Elf World Shadows Rising Page 22

  Kayla and Zara were sitting on their sleeping mats down in the sandy part of the wash, somewhat hidden from view by some grey desert bushes. What they were so engrossed in, Myst could not tell from where he sat, keeping watch out across the blasted landscape of the Waste. He moved from one rock to a flatter one next to it. No, this rock was just as hard as the other one. Why didn’t the Creator make softer rocks?

  Nothing moved out where he could see; it looked empty, but Myst knew that the Waste was full of living things, most of them deadly. He looked down at the magic crossbow that Zara had given him. It was not made out of wood; most crossbows were not these days. Not since the Gnomes had invented ‘GnomeX’. “They call it a resin polymer, whatever that is,” Myst thought to himself? It was much lighter than wood, but nearly as strong as metal, normally greyish black in color, and if you looked at it closely there seemed to be fibers bound in the mix of the stuff. “Maybe that’s what a ‘polymer’ is. I should have asked Thomas about it. Well as long as it works, who cares?”

  Thunder heads were starting to build on the horizon, above a range of low desert mountains. It was the wrong time of year for thunderstorms in the Waste. Myst was somewhat concerned. While the Waste got only a few inches of rain each year, they had very, very violent thunderstorms during the summers.

  “Zara, what’s with the clouds,” Myst called down to the girls?

  They climbed up to Myst and looked out at the building storm.

  “It’s the wrong time of year,” Zara answered.

  “Yes, I know that.”

  “Then why did you ask,” Zara responded?

  Kayla laughed and sat down next to Myst.

  “I just don’t get paid enough,” Myst thought to himself.

  Lightning crashed in the distance; again and again, flashes popped off across the distant range.

  “It will pass far to the east of us, nothing to worry about, Myst. But these weather patterns tend to last more than just one or two days out here. We may get caught in a storm in the next few days.”

  A shadow suddenly seemed to arise out of the ground right in front of them. A spear thrust forward and Myst fell backwards to avoid the lunge. More dark shapes loomed up at the lip of the wash, and Zara pushed Kayla behind her, and drew her Tulwar. The hiss of it’s sharp blade as it slid free was the only sound as the battle was joined.

  Myst had come to his feet, his bastard sword in one hand, his long dagger in the other. He met the second thrust of the spear as it was lunged at him. Parrying it, he stepped in close to the Goblin, and slammed the hilt of his dagger into the creature’s forehead, splitting it like a ripe melon.

  To his right, he could see Zara as she opened the throat of a Goblin who had misjudged her as a fighter, and paid for his lapse with his life. Myst reached out with the tip of his sword and casually ran his blade into the chest of an attacker; spinning quickly as one came in on his left, he let the short sword blade of this new threat, swing by harmlessly. As the Goblin overshot his target, he tried to pull back, but was too slow for Myst’s incredible skill and speed. The Goblin saw the dagger as it came for his unprotected neck, and then it saw no more.

  More attackers came over the side of the wash, and Myst and Zara engaged in a killing frenzy as one after another of the Goblins met their fate, at the hands of the two Elves.

  Kayla watched them as they performed their dance of death. She looked for any who would get through their wall of steel, but none did. Quickly it was over. The quiet descended on the wash, as the last attacker fell to the ground. Myst climbed to the top and looked around at the desert; nothing moved. He sent a wave of Earth Magic out from himself, looking for the feel of life forms near by---. Behind them, two Goblins, by the horses!

  He spun around, finding his crossbow on the ground; he snatched it up. “The horses,” he called as the crossbow came up to his shoulder.

  “Thud.” The bolt raced across the night twenty yards away and took a Goblin high in the back, severing it’s spine instantly.

  Kayla reacted just as quickly. The flash of a magic bolt of Fire Magic, streaked into the chest of the other Goblin and out it’s back, throwing him hard to the ground.

  Too late; the horses had already had their necks cut by the foul creatures.

  “The attack on us was just a diversion,” Kayla exclaimed.

  “Yes, they were scouts of an Ogre bandit that I know,” answered Zara. “They want to slow us down, so the Ogre and his Orc troops can catch up to us.”

  “They wanted to stop us from using the horses, before the other group was in position.”

  “What other group, Myst,” asked Kayla?

  Myst stood on the top of the wash and looked out to the west; nothing moved. Then suddenly from behind a short rise a hundred yards away, there appeared a second and larger group of Goblins.

  “They’re just more stinking Goblins,” Zara explained. “We can take them!”

  “Yes, but this time they are at least four dozen of them. Even if they are the world’s worst fighters, it’s hard to stop that many copper hatchets and fish spears from getting through. The odds are that they will overwhelm us, here in the open.”

  “Nowhere close by we can run to. We’re stuck here, and I would rather face them than get hit in the back,” Zara declared.

  “Why don’t you two head on out. I will delay them a while, and then catch up with you by the ruins of Dachron.”

  “Good idea, Myst. Well Kayla, let’s get going, time’s a wastin.”

  “Forget it, Zara. If Myst stays, then so do I!”

  “I was afraid you would say that,” Zara pouted.

  Myst stiffened, “Too late now, here they come!”

  A spear hurtled through the air towards Myst. He seemed to be transfixed by the sight of the three pronged fish spear as it flew right at him. At the seeming last second, he turned to the side and the spear huddled past him into the side of the wash. Two more Goblins rushed before the rest of the pack of green monsters. They threw at the same time; both went high as Myst ducked down below the rim of the wash. Myst and Zara fired their crossbows at the same time and both Goblins hurtled backwards off their feet, as the bolts tore into their chest. To the far side of the wash, Myst and the Elf girls ran, and then up the other side.

  “Stay low, so they will have a harder time hitting you. Now, they will have to cross the sandy wash and climb up this side to get us. The wash is just wide enough, to make it hard for them to throw spears accurately across.”

  “But we will have no problems hitting them between the eyes at this range,” Zara exclaimed excitedly. The blood lust was starting to take hold of her, as the fear was replaced by the overwhelming exhilaration of combat.

  The Goblins roared their challenge, and charged. Their attack was a howling rush of battle crazed spear and hatchet men. The first rank reached the other side of the wash and hesitated at the steep edge. The Elves did not hesitate; Myst and Zara fired and reloaded as quickly as they could. Like machines, they went through the drill of fire; cock the crossbow, aim, and fire, over and over again. The bodies fell, and for a second it seemed that the Goblins wavered in their resolve. They were not known for their courage, only for their greed; but their fear of their master, was greater than their fear of the Elves.

  The Goblins poured down the embankment and into the wash. Kayla stood at the edge, and hurled a ball of fire into the midst of the charging Goblins.

  ‘Wooooosshhhhhh,” the ball of fire roared into the thick of the enemy.

  It exploded, and seven or eight Goblins were tossed to the ground, not to get back up. Kayla wavered as a wave of dizziness from the magic overtook her.

  Quickly, Myst caught her and pushed her back behind them. The first of the Goblins had made it to the edge and started to climb up to them.

  “Zara, keep firing at them as long as you can, I’ll keep them from getting up here. As long as they don’t realize, they can go up the wash and climb it, where we are not waiting for them.”


  “Myst, they are Goblins! They are not that smart!”

  “We’ll see about that. Kayla watch out for any that try to get around us.”

  “Sure Myst. As long as I don’t use anymore of those fireballs for a while, I’ll make it hard for them.”

  Myst wove a dance of death at the top of the wash. His bastard sword and dagger soon were covered in gore, from the piling mound of Goblins at his feet. Zara worked the crossbow; firing bolt after bolt, nearly at point blank range, into the swarming mass of monsters. Kayla let loose bolts of magic fire every time a goblin tried to work around the outside of the fighters, but she was finding she could not cast more than a few each minute without becoming dizzy again.

  But it was not enough. Soon, one monster made the top, then another. Myst was pushed back, and Zara had to abandon her crossbow and take up her Tulwar, to try and force back the surging mob.

  “Gggraaarrr”! A horrible cry broke from the rear of the Goblins. Bodies seem to fly through the air, as something cut it’s way through the Goblins like a tornado.

  Caught between the new threat behind, and the killer Elf with the long sticker, the Goblins broke and ran for their lives. Crossbow bolts from the far side of the wash, were dropping those who ran that way. The beast slew those still in the middle of the wash, but Myst and the Elf lasses were too tired to chase those fleeing.

  Silence descended on the desert once more. A gore splattered Dwarf, carrying a large two handed battle ax over his shoulder, climbed up to them.

  Kayla could not believe her eyes. What was a water loving Dwarf doing out here in the middle of the waste? He appeared to be almost her height, at just over five feet, but he outweighed her by a hundred pounds of hard corded muscle. Bald, like most male Dwarves, he had a close cut red beard and gray eyes. A wicked looking scar slashed vertically down the left side of his face; somehow, whatever had caused that wicked wound, had not taken out his eye.

  The dwarf came up to Myst, and grabbed him in a crushing bear hug, and lifted the six foot Elf into the air with casual ease.

  “By the God’s, it good to see you still alive, Colonel.”

  “Fortune favors the lucky! Kayla, Zara, this is Moss Blackforge, one of my men, and one of my oldest friends... Now put me down ya smelly Dwarf!”

  Moss dropped him back to the ground.

  “Moss, how did you find us, you were supposed to be in Freeport.”

  “Well, if that’s how you're going to be about it, I’ll call the Goblins back and let them go at ya,” laughed the Dwarf.

  “You ass, you know what I mean.”

  Moss slapped his friend on the back, not quite hard enough to send Myst crashing to the ground, but nearly.

  “The Orcs closed the road, so I knew that you would need me in Cozon, so I came down. As to how I found your trail, that was easy. They led me to ya.”

  Myst turned around to see two Gnomes climbing up the side of the wash.

  “Thomas, what happened?”

  The two Gnomes scrambled to the top of the wash, crossbows slung over their shoulders.

  “About ten thousand Star Elves blocked the road west, and arrested every foreigner in sight, House Haddar’s fighters were with the Imperial troops, I saw their captain Tollon Dagra, a nasty piece of work he is,” replied Thomas. “That’s when we found Moss, just as a patrol was about to snatch us up. He pulled us into a house and safety.”

  “I thought they met the description that you sent back to me with Kell, so I grabbed them. Lucky that I did it would seem. We then picked up the trail of the Goblins, and knew if we followed them, we would find you.”

  “Unfortunately, we did not have the horses you gave us, so we could not get here any faster than we did,” Thomas told them. “But barley in time, is better than too late.”

  Kayla bowed to the rescuers, “Your right about that Thomas. We are glad you all got here when you did, that’s for certain.”

  “It was our pleasure, Lady Kayla, but I think we had best be going soon. The city back there is a mess of confusion that has scattered our enemies. That is why they threw their scouts at you, to slow you down. It will take them a short while to re-assemble and take up the chase, so we should make the most of their delay.”

  Quickly, the group gathered up what supplies they could salvage from the dead horses, and headed out into the night. Thomas took the lead, using his heat sensing night vision to find the most likely trails and to avoid unwanted company.

  Moss fell in at the rear of the line; anyone overtaking them would find him to be a mighty unpleasant surprise to deal with. With his battle ax hung across his back, he made an imposing sight that more than a little scared Willow, each time she looked back at him. Her night vision seemed to make the Dwarf look even bigger.

  “Why in the name of the Consort, did they call these people Dwarves,” Willow thought to herself! “Moss is at least fifteen inches taller than me, and one hundred and fifty pounds heavier! He’s almost as tall as either Elf girl, and he outweighs Myst.”

  Willow knew that Dwarves were one of the strongest of the sentient races, stronger than Orcs, and nearly as strong as Ogres. Dwarves were muscle and bone; thick dense bones, and hard powerful muscles.

  “He looks like a walking marble statue, with not a hair on him except for that short red military style beard. Well, at least he’s on our side.”

  ~

  The sun beat down on the shifting sand dunes that the party had been struggling through, for the last week and a half in which they had been reunited. They had made good time at first, but then the sea of sand had appeared and they now seemed to Moss to be creeping across the desert.

  Moss hated the desert, as only a creature of Water Magic could hate it. The endless miles without stream or pool; the sun baked sand and rock; it was what Moss thought that hell must be like. The temperature had climbed each day into the mid to upper eighties, even though it was now the first month of winter. The sun cast waves of heat down on the sand, only to bounce back. It seemed to cook the Dwarf, as he walked. The Elves were not even sweating; at least the two Gnomes had the good manners to look uncomfortable.

  Moss was traveling light, heavy leather boots, with small brass plates sewn on the front of the boot to protect from stab wounds. Thick leather pants and tunic covered the rest of him, but left his massively muscled arms free. Slung from his right shoulder, was his great two handed battle ax. It was a wickedly brutal looking thing, and Moss was very found of his ax. It was a family heirloom, given to him by his Grandfather who had won it by saving the life of a young Lord Pedar Sunstar during the last ‘great war’. Magically sharp, forged with Fire Magic, giving it a special surprise for even the strongest undead with its kiss of fire...

  Over his left shoulder was slung his war shield, a wooden disk covered with leather with brass edging and center round plate. Above the center plate of the shield was the Imperial Sunburst Emblem of the Sun Elves, marking him as soldier of their army. Below the center plate of the shield was the Rising Sun and Oak crest of House Sunstar, signifying that he was a sworn member of that Elf clan. While it was very rare for Dwarves or another race to take an oath to an Elf clan, it was not unheard of either.

  Moss’s family had lived in the Sun Elven province of Surin for generations. Moss’s great great grandfather had been crippled in a shipping accident at the docks in Surin. He had spent weeks there recovering, and his ship had sailed without him. No longer able to go to sea, and stuck in an Elven port, he had found work with House Sunstar as a shipping clerk, and soon rose to be their dock master. Finding the perfect job, he did not seem to have minded giving up the sea, or his legs. After a few years he had met a young Dwarf lass, who decided she would rather stay in port as the wife of a wealthy and powerful dock master, than go to sea as a deckhand and his line was created.

  His family had served House Sunstar ever since that time. Moss had joined the army in the first place at the request of the Clan Chief, Lord Pedar, to watch out for the
then young and reckless Myst. Myst could always find trouble, and Moss was always there to help him enjoy it. Moss had found, that like most Dwarves he was a natural warrior, and he loved the thrill of combat, he took to it ‘like a Dwarf to water’.

  They came to an area of low rocky hills and decided that was a good place to stop for the night. Sleeping on the sand dunes was not a pleasant experience in Moss’s opinion; the damn shifting sand would start to cover you over by morning. The solid rocks would prove much more comfortable. And the rocks would prove more protection from the cold night winds, which always replaced the hot baked days on the desert.

  They ate a cold dinner, and settled down in their hidden camp. No fire. That would just attract the things; they would rather not have come for a visit.

  Kayla was sitting, trying to concentrate on feeling her magic; trying to ‘see the magic’ so that she could manipulate it. She wanted to improve her power and stamina for the next attack.

  After a while she looked up. “I’m having trouble visualizing what Myst said about shielding when there is another mage throwing magic at me?”

  “Arg, you mean they haven’t told you how to properly defend yourself, lassie? I wouldn’t have expected much better from Myst, God knows, but the Gnome should have know better,” roared Moss in surprise at the failing of the two teachers.

  “Hay, you smelly old Dwarf, we’re doing our best. Thomas has no Magic ability, and I have not too much more than that. We know it’s blind leading the blind, teaching her magic, but I doubt you could do any better. You are the least magical person I know.”

  Moss, secretly smiled at Myst’ comment. No one, no one at all, knew that he had an active magic ability. He figured he had a level three skill in Fire Magic and a level two in Water Magic. Not much of a skill for sure, but enough to allow him do things that had saved his life on countless occasions.