Into the Wastelands: Book Four of the Restoration Series (3 page)

A little over a half mile into the woods, they came across the stream that Agminion had promised. It was not wide, maybe twenty yards across and it was rather slow moving. The water was black and ice cold
,
but refreshing. It was deep enough that they could completely submerge themselves in
the frigid waters
and they wasted no time splitting into two groups. The guys went to the east a little ways, while the women plunged in where they were. It was a relief to wash off the dust and sweat, even in the extremely cold water.

As soon as they were done with themselves, they washed off the clothes they had been wearing. This was going to be a long trip and they would need every change of clothing they possessed.

Once done with the laundry, they donned one of the other outfits they carried and went looking for the men. They soon found
them around the first bend in the stream. Atock was busy making a small fire, while the others had already laid down.

Heather stood there for a moment, looking down at the already sleeping Agminion. She had questions for him and she wanted answers. She sighed. He had done what he had promised, so she decided that her questions could wait until the morning.

Chapter 4

The Guardians broke camp the next morning as the sun was struggling to rise above the eastern horizon. The early morning chill made the
m all shiver and there was a fog
covering the forest. T
he fog was thin and translucent
and really it
was more of a mist
.

Eating a small bit of cold biscuit from their packs, Heather dreaded the coming march. After a whole day in a tiny cramped compartment, they had only managed a couple of hours sleep on rocky ground. It was true that they were soldiers and had been trained for much worse, but that didn’t mean they had to enjoy the misery.

A rather loud pop caused Heather to focus her eyes and she turned her attention from the un-eaten biscuit to Enton. The big warrior was sitting on a log stretching his neck out by pulling his head, first to one side, then the other. Another loud pop rang out and she turned her back, not particularly enjoying the sight.

Her eyes fell on Agminion, who was returning to camp from the trees to the west. He headed straight for the pack of biscuits that sat on a large stone.

Heather climbed to her feet and intercepted the sorcerer before he could reach the food. The man owed her some explanations and it was time she collected.

Stepping between the sorcerer and the food caused him to pull up warily.
His eyes flicked from Heather to either side, as if he was expecting to be attacked.

“So what’s your plan?” Heather asked. She could feel the eyes of the others
focus on them, and Enton and Atock both stood and moved closer.

Agminion hesitated. He still looked wary but also determined. “All in good time,” he began. He stopped rather abruptly as Heather spoke right over him.

“Now is a good time, and if you wish to continue this little journey with us, then you need to start talking.”

Indignation flared across Agminion’s face and he swelled up a bit, rather like a frog. “I am a king’s sorcerer,” he began in a cold deadly voice. “I will explain the plan as necessary and it currently is not necessary.”

Heather shook her head slowly. “No. That’s unacceptable.” She waved her hand in the general direction of his pack and blankets. “Get your things and leave.”

Agminion’s eyes went wide in surprise and then the surprise quickly turned more ugly, more angry.
“You forget yourself,” he said in a deadly quiet tone. “
King Stennis put me in charge of this adventure.” His eyes never left Heather’s and he didn’t blink.

Heather smiled in reply. “Stennis is a king that I do not follow and whose authority I do not recognize.” All the Guardians were on their feet, as was Cassandra. Dagan, alone, still sat on a fallen tree. The old man was slowly eating his biscuit and appeared to be completely uninterested in the argument.

Although it hardly seemed possible, Agminion’s face got even angrier. He pulled his eyes from Heather and glanced at the Guardians surrounding him. He smiled slightly. “
King Stennis released you
and you are in his debt.” The words did not have the affect the sorcerer was expecting. No one replied to him and their expressions remained hard, almost threatening. Once again, Agminion looked around at those surrounding him. “
You forget that you’re dealing with a king’s sorcerer. I would not be so easy to take in a fight as you might think.”

“I know what you are,” Heather replied, “and I have forgotten nothing. It is you who have forgotten.” She motioned over where Dagan sat on his log, “I too have a king’s sorcerer. So, I would say that definitely swings the odds in our favor.”

Dagan
climbed to his feet at Heather’s words and he no longer looked so indifferent.
He now wore a bit of a scowl.

No longer smiling, Agminion turned towards Dagan. “Is that true?
Would you fight against a fellow sorcerer for this girl?”

Dagan didn’t answer immediately, but instead he moved closer. “It is not true that I follow Heather’s orders. I am no
t a Guardian
and I have never been asked, ordered, or commanded to follow her.”

Heather’s eyes flicked to the old man and a small thrill of panic ran through her.
What was he saying?
Without Daga
n
on
their side, things could get very nasty, very quick.

A gloating sickly smile was already forming on Agminion’s face, but it disappeared as Dagan continued speaking.

“However, even though I do not recognize her authority over me, I also do not recognize your authority,” he said, staring at Agminion. “There really isn’t any choice for me to make. If you’re foolish enough to let this become a fight, then I will support Heather and the Guardians.”

Heather slowly released the breath she had been holding. There was good and bad in this o
utcome. She had taken Agminion down a notch, but Dagan’s refusal to acknowledge her leadership was problematic.

The wariness had returned to Agminion. The haughtiness was gone. It was difficult to say exactly how he looked, not scared, but maybe worried.

“Agminion,” Heather began, trying not to smile. She hated to lose and didn’t want to gloat at another’s loss. “You can leave
or you can explain what you have
planned.”

Agminion was silent for a moment. He no longer looked angry, well, not as angry
anyway
. Finally he sighed. “The plan is simple. We follow the river east. Eventually, the river turns southward and we’ll leave it heading north.”

“North?” Atock asked. “Why not cross the border into Dalar?”

“Because relations between Dalar and Aramonia are not good. We have troops on this side of the border and you can believe that they’ll have troops on the other side. If we were able to get through to the border without being stopped by King Stennis’ troops, we would still have the troops of Dalar to get through.” Agminion spoke the entire time in an exasperated tone. He took a deep breath and continued in a slightly more calmer
voice
. “When the river turns to the south, w
e’ll go northward, like I said.” He paused, looking liking he didn’
t want to continue. He took o
ne glance in Heather’s direction
, saw the look on her face, and kept
talking
. “We’ll go northeastward until we come across
Alandell
Lake
.” He hesitated one more time
before grudgingly finishing, “T
hey’ll be a boat there for us. It’ll take us all the way to
Emerald
Lake
, a couple weeks south of the Faerum wastelands.”

Heather smiled. Not only had she backed Agminion down, but the sorcerer actually had a decent plan. A boat would simplify their lives tremendously. Plus it could drastically cut down on the amount of time their journey would take.
“Excellent. Now why would you resist telling us
that
? It’s a good plan and the boat is a
surprisingly
good idea.”

Agminion nodded, apparently taking her words as a compliment.

“So there has to be a reason you didn’t want to share.” Dagan said, watching the other sorcerer carefully. “What is it?”

“I suspected that you might want me to leave the group.” Agminion admitted after a moment’s hesitation.

“I still might,” Heather said.

“The king has ordered me to attempt this quest with you.” Agminion said, once again showing some of the earlier fire.
His voice got louder and his determination
shown in his features
.
“I will not disappoint him.”

“What else?” Dagan demanded, ignoring the  quarrel. “What is it that you’re still not telling us?”

Agminion’s angry glare turned on the old man, but after a moment he dropped his gaze. “Time.”

“What about time?” Cassandra asked, confused like the rest.

“Our ship will arrive in five days. It will spend two days disembarking its cargo and then another day, two at the most, loading new cargo. We have to be in
Providence
Port
in eight days, nine at the
latest
or our ship sails
without us
.”

Heather glanced around. Her confusion was mirrored on her comrades
’
faces. From what she remembered from her geography training in the Guardians,
Alandell
Lake
was practically buried in cargo trips that crisscrossed from side to side. “So what if the ships sails without us? There have to be plenty of other ships that would take on passengers.”

Agminion nodded. “There are, but they won’t take you to
Emerald
Lake
. Most of them aren’t even capable of travelling in the rivers
north of Alandell. And there’s also the problem of the soldiers and guards still looking for us. Any ship captain that sees us would rather turn us over to the authorities and collect the reward.”

Okay, that makes sense
,
Heather thought. “So how do we know that your ship captain won’t turn us over as well?”

Agminion smiled for the first time since Heather had accosted him. “Because the ship captain is of House Thorne.” He said the words with a certain amount of satisfaction, like they explained everything.

Heather looked around again and was relieved that everyone else looked as clueless as she felt. “And why do we trust this House Thorne?”
s
he asked hesitantly.

Looking from face to face, Agminion’s appearance changed from one of triumph, to disbelief, to frustrat
ion. “House Thorne is my family,” h
e finally managed through clinched teeth. “The captain is my Uncle Kapernum. He won’t turn us over to anyone.”

“Are you sure?” Aaron asked. “Maybe he doesn’t like you very much?” He was grinning as he spoke, and several of the others grinned as well.

“He likes me well enough,” Agminion answered,
and then he continued in a lower voice,
“besides my Grandmother would kill him if he betrayed
me
.”

They were finished with breakfast and packed up about a half an hour later, and they began following the stream to the east. The going wasn’t overly bad at first. The bank of the stream was easy enough to follow and the ground was rocky and firm. They made good time and gradually most of the group became more cheerful. Dagan and Agminion were the two lone exceptions. Dagan was his normal curmudgeonly self, and Heather guessed Agminion was still pouting about losing the
morning’s
argument. 

They traveled all day, only stopping for a quick lunch and the occasional visit to the bushes.

Heather was thrilled at the joy and hope in her
companions
. It had been too long since she had heard them laugh. Their long imprisonment in Eled Aminor had dealt their spirits a blow, but they seemed to be rebounding quickly. Even Enton’s booming laugh was
a
relief to her. At first, she had been concerned that someone might hear, but Agminion had assured them that they had entered the forest where the road was closest to the stream. The road, he claimed, wound in a northeastern direction, while the river flowed west, southwest. There were no settlements in this part of the woods and they should be alone until the river turned southwards.

They came across the first problem as the sun was going down and they were looking for a place to make camp. During the last several hours of their walk, the ground had changed from a rocky bank to a more soft earthen bank. Most had welcomed this change as it made the walking much easier.
However, a swampy bog now lay directly in their path. The stream through this part of the woods was slow moving and the low lying ground to the north of the stream was flooded. It wasn’t exactly a swamp, but it was a mucky wet mess.

“Well, this will slow us down a bit,” Heather said looking out over the terrain.

“Why did you think I was worried about how long it takes us to get to the lake?” Agminion mumbled.

Heather chose to ignore the man’s comment. He had just lost a major battle to her this morning and perhaps a little time was what he needed, but if he kept his grumbling up, then she meant to see him lose another battle.

The second day of traveling along the river went much slower than the first. The bog forced them to travel a bit north, away from the river, and they spent much of the day avoiding large mud holes and
the marshier bits of the swamp. One of the main problems with traveling through the mire was that it was so deceptive in appearance. Several times Aaron stepped in, what he thought was an inch or two of water, and sunk all the way to his knee. Heather had finally moved Aaron farther back in their marching order and she took the lead. She was more at home in the woods than most and she hoped she could speed up their trip.

The mar
s
h was overgrown with bushes and wildlife. They rarely saw much of the animals, as the Guardians were making so much noise that the animals had cleared out long before the humans marched through. Still, Heather saw several snakes, although none of them were real close. As they didn’t appear close enough to be a threat, she didn’t say anything to the others. No reason to get them excited. On a couple other occasions she saw the bushes shaking, undoubtedly due to the passage of an animal. As the animals always seemed to be running away from the humans, she remained silent about their passage as well.