Three Quest Deal (Tales of Former Dragons Book 1) (15 page)

The group rode for six days over various terrains and crossed two shallow rivers before they caught their first glimpse of the Dark Forest from the side of a hill. They saw the tops of leafless, blackened trees shooting high into the air. An eerie fog-like mist blanketed the base of the trees and spilled over into the surrounding grassland.

Tess bit her lower lip. “We’re going in there?”

“How far is it to the altar?” Xan asked.

“It’s in the middle of the forest,” Drakor said. “It should take three to four days to get there.”

“Too bad we can’t fly,” Aesus said.

Tess gave Aesus a strange look. “Fly?”

“Never mind.”

Toshen pointed at the forest’s edge. “Do you see that patch of green trees just outside? We can probably camp there for the night and then go into the forest first thing tomorrow morning.”

It took two hours for them to get close to the campsite. Toshen spotted a doe by the trees and told the others to wait. He dismounted his horse, removed the bow from his back, and crouched in the knee-high grass. He moved slowly toward the doe, bow at the ready. When he was close enough, he drew an arrow and fired. He waved the others on and ran to the felled doe.

Aesus and Tess rode ahead to Toshen, with Drakor and Xan close behind. Tess dismounted to get a closer look. Toshen was on one knee, inspecting the kill.

“It looks healthy,” Tess said.

“I don’t think it’s from the Dark Forest,” Toshen said.

“We’ll eat well tonight,” Aesus told Drakor and Xan.

Tess heard a low growl deep within the forest. She turned to look in that direction. “Did you hear something?”

Toshen focused on listening, and after a brief moment he heard the growl as well. He stood, bow in hand with the arrow drawn, and walked toward the forest. He soon heard the sound of branches breaking in the distance but getting closer. “Run!” he shouted.

Tess ran to her horse and mounted it. Toshen mounted his horse, and the group galloped back in the direction they had come from. Soon after they heard a crash. When they looked back, they saw a large wolf come charging out of the forest. It was as tall as a horse and patches of fur and flesh were missing, bone and skull shining through the exposed areas. The wolf stopped at the doe and howled. It grabbed the doe with its large jaws and carried it back into the forest.

“What was that?” Tess exclaimed.

“A dire wolf,” Drakor said. “A very large, ‘dead’ dire wolf.”

“That still eats flesh,” Toshen added.

“I take it we’re not sleeping under those trees tonight,” Aesus said.

Toshen scanned the area for an alternate location to spend the night. “While it’s not the best place to camp, I remember a shallow cave at the base of the hill that provides basic shelter from the weather.”

“Lead the way,” Drakor said.

The group settled into the shallow cave with a meal of dried meat and bread. A small fire kept them warm, and they took shifts keeping watch.

A wolf’s howl in the distance woke the group at first light. They ate bread and prepared to enter the forest.

“What’s the plan if we encounter more beasts?” Toshen asked Drakor. “We can’t just run all the time.”

“We’ll have to hold our ground and fight,” Drakor said.

“How do you kill something that’s already dead?” Xan asked.

“Burn it, or perhaps chop off its head,” Drakor said. “Burning is better, because we don’t need to get close. That means it’s important that Aesus position himself as soon as possible, so he can flame any beasts without endangering the rest of us.”

“But will setting it on fire stop it from killing us?” Aesus asked. “It may not react the same as a living creature.”

“That’s a good question,” Toshen said.

Drakor nodded. “Aim for the head. The eyes if you can. That will blind the creature. If we can take out its legs, it can’t move, so that’s an option as well.”

“I’ll go for the knees,” Toshen said.

“All right then, let’s get going.”

The group mounted up and rode to the edge of the forest. Toshen rode slightly ahead of them, and when his horse came upon the knee-high fog, it veered to the side. The horse shook its head and neighed in protest. Toshen steered the horse again with the same result.

“What’s wrong?” Drakor asked.

“It doesn’t like the fog,” Toshen said.

“Let me try.” Drakor steered his horse into the fog, and the horse veered and neighed as well. Drakor looked at Tess. “Any ideas?”

Tess thought for a moment, and then dismounted her horse. She grabbed the reins and faced the horse. “Don’t worry, the fog won’t hurt you. Just follow me.” She turned around and walked into the fog, horse behind her. The horse complied and followed her. After a few feet, she mounted the horse. She patted the horse on the side of its neck. “Good horse.” Tess looked up at the others. “Try it, but I think you can skip talking to the horse.”

The others dismounted and successfully led their horses into the fog. They mounted up and continued.

Aesus pulled up next to Tess. “That was clever. Well done.”

Tess smiled and nodded.

After a few minutes, Toshen stopped his horse and waited for the others to catch up. “In what direction are we heading?” Toshen asked Drakor. “With no path and this fog, I’m worried about getting lost.”

Drakor looked at the surrounding area and into the distance in front of him. It all looked the same. He looked over his shoulder and, seeing the grass in the distance, he turned his horse around and moved toward it. He heard a ringing sound in his ears. When he turned the horse back, the ringing stopped. “That’s odd.”

“What’s odd?” Xan asked.

Drakor turned his horse around and moved a few feet. The ringing returned.

He rode up to Toshen. “Turn your horse around.”

Toshen faced the opposite direction and looked at Drakor. “Now what?”

“Take a few steps.”

Toshen moved forward, stopped, and looked at Drakor.

“Do you hear it?”

“Yes, but where’s it coming from?”

“I don’t know.”

Toshen moved his horse in different directions using different angles. “Interesting. The ringing gets louder the more I go in the wrong direction.”

“What ringing?” Xan asked. “What’s happening?”

“If you head away from the middle of the forest, you hear a ringing sound that gets louder the more you head in the wrong direction. Try it.”

Xan, Aesus, and Tess rode in various directions and then returned to Toshen.

“I hear it,” Xan said.

Aesus nodded. “So do I.”

“I don’t hear anything,” Tess said.

“What’s causing it?” Xan asked.

Toshen shrugged.

“Whatever’s causing it seems to be telling us where not to go,” Drakor said. “So as long as we don’t hear the ringing sound, we should be all right.”

“What about me?” Tess asked.

“Stay close and don’t get lost. If you get lost, you may never find your way out of the forest.”

Tess moved next to Aesus. “All right. Let’s go.”

After several hours of riding, the group dismounted and stretched their legs.

“The horses still seem a bit nervous about the fog,” Toshen said.

“The horses are moving a lot more slowly,” Drakor said. “It’s going to take longer than I expected to get there. Perhaps a day or two more. It’s going to be close.”

Tess saw something move in her peripheral vision, but when she turned to look, she saw nothing. It happened again, and she reached out and grabbed Aesus’s arm. “There’s something out there.”

Drakor drew his sword and Toshen his bow, arrow ready to fire. Tess and Xan ran between the two, and Aesus positioned himself relative to Drakor and Toshen to form a triangle.

“What did you see, Tess?” Drakor asked.

“I’m not sure. Just fast-moving shadows,” Tess replied. She drew her sword and reached down with her other hand to pull the dagger from her boot.

“How do you set a shadow on fire?” Aesus asked.

“Can shadows even hurt us?” Xan asked.

One of the horses neighed and became restless. The other horses stirred.

“To the horses,” Drakor said. “We can’t stay here.”

The group moved quickly to their respective horses and mounted them, keeping an eye out for whatever was hiding around them.

Toshen oriented his horse based on the ringing in his ears. “This way.”

The others followed him as he galloped through the forest, ducking to avoid low branches and trying to see what lay ahead.

After half an hour, Toshen slowed and waited for the others to come beside him.

“Do you think we lost those things?”

Drakor looked over his shoulder. “Hopefully.”

“If they’re just shadows without physical forms, they might be harmless,” Aesus said.

“Or they might have other powers we’re not aware of that would harm us,” Xan said.

“There was no way of telling until it was too late,” Tess said. “It was best that we fled.”

“While I know dark magic is bad, I don’t know how it works or what can be done with it,” Drakor said. “Dead wolves. Shadows. These are all new to me. I don’t know what else we might encounter here.”

“I’m worried about where we’re sleeping tonight,” Xan said. “I don’t want to lie down and breathe this fog—or whatever it is.”

“Let’s see if we can find some raised area or a tree to sleep in,” Drakor said. “At least we’ll be off the ground.”

The group searched for an hour and finally found a tree four people could sleep in while one person stood watch on the ground. The tree was wide in girth and its four large branches were spread low at ninety degrees on the trunk. Drakor shaved the top of the branches with his sword to provide a flat surface to lie on.

After a meal of dried fish and bread, they settled in for the night. A small lantern hung from a branch dimly lit the surrounding area. Drakor took the first watch.

Drakor awoke just as the sun lit the sky. He sat up and saw that Tess, Xan, and Aesus were still asleep. He looked for Toshen and saw him standing a few feet from the tree, bow out and arrow drawn. A wolf’s howl in the distance broke the silence.

“Toshen,” Drakor whispered.

Toshen turned to look at Drakor and walked toward him. “It’s been howling for the past hour. Some other wolves responded, but they sound much farther away.”

“I’ll wake the others so we can get going.”

After a quick breakfast of bread and dried berries, they mounted up and continued their journey. Toshen took the lead, followed by Aesus and Tess, Xan, and Drakor at the rear.

Two hours into their ride, Toshen stopped and signaled for the others to stop. He pulled the bow from his back and held it on his lap.

“Is there a problem?” Aesus asked.

“We’re being watched,” Toshen said. “Tess’s shadows have returned.”

Tess looked into the surrounding trees and tried to get a glimpse of a shadow, but didn’t see any.

Aesus looked around and also didn’t see anything. He turned to Xan and Drakor. “Shadows.”

Drakor moved his horse next to Toshen’s. “How many?”

“Five, but I might be wrong,” Toshen said. “They move so fast, it’s hard to tell.”

He saw something move on his left, quickly aimed his bow, and fired. It passed through the intended target and disappeared into the fog.

“Arrows don’t work against them.”

Without warning, ten shadowy figures emerged from the fog as if they had risen straight out of the ground, and formed a large circle around the group. The shadows were translucent with an ill-defined form.

One of the shadows in front of Toshen shimmered and turned into a solid form about his height. It was a female dark elf. She had gray skin, pointy ears, and long graying-black hair swept over her shoulder. She wore a dark-purple leather halter top, low-riding pants, knee-high boots, and a flowing black feathered cape. A short sword hung from her belt.

“I thought all the dark elves were dead,” Drakor said.

“What are you doing in my forest?” the dark elf asked.

“We’re on a quest. Given a choice, we wouldn’t be here.”

“But you are here. In my forest. What’s the quest?”

“We can’t share that with you.”

The dark elf clenched her fist at her side. “You mean you won’t share it with me.”

“We mean you know harm, elf. We’re just here to complete the quest.”

The elf raised her hand and pointed a finger at Xan’s satchel. “Yet you have two things that belong to me.”

“We have nothing that belongs to you.”

The elf laughed. “Yes, you do. I can sense them. Give them to me and leave the forest, and I’ll spare your lives.”

“We won’t give you anything and we won’t leave the forest.”

“Then I’ll have to kill you to claim what’s rightfully mine.”

“Can we know our killer’s name before our demise?”

The dark elf grinned. “Of course. I’m Nashara, queen of the dark elves.”

The nine shadowy figures shimmered and turned into dark elves. Four were dressed in black leather armor and wielded a bow, two wore dark-purple robes, and the other three wore black leather armor and wielded short swords. The two robed elves each raised a hand, and a sparks of light appeared on their fingertips.

Toshen quickly fired two arrows and felled the two dark elves dressed in purple robes.

Nashara cast a bolt of frost at Toshen, but he saw her raised hand and dodged the bolt as it came at him.

Aesus turned his horse and hit two of the archers in the chest with fireballs and sent them to the ground.

The other two archers fired at Aesus. One missed, but the other struck Aesus next to his shoulder. Aesus cringed and grabbed his chest.

Xan looked at the arrow in Aesus’s chest and frowned, not knowing how to heal his injury with the solid object embedded in it. She cast a spell to alleviate the pain.

The dark elf swordsmen standing by Tess ran forward and lunged at her, but she maneuvered her horse out of the way. She turned her horse into his back as he stood there and knocked him to the ground. When he tried to get up, she plowed her horse into him and sent him head over heels, breaking his neck.

Drakor charged Nashara with his sword drawn. She dodged as he swung and cast a bolt of frost that missed him but struck his horse in the head. The horse reeled in pain and Drakor fell off its back.

Two of the swordsmen rushed Drakor as he lay on the ground. He rolled over, stood, and parried with the first attacker until he slashed off the elf’s sword hand. As the elf screamed and watched in horror the blood gushing out of his arm, Drakor ran his sword through his chest.

The second elf swung at Drakor, who dodged the blow. Drakor spun around with sword held high and struck the elf in the neck, partially decapitating him. The elf dropped his sword, grabbed his neck, and fell to the ground.

Drakor spotted Nashara a short distance away. As she rose her hand to cast a spell, he grabbed his dagger and flung it in her direction. Before she could fire a frost bolt, the blade landed in her stomach. She grimaced, grabbed the dagger’s handle, and fell backwards to the ground.

Toshen spun his horse around, saw the two remaining archers, and fired two arrows. The first struck an archer in his throat and sent him to the ground. The second arrow struck the remaining archer in the upper chest, but that didn’t stop him. The archer fired an arrow back at Toshen, but missed. Toshen fired another arrow that struck the elf between his eyes, and he fell.

The group turned their attention to Nashara. She was standing, hunched over and clutching her stomach. Blood covered her lips and dripped from the corner of her mouth.

“This isn’t over!” she shouted. “You’ll never leave the forest alive.”

She reached into her waistband, pulled out a small black object, and threw it down at her feet. There was a bright flash of light and a cloud of smoke concealed her body. When the smoke cleared, she was nowhere to be seen.

Xan rode over to Aesus and inspected his wound. “We’ll have to pull the arrow out before I can heal you.”

Aesus raised his leg to dismount his horse, but slowly lowered it and gritted his teeth. “I need help.”

Toshen dismounted and he and Drakor helped Aesus off his horse. Toshen held Aesus’s body steady while Drakor grabbed the arrow’s shaft. Aesus nodded and Drakor ripped the head of the arrow out of his flesh. Aesus screamed, the sound echoing through the forest. Xan whispered a healing spell and Aesus’s wound healed.

Aesus moved his shoulder in a circular motion. “Much better.”

Xan saw Drakor’s horse on the ground and walked to it. The bolt of frost had pierced the horse’s jaw and exposed some teeth and gums. The horse was still alive, but in shock.

“Can you heal horses?” Drakor asked.

“I’ll try,” Xan said.

Xan knelt, placed her hand over the injured area, and whispered a healing spell. The wound on the horse’s jaw closed and healed, and the horse stood up. She patted the horse on its neck and the horse nodded its head and neighed.

“What are we going to do about Nashara?” Toshen asked Drakor.

“I’m not sure,” Drakor said. “She’s clearly after the books.”

“Maybe we can make a deal with her,” Aesus said. “She reads the spell of fusion, and we give her the books.”

“I don’t think it’s that simple,” Drakor said. “We don’t even know what the spell does.”

“Does it matter? Once we read the spell at the altar, the quest is complete.”

“He does have a point,” Toshen said.

“You want to make a deal with someone who just tried to kill us?” Tess asked. “That doesn’t seem like a good idea.”

“Agreed,” Drakor said. “But what alternative do we have?”

“Maybe something at the altar will help us read the book,” Tess said.

“That’s only if we can get to the altar before we encounter her again.”

“Let’s hope we never encounter her again,” Toshen said. “We’re really in no position to make a deal. If we don’t give her the books, she’ll kill us – or at least try to kill us.”

Drakor grunted. “For now, let’s just focus on getting to the altar. There are a few more hours of daylight, so let’s make the most of it.”

The group rode until the sky darkened. They found a tree to sleep in and ate a meal of dried fish and bread. Xan took first watch while the others slept.