Child of Fate (24 page)

The wolves sprang their trap, felling an elk
cow that strayed from the herd. She was brought down, one wolf
clinging to her haunch while another leapt at her throat. A third
on her shoulder finally tripped her up and forced her to fall. A
group of riders from the east swept in and used their bows and
spears to drive the wolves back.

“Kelgryn,” Kar stated the obvious.

“A lot of them,” Karthor added, proving he
was his father’s son.

The elk ran on, leaving the two groups of
riders facing each other with only a matter of a few hundred yards
between them. A rider rode over to the elk that was struggling and
flailing on the ground and drove its spear into the magnificent
beast’s heart to end its suffering. The others approached Tristam’s
group evenly.

Once they’d come within a score of feet, a
small group of men rode forward. “What business have you in Kelgryn
lands?” a man wearing a shirt of mail that gleamed red in the
setting sun asked. He wore a mighty helm with the curved horns of a
ram worked into it.

“Passing through,” Tristam answered.

He barked out a laugh. “Passing through to
where?” A few men behind him echoed his laugh, and then they fell
silent when Namitus’s horse stepped to the side and revealed him
from behind Alto.

“Well met, Jarl,” Namitus said.

Tristam twisted in his saddle to look at
Namitus. Alto saw the look in the older warrior’s eyes; he’d
forgotten that Namitus had been banished.

Teorfyr, jarl of the northern Kelgryn said,
“Are these the same companions that rescued my daughter?”

“We are,” Tristam answered. “We meant no
disrespect, Jarl. Truth be told, we forgot about the banishment.
Our quest only briefly intrudes upon your lands.”

“Which of you is Alto?”

Alto stiffened in his seat and then raised
his hand. “I am, Jarl.”

Teorfyr appraised Alto for a moment and then
nodded. “You will camp with us tonight and tell us of your
quest.”

“What of Namitus? He’s pledged himself to my
company,” Tristam spoke up.

“The Blades of Leander?” Jarl Teorfyr’s lip
curled up in a smirk. “It wasn’t the Lady Patrina’s right to
dismiss him from my service. We’ll discuss his fate.”

The jarl turned and rode his mighty stallion
back, leaving the others to follow. One man turned and motioned for
the Blades to follow him while the Kelgryn began to raise their
tents and prepare their fires. The elk was butchered for roasting,
though even such a mighty animal would not feed the hundreds of men
that rode with the jarl.

Alto was impressed with the efficiency of the
Kelgryn force as they made their camp for the night. The tents were
raised and even the elk was roasted before the sun had dropped
beneath the western rim of the world. They sat around a fire,
eating and drinking, before the jarl brought attention back to the
matters at hand.

“I thank you for aiding my daughter and my
servant,” the jarl said after he finished wiping his beard and
mustache. He cleaned his dagger and sheathed it. “She is bound for
Holgasford against her wishes. She wanted to ride with me.”

Alto let a gasp escape his lips that Teorfyr
caught. Teorfyr chuckled and took a drink from the skin at his
side. “This surprises you? We Kelgryn value our women for more than
washing our clothes and warming our beds.” He turned and gestured
at women wearing the armor of men and carrying weapons of war.
“They are dangerous warriors and even if they don’t have the
strength of arm a man does, they make up for it with guile and
skill.”

“Lady Patrina impressed upon me the
importance of not underestimating her,” Alto offered to the
laughter of the jarl and the others.

“Her fate is tied to that of my people,”
Teorfyr said after a moment. He looked at them all to let the
weight of his words settle on them. “We live simple lives and have
to face the relentless waves of the ocean in the morning and the
hungry eyes of your Kingdom in the evening.”

“He means the east and the west,” Kar
whispered to Alto when the young man looked around in
confusion.

The jarl appeared to miss the wizard’s hushed
explanation. “My people look to us for leadership and they grow
restless when there is uncertainty in the air.”

“That explains why she was taken!” Alto
interjected. He shrank back when he realized what he’d done.

“Say on, young man; my daughter speaks highly
of you,” bade the jarl.

Alto tried to push aside the fear of being
the center of attention. He found the words came to him so long as
he didn’t focus on the people looking at him. “These attacks from
the mountains are organized. They’re not just raiding; they’re
trying to put the Kingdom and your nation at odds.”

“This is true. We found evidence of Kingdom
soldiers where Patrina and Namitus had been taken.”

Alto nodded. “By pitting the Kelgryn against
the Kingdom, the forces to the north could do whatever they wanted
and it would be too late for any of us to stop them.”

“We stumbled across your daughter by
accident,” Tristam clarified the point. “Alto and another of my men
found her in a mine that had belonged to the Kingdom before it was
taken by men and goblins.”

“Men wearing Kingdom garb,” Namitus
added.

“Aye,” Tristam conceded the point. “But we
found evidence of far more while we explored the mines and caves in
the mountains. A man by the name of Barador leads them, though at
the whim of something else.”

“Something, not someone?” Teorfyr picked up
on Tristam’s careful wording.

“One being we encountered in the caves had a
name for it,” Tristam said while nodding his head. “He called it
Sarya.”

“And what is a Sarya?”

“It seems the Northern Divide has spent too
many years without a dragon nesting amongst the peaks,” Kar said
while packing his pipe. He reached out to pull a brand from the
fire and used it to light his pipe, rather than using wizardry
amongst the suspicious Kelgryn.

Teorfyr’s jaw was set in a line. “I feared as
much. Patrina insisted the same, but it’s been so long since we’ve
had any fear of dragons I hoped she had too much wind in her sails.
Tell me, what hope do any of us have against such a thing?”

“Little,” Kar said behind a puff of smoke
that bore more than a passing resemblance to a flying lizard.
“Dragon slaying is a profession few can claim, and none in these
parts anymore. It’s often a short-lived career at best. The slayer
is more often than not the slain.”

“So what quest are you on?”

“We’re to find out more about Barador and his
forces,” Tristam responded. “We know a secret way into the caves
they use, but to get there we must cross through your realm.”

He nodded and took another pull off his
wineskin. “Then you’ll travel with my blessings. Ride on in the
morning and learn what you may. Put a halt to this threat to both
our people, or at least confound their plans.”

“What are you going to do?” Alto asked.

Teorfyr tilted his head slightly and then
chuckled. “I think I see what my daughter appreciates about you.
You’ve a stubborn courage about you.”

“More the lack of sense of when to keep his
mouth shut,” Kar opined.

Tristam snorted at Kar’s ironic
statement.

“I’m headed to join my men with your
Kingdom’s and show we hold no fault against them. We’ll help them
take back their city.”

“They need it,” Tristam said. “But take care,
Jarl, that your men aren’t used as fodder.”

Teorfyr laughed. “We’re Kelgryn born and
bred; we’re no man’s fodder!”

Tristam smiled ruefully. “I believe you, but
all the same, take care.”

“Your concerns are noted. Come, to bed with
you all. You’ve a long adventure ahead of you and this may be the
last night in a while you can rest without fear.”

“Jarl, what of Namitus?” Alto inquired.

“Yes, what of the boy who’s not a boy?”
Teorfyr’s eyes fell on Namitus. Alto could feel the power of his
gaze and was grateful it wasn’t directed at him. “You’ve fought to
protect and to save my daughter. You were like a son to me for a
time, even if you look half starved. I’m glad I’ve had time to
think on it. I wanted your head on a pike for the betrayal but now
I see clearly. I grant you freedom, Namitus, and I rescind your
banishment wrongfully exacted by the Lady Patrina.” He paused, a
twinkle in his eyes. “All the same, I’d recommend you stay far from
her for a while. Women may not be the equal of men in some means
but by the ends they often find a way to be more than our
equal!”

Tristam, Kar, and even Namitus laughed at the
jarl’s words. Alto looked on, confused, but this time even Kar
wouldn’t explain the mirth behind it.

“Alto, come, walk with me,” the jarl said as
he rose from his place at the fire. He gestured and Alto had no
choice but to fall in beside him.

“Your Majesty,” Alto stammered.

“Enough of that! Such titles are for the
dandies in your Kingdom. Here I am Jarl, Thane, or Teorfyr.”

“Yes, sir.”

“My daughter fancies you,” Teorfyr said
without preamble. “If she knew I told you as much she’d not speak
to me for months, but I see it in her eyes.”

“Sir,” Alto swallowed, uncertain of what to
say. “I thought, I mean. What about—”

“You saved her, lad, that’s earned you a
place in my heart. She says you fight like a hog wallowing in the
mud, but you’re strong and brave and that makes up for it.”

Alto blushed. “I’m learning. I was a farmer
who’d never held a sword until my father was hurt by some raiding
goblins.”

“She says you’re the same age as her?”

Alto nodded and then he stopped. He laughed.
“I’m older! I mean, I just realized it. In all the rush going here
and there, I forgot about my birthday. I’m seventeen now. For a
week or so now.”

The jarl laughed and clapped him on the
shoulder. The friendly blow nearly knocked the stout young man off
his feet. “Adventure, ale, and women! The three things that can be
the undoing of any man.”

Alto grimaced at the mention of ale. It went
unnoticed by the jarl.

“Well, lad, when you’ve finished this, if you
wish to pay court to her I’m giving you my blessing.” The jarl
stopped and turned to face Alto directly. “But remember this. I’ve
been a young man once myself and I didn’t grow to be old without
learning a few things along the way, including how to keep other
young men in their place.”

Alto nodded his head. He felt he should say
something but nothing came to pass. The jarl grinned again and
turned, leading the stumbling young man back into camp. Alto
followed him with his cheeks burning so hot he couldn’t feel the
cold wind that picked up.

As much as he both looked forward to and
dreaded seeing Trina again, he couldn’t get over the thoughts of
Namitus. Would Namitus be upset or mad? Would he fight Alto, trying
to duel him for the Kelgryn princess? Or would Namitus be hurt and
betrayed, and then leave to go off on his own? Alto sighed and
began to understand what Teorfyr meant when he talked of women
being one of the things that could undo the greatest of men.

“If we didn’t already know I’d say there was
something going on in the mountains,” Kar said as he rode back to
the others. He had the reins to Tristam’s horse in his hand. They’d
ridden into the hills the next day in search of the secret entrance
to Thork’s cave. Another pack of large wolves had burst upon them
and spooked Tristam’s horse, unseating him.

Alto had fallen from his saddle a few moments
later when he tried swinging his broadsword from the back of his
steed. Nearly every day since they’d returned to Portland, he’d
been training with his sword, but he had yet to attempt training
with mounted combat.

The six-member wolf pack was a small one. The
wolves made up for it in size and ferocity. Tristam and Alto fought
the wolves back while William used his crossbow to keep them from
being used as chew toys. Namitus and Karthor had dismounted
conventionally and joined them, driving the wolves back until only
the leader remained. She loped off into the hills to lick her
wounds.

“What do you mean?” Alto asked, examining
some dents in the scales of his armor from the wolves’ teeth.

“Wolves yesterday and today both? And the
size of them—I’ve never heard of such attacks,” Kar explained.

“They’re just animals,” Alto said with a
shrug. “Hungry and vicious, but animals.”

Namitus shook his head. “I’ve been on a few
patrols through here and we’ve never seen them this brave. Nor have
they been these kinds of wolves.”

“These aren’t normal?” Tristam asked.

“The Kelgryn call these mountain wolves or
iron wolves. Their fur is darker and they’re stronger and bigger
than a normal wolf. Usually they stay in the mountains. It’s rare
to find one on the plains, let alone packs of them.”

“Are the creatures driving them out?” Alto
asked.

Namitus and Kar both shook their heads. “The
Kelgryn say wolves like these have evil in their hearts. They’re
not just hunters—they’re wicked.”

“Aye,” Kar agreed with the rogue. “There are
many animals in this world that are natural enough, but there are
also different breeds of those animals. By taking the largest
wolves and breeding them and teaching them, they show intelligence
and cunning beyond what a normal wolf might. And they’re turned to
darker things in the same fashion.”

“Never thought of goblins as wolf trainers,”
William chuckled.

“A wolf like these would snap a goblin up,”
Kar agreed. “They’ve been trained by others, and for a long time
for there to be so many. Mayhaps whoever did so is long gone and
they’ve continued to breed on their own. Our answers lie ahead of
us.”