Legend of the Swords: War (26 page)

Renek got to where he had wanted to go a few moments later. He searched around and found two large rocks, perhaps as big across as his shin. He leapt off of his horse and squatted down to grasping a corner of the rock. He lifted, grunting at the weight, but flipped the rock over.

That’s heavier than I thought it would be.
He thought, as he squatted down again.
Those monsters below would be unstoppable in battle.
He lifted again, and the rock flipped over again. It was a few feet away from where it had started. He studied the slope, and squatted to turn it again.
This had better work
.

He stood up to wipe sweat off of his forehead and check on the logs. Several of the knights had ridden over and were using their mounts to drag the logs. Renek nodded, then turned the rock again.

Once it was nearly in place, he took out the rope and lay it down on the ground. He flipped the rock over so that it was on the rope, and he tied the rope together. He then strung the rope out and tied it around the other rock.

A glance down at the trench told him that the Triol army had sent a dozen foot soldiers to use the rocks from the fallen rock creature to fill in the small trench the kingdom soldiers had dug.

Renek shook his head.
We don’t have much time
.

The knights started arriving with their logs. Luckily, they had been relatively small trees, and several of the knights brought two logs dragging behind their horses, with a single piece of rope strung between them and held against the horse’s chest plate.

“Where do you want these, Renek?” The first knight asked. “They’re getting tough to hold on to, they want to roll down slope.”

Renek looked more closely at the man. He was wearing the insignia of one of the Knights of the Crown. After a second, he gestured to the rope.

“I want them held behind this rope.” He gestured. “Hopefully, it holds.”

The knight nodded, and dragged the logs approximately into position.

Down at the bottom of the hill, the rock golems were beginning to cross the trench on the loose stones that had once been the back of their fallen comrade.

It didn’t take long for the rope to begin creaking. It was holding back most of the logs. The first nights had galloped back towards the logs, so the rest were on their way.

Renek wasn’t looking at the logs, though. He was staring down at the five remaining rock creatures. Several of them were right below them.

“It’s not going to get any better,” he said, “and we can’t wait any longer,” Renek said to no one in particular. He drew his sword and cut the rope.

There was a terrible crunching and crashing as they ground against each other, but the logs quickly picked up speed, tumbling down the hill. They picked up speed as space opened up between them, and bounced a bit as they hit uneven spots in the slope. It didn’t take more than a few seconds before they cascaded into the front of the line of creatures.

Three of them took direct hits, and a fourth shivered and fell apart as the first three exploded into shrapnel. There was a feeble cheer from the kingdom soldiers as the dust settled and it was clear that there was only one left.

Hm. Those things must not have ears.
Renek smiled
. They didn’t even look up.

The last one of the creatures paused to look at the ground in front of it. There were rocks and logs strewn everywhere. The spaces in its body seemed to expand, then it settled back down to its former shape, and managed to push through the debris by walking forward while keeping its feet low to the ground.

I wonder if I just saw a rock
shrug
?
Renek wondered. He waved at the knights who were bringing up the last three logs. They nodded their understanding, and turned to ride down to the main camp. Renek rode to meet them.

“I’m out of ideas,” Renek said as he rode up. “I don’t know what to do.”

The Knight of the Crown that had brought the first log to him spoke up. “Didn’t you suggest using a battering ram?” He grinned. “Speak of the devil…”

Renek turned. Riding up behind him were the old general and the smith, each pulling an iron-tipped log behind them. “You wanted one, we got two,” he called, grinning. “Never say that general William doesn’t deliver!”

He glanced over at the remaining creature. It was nearly through the debris of its sundered companions. “Our best shot is while it’s still somewhat immobilized. We should go now.” He looked back at the knights. “You get the rams out there, I’ll bring some men to man the ram.”

There were nods all around, and the knights rode towards the creature.

Renek spun around and rode towards a small group of swordsmen nearby. “I need each one of you to find two other people, as quickly as possible, and meet us out by that … thing," he said. “I think we can finish it off,” he added, seeing the looks of fear they threw him. Most of them stood up quickly and ran, but one or two seemed to be moving slowly.

Renek shook his head and rode out to meet the knights. About a dozen men showed up a minute later. The knights had dismounted, and were already picking up one of the logs; the foot soldiers took up the other.

The ground shook. The creature had managed to free itself from the debris, it was walking again. Renek raised his eyebrows at the Crown Knight, who stepped away from the head of his log for a moment.

“I think the teams should go after different legs,” the Knight said. “That way, if one of us fails to take it out, we won’t be getting in the way of the other team as much.” He grasped the log about five feet from the end, and led the knights.

Renek grinned at the other log, and grabbed it near the front. “Let’s show those pansy knights what
real
men are like!” he yelled with gusto, loud enough for the knights to hear, and led the men into a trot to catch up with the knights.

As the men drew up alongside the knights, the knights glanced at them sideways and started running. The men sped up and past the knights, who again sped up to try to take the lead.

A few seconds later, they were at the creature’s legs. It spun, flailing about with its arms, trying to stop or damage them. The men simply ducked and weaved to avoid the creature’s pig-sized fists.

The knights managed to connect a split second before the foot soldiers did. The layered rocks that built up its legs slid out of place, and its torso teetered, and then fell over on top of all of the men. The last thing that Renek remembered before everything went black was thinking:
That rock is a
lot
bigger than that one I could barely flip over…

Living Rock

They sat at the top of the trail, staring at the rock wall, until midday.

“I don’t understand,” Gregory said. “The trail must go
somewhere
.”

Armand snorted. “It goes
down
, Gregory. We could follow it, if you so choose.”

Shortly before noon, they took out a biscuit each, along with some jerky, and had lunch. They all leaned back against the rock face so they could look down at the valley below them.

Ryan shifted around, trying to get comfortable, as he ate. There was a rock digging into his back, and there wasn’t much room to move around. Finally, he got up to shift down the trail a bit. As he bent down to put one hand on the ground, he paused.

Kevin looked over at him. “What’s wrong, Ryan?” He asked, when he saw that Ryan wasn’t moving.

“The shadow’s funny,” Ryan said, gesturing. Kevin got up and came over. “See? It’s like there’s part of the rock doesn’t cast a shadow.”

Kevin looked down at the thinning sliver of shadow. “Huh. You’re right.” He reached out and touched the rock, but found no resistance—his hand sunk into the stone. “Would you look at that?” he said, shocked. He looked at Ryan, grinning, and stepped into the rock face in front of him.

The image of the rock dissolved as he stepped into it. A narrow, steep ravine lead directly east.

The two knights came over to look.

“I don’t like it,” Armand said. “It feels bad.”

Gregory nodded slowly. “Get your pack, Armand. It’s clearly the way that we need to go—but I agree with you, it doesn’t feel good.”

A few moments later, Gregory led the party into the narrow darkness.

They hadn’t walked more than a hundred yards when a large piece of rock detached itself from the wall and rumbled into the middle of the ravine. It turned to face them, its long stone arms reaching out touch the walls, its legs set firmly. It looked down at them from its twelve-foot height and the rocks that made up its face moved into a smile.

“Why … have you come?” It asked, its voice echoing off the canyon walls.

Gregory pondered for a moment, then looked at Armand, who shrugged. Gregory dropped his lead and stepped forward.

“O mighty rock, we are seekers," he said, craning his neck to look up at the creature’s face. Overall, it must have been twelve feet tall; its legs were as thick as Ryan’s torso. Ryan smiled as he noted that it didn’t seem to have toes or fingers, though—it was carved as if it were wearing giant rock boots and mittens.

“What … do you seek?” The living rock asked, its smile fading somewhat.

“We seek the Swords, O great rock,” Gregory said. Ryan thought that he had tried to make his voice conversational and light, despite the formality of his speech.

“Who … are you?” The rock’s face was frowning, but not unhappily. Ryan thought that it was thinking.

“We are knights, representing King Aiden, from the kingdom to the north.”

The golem nodded, slowly. “You … may not pass,” the creature said, and ceased moving. Its features faded, and it appeared to become part of the mountain.

There was silence among them for a moment, then Armand laughed bitterly. “What now,
O great leader?
” he said, sarcasm dripping off his voice. A cold wind picked up out of nothing, sweeping past the rock guardian, gently pushing back towards the way that they had come.

Gregory looked up at the creature, whose arms and legs had become a fence of rock. Ice was already forming on its limbs as the cloud whipped by, pushed by the wind.

“Any ideas?” Kevin whispered to Ryan.

“No. You?” Ryan whispered back. Kevin shook his head.

Armand spoke again. “Here we are, after traveling weeks, obviously near the Smith’s cave—for where else did this
thing
come from?—and we are stopped.” He smiled, and laughed again. “No way around, no way through. We would need to be able to fly to move onward.” He took a deep breath, and panted a little bit.

So it’s not just me that’s finding it hard to breathe.
Ryan thought, satisfaction warming his mind.

Gregory looked at Armand as if he were speaking another language, but then his eyes opened wider. “Fly?” he said. “We don’t need to fly.” He walked over to his horse and pulled out a length of rope, trailing it on the ground as he walked up to the guardian.

He tied a knot into it, and tossed a loop over the head of the giant. He jerked on it twice to test its strength, and, finding it satisfactory, began to climb.

The rock man came back to life. He reached back behind his head with one arm and scratched the rope. Gregory fell flat on his back as the loop broke.

“Why … did you do that?” said the creature.

Gregory leapt to his feet. “We need to get past! Our country, our
people
will be wiped out if we do not find the swords!”

“You … are good of heart.” The golem scratched the side of its head, which was carved to look like a very old helmet. “But … you …” he gestured to Armand. “Feel wrong. I … sense a blackness in your heart.”

The rock guardian turned, noisily grating against itself, to face Armand the squires. Gregory walked back to stand next to them.

“Answer … this question:

Footless am I,

Though a wanderer,

I am tiny, weak, and spineless.

Yet despite my lack,

My load is large, compared to me,

It seems it should break my back.

I hide in the day,

And walk every night,

To eat my dinner so tender;

Though I am small,

My defenses are strong,

And I leave silver behind me, wherever I go.

What am I?”

Gregory looked shocked, and Armand dumbfounded. They looked at each other for a moment, then turned to the squires.

“Squires?” Gregory asked. “Any ideas?”

When Gregory spoke, the stone creature moved. It bent downward, pushing its face past the two knights, and examined the two young men. Kevin ducked, but Ryan did not shrink back. The guardian peered at them for almost a full minute. Finally, it nodded, slightly, and stood back up.

Gregory looked back at the stone golem questioningly, but Armand was staring at Ryan’s face. Ryan had started smiling slightly as if he found something humorous.

“What is it,
squire?
” He asked Ryan.

Ryan chuckled, and brushed past Armand. “O guardian?”

“Yes … squire?” The guardian smiled down at him.

“The answer is: I am a snail.” Ryan grinned, and glanced back at the knights. Gregory nodded, smiling.

“You … are correct,” The creature said. Was there satisfaction in its voice? The ground shook and small pebbles dropped down the rock face as it took its left hand off of the wall, then its left foot, followed by its right.

As it pulled its right hand off of the wall, though, a portion of the wall came with it. There was a rough grating sound as an impossibly long sword pulled out of a hidden sheath that had been built into the very rock itself.

“You … have passed the first test.

“If … you can defeat me,

“Then … you may pass.” It fell, suddenly moving quickly and fluidly, into en guard position.

The four warriors looked at each other, for a moment—but then the guardian moved towards them. Gregory motioned at the others as he drew his sword.

“Better run and get your shields. I’ll try to distract it long enough for you—” He jumped to the side as the ancient sword came down. It missed him by mere inches, and shards of rock flew upwards from the mountain canyon’s floor as the sword dug in deeply.