The Spirit of Revenge (20 page)

Morning brought little fog on the third day, letting thin strands of sunlight pierce the canopy veil. The Warriors downed the morning’s rations and saddled their horses for another day of riding, spurring them onward through the thick sea of trees.

They left behind the small patch of fallen leaves that they had made camp on the night before and followed a narrow path that twisted sporadically through the hills.

Roots hung low from the sides of the path and dangled over their heads as they rode. They continued through the beams of sunlight that pierced the canopy, allowing for precious bursts of vision. The path ahead made a smooth curve to the right and disappeared behind a hill.

The trees around them seemed to whisper, as if bemoaning the presence of still-beating hearts. Their leaves began to fester with unrest, condemning shadows to the mist with hands begot of normalcy.

With the rustle of leaves, an all too familiar ring of steel echoed in their ears. The Warriors whipped their reins and tore down the path, searching desperately for the battle at hand.

They soon came to a dark vale split in half by a stream of murky, stagnant water. Standing atop the brook, a small group of soldiers stood with shields raised and eyes locked on the trees before them. Their translucent forms shimmered in the sunlight, utter quiet as their mouths opened to voice silent screams.

A man at the back of the formation turned to the Warriors. His mouth screamed for them to go, but his cry was silent.

The Warriors looked on awestruck as the men began thrusting their spears blindly into the trees before them, cries of pain and battle on their lips. However, their voices remained silent, deaf cries to the ears of the living.

An invisible force began brutally hacking down every man as they fought desperately for their lives. Spears flashed with undying rage. Yet despite their efforts, their ranks faltered.

Go, the same man cried out to them despairingly. The formation suddenly fell apart and the men were hacked down. Their bodies tumbled to the earth and were instantly trampled by an unseen force.

Go, the man screamed a final plea before turning to face his death. His translucent body fell to the earth with a silent, dying curse.

All these shadows of men fell to the ground, their rotten flesh torn asunder. Their corpses lay immobile in the leaves, bodies piled tall in a pool of blood.

Then with a flash of light, they stood once more. The men reformed their tight ranks and began wildly flailing their spears.

Go, the man at the back cried out to them. The men were slowly cut down again, their formation falling apart as the invisible force crashed over them once more.

The Warriors stared on in disbelief and fear. Eventually they turned and whipped their reins. They tore their gaze from the horrors of their past and galloped through the forest as fast as their horses could carry them.

Wind tore at their faces and the trees of the forest blurred by as they dashed down the path, oblivious to everything but the fear that pushed them onward.

“I’m tired of this shit!” Joshua cried out to the others as branches lashed at their faces.

What seemed a lifetime later, they finally came to a stop. Aaron panted heavily as he pondered over what they had witnessed. “This forest is some kind of record of our past…these trees have a strange gift. I wonder if it’s like this for everyone who enters.”

“Gift?” Joshua asked. “More like curse. Who in their right mind would enter a hellhole like this?”

“We would,” answered Silas.

The following day, the Warriors crossed a brook, their horses’ hooves splashing across its murky waters.

Fewer beams of sunlight pierced the treetops overhead, the canopies even more dense than the days before. They followed a trail that took them down a steep hillside and worked their way across the treacherous terrain.

They reached the bottom and came to a crossway. Four paths extended off in every direction from a central point before them. They leaned back disheartened in their saddles, confused as to which way to follow.

The group glanced at Cain who sat scratching his chin in contemplation. After a moment, he shrugged with defeat and left the others sighing in bemusement.

A faint noise then came from the canopy above and they looked up into the leaves. A black raven swooped out of the trees and circled over them twice. It then alighted on the branch of a dead tree beside the second path on their left and cawed incessantly at Cain.

Cain glanced over his shoulder at Adriel who nodded slowly.

His friends looked at Cain with disbelief as he reined his horse forward and rode towards the path.

“I can’t believe I’m about to follow a bird,” he murmured. His friends shrugged at each other and followed him.

The raven dove from the branch and flew over the narrow path, sailing through the treetops with impressive ease. They eventually caught up with it as it landed on a tree that hung over the end of the path. The trail stopped at a dead end before them.

The bird landed on a tree near a washout that would have gone unnoticed to the Warriors. The raven began crying profusely and jumped with glee. It bound from the tree and spun gracefully in the air, gliding down the washout trail before disappearing into the shadows.

The Warriors hesitated a moment before reining their horses down this second path. The raven sailed down the length of the trail for several minutes. The travelers cantered after it as it turned and followed a third path.

They cautiously followed it, but soon the bird slipped from view and disappeared into the shadows.

The travelers looked at each other with surprise that they had followed a bird for directions.

As day fell and night darkened the shielded skies above, they dismounted their horses. They removed their saddles and equipment and spread out their mats in a tight circle.

“Now that’s more like it,” Silas said as he lay down under a tree and stabbed his knife into the sallow dirt.

“No dead people today. That has to be a record,” Joshua sighed as he sat down beside his brother.

“Don’t entice them. They may change their minds,” Aaron warned. He threw his saddle down in the leaves before glancing into the encircling trees.

He carted his bags over to them and unclasped the metal loops that held them together, removing several handfuls of dried meats and bread from its depths. “Let’s just forget about it,” he said as he tossed each of them a portion.

“Forget about it?” Cain asked as he leaned forward from the relative comfort of a root. “How can we forget about it? The visions I see, the memories they bring, they’re eating me alive…I have to get out of this forest.”

Aaron sat down on his mat across from him. “Do you think it’s this place? Or is it just you?”

Cain’s eyes ripped open with a gasp of air. He sat up in his mat, shaking from the shadows that haunted his sleep. Images of his past swarmed his crowded head, thoughts racing as his heart beat profusely.

He wiped the sweat from his brow and stood up from his mat, pulling his cloak closer to his body as a chill wind blew across his skin.

He bent down and picked up his water skin, taking several gulps of the cool water.

He looked around the campfire at his friends who lay deep in sleep. He noticed a figure standing off in the outskirts of their encampment.

Cain stepped over Silas and walked towards the figure. As he crossed the small glade, his boots crunched loudly in the leaves.

Adriel turned around to look at him as he approached. He walked up and stood beside her.

A few feet before them was the edge of an overhang. Over the cliff was an enormous expanse of trees that stretched far into the distance. On the horizon were the faint outlines of distant mountains, sulking giants in the black of night.

The mountains spanned across the entire horizon, stretching off to the very ends of the earth. The night sky lay exposed above them, unhindered by the forests of Morgaul.

Thousands of stars dotted the skies, flickering zealously in their own right. The moon hung low in the heavens, full and grand, an overbearing radiance amid the deepest black.

The moon illuminated the forests and mountains below, drowning the world in a sea of light.

Adriel turned and smiled at Cain. The sapphire pools of her eyes shimmered in the starlight, her hair dancing in the breeze.

“It’s a beautiful night,” she said in awe as she gazed out over the trees bathed in ivory.

“It is…”

They stood in silence for several minutes, engrossed in the beauty before them.

“I feel a tension in the air,” Cain whispered.

Adriel tilted her chin to the wind, letting her hair blow back in the cool breeze. “I feel it too.” They looked at each other for a moment before breaking their gaze.

“It’s the winds of war,” Cain continued, taking a step towards the edge of the outcropping. Adriel followed likewise and looked at him for a moment. “I can feel the cries of the innocent, the blood that is spilt across the North. It is as if their pain sails these winds. War descends upon us…”

Adriel looked at Cain, worry masked beneath the radiance of the moon. “Cain…what happened to you in Andaurel?”

He looked out over the grandeur before him, pain and greater sorrow a weight in his throat.

“Cain…please tell me. Maybe…maybe I can help you.”

Cain shook his head. “What happened is in the past.”

“Obviously not. You still carry it with you. I see the pain it brings. The others may not see it, but I do.”

“It’s nothing but a memory now. Maybe it haunts me to make me stronger. Maybe it haunts me to make me a weaker man; unfit for the task I have been given. Tarsha places all of its hopes on me, and I long to do what is right. As long as my past, my memories, and my regrets guide me toward my vengeance, than I don’t care what end awaits me…”

T
he next day the Warriors mounted their horses well before the break of dawn, eating a handful of their rations as they rode through the fading darkness. The sun gradually rose in an unseen sky, bringing with it a warmth welcomed by the travelers.

The riders twisted their way through the trees of the forest that had long since begun to thin out. Thick, thorny vines clawed about them as they followed a narrow washout through the heart of the Morgaul.

For several hours, they traversed the winding paths that snaked their way across the undulating landscape. Noon came to pass and they guided their horses over knotted hills of root and stone, soon coming out into yet another trail.

As they crossed onto the pathway, the same raven screeched at them from its perch overhead, barely visible among the black-leafed trees. It swooped down and circled over them before flying down the path, screaming incessantly as it glided into the shadows.

Cain led the group down the path, following their strange companion. The raven led them through a sea of trees and hills, working their way through the never-ending labyrinth of trails.

The Warriors rode throughout the day, riding on with little rest, more than ready to leave the Morgaul.

As the hours slowly passed, they sighted the bird again. The raven flew in a continuous circle over a path that branched off to their left. They reined their mounts toward this trail with reluctant compliance.

The bird floated ahead of them and quickly disappeared into the shadows. The travelers followed this path and soon came to the top of a prominence. As they reached the end, the treetops above suddenly split.

A blinding wall of sunlight struck them and they blinked rapidly. Once their eyes had adjusted to the light, they noticed the trail continued ahead for several hundred yards. The wide path split the Morgaul and left the ebony trees to wither in the blazing sun.

The Morgaul’s power waned as the Warriors grinned, realizing the end lay ahead. The travelers flicked their reins and sent their horses into a swift trot. The black trees of the Morgaul whipped past as they sped down the path.

Suddenly they burst out of the trees, leaving the forest in their wake. They pulled their reins and came to a halt as a blast of fresh air brushed over them. They sighed with relief and looked around at their new surroundings.