The Call (22 page)

“No,” said Maron.

“Then Katja and I should get to the oak...” The woman closed her eyes and thought.

Katja wondered what it was like to have so many memories in one's head. How did one keep it all in order?

“Around midnight, if we go right now,” Serdra then said. “The two of you will probably get there quite a lot sooner.”

“We will try to keep from getting bored,” Ronald said and laughed a bit. Katja still thought she saw nervousness behind it. She understood it quite well, but still felt it breathe life into her own fears after being around her fearless mentor for months.

She took the axe and strapped the quiver to herself and Serdra took the spear and the sword.

“Well,” Serdra said and looked at everyone present. “Does anyone have any questions?”

“Just what are we going to do?” Katja asked.

“At the very least we need to find out what the Brotherhood is planning,” Serdra said. “The best way is probably to break into Savaren's manor and seeing what we find there. Your past-sense might be of good use in that.”

Katja felt a tingle pass through here. Perhaps she would get to do more than just being Serdra's assistant.

“If that fails we can try to capture one of his men and interrogate him. It would be difficult and dangerous in the middle of a town. We'll see what opportunities present themselves when we're there.”

“The best option would of course be to kill Tovar Savaren,” Maron interjected. “And his closest servants. It would be especially good if his son Aron Peter went the same way. I suspect he is meant to succeed his father one day.”

Serdra nodded.

“As I said, we will see what our options are when the moment arrives.”

Maron smiled a bit.

“You always avoid assumptions, old lady.”

“Time and the world are a river,” the woman said and lightly tapped her head with her finger. “And I sense better than most that it's best to swim with the current.”

“Suit yourself.”

Everyone waited to see if anyone else had something more to say. No-one did.

“Well,” Maron said and tapped his cane on the floor. “There is nothing to wait around for. Good luck.” He looked at Serdra. “A shame we cannot talk more. Perhaps we can pick things up when this is over.”

They headed out and Maron stood and watched them go. Serdra looked around shortly before the farm vanished from sight and then looked downward with a thoughtful cast. Katja kept her questions to herself.

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

They spoke a bit on the way. The two Shades were curious about the two of them and Ronald seemed to just generally enjoy talking. Serdra didn't elaborate much on her own past and diverted most questions to her stay in Baldur's Coast. Katja saw no reason to correct the stories that had carried from the west and telling of her own past didn't take long. There really wasn't much to say.

It quickly came to light that neither of them had killed a man. They had done some mundane spying. Ronald had taken part in a mission to Kossus but not had to fight and Thorkell had snuck about the wilderness around Mooncape a few times without being discovered.

Katja wasn't sure what to feel about Thorkell. His voice was a bit monotonous and he was a bit withdrawn. He somewhat came across as being dense, but it could hardly be as he was trusted with spying missions and this dangerous task they were headed for. Perhaps he was just eccentric.

Thorkell described the Mooncape town with short, precise sentences. The Savaren manor was in the uppermost part of it and rather isolated. The foreign workers lived in tents just south of the harbour, outside the town itself. There was a near-constant effort to keep up with the population growth and digging fresh drain ditches, widening streets, moving sties and taming the environment.

The manor always stayed on top though, and was ever separated.

Ronald was more lively but also more visibly nervous. It occurred to Katja that she was in some respects more experienced than they were. It was a very strange realization, but she had after all fought demons and men and looked both forward and backwards through time. Ronald, and Thorkell to some degree, reacted to her descriptions just as she herself would have not long ago.

My my!
she thought.
I can sit down with someone and tell stories they will find strange and awe-inspiring. And I just left home last fall. This didn't take a long time.

She stifled a giggle. If anyone noticed they didn't ask what caused it.

They talked about combat training and their archery skills and threw the stealth language between them.

It was a fine way to pass the time as they walked. She actually started to like Ronald and wanted to challenge him to an archery contest once all this was over. She suspected he was more skilled than she, but it would be exciting to compete with someone who didn't have a century's advantage over her.

“Our ways part here.”

They had reached the road.

Katja looked to the west. Before them lay the tangled Walnut Forest in an uneven landscape and above it was a low but forested mountain range.

“Yes, so they do,” Ronald said and he and Thorkell stopped. He looked south along the road. They would follow it to Mooncape, Thorkell on the road itself and Ronald among the trees where passers-by wouldn't see him.

They seemed a bit hesitant, and Katja suspected the deep breath Ronald took was to soothe the nerves.

“I have fought besides less experienced people than you and they have survived and learned from it,” Serdra said in her teaching voice. “I have also met many more experienced people who made one deadly mistake. Remember your training, all of you, but don't let something unexpected unbalance you. Be cautious but don't give in to fear. It may be difficult to toe this line, but that is the trick to surviving these things. And do not count on me to do everything for you.”

“No, of course not,” Ronald said with a smile but Katja still wondered how sincere he was being.

“Good luck,” he said. “We will see you tonight.”

Serdra nodded and Katja said goodbye and they walked into the forest as they headed south.

Katja looked over her shoulder even though they vanished from sight almost immediately. Serdra was the most dangerous person she'd met, but these were ordinary men. They were even less experienced than Katja herself.

These men might die tonight
, she thought as their footsteps upon the paving stones faded away.
They could die before they reach the tree.

She hoped they would be safe but also had an eerie feeling, as if some threat lay just ahead. It reminded her of the tingle that had haunted her before the demon attacked her village, though this one was perhaps not as strong.

Something bad was coming.

She sighed.

Pushing through the forest was a damnably hard. It was every bit as wild as it seemed. All the depressions, bushes, hills, fallen trees and boulders from an ancient rock slide created a world to itself where anything might lie anywhere.

This place, so close to the Brotherhood's stronghold, had to house many old secrets. Old ghosts and bones she could easily see if she let herself. The thought was less than soothing.

“Do you sense that?” Katja asked quietly. She heard the apprehension in her own voice but felt no shame over it. She was almost certain this wasn't her imagination.

“Yes,” Serdra said. “We are heading into one of our enemies' hearts. Instinct is frantically telling us something we already know.”

For a while the only sounds were those of birds and the vegetation beneath their feet. Katja tasted the feeling in her mind. It was like munching on a bit of food. A bitter and hard one.

“This will be more dangerous than anything I've done so far.”

She had meant to ask a question, but somehow the words turned into a statement on their way out.

“Yes.” Something in Serdra's voice chilled Katja on the inside, though the woman spoke with the same calm as always. “Now can be no error, or you will likely die. And quite possibly me as well.”

No more games
, Katja thought and kept her eyes on the ground as Serdra's words seeped in.

She was afraid. And as the sky darkened and the trees became murky giants all around them, the bushes' black mounds and the Call got ever stronger, she only became more so.

Chapter
16.

Eventually Katja stopped. Not only did the feeling keep gnawing at her but it had changed as well.

Serdra stopped too, but didn't look back at her.

Katja was a bit hesitant to confirm it to herself, but only a bit. She was sure.
Something
had changed.

“What is that?” she whispered.

“Try to focus,” her mentor replied. “Use the sensitivity.”

“I...”

Katja closed her eyes and did her best to comply.

She felt it. Currents were coming from the southwest. The feeling was not dissimilar to the one that had enveloped Longwater while the Brotherhood agents had been doing their business.

“What is that?” she repeated, still with her eyes closed.

“Sorcery. Dark sorcery.” Serdra was momentarily silent. “Either a very powerful sorcerer or an entire group performing a ceremony.”

“Is
this
what we've been sensing lately?”

“May...be,” Serdra said slowly. “This is,” She hesitated again and her voice was distant. “This is more than some mundane ritual. This is something big. If this isn't part of their scheme it must be directed against us in some way.”

“Are they summoning a demon?” Katja asked and the monster of Longwater flashed through her mind.

“Perhaps. I sense only sorcery. Nothing more precise than that. I thought we had more time. Precognition is not my speciality, but still,” Serdra hesitated. “Perhaps events in Baldur's City have caused them to speed up their plans.”

“Should we fetch the Shade boys and then head upwards?”

“If we struggle through the forest until we find them and then go back it could be too late to intervene.”

Serdra thought the situation over.

“We will go southwest and examine the source of this. We will probably attack as well. Come.”

The woman walked briskly through the foliage. Katja reluctantly followed. The feeling of dread pushed back. She felt a bit like she was wading through deep mud. But she couldn't deny that something about the sorcery beckoned her. She
felt
how unnatural it was. It tingled her skin and bones, and her instinct was to put to a stop to it.

Serdra was canny about finding ways through the growth but they still needed to wade through bushes, squeeze between trees and push away branches. It was trying but Katja didn't dare complain. There was a fight coming.

The incline steadily grew more pronounced. It seemed to Katja they were heading up a ridge.

“Remember,” Serdra said. “When it comes to direct combat Brotherhood men prefer to assault the mind. Try to keep your bearings and let your instincts and reflexes guide your sword through the effects and to the one causing them. There are also more raw approaches. You saw how they can control flames, and some can also draw blood without touching you. And it's possible to summon a demon with great haste, even though it's almost impossible to control one under such circumstances.”

“But people probably don't give much thought to that while being stabbed.”

“No. If we attack I will go first. Follow close behind and support me. If I shout 'apple' you are to break from me and attack someone on your own.”

“Understood.”

“And Katja,” Serdra suddenly stopped, turned around and poked her in the chest. “If I shout 'cat', you are to flee into the distance as fast as you can. Do not wait for me or try to find me. Find those two boys and try to solve this situation on your own. Maron can then perhaps help you find others of our kind. If not you wouldn't be the first one to learn on your own.”

“S-so I'm to leave you to die?”

“If I tell you to.”

“Are-” The words resisted. “Aren't you... more important than I? You are more powerful and wiser. Isn't it more important for this war that you get out alive?”

Serdra didn't answer right away.

“If the situation arises that you have a better chance of escape than I do, obey me and seize the chance.”

They continued walking and Katja shook her head.

Did I just suggest that I ought to die?

Serdra's words had chilled her. She watched her mentor's back, or rather what little she saw of it in the dark. The woman seemed invincible. Katja remembered the first rule Serdra had taught her and knew that she actually wasn't. But she certainly seemed like it.

If she falls, what am I do? I am just a beginner.

In that moment Katja felt more keenly than ever how much she needed her mentor.

“Thank you for everything,” she said quietly.

“If I die give Maron my regards.”

Katja felt she was drifting through a dream. There was something so unreal about all this.

The incline had become quite severe and the forest enclosed them so utterly that it was like walking through a ravine. Ahead she saw a glimmer of light.

Katja drew her sword. Serdra drew her knife a moment later.

“Mind the branches,” Serdra whispered.

Katja didn't understand at first. The light ahead and the dread occupied all of her attention. Then she realized how troublesome it could be to swing a sword amidst such dense foliage. She still decided not to switch to a knife. She didn't feel ready to battle with such a small weapon.

I'll just have to be careful.

Serdra slowed the ascent and walked in a battle stance with the knife at the ready. The light went from being a slight dot in the distance to clear flame which lit up the peak of the ridge and the surrounding trees. Katja heard distant voices chant in unison and felt the dark sorcery ripple with each word.

Now it happens! Now there will be real battle!

The feeling of dangers was stronger than ever and put her hairs on end and her heart at full gallop. There was something bad here. There was something really bad coming.

'Apple' means to separate from Serdra. 'Cat' means to flee
, she reminded herself.

She tightened her grip on the sword and took a deep breath. They were maybe a hundred metres away from the peak. Serdra gave her a sign to stop and took a few steps forward.

Katja heard some sound, burning embers suddenly flew out of the bushes and landed between her and Serdra. A moment later pandemonium broke loose.

The sensitivity saved Katja when small, sharp objects flew at her out of two different directions. She leapt to and twisted before she really knew what was happening and the weapons went past her and into the darkness.

Someone stepped out of a bush with a spear and thrust at her. She dodged that as well but another spear came out of the direction she'd retreated to. She narrowly escaped it with a scratch but then saw the third spear.

She heard footsteps and grunts where Serdra had stepped but couldn't look that way without getting stabbed. The spearmen worked together and closed off all escape routes. She tried to slash at one of them but then had to dodge a thrust from another direction.

Then came the long knives.

This
was the danger. This was what had been gnawing at her. She'd had a premonition of her own death.

The embers started burning something on the ground and illuminated the scene a bit better.

Two nimble men with knives attacked her in conjunction with the spearmen. Metal met metal somewhere ahead. Katja swung at one of the knife men but the spears didn't let her follow up the attack. Her reflexes wanted to pull her in every direction, but everywhere a tree or spear blocked the way. She couldn't think for fear and frantic efforts and instinct couldn't save her either.

She took a slash to the back just as she warded off a knife thrust.

I'm going to die here!

The spears drove her under some branches which hung too low for her to make an overhead slash and one of the knife men came at her. The embers had turned to sparks and she could see the face of her enemy.

It was the chipper foreigner she'd spoken to outside the city hall. The one with the broken nose and torn ear. He smiled savagely as he stabbed at her. She was barely able to drive him back but couldn't dodge the next spear thrust and got a cut on her shoulder.

The fear burned through her veins too hotly for her to feel the pain but her left arm still lost power.

Someone screamed at Serdra's location.

Katja broke away from the tree. She would die if she stayed and had to risk meeting the spears. She managed to slip past the tip that shot at her and took only a minor cut from a knife. Another tip came at her chest and she threw herself forward as if diving into water. She tried to land in a roll but the left arm got in the way and she rolled clumsily on her side before springing back up.

“Good to see you again!” the foreigner hissed and grinned as he and his comrades attacked again.

She retreated and swung back at them, but the blows didn't have the same power as before and there was very little space for retreat.

One of the knife men attacked just as a spear thrust drove her backwards. Katja hit him in the arm. The leather he wore protected him from the worst of it but he did scream and fall back. His comrade, the foreigner, was just a step behind though.

She thrust at him but he sidestepped nimbly, shot out his left arm and grasped her wrist. Before she could react he yanked her in close and stabbed at her with the knife.

Katja put her left arm up and their forearms met. The tip of the knife stopped a hair's breadth from her belly. The man pushed and she had neither the weight nor footing to hold him back. Her back met a tree trunk, the man kept pushing, and she could do nothing as the knife started slowly entering her.

Katja watched and heard indescribable sounds coming from herself as the flesh gave way to the sharp metal. The man looked her in the face and she couldn't help but look back. The spearheads glinted behind him and Katja saw her death.

Serdra practically flew over the flames with her knife in hand and inhuman focus in her face. Before anyone could react she stabbed the spearman closest to her in the throat. Those who'd ambushed her were right on her heels and she kept her momentum up towards Katja. She raised the knife in a throwing position and the foreigner had to throw himself aside to dodge it. He hit a bush and stumbled but his comrades kept coming at them.

“Come!” she said and stepped up to Katja. Katja tried to straighten up and get her bearings but Serdra knelt, seized the back of her knees and threw Katja over her back.

Then she ran through the thicket. Branches either broke or bent as Serdra barrelled and smashed and jumped through everything in her way. Serdra took most of the hits but Katja still took her share of scrapes.

She tried to look up from this awkward position and saw light glint on metal. The men were trying to give chase. At least ten men tried to push after them through the forest. But Serdra found every opening and leapt over every rock. Katja soon lost sight of the men but all the snaps and cracks caused by the journey made it impossible to tell whether they really were that far off.

“I'm injured.”

Serdra kept going without a word.

As the fight grew more distant and the raw fear started to seep out of Katja she became ever more aware of the pain. She tried to cling to Serdra with her left arm but it grew ever weaker and the shoulder pained her more with every movement of Serdra's. But not nearly as much as the gut.

The lightnings of pain shooting out from the stomach got worse and worse and she started to gasp at every bump. She tried to grind her teeth and keep it together but nothing she'd experienced so far had prepared her for this.

She groaned out loud when Serdra finally stopped. The woman stood utterly still for a little while and was probably listening for pursuit. Katja heard nothing and Serdra walked a few more steps. They had arrived at a tiny clearing where a bit of moonlight reached down and made it easier to see. Katja had somehow managed to retain a grip on the sword up to this point but now let it fall into the grass.

Serdra placed her carefully down on her back and Katja gasped as the woman took her belt off without preamble and pulled up her shirt.

“Am I going to die?” she asked breathlessly.

“No.”

“What happened?”

“Sorcery to lure us there and keep our sensitivity busy. Dry hay on the ground to light with embers hidden in jars. Spears to corner us and knives so they could operate in close quarters. A clever man planned this.”

“Weren't they... doing anything?” Katja gasped as Serdra examined her belly wound.

“No. The sorcerers on the peak stopped what they were doing as soon as the ambush closed around us. They were headed our way. I had to retreat.”

“Can,” Katja tried to get control over her voice. “Can you do something?”

Serdra closed her eyes and held her hand up and palm out.

“Yes.” A crimson flame ignited in the air before her fingertips. “I can do something.”

Katja stared. The Sentinel Flame had no heat just as Serdra had said, but she couldn't help but stiffen a bit as Serdra moved her hand to the wound.