Book of Remembrance: The Forgotten Gods: Book One (17 page)

Keeping my face smooth, I nodded
my understanding. Had the situation been reversed, I most likely would have
reacted in a similar way. “Thank you for allowing us to stay the night,” I
added.

He gave a tight nod before
bustling away, disappearing into the kitchen. Two filled plates arrived just as
Brant sat down. When the serving girl had gone, I told him what Davin had said.
He grumbled about rude boorish people, but he did not, as I feared he might,
make a fuss about it.

The boiled eggs were as big as
my hand and I sat wondering what bird they had come from. I waved one of the
serving girls over. She came reluctantly, but when I asked her about the eggs,
she gave a throaty laugh. “They are not from a bird. They are from Ghe, our pet
lizard.”

I could not stop the grimace
that spread across my face, but she only gave another laugh and strode away.
The eggs did not taste strange, but the thought of eating an egg from a lizard
simply did not sound right to me. I looked up to see amusement flicker across
Brant’s face, but it was gone as quickly as it had come.

The moment we cleared our plates
of food, Davin came swirling in as though he had been watching and waiting for
us to finish. He picked the dishes up. “Fair travels to you gentleman.” He
stood waiting.

I lifted my eyebrows at Brant,
but we silently stood up and made our way out. As promised, our horses were
ready for us when we stepped out. Riding away, I looked back and saw Davin and
Melit standing at the door of the inn. She was shaking her head while he talked
frantically.

We stopped at a market before we
left the village and stocked up on dried meat, cheese, bread and some
vegetables. Even there though, we received a few angry glances. Word had
clearly spread. It was a relief to leave the village behind.

Once we reached the north road
again, I took out a map that Moma had given me. By my best guess, we had
roughly three days of travelling left before reaching Medirea.

As the day went by, the terrain
around us changed. We came clear of the forest and were surrounded by open
fields. Beautiful wild flowers grew in a wild array of colours. I wished that I
could show Lilana this. She would love it. Thinking of her made me long for
home prompting me to forcefully turn my attention elsewhere.

In the distance, I could see
mountains looming. After a whole day of travelling, though, they did not even
appear to be any closer at all. We kept travelling well past dark, but when
Balder stumbled over some unseen object for the second time, we stopped and set
up camp. It felt strange sleeping out in the open away from the forest, but at
least this way we should have fair warning if something tried to sneak up on
us. We took turns keeping watch again, but the night went by uneventfully.

The next morning, the sun was
not yet fully up when we set off. There were menacing clouds over the mountains
promising wet weather to come.
 
As the
day passed, the clouds thickened and soon there was not even a hint of blue
left in the sky.

It was only mid-afternoon, but
it already seemed dark with only the occasional lightning flash to light things
up. The horses were becoming nervous and when an ear splitting thunder clap
crashed across the sky we both had our hands full to keep them from bolting.
Then the rain came.

There was absolutely no cover to
be had. Not a single tree in sight and the mountains were still sitting out of
reach on the horizon. We kept going for as long as possible, because we knew
the only thing waiting for us when we stopped was a miserable wet night spent
without a fire to warm us.

After just a few minutes in the
rain, we were soaked through. It felt like I was wet to the bone. The night was
pitch black, the clouds hiding any sign of the moon and the roar from the
downpour was deafening. I kept telling myself that surely, this could not
continue for much longer, but clearly, it could.

There were some large stones not
far away from the road so we sat on them. It was a choice between sitting in
mud and sitting on a hard rock. We sat hunched in on ourselves, too miserable
to even attempt conversation. We had hobbled the horses to prevent them from
running away in fear of the storm. They were snorting, their eyes large and
frightened. I could hardly see Brant even though he was only sitting a couple
of feet away from me. He was muttering to himself about the life of a beggar.

Abruptly, there was a noise like
a wet blanket slapping the ground and he gave a low grunt. I flew up on my feet
and in a heartbeat had focused my Navitas and drawn Sunder.

I dimly saw him topple off the
rock and splashing into a puddle on the ground. Wildly I looked around, but it
was still hard to make out anything beyond a couple of feet away. Too late, I
saw a blur of something moving with incredible speed towards me. I slashed with
Sunder, but not in time. A flash of pain raced across my thigh and I could feel
the warm trickle of blood running down my leg.

A moment later, lightning struck
and in that second of illumination, I saw four figures moving around me. For an
instant, I thought they were children, but their proportions were all wrong.
Their arms seemed too long for their bodies and they had a thick layer of hair
covering them from head to toe.

One of the creatures gave a
sharp squeal that was answered by a short burst of howls from the other three.
I suddenly realised that Markai had not come when I reached for Navitas. I
tried calling for her, making my call as urgent as I possibly could. Still, she
did not come. Brant had not moved nor made a sound since he fell. I kept
scanning around trying to catch a glimpse of movement. Even with Navitas, I
could see frustratingly little.

Briefly, I thought I saw them
forming a circle around me. I turned slowly trying to look for any of them
approaching. Another lighting flash and this time it was exactly when I needed
it.

One was coming towards me at a
loping run. I spun in a tight circle swinging Sunder in an arc around me. The
blade sliced through it, nearly cutting it in half. As I completed my turn,
there was another nearly upon me. It had jumped and was flying through the air
towards me. Two very human like hands with claws that looked like knifes and
a maw with vicious teeth were
closing in on me.
 
I thrust Sunder towards it, impaling it
completely then hurriedly shoved it off my blade.

There was an angry squeal from
another one, which was extremely fortunate for me as it alerted me to its exact
position.
 
I spun to my left, swung
Sunder up over my head and, using Navitas to strengthen the blow, brought it
down with as much force as I could in a chopping motion. Vaguely, I was aware
of blue swirling mist around me and around Sunder.

It cut through bone and tissue
as if it was butter, severing one of its arms. It howled; a dreadful sound that
made shivers run down my spine. I had not yet straightened from the attack when
I felt a blaze of pain running diagonally down my back from my right shoulder.

I gritted my teeth against the
pain and turned to face my last attacker. It was standing not far from me,
snarling, menacing teeth
bare
. It gave a harsh barking
sound and launched itself towards me. It was coming from my right, but at the
last moment, it darted to my left. I took a quick step back and swung Sunder.
It sunk into the creature’s side, but not before it had managed to sink its
claws into me one last time scratching down the left side of my face.

Lighting flashed again and I
looked around to make sure there were no more to come. I sank down to the muddy
ground. My breath was coming hoarsely and when I put a hand to my face it came
away bloody.

Another crack in the sky and
lighting lit the area around me. My breath caught and I could not help but
groan. Seven more of the creatures were stalking closer!

They were about sixty feet or so
away, but they had me surrounded. My heart was pounding in my throat. Even with
Navitas focused, I would be able to fight them all. My head was already
starting to swim a bit from exertion and blood loss.

I looked over to where Brant
must be lying, but I could not see any movement. I was on my own. My stomach
lurched. Was I alone? I fumbled through my pockets, sending a silent prayer to
whoever may be listening. I smiled maniacally when my hand found its round
shape. I pulled out the sentinel. ‘We come when summoned, but bearer
be
aware, we come but once.’ The inscription ran through my
thoughts, but the question was, how do I use it? In the dim light, I could not
even make out the engraving on its surface.

Lighting flashed again and it
revealed that they were nearly upon me. Not knowing what else I could do, I
closed my eyes and focused my Navitas into the small disc. It became warm in my
hand and I looked down at it. The blue mist was swirling around my hands and
the sentinel seemed to be drawing it in.

Suddenly, it was as hot as an
ember from the fire; it scalded my hands and I dropped it reflexively.
 
Except, it did not fall.
It floated in the air, still drawing the blue mist from me toward itself.

It started emanating light, dull
at first, but becoming brighter and brighter until I covered my eyes over to
shield them from it. Then, abruptly, it was gone and when I opened my eyes, I
was surrounded. Ten men stood in a circle with me in the middle, their backs to
me and they each had drawn a long sword with a slightly curved blade.

I could no longer see my
attackers, but I could hear them, they were screeching one to the other.
Suddenly, the fighting started. It was chaos and I could not make much of
anything out. When I tried to rise, one of the men turned to me and ordered me
to stay where I was.

Knowing I was well outnumbered
by both the attackers and the new arrivals, I reluctantly obeyed. I did not
like standing there uselessly while these men, seemingly, defended me. I still
did not know if Brant was well and surprisingly, I was worried about him.

All I could see was blades
flashing every now and again and vague shapes moving about. The attackers kept
up their screeching until the last one went still and the fighting stopped. A
massive cheer erupted from the men. They all started walking back towards me.

One particularly large man was
leading the rest. When he drew nearer, I recognised him.
“Grer?”
How could this be? Perhaps the sentinel did not work after all, but then, where
did they come from?

His bellowing laugh rumbled out
in the quiet night. “Ay, Kadin. I see ye got yesself in another spot of bother
here. Good thing ye gave
tha
call, those things were
vicious.”

I shook my head in disbelief.
“You are of the Fae? Why did you not say anything when I met you last?”

He shrugged his broad shoulders.
“Ye did not ask, boy.
Tha
was just coincidence to
have met
ye
then; I was investigating the movements of
the Dyrrendrel and some other Dark Creatures
tha
had
been spotted about. I did not even know ye would hold our sentinel then.”

The others had drawn near and
were standing around us. They all had the same look about them. Not only in
physical size and build, but also, their faces all bore the same look of a
warrior.

I squinted in the dark to make
our more of their features. “Thank you for coming. I would surely have died had
you
not.
”

I could see a few of them nod in
acceptance, but it was Grer who spoke once more. “Our debt is repaid. The
sentinel is now annulled. We are once more free.” He bowed, mimicked by the
rest, before he continued, “May
yer
sword stay sharp
and
yer
heart sure.”

A light was shining from behind
them and growing brighter. I squinted against it until I relented and shut my
eyes tightly. When I opened them again, they were all gone. I shook my head in
amazement. I found the sentinel lying at my feet. It had burn marks across its
surface, it felt…empty.

I painfully made my way over to
where Brant was still lying face down and was relieved to hear that he was
breathing. In the dim light, I tried to see where he was injured. As I was
looking him over he groaned and his eyes fluttered open.

His hand went up to his head and
I saw he had large scratch marks down his head and neck. That must have been
quite a blow. “Brant, can you hear me? Are you alright?”

He rolled over onto his back and
grunted. “What…...was that?”

I shook my head. “No idea, but I
think they are all dead.” I heard a low squawking sound. I jumped up and looked
around fiercely, but did not see anything coming at us. There was another
almost strangled noise and I walked carefully over to where it had come from.

One of the creatures was still alive.
It was lying on the ground, its breathing laboured, but I kept a few paces away
from it. I could see it clutching at the stump of the arm that I had severed.
It held my gaze with such hate in its eyes that they looked human.
Certainly intelligent.
Not a mere animal.