First Hero (7 page)

G
reetings, Master,” said General Gor.

“Have you retrieved the mask?” hissed Derthsin’s image.

“I beg your forgiveness, Master, but I have not,” said Gor. “Only a fragment of the mask was in Forton, where it was lost. It seems that the meddlesome old woman has hidden the other pieces, with help from a Colweirian mapmaker.”

Gor glanced up into the vision’s rage-contorted face. He hurriedly continued. “But there is good news! We have retrieved a map telling us where the pieces are.” The general smiled nervously, rounding his shoulders as if he were trying to make himself smaller in front of his superior.

The blue image briefly flared brighter. Tanner closed his eyes against the glare. It
was
Derthsin, communicating with Gor through the fire. How had he survived being dropped into the volcano by Firepos, all those years ago?

“General Gor,” Derthsin hissed. “Do you wish to earn my displeasure?”

Gor shook his head.

“Burn every village; kill every peasant. I care not what you do — just get me my mask!”

“I will,” said General Gor. Tanner could see he was trembling. “I just need more time.”

“Very well,” said Derthsin. “But if you fail, I will turn Varlot on you.”

So the Beast is under Derthsin’s control!

“Yes, Master,” said Gor.

The image of the warlord shrank back into the embers with a hiss. Derthsin had gone; Gor’s time with him was over. The general climbed stiffly to his feet and retreated to his tent, emerging a moment later with the rolled-up map in one hand and the broken piece of mask in his other.

It was time. Tanner edged closer with Gwen at his side. They were only a few paces away when Tanner’s foot came down on a dry stick. Gor’s head snapped up. He stared through the trees into the darkness. He was looking straight at them — or was he?

Tanner didn’t move a muscle. He didn’t even breathe. Beside him, he sensed Gwen holding still. The general’s eyes narrowed. After what seemed an eternity his body relaxed and he turned back to the map, unrolling it on the ground and peering at it. He gave a low curse, then bellowed toward the camp. “Bring me the prisoner!”

Two soldiers appeared dragging a whimpering Geffen between the tents. His face was paler than ever. The soldiers threw him down at the general’s feet. “Leave us,” Gor ordered.

As the soldiers departed, the general leaned down and seized Geffen by his hair. He yanked the boy viciously to his feet.

Beside Tanner, Gwen raised one of her throwing axes, but Tanner shook his head. They might learn something useful.

“It seems we have a problem,” said Gor.

“Wh-What?” asked Geffen.

“The map isn’t telling me what I need to know.” Gor pushed him toward the unrolled parchment.

Geffen looked at the map and shrugged helplessly.

“You know as well as I do that the map has something to do with this,” he spat, holding up the mask fragment. “And you’re going to help me find the rest. What are the map’s secrets?” Gor’s face was contorted with fury, all his attention focused on the boy.

Tanner turned to Gwen and mouthed, “Ready?”

She nodded, her lips pressed together in a look of grim determination.

“I don’t understand,” said Geffen, his voice breaking. “Jonas never taught me how to read this map’s secrets!”

Gor snorted, and threw the piece of mask at Gwen’s brother. It bounced off his chest and landed on the ground.

“You will tell me,” said Gor, “or you will —”

Tanner felt Gwen’s arm swish past his ear, and an ax spun through the air. Gor jerked back as it thudded into a tree a finger’s breadth past his head. She rushed toward Gor, who quickly pulled Geffen toward him and placed his dagger against the boy’s neck.

“Stop!” Gwen pulled her rapier from her cloak’s lining, and held the slender blade to Gor’s throat.

“Gwen!” cried Geffen.

Tanner advanced on Gor, his sword leveled.

“Another step,” said the general, “and I’ll slice his throat like a pig.”

“If you kill him,” said Gwen, her blade steady as a rock, “you die, too.”

“Then it seems we have a dilemma,” sneered General Gor.

Tanner’s eyes were drawn to the map. The piece of the mask lay beside it. If he could only snatch them up …

A crunch — the sound of wood splintering. The ground began to shake.

Tanner spun around, lifting his sword. Horror swept through him.

At the edge of the clearing, Varlot stood with bronzed hooves planted wide, his massive chest rising and falling beneath his scaled armor. He reached out and gripped the branch of a nearby tree. With one massive tug, he tore the whole tree from the ground. Soil fell from the white roots, and leaves swirled through the air. Varlot roared and hurled the tree straight at Tanner.

T
anner dove out of the way as the tree descended. Branches and twigs lashed his face. He leaped back to his feet just as Gwen lunged with her rapier, the thin blade hissing through the air. Varlot was too quick for her and leaped out of the way, his bronze hooves smashing into the ground as he fell back to the earth. Gwen pulled an ax from her belt and sent it spinning at the Beast. It lodged in Varlot’s armored skin, making the Beast bellow with rage. Tanner hacked his sword at the Beast’s side, but the blade bounced off with a metallic ring.

Varlot lashed out with a hoof, catching Tanner in the stomach, sending him stumbling through the burning logs of the fire. He landed facedown in the dirt. Pain flared in his ribs, but he struggled up. Gor was dragging Geffen back to the camp. In his other hand was the mask and the map.

“Don’t tell him how to use the map!” shouted Gwen.

Geffen called something in reply, but Tanner couldn’t hear.

Varlot tore a branch from the tree and swung it at Gwen. She ducked beneath it and darted toward him, hacking at the Beast’s legs with her rapier. The armored hide was thinner there and the Beast staggered back, roaring, eyes swiveling wildly. Tanner ran to her side, swinging his sword.

“Run!” he shouted.

“I can’t leave without Geffen!”

Varlot crashed into a tree, tearing its roots from the ground. He dropped the branch and swiped his arm, catching Gwen on the side of her head. She sprawled across the ground and stopped moving. Varlot raised a deadly hoof above her body.

“No!” Tanner shouted.

Just then, the canopy of leaves above them seemed to press down, and a dark shape fell through, splintering branches. Gulkien, wings folded, landed on Varlot’s back and fastened his pointed fangs over the Horse Beast’s shoulder. The Beast’s cry echoed through the forest.

Tanner sheathed his sword and scooped up Gwen. She was unconscious. He ran, not caring where he went, as long as it was away from the camp. He heard the howls and snarls of the battling Beasts, and Gor’s voice shouting: “Find them!”

Gwen stirred in his arms, rolling her head weakly. Tanner risked a look back and saw points of light in the darkness. Torches. Adrenaline drove his legs, his arms were starting to ache, and there was a pain in his left side. Had he broken a rib?

A light appeared ahead, through the leaves in the sky. It was brighter than any torch and seemed to hover.

Firepos!

She was trying to guide him out. Tanner stumbled between the trees, tripping over roots, watching the beacon above. The noise of his pursuers faded away. Finally, he burst through the trees and out onto a track. Firepos, her wings burning against the black sky, dropped down beside him.

Tanner laid Gwen carefully on the ground. She managed to pull herself upright, and looked around, dazed.

“Where’s Gulkien?”

Tanner pointed back into the forest. “He hasn’t come out yet. He was fighting Gor’s Beast.”

Gwen looked wretched. “First my brother, now Gulkien.”

Tanner picked up the sounds of soldiers shouting to one another. One called out, “This way!” They were getting closer.

Gwen stood up shakily. “I’m going to find him.”

“You can’t!” said Tanner. “Gor will capture you, too.”

“But Geffen …” Her face was creased with despair.

“If Gor was going to kill him, he’d have done it by now,” said Tanner. “Our best chance is to surprise them when they’re out of the forest.”

Gwen stared into the trees, her eyes shining fiercely. A shadow moved. Tanner drew his sword.

“It’s Gulkien!” said Gwen, as her Beast limped toward them. His fangs were dripping with blood, and he seemed to be keeping the weight off one of his rear legs. His leathery wings were covered in lacerations. Gwen threw her arms around his shaggy neck and buried her face in his fur.

“It’s time to go,” Tanner said, hardening his heart. They had to keep moving.

They climbed onto their Beasts and took off above the forest. Tanner saw the flare of torches fanning among the trees. He shuddered as he remembered Varlot hovering over his friend. If it hadn’t been for Gulkien, she’d be dead.

“General Gor said they’d be marching to the Broken Gorge,” he said. “Maybe we can lay an ambush there, and rescue Geffen.”

“It’s the only thing we can do. We’d better get some rest,” Gwen said. Her voice was thick with fatigue. “The army isn’t going anywhere until morning.”

She directed Gulkien in a long, shallow dive toward the silver ribbon of a river. Exhaustion crashed over Tanner in waves, and it was hard to keep a grip on Firepos’s feathers. His head felt almost too heavy to hold up.

They landed beside the water in thick grass, and Tanner slid from his Beast’s back. Gwen clambered off beside him, wrapping her cloak tightly around herself. Firepos nestled onto the ground and Tanner lay against her warm flank.

Gwen was tying a piece of cloth around Gulkien’s bleeding leg. The wolf gave a low growl as she tightened it, but she soothed him by whispering into his ear. Tanner remembered her last shout to her brother as he was being dragged away.

“Do you think Geffen will tell Gor how to use the map?” he asked.

Gwen shook her head sadly. “He doesn’t know how,” she said. Tanner frowned. “I only said that because if Gor knows the truth, Geffen’s useless to him. Who knows what the general would do then?” Her face became troubled. “I didn’t tell you everything before.”

Tanner felt his mouth go dry. “Go on.”

“Well, I do know how to read the map’s secrets. Jonas told me never to tell anyone else. Not even my brother. But now …”

She was fingering a gold locket that hung around her neck. Tanner hadn’t noticed it before. It looked old and worn. Gwen took it from around her neck and held it gently.

With a nail, she pressed the side of the locket, and the top sprung open. Tanner leaned closer to look inside. He saw a folded square of gray silk.

Gwen pulled gently at one corner of the cloth, and unraveled it. The silk was so fine that Tanner could see his friend’s face through it. It caught the moonlight like gossamer.

“What is it?” he gasped.

“It’s the only way to read the map Gor stole,” said Gwen. As she held it up again, Tanner saw it was the same size as the map. He saw shadowy outlines woven into the silk. Impossible to make out now, but …

“If I lay this over the map,” Gwen continued, “new markings become visible.”

“The locations of the pieces of the Mask of Death!” whispered Tanner. “Esme and Jonas must have hidden the pieces and made a map only they could read, in case they needed to find them again.”

Gwen nodded, folded the gauze again, and hid it inside her locket. She clicked it closed and put the chain back around her neck, tucking the locket away.

“We must get the map from Gor,” Tanner said. “Only then can we get the other pieces of the mask before he does.” He rubbed his tired eyes. “But now we really must rest.”

Tanner lay back against the flame bird’s warm feathers. As he gave in to sleep, his mind wandered back to Forton, and his grandmother’s body lying cold in the ground. Why had she not destroyed the mask?

And now Derthsin had returned to reclaim the mask! What terrible power would he have if he gained control over the Beasts of Avantia?

Before Tanner could think of an answer, his eyelids grew heavy ….