The Gauntlet ( A Fantasy Novella) (6 page)

The three knights continued and, more than they realized, kept checking behind them for their pursuers. There was no further sight of them, however, that did little to remove the growing feeling of unease that they all shared.

The peak of the midday heat had passed and the cooler air gave some welcome respite to the three knights, although there was zero shade available. The rationed fraction of water they drank from their flasks did little to quench their parched mouths and headaches booming within their skulls. The distant tower loomed ever taller but it still appeared more than the expected day’s walk away. All three knights suspected they would die of thirst before reaching it but none shared their thoughts.

The three of them had dispersed out in a line, separated by short distances. Ugg was feeling the worst. Janna and Ash could hear his heavy breathing behind them.

“Let us stop to rest. Or we will collapse from exhaustion and our pursuers will catch us anyway,” said Ash.

“Very well,” said Janna, concerned for Ugg.

All three were suffering but Janna looked in better shape than the two men. They passed around the knife and popped the numerous blisters on their feet one by one.

“Perhaps the green things took a different route to their friend, if it was their friend, and didn’t see the body? Maybe we have no reason to fear them,” queried Ugg.

“Are you saying we should wait for them and make friends? What would we do if we saw footsteps ahead? We would quicken the pace and make sure we didn’t arrive last,” said Janna.

Ash agreed with her logic.

“Let’s face it, even within our own kind we are robbing, murdering and raping each other. What chance is there of peace with others when we are at war with ourselves?” declared Ash. “I can carry on again, I just want to get there now. There is nothing in this desert, and that’s the way it’s supposed to be. It is a landscape of nothing - a test in itself.”

Ugg grabbed a handful of hot sand and let it flow out in between his fingers, he sighed deeply and said: “I am in pain, my shoulder and my legs are aching and my heart is weak. I cannot continue. You two would be much faster without me. I have great respect and fondness for you both and I cannot bare to be your burden any longer. You two know I am dragging you back.”

“You are not a burden, my friend. I will not leave you behind even if there was an army behind us. The sun has fried your brain and made you forget you are in the company of friends. If your legs have failed then I will simply drag you to the end. I’m a stubborn man and won’t take no for an answer,” stated Ash.

Ugg laughed. “You are not that strong, I am far too heavy. You would soon pass out lugging my fat ass across these sands! No, I shall wait here and make friends with our green folk. Stall them to give you two more time. It is precisely because I consider you two my great friends that I want to do this. There is no higher respect you can bestow upon me as your friend and compatriot than to leave me to give you two a better chance. Please, I beg you.”

Ash could see teardrops beginning to form in Ugg’s eyes and in his heart he knew that this was the outcome for his dear friend, but he tried again to convince him otherwise.

“Stop being so damn noble and stand up. The tower cannot be more than a night away. At least come a little further, your legs still work and while they do you shall not martyr yourself in our honour. Say something, Janna, talk him out of his foolishness.”

In truth Ash didn’t expect Janna to display any great feeling of emotion given her track record.

“I would do the same for you two if I could go no further. You are the only two men I would happily die for and that is the biggest honour I can bestow upon you.”

Ash frowned and Ugg smiled.

“Farewell, my friends. I hope when you get to the tower you find your answers. This need not be the end. Perhaps you two could even come back for me if the tower does possess a power to conquer the lands? I may even be here relaxing with my new best friends, I was always pretty good at socialising.”

Janna kissed Ugg on the forehead and embraced him tightly with a hug. She then walked away with her focus on the tower, as always, mindful of the job in hand.

“That’s it? A farewell kiss and then walk away?” shouted Ash to Janna, rather angrily.

“Like I said, Ash, you are too damn soft for your own good,” said Ugg. “I hope that won’t be your downfall. You think about death too much but Janna, and myself included, know that when we die we simply go back to the sands and dirt from which we came. It’s fitting this be my grave! But I’m hopeful as well because if a higher being did make all of this, which looks likely, then death might not be the end.”

“She is getting further away,” muttered Ash anxiously.

“Just go. I have already lived more years than I should have. Old men were not meant to survive this passage, it is on the support and companionship of good friends I have got this far.”

“Take some of my water, at least.”

“On the contrary you should take mine. If those green things kill me before I finish it all, then what use is water on a dead man? Even worse, I don’t want my water helping them. No. Take my water, all of it. I insist.”

Ash reluctantly accepted the water Ugg handed to him.

“Go. You don’t need to kiss me.”

Ash smiled and embraced Ugg with his arms, patting him firmly on his back, before departing to catch up with Janna. Ugg watched his friends disappear into the distance and turned away from them, waiting for the pursuers to show up on the horizon.

The sun had set and the darkness of the night crept in. The temperatures plummeted very quickly and Ash and Janna found themselves shivering as they walked.

“I didn’t expect this at all,” commented Ash. “Give me the heat of the day back.”

“You’ll be saying the opposite thing in half a day. With Ugg’s water we should make it to the tower, he has saved our lives. He was a true hero.”

“He was…still is a hero, you should say. He’s still alive, I can feel it. I know you might be annoyed at me for saying this, but tell me: do you feel any compassion at all?”

“Not in the same way you do. I am different, I know, but I am not completely cold-hearted. I would not have left him if I thought he would make it, but he had given up – you could see it in his eyes. The life was leaving him and I saw the way you looked at him, you knew it to be true. I’d do the same and so would you if either of us were dying. It was an honour to know Ugg and I’d rather remember and embrace the time I had with him than drown in sorrow for his loss.”

Ash stayed silent. Janna always spoke so logically even if they weren’t always the easiest words to hear.

“Watch out, a snake to your right,” said Janna.

The snake lunged at Ash but the knight dodged it just in time.

“Thanks, that was close. Damn things are too small to get close to with the knife, otherwise we could kill it and eat it.”

“I agree, they are not worth the risk. To be bitten by one would mean death. There are many other tracks marked by creatures I do not recognise, but I am willing to guess they are as dangerous to us as the snakes. In this harsh environment it is kill or be killed.”

The moonlight reflected off the golden peak of the tower ahead of them, like a bright star in the sky, guiding them towards it. Meanwhile Ugg was staring up at the same golden light, his thoughts on his friends and what they would find upon reaching it. But then Ugg heard whispers on the wind and his attention immediately switched to the sound. There were six, not four, of the green folk approaching him, following closely the footsteps created by Ugg, Ash and Janna. Ugg decided to stand up and raise his arms, to reveal to the strangers that he was no threat, as he could clearly see they were carrying spears in their arms.

“Well met,” declared Ugg.

The six strangers hustled together, expecting to be ambushed by the other two people who had created the footsteps. They were very tall and slender, just like the one found dead in the maze. Ugg didn’t know where to look, so many faces with so many eyes…

“I mean you no harm.”

Ugg became encircled, three of the green creatures faced him with their spears while the remaining three faced outwards keeping guard. They were just as cautious and protective as Ash had been with him and Janna.

“Can you understand me? Do we share a common language? Please, say something.”

One of the green men pointed his spear at Ugg and then at the other footprints. Ugg got the message loud and clear.

“Gone. Long gone. It is just me, I swear.”

The green man snarled at Ugg and once again pointed its spear at him and then at the ground in front. Ugg obeyed the direction and kneeled, with his hands clasped behind his head.

“Wait. If you understand me, even just a little, tell me where you came from? From the other side of the mountains? Across the seas? Just reveal a piece of this huge puzzle to me and I can die a happy man. Wait, I’ve got an idea.”

Ugg slowly moved his hands down and began to draw in the sand in front of him. This, at last, got some response from the strangers. Ugg drew a rough maze, then working backwards he drew the valley and the stepping waterfalls and finally, Harwell, as a small circle with an X in the middle. Ugg even made sound noises to represent the waterfalls and him falling through the air.

The others looked at each other and seemed to understand Ugg’s drawing. One of them marked another entrance into the maze, but from the other side.

“Yes, you see, we are on the same quest. Where is your home? Keep drawing,” beckoned Ugg.

They did not keep drawing, however, and began to walk away from Ugg. Seemingly disinterested. They knew Ugg was no threat to them, but they had learned enough from the drawings and some of their own questions had been answered.

“Is that it? Stay, we can still learn from one another. There is so much we can find out, even just drawing,” shouted Ugg. “Please.”

Ugg attempted to follow, but his legs were too sore and he collapsed to the ground.

“No! At least kill me, don’t leave me to starve and boil under the sun.”

Ugg was left alone, staring at the tower with its golden peak. He missed Ash and Janna, he missed his friends.

“I didn’t give them much time, damn it,” he thought.

Lying flat on the sands, Ugg fought hard against closing his tired eyes. But eventually he conceded and fell into a deep sleep.

Ash and Janna were walking at a fast pace, the dunes had begun to decrease in size and the first rays of the dawn had started lighting the eastern horizon.

“Today is the day we end our quest,” said Ash. “Today is the day we get our answers.”

“Closure would be nice, but in truth I’ve enjoyed my time inside the Clouded Mountains more than I did outside it. Whatever happens I am not going back to Harwell, unless I am wielding an enormous power and I can vanquish the corrupt and dark of heart.”

“A bold statement. What happened to make you hate the people of Harwell so much?”

Janna stopped to look at the rising sun and the pale blue sky.

“I have always preferred the sunrise and the morning sky. Look at the blue, it is so fresh and clean. It is as if every day is reset and the horrors of yesterday forgiven. It makes you believe that because it is a new day, the world will have changed for the good. But it never does.”

Janna paused for a few seconds before continuing.

“I was taken by the priests when I was a child. I was homeless, vulnerable and… they abused me… repeatedly.”

“That’s horrific, I’m so sorry. I had no knowledge of this or I swear I’d have slain every priest in the citadel.”

“No one knows because they have absolute power over the city. It is all a corrupt, evil web praying on the weak. The homeless children are the easy targets. They are monsters Ash, and they need to be stopped. That is why I had no fear of The Gauntlet. I knew there was nothing more frightening inside it than what I had already faced as a ten-year-old locked in a room with disgusting old men.”

“I’m so angry. If you had told me this back in the valley of peace, I would have swam back under the wall, hacked my way through the birds and rampaged through Harwell with my sword, butchering anyone who stood in my way.”

“You’d have been killed by the birds and of no use to us. Your son would have grown up without a father. We deceived you back in the valley: Ugg and I had always intended to leave we were just waiting for another knight, one we could trust. We needed to see if you had the determination to succeed.”

“I did wonder why you changed your minds so quickly... I’ve never thought of myself as being persuasive. It is fine, it made no difference to me - I was jumping anyway.”

“I know you were. Something powerful created this land and I’m going to ask it for the same power, so I can return to Harwell and spill the blood of the priests – all of them.”

“Some of the priests must be good. Let’s say you get the power you seek, you can’t just butcher all the priests. It’s fair enough to kill the ones who abused you, but give the others a fair trial.”

“I’ll kill anyone who gets in my way. I’ll kill every priest, they are all in on it. No exception.”

“And if I got in your way?”

Janna moved closer to Ash, he could her feel her breath on his neck. She kissed him gently on the neck.