The High-Wizard's Hunt: Osric's Wand: Book Two (2 page)

The men walked as quickly and silently as they could, frequently glancing up at the sky through the small gaps in the trees as they traveled. Aron signaled a halt near a rock outcropping deep in the forest. The trees were thick and the canopy overhead was dense enough that no blue sky could be seen. He looked around at the fearful faces of the other six men with him. The gash on his arm throbbed terribly but he allowed no hint of pain into his expression. If any of them were going to get off the mountain, he would have to maintain his firm authority over the guards. “Thom, take three men with you and find some food and water. We will camp here and strike out as soon as the sun rises.” Aron planted the butt of his spear into the dirt at his feet and ordered the others to gather firewood. A fire could signal their location, but they would need the flames to ward off any other creatures that might be stalking about in the woods.

Thom and three others walked away from the designated camp while the other two guards began collecting wood. Thom told two of the men to find some berry bushes and the third to collect water.

“How am I supposed to collect water with nothing to carry it in?” Thom sneered at the man’s objection.

“You will just have to figure something out.”

As he walked deeper into the forest, Thom fashioned a snare from a sturdy vine and went in search of rabbit tracks. Normally, he could catch a rabbit in a matter of minutes by casting a spell on the snare to lure the rabbit into its circle without triggering the animal’s instincts. However, Osric had taken his wand, so he would have to rely on his skills alone. Thom followed a trail until he came across tracks and some recent rabbit droppings. He found a low hanging branch that crossed a narrow part of the trail and tied the free end of the snare securely to it, leaving a noose dangling above the path. Stepping over to a nearby berry bush, he pulled off a few leaves, crushing them in his fist to make them more aromatic and then sprinkled them on either side of the snare. He hoped it wouldn’t be long before a rabbit wandered into his trap, but he pulled another length of vine from a nearby tree and continued up the path to set more snares while he waited.

Thom busied his hands with twisting vines into nooses, but his mind was distracted and occupied by thoughts of the attack at the volcano. So many things were bothering him about what Osric and his men had done that he could not focus on one of them long enough to figure it out. He knew that short devil, Machai, had much to do with their success in assaulting Aron’s crew. Obviously, they had managed to sway the dragon guarding the door to their cause before they had even entered the volcano. Also, they had somehow made it to the volcano without being seen by any of the patrolling guards. The next part was what disturbed him the most. Thom had awoken with a pounding headache to find himself lying on the ground with his hands tied behind his back. He could not recall hearing the alarm signal from the guard tower, nor hearing any sounds of fighting. He couldn’t even remember being dragged from his sleeping quarters, but he had woken up on the main floor of the volcano. Based on how he felt upon waking, he assumed he had either been drugged or spelled.

Thom thought back to the conversations with Aron and the other guards while they had been locked up in the dragon cell. “Ridiculous!” Thom rambled to himself as he walked. “I have a hard time imagining what they described, never mind believing it. So, Aron was sitting at the table playing a game of bones with Shrad, and Asram was manning the guard tower. Eric had been standing guard just inside the entrance of the volcano, and four men had been out on patrol. Nothing unusual there. Had I not been sleeping, surely I would have seen it all coming and we wouldn’t be in this position. But, even with five of us asleep, no one should have been able to sneak into the volcano undetected.” Thom stopped to set another snare as he mulled over the events.

According to the unanimous recount by Aron, Shrad, and Asram, Osric and the others just appeared out of thin air. “That idiot wouldn’t notice if the volcano erupted on his watch! Of course Asram said everything had been perfectly normal, and then all of a sudden, Osric was standing next to him in the guard tower. Why would he admit that he hadn’t been paying attention while standing guard? Sure he would say he only had enough time to sound the alarm and reach for his knife before Osric knocked him on the head. He wouldn’t want to admit his own incompetence. So why didn’t the alarm wake us all up?”

Thom glared at the ground as he thought about how his comrades claimed the attack happened. Asram had claimed that after Osric hit him on the head, he blacked out, and the next thing he knew, he was lying on the volcano floor with his hands and feet bound. Aron insisted that he was just about to claim victory over Shrad in their game of bones when suddenly, that vicious, little dwarf that had delivered the swords was standing behind him with an axe, and Osric’s big friend appeared next to the entrance, knocked Eric unconscious, and came up behind Shrad with his sword drawn. Shrad swore that he saw Osric grab Asram on top of the guard tower, disappear, and then reappear on the volcano floor. Asram was unconscious, and Osric pulled his sword from the dying body of one of the guards. Shrad wasn’t sure, but he thought that the sword had just appeared in the man’s chest the way the men had appeared among them. “Ridiculous!”

Thom shook his head in disbelief as he walked. The tales the men told were unbelievable, but Thom had fought the dwarf, Machai, and his speed was undeniable. No man had ever bested Thom as easily and quickly as Machai had, so he could see why someone would think he just appeared out of thin air. However, the idea that Osric had somehow transported himself and Asram from the guard tower to the floor was absurd. No magic could do that. Thom wondered if there was a simple explanation for it all. He suspected that russet haired maiden had spelled them all and they hallucinated the whole thing. Landin said he and Palin had come running when they heard the alarm from within the volcano, and she was just standing near the entrance talking to a prairie dog pup. The dragon that guarded the entrance was nowhere to be seen, and when she reached for something in her belt, Landin pulled his wand and immobilized her, taking them both hostage. It had given Aron’s men the upper hand until those filthy eagles flew in with the dragon and saved Machai’s head. Thom smiled to think of all their heads lined up on pikes outside the volcano. Someday, he intended to see it.

As the dim light under the canopy of trees waned, Thom retraced his steps along the path to check his snares. He had placed six in total as he walked along the trail through the forest. The last snare he had placed was empty, and the berries on either side were undisturbed. He decided to leave it set and they could check it again in the morning. As he came upon the next snare, he grinned at his luck and quickened his step. A small rabbit was straining at the noose, eyes wide and muscles trembling, struggling to breathe. Thom picked up a heavy limb from the underbrush near the trail. He poked the rabbit and sent it skittering away from him as far as it was able while restrained by the vine. For a brief moment, Thom thought he heard a man call out, but the sound was faint and distant, and more than likely just the wind in the trees. With a quick jab, Thom cracked the skull of the rabbit with the end of the branch and gathered the small, limp body from the snare. He smiled and hummed quietly as he continued back up the trail.

Thom’s grin faded and he fell silent as he approached the next snare. Something wasn’t quite right about the scene. His vine was still tied to the low branch above the path, but the noose looked as though it had been untied. The loose end of the vine was lying on the path, and the leaves he had dropped were stacked in a neat pile next to it. Thom stopped, looking into the forest on both sides of the path and listening for any strange sounds. He heard and saw nothing, but the hairs on the back of his neck were standing on end. The other guards wouldn’t have done something like that. Either there was someone else nearby, or that part of the forest was infested with tree sprites. Thom hated tree sprites. He scattered the leaves with his boot and hurried on to the next snare.

At first, Thom thought the next one was dismantled as well, but on closer inspection he discovered the vine had been chewed through. He had caught something, but whatever it was had gotten away. He grew suspicious again as he approached the second snare he had set. The noose was hanging from the limb, but the leaves he had scattered were gone. There were no markings in the dirt to indicate what had eaten them, and as Thom leaned down to get a closer look, something tickled the back of his neck. He brushed it away and looked up, and he was greeted with a handful of leaves falling down on his head. Sitting on the branch above him was a small, delicate looking creature with long tufts of hair sticking up in every direction from its head and back. It chittered down at him, scampered a few branches higher into the tree, and chittered some more. He watched with dread as two more creatures joined the first, and they all tumbled and flipped through the branches above him. Thom knelt down and picked up a rock the size of his palm and threw it up into the branches as hard as he could. They shrieked and scattered into the nearby trees, and Thom sneered as he headed up the path. Even finding a rabbit in the first snare he had set failed to improve his mood after the encounter. He grabbed it by the hind legs, snapping the vine rather than bothering to loosen the noose, and quickened his pace back to camp as the forest grew darker.

Thom stomped back into camp and growled when he realized that he had nothing to skin the rabbits with.

“What’s the matter with you?” Aron asked, reclining against a large boulder near the fire.

“Tree sprites,” Thom replied shortly, scanning the ground for a sharp edged stone. “I hate tree sprites.”

“Oh, Thom, are you afraid of a little sprite? They can’t hurt you. They will just steal you blind and then laugh at you for it,” Shrad teased, laughing with Aron across the fire. Thom looked up with a vicious snarl and was about to respond when Asram and Gad walked into the ring of firelight. Gad’s torso was bare and they held his tunic loaded with berries between them. A strip of cloth was tied around Gad’s right arm and blood trailed down to his elbow. Aron stood and walked over to inspect their haul as well as his injury. Grabbing a handful of berries, he popped a few into his mouth and spoke around them. “What happened?”

Gad untied the strip of cloth to reveal a red, swollen puncture wound. Aron grabbed his arm and a bit of dark pus oozed from the wound. Gad’s eyes were bloodshot and he grimaced in pain. “We were collecting berries, and I tried to get deeper into the brambles for more. I tripped and fell against a tree with a vine growing around it. I must have caught a thorn in my arm when I landed.”

Aron looked at him suspiciously. “Was the thorn from the berry bush, or from the vine? What did it look like?” he asked, squeezing more pus from Gad’s arm.

“It was big, and dark. I think it may have been from the vine.” Aron swore under his breath at Gad’s response.

“When you tried to pull it out, did it burrow further into your skin?” Darin, the small, dark skinned guard asked. Gad and Asram exchanged nervous glances.

“It seemed to, just a bit, but I got it out whole. What was it?” Asram answered while Gad looked at his arm in disgust.

“Probably a Rhy Vine. You are lucky you pulled it out or you would be dead by now. They are rare, but the thorns are like parasites once they get under your skin. I saw a man fall into a bunch of them once. He started convulsing and within moments he was dead. You need to clean that out and wrap it back up,” Darin stated.

Thom looked around the campsite and asked, “Where is Cowald? I sent him to collect water; isn’t he back yet?”

“I haven’t seen him,” Darin’s face showed a flash of concern, “but I can find some moss and make a compress until we can wash it. If you are lucky, it will draw out the toxins and you will live to see the sun rise. Perhaps one of us should go find Cowald and help him bring back water.”

“We can’t go looking for him in the dark. Let’s eat and then get some sleep. We have a lot of ground to cover tomorrow.” Aron shoved another handful of berries in his mouth and then grabbed one of the carcasses from Thom. He picked up a rock, slammed it down against the boulder to break off a sharp edge, and progressed to clean, skin, and spit the rabbit over the fire. Aron ordered Darin and Shrad to take the first watch before lying down near the fire. Thom fell into a fitful sleep, wondering if the sound he heard had been a scream after all.

*

Cowald scowled at Thom as he watched him walk off into the woods. How was he supposed to collect water with no way to carry it? He wasn’t even sure where the closest water source was. He walked a little ways down the path behind Thom and scanned the greenery nearby. Perhaps he could find something to fashion into a container. He caught sight of a tree with leaves the size of his torso and thought he may be able to carry water in one of them, so he stepped off the path and picked his way through the underbrush. Cowald stood beneath the tree, staring up at its branches. He couldn’t reach any of the big leaves, and the few he could see on the ground were torn or too shriveled to be of use. Just before he turned away in frustration, he thought he heard the sound of water trickling over rocks, so he followed the sound deeper into the forest.

He came upon a stream in a shallow bed. The water was only ankle deep, but it ran clear and swift over smooth stones. He began searching along the banks for something he could collect the water in and carry it back to camp. He found nothing along the water’s edge so he turned back into the woods and searched at the base of the trees as he walked. His lips felt dry and his throat parched. He felt a strong desire to return to the stream for a drink, but first he needed to find a way to carry the water. He was not paying particular attention to where he was walking, but he was surprised when he found himself standing again at the edge of the small stream. Five small, blue stones formed a star-like pattern just beneath the water in front of him. He recalled seeing the same pattern of stones when he first came upon the stream.