The next morning was bright, crisp and, judging by the ice and faint dusting of snow, cold; we couldn’t actually tell. We met Balan at the gate of the Lyceum together with Simeon, Kiernan, Katrina and a curious group of students. There were a few speeches and wishes for our success but we kept these short as speed was of the essence. A few moments later, we were joined by Balan and we set out on the first stage of our journey.
As we were walking through town, a skinny teenage boy approached Longhelim:
“Please sir, it is said that you go Bresk. Would you be so kind as to take this letter? It is to Jinis, who acts as proxy for Lord Gallo on the Council of Nine.”
I stared at this boy: “What I want to know is: how does everyone know what we are going to do so quickly? This was only discussed yesterday and we are already being used as a messenger service,” I muttered in my beard.
Longhelim gave me a pointed look and took the envelope wordlessly.
As he did that, the boy continued: “Tell him it’s from Jinir. He’ll know; and thank you so much.”
According to Balan, once we crossed the swamp, it would take several days of travel to reach Bresk; the journey should not be very dangerous but one never knew in these troubled times. If our luck held, then we would be able to cross Sour Lake Swamp, purchase dogs and sleds, and travel on the ice of the Nesham River. It led almost up to the Gates of Bresk and should be the fastest method of travel.
The journey through the swamp was uneventful. The place itself was very different when frozen. Without the stink, the noise and the sinkholes, it even gained a type of stark beauty; it was odd, I had never seen a frozen swamp before though I had to qualify that since Sour Lake Swamp was the first swamp I had seen in any climate, so that did not mean much.
As I looked around me, I heard Felix talking to Longhelim:
“On Victor’s recommendation, I purchased a couple of scrolls; they remove magical blindness. He told me that the last Inquisitor we met tried to blind him with a spell and almost succeeded. I want you to know where they are as you can use them in an emergency. There is also another scroll with a spell here which will allows us to talk to Simeon briefly, wherever we may be. It will work only once mind you but it will be very handy.”
A spell that removed magical blindness? How incredibly useful; I determined to quiz Felix about that spell in the evening. I really wanted to look at that scroll. I had a feeling that it was one of those spells that only priests could cast though otherwise I was sure he would have mentioned it to me. That set me to thinking though: could I devise a spell which could do the opposite and induce magical blindness? Hmmmm……..
I must confess that I was very distracted for the rest of my time in the swamp as I calculated a formula in my head which would do exactly that. Once I had finished it in my head, as soon as I could, I would write it down. The next thing I knew, we had traversed the swamp and then Victor came up and spoke to me quietly:
“You have been wondering around in a daze for the last day and a half; we kept an eye on you in the swamp because by this point, we knew the area quite well and also what to look for. This stops now though; I don’t know what you were dreaming about but stop it and join the real world!”
After that he walked away.
A little guilty, I looked around surreptitiously only to see John grinning and miming a sleeping gesture at me; then he rolled his eyes, shook his head and gave me a thumbs up.
The landscape around us was very different from the swamp. It was flat, with only the odd tree here and there. We had traversed through here before but now it was freezing and covered in snow. Trying to walk through this snow would not work at all; I hoped someone had a plan.
A little later, we found a small village where several sleds and dog teams had been left for us. Balan had arranged that. I don’t know how he did it but for the first time I felt a little more confidence in our erstwhile envoy. We had four sleds. Each could take two people; Drudge and John paired up, Felix and Longhelim travelled together which left Victor and I as the last pair while Balan travelled on his own sled.
Riding on a dog sled was new and interesting; several times, someone, somewhere fell off to a great deal of laughter. It almost didn’t feel like a trip, more like an outing, especially as we had no indication of the level of the temperature around us. I think everyone obtained several bruises, including me, but of course the warriors in their heavy armour were the most susceptible to a tumble. The only person who seemed familiar with this mode of travel was Balan, who was very patient with us while we accustomed ourselves to this new experience.
We did have one interlude in the middle of our new learning experience: not surprisingly, the individuals who managed to fall off the least amount of times were Drudge and John. Drudge generally smiled tolerantly as I picked myself up off the ice for the umpteenth time but John was not so restrained and generally made his merriment at my expense known to all and sundry; this, of course, could not be tolerated and retaliation was swift in the form of a well aimed snowball. That was it! A gauntlet had been thrown, a challenge issued and sides were taken, followed by a battle royale, refereed by Balan; ultimately, he ruled that honours were even, although I still maintain that John cheated by having his invisible friend join on his side; the spoils came in the form of a humorous song detailing the great battle; immediately, Balan began working on the Lay of the Great Snow Battle on the Nesham River.
Finally, we learned to move with the motion of the sleds rather than against it and managed to anticipate the jerking and tugging of the dogs so that we began to make reasonable time. We travelled on the river Nesham, which was iced; initially I was a little nervous about this but Balan assured us that it was quite safe. It was certainly fast, much faster than it would have been on land.
As we travelled some distance, suddenly Victor gave a shout and pointed far into the distance; despite his warning, initially, I couldn’t make out what he was pointing at until suddenly I saw a crowd of people desperately struggling through the snow; it was the monster among them that froze my blood. It was a huge snake, but with thousands of tiny legs, looking like an enormous centipede. It was bluish white in colour and had a pair of stunted wings on its back. Its mouth had an enormous pair of mandibles and horrified, I watched as its head dipped into the running crowd and flicked up an individual, making the figure look like a child. The poor wretch was flipped into the air and the snake caught it in its mandibles and snapped it in half.
The crowd ran to the river; we stopped and several spells were cast on individuals. I cast a spell against fire on Victor as well as various spells which would aid him in his combat. There was no doubt in our minds that we would go to the aid of the refugees. Immediately, we urged the sleds to reach the banks of the river and began to leap on to the land. By this stage, the refugees had reached the river and ran onto the ice; the snake followed them up and we watched in horror as the ice cracked under its weight and the escapees began to fall into the freezing water; as we saw it closer, we could see that in addition to its icy colour, the creature also seemed to glow a reddish hue, as if with heat.
As the ice cracked, it retreated and began to back up the shore; Longhelim and Felix were the first to reach it; Longhelim in fact moved over the snow remarkably easily. Victor and I had barely reached the bank ourselves and I could already see a steady flight of arrows from behind me. These seemed to annoy the creature more than hurt it. I unlimbered my elemental staff and for the first time, I unleashed one of its powers. A great ball of fire burst behind the snake and seared the back part of its body; it reared in pain and anger, emitting a hissing shriek. Unable to locate the author of its pain, it struck forward and closed its mandibles on Felix; the priest struggled but he was a prisoner in its mouth, which was biting and squeezing.
Then Longhelim arrived there and struck it with its sword; I saw that there was a huge flash as his sword hit it and for a moment, this flash seemed to envelop the paladin. I breathed a sigh of relief when it dissipated and Longhelim seemed to be fine. Unfortunately, this enraged the creature and it screamed and squeezed even further; Felix went limp and then burst into flame. Longhelim then struck it again, and this time, dropping the unconscious priest, it attacked the paladin. It struck him and tried to trap him in those deadly mandibles but somehow, Longhelim slipped through them.
I cast my spell of force bolts, making it rear back in pain and by that point Victor arrived, to be immediately seized by the snake. The warrior couldn’t wriggle free and he was bitten and trapped by the mandibles in the same manner as Felix. This gave Longhelim another opportunity to hit the snake in a deadly combination of blows, causing a flash to erupt from its body every time he did so. However, this last flurry from the paladin together with Drudge’s arrows, were the killing strokes; the snake gave one last great scream as it tried to contain Victor and then slumped to the ground.
Cautiously, we moved forward and I looked at our late opponent.
“What in all seven hells is this thing?” I muttered.
Balan had also come forward. “One of the Great Ice Worms; I have heard of them but never actually seen one. I didn’t even know they were around here. They burrow deeply into the ice and prey on surface creatures, erupting from the ice and striking with vicious speed.”
He looked at us with new respect: “Simeon didn’t exaggerate.”
I suddenly also remembered that I heard him playing his accordion while we were moving forward to fight it.
“What was that with the music?”
Longhelim answered: “The music helped, Faden. He has the same powers as Tiljann.”
“Ah, magical song. Why didn’t you say something, Balan? When we settle for the night, you have to tell us what other powers you possess.”
Longhelim was helping Felix in his recovery and the priest was groaning and muttering to himself; then he rose and kicked the corpse, cursing the creature, as a “misbegotten wannabe dragon with delusions of grandeur.” Except that he didn’t really use those words; but that was what he meant.
As the Felix was still healing and recovering, Drudge was looking around and scouting:
“There is no one left alive; they either drowned or the Worm ate them or just killed them. There is a set of tracks; we should follow them and see if there are any survivors.”
Under his guidance, we trekked a short distance where we saw the remains of a refugee group. Pitiful possessions were strewn everywhere. The hole from which the Worm struck was clearly visible as well as several corpses which had been bitten in half; men, women and children. As with the situation by the river, there were no survivors. So, we grouped them together, covered them as best as we could and then said a few words. Then we marched back to the river, where we picked up our sleds and wordlessly dragged them further up and then continued up the river.
The rest of the day passed uneventfully and we camped for the night. No one said anything much that night and I slept fitfully, finding it difficult to forget the screams of the drowning refugees.
The next day, our earlier exuberance had been completely extinguished. We rode upon our sleds somberly, lost in our own thoughts. There was no further cheerful banter; in fact, no one said anything and even the dogs were quieter, as if sensing our mood. We rode at a much slower speed, scanning carefully, the recent encounter reinforcing our vulnerability. We were very aware that if something suddenly erupted from the ice in front of us than all of us would be in very serious trouble.
Then, suddenly, the front sled with Drudge and John jerked to an abrupt stop. Fortunately, as I had mentioned, we had slowed down considerably so neither, dogs, passengers or sled suffered any mishap and as the other sleds stopped next to them, we saw the cause of their sudden halt. In the most extraordinary happenstance, the strut of the sled had caught on a leather loop that was jutting out from the surface of the ice. Closer examination revealed a frozen corpse under the ice and the leather loop was some part of his clothing.
We looked at this curiously. Then Victor retrieved an axe from one of the sleds and carefully chopped the corpse out of the ice; as he did so, he found another one close by….and then another. There were three bodies altogether. We pulled them out and laid them out on the bank; two of them wore uniforms with a distinct design: “a leopard under a serpent on a sunburst motif” was the correct heraldic description, according to Balan who recognized it as the symbol of the Lady Dene, one of the ruling magnates of Dassen. Both of these bodies had clear wounds made by crossbow bolts in their backs. The last corpse had a broken neck and judging by the burn marks on its neck, looked as if it had been hung.
John had stayed back on the ice and while we were looking at the bodies, he was still looking at the hole that Victor had made:
“There is something very strange going on here. This ice is different to the other ice in the river. It looks as if it was melted artificially. Someone entombed these corpses here; most likely by some sort of magic; and they were sloppy, leaving that loop out like that.”
Drudge then called out:
“Found some tracks; horsemen; at least five.”
We tied the sleds and followed. The tracks initially led to a tree. All the trampled snow around it suggested that there had been a substantial amount of activity in its environs. Drudge then examined one of the branches and said it showed some rope marks. It looked as if we had found our hanging tree. A clear trail led away. We followed it and ultimately it led to the road where Drudge lost the trail due to all the other tracks already there. Disappointed, we returned to our sleds and continued with our journey.
We were getting quite close to Bresk now and also to the main road or the King’s Road as it was known. We saw a definite increase of traffic on that road. There seemed to be quite a large amount of people leaving the city as well. As the middle of the day approached, we saw three brightly coloured wagons in the distance. They were stopped with several horsemen around them. Even from this distance, we could see that the horsemen wore the symbol of King Steppengaard.
We were not paying a huge amount of attention to this until suddenly we heard shouting. As we looked at the wagons, we noticed that their owners were halflings, the little people. Two of them were remonstrating and shouting at the horsemen, while one of the horsemen roared:
“Search the wagons now!”
The four other horsemen dismounted and began to dismantle the wagons throwing out possessions and goods onto the road. Then as we drew parallel, I saw the Longhelim was already on his way to that bank; Felix was casting spells at the paladin so I cast a few on Victor and followed. Balan stayed back and Drudge was unlimbering his bow.
Suddenly, there was a scream and a figure was dragged out from some compartment on the bottom of one of the wagons; then the leader of the horsemen drew his sword and thrust his sword though the figure. There was a feminine shriek followed by a gurgle that ended abruptly as the figure slumped to the ground. Then the commander shouted again:
“Kill the halflings!”
I didn’t care who or what they were. That was not the way things were done.
Obviously Longhelim was of the same opinion. His sled reached the shore first and he jumped out as soon as he could. Again, he ran across the snow as if it was normal ground. I don’t know what Felix had done but it was extremely helpful. Poor Victor had to negotiate wading through the snow and laboring mightily until he reached his target.
Arrows flew above my head as usual and I saw at least a couple hitting the commander who rapidly turned around and shouted an order. His four men lined up in front of him when they saw Longhelim running towards them. Then he began to exhort them when suddenly the whole area went silent. I didn’t see who but either Felix or John must have magically affected the area. He looked outraged. Then another arrow flew and hit him in the chest; rapidly he drew out a bottle and drank it. This allowed Longhelim to reach his men and confront them. There was no attempt to parley or explain anything and then I remembered that they couldn’t talk to each other because of the magical silence. The men surrounded the paladin and tried to hit him.
Then Victor finally arrived and hit one of Longhelim’s aggressors. The Living Blade of Innenotdar struck forward and one of the men fell. Despite this, they were still concentrating on Longhelim and now the commander moved forward and struck the paladin with his flail. Victor stepped up gracefully and in a series of blows dropped two more of the soldiers. Seeing this, the commander tried to withdraw towards his horse. He was followed up by Longhelim who tried to hit him but was still off balance; then as the commander swung his foot into the stirrup, another arrow flew over our heads and struck the commander in the side. That was the last arrow he could take and with the horses shuffling nervously, he suffered the same fate he had inflicted on his female victim earlier.
Almost simultaneously, Victor dealt with the last soldier and then abruptly the battle stopped. We made sure that there were no more threats and then we approached the wagons.
“Ho, halflings; it is over; come out now!” Longhelim called out.
Cautiously, a flap was flipped over and a pair of eyes looked out anxiously.
“Who’re you?” came an answer.
The rest of us were looking around the bodies and seeing if they had anything of use. Several of them had potion bottles and I did a little cantrip to verify that the commander’s shield and armour glowed with some sort of enchantment; probably something to make it better.
“Look, we just want to go” came a plea from the wagon.
“I am sure you’ll be able to go in a moment but what was happening here?” answered Longhelim.
“You mean you haven’t heard?” This time, the figure of a lady halfling crawled out from the wagon, followed much more slowly by another halfling, who looked at us with a mixture of fear and suspicion.
“No; what haven’t we heard?” replied Longhelim.
Wide-eyed, the first hafling explained: “Three days ago, the King’s family was murdered; all eighteen of his children and his wife; ever since, he seems to have gone insane. He has let the Talons loose on the city and people are being arrested or disappearing everywhere.”
John was behind me: “Well, the Ragesians have always been nothing if not thorough,” he muttered.
Glancing at him, Longhelim then asked: “The Talons?”
“The Talons are his secret enforcers. No one knows who they are but they are everywhere. Everyone is trying to leave. He is mad. Anyone who is at all suspicious gets arrested or disappears or something happens to them.”
“So the woman…….”
“I don’t know; she just wanted to leave. We didn’t ask any questions.”
I didn’t know if she was guilty or not but she certainly didn’t deserve to be killed on the road in the middle of nowhere by a thug with a sword, no matter what his uniform. That was Ragesian behavior.
“Look, can we go? We really don’t want to be here and especially in this spot. I suggest you get out of here as soon as you can as well. This lot will be missed fairly soon.”
Longhelim shook himself: “Of course. You have given us much food for thought. Both of us had better be on our way.”
John then came forward and said quietly: “It won’t be pleasant but we have to get rid of those horses. Sooner or later, one of them will work itself loose and will return to its stables. That will raise the alarm much sooner.”
We certainly weren’t proud of what we had to do next but it was quickly done and then we buried all the bodies under the snow as best and as quickly as we could. Drudge also hid our trail as best as he could. The halflings were long gone by this stage and we made our way back to the sleds.
Balan then said: “Now that we know what’s happened, we had better get to Bresk as quickly as we can. Let’s go!”
As we were walking through town, a skinny teenage boy approached Longhelim:
“Please sir, it is said that you go Bresk. Would you be so kind as to take this letter? It is to Jinis, who acts as proxy for Lord Gallo on the Council of Nine.”
I stared at this boy: “What I want to know is: how does everyone know what we are going to do so quickly? This was only discussed yesterday and we are already being used as a messenger service,” I muttered in my beard.
Longhelim gave me a pointed look and took the envelope wordlessly.
As he did that, the boy continued: “Tell him it’s from Jinir. He’ll know; and thank you so much.”
According to Balan, once we crossed the swamp, it would take several days of travel to reach Bresk; the journey should not be very dangerous but one never knew in these troubled times. If our luck held, then we would be able to cross Sour Lake Swamp, purchase dogs and sleds, and travel on the ice of the Nesham River. It led almost up to the Gates of Bresk and should be the fastest method of travel.
The journey through the swamp was uneventful. The place itself was very different when frozen. Without the stink, the noise and the sinkholes, it even gained a type of stark beauty; it was odd, I had never seen a frozen swamp before though I had to qualify that since Sour Lake Swamp was the first swamp I had seen in any climate, so that did not mean much.
As I looked around me, I heard Felix talking to Longhelim:
“On Victor’s recommendation, I purchased a couple of scrolls; they remove magical blindness. He told me that the last Inquisitor we met tried to blind him with a spell and almost succeeded. I want you to know where they are as you can use them in an emergency. There is also another scroll with a spell here which will allows us to talk to Simeon briefly, wherever we may be. It will work only once mind you but it will be very handy.”
A spell that removed magical blindness? How incredibly useful; I determined to quiz Felix about that spell in the evening. I really wanted to look at that scroll. I had a feeling that it was one of those spells that only priests could cast though otherwise I was sure he would have mentioned it to me. That set me to thinking though: could I devise a spell which could do the opposite and induce magical blindness? Hmmmm……..
I must confess that I was very distracted for the rest of my time in the swamp as I calculated a formula in my head which would do exactly that. Once I had finished it in my head, as soon as I could, I would write it down. The next thing I knew, we had traversed the swamp and then Victor came up and spoke to me quietly:
“You have been wondering around in a daze for the last day and a half; we kept an eye on you in the swamp because by this point, we knew the area quite well and also what to look for. This stops now though; I don’t know what you were dreaming about but stop it and join the real world!”
After that he walked away.
A little guilty, I looked around surreptitiously only to see John grinning and miming a sleeping gesture at me; then he rolled his eyes, shook his head and gave me a thumbs up.
The landscape around us was very different from the swamp. It was flat, with only the odd tree here and there. We had traversed through here before but now it was freezing and covered in snow. Trying to walk through this snow would not work at all; I hoped someone had a plan.
A little later, we found a small village where several sleds and dog teams had been left for us. Balan had arranged that. I don’t know how he did it but for the first time I felt a little more confidence in our erstwhile envoy. We had four sleds. Each could take two people; Drudge and John paired up, Felix and Longhelim travelled together which left Victor and I as the last pair while Balan travelled on his own sled.
Riding on a dog sled was new and interesting; several times, someone, somewhere fell off to a great deal of laughter. It almost didn’t feel like a trip, more like an outing, especially as we had no indication of the level of the temperature around us. I think everyone obtained several bruises, including me, but of course the warriors in their heavy armour were the most susceptible to a tumble. The only person who seemed familiar with this mode of travel was Balan, who was very patient with us while we accustomed ourselves to this new experience.
We did have one interlude in the middle of our new learning experience: not surprisingly, the individuals who managed to fall off the least amount of times were Drudge and John. Drudge generally smiled tolerantly as I picked myself up off the ice for the umpteenth time but John was not so restrained and generally made his merriment at my expense known to all and sundry; this, of course, could not be tolerated and retaliation was swift in the form of a well aimed snowball. That was it! A gauntlet had been thrown, a challenge issued and sides were taken, followed by a battle royale, refereed by Balan; ultimately, he ruled that honours were even, although I still maintain that John cheated by having his invisible friend join on his side; the spoils came in the form of a humorous song detailing the great battle; immediately, Balan began working on the Lay of the Great Snow Battle on the Nesham River.
Finally, we learned to move with the motion of the sleds rather than against it and managed to anticipate the jerking and tugging of the dogs so that we began to make reasonable time. We travelled on the river Nesham, which was iced; initially I was a little nervous about this but Balan assured us that it was quite safe. It was certainly fast, much faster than it would have been on land.
As we travelled some distance, suddenly Victor gave a shout and pointed far into the distance; despite his warning, initially, I couldn’t make out what he was pointing at until suddenly I saw a crowd of people desperately struggling through the snow; it was the monster among them that froze my blood. It was a huge snake, but with thousands of tiny legs, looking like an enormous centipede. It was bluish white in colour and had a pair of stunted wings on its back. Its mouth had an enormous pair of mandibles and horrified, I watched as its head dipped into the running crowd and flicked up an individual, making the figure look like a child. The poor wretch was flipped into the air and the snake caught it in its mandibles and snapped it in half.
The crowd ran to the river; we stopped and several spells were cast on individuals. I cast a spell against fire on Victor as well as various spells which would aid him in his combat. There was no doubt in our minds that we would go to the aid of the refugees. Immediately, we urged the sleds to reach the banks of the river and began to leap on to the land. By this stage, the refugees had reached the river and ran onto the ice; the snake followed them up and we watched in horror as the ice cracked under its weight and the escapees began to fall into the freezing water; as we saw it closer, we could see that in addition to its icy colour, the creature also seemed to glow a reddish hue, as if with heat.
As the ice cracked, it retreated and began to back up the shore; Longhelim and Felix were the first to reach it; Longhelim in fact moved over the snow remarkably easily. Victor and I had barely reached the bank ourselves and I could already see a steady flight of arrows from behind me. These seemed to annoy the creature more than hurt it. I unlimbered my elemental staff and for the first time, I unleashed one of its powers. A great ball of fire burst behind the snake and seared the back part of its body; it reared in pain and anger, emitting a hissing shriek. Unable to locate the author of its pain, it struck forward and closed its mandibles on Felix; the priest struggled but he was a prisoner in its mouth, which was biting and squeezing.
Then Longhelim arrived there and struck it with its sword; I saw that there was a huge flash as his sword hit it and for a moment, this flash seemed to envelop the paladin. I breathed a sigh of relief when it dissipated and Longhelim seemed to be fine. Unfortunately, this enraged the creature and it screamed and squeezed even further; Felix went limp and then burst into flame. Longhelim then struck it again, and this time, dropping the unconscious priest, it attacked the paladin. It struck him and tried to trap him in those deadly mandibles but somehow, Longhelim slipped through them.
I cast my spell of force bolts, making it rear back in pain and by that point Victor arrived, to be immediately seized by the snake. The warrior couldn’t wriggle free and he was bitten and trapped by the mandibles in the same manner as Felix. This gave Longhelim another opportunity to hit the snake in a deadly combination of blows, causing a flash to erupt from its body every time he did so. However, this last flurry from the paladin together with Drudge’s arrows, were the killing strokes; the snake gave one last great scream as it tried to contain Victor and then slumped to the ground.
Cautiously, we moved forward and I looked at our late opponent.
“What in all seven hells is this thing?” I muttered.
Balan had also come forward. “One of the Great Ice Worms; I have heard of them but never actually seen one. I didn’t even know they were around here. They burrow deeply into the ice and prey on surface creatures, erupting from the ice and striking with vicious speed.”
He looked at us with new respect: “Simeon didn’t exaggerate.”
I suddenly also remembered that I heard him playing his accordion while we were moving forward to fight it.
“What was that with the music?”
Longhelim answered: “The music helped, Faden. He has the same powers as Tiljann.”
“Ah, magical song. Why didn’t you say something, Balan? When we settle for the night, you have to tell us what other powers you possess.”
Longhelim was helping Felix in his recovery and the priest was groaning and muttering to himself; then he rose and kicked the corpse, cursing the creature, as a “misbegotten wannabe dragon with delusions of grandeur.” Except that he didn’t really use those words; but that was what he meant.
As the Felix was still healing and recovering, Drudge was looking around and scouting:
“There is no one left alive; they either drowned or the Worm ate them or just killed them. There is a set of tracks; we should follow them and see if there are any survivors.”
Under his guidance, we trekked a short distance where we saw the remains of a refugee group. Pitiful possessions were strewn everywhere. The hole from which the Worm struck was clearly visible as well as several corpses which had been bitten in half; men, women and children. As with the situation by the river, there were no survivors. So, we grouped them together, covered them as best as we could and then said a few words. Then we marched back to the river, where we picked up our sleds and wordlessly dragged them further up and then continued up the river.
The rest of the day passed uneventfully and we camped for the night. No one said anything much that night and I slept fitfully, finding it difficult to forget the screams of the drowning refugees.
The next day, our earlier exuberance had been completely extinguished. We rode upon our sleds somberly, lost in our own thoughts. There was no further cheerful banter; in fact, no one said anything and even the dogs were quieter, as if sensing our mood. We rode at a much slower speed, scanning carefully, the recent encounter reinforcing our vulnerability. We were very aware that if something suddenly erupted from the ice in front of us than all of us would be in very serious trouble.
Then, suddenly, the front sled with Drudge and John jerked to an abrupt stop. Fortunately, as I had mentioned, we had slowed down considerably so neither, dogs, passengers or sled suffered any mishap and as the other sleds stopped next to them, we saw the cause of their sudden halt. In the most extraordinary happenstance, the strut of the sled had caught on a leather loop that was jutting out from the surface of the ice. Closer examination revealed a frozen corpse under the ice and the leather loop was some part of his clothing.
We looked at this curiously. Then Victor retrieved an axe from one of the sleds and carefully chopped the corpse out of the ice; as he did so, he found another one close by….and then another. There were three bodies altogether. We pulled them out and laid them out on the bank; two of them wore uniforms with a distinct design: “a leopard under a serpent on a sunburst motif” was the correct heraldic description, according to Balan who recognized it as the symbol of the Lady Dene, one of the ruling magnates of Dassen. Both of these bodies had clear wounds made by crossbow bolts in their backs. The last corpse had a broken neck and judging by the burn marks on its neck, looked as if it had been hung.
John had stayed back on the ice and while we were looking at the bodies, he was still looking at the hole that Victor had made:
“There is something very strange going on here. This ice is different to the other ice in the river. It looks as if it was melted artificially. Someone entombed these corpses here; most likely by some sort of magic; and they were sloppy, leaving that loop out like that.”
Drudge then called out:
“Found some tracks; horsemen; at least five.”
We tied the sleds and followed. The tracks initially led to a tree. All the trampled snow around it suggested that there had been a substantial amount of activity in its environs. Drudge then examined one of the branches and said it showed some rope marks. It looked as if we had found our hanging tree. A clear trail led away. We followed it and ultimately it led to the road where Drudge lost the trail due to all the other tracks already there. Disappointed, we returned to our sleds and continued with our journey.
We were getting quite close to Bresk now and also to the main road or the King’s Road as it was known. We saw a definite increase of traffic on that road. There seemed to be quite a large amount of people leaving the city as well. As the middle of the day approached, we saw three brightly coloured wagons in the distance. They were stopped with several horsemen around them. Even from this distance, we could see that the horsemen wore the symbol of King Steppengaard.
We were not paying a huge amount of attention to this until suddenly we heard shouting. As we looked at the wagons, we noticed that their owners were halflings, the little people. Two of them were remonstrating and shouting at the horsemen, while one of the horsemen roared:
“Search the wagons now!”
The four other horsemen dismounted and began to dismantle the wagons throwing out possessions and goods onto the road. Then as we drew parallel, I saw the Longhelim was already on his way to that bank; Felix was casting spells at the paladin so I cast a few on Victor and followed. Balan stayed back and Drudge was unlimbering his bow.
Suddenly, there was a scream and a figure was dragged out from some compartment on the bottom of one of the wagons; then the leader of the horsemen drew his sword and thrust his sword though the figure. There was a feminine shriek followed by a gurgle that ended abruptly as the figure slumped to the ground. Then the commander shouted again:
“Kill the halflings!”
I didn’t care who or what they were. That was not the way things were done.
Obviously Longhelim was of the same opinion. His sled reached the shore first and he jumped out as soon as he could. Again, he ran across the snow as if it was normal ground. I don’t know what Felix had done but it was extremely helpful. Poor Victor had to negotiate wading through the snow and laboring mightily until he reached his target.
Arrows flew above my head as usual and I saw at least a couple hitting the commander who rapidly turned around and shouted an order. His four men lined up in front of him when they saw Longhelim running towards them. Then he began to exhort them when suddenly the whole area went silent. I didn’t see who but either Felix or John must have magically affected the area. He looked outraged. Then another arrow flew and hit him in the chest; rapidly he drew out a bottle and drank it. This allowed Longhelim to reach his men and confront them. There was no attempt to parley or explain anything and then I remembered that they couldn’t talk to each other because of the magical silence. The men surrounded the paladin and tried to hit him.
Then Victor finally arrived and hit one of Longhelim’s aggressors. The Living Blade of Innenotdar struck forward and one of the men fell. Despite this, they were still concentrating on Longhelim and now the commander moved forward and struck the paladin with his flail. Victor stepped up gracefully and in a series of blows dropped two more of the soldiers. Seeing this, the commander tried to withdraw towards his horse. He was followed up by Longhelim who tried to hit him but was still off balance; then as the commander swung his foot into the stirrup, another arrow flew over our heads and struck the commander in the side. That was the last arrow he could take and with the horses shuffling nervously, he suffered the same fate he had inflicted on his female victim earlier.
Almost simultaneously, Victor dealt with the last soldier and then abruptly the battle stopped. We made sure that there were no more threats and then we approached the wagons.
“Ho, halflings; it is over; come out now!” Longhelim called out.
Cautiously, a flap was flipped over and a pair of eyes looked out anxiously.
“Who’re you?” came an answer.
The rest of us were looking around the bodies and seeing if they had anything of use. Several of them had potion bottles and I did a little cantrip to verify that the commander’s shield and armour glowed with some sort of enchantment; probably something to make it better.
“Look, we just want to go” came a plea from the wagon.
“I am sure you’ll be able to go in a moment but what was happening here?” answered Longhelim.
“You mean you haven’t heard?” This time, the figure of a lady halfling crawled out from the wagon, followed much more slowly by another halfling, who looked at us with a mixture of fear and suspicion.
“No; what haven’t we heard?” replied Longhelim.
Wide-eyed, the first hafling explained: “Three days ago, the King’s family was murdered; all eighteen of his children and his wife; ever since, he seems to have gone insane. He has let the Talons loose on the city and people are being arrested or disappearing everywhere.”
John was behind me: “Well, the Ragesians have always been nothing if not thorough,” he muttered.
Glancing at him, Longhelim then asked: “The Talons?”
“The Talons are his secret enforcers. No one knows who they are but they are everywhere. Everyone is trying to leave. He is mad. Anyone who is at all suspicious gets arrested or disappears or something happens to them.”
“So the woman…….”
“I don’t know; she just wanted to leave. We didn’t ask any questions.”
I didn’t know if she was guilty or not but she certainly didn’t deserve to be killed on the road in the middle of nowhere by a thug with a sword, no matter what his uniform. That was Ragesian behavior.
“Look, can we go? We really don’t want to be here and especially in this spot. I suggest you get out of here as soon as you can as well. This lot will be missed fairly soon.”
Longhelim shook himself: “Of course. You have given us much food for thought. Both of us had better be on our way.”
John then came forward and said quietly: “It won’t be pleasant but we have to get rid of those horses. Sooner or later, one of them will work itself loose and will return to its stables. That will raise the alarm much sooner.”
We certainly weren’t proud of what we had to do next but it was quickly done and then we buried all the bodies under the snow as best and as quickly as we could. Drudge also hid our trail as best as he could. The halflings were long gone by this stage and we made our way back to the sleds.
Balan then said: “Now that we know what’s happened, we had better get to Bresk as quickly as we can. Let’s go!”