Lorik The Protector (Lorik Trilogy) (32 page)

Lorik decided to try a new tactic. He had planned to try and stay between the raiders and the Wilderlands, but now he thought he might mow through them more quickly by attacking them from behind. He ran forward, toward the rear of the leading groups. The first group never saw him coming. He attacked without mercy, targeting the hamstrings of the raiders who were trotting forward. The fighters at the head of the group heard the men behind them bellowing in pain, but just as they turned to see what had happened, Lorik smashed into them. He tucked the long-handled sword under his left arm and used it like a lance, while his right arm and sword were a whirlwind of mayhem.

Limbs were severed and warriors impaled, then Lorik was moving on to the next group. He hadn’t wounded every warrior in the last group, but he had done enough damage to force the group to pull back. He attacked the next group in the same way, only this time they stopped and turned to face him. He batted away one sword and then lashed out. His sword cleaved into the neck of one raider, then his boot shattered the knee of another. Lorik then spun in a tight circle, his sword blades reaching out farther than the short weapons of his foes. He cut several men, but they stayed in the fight, and Lorik realized that he would have to do more than scare this group into retreating.

He drew in the sword that was in his left hand. When the warriors on that side of him lunged at the apparent opening in his defenses, he spun back, causing the warriors on his right to rush forward. It seemed like Lorik was backpedaling, but his opponents were now off-balance and sandwiched together. He attacked with such ferocity that the raiders began tripping all over each other. Lorik hacked and cut, swinging his swords so fast the raiders felt like they were fighting against several men.

One managed to fall forward and strike out at Lorik’s thigh. Lorik dodged back, just as he kicked the raider in the face. It might have given the other raiders an opening to attack, but their companion on the ground blocked their path. Lorik then stepped on the fallen warrior’s back and jumped high in the air, spinning and swinging his sword. Only one raider was caught by Lorik’s spinning swords, but the move scared the rest, and they fled the battle.

Lorik shouted in victory and then dashed to the next group.

Lorik knew he should be tired, but even though he was breathing heavily, he felt invigorated instead of tired. He barreled into the next group, cutting down two of the raiders from behind before the rest turned to face him. They were shouting to each other, trying to coordinate their attack, but Lorik was too fast, too ferocious.

He had hooked his swords together again and slid from one side to the other, jabbing one warrior in the face, then slashing another’s thigh on the opposite side. He flipped his sword from low to high, catching another warrior in the throat, before leaping up and spinning a full circle in the air and landing with a vicious swipe that opened the chest of a raider. The Norsik warriors, now hesitant to engage Lorik, edged away.

“Come on, then!” he taunted. “Fight me!”

The Norsik broke and ran. The line of small groups was broken and the other groups retreated as well, all the way down to where Stone sat on his horse. Stone watched the Norsik turn and trot back toward their camp, then turned his horse and rode to Lorik, who stood wiping the blood and gore off his swords. There were wounded and dead men lying across the dusty field, many moaning or crying out in agony as they slowly succumbed to their wounds.

“I guess their taste for fighting wasn’t as great as they thought,” Stone said.

“They don’t like a fair fight,” Lorik agreed.

“I wouldn’t say facing you is a fair fight,” Stone added. “You’re like a hero from some story. What’s next, dragons?”

“Maybe,” Lorik said. “They say there are dragons in the north.”

“And you say there are forest elves in the Wilderlands.”

“There are!” Lorik insisted. “What is so hard to believe about that?”

“Hey, don’t get so upset, I wasn’t saying you were wrong. I’m just saying
I’ve
never seen one.”

“And you won’t, with that attitude,” Lorik teased.

They hurried back into the forest. Vera had been watching the battle with bated breath, not sure which of the men to keep her eye on. Now that she saw both of them coming safely back into the forest, she felt tremendous relief.

She gathered the healthiest of the women together and introduced Stone and Lorik. They were polite to Stone, but they gazed at Lorik with undisguised desire. Vera was appalled at first, because she still saw Lorik as her old friend. Of course they had shared a bed rather frequently over the years, but they were friends, first and foremost. Her heart belonged solely to her Liam now. Still, looking closely at Lorik, she could understand their desire. His body was glistening with sweat which made his exposed skin shimmer even in the dim lighting of the forest. His chest was broad, his shoulders and arms bigger than any man’s she could remember.

She had seen other men with large muscles, some so big they seemed almost grotesque. But Lorik’s body, as large as it suddenly was, seemed to be the perfect ideal of the male physique. She smiled, happy for her friend, not because the other women seemed drawn to him, but because he seemed so perfectly suited for the role he found himself in. He had traveled through the Wilderlands and rescued a large group of captives from the Norsik. She thought he would be pleased with that accomplishment, and perhaps even ready to settle into a quieter life.

“We should get moving,” Lorik said. “We have a long way to go.”

“But we still don’t have rations,” Vera said. “What will we eat? Where will we find water?”

“I can find what we need,” Lorik said. “For now, we just need to put distance between us and the Norsik.”

“I’d say they’re beaten,” Stone said, climbing down off his horse.

“They’ll come after us,” Lorik said. “They won’t forget it was just the two of us who stole their captives.”

“Well, mainly me,” Stone said in mock seriousness. “I mean, you helped, of course, but I did all the heavy lifting.”

Lorik and Vera laughed as they moved through the crowd of women and children. The women watched Lorik with awe, while the children, though scared and tired, reached out to touch him. He smiled down at them and patted their heads. Then they were moving through the forest. As time passed and they got further from the Norsik camp, the captives seemed to overcome the shock of their ordeal.

Stone walked, insisting that the weaker women and children take turns riding the horse. Lorik carried two of the smallest children on his shoulders, telling them about the wondrous forest elves high in the trees above. Vera listened, holding her own questions about his adventure with the Drery Dru for another time. Instead she whispered to Stone, who was struggling along beside her. His knee, although better, was not quite ready for a full day’s walk.

“Your leg is getting worse, isn’t it?” she asked him.

“It’s fine,” he lied.

“Why do men always feel like they can’t be honest? Do you really think Lorik met forest elves and climbed a giant tree?”

“It’s hard to believe, isn’t it? I mean, I look at him and see the physical changes, and I see the swords, but my mind simply won’t accept that there are elves up in the trees.”

“Mine either,” Vera said. “I don’t know that I could believe it even if I saw them with my own eyes.”

“Still, he is able to do things that shouldn’t be possible. No one his age grows, but he’s easily a head taller than before.”

“And he didn’t even seem tired after fighting all those raiders,” Vera said.

“I know,” Stone agreed. “When we were traveling here from deep in the forest, he would run all day. I mean, he was setting such a relentless pace that we would have to stop and rest the horse. Who can do that?”

“There are stories of the great heroes of the past,” Vera said.

“Yes, exactly, stories, which are naturally given to exaggeration and spectacle. No one ever believed those stories were true.”

“But what if they were?” Vera asked. “We’ve heard tales of dragons and wizards in Yelsia. The Torr are wizards.”

“So people say, but it’s not like they’re going around casting spells in broad daylight. It’s all so hard to believe.”

“Hard and wonderful,” Vera said. “I don’t know what I believe anymore, but I know I want to believe. I want to believe that magic exists and all that goes with it. I want the world to be a magical, mysterious place, full of wonder and hope. Not the grim, hopeless waste it has seemed to be lately. When I thought you were dead...” She couldn’t finish. Tears rolled down her checks.

“I’m so sorry,” Stone said. “I came as fast as I could, but—”

“No, it’s not that,” she said. “I knew you would come for me if you could, but I thought you were dead. I thought they’d killed you.”

“They gave it a good shot,” he said. “I’m lucky they didn’t check the bodies for survivors.”

“They’re animals,” she said angrily. “They only care about what they can take.”

“Well, it’s over now,” Stone said.

“But Lorik said they’ll come for us again,” she contested.

“Perhaps, but if they do we’ll stop them again.”

“The raids won’t stop.”

“So we’ll go south—maybe even back to Hassell Point.”

“No, I don’t want to go back.”

“Then we’ll go to Osla or Falxis or somewhere you feel safe. I’m not taking any chances with you again.”

She smiled, and they leaned on each other for a short while.

As the afternoon wore on, the mists rose. Lorik kept the group moving until he found a place where they could huddle together for the night with water nearby. Everyone was hungry and there was no food. Lorik saw the occasional deer, but with his bow and arrows gone he had no way to hunt. Plus, he didn’t want to start a fire in the forest again. He knew how to build a fire that was safe, but fire was the one thing the Drery Dru feared most.

It was impossible to tell how much light was left in the day, so once Lorik had everyone settling in for the night, he walked a short distance away and called up into the trees.

“Hennick!” he called. “Can you hear me?”

“Perhaps not Hennick, but I can hear you, Great One,” came a playful voice from behind him.

Lorik turned to see a brown-haired elf clinging to the side of the giant tree as effortlessly as Lorik stood on the ground.

“I’m Udell. How can I be of service?”

“I need food,” Lorik said. “Enough to feed a lot of people. I’m leading a group of captives back through the Wilderlands.”

“Yes, we’ve been watching,” Udell said. “I can see about food, but know that the painted warriors pursue you.”

“I expected as much. I will deal with them tonight.”

The elf looked excited to hear that Lorik meant to confront the Norsik raiders again.

“We will bring food down to your people,” Udell said.

“Thank you,” Lorik said, bowing slightly.

The elf returned the bow, then scampered up the tree like a squirrel. Lorik watched him go until the Drery Dru disappeared in the darkness high above. Then he went back to the group of women and children. They looked tired, but more alive than when he had first found them. He needed to keep them from discovering that the Norsik were pursuing them. He needed them to eat, sleep, and regain their strength.

Lorik was still watching the women and children when a large wooden basket was lowered from one of the trees. It was filled with fruit and the simple root vegetables that he remembered the forest elves feeding him. The women and children, including Vera and Stone, were amazed. They looked up, trying to see the elves, but the Drery Dru were well hidden in the high trees.

“You won’t see them,” Lorik said. “The Drery Dru are bashful people in most cases. You can only see them if they want you to.”

“Are they invisible?” asked one young girl, her voice full of awe as she stared up into the canopy.

“No, they aren’t invisible, just good hiders. They always win at hide-and-seek.”

“Really?” she asked, with rapture on her face.

Lorik laughed and nodded. The women and children ate their fill, and there was enough left for everyone to fill their pockets for the journey the next day. Then night fell and darkness enclosed the camp. Everyone lay down together, the women and children huddling together for warmth. It wasn’t a perfect situation, but at least their bellies were full and they were safe for the night.

Lorik felt better about leaving the group knowing the Drery Dru were watching them. He checked his swords and then followed the mist through the forest. He ran at a light pace and kept it up for the hour it took to reach the Norsik camp. He found nearly a hundred warriors. Most were sleeping, but there were sentries staring blindly in the dark.

Lorik wasn’t sure what to do. He had fought and killed the Norsik mercilessly over the past several weeks. He knew that they had no qualms about killing indiscriminately: in a Norsik raid, no one was safe. And the Norsik were entering the Kingdom of Ortis with bad intentions, so surely killing them to save his own people was justified. Still, when he thought about slaughtering the group of raiders, something made him hesitate. He thought again of Hennick’s warning. His choices would mean the difference between life and death in his quest to protect his people.

He decided he could accomplish just as much with a little theatrical surprise for the sleeping Norsik as he could by killing them. He hoped he was making the right choice. It could be that by allowing the Norsik to live, he was sealing his fate, but indiscriminate killing seemed wrong, and he decided to trust his heart.

He sheathed his sword and drew his dagger. He could see the sentries but they couldn’t see him, so hitting them on the back of the head with the handle of his dagger and knocking them senseless wasn’t difficult. Then he stripped the sentries naked and used their clothes to tie the raiders up. He left them at their posts, each one tied like a pig ready for roasting. Then he took their swords and walked into the center of their camp. He had to move quietly, stepping over the sleeping forms of many of the raiders. Then, at the center of the camp, he arranged the sentries’ swords, stabbing them into the ground in a circle. With the last sword, he sketched a crude drawing of a human skull. Then he left the group.

He waited nearby through the night, wanting to see if his ploy worked. At sunrise, the raiders woke and discovered his handiwork. The sentries had no memory of what had happened to them. Lorik couldn’t understand the arguments being made around the camp, but he could tell the raiders were spooked, so he set out, running through the forest to get back to his own camp.

He found it abandoned but it didn’t take him long to catch up with Stone, Vera, and the captives. They were heading in the right direction, and Lorik hurried over to Stone.

“Where have you been?” Stone said.

“Just leaving a message for our friends. Besides, I knew you could get this group moving without me.”

“I did that,” Vera said. “Liam was too tired,” she teased.

“I’ve been through a lot, okay?” he said in mock defensiveness. “And I’m injured. Have a little mercy, would you?”

“I think he’s milking it,” Lorik said.

“I keep trying to get him to ride his horse,” Vera said.

“Other people need it more,” Stone argued.

“Perhaps, but I don’t want you too stiff to help if I need it,” Lorik said. “It wouldn’t hurt you to take a turn or two today. We still have about five days’ travel through the forest.”

“Speaking of helping, why didn’t you take me with you this morning?”

“I didn’t go this morning,” Lorik said. “I went last night. And you aren’t much help in the darkness.”

“What did you do?”

“I tried to scare the raiders off.”

“Did it work?” Vera asked.

“It scared them, but whether they turned back I don’t know.”

“You should have killed them,” she said bitterly.

“Did they hurt you?” Lorik asked.

“They hurt all of us,” Vera said. “But they didn’t abuse me if that’s what you’re asking. They did that with the weaker women and children. I guess we were too valuable to rape or beat too severely, but they are animals. You could kill every last one of them and I wouldn’t lose a minute’s sleep.”