Fate's Hand (6 page)

“
Let the boy go,” the dark stranger said.

“
Don’t mind him. That’s my brother Asher Clawson. He has people problems. I’m Rylan Ailith.” The young man put on his best smile and held out his hand. Val felt like it was an honest gesture, so he gladly moved to accept the handshake.

“
Val,” he said.

Rylan looked at Val’s hand and pulled his own back, quickly losing his smile. Val looked down at the red hand and retracted, embarrassed. He looked over Rylan’s shoulder to see Asher staring him down. Val turned and ran dashed away, off through the woods.

“Hey, I’m sorry! Come back!”

Breathless from running, Val stopped and sat on a log to collect his thoughts. He took out his cup to find his bearings. He planned to circle around the brothers and return to the road. Val hiked until just before nightfall, when he found where the trail broke from the trees and into the hills again. Looking up at the grey hills, he could see dark spots and deep cracks in the rocks that could possibly be caves.
I can’t go now; they will be on the move soon. I'll rest here for the night and try to find their cave in the morning when they settle back down to sleep
, he thought. Val walked an arrow's flight back into the woods and off the road to settle down and make another night's camp. His thoughts turned to roasting pig as he sat by his small fire and chewed his dried beef and cold bread. He recalled the silly look of the half-man, half-squirrel and chuckled to himself.

Val entered the first cave he came upon, knowing well the orcs wouldn’t be in there, but he wanted to take a look around and get a feel for what to expect. He entered cautiously, keeping his footing on the slippery rocks. He heard a scraping across the stone nearby. His heart pounded in his ears as he held completely still, trying to let his eyes adjust to the dark. The next step he took was cut short when he quickly threw himself backward against the cave wall to escape a creature's attack. He shielded his face and let out a small yelp. Nothing came for him, but he could hear the thing scurrying across the rocks. He looked between his arms to see the hind end of a young elk running back to the forest, a long strand of white strings flowing off his back.

Val squinted and used his hand to push off the cave wall to stand straight again. He noticed his hand was sticky and looked down. Spider webs covered his hand and forearms. His eyes better adapted, he turned full circle to discover the entire cave encompassed by long, stringy spider webs. By the rays of the morning light peeking in, he could see drops of dew glistening like diamonds on invisible strings, all down the cave. He could only imagine the large arachnid that spun those webs and decided to get his bearings in a different cave.

Val turned away and returned to the entrance of the cave, wiping his hands on his leather vest. He stood in the light again and looked up the mountain trail to decide which way to go. He looked into the cave one last time, admiring the large shining gems of light. A slight breeze came through and shook some of the webs, causing the dew to drop off the web and sprinkle the cave floor. The eerie scene and cool morning breeze gave him chills. He shook off the feeling and rubbed his hands together. Then, immediately thinking of his numb hand, he shook it and walked away.

Behind the wall of webs in the cave there was a slow and methodical movement. Eight large glistening diamonds came closer to the light invading the dark cave. The giant cave spider silently stepped over the freshly killed elk fawn he had caught the night before. That large mother elk would have been too large a prey for him to drag back to her babies, but the curious human would be a perfect size. She looked on into the daylight at the young man standing there. Her hind legs picked the baby elk up and began to weave her webbing around her kill. She watched as the human walked away from the entrance and farther into the mountain path. The spider turned and collected her prey, heading back to her nest. Letting the elk dangle from a low-hanging rock to let her poison work, the spider crept up the side of the cave to come to rest on the ceiling, each leg carefully placed one of the main strands connecting her large web of nets. She relaxed her muscles and waited for the next vibration to tell her she had captured another meal.

Val walked most of the day looking around several entrances for signs of recent use. He came around a large boulder and noticed most of the rocks around the entrance were turned aside and moved. He walked to the entrance and listened. Only silence came to greet him, silence and an unnaturally foul smell. As a wind came down some distant opening of the cave, Val almost gagged from the odor. He pulled an extra shirt from his pack and wrapped it around his nose and mouth. Something was dead; his days as a farmhand told him that much at least. A small part inside him feared he would find his sister inside as the source of the smell. His teeth bit down on a small corner of the cloth and he waded into the cave.

The faint smoke permeated the cloth and filled his nose. This cave was much drier than the last few he looked in and there was a complete absence of spider webs. He kicked a rock across the stone floor and he closed his eyes and held his breath as it skipped across the cave, echoing all the way. He waited, straining to hear anything he might have disturbed. After several minutes with no sound, he made his way in. When the light gave him no more help to see the surrounding cave, he gave up his stealth approach. Val kneeled and went through his pack for a torch and flint. He took out a small bottle of oil one of the men from the village had given him and dripped it over the torch.
              Assuring himself if anything was in this cave it would have come when he kicked the rock, he struck the rock against the stone floor. When the spark caught the oil soaked rags, the cave lit up brightly. In an instant, Val saw eyes staring his direction from only a few feet away.

His gut reaction was to throw his torch and run from the cave. The fire ripped through the air and flared past the creature and in that moment Val realized it was no threat. The eyes he saw were dead and glazed over. Before him was a partially eaten goblin, impaled on his own spear, made to stand straight up. The torch gave the cave a soft orange glow and deceitful black dancing shadows across the rock walls as it crackled and popped on the cave floor. Val edged around the dead goblin and retrieved the torch. He held it high to get a better view. The cave was fairly large with only one other exit, a small crack on the far wall. Another wind whistled through the crack to batter his small flame around, exciting the dancing shadows all the more. Val searched the ground. The stone was scattered with blackened scraps of wood and soot. Val rolled a log over wishing to find any live coals but the fire was dead and cold. From the looks of the goblin, it had only been dead a few days, hardly bloated.

Several long scratches across the stone floor caught his eye. He walked over to investigate and noticed a sliver of rock. Val picked it up, feeling the texture of the cold rock. He pocketed it and turned to walk out of the cave, spirits renewed, and almost bumped into the dead goblin—a very real reminder of the dangers he faced ahead. He extinguished his torch and stowed it. Once he exited the cave and got a few breaths of fresh air, he consulted his scrying devices once again: straight north. Several hours in the day remained and every moment he could move as the orcs rested helped.

Val continued up the path.

The red wizard Yusar lay on a plush sofa in the main study, now his residence in the tower. Drask had taken the top floor, his former room and study, for himself. Yusar thought about the tower’s design and its limitations. The tower provided many rooms and secret passages, but nothing could get him back to the top floors without Drask’s knowledge. The room was designed for the master of the tower alone. Yusar sighed and closed his eyes, contemplating his situation. He was now a general for a great and powerful demon, but he felt more like a servant. He had been the master of the Tower of Solic, named after the master architect wizard who created it, for over three years now and life was going exactly how he wanted it to. Yusar was content with his solitude, safety, and wealth. Not to say Yusar was a wealthy man in coin, but he had an untold fortune in magical weapons. A smile came across his face as he thought to the secret room holding his precious collection: one wall covered in axes, bows, maces, halberds, daggers, and a wide variety and arrangement of swords from across the world; down the middle, many stone mannequins adorned and covered with magical armors and leather sets; on the opposite wall, dozens of shelves and pedestals, each covered with magical rings, bracelets, necklaces, and other jewelry and accessories. In the far back of the room was another hidden room with all of Yusar’s favorites. The wizard detested close combat, but still kept one of his favorite daggers concealed on him. His concentration was broken when he heard the sound of metal falling out in the hall. Hushed voices followed shortly after.

Yusar opened the door to the doorway and was greeted by a tall, sleek demon with multiple sets of arms and the bottom half like that of a snake. In one of her hands was a beautiful purple-blue scimitar, a weapon Yusar knew very well. She smiled a full row of fangs and made her way behind several smaller demons, all carrying weapons.

Yusar slammed the door and ran to the nearest wall, and said the words to summon a door from the tower. As soon as the door appeared in the stone, Yusar opened it, afraid of what he would find on the other side. He clinched his fist tightly, digging his long, sharp fingernails into his palm. His prized hidden room had many empty weapon pegs, naked mannequins, and barren shelves. He whirled around and slammed the door. As Yusar stormed across the room to confront Drask, the door behind him disappeared into the wall to leave the smooth black stone solid once again.

Yusar walked into his former room to stand before Drask, who was comfortably sitting in Yusar’s favorite chair. The naga that fetched him stood behind Drask, next to a large stash of weapons and armor. Yusar tried to keep calm as the naga smiled at him.

“
Yusar, this is Sirash, from the third hall of blades. She will serve as one of my advisors and generals,” Drask said as he rolled a dagger around in his hand.

“
Looks like you have been busy. Summoning demons and acquiring my weapons,” Yusar replied with a sharp tone.

Drask grinned and waved Sirash and the imps from the room.

“Yusar, you have a beautiful collection of items and weapons. I saw it as a travesty to let them all sit in that room unused.”

Yusar quietly considered how to respond. He looked at his fortune in magical items laying on the floor like a pile of treasure. Drask waved a hand before his face in dismissal and spun the chair to turn his back on Yusar.

Yusar went to say something, but felt a sharp edge press against his neck and heard a deep whisper in his ear.               “You would do well to stay silent human. We will take what we want.”

Yusar stood sweating and short of breath. Drask spun the chair back around to face the shaken wizard.

“Ready yourself and a meeting room on the ground floor. Your friend Temo is coming for dinner. When I’m done having a chat with him, you can have your chance to kill him.” The pressure on the blade across Yusar’s neck disappeared.

Yusar finally smiled back at Drask. “I will have the room ready, Prince.”

As Yusar turned to depart, he looked around, expecting to see one of Drask’s guards, but the room was empty.

Val walked and climbed for several days, each day giving him one more clue that he was on the right trail. He found another such sign in the form on a young boy’s corpse in one of the caves. The grim and terrible sight actually gave him hope of reaching his sister, as the blood on the cave floor was only sticky and not dry. He kneeled over the boy and fought with himself over continuing on with his travels for the day or burying the unfortunate child.

Val heard the noise of a rock skittering behind him. He immediately snuffed the torch in the boy's blood and turned to face the light. He saw the silhouette of a man crouching at the front of the cave, moving his head back and forth to adjust his eyes to the light. Val held his breath and watched. The man looked back into the sunlight and motioned for someone to stay where they were. He ran his hands across his chest and removed something small and cylindrical. He held it up to the light and inspected it. The light shined through the container and showed a milky red liquid inside. He held it close to his body for a few seconds and did something in the shadow that Val couldn’t make out. He recapped the vial and replaced it, then took a deep breath and rubbed the back of his neck.

“
I see you! Is that you, Val? Is that right? Val? Hey, I’m sorry if we scared you away before; we really mean you no harm. Actually, I convinced my brother to track you. We found some dead goblins in the woods and thought you might have gotten caught up with them.”

Val slowly rose up from the cave floor and approached the light.

“I’m not sure if you know this, but you are on an extremely dangerous trail. This is an orc slaver passage.” Rylan removed a rag from his pocket and wiped his neck, his motions all silhouetted by the sun.

“
I know. I’m tracking them.”

Val walked past Rylan, trying not to make eye contact. Rylan reached out and grabbed his left arm.

“Hey—” he called, but was cut short as Val’s right hand struck out and grabbed Rylan by the wrist and wrenched. Val’s face was one of surprise—even more so when he heard a stern voice.

“
Release him now. I’ll not ask again, boy.”

Val turned his head to stare down the shaft of an arrow nocked and drawn.

“I’m sorry. Please don’t,” Val said as he reached over with his other hand and pried at his red hand. “It’s not mine! I mean, I…I can’t control it.” He finally forced the fingers away from Rylan and still held his wrist.

Val looked down, embarrassed, and softly said, “Please, just leave me alone. Thank you for searching for me, but I just need to be alone.” He walked away in silence, wishing he could cut his hand off.