen any strange movements along the trails this past day?’ Corvus asked.
‘Would you classify two thousand wandering freaks ambling towards the Marinhino Pass and the Great Gate pretty unusual? I just managed to skirt around the tail end of them earlier today.’
‘Ah, I see’ replied Corvus, that sounds like they have all left the town, but let’s get off the path and into the tree-line while we talk things over just to be safe, my legs won’t carry this belly up those mountain again.’
The party retired to the cover provided by the dense trees and they discussed their options for where they would seek refuge next. All bar Corvus wanted to get back to Tanaria to find work or get back to family, but with the thousands of possessed souls blocking their route back this was not looking viable. This only left a treacherous two month journey south to circumvent the huge mountain range that separated the two nations and then there were a number of small tribal territories that would need to be passed through. These smaller kingdoms were by far the biggest danger on the journey as they were ruled by various feudal warlords who had no formal government, just the law of the sword. Travelling their lands without invitation and in such small numbers could cost a lot of gold in bribes or end in slavery or worse.
‘Well my new friends,’ Tress said putting her arms around the shoulders of the two warriors in an overly friendly gesture.
‘On any other trip I would probably just fill you full of lies and be on my way, but in light of our current situation I feel it better to come clean, probably for the first time in many years. You won’t want to keep company with me. I’m afraid I just seem to attract trouble, I already have a number of armed men hunting me and they can’t be far behind - although you do look like you might be handy in a fight… if you had some proper weapons,’ she patted Corvus’s thick muscular arm before she continued.
‘Believe me; you won’t want to be around when they get here. You’ll be far better off on your own, as I will be able to evade them, but should you meet with such an encounter, then I fear you may all be slain on my account.’
‘Well lady,’ Corvus began, ‘I care nothing of this danger that you speak of, I know that had I found you wandering my lands hunted by armed men a week ago you would have undergone an interesting round of questioning with my magistrates, but you’ve done us a good turn by saving Athene today – and I’m all out of magistrates, so I would like to return the favour by offering you a reward. I am still King of all these lands and if you have seen two thousand people or possessed things as they are passing by, then I expect that my primary town - Croweheim will be deserted, if we head for it, we may stand a chance for wherever your fate takes you afterwards. That way we can refit, re-supply and you are welcome to take whatever you can carry from my treasury, it is vast and your journey home will require all of these things. The path that I will be taking will need no gold. Vengeance costs nothing.’
Every fibre in Tress’s being screamed out to her, ‘Do what you do best – run and hide, you may be able to slip past the mobs alone. You can make delivery of the ring then fade back into obscurity; that would hopefully provide enough wealth to lie low or even to live the good life for a year or two.’
But deep in her heart she knew that she had already made up her mind about sticking with this strange bunch – a king’s gratitude was nothing to be sniffed at and could double her profits; she was going to stay with the group.
She had heard of this King Corvus before, he had a fearsome reputation as a warrior but after meeting the man she saw no weight in such talk, besides, she also wanted more time to work out what had sent her senses reeling earlier. Something about Athene intrigued her.
‘Ok, you may regret this, but let’s hope that Croweheim is deserted, because that’s where we are heading.’ Patch the pony gave a loud snort of discontent as Henrick led the party away from the track over the rough ground and into the bushes to ensure their route would not easily be guessed or followed. The old ways of guerrilla warfare were difficult for Henrick to forget. Athene was still feeling the toll of the past day’s events and she began to lag behind, Tress kindly gave Athene’s feet a break with a ride on Patch. As Athene slowly recovered she looked curiously over at Tress leading the pony.
‘You’re Tanarian, right? What brings a warrior like you to these far away lands?’
Tress laughed, ‘I’m no warrior and its hardly far.’
Athene looked her up and down as she queried. ‘But the armour - the sabre?’
‘Oh I see how it could look – but no, these are just necessary tools. As you have found out, these roads should not be wandered on your own or unprepared. I am just a messenger,’ Tress lied.
‘Is that why you ride alone?’ Athene asked feeling very naïve and then she remembered something else that had perplexed her earlier.
‘Back when you saved me from the beast, were my eyes deceiving me? You disappeared somehow into thin air, how was that possible?’
‘Easy, magic,’ smiled Tress.
‘How can magic make you disappear like that?’ she asked curiously.
‘The weave of my cloak is enchanted and with a few words its powers can be called upon and it will hide me from view.’ Athene looked at her disbelievingly.
‘Here I will show you.’
’Hoping to impress the girl she whispered the magic words pulling her cloak about her she weirdly stalked along besides her.
‘I’d consider taking it back, because it clearly doesn’t work,’ said Athene in a tone of jest, as she could still see Tress standing there.
‘Impossible’ Tress replied ‘Keep pointing at me so I know it’s true,’ she suddenly darted off to the left. Athene’s finger followed her every move as Tress growingly frustrated weaved around, then suddenly she faded into invisibility.
‘My god you really have disappeared now,’ Athene gasped in amazement. Tress reappeared ten yards in front of Patch pulling back her cloak. Patch raised his head hoping for a carrot.
‘Well Tress, I’ve got to say, I’ve never seen very much of magic before yesterday and that will do me for the rest of my life time. Compared to this week, life back in my mother’s inn was blissfully dull.’
Tress thought to herself that there was a good chance that Athene was going to be seeing a lot more magic, then she turned her thoughts to her enchanted cloak and began wracking her brain as to why it had not initially concealed her. In her line of work as a specialized thief, everything needed to function first time reliably.
It was getting dark now and the worst of the journey back into Croweheim was behind them. Some small fires could be seen in the distance where the lightning bolts had set the town ablaze and the flames had spread to the nearby woodland on the east of Croweheim charring the countryside. The last leg of the journey had to be over open terrain, but the closing darkness would help to conceal them should any beasts or mind-controlled beings still exist there.
On breaking cover, Henrick, ever the planner, spotted a lone overturned wagon at the side of the path that led into Croweheim. This would make an ideal rallying point should they get split up or run into trouble. The group nodded in agreement and cautiously continued towards the smouldering remains of Croweheim. Before they broke cover, Henrick went through the plan of action a second time to be sure that everyone understood.
‘Good everyone is ready? Let’s hope that this place is empty.’