Chapter 6

 

 

Nyssa was woken by a voice calling her name and she struggled to wake. She felt utterly drained and her body was aching from numerous bruises. Finally opening her eyes she found Lore leaning over her. He had a vacant look on his gaunt face and the gash on his forehead was bleeding again.

 

‘Nyssa?’ he asked weakly. ‘What’s happened?’

 

‘Lore, you’re hurt,’ she said in concern as she sat up. ‘We’ll have to see to your head.’

 

‘It... it does hurt a bit,’ he admitted.

 

‘I’m sure it does,’ she replied. ‘Now just relax and I’ll get something to help.’

 

She rose stiffly to her feet in the early morning light, realizing that they had slept through the night. Going over to the canoe to fetch her pack she was shocked at the damage done to it. It was badly chipped and marked where it had struck river rocks and slammed into walls. She knew they had been very lucky to have survived the rapids.

 

She lifted her pack out and came back to Lore who was sitting on the ground by a still sleeping Rena.

 

‘Where are we?’ he asked. ‘What are we doing here?’

 

Nyssa frowned.

 

‘Don’t you remember, Lore?’ she asked. ‘We got attacked by goblins.’

 

‘Goblins?’ he said, looking around in fright.

 

Nyssa could see he wasn’t well at all.

 

‘Don’t worry, they’re not here,’ she said. ‘Let’s see to that cut on your head.’

 

It was a deep one, but clean from being splashed with water as they came down the rapids. Her pack was completely soaked, but she found a damp but clean bandage to use. She wound it around his head to cover the wound, tucking the end into a fold.

 

‘Now just sit back against the tree and rest, Lore,’ she said. ‘You’ll feel better shortly.’

 

But she was more worried than she let on and she woke Rena. The dwarf gave a painful groan as she stirred from sleep and opened her eyes.

 

‘Nyssa! Good dwarves, how long have we been asleep?’

 

‘We’ve slept the night away,’ Nyssa replied. ‘It’s morning now. But Lore isn’t well. He can’t seem to remember anything from yesterday.’

 

Rena sat up, wincing from her own aches and pains.

 

‘I have some herbal tea in my pack that will help. Get a fire going and we’ll brew some up for all of us.’

 

‘All right,’ Nyssa said.

 

Shortly they had a fire going, not worrying that its smoke might be seen. They were too wounded and weary to care and Lore needed help. Rena brewed some of the herb tea in a pot from her pack and it was soon ready.

 

‘Here, Lore… drink this,’ Rena said as she handed him a cup.

 

He drank the warm mixture down and then lying down, was quickly asleep again.

 

‘The herbs will help him heal and he should wake up good as new,’ Rena said.

 

‘What will we do now?’ Nyssa asked. ‘Do keep going down the river?’

 

Rena shook her head.

 

‘I think we can rest for the day,’ she replied. ‘The goblins will hopefully think the rapids finished us off and Orcon’s clouds are far behind us. We can spare a day to get our strength back.’

 

‘I won’t argue with you there,’ Nyssa said.

 

They collected more wood for the fire and built it up so it was flaming brightly. They stripped Lore of his wet clothes and lay him next to it so he would keep warm. They then strung a rope between two trees and stripping out of their own clothes, hung them all to dry.

 

Rena then got a fishing line out of her pack and digging some worms out of the ground, set out to catch some fish. Most of their food in their packs was ruined, the cheese and biscuits a sodden mess. The only things that had survived were the dried apples and apricots.

 

She soon caught several decent sized trout and cooked them in pan with some wild mushrooms Nyssa had found. As they ate they talked about the rapids.

 

‘I can’t believe we survived them,’ Nyssa said. ‘I lost count of how many times we almost capsized or were tossed out.’

 

‘We were lucky, yes,’ Rena agreed. ‘What shape is the canoe in?’

 

‘Pretty bad. I don’t think it will take much more punishment.’

 

‘Well as long as it can get us down river we’ll be all right. It flows into a large lake and on its far side begin the Bleak Mountains.’

 

They turned in then to sleep the day away, the tea and hot food making them quite drowsy.

 

* * *

 

It was late afternoon when Nyssa woke again and rising, went to see how Lore was. There was colour back in his face now and his breathing was calm and relaxed. She gave him a gentle shake to wake him.

 

‘Lore, wake up.’

 

He opened his eyes and gave a loud yawn.

 

‘Where are we?’ he asked with a frown.

 

‘We’re on the far side of the Barren Hills. Do you remember what happened?’

 

‘I remember the goblins attacking us and then something hitting me,’ he replied.

 

‘You got hit by a stone, but you seem all right now. How do you feel?’

 

‘All right I guess, just a little sore on the head. You didn’t carry me all the way over hills did you?’

 

‘No… we stayed in the canoe,’ she said and described the frightening trip down the rapids.

 

‘It sounds like they weren’t much fun,’ he said.

 

‘That’s an understatement!’ Rena’s said gruffly as she sat up. ‘I’d rather face a dozen goblins armed with just a twig than do that ever again. Glad to see you’re better again, Lore.’

 

They ate another meal of fish and mushrooms as the sun set in the west, the shadows thickening around them. Lore found he was famished and ate hungrily, good news to Rena and Nyssa as it told them he had recovered from his injury.

 

They dressed again in their now dry clothes and as night fell, settled down to sleep again.

 

* * *

 

But Lore was woken with the dawn by the insistent hooting of an owl. He opened his eyes to a dim grey light and his wound aching a bit in the chilly air. Then he started at how cold it was and the thick mist that lay everywhere.

 

‘Nyssa! Aunt Rena!’ he exclaimed as he jumped to his feet. ‘Orcon’s caught up with us!’

 

The pair woke at his cry and jumped to their feet.

 

‘Goblins, breath!’ Rena cussed. ‘He’s overtaken us during the night.’

 

An owl hooted again and they spotted Moonwing on a branch of a nearby tree.

 

‘I think Moonwing’s warning us again!’ Nyssa said. ‘There must be goblins close.’

 

‘Come on, let’s get back onto the river,’ Rena urged.

 

They doused the fire with a pot of water and then throwing their packs into the canoe, launched it once more into the river. They clambered aboard and quickly paddled away into the mist.

 

* * *

 

Kreel gave the wet ashes of the fire a vicious kick with a boot and sent it flying through the air. He glared down river, his yellow eyes gleaming in anger.

 

‘We only just missed them again!’ he snarled. ‘Two days hard travel over the hills for nothing!’

 

‘How did they survive the rapids?’ asked one of his band.

 

‘It doesn’t matter how they did, they just did!’ Kreel replied irritably.

 

‘They’ll be far ahead of us again soon,’ growled other.

 

‘Then we’ve got some running to do,’ Kreel growled. ‘I’m not letting them get away a third time.’

 

* * *

 

For much of the day the day the trio paddled down the river. They left behind the mist after the first hour and found Orcon’s dark clouds hanging low in the sky. They stretched south as far as they could see and already the weather had turned cold and windy.

 

It turned the river choppy and they had to battle the wounded craft through the tossing waves, hoping it would hold together. Rain and sleet fell at first, then in the afternoon it turned to driving snow.

 

Then toward mid afternoon the river suddenly spilled out of the forest into a wide lake. On its far side reared the Bleak Mountains, thrusting out of the ground in sheer cliffs of pale grey stone. They couldn’t see how high they were as Orcon’s clouds were massed low against them.

 

As they crossed the lake wind turned to a howling gale and icy snow drove over them. The lake turned into a foaming, tossing fury and it was all they could do to keep the canoe afloat.

 

Then as they neared the southern bank it finally succumbed to the damage done to it. Between one crashing wave and the next it suddenly gave a sickening crunch and split in half. Lore managed to grab Eldor’s staff as it sank under them and they were in the water.

 

They swam to the shore and clambered out of the lake, dripping wet and freezing. They had lost all their packs, though still had their weapons strapped to their belts. Around them the wind shrieked and the snow pummelled them.

 

‘We’ve got to get out of this!’ Rena shouted. ‘We’ll freeze to death before too long.’

 

‘The mountains!’ Nyssa exclaimed. ‘They’re our only hope!’

 

From the shore the land rose up a snow covered hill and they set off up it, the mountains rising into Orcon’s dark clouds on the other side.

 

* * *

 

The blizzard battered the trio as they struggled across a narrow valley between the hill and the mountains. Between brief breaks in the driving snow they could see the mountain stone thrusting clear out of the ground like monstrous waves. Rena had spotted the mouth of narrow canyon and was leading them toward it. She knew that if they could reach it they would be sheltered from the blizzard.

 

Yet as they got to within a stone’s throw from the entrance, the wind suddenly vanished and the snow lifted back into the clouds. The trio stopped, stunned for a moment at the change.

 

‘This doesn’t feel right,’ Rena growled. ‘Orcon is up to something!’

 

‘Then come on!’ Lore urged.

 

But even as they stepped forward the snow began to stir in half a dozen places around them. They quickly grew into pillars of snow twice their height. Then they began to split into shapes, growing torso’s, arms and legs and forming into huge snow beasts.

 

‘Look out!’ Lore shouted as they began to lurch toward them.

 

Rena gave a furious shout and charging at the nearest creature, chopped at it with her axe. She gave a cry of triumph as she severed an arm and it fell to the ground as snow. Yet as quickly as the arm fell a new one grew in its place. It snatched at her, grabbing her by the neck and hauling her off the ground.

 

At the same time another rushed at Nyssa and struck her. She was sent reeling onto her back, stunned from the blow. Lore meanwhile could only back away from two more approaching him, clutching Eldor’s staff and thinking that all was lost.

 

And then he suddenly remembered what the wizard had said to him in his dream that now seemed so long ago.

 

‘... should danger ever threaten you, thrust my staff into the ground and call my name…’

 

And as the snow beasts loomed over him, arms reaching out to grab him he did just that. He drove the wizard’s staff through the snow to the ground underneath and cried out his name in a desperate shout.

 

‘Eldor…!’

 

* * *

 

In Mogrom’s castle, the sorceress and Orcon stood once again around the column of mist cast by the Ice Lord. An image was within it and it showed the snow beasts attacking the trio.

 

‘Now we will get the staff back!’ Orcon said coldly.

 

But then one of the dwarves suddenly jammed Eldor’s staff into the ground. He shouted something and instantly orange light exploded from the staff’s crystal.

 

Orcon groaned as if struck and reeled away from image that vanished along with the mist. Mogrom spun around to look for Eldor in the corner where he had been placed. She found him and gave a hiss of anger. He was no longer frozen and was looking at her with a satisfied smile. Then he eased back into the shadows and was gone.

 

‘No…!’ she shrieked in rage.

 

* * *

 

Eldor shook the last traces of the freezing spell from himself as he stood in the darkness of the passage. There had been a hidden door in the wall where he had been placed, one that he had known of and used to escape.

 

He was free, but there was nothing more he could do to help Lore and those with him. He had heard his cry, carried to him by the magic of his staff as it exploded in reaction to danger. It had been powerful enough to stun Orcon as he tried to capture the trio with his magic and also release him from his hold.

 

He would stay hidden now, confident that Moonwing could guide them over the Bleak Mountains to the Scorching Desert. From there they would have to find Ashmon’s cave and he was hoping that they would find some other help. Help from a source that would surprise them all.