Victim of Fate (15 page)

Kar entered the house and found the interior
was devastated. Scratches in the walls and floors were the first
sign of distress. Pots and jars were scattered about the kitchen
and one of the benches at the table was broken in half. Farther in,
the chaos was as bad or worse. Chairs were broken and the fireplace
mantel had a jagged crack running through it. Kar went up the
stairs, noting with dismay a blood trail that preceded him up the
steps.

The trail ended at the top of the stairs. Kar
stared at the mangled remains of a body and had to admit after a
moment that he had no idea which member of the farmer's family it
was. Karthor, Namitus, and Tristam emerged from the upstairs rooms,
shaking their heads.

"There's another body in the far room. I
think it's Willamina," Karthor said. "It looks like she's wearing a
dress."

Kar turned back to the first corpse. "Then
that's James. What happened here?"

"The creatures we saw in the forest came
here," Tristam said.

"Did they follow us?" Namitus asked. "We
didn't stop here!"

"Are they heading to Fairhaven next?" Karthor
wondered aloud.

"By the saints," Kar muttered. "Don't you
think we'd have seen them on our way here if they did?"

The others fell silent and looked at one
another. Karthor gasped after a moment. "The boy! Kevard, where is
he?"

Tristam cursed and pushed through them to
lead the troop back down the stairs. They turned the house upside
down, even returning upstairs when they could find no sign of him.
Tristam joined Kar and his son when they heard Namitus call for
them from the same room Willamina had died in. "I think I know
where he is!"

They filed in and saw him staring out an open
window. "It's a long ways down," Tristam pointed out when he
stepped next to the window and looked through the opening.

Namitus leaned out and looked straight down.
"A climber could make it. Window ledges and a roof line, then a
short leap to the ground."

"So where is he? Run to ground
somewhere?"

"The barn. He'd be a fool to try to outrun
them," Namitus reasoned.

"The barn doesn't strike me as a safe place
either, if they could break into here," Kar pointed out.

"Then let's go and find another body,"
Tristam said as he turned and headed back towards the stairs.

Namitus fell in behind Tristam and muttered,
"I hope they didn't eat part of him, too."

They left the house behind and walked to the
open doors of the barn. Tristam stopped abruptly in the doorway,
causing Namitus to walk into him. Namitus grunted and stumbled
back, and then shouted in surprise when he saw Tristam jerked out
of the doorway and into the barn.

Karthor and Namitus broke free of their shock
and rushed forward with weapons in hand. Kar hurried after,
bringing both offensive and defensive spells to mind. When he
stepped into the doorway, he saw Tristam struggling to protect his
head from the creature that was trying to maul him. Karthor shouted
and ran at them, swinging his mace and cracking it against the
shoulder of the six-legged beast. Namitus stopped and faced two
other predators that stood in the middle of the barn and snarled at
him. A fourth monster paced back and forth on top of a pile of
baled hay.

"What are these things?" Namitus cried
out.

"What indeed," Kar wondered. They possessed
six legs, the rear four looking like they belonged to a wolf or a
dog. The front two legs had the clawed feet of a very large cat.
Their fur was shades of light and dark gray, spotted with darker
blotches of black. The faces of the beasts were feline and filled
with teeth that looked sharp enough to cut steel.

The creature leapt away from Tristam and
hissed at Karthor. He turned to face it in time to receive it
crashing into his chest. Karthor stumbled back and then shoved his
hands up to keep the creature's face away from his. Tristam rolled
and grabbed his sword, and then lunged at it and buried his blade
in the creature's side. It howled and tried to leap away, but only
succeeded in stumbling away and then dropping onto its side as it
panted away the last of its life.

Tristam rose up and turned to Namitus, who
was backing up slowly while shifting to keep his scimitar between
himself and the two beasts that pressed him. Kar moved over and
looked for an opportunity to use his magic, but they kept moving
and interposing Namitus between themselves and the wizard.

"Do something," Kar snapped.

Namitus glanced at him and then realized his
mistake. He dropped to one knee and whipped his scimitar around
defensively. It bit into the leaping creature and cut cleanly
through the muscles of its leading shoulder. It landed and
stumbled, dropping briefly to the ground before picking itself up.
The feline head stared up at Karthor as the priest planted his feet
and smashed his mace into the skull of the beast. It dropped to the
ground without so much as a twitch or a spasm.

Tristam yelled and tried to hack into the
other creature that harassed Namitus. It leapt to the side,
twisting in midair to face him. Namitus threw himself forward into
a roll and came out of the gymnastic move with his sword cutting
into its hindquarters and tearing open its side enough to cause the
creature's guts to bulge out. It spun again to face him, even
lashing out with a feline paw and leaving gouges in his boiled
leather jerkin. Namitus fell back, his breath exploding out of his
mouth from the force of the strike. Tristam used the rogue's
distraction to hack into the back of the beast's neck and cut deep
enough to sever its spine. It fell just as surely as the one
Karthor had brained.

"Do something useful," Tristam panted to
Kar.

Kar held up three bronze spikes and chanted a
spell before he took one in his right hand and hurled it through
the air. As soon as it left his hand, it turned into a golden mote
and streaked forward, leaving a trail of golden motes in the air.
The magical dart struck the creature in the chest and drove it
back. The beast only had time to open its mouth and begin a snarl
when the second struck it lower on its chest. The third and final
magical dart struck it in the throat, ending its snarl and making
it sit on its haunches. It pawed at its throat, digging furrows
with its claws until it fell forward and then rolled off the pile
of hay to crash onto the floor ahead of them.

"How's that?" Kar asked.

"Took you long enough," Tristam retorted.

"Kevard! Are you okay?" Karthor called out
while staring up at the rafters of the barn.

As one, they looked up and saw the boy
peering out from behind the thick wooden beams. The rope he'd
climbed was pulled up and lying on the rafter near him. "I think
so," he answered carefully. "Did Alto send you back to help?"

Kar could feel the others looking at one
another without needing to look at them. If ever they needed Alto,
now was the time. They young warrior had a sensitivity and a
softness to him that would have eased the news. Kar jerked, his
thinking derailed by Kevard's question. "Alto? Have you seen
him?"

"He left yesterday morning on that unicorn of
his, said he was following you to that Kelgryn city," he responded.
Kevard kicked the rope off the rafter and waited for it to stop
swinging before he reached down to grab it and prepared to lower
himself to the ground. "I take it you haven't seen him. Did my
folks send you out here then? Are they okay? They told me to hide
in the barn while they kept them things busy."

"Come on down, son," Tristam said.

Kevard shimmied down the rope and brushed his
hands against his pants while he looked up at them. His eyes went
from one to the next before he said, "Oh." He blinked his eyes and
turned away, and then hung his head while his shoulders started to
tremble.

Kar turned to see Tristam looking at him. Kar
shrugged. Alto they'd taken on, but this boy was far too young. He
didn't have the size or talent that Alto had, either. "Come with
us," Kar suggested. "We'll see to it you're safe in Fairhaven."

Tristam nodded his approval. "Fairhaven it
is. Then we head for Holgasford. Seems our young friend is full of
surprises. A unicorn?"

Kar shrugged. He lightly kicked one of the
dead six-legged beasts and said, "After beasts like these, why
should anything surprise you?"

Alto ran outside the hall and pulled up short
when he saw Winter pacing back and forth. The unicorn saw the young
warrior and let loose a loud whinny. He trotted over and pawed the
ground and then turned broadside to Alto.

"Can you take me to her?" Alto asked.

Winter snorted and stomped.

"Wait for the jarl to gather his warriors and
we’ll lead them," Alto said. To add weight to his argument, Teorfyr
and several of his warriors filed out of the hall, fixing their
armor and weapons. Alto still wore his chain shirt and bore his
blade at his side; he hadn’t had a chance to find a place to stay
so he could take them off.

Winter stomped again.

"To the gate, let’s go," Alto said while
walking around Winter and heading towards the ramp from the jarl’s
hall and heading towards the gate of Holgasford. Winter stomped the
ground behind him, and then walked up next to him and bumped him as
he moved ahead of him on the road.

Alto scowled at his former equine friend. He
met up with the impatient animal at the gate. Winter turned to him
again and stared hard at him for a moment before turning away. Alto
climbed onto his back and settled in, and then turned to face the
jarl. Winter reared up enough to force his rider to throw himself
against the unicorn’s neck and hold on tightly. The horned steed
turned and leapt towards the gate. It streaked through in a flash
of white, sending the guards stumbling away in surprise. Alto found
all he could do was hold on for the first few terrifying
moments.

Winter’s gait evened out, allowing Alto to
sit up enough and see the ground rushing past them at a frightful
rate. "Was that what saving me was about? Just using me to get you
to meet someone you really wanted to be with?"

Winter’s ears flicked but otherwise he showed
no sign of having heard.

"I know you can hear me!" Alto challenged the
racing unicorn. "And I don’t care much for being tricked! I thought
we were friends. I thank you for saving me, but I returned that
favor. You were free of the forest; why not find her on your own?
You seemed to know Trina as soon as you saw her."

Winter’s ears laid back on his head and he
dipped his head forward to help him put on a fresh burst of
speed.

Alto scowled and considered slapping or
kicking the animal. He stayed his hand, and foot. "Very well. Take
me to her; she’s still my friend."

Winter snorted and pulled up short. He slowed
quickly and then turned without warning, sending Alto flying off
his back. The unicorn turned back and lowered its horn at Alto
while dragging a hoof across the ground.

Alto climbed to his feet without noticing the
ache in his leg and side from the fall. Red tinged his vision and
he reached for his sword without thinking. He’d drawn it halfway
before he noticed the unicorn’s sharp horn pointed at him. Alto
slammed his blade back home and took a breath, and then glanced
behind Winter and saw how distant Holgasford already was. He could
see riders as well, but they’d barely left the gates of the
city.

Winter stomped his hoof and whinnied. Alto
stared down and saw a similar symbol the one the unicorn kept
drawing, three joined circles inside a fourth. "What’s this? Your
answer for everything? Is this some ancient mystical rune only an
equally ancient wizard would understand? Or is it your way of
saying you’ve got worms?"

The unicorn’s hoof thudded into the ground
hard, disturbing the pattern traced on the ground. Winter lowered
his head and, before Alto’s eyes, made a pale bluish white light
emanate from his horn. Alto gasped, stunned by the display of
magic. Winter lunged forward, touching his horn to Alto’s forehead
and then backing away.

Alto grunted and fell back to one knee. The
tap had been light in spite of Winter’s speed and size, but the
impact of the magic rocked him as surely as a blow from a
blacksmith’s hammer. Images, thoughts, and emotions flooded through
him but they were gone in an instant. He grasped at them as though
trying to capture the fleeting fragments from a dream upon
waking.

The young man stood up and shook his head. He
stared at Winter with newfound respect, if not admiration.
"Magic?"

Winter chuffed and nodded his head. He turned
his side to Alto, offering the warrior a ride again.

One image remained for Alto while the others
faded. It was Patrina, staring at Winter as she first emerged from
the hall behind Alto. She looked beautiful and perfect. He supposed
she always looked that way, but there was something about the
picture in his head that was different. She looked cleaner,
perhaps, or more pure. "I don’t know what you just did to me, but I
see Patrina. Is that how you see her?"

Winter nodded.

"She’s beautiful," Alto admitted.

Winter nodded again.

Alto climbed onto the unicorn. The aches in
his side and leg had disappeared. He shrugged it off and said, "All
right, let’s go get her. You probably won’t wait for the jarl, will
you?"

Winter snorted and stomped, giving Alto his
suspected answer. The unicorn lowered his head and took off at a
gallop.

* * * *

"We’ve got to stop these midnight rides,"
Alto complained as they broke through the clouds on the eastern
horizon. Winter slowed and glanced to the right, and then lowered
his head and put on more speed.