Hand of Fire (The Master of the Tane) (46 page)

             
“That is terrible,” Thane whispered, his eyes widening.

             
“Well, it might seem like it, but at least they can fight for their lives instead of rotting away in a dark cell full of disease, or even worse, getting beheaded at the sharp end of an executioners axe. Most of them are fighters by trade anyway. They’re glad to be there.”

             
“You are friends with these men?” Thane asked feeling a bit apprehensive.

             
Jack smiled and then burst out laughing. “Don’t you worry yourself, my boy. I know enough of them to keep you safe. Anyway, I thought you were the one who was anxious to get there. You aren’t changing your mind are you?”

             
Thane looked across the fire at Jack’s smirking face suddenly feeling a bit uncomfortable. He wished so badly that he could explain to Jack what had happened to him, but the risk was just too great. He did not want to lose another friend. “No,” Thane finally answered, forcing a slight smile.

             
“Good,” Jack said easing back on his elbow. “Now, how about you explaining to me what this is all about?”

             
He froze for a second, and then quickly let out a large yawn and stretched his arms high over his head. “I very tired Jack. Early start tomorrow.”

             
Jack glared at him disappointedly but didn’t press it. Instead, he just grumbled something and then rolled into his blanket and turned to face the opposite direction.

             
“Good night, Jack,” came a mumbled voice from the bundled up Chufa.

             
Jack grunted back. “Sure, but it’s ‘I
am
very tired. I swear he’ll never get it right.”

             
Thane smiled into his blanket feeling a strange warmth growing within.
I
am
very tired
, he thought with a laugh.

             
Thane woke to the sounds of Jack moving about the cave in a frenzy. “What is happening?” he asked rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

             
Jack paused for a moment to give him a quick look. “Good, you’re finally awake.”

             
“But it is not day time yet is it?”

             
“No, but there’s a storm cooking up outside and if you want to get to Hell’s End Station before summer comes, you had better move your rear end and start helping me.”

             
Thane sat up and stretched, still feeling exhausted from the lack of sleep two days before. Working his still sleeping body to get it moving, he got up and disappeared through the cave entrance followed by Erl. A moment later, he reappeared. “You can stop Jack. No storm until tonight.”

             
“What?”

             
“No storm Jack. The rain not start until tonight.”

             
“It’s
will not
and how do you know that? I’ve been living in these mountains for quite a few years boy and I think I know a little bit about what an oncoming storm looks and feels like. Now, if you are finished, I would appreciate a little help with these things.”

             
Thane smiled, not wanting to argue and certainly not willing to tell him about his ability to know the weather. Like all ArVen, he could smell it on the wind.
Well
,
I guess the sooner we leave the better
.
Who knows how long Tam can hold out or when those stinking trolls might just decide to kill her
.

He jumped right in to help and in quick order they were leaving their comfortable cave home behind. The sun was still tucked away for the night making the trail dark and treacherous. Erl lead the way followed by Jack and then finally Thane. Jack tried to get Thane to follow after Erl, saying something to the effect that he knew the trail like the tops of his feet and he didn’t want Thane falling over the edge. Thane tried to argue but Jack would not have it. He finally decided it best he reveal his innate power of night vision, figuring it was better to tell him than to have Jack fall off the cliff.

Jack stared at him with his mouth agape. When he finally found his voice again, he asked, “You really can do that?”

             
Thane suddenly felt he had made the wrong decision. “Yes,” he answered hesitantly, “all Chufa can see in the dark.”

             
“Well, I’ll be an orc’s mother.” Jack smiled. “To the rear with you then, boy.”

             
He couldn’t help the great sigh of relief at how easily Jack had accepted this tiny bit of truth about him. It almost made him want to tell more but his past experience with others finding out about his abilities kept his mouth tightly shut.

             
They moved rather quickly for being in almost complete darkness. Thane’s vision was a bit dim, but he was able to pick his way fairly easily and Jack and Erl knew the route quite well. By the time the sun lightened the cloud covered sky in a dark gray, they had reached the other peak and had started their climb to the summit. Their progress at once slowed due to the rough terrain and their full packs of furs and other goods. Thane was still not completely used to his new clothing but knew Jack was right in making him wear it. There was no way he could have survived in that frozen land in just a breechcloth.

             
Erl suddenly slowed, sniffing intently at the wind and the small trail in front of them. “What is it boy?” Jack whispered, scanning the area as he approached the wolg. Thane came up from behind and they gathered around a couple of tracks headed in the same direction.

             
“Trolls,” Thane said. “Probably a week.”

             
Jack gave him a surprised look. “That’s right. How did you know that?”

             
Thane regarded his friend as if startled by his question. “I learn since a child.”

             
Jack smiled brightly. “You know Thane, I learn something new about you every day. It makes me almost anxious for tomorrow to see what else you can do.”

             
Thane bit his lip, feeling a bit unsettled at Jack’s comment. What was he saying? Did he suspect something?

             
“Come on,” Jack said, hitting him on the shoulder. “Let’s get going.”

             
Thane forced a smile. “Yes.”

             
The rest of the day was spent in the arduous climb up the side of the mountain. They did find a small trail switching back and forth that helped a little, but all three were quickly sweating profusely from the exertion. “I need to get out more,” Jack panted hitting his hand against his rounded belly.

             
By the time they reached the icy summit, the clouds overhead had become ominously dark and foreboding. Lightning flashes were visible in the distance and the wind had picked up considerably blowing dangerously hard against them.

“Well,” Jack yelled over the din, “you were right about the storm. I don’t pretend to know how, but you were right. We need to start down off this slope quickly before that lightning catches up to us and fries us for dinner.”

              Thane only nodded while squinting his eyes against the angry wind. The smell of rain was strong in the air and he knew it wouldn’t be long before they were all drenched in the downpour.

             
All three scurried as fast as they were able down the west side of the mountain, racing against time to reach the relative safety found farther below. Another problem presented itself almost instantly when Jack slipped on ice that sent him crashing down with a thud. The early thaw from the warming days and the freezing cold of the winter nights made the mountain side an unstable sheet of iced snow. Jack got up slowly, trying to balance himself on the slick surface while at the same time pushing back against the driving wind. A bright flash momentarily blinded all three and was almost instantly followed by the crashing roar of thunder. A sheet of rain, like a wall of water, blanketed the trio as it rushed on, chased by the wind. Thane felt himself slipping as large streams of rushing water appeared out of nowhere racing for the mountain base.

             
“I am slipping,” Thane yelled over the wind. “I cannot hold on with these boots.”

             
Jack looked up in time to see both of Thane’s feet suddenly fly out from under him and send him flailing to the ground. He grasped frantically for a hold but it was useless. With gaining speed, he raced down the side of the mountain heading straight for Jack. Jack tried to move out of the way but was too slow. He was thrown from his feet as Thane crashed headlong into him creating a pile of flailing arms and legs. Both finally slid to a stop and were greeted by Erl’s lapping tongue.

             
“How we going to get down?” Thane yelled over the howling wind.

             
Another flash of lightning broke through the dark sky as buckets of rain continued dousing them. “We ha...” Jack started and was cut off by the deafening thunder.

             
“What?”

             
“We have to get down soon or it will be the end of us.”

             
“But the snow is like ice,” Thane yelled pulling his soaking cloak tighter against his body. “If we not careful, we will slip off edge of the mountain.” Both looked down to the ledge, not fifty feet below. It had a small, jutting lip that made it appear similar to the trail they had taken up from the other side.

             
“We must reach that trail down there,” Jack screamed, barely able to get his voice above the cry of the angry storm.

             
Thane nodded, recognizing the obvious but unsure how they were going to accomplish such a feat. He could feel his boots giving way again and fought the pack on his back for balance.

             
“Turn around,” Jack yelled, his voice carried off with the wind and rain.

             
“What?”

             
“Turn around,” he repeated moving his finger in a circular motion. Thane obliged and Jack started rummaging through his pack. “I’ve got it.”

             
Thane turned back and was suddenly grabbed around the waist and jostled about. “What you doing?” he bellowed against the wind. Jack stood back holding a rope in his hand that now extended to Thane’s waist.

             
“I will lower you down and then the packs.”

             
Thane looked again at the distance he must cover and he wondered if Jack would be able to hold him in such conditions. Already, Erl was inching his way back and forth down the mountainside and had covered about half of the expanse. Another blast of lightning and immediate thunder shattered the sky almost sending Thane in a quick slide down the slope.

             
“Give me your pack.”

             
Thane slipped off his pack and prepared to go. He wasn’t really afraid for himself, but he wondered how Jack was going to get down after him.

             
“Make for that tree down there,” Jack shouted in his ear as if answering his thoughts, “and when you and the packs are down, wrap the rope around it and then I will come down.”

             
Thane nodded and then quickly started his decent. The snow was slick causing him to slip often, but somehow, Jack was able to keep his own feet planted firmly on the ground. In no time, Thane found himself, with Erl, safely on the ledge. Wasting no time, he quickly untied the rope around his waist and then sent it back up. Jack pulled it up quickly and then started on the packs. Comparatively, they were rather easy and in short order both packs were safely down the mountainside. Thane wrapped his end of the rope around an old tree that shot out from the ledge before it made a quick turn up and reached for the sky. Bracing his feet against the trunk, he prepared for Jack’s climb down ready to pull in the excess slack as he went. If Jack should fall and go off the edge, he didn’t want any extra rope to go off with him.

             
Jack started slowly, picking his way carefully through the icy snow like one who had been born to it. He looked for any kind of foothold he might be able to use before making each step. With nightfall coming, Thane’s eyes switched to night vision but the heavy rain and the blinding flashes of lightning made it difficult for him to keep track of his HuMan friend. The constant downpour had thrown a dark covering over the land and Thane was now unsure where Jack actually was. He pulled slowly on the rope careful to take in the slack but, at the same time, tried not to go faster than his friend’s progress. He did not want to be the one to pull Jack off the mountain.

             
Erl paced about frantically, letting out an occasional whine as both wolg and Chufa anxiously awaited Jack’s safe arrival. Minutes passed and Thane pulled on the rope again, feeling enough time had gone by for Jack to have descended another few feet. Suddenly, the rope went taut and for a split second Thane stared in horror at the straight cord that disappeared up the mountainside. In the next breath, the rope went completely slack and dropped lifeless to the ground. “Kinpa’s bones!” he shouted. He knew Jack must have fallen and was racing down the mountain towards them, but where would he land? He pulled desperately on the rope trying to reel in as much slack as he could praying that Jack was not too far from the ledge and their position.