Haven Keep (Book 1) (26 page)

Kaiden was sure there was more to it.  “And?”

“The beast,” Tostig admitted.

Oded continued, “The first night we were here the beast struck.  That is why I brought us back here.  It is the first place we encountered it.  I think it may have a lair near by.”  Oded reached down between his feet and scrubbed Bo behind the ears.  “Maybe your dog here can help us find it.” 

“Most of this country is pretty rocky,” said Kaiden.  “Are we to go ahead on foot?”

“That would probably be best,” answered Oded. 

“I’m ready to go when you are.”

“Good,” Tostig announced.  “You can come with me.   I hope you are as impressive with that spear of yours as you seem to be with your sword.”

“I can hold my own.” 

“I’m sure you can,” Oded offered. “I’m sure you can.”

“Well then,” Tostig clapped his hands together.  “Let’s get started.  We don’t want to lose any more of this warm sunshine.”

Warm indeed,
thought Kaiden.  If Oded did want to winter up here he was in for a lot  colder weather than this.  Supplies would be the least of his worries if he tried to survive the winter here without better shelter than a few lean-tos.  

Tostig continued, “Coen and Thad will also accompany us.  They should be about ready.  Let’s go try and find them.”

“Lead the way.”

“Don’t forget your dog,” Oded called after them.

Kaiden turned around and called to Bo.  The dog immediately came to him.  Bo was still young, but Kaiden was already thinking of him as an old friend.  It was good to have Bo at his side again.

Kaiden followed Tostig through the camp.  Tostig knew exactly where to go to find the two men assigned to them.  Kaiden was positive he’d seen Thad before today, but couldn’t remember meeting Coen.  Both men were about thirty winters, or summers as the case may be.  The similarities ended there.  Thad was short, broad, with dirty blond hair and grey eyes.  Coen
was tall and lanky, almost as tall as the spear at his side, his hair a light brown like so many others in the camp.  His face was dominated by a hooked nose and a weak chin he tried to hide with a scruffy looking goatee.

Coen greeted Von politely with a deep, rough voice.   “It’s good to finally meet you.”  He extended his hand and Kaiden took it.  His grip was iron. 

“Likewise,” said Thad, extending his hand as well.  His grip was strong too, but nothing like Coen’s. 

“It’s good to meet you as well,” Kaiden replied.  “I hope we can find some success this day.”

“So do we,” Thad said, “so do we.”

Tostig cleared his throat.  “Okay, now we have the formalities out of the way, let’s get moving.”

Tostig led the three men up through the camp, toward the summit of the mountain.  Bo stayed close to Kaiden.  If the dog picked up any scent he would let Kaiden know.

No one spoke for some time.  The deep snow was difficult to navigate and likely buried any trail the vyr had left.  The men climbed slowly, creating a strange trail of their own.  The trees were sparse here, pushing through the snow in small groups, occasionally in greater number. The jagged rocks were more common, dark and filled with ore. Kaiden thought he could see where Tostig was leading them.  It was a large cropping of trees.  They climbed the slope using switchbacks, crisscrossing up the icy face.  Kaiden’s suspicions were confirmed when they stopped at the large copse of trees.  The trees were tall for this elevation, with thick branches.  It was a good place to hide, for an animal or a man.

“This is where we found Bryant,” Tostig said, “the first victim.  I thought we could start from here.  There are caves and rocks and other things nearby we can search for signs of the creature.”

“You have hunted this direction before I take it,” Kaiden observed.

“Yes, but it wouldn’t hurt to try again.”

“It’s as good a place as any to start,” Thad offered. 

Kaiden noticed markings high in the trees.  The markings resembled those of an icebear, but once again were much too high and too large.

“You found..., Bryant was his name?”  Kaiden paused long enough to receive a nod from Tostig.  “You found Bryant in the trees?”

“What was left of him, yes,” answered Tostig. “He was hanging near those old claw marks.”

“I’ve seen the same,” Kaiden acknowledged.  “I don’t know if it hides the bodies up there to store for food later or as a warning sign.”

“Well whatever the reason I mean to kill it before it does it again,” Coen announced with a growl.

Kaiden was beginning to think Coen was a good man to have around.

Tostig pointed past the trees. “There are some caves up that way.  When we were here before there were some old bones in them. We thought maybe it had a lair there or nearby.”

“Let’s go check.”  Kaiden agreed it might be a good place to start.  “Maybe Bo can pick up a scent there.”  It wasn’t likely, but worth a shot.  Hunting this thing, whatever it was, was proving difficult.  It was an animal possessing the intelligence of man as well as supernatural powers, powers that until recently Kaiden believed existed only in tales.

Tostig led the way up the mountain, Kaiden and the others trailed behind, lumbering through the deep snow.  The cave was thirty or forty spans above the trees, hidden well in the rocks.

They reached the mouth of the cave and Tostig stopped  hesitant to go any further.

“This place has a bad feel to it,” he said.  “The feeling’s worse now than a few weeks ago.” 

            Maybe there was more to this cleric thing than Kaiden thought.   More than just an old religion.   More than stories and superstition, but Kaiden wasn’t about to let his fears get the best of him.  Adjusting the grip on his spear, Kaiden pushed past the others and into the mouth of the cave.

Kaiden needed to turn sideways to fit through the narrow entrance.  If the creature was as big as Kaiden thought, it wasn’t likely to fit through the opening.  Still Kaiden went inside, it wouldn’t hurt to at least look.

The cave opened into a large cavity, an oblong room with rough, dark rock walls.  The ceiling was over twice as tall as Kaiden, the highest points hidden in shadow. The floor was uneven, littered with the bones and remains of small animals.  This cave was likely the den of wolves or a large cat rather than some monstrous beast.

Kaiden’s eyes adjusted and he could see the far end of the cave. The corners remained hidden by shadows, but there wasn’t much else to see.  If there was anything here Bo would have let him know, but the dog was calm.

Tostig and the others squeezed through the entrance.  They paused to let their eyes adjust.

“Not much to see here,” Kaiden announced.  He wondered why Tostig had even brought them to this place.  Kaiden was ready to move on.

“Wait,” Tostig said.  “Over in that corner.”  He pointed to the far left side.  “Near the top of the cave.” 

Tostig picked up a rock from the rough cave floor, bounced it on his palm a few times then threw it up into the shadows.  Kaiden never heard it land.

“What?”  Kaiden was puzzled.  He walked over to the corner peering up into the darkness.  The wall was solid, but up above there was an opening.  He could barely reach it with his hand.   “How far does this go back?”

“Don’t know,” Tostig said.  “There’s a short ledge, then it drops off.  How far down it goes,” he shrugged, “your guess is as good as mine.”

“Did anyone go up there?”

“No,” Tostig shook his head in answer.  “We did climb up and looked through. Wasn’t much to see.  Just a big hole into nothing.  We threw a few rocks through.  Never heard them hit bottom.”

“Boost me up,” Kaiden requested.

With a little effort Kaiden was soon standing on the ledge.  He stretched his arm and touched the ceiling.   There wasn’t enough light to see how far the ledge extended.

“Do we have anything to use as a light.  Torches maybe?”

“Yeah, just a moment.”  Kaiden thought it was Thad’s voice, though he wasn’t sure.  Sounds were echoing from deeper inside the cave. 

Tostig handed up a torch a few moments later.  “Here you go.”

Kaiden bent down, grabbed the light, and brought it forward so he could see.  The torch illuminated the cave.  Not cave, cavern.  This thing went on forever.  The ledge extended a few paces, then dropped off.  The cavern stretched to the left and right farther than Kaiden could see.  He crouched down, looked over the edge.  There was no bottom in sight.

The torch flickered.  A light breeze rose from the depths of the gaping cavern.  He reached out with the torch trying to see a little further.  He looked down.  Another narrow ledge snaked along the length of the rock wall, following the side of the cavern and leading north.  He wondered how far it went or where it led.  Maybe to another cave.  The ledge was close enough he could drop down to it. 
But was it solid enough to hold him?

A light from behind him shone over his shoulder and into the cavern.  Kaiden turned to see Tostig climbing onto the ledge, a torch in his hand lighting his way.

“Can you see anything?” he asked.  

“I think this cave connects to a series of caves that run through the mountain.  Supposedly there’s a network of caves that lead all the way to the Rift.”  Kaiden paused, wondering if this cavern really did connect to the Rift.  It certainly appeared large enough.  “This is the first time I’ve seen anything to support that claim.”

Tostig  nodded.  He looked around the same way Kaiden had, first left then right, eyes squinting to pierce further back into the blackness. 

“Do you see that ledge down there?”  Kaiden asked. 

Tostig nodded again.  “Where do you think it leads?”

“I don’t know.  Maybe we can find out. There’s a slight breeze coming from that direction.”  Kaiden pointed north down the path of the lower ledge.  “Do you think you can pull me back up if I drop down?”

“Yeah, it doesn’t look too far.”

Kaiden swung his legs over and lowered himself carefully to the ledge.  His toes touched and he felt around with his feet, testing the ledge before he let all his weight rest on it.  The rock beneath his feet felt pretty solid.

“It should hold me well enough,” he told Tostig and let go of the upper ledge.  It wasn’t too far down, his head and shoulders were still well above the upper level.  “It should be fairly easy to get back up.”

“Be careful,” Tostig warned.

Kaiden didn’t answer.  He made his way slowly along the ledge, initially testing each step for firm footing before committing his whole weight to it.  His torch lit a few spans ahead.  He peered through the gloom, trying to make out what lay at the other end of this ledge.  He could see another cave at the far end, or at least an opening of some kind.  Who knew how far back it went?  Just a little further and he would be able to see into the mouth of it.

“Kaiden, wait.”  Tostig called after him.  “Bo doesn’t like something.”

“What do you mean?”  Kaiden didn’t like the sound of that.

“I don’t know.  He has his hackles up.  I think you should come back.”

“I’m almost there.”

“At least wait for someone to go with you.”

Kaiden stopped where he was.  “Alright.”

He was starting to get a bad feeling.  He hoped it was just Tostig rubbing off on him.  Waiting gave him more time to look around.  This place was enormous.  He wondered again if it extended to the Rift. 

Kaiden lifted his torch higher, attempting  to see across the cavern.  Maybe there was something on the other side. He thought he could actually see shapes, objects paler than the black stone.  He strained his eyes against the darkness until something white caught his attention.  He squinted, trying to focus in the limited light. 
Was that a skull?

Kaiden pulled the smoked cheese out of his pouch, and removed the waxed linen it was wrapped in.  He carefully wrapped the linen around a rock, tying the ends together tightly so it wouldn’t come off. 

By the time he finished Tostig was standing at his side.

“What are you doing?”

“Have you got some wine or something?” Kaiden asked.

Tostig looked at him curiously.  “Strange time for a snack,” he grinned.

“Do you have any or not?”  Kaiden asked.

“How about some apple brandy?”

“That should work.  Is it strong?”

“It will burn if that’s what you are wondering.”

Kaiden nodded and Tostig gave him a drinking gourd.

Kaiden poured the beverage over the linen. He grabbed the rock in his right hand, lit the end of the linen with the torch and hurled the rock across the cavern as hard as he could.   An arc of  fire sailed across the darkness.  The rock struck the opposite wall, echoing loudly.  Kaiden almost wished he hadn’t thrown it.

“Great banshees,” Tostig whispered.

The rock tumbled down the length of the wall, illuminating portions in the seconds it took to fall.  The wall was covered with bones.  Icebears, snowleopards, other larger and
unrecognizable animals. It was a graveyard.  A crypt.  There were men’s bones  too. Armor and shields.  Breastplates and swords. A skull so large it could only belong to something Kaiden had never believed in.  A dragon.

There was movement at the edge of the falling light. 

“What the devils was that?”  The voice was unmistakably Coen’s.  He was standing at the opening of the first cave, on the upper ledge, a torch in his outstretched hand.  With his other hand he drew his sword.  “Did you see that?” he shouted.

“I’m not sure,” Tostig called back.  “What did you see?”  

“There’s something over there,” Coen called.  “The beast.  It was watching the two of you.”

Kaiden’s heart stopped.  Coen threw his torch across the cavern.   The bone wall was illuminated once again.  A collection of morbid trophies.