Avalyne Series 01: The Queen of Carleon (10 page)

Upon reaching Eastern Shore, they followed by the flow of the Yantra on horseback, letting it rush past them speedily towards the Falls.  Even from the land, the ladies of the quest could see the currents moving swiftly away the turbulent cascade that spawned it. In far quicker time then they thought it possible, they soon sighted the cloud like spray that arose from its churning waters. 

Of the great cascade, they saw little because to see it in its entirety would take them off their course and theirs was not a mission of leisure. It was one of urgency and sensibly, they turned their horses to an easier path in the woods to take them beyond its fury.

*******

The first thing Arianne noticed when they arrived at Caras Anara was the silence.

Caras Anara was the only remaining human settlement along the river before entering the woods of Eden Halas.
Before the occupation, there had been many such small communities along the Yantra until Balfure’s goblins were such a menace that many of the river folk had abandoned their villages for safer territory. Caras Anara was the only one that still remained due to its proximity to Eden Halas. King Halion, father of Aeron, had little tolerance for goblins and took great relish in driving them from his territory.

It was after dark when they arrived in Caras Anara and Arianne thought that perhaps that the hour was too late for these folk and they were all
in bed. However as they rode down dirt track into the small community, their horses seemed troubled and it took some urging for the to behave as they should. There were no lantern lights beckoning them through windows nor was there smoke rising out of chimneys. There was not even the sound of livestock in the barns or the sound of life in the surrounding woods.

There was only silence.

They rode past the local tavern, usually the most popular place in such villages and saw that it was devoid of any folk. The sign hanging over the  entrance swayed back and forth aimlessly in the wind and the door lay wide, like a mouth agape in shock.

‘
Where is everybody?’ Keira asked quietly feeling a sense of dread come over her as she looked over the place. This community looked no different from her village in the Green. There should have been lights in every window, smoke from lit hearths and people chattering away.

‘
There is something evil here,’ Arianne said immediately, feeling the malevolence emanating from the empty streets like something tangible against the skin. ‘I do not like the look of this Celene, we should leave.’

It was not a warning that Celene took lightly. Her hand was already resting against the hilt of her sword because she could feel it herself, even without the heightened senses of an elf to guide her. 

‘Yes,’ Celene agreed readily. ‘We
should
.’

‘
Maybe we should go by the river,’ Keira suggested. ‘I hate to think that we’d be sharing the same ground as whatever caused this.’

‘
Keira is right,’ Celene turned to Arianne. ‘If this is the work of goblins, they will not follow us if we are on the river and they will not risk entering Halas.’

It was a good plan but Arianne hated to linger in this dead village any longer than necessary.
‘I would like to leave this place as soon as we can. However the river is the safest course,’ she admitted reluctantly as she searched the darkened streets once more, trying to see any sign of life in the shadows.

There was not.

‘We must find a vessel to take us then,’ Celene replied, nudging her mount down the sloping road towards the river. She could see the faint outline of a wooden docks and the tops of boathouse by the shore.  She supposed a community like this would also supplement their livelihood by fishing.

The sense of foreboding was not dispelled when they reached the river bank and dismounted. The boathouses were in the same state as the houses they had passed. Silent and dark. Only the lapping of water against the shore gave any indication of life. The horses still uneasy and it required Arianne’s elven powers to soothe the beasts’ anxiety lest they bolt and leave them stranded in this eerie village if they could not find a boat.

There was no doubt in theirs minds that the people of Caras Anara were dead. How that had come about was a mystery but it was a certainty for all of them. Even if they saw no bodies that gave absolute proof of this, the stench of doom was unmistakable. Something terrible had happened here and none of them were certain the danger was entirely.

Further along the shore, they saw a forgotten collection of boats that varied in size and use. Some were large fishing boats, constructed to catch an abundance of fish and others were smaller for use as transport. There was no sign of life on any of them and it reinforced Arianne’s warning to leave as quickly as possibly.

‘You two seek out a boat and make it ready for our use,’ Celene instructed as she stepped onto the wooden dock. ‘I shall unpack our things from the horses and lead them on the road away from here.’

Both women stared at Celene not liking the idea that she was going off on her own.

‘Are you certain that is wise?’ Arianne asked, her brow furrowing with concern.

‘
I will not stray far,’ Celene assured her. ‘I shall only go as far as the road and release the horses. We have no need of them once we leave and I do not like to think they might fall prey to whatever happened here. Keira, keep an eye on Arianne.’

‘
I will,’ Keira said firmly, retrieving the blade Celene had given her from the halter across her back. Having it in her hands made her feel a little safer. Celene was right about that.

‘
Do not be long Celene,’ Arianne declared as she swept her gaze across the shoreline and felt the hollowness in her stomach at the sight of the darkened boathouses, derelict like the rest of Caras Amara.

‘
I will not,’ Celene answered and went to unpack the horses while Arianne and Keira went to find them a means of leaving this place before whatever darkness that engulfed this village found them too.

*******

Celene was mindful of every sound as she walked cautiously from the shore into the main road after she had unloaded their belongings from the saddles of all three horses. She still heard nothing except the clopping of their hooves and it chilled her to the bone that there was not even the sound of an owl hooting in the night. The woods beyond the village seemed more ominous than ever, with the trees looming over her like long fingers about to close in on her.  

She took a deep breath, forcing away the churning in her stomach to some far away place because she had no patience to deal with fear when she needed to be alert. The horses were jittery enough without her own anxiety increasing their agitation.  It would not take much to send them running and while she was reluctant to let them go, Celene knew they would find their way to Winter Keep on their own.

‘Safe journey,’ she wished them finally before slapping her mount hard against the rump, startling the mare into a sudden gallop that prompted the others to follow.  The horses snorted their indignation at such an abrupt dismissal but were soon breaking into full gallops down the dirt road leading them out of the town. In a matter of minutes, she could no longer hear their thundering hooves against the hard ground.

Once they were gone, she turned back to the dock, intending to join Arianne and Keira and complete their own departure from this place. She reminded herself that upon reaching Eden Halas, they should send word to Galain at Winter Keep to discover what had happened here. There was no doubt in her mind that the folk of this village had come to a terrible end but she could not imagine any violence that could wipe all traces of them so completely.

Even goblins left bodies behind.

Celene was walking past a boat house with a ramp extending from its wide open doors to the river when she heard something move within its shadowy insides.
She froze in her tracks on the path that led to the dock and waited for a few seconds to see if she heard it again. The sound was repeated almost instantly and Celene frowned, trying to place it. It was a strange, like the flapping of a bird’s wings except that it was too fast for any bird in flight.

At first, she had considered ignoring it because she suspected that there were things in the darkness she did not really wish to discover. However, when she heard the sound again, this time laced with something she could only call desperation, Celene found herself unable to ignore the peril and followed the ramp into the open doorway

The interior of the boathouse was bathed in darkness and within her first few seconds inside, she heard it again. The flapping was now accompanied by a desperate but soft chirping, like that of a bird, though extremely weak. Through the window, the glow of the crescent moon illuminated the darkness slightly, though not much and as she followed the noise to its source, Celene instinctively unsheathed her sword.

She had not taken more than a few steps when she caught sight of a lamp. Deciding that a little more light would probably aid this foolish investigation, she liberated it from its place on a tool bench and lit it. The illumination it provided gave her only a bit of light for the wick was almost gone. If anything it made the shadows inside the place flicker across the walls like demons dancing in the dark.

She found the bird a few paces ahead of her and saw that it was trapped in mid air. It took no more than an instant for her to register what she was seeing before she stumbled back, her mouth open in shock and a scream was trying to find its way out of her throat.  Looking up at the ceiling, she realised that the helpless bird was one of
many
things trapped in this place.  As Celene stared with eyes widening in horror, she knew at last what had befallen the people of Caras Anara.

Spiders.

She saw at least a dozen poor souls trapped on the silk of a giant spider’s web, their bodies now dried husks drained of blood. Celene was barely able to contain her revulsion as she saw corpses of men, women and children alike, suspended above her head. If not for their clothes, she would not have been able to recognise them as human at all. Reaching out, her fingers trembled as she saw a child within silken threads of the web, hoping against hope that there was still some life left for her to save.

She but only grazed the child’s body before the contact proved too much and the corpse broke free of its trappings, landing heavily at her feet. She uttered an involuntary scream when the husk came apart, dropping the lamp on the floor as the glass shattered and spread oil and flames in all directions.  Her hand flew to her mouth, trying to contain the retch that wanted to come when she saw what remained of a little boy staring at her with dead eyes. That image came with an even more frightful realisation.

They had probably heard the commotion.

Her preoccupation with the corpse had almost made her miss the approach of the creature behind her. Despite its size, and it was larger than anything that could possibly be crushed underfoot and it knew how to move stealthily. She saw it in the corner of her eye, a flurry of movement that did not have the fluidity of fire and when she turned, she was staring into the compound eyes of a giant spider of
Syphi.

The Syphi spiders
, named after the Dreaded Mother, originated from the Syphi Chasm in the Wilds. Balfure had brought them to Eden Halas after an unsuccessful attempt to destroy the elven city.  King Halion and his elves who fought bravely had valiantly repelled the invaders. Enraged, Balfure had unleashed the spiders into woods of Halas to ensure that the elves were too busy fighting this menace when he moved on to Eden Ardhen. For years, the battle to drive the creatures out had occupied much of Eden Halas’ time and it was thought they were all destroyed before the war began. However, it appeared they had simply found a new home.

Celene wondered how many of the villages they thought abandoned because of the goblins had in fact suffered this fate.

It did not matter, Celene decided because a single creature could not have overtaken Caras Anara so completely that not one person escaped to tell the tale.  As the beast closed in on her, she knew this spider was not alone and the whole of Caras Anara was infested with them. With a surge of panic, she realised that Arianne and Keira were out there alone, unaware of what was lurking in the darkness. She had to warn them!

Unfortunately, Celene’s ability to act was hindered by the spider moving in for the kill. She saw its mandibles snapping in hungry anticipation of her blood and brandished her sword in readiness to attack. She could not spend too much time dealing with this beast when Arianne and Keira might be deadly danger.

Its legs skittered forward as it rushed at her, spitting poison as it leapt with powerful legs. Celene jumped out of the way, thankful there was space available to do so.  Though it was larger, it moved with terrifying speed and was soon resuming its attack. This time there was no way for her to avoid it and Celene lashed out fiercely, her blade tearing through its darkened flesh and eliciting an unearthly shriek of pain. In retaliation it stabbed one of its spindly legs in her direction and though she tried to evade it, nothing could keep the barbed limb from penetrating the flesh of her shoulder.

She uttered a sharp cry of pain and was enraged by the injury. Striking out viciously, the blade sunk into the spider’s crimson eye and she retracted it with similar vehemence. A screech of agony followed and when Celene retrieved her blade, dripping with black blood. Despite being partially blinded, the spider lunged again, trying to tackle her to the ground. Celene saw its intent and jumped herself, diving beneath it as it landed in the place  she
was just standing. Rolling onto her knees, she swung around and braced herself for its next attack.