After the dust settled, Talis felt the cold dew falling, sending a chill under his skin. He’d searched through the bodies, bones and fetid flesh and soldiers still dying, trying to find Mara and Nikulo. Rikar helped, illuminating the night with a shimmering orb, turning over bodies, revealing the hideous faces of undead and former living alike. Finally, a trembling lump lifted itself up, a dirtied face staring around in horror at the destruction.
It was Mara! Talis felt a wave of relief and joy washing over him like a warm summer rain.
“I was so worried…I’d thought you were killed,” Talis said. “Thank the gods you survived.”
“What are you doing here?” Rikar eyes went wide.
“You think I was going to let you guys go off on an adventure by yourselves?”
“This is not some kind of game…you could have been killed,” Rikar said. “And your family is probably worried sick about you…”
Mara scoffed. “Forget about them… They want me to marry some old pig.” She glanced around at all the undead bones lying around. “When they attacked I knew it was best to pretend I was dead. They went right after the soldiers and ignored me.”
“You did the right thing.” Talis brushed the sand off her clothes.
“Nikulo is probably shivering in his boots, somewhere around here.” Rikar squinted, peering out north.
“He was close to me,” Mara said, “before Talis attacked…”
“Let’s find Nikulo and whatever supplies we’ll need.” Talis rummaged around, checking the bodies for Nikulo. Where were the horses? All their packs, their food and supplies. Even if the threat of attack were over, they’d die out here in the desert without a way out and means to survive.
Rikar whistled, calling Talis back to where he was searching with Mara. Mounted on horseback, Nikulo grinned in his cocky way, holding the reins of a second horse.
“Couldn’t let these two run off,” Nikulo said. “I tried to find others…” He stopped when he noticed Mara. “You little she-devil! Who let you come along?”
Mara smiled, flushing a bit. “Nice to see you too.”
Nikulo chuckled, and glanced at Talis. “You look terrible, like something sat on your face.”
“Well, what happened to you?” Rikar swaggered over to Nikulo’s horse. “Were you around for the attack?”
“I was trying to stay alive, crawling away just the moment they attacked.”
Rikar scanned the northern horizon. “Looks like we’re on our own now, two horses, a few packs, some water, and how many days riding north until we-”
“Get out of this hellhole?” Nikulo frowned. “Two…maybe three days riding. I grabbed this horse and managed to track down the second…luckily the horses came to me…this one licked me…”
“North? Why would we continue on? The party is demolished…shouldn’t we return to Naru?” Talis said.
“And give up?” Rikar sheathed his sword. “I think not. We have the map in your possession. The Elders said that the champion commanded you to go…”
“I’m not saying give up, I’m saying return to Naru and resupply.”
“If one Jiserian raiding party found us so easily, what’s to say another one won’t again if we return?”
“Rikar has a point,” Mara said. “We’re lucky we’re alive. I say we keep going on.”
Of course Mara wanted to keep going on, if she went back to Naru, her parents would kill her. And it wasn’t luck, it was whoever Rikar had called…he saved them, this Aurellia. Who was he, anyways?
“Did you find any other survivors?” Nikulo said.
Rikar frowned. “I’m tired of dead bodies. I went through plenty looking for you and Mara.”
“I’m going to look…in case there is someone I can heal,” Nikulo said.
Talis rummaged through the mess, trying to find anything useful for the trip. Most of the horses had fled after the attack. Soldiers from his father’s armory-who he’d barely known-lying dead on the sand. There were too many to bury.
“Fire will purify the bodies,” Rikar said, as if reading his thoughts.
“Wait for Nikulo to check for any survivors.” Mara’s face held a dark grimace.
As the eastern horizon brightened, awash in the faintest bit of crimson and cobalt, Talis rose to meet Nikulo as he waddled forward. His shoulders sank with a morbid heaviness, as if his grim job had come up fruitless.
He shook his head, and turned to stare at the northern horizon.
Rikar faced the mass of bodies, breathing in and out rapidly, the breath of fire. Talis wanted to join in and help, but he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t bring himself to use magic in this way. The fire danced from body to body, causing the whole mass to explode into flames. The sickly sweet smell of roasted flesh caused Talis to clench his stomach. He bent over, staring at the light flickering off the sand. He had to get out of there.
They rode north as the sun crept slowly up the horizon, igniting the desert with a blinding brilliance. As far as he could see, nothing but swirling sands and rolling dunes, ever-changing under the brutal wind. Mara rode with Talis, her arms clenched around his waist as if she was scared of being blown off.
Charting their way with the Surineda Map, they found a small oasis that night, luckily with an old but functioning well. Food was running low. They had enough for maybe another day, and in the oasis they found no game to hunt, just a few palm trees and scraggly bushes. Even a snake would taste good…if they could find one.
On the second day they ran out of food. Rikar caught a rattlesnake and roasted it. Tasted like a chewy, tough chicken, but very little meat and after it all, Talis still felt hungry.
The air was colder now, so cold at night it was close to freezing. They were nearing the northlands, the Elbegurian Forest and the Turyan River. He’d never felt so tired and sun burned in his life. If fire was his element, the sun was consuming all the moisture from his body. He felt like he was drying up.
Late afternoon the next day, Talis could see a thin layer of ice covering the last stretch of sand along the northern end of the desert. They’d finally reached the northlands. The sky held a swath of silver-grey-remnants of the sand storm that had cleared up only an hour before. A chill crept into Talis as he rode; he was tired and windswept and he missed Naru and missed his family. From the downward glances of the others, they were exhausted too, and there didn’t appear to be a good place to rest for the night.
He wanted to ride ahead and ask Rikar, but his arms and face were cold and unresponsive. There must be a place to rest ahead. Scanning the horizon, Talis spotted a pack of caribou, their proud horns bent down as they grazed on whatever bits of grass and lichen they could find. They raised their heads and stared at them. White mist billowed from their nostrils as they chewed, studying the approaching riders.
“Dinner…” Nikulo drooled and patted his belly.
Mara withdrew her bow and nocked an arrow. “I get the first bite. Let’s go!”
Talis sped off after the caribou, Rikar and Nikulo flanking. The pack bolted off together, but a young buck, confused at the two horses coming at him from different directions, turned to face Talis and Mara, pawing at the ground. A moment too late, he charged off after the pack, but Mara’s arrow caught him in the ribs, and a second hit his right flank. Stumbling, he kicked, huffing and grunting, big white exhalations floating off in the cold air.
Rikar leapt off his horse, bringing his sword sharply up to end the poor creature’s pain. They would feed well tonight and probably for the next few days. They hefted the young buck onto a horse, and Rikar scanned around as if looking for a place to setup camp.
Talis dismounted and gazed at the thickening sky: big clumps of snow drifted slowly to the ground. This was the first time he’d seen snowflakes this big. His horse neighed and stomped her hooves as he stared over the vast expanse. A wide, frothy river flowed down from the north and curved east. On either sides of the river were rocky clearings and thick, towering pines. Beyond, a mist settled over the river and the forest, obliterating the view of the lower mountains. Snow-capped peaks poked out halfway up in the sky, like sentinels keeping watch over their domain.
“This must be the Turyan River-and beyond, the Elbegurian Forest,” Talis said, his voice low and tense. “Master Holoron said these were dangerous lands…”
“But it looks so beautiful,” Mara said. Blade-edged peaks and granite faces ten thousand feet tall. Wind whipped near the peaks, and blew snow in enormous cotton swaths. One peak held a massive glacier…a thick cap of ice and snow. Talis sat transfixed, and glanced down at the forests. He’d never seen such gigantic trees. Closer to the river, the pines were hundreds of feet tall. But further up, titanic trees towered the land, with the top half of the trees bursting above the fog. A cold, dark power filled the land, Talis could feel it tingle under his skin. He stared at the lower forest as if eyes were everywhere, watching them.
“Let's camp over there, on the left side of the river, along the tree line,” Rikar said. “We’ll make a fine roast tonight.”
Talis followed Rikar as he rode down the hillside towards the river. The wind was fierce now, with snow coming down strong. Twilight settled as they made their way through the rocky clearing, and reached the forest's edge.
He slid off his horse and staggered, as his legs tried to recover from the long ride. A gnaw in his stomach reminded him he hadn’t eaten in over a day.
Rikar removed his packs and began hunting around for wood. Soon they’d gathered enough and Rikar released a fiery stream into the wood, big puffs of smoke shooting up into the sky. They built a roasting spit and skinned the buck. Talis sat, watching Nikulo’s masterful roasting skills, listening to the fat sizzle, inhaling the sweet smell.
Once the roast was ready, Talis devoured a helping, then ate some more until his belly felt like it would explode. Food had never tasted so good. Color returned to Mara’s face after the meal, and she sat next to him, curled up, and lay her head on his lap. He thought he heard her purring with content.
Out the next day, after trekking along the river for several hours, they found a trail leading north, and Talis studied the Surineda Map, realizing they were heading towards the village of Blansko. Half a day’s journey in they found the trail obliterated by an enormous rockslide that had felled giant soldier pines, creating an unsurpassable mess. Rikar suggested they loop around to the east and follow the river north. But before they reached the river, tall boulders hundreds of feet high stopped their way.
The only way was through the dark, pine forest. The branches pressed down at many places so low they had to dismount their horses and lead them through. They followed Rikar as he trudged into the forest, slowing as the woods enveloped them. There was something soothing about the air infused with pine and mountain herbs, and the calm from lack of wind. Talis inhaled and walked on.
A commotion above moved the limbs against each other. The eerie croaking and groaning of wood against wood. The sound unnerved Talis, but Mara smiled, and they kept on.
“Over there,” he said, pointing with his chin. They kept ahead towards a patch of twilight beyond the forest. After reaching a clearing filled with logs and boulders, he realized it continued into an even deeper forest.
He sighed. “Still more to go.”
After a long hike through a dense, suffocating part of the forest, torches in hand, they found an old tree lying on the ground, with termites devouring the wood. Too tired to go on, they decided to rest here for the night.
Talis knocked branches off the tree and grinned as he kicked a branch. It cracked and shattered in several pieces. He made a game where he was snapping the necks off Jiserian necromancers. It helped. Mara picked up a branch and swirled it around, giggling.
“This place is creepy.” She poked Talis.
“Are you kidding? I’m so glad to be out of the desert.” Talis spun around, trying to trip Mara. She jumped, and darted out of the way.
“Would you stop messing around?” Rikar sighed. “Just get some wood for a fire.”
Mara stuck out her tongue at Rikar, and punched at Nikulo’s belly. He blocked and danced left. Readying another jab to the ribs, Mara stopped and looked up.
“What's wrong?” Talis said, following her gaze.
“Not sure. I just had a weird feeling.”
Then he caught an awful smell. A mixture of wet, decaying leaves and fermented wheat. His shoulders stiffened.
“Light a fire so we can see better,” she said. The air had turned quiet and lifeless, and he wanted exactly the same thing. There was something here in the forest-with them-watching them.
“Let's gather some branches,” he said, his voice urgent. Mara nodded and they got to work.
Rikar glanced around and raised his torch. “Are you guys just trying to freak me out?”
“No,” Talis said, shrugging. “It’s just strange here.”
“Alright-” Rikar froze in his tracks as Mara screamed.
Talis whipped around and spotted her cringing on the ground, mouth hanging open, staring up.