The Call (15 page)

Katja closed her eyes and stroked the bone between her fingers. She tried to sharpen her sensitivity and thought she felt a little hint of something. But it was so weak it might just as well have been her imagination.

She supposed this was another thing that would have to come with experience.

“What is this thing?”

Serdra took the bone back.

“A hiding bone. They divert people. Confuse them, and make it easier to hide in the wild.”

A small crack echoed off the trees as Serdra snapped the bone in two.

“At least from people who cannot sense magic.”

“Do demons use things like that?”

“Not demons like this one.

Serdra turned and strode quickly and determinedly towards the cliffs. Katja had seen this demeanour before, when Serdra meant to bring her student down fast and decisively. She had succeeded without fail, except for the last fight.

“So that was left by Brotherhood-people?”

“Almost definitely. And they may know of us. Let us hurry.”

They exited the forest and faced the cliffs. They stood out of the ground like crooked teeth, and when they drew nearer Katja saw a way between two of them.

“I sense more magic,” Serdra said and headed straight for the corridor. A few moments after she spoke Katja herself detected something. A sting, which slid through the oppressive sensations. It wasn't as abnormal as what she sensed from the demon, but still made her uneasy.

They walked in between the two cliffs, and Serdra's step became lighter so as to echo less. The moonlight sufficed to see the walls, the earth and the way ahead, but little else. Katja touched the wall on her right. It was smooth and leaned towards her a bit. She wouldn't be able to climb it. But Serdra might.

“Do we split up?” she whispered.

“No,” Serdra answered. “Let us not waste time. It is being summoned.”

Katja asked no questions. The sensitivity was very clear. The sting of sorcery was getting stronger, louder, reaching some sort of climax, and the menace which hung around Longwater was growing more acute.
Awaking
. At exactly the same pace as Katja's excitement.

The space between the cliffs widened quickly after the entrance vanished into the darkness, and when Katja started smelling smoke they exited on the other side. From what she could make out in the moonlight they were in a large hollow in between the U-shaped row of cliffs, full of tiny trees, bushes and lava formations. At the end of the hollow one could see the glow of a camp fire, and sense the origin of the Call.

Katja unsheathed her sword and groped the hilt as if she were touching it for the first time. Because this would be the first time she used it for
real
.

Let's see how well the old lady did with me.

Serdra let her own sword stay where it was and went ahead into the growth. She did a good job of finding a way past most of the bushes and rocks, but their speed made it impossible to avoid the occasional snap. They felt loud in the darkness, but how well would one hear them close to the crackling of a camp fire? And would this sorcerer flee or fight when attacked?

Come now, don't be shy!

They entered a depression similar to a ditch in the lava rock, and Katja stopped in her tracks. The sorcery had stopped and the menace now emanated from one direction only.

The darkness opposite them moved, took shape and issued a long screech. The screech then changed into a deep grunt and a long, misshapen leg stepped into the depression. Another one like it came right after, and a head towered to the sky as the demon squared off against them. Split horns crowned the elongated head and the legs ended in a mix of human feet and cloven hooves. The monster was like a mix of man and animal.

Terrified horses whinnied on the other side of the hollow, and the demon opened its maw and gave a short, high-pitched scream filled with hate

It knows what we are.

“They mean to flee while we deal with this!” Serdra said. “Stop them!” The demon charged and the long legs sped it across the depression while Serdra drew her sword. “I will handle this!”

The demon swiped at Katja with an arm longer than her legs. She retreated from the attack and swung back. The blade hit the claws on the hand. The leathery flesh yielded surprisingly little and the demon took a step closer to strike again, but Serdra slashed it in the back,

“Go, I said!”

The horses shrieked again, the demon turned towards Serdra and there was no time to think or argue. Katja turned and ran towards the glow. The demon struck at Serdra, but then suddenly disengaged and chased after Katja.

She saw it from the corner of her eye. Katja halted roughly and raised the sword.

Those arms are huge!

Serdra held one palm out and a dark red flame came to life in the air between Katja and the demon. An instant later it formed a large, complex symbol which hung between them.

Katja shrieked and jumped backwards, but the demon's reaction was far stronger. It wailed and staggered back several steps. Serdra came up behind it before it could recover and slashed the back of both knees in one swing. The demon fell forward. It hit the flame as if it were a wall and smoked and sizzled at the points of contact.

“Wha, what!?” Katja shouted in shock, but the demon turned towards Serdra, the woman gave it yet another slash and Katja continued on her way. There was too much going on to think and she didn't intend to stand still and let her jaw hang.

She rushed along the hollow and swerved past one lava formation and bush after another, and saw the camp waiting slightly below.

Two small sleeping tents stood side by side, cooking utensils lay next to the blazing fire and a cow hide had been laid on a flat area. Symbols of some kind had been drawn on it, but Katja had no time to examine them. Just to the north she glimpsed a man at a hard run, with a burning torch in one hand and a saddle in the other. He was heading straight for the horse shrieks.

Katja took a deep breath, held the sword out to the side so as not to fall on it and went wide past the fire so it wouldn't spoil her night vision.

One. Unarmoured. Not prepared for a fight. I'll take him.

There was no way to move silently across the dry heather beneath her feet and the man looked around when a few metres remained between them. She felt a strange satisfaction at the fear in his face, and grasped the sword in both hands.

He threw the torch so it landed between them.

The man shouted something and the torch's flame suddenly exploded into an inferno. The fire spread into the vegetation, went left and right and formed a burning wall between them.

Katja stopped and shielded her face from the heat with her arm. She glimpsed the man as he continued his flight, among the lava stacks.

No no no!

She hastily sheathed the sword and ran to the stack on her right. They were bigger in this area, not unlike thick walls, and she did a running jump at this one. She hit the rock hard but managed to dig her fingers into the moss growing on it. She began to claw her way up slightly faster than the moss could tear apart in her hands.

She reached the top and stood up. The light from the flames made it easy to see where to put her feet down, but she still strode carefully north-eastwards along the wall-like formation.

The fire turned like a living entity and stretched towards her. It licked the formation and started to catch onto the moss, and followed her as she went. Katja meant to jump down on the left side, but the fire reached in front of the formation and headed along the other side as well. By the time she'd assessed her chances of getting past the flames it was too late.

“Ow! Ow! Ow!”

Sparks blew up to her and the heat stung her legs. She was initially hesitant to run out of fear of slipping and falling, but the flames reached ever higher and there was no other choice if her pants were not to catch fire.

She gritted her teeth, ran to the edge with long clumsy steps and jumped onto the next formation. Her foot slipped a bit on the loose moss, but she managed to stay on and keep going. She continued at a brisk pace and left the fire behind.

The light had burned away her night vision and she no longer heard the man or the horses, but felt she'd retained her sense of where he'd been heading. The formation got lower and she jumped down into the grass and ran.

Her reflexes saved her from smashing into boulders in the dark again and again. Her night vision was taking far too long to return and the clouds weren't in a hurry to let down more moonlight. So it was a great relief to hear a horse whinny ahead, behind a relatively small formation.

She stopped in an instant so the footsteps wouldn't give her away, listened and heard nothing more except footsteps coming from the south west. Somehow she'd overtaken him.

He doesn't see any more than I do
, Katja thought as she carefully made her way to the formation.

“Thorir, it's me!” the man who'd thrown the torch called and was clearly coming at a hard run.

“Hannes? Don't frighten the horses, man!” this Thorir replied. Katja peered beyond the formation and saw two horses and the man who stood and held their reins.

“Never mind the horses! These ARE Reds, Vajan must know of this!”

“We can handle this ourselves! We don't need an outside-”

“We'll discuss it in the city!” Hannes hissed with nervous tension. “I'm not going to argue with you now.”

Hannes ran towards the horses, which would take him right past Katja. She drew the sword and leapt out of hiding.

The man screamed, reached for his sword and tried to stop nimbly. Katja slashed him in the chest and then the head before he hit the ground.

“Hannes!” the other man yelled, and the horses were startled.

Katja roared and ran towards him, burning with battle lust. Thorir dropped the reins of the unsaddled horse, which sped off, and tried to control his own horse while he took a javelin from a saddle sheath.

The horse resisted and reared. Katja slipped past the fore hooves and into range of Thorir. He jabbed at her but the horse moved and Katja didn't even need to dodge before she struck back.

The sword cut a deep gash in the man's thigh. He screamed and threw the javelin just as the horse threw off all control. Katja spun and the javelin flew past her, but she got in the way of the animal's wild flight. She was quick enough to not get trampled, but still got hit with the horse's side and fell.

“You'll die in Baldur's Coast, Red!” the man yelled, his words shrill and choked with pain.

Katja leapt to her feet, pulled the javelin out of the ground and threw it after him.

He screamed again as the missile grazed him, but stayed in the saddle. Katja sprinted after him in the hope that the horse would stumble or the man fall, but the beast sped into the darkness with its master.

When the hoofbeats finally died out into the distance she gave up, stopped, and leaned forwards on her knees and wheezed.

The demon was dealt with, she could sense as much now that the fight was passing out of her system and her hands began to shake. The terror had passed from the Longwater area. She had killed a human being for the first time. And the other one had escaped.

“He escaped.”

It rather dampened the feeling of victory, along with the missed opportunity to fight the demon.

Serdra jogged up behind her and Katja slowly and wearily turned around.

“He escaped,” she repeated. Disappointment hung from the words, and her shoulders, and she couldn't sort out her feelings. Too much was happening.

“Well, that complicates matters,” the woman said, and sheathed her sword. “Because it seems to me the Brotherhood did this to find out whether our people were in the area. Now they know.”

Chapter
9.

The walk back felt rather weird. It was the same environment, but without the demon's aura. There was no oppressive dread, no fear without a source. This was just a regular forest and the trip should have been easy now that she knew the area and the magic-enhanced fire had almost completely burned out.

But Katja's legs shivered with nervous tension and she had trouble focusing on the details or her surroundings.

“They... they said they were headed for the city,” she said as they walked, and stumbled over yet another tussock. “That presumably means Baldur's City, correct?”

“Almost definitely. And whether or not they have a nearby haven will probably decide whether he goes there and sends a message or tries to reach the city despite his injuries.”

“If he doesn't bleed to death before getting far. I think I cut him pretty badly, and I don't know what the javelin did to him AND ARE YOU GOING TO TELL ME WHAT YOU DID BACK THERE?!”

Katja couldn't see Serdra's face but imagined a little smile on her lips.

“That was the Sentinel Flame. It repels supernatural beings.”

“And can we all ignite one of those?”

“Yes.”

“And why didn't you tell me I... have magic.”

“It doesn't quite count as m-”

“You know what I mean!”

“Didn't you have enough to think about on the fell?”

“Didn't it occur to you that something like that might save my life when we ran into a demon?”

“It was never the plan to let you face it alone, Katja. Besides,” she turned and poked the girl's chest, “it is difficult to use the Flame correctly. It drains you. You are young and unhardened. It was more important for you to learn basic fighting. It solves far more problems than mystical tricks.”

She wiggled her fingers pretentiously, as if to badly imitate the movement she's used to light the Flame, and kept walking.

“Is there anything else you've hidden from me?” Katja muttered angrily.

“Maybe. Maybe not.”

Katja glared at her back but couldn't think of a retort. She had had to face the fact that nothing moved the woman. Serdra seemed to detect it.

“My, have I already tamed you?” she asked with a smile in her voice.

Katja stretched the corners of her mouth upwards.

“Keep dreaming, old woman.”

They walked through the cliff area again and into the forest. The frustration Serdra had aroused seemed to have put fresh energy into Katja's limbs and she started doing better.

“We need to reach Baldur's City as fast as possible, regardless of what it does to the horse,” Serdra said. “Our injured friend will try to set up an ambush. I don't know if we'll get ahead of him, but we can at least not give his comrades much time to give us trouble.”

“What do you think we'll find in the city?”

“Hopefully more information on the situation.”

The woman was silent for the next few steps.

“Did he see your face?” she then asked.

“Not the one who got away. He didn't have a fire and I wore the hood.”

“Then they won't try to find us by our faces. But they probably know there are two of us. Keep that in mind.”

The horse was where they'd left it. He was rather nervous but Serdra's gentle words and strokes calmed him, and they led him to the road.

--------------------

The journey was trying. Serdra was determined to make a six-day ride to the capital into a four-day one and drove Hnut on mercilessly. The stops were brief and just barely enough to keep Katja and the horse going.

The discomfort and weariness left Katja no space to work out her thoughts, and she spent the day in a pained haze up against Serdra's back and fell fast asleep as soon as they lay down for the evening. They rose early in the morning, scarfed down spiced sausages, fed the horse oats and continued.

The night's sleep did her good though, and she felt better on the next evening. They camped by the side of the road, by an ancient stone bridge across a stream. Katja used the opportunity to wash her feet and hair a bit, and then settled by the campfire.

Well, my wish for travel has certainly been granted
, she thought and tried to find a position which would spare her sore spots.

She went over the events of Longwater in her head.

The demon had been terrible. Both in appearance and the aura it had radiated. Serdra hadn't been speaking nonsense. This one had been far more powerful than what Katja had experienced so far. And she'd missed the opportunity to face it.

She felt a hint of relief, but was mostly disappointed. To defeat something like that, by herself... that ecstasy of victory would dwarf all others.

Still, at least she could be proud of the two blows which had felled the sorcerer. Granted he hadn't had any time to fight, but she had landed them exactly as taught. The one to the chest would almost certainly have killed him, and the head blow that followed had completely finished him off. He'd probably been dead before he hit the ground.

Katja thought to the choked cry which he'd issued at the chest slash. She hadn't seen his face then, but when their eyes met at the lava formations his face had filled with fear.

She turned over on her other side, in search of a comfortable position.

Yes, he had been scared and died brutally. But she also thought about the attack on her village. The people's fear of the demon had been far worse and their death rattles much longer and uglier.

“How long do you think that operation of theirs would have lasted?” she asked Serdra through the fire between them. “If we hadn't intervened?”

“It's impossible to say,” the woman said. “Probably until they considered their suspicion about us disproven. Or if we were detected some other place and someone delivered the news to those two. It wouldn't have surprised me if this had gone on for at least another month.”

A month. A whole month more of this horror, purely to substantiate a rumor.

But it wouldn't happen. This Hannes was now birdfeed north of the lake and wouldn't cause further harm.

And that's nothing but good
, she thought. If someone human had been responsible for Maria's death she absolutely would have wanted retaliation, and she couldn't imagine the friends and family of the mist-demon's victim's would disagree.

A shame I couldn't let the people of Longwater catch a glimpse of me with the hood up and vanish into the night. Legends probably start from less.

She smiled a bit at herself and tried to fall asleep.

“Katja?”

“What?”

“We are now probably heading towards circumstances where I can't control what you'll face. Though I don't recommend you use the Sentinel Flame yet, I had still better explain it to you.”

Katja woke right up at that. She turned again and faced her mentor.

“Absolutely.”

“You may not have noticed it in the hollow, but it has no heat. The Flame only burns the unnatural, but the effects vary depending on just
how
unnatural the subject is. The Sentinel Flame is very effective against mist demons for instance, but less so against revenants as they are earthly in part, or against demons who manage to take on a more solid form. There is also the matter of the skill of the one igniting the Flame and the power of whatever it is meant to hold back.”

Katja put her chin in her palm.

“And how is your skill at this?”

“Very good.” Serdra's face went in and out of visibility as the fire danced between them, but Katja thought she detected pride in her mentor's eyes. “The Sentinel Flame is my speciality. My feats with it surpass most of my equals. Even some elders.”

Katja smiled.

“And do you use that to aggravate them?”

“The elders are rather difficult to aggravate.”

“You just aren't trying hard enough,” Katja said teasingly and let her smile stretch out into a grin.

“Then you can show me how during the next assembly,” the woman answered with a hint of playfulness.

“I will. But does the Flame work against sorcery?”

“Quick reactions and a strong mind are your best protection against sorcery.”

“What do you mean?”

“The sorcerers of the Brotherhood do not possess the power they did in the old days. Their knowledge is spread between covens and they don't do much sharing. They usually apply their spells indirectly, by conjuring demons or casting curses from a distance, and we have a certain resistance to such things. Still, you may also have to withstand mind attacks.”

“And just what is a mind attack?” Katja asked.

“A spell directed at your mind rather than body: Hallucinations, panic, rage, confusion. Some can even control people.”

Katja's mirth died away. That was a rather uncomfortable thought.

“And how does one battle such things?”

“With willpower. It's as simple as that.”

Not skill at arms or speed or luck. Just will. How would such a test fare?

“Alright. But how do I use the Flame?”

“It's not easy to explain. It is a part of you. A part of what makes you different. You need to sort of 'push' it out of you and
hold
it there. It takes concentration, which is another good reason to not use the Flame until you are more seasoned.”

“I'll keep it in mind,” Katja said quietly, though she burned with a desire to try this new ability. “Does it have uses besides pushing back demons?”

Serdra was silent for a bit. It may have been Katja's imagination, but she thought she saw another smile surface like a fish catching a fly.

“You're going to let me find out on my own,” Katja said with frustration, through a smile.

“Maybe,” the woman said. “Or maybe I just wish to keep your mind active through contemplation and questioning. You mustn't forget that possibility.”

“Or the one that you're just amusing yourself at my expense with this constant dance around the facts.”

“Katja dear,” Serdra said softly, “once you stop being surprised, you will miss it.”

Katja didn't quite know what to say to that. She looked away and contemplated what her mentor had said about this 'Sentinel Flame'.

She had never felt anything that could be 'pushed out', but would she even realise such a thing? She had apparently been a Redcloak since birth and didn't know how ordinary people felt.

She sat up and began experimenting.

“Aim for the fire,” Serdra said quietly. “So no one will see.”

Katja obeyed and turned her attention to the campfire. She extended her hand like Serdra had in the hollow.

Out
, Katja thought and tried to push. She imagined a demon and a dire need for stopping it, and
pushed
.

Something slid out of her. She felt it go through her like a cold shiver, and suspend itself within the fire. She felt it, more clearly than she glimpsed the red symbol among the yellow flames.

Oh my!
she thought with almost childish glee.

She lost her concentration. The Sentinel Flame went out and re-entered her, but the sudden weariness the movement had caused lay on her like a leaden blanket. She leaned back on her elbows.

“Oof.”

Katja didn't understand the source of the fatigue. There was nothing wrong with her muscles which hadn't been wrong a moment ago, and she was neither hungry nor thirsty. But somehow she was spent.

“Only use that in an emergency,” Serdra said, where she lay and looked up into the sky. “And do go to sleep. Stamina and focus are more vital than most other things.”

--------------------

They got back onto the main road early on the third day. It took them past uncountable farms and through many small villages, and there was ever more traffic as they approached the coast and the city.

Reserve soldiers were especially prominent. They marched in groups to the east, called to duty by the governor's messengers which sped this way and that on horseback.

“War is in the air,” Serdra commented.

Katja kept the hood on her head and tried to look up as little as possible as she responded to greetings. She knew no-one from these parts and knew the sorcery-scum didn't know her face, but it still made her feel better. Plus, there was hardly a cloud in the sky and no-one would find it suspicious that she would want the sun out of her eyes.

She was a bit sad at having to rush through all these places without getting to know them at all but comforted herself with the knowledge that the capital would probably be more interesting than all the villages put together.

“Are those the Pyremounts?” she asked into Serdra's ear in the middle of the fourth day.

“Yes.”

Katja stared excitedly at the dark peaks visible on the horizon. She knew what they meant; the Pyremounts were the westernmost part of Kossus and the highest point over the channel which separated the two countries. Baldur's City lay ahead of them.