The island was far bigger than Hyden imagined it would be. He had envisioned this part of the quest as being the easiest. He figured he would have Talon fly over the whole landmass. He would look through the hawkling’s sharp eyes and locate the decaying ship. Then they would retrieve the Silver Skull and be on their way. After seeing what the lay of the land was, he knew it wasn’t going to be that simple. But he found that, after the monotony of the long voyage, he wasn’t disappointed.
While Brady and Oarly supervised the transfer of supplies from ship to shore, Phen explored the beach. Through Talon’s vision, Hyden surveyed the island from overhead. It was nothing more than a roughly circular crown of jagged rocky hills that jutted up out of the ocean around a bowl-shaped valley. The density of the foliage in the valley made it nearly impossible for Talon to see what was below the canopy. Nothing resembling a decaying ship revealed itself in the hills around the shoreline, so Hyden assumed that what they were after lay somewhere in the jungle of the island’s interior. Seeing that it might take weeks to search the area on foot, Hyden tried a different approach. With his eyes open he sought out Talon’s vision and made several passes over the valley. He was pleased to find a faint aura of magical power radiating from an area not far from the jungle’s edge, at the base of the steep section of the surrounding hills. What he saw was an oblong glow with a crude trail that tapered from it like a teardrop in the jungle floor.
Hyden had to close his eyes to see the terrain through his familiar more clearly. The shared vision was not necessary anymore. Talon worked his way down, fluttering from limb to branch to vine under the canopy. With the hawkling’s large wingspan, sustained flight under the trees was nearly impossible-there were just too many obstacles in the way. From a perch just over where Hyden had seen the larger portion of the aura, he was now looking at a great oval mound of overgrown earth. The trail that tapered away from the mound ended at the gaping mouth of a dark cavern right where the forest met the surrounding up-thrusts of rock.
Hyden judged the location to be a little more than a day’s hike from their landing point. He was glad they’d anchored where they had. Captain Trant had chosen the spot because of the shelter provided by the shoreline.
Out on the sandy beach it was only slightly breezy. Hyden decided that they would camp on the island for the night and start out in the morning. Seeing that it was already getting late in the day, he asked Oarly and Phen to seek out some firewood while he and Brady finished the task of unpacking the supplies.
Several of the Seawander’s crew came ashore to stretch their legs. Deck Master Biggs was ordered to take three of his men and accompany Hyden’s party on their journey. Biggs brought with him a bottle of brandy, and after the rest of Seawander’s crew had returned to the ship, he passed it around the fire. Neither Hyden nor Phen drank, but Brady took a sip, and Oarly and the four seamen proceeded to get good and drunk. While Brady sharpened first his sword, then a machete, Phen told them what he had learned from the elf’s journal over the last few days.
“The ring was for King Chago,” he said. “From what I remember from Master Lunkle’s history lessons, King Chago was a tyrant. I can’t figure out why the elves would have wanted to give a gift to one of the worst rulers the realm had ever known.”
“Maybe they sent the gift before he became that way,” Brady suggested.
“No.” Phen shook his head. “I thought that a possibility at first, but Loak, that’s what I call the elf, Leafy Oak Heart, wrote about some of Chago’s horrible deeds, like when he had his men ride down and kill all the people from the village of Ultura, or when he had half the people at Summer’s Day put to the sword.”
“I thought Summer’s Day was considered sacred ground?” commented Brady.
“Not then, only after Pavreal trapped Shokin in the Seal with Ironspike.” Phen spoke matter-of-factly. “The pact that made the Leif Greyn Valley sacred ground was the pact Pavreal made with Claret to guard the Seal.”
“That’s true,” Hyden agreed. The great red dragon, Claret, had told him as much.
“But the Spire has stood there longer than man can remember. That makes the Leif Greyn Valley a special place. That’s why no kingdom has ever laid claim to it.”
“Aye,” both Hyden and Phen agreed at the same time, as they often did, resulting in a laugh.
“It doesn’t say why the elves were giving the ring to the tyrant?” Hyden asked.
“It may, but I haven’t gotten that far yet. Loak details each day meticulously. I’m a quarter of the way through the journal and they’ve only been at sea a week.”
“Just skip through it,” Brady suggested as he studied by the firelight the edge he’d honed on the machete. On the other side of the bonfire Oarly and the seamen all burst into laughter at some joke one of them had told. From beyond them came the sound of the waves rolling in and the faint creak of the Seawander ’s rigging.
“Would you skip through your training drills?” Phen asked Brady. Then to Hyden he added, “He probably does. I haven’t seen him practice once this whole trip. No wonder he can barely last five minutes with High King Mikahl.”
“Anyone who can last a full minute with Mikahl is either extraordinary with a blade, or just plain graced,” said Hyden reverently. “I’ve seen Mikahl dance with a demon and send it skulking away like a scolded cur.”
Brady gave Phen a satisfied grin that turned into a silly smirk.
Hyden looked up at the starlit sky and watched Talon circle down and land by Phen. He was thinking of the day Loudin the hunter had died in the Giant Mountains. Through Talon’s vision he’d watched Mikahl cut the hind legs and tail off of the hellcat that killed their friend. That was also the day Hyden found his magic. He’d healed a mother wolf that had broken her pelvic bone in a fall. Weeks later her two pups led Hyden from the dying tree in Dahg Mahn’s trials to the door of the old wizard’s tower. Trying to keep Loudin’s memory from ruining his mood, he turned to Phen.
“Teach me a new spell-that scrying spell.” His chest swelled as he continued. “I’ve learned the light spell, the flaming finger, and the jolting grasp.” He leaned closer and whispered, “I’m going to get Oarly with that one soon.”
Brady laughed at them.
“I’ve almost mastered the vanishing object,” Hyden said, “but half the time I can’t make the item reappear.” He gave Phen a serious look. “Where in all the hells do things go anyway?”
“Another dimension, I think,” Phen said. “Work on that one until you have it mastered both ways before we start another.”
“Aye,” Hyden nodded reluctantly then picked up a small sea shell to practice with.
“I’ll be over here,” Brady said. He looked more than a little nervous as he crept over to the far side of the fire with the others. Already he had seen Hyden make one of Oarly’s old boots go away never to be seen again. He didn’t want to be next.
Morning brought with it a sense of excitement. Hyden was glad for the men Captain Trant sent with Deck Master Biggs. They loaded up all the packs, ropes, and digging tools they could carry. Brady took the lead with his machete. Hyden followed with the elven longbow Vaegon had given him held at the ready. Phen was next, carrying a long steel dagger that he’d gotten in his dealings with the juju wizard who’d sent them into the Serpent’s Eye. The three deckhands were next. They were too weighted down to carry a weapon in hand, but each dangled a well-kept short sword at the hip. Oarly and Master Biggs took up the rear; Oarly, with his wide, double bladed axe slung over his shoulder, Master Biggs with a heavy crossbow wound and ready to fire.
The passage through the humid undergrowth was far slower than Hyden expected. Brady had to hack and slash every foot of their path. Birds, and other things, cackled and cawed from everywhere. Undergrowth shook violently as large creatures fled their intrusion. Clouds of yellow flies swarmed around their heads, and sweat poured from their bodies by the bucketful.
“This is not as fun as it sounded like it was going to be,” observed Phen.
“Aye,” half of the group said in unison, but nobody laughed.
Hyden didn’t have it quite as bad as the others, at least not when Talon was perched on his shoulder. The presence of the hawkling seemed to deter the pesky flies. Phen noticed this, and with a piece of dried meat devilishly lured the bird to his shoulder for a while. Behind them, the sound of Oarly’s labored breathing, and his constant grumbling competed with the buzz and hum of the insects. A persistent cry, shrill and angry, resounded from somewhere above. Whatever it was kept shaking the tree limbs, but was never seen.
Around midday they came across a clearing that had been formed by a fallen tree. They stopped and rested, eating a meal of dried beef, sliced cheese, and sea biscuits. All of them drank plenty of water, enough that Hyden began to worry if they carried enough. They didn’t stop very long. The persistant yellow flies seemed to like them even more when they were still. A few grueling hours later the flies suddenly went away. Phen was the first to say something about the welcome relief.
“Oarly must have shit,” he called to Hyden and Brady ahead of him.
“What?” Hyden chuckled back over his shoulder.
“The flies have gone,” Phen giggled. “Oarly must have shit his britches again and fogged them away.”
“I heard that,” the dwarf said behind them. “It’s more likely that your foul breath grounded them.”
Phen, and a couple of the seamen laughed, but they were all startled to silence when Brady shushed them.
“Can you hear that?” Brady whispered at Hyden.
A deep buzzing sound was resonating up ahead of them. It sounded like a swarm of something far larger than the yellow flies. Talon leapt from Hyden’s shoulder and flew ahead. All eyes watched Hyden’s concentrated expression, searching for a hint of alarm or fear.
Hyden saw the same thick jungle flora ahead of them: huge heart-shaped leaves, long dangling vines, and clusters of bright blue flowers that grew out of patches of thorny brambles. Talon followed the sound, fluttering from branch to branch as he went, taking it all in. Subtle alarms were going off in the hawkling’s mind, the instinctual warnings that all creatures seem to have built into their consciousness, but so far curiosity was dominant. Hyden felt the alarms too, like tiny voices saying, “Not good. Fly away. Go around.” The hawkling ignored them bravely, and eased forward as Hyden bade. Then from a stone’s throw away they saw the source of the sound. Talon perched on a limb and froze in place just long enough for Hyden to see what it was. Then he fled back to the group, as quickly as he could fly through the dense jungle.
It was a nest of hornets, Hyden saw in that moment. Not ordinary flower-buzzing bugs, but huge red hornets the size of cucumbers, with finger-long venomous stingers sticking out of them. The nest was the size of a pavilion tent, and thousands of the creatures buzzed here and there through the trees. The skeleton of something lay near the hive. Another hump of something even larger seemed to undulate with the wasps as they swarmed over, feeding on its flesh. Hyden hadn’t been able to make out any more. Talon’s instincts had thankfully taken over and forced him to fly away.
Trying not to alarm the others, Hyden pointed to the left of the line they had been traveling, and spoke in a near whisper. “Let’s go that way for a while,” he suggested. He ignored the barrage of hissed questions from the others. He didn’t want to tell them that no bow or sword would save them if those things set upon them. He doubted there was even a spell that might let them escape so many poisonous flying things. There was no other choice but to skirt well around the nest. Later, he might tell them exactly what he’d seen.
After a long while, he had Brady circle them back around toward their original course. He kept Talon ahead of them, searching for signs of anything that might be a danger.
“Look,” Phen exclaimed, pointing off into the trees. When Hyden saw it, his heart nearly stopped. A lime-green snake, as big around as a man, and easily thirty paces long, slithered away through the lower branches just beside their trail. When it was about a hundred strides away, it startled something in the undergrowth. Whatever it was growled fiercely and rattled shrubs and leaves as it darted away from the snake directly toward them. Phen stood open-mouthed and wide-eyed as a dark shadowy form bounded straight at him. He raised his dagger feebly when the cougar-like creature revealed itself. Teeth bared, it leapt at him. It was covered in quills like a porcupine, and Phen could do nothing as it pounced. Just before tooth and claw found Phen’s flesh, the creature sprouted two more quills, each with fletching on the ends. The alert seaman behind the boy booted him to the ground just in time to avoid disaster. Both Hyden and Deck Master Biggs had loosed arrows at the creature. In the leafy shrub where it crashed down, a wicked-looking spiked tail thrashed about a moment before stilling.
“Well theres be fresh smeat for sssupper,” Oarly said cheerily. The slur of his speech betrayed the fact that he had taken more than a sip or two of Biggs’s brandy during the day.
“It’s a blasted overgrown lyna,” one of the seamen said as he looked closer at the kill.
“Could be,” Master Biggs nodded.
“I’m not sure we want the smell of fresh meat close to us in this place,” said Hyden as he helped Phen to his feet.
“ ’Tis true, Hyden Hawk,” Oarly replied robustly. It was obvious that he had overcome his seasickness. “These Island creatures won’t be smelling fresh meat around this dwarf, lad. They’ll be a smelling scorched meat, from a raging fire, and they’ll fear the smell of it too.”
Hyden had to agree that the smell of scorched flesh and a huge fire would most likely dissuade anything from snooping too close to the camp. It would probably keep the bugs away too. The thought of the huge hornets swarming them in the dark made him shudder.
With speed, and precise skill, that seemed as out of place as it was surprising, Oarly beheaded, gutted, and skinned the creature. Within moments the feline thing was tied by its legs to a limb that the dwarf cleaved from a tree with his axe. Phen took it upon himself to put one end of the spit on his shoulder while Oarly took up the other. It was an awkward looking rig, as the dwarf was easily a head shorter than the boy.
“You’ll want to pick a campsite well before dark, lad.” Oarly told Hyden. “We’ll need plenty of time to find wood and set up alarms.”
Alarms? Hyden asked himself as they started back under way. He found himself wondering, not for the first time, how Oarly had earned the title of master, and what he might be a master of. He was finding himself glad to have the dwarf along, though. He would never have thought of setting up alarms around the camp, and if he had, he wouldn’t have had the first idea of how to go about it.
Later, when Oarly suggested they stop, Hyden didn‘t argue. It wasn’t a clearing by any means, just a place where the trees were farther apart than elsewhere. The group was surprised when Oarly shrugged out of his packs and went to work.
“Stand back,” he said. He sipped from a flask, put it away, and wiggled his brows cheerily at Phen. With his axe held out he began spinning around and around in counterbalanced lurches of speed. Teetering and tottering as he went, he used his sharp blade to mow down the undergrowth to a manageable level. When he was done, he leaned on the haft of his weapon and stumbled in place for a moment. When his eyes rolled back out of his head he pulled a small shovel from his belt and threw it three feet wide of Hyden. “Dig us a fire pit. I’d let Brady do the honors, but he’s wore from swing’n that machete all day. You two come on,” he barked at a couple of the seamen, and off they went into the jungle. The two men took turns carrying back armfuls of dead fall that Oarly was chopping into manageable chunks. After a fire was going, and the meat was spitted over it, Oarly took out a pack that contained a sizable ball of twine and what might have been a dozen little bells.
“Come on, Phen,” Oarly ordered. “You’ll have to get up on my shoulders to help me get our web strung over some of these branches. I learned this trick from the Spiderton Tinks and it has to be done just so.”
“Who are the Spiderton Tinks?” Phen asked and Oarly obliged him with the tale as they went about stringing twine.
“Amazing,” Brady commented to Hyden as they watched the dwarf show Phen how to make a silent approach on them next to impossible. When his tale, and the rigging, was done, Oarly took a piece of sizzling meat from the thing roasting on the fire, sniffed at it, then wolfed it down.
“Mmmm, that’s tasty,” he said as he cut another piece. “Master Biggs, pass me that flask.” Then to Hyden, “You’ll want three two-man watches tonight. Me and the boy done did our part.” Oarly swigged deeply from the tin container a few times, and passed it back to the Deck Master, who passed it on to his men. No sooner had the dwarf lain back on his bedroll, than he started to snore.
“That right there,” Brady said. “That sound alone will keep the fiercest of creatures away from us.”
Hyden nodded his agreement with a distant smile, remembering Mikahl and Vaegon making almost the exact same comment about the sounds Loudin of the Reyhall used to make while he slept. He couldn’t help but remember the fine times they’d spent around a fire very much like this one. Neither could he forget that most of them never made it out of the Giant Mountains.