Unicorns' Opal (7 page)

The Rangers moved swiftly out of the pass into the barren Northlands beyond. Everyone felt better once they were away from the burning stench of the pass.

“That was too close for comfort,” Alex remarked to Jenneva. “I did not expect Revenants and had to lower myself into the pass. I shouldn’t have made it, but I did.”

“What do you mean you shouldn’t have made it?” queried Jenneva. “You have done more difficult things before.”

“Perhaps,” agreed Alex, “but this time the Black Devils managed to ignite my rope. I was a little over halfway down when the rope snapped. I should have been dashed against the floor of the pass, but I landed softly.”

“Well, thank goodness for that,” chirped Jenneva. “You deserve a little luck once in a while.”

“It wasn’t luck, Jenneva,” Alex continued. “There was an air cushion below me. Someone saved me from injury.”

“A magical cushion?” inquired Jenneva. “Where was Prince Midge at the time?”

“I don’t know,” admitted Alex. “I lost track of him when the battle started, but I didn’t recall that as one of the spells the fairies know.”

“Who else could it be?” chuckled Jenneva. “Certainly, the Black Devils wouldn’t have helped you and we were too far away. Besides, no magician will ever tell you all of his spells. It makes him feel insecure. I wouldn’t be surprised if the fairies held back quite a bit from us. Their allegiance, after all, is to Arik, not to us.”

“Still, it was not a very comfortable position to be in,” frowned Alex. “We need to be more careful in the future. The younglings are extremely talented, but I must remember that they are not the Targa Rangers when I plan a mission. We can’t afford to lose them.”

“What would you have done differently if they were the Targa Rangers?” Jenneva asked.

“I’m not sure,” admitted Alex. “I probably would have gone in at ground level, myself, from the eastern side if they were.”

“Then it sounds to me like you should start planning as if they are the Targa Rangers,” noted Jenneva. “You would have executed a better plan and not have ended up in the predicament that you did.”

They rode on in silence for a while before Alex responded. “You are right,” he conceded. “I am trying to protect them and utilize them at the same time. Doing so actually jeopardizes the mission. From now on, they will be the Alcea Rangers and I will plan appropriately. They all acted properly, with the exception of Tanya, maybe.”

“What did Tanya do wrong?” quizzed Jenneva.

“Well, I don’t know that it was wrong,” restated Alex. “The Black Devils concentrated on her position. The rocks all around her were scorched. She should have moved to a new position, but she did make it through without a scratch, so maybe I shouldn’t try to second guess her judgement.”

“I doubt you were in much of a position to watch her actions,” Jenneva pointed out. “Don’t berate her for a supposed mistake. Just train her to think like you.”

“I don’t understand her,” Alex admitted. “She hugged me after the battle today. I would have thought she didn’t care whether or not I lived through it.”

Jenneva laughed as she shook her head. “Alex,” she chuckled, “sometimes I wonder how men ever survive in this world. She is infatuated with you. At least, I hope it is an infatuation. If it is anything more, I shall have words with her. She doesn’t needle you to make you angry. She wants to know how you will react in any given situation. She wants to crawl inside your mind and see what makes it tick. The real problem would be if she intentionally endangered herself this afternoon to make sure you got down the rope safely. That type of foolhardiness could get her killed.”

“If you say so,” remarked Alex. “We do not have time to dwell upon it, anyway. This area of the Northlands is goblin country and we will stick out plainly if we are seen. I must move up and warn the others. Hold the rear until I return.”

***

Xerog frowned as he looked at the ground of the knoll. “Someone camped here last night,” he announced. “Too small a party to be the men from Kantor. It might have been the Children we are seeking.”

“Then they are right where we want them,” smiled Calastano. “They are not between us and the pass, so they must be heading west towards the Kantor group.”

Zorn dismounted and walked to the campfire ring. Moving the ashes with his knife, he uncovered a small slip of paper. “They were here, all right,” he announced. “You need not worry about the men from Kantor, either. This says that Alex led an attack on them last night and killed them.”

“What have you got there?” demanded Xerog. “And who is Alex?”

“This is a note from a little pigeon within the ranks of the Children,” smiled Zorn. “As for Alex, I hope it doesn’t mean what I think it does. You should hope the same because it indicates that they plan to attack the pass today.”

“Attack the pass!” exclaimed Calastano. “That’s preposterous. We have forty men in the pass and these children are going to attack it? I doubt the reliability of your pigeon.”

“Does Fire Glue mean anything to you, Xerog?” Zorn asked.

The color drained out of Xerog’s face as he stared open-mouthed at Zorn. “Fire Glue is a substance used by Alexander Tork and the Targa Rangers,” Xerog announced. “Nobody has been able to duplicate the formula so far. He used it in the goblin war and killed tens of thousands of goblins in a pass through the Boulder Mountains. If he used that on my men, there will be nothing left of them. How could Tork have ended up with the Children? He hasn’t been heard of in years.”

“Perhaps,” suggested Zorn, “he has been using another name.”

“Garth Shado,” spat Xerog.

“Then Kalina must be Jenneva!” exclaimed Calastano. “We must get this news to Sarac immediately. It is time for the Ravens. I will head for Sarac and check the pass on my way.”

“No,” ordered Zorn. “It is time for the Ravens, but we shall proceed cautiously. I have already seen what happens to someone foolish enough to fly over this party. Such a trip will end in death. You, Calastano, will head west to verify the note regarding the party from Kantor. I will head towards the pass to see if it has been attacked yet. If not, I will alert our forces. If it has, I will return here and we will discuss what we shall tell Sarac before we make a grievous error. We must be sure of our facts or present them as a theory. I will not appear a fool in front of the Dark One. Fools do not survive long.”

The moon shone brightly in the black sky, sending a pale glow over the small clearing where the Rangers slept. The flames of the campfire had ceased illuminating the campsite hours ago and only a small tendril of smoke drifted upwards seasoning the air with the scent of burnt oak. Tedi lay awake staring at the drifting smoke. Niki hadn’t completely extinguished the fire and he knew he should get up and put it out, but he wondered why he had awakened. One minute he was dreaming peacefully about Tanya and himself chasing bandits through a forest and the next he was watching the smoke escape from the fire.

Cautiously, he sat up and looked around, his sensitive ears tuning themselves to the night sounds. The forest surrounding the Rangers was dark and foreboding. Quickly, he scanned the campsite and identified everyone’s sleeping form. He was the only one awake. His eyes lingered for a while on Tanya as she lay sleeping. His dreams about her were becoming more frequent and each one featured only Tanya and himself.

Suddenly, he heard it again. Yes, again. He remembered now hearing the sound at the end of his dream as Tanya grabbed two of her throwing knives and they clashed together momentarily. Except he wasn’t dreaming now. For twelve days they had passed through the Northland area which was home for the goblins. Each of those twelve days they had seen goblin parties heading south towards the Boulder Mountains and successfully avoided them by hiding until they had passed.

Tedi visualized a band of goblins sneaking through the woods to surround their campfire and immediately forced his imagination to stop. He knew now that the sound was the trap wire which Alex put around the campsite every night, but that didn’t necessarily mean goblins. An animal could also trigger the alarm and had done so on many nights. Still, Tedi was not about to take any chances. Scooping his hand across the ground, Tedi gathered a dozen acorns. Taking the long shot first, Tedi hurled an acorn across the campsite towards Alex and Jenneva. The acorn overshot its mark, but Alex immediately sprang to a sitting position and looked around, his hand automatically closing around the hilt of his sword.

Even as Alex spied Tedi sitting up, Tedi lobbed the next acorn at Arik. This time the acorn connected with Arik’s arm and he subconsciously rubbed his arm before rolling over and peering at Tedi. Tedi signaled danger to both of them and threw an acorn at Tanya, while Alex gently shook Jenneva. Another acorn hit Fredrik on the top of his head as Tanya and Arik reached for their sheaths and grabbed their bows. Fredrik simply nodded as he rose and picked up his staff and throwing knives. Two acorns failed to wake Niki and Tedi paused to arm himself. Everyone moved quietly but swiftly as they gathered all of their weapons and prepared for an attack.

Tedi crept over and gently woke Niki with a hand over her mouth to keep the young redhead from screaming. Niki looked around frightened as she saw everyone preparing for battle. The Rangers tensed as the alarm went off and everyone pivoted towards the sound. The thrashing in the woods indicated that someone was charging the campsite and the Rangers nocked arrows and waited.

Suddenly, a large buck came dashing through the woods and veered as he spied the people in the clearing. Running off at a tangent, the deer leaped and bounded out of sight and triggered the alarm again as he crossed the perimeter of the campsite. The Rangers eased their stance slightly and Alex walked softly over to Tedi.

“Was it the alarm you heard or something else?” Alex whispered.

Tedi nodded as he continued to scan the black forest. “The alarm. I heard it twice,” Tedi whispered back. “But it wasn’t as loud as the last time.”

Alex frowned as he thought about the layout of the alarm wire he had put up. It was fairly circular and shouldn’t sound any louder or softer no matter what sector of it was triggered. He knew Tedi’s hearing was far greater than anyone else’s and he wondered if Tedi might have heard something more distant. Alex had tuned himself to the alarm and the noise hadn’t wakened him as it should have.

“A deer?” Niki shouted as she stormed over to Tedi. “You woke us up for a deer? I can’t believe it. We trek from before dawn to after dark every day and when we finally get some time to sleep, you have to wake everybody up because a deer is nearby. I ought to...“

Niki’s mouth continued to move, but no sounds came out. Frantically, she tried to scream, but couldn’t. Worse, the shouts she did hear didn’t come from the Rangers. In a blur, everyone started moving, taking up defensive positions as they had been taught. The distant sounds increased as bodies thrashed through the forest in a hurry and the Rangers knew they were in for an attack.

Arik and Tanya swiftly extended a knee high rope across the edge of the clearing nearest the approaching sounds and secured it to trees. Just as quickly, they retreated away from it and took up positions with their bows ready and arrows nocked. Jenneva pulled a blubbering Niki away from the smoldering campfire and got her out of the path of the Rangers’ arrows. Tedi swung himself up into an oak tree and found a large limb to perch on before nocking an arrow. Fredrik grabbed his bow and positioned himself in front of Jenneva and Niki. Alex disappeared into the woods.

The goblins charged the clearing, screaming and yelling some guttural sounds that the Rangers did not understand. Everyone held their fire until the first of the goblins hit the knee high rope and tumbled into the clearing. The following goblins tried to halt their charge as the first of them fell to the rope, but the Rangers opened fire and arrows skewered into the misshapen beasts. Jenneva hurled a Tree Mine into a sturdy oak deeper into the forest and the mighty tree splintered in an explosion of deadly slivers which lanced into the rear ranks of the attacking goblins. Another round of arrows from the Rangers soared into the goblins before the three who had tripped over the rope managed to get to their feet. Fredrik dropped his bow and produced a throwing knife in each hand. With practiced precision, Fredrik hurled the throwing knives at two of the approaching goblins and hit each of them in the head. Niki tossed a throwing knife and hit the third goblin in the chest, but he kept on coming forward.

Fredrik grabbed his staff as he took two steps forward to meet the goblin before the creature could get too close to Jenneva or Niki. The staff twirled in Fredrik’s hands as the end of the stick poked the charging goblin in the chest. His momentum stalled, the goblin appeared surprised when the other end of the staff smacked into his head just below his ear. The end of the staff followed the goblin to the ground as he fell and Fredrik jabbed the end of the stick into the creature’s throat.

Another round of arrows flew out of the clearing and each produced a howl of pain as it found its target. For a moment the goblin charge halted and Fredrik returned to his spot and retrieved his bow. Noises came from the forest in several different directions and Tedi called down softly from his perch in the oak tree.

“They are spreading out,” Tedi informed the rest of the Rangers. “They will be coming at us from more than one direction this time.”

“Niki,” called Fredrik, “put a shield around you and Jenneva. Hold it while she uses some more of those Tree Mines.”

Niki nodded and Jenneva watched as a transparent blue sheen appeared around the two of them. The shield was visible only to a mage and only if one were looking for it, so Jenneva knew that the others had no idea that is was erected. She did want to toss more Tree Mines, but she was afraid to catch Alex in the explosion. She knew he would not be in the direction from which the original assault came, but the goblins were no longer there, so she stayed her hand.

Goblin arrows flew into the clearing and the Rangers sought cover behind the tall oak trees. The goblins were not visible so the Rangers did not waste arrows firing back. The situation became dangerous when goblin arrows came into the clearing from yet another angle and the Rangers no longer had any safe hiding spots. Jenneva heard a scream from the goblin ranks on one side and smiled. She immediately turned and tossed a Tree Mine into a tree on the other side of the clearing as far away as she could see.