Mercury Mind (The Downfall Saga Book 1) (31 page)

As soon as Caddaric left the camp, Donovan got to his feet, plunged down the rise into their camp, and grabbed the bag.

“Don’t kill me!” yelled Kort.

“Hey, get back here you cowards!” yelled Caddaric. “It was a prank.”

Caddaric and Kort emerged from the bushes, Caddaric still brandishing the machete.

“Let him go or I’ll burn your notes,” said Donovan.

“You don’t know what you’re doing,” said Caddaric. “Get out of here, both of you.”

“Then let him go, but I’m taking these with me.”

“No, you fool. I need those. It’s part of my plan. I—”

Caddaric was interrupted by the crashing noise of his cronies returning to camp. Their eyes went big when they saw Donovan and Kort standing there. Donovan locked eyes with Clyde before taking off with the notes slung over his shoulder.

“After him,” said Clyde. “He’s got the notes.”

The five of them went running after Donovan.

“Idiots,” said Caddaric.

“You’re the one who chooses to hang around with them,” said Kort.

“Not them. You and Donovan.”

“You’re just pissed that we messed up your plan.”

“What you don’t realize is that I included a bunch of errors in that copy of my notes, so they would do poorly on their exams.”

“Wait. You weren’t trying to help them?”

“No. They proved themselves to be false friends and I was trying to get back at them for playing me like a fool.”

“Don’t I feel dumb.”

“You look it, too.”

Meanwhile, Donovan was running for his life through the dark woods. With no destination in mind, he was following the path of least resistance, hoping to put some distance between himself and his pursuers.

The stars were out and the moon had risen which shone just enough light down through the foliage to navigate by, but he still kept stumbling over half buried tree roots on the trail he was following.

He stopped after five minutes of running. Taking a few deep breaths, he listened for pursuit and was shocked to hear someone close behind him. Taking off again, he leapt over a narrow creek bed and climbed a steep hill on the far side. The trees opened up on the other side of the rise and he sprinted down a gentle slope. Turning to check for signs of pursuit, he saw figures cresting the rise just as he entered the brush at the bottom.

Continuing in the same direction until the trees blocked him from their sight, he turned to his right and ran ten yards before diving over a fallen log. He squished himself against the log and waited.

It took a while for the blood to quit pounding in his ears, and even longer for his breathing to return to normal, but when it did he could hear movement through the trees.

“He’s around here somewhere,” shouted Clyde. “Spread out and we’ll find him.”

The sounds slowly faded away, but Donovan didn’t dare poke his head over the log. He heard a branch snap in the distance, then the measured pace of footsteps heading towards him. He waited until the last second possible to spring up from his hiding spot, intending to scare whoever it was before running.

He leapt up and saw a large dark shape blocking the moonlight. The Clachward reached out and grabbed his arm.

A
high pitched scream split the air.

“I think that was Delaney,” said Kort. “I’ve got to check on them.”

“I’m going after those guys to see if I can calm them down before they do something that they’ll regret later.”

“Good luck.”

“You too.”

Caddaric headed off in the direction that Donovan had run, machete in his right hand, and a small orb of blue light being guided by his left. Following the broken branches, he came to a trail. He couldn’t tell which way they had gone, so he chose a direction at random and began jogging down the trail.

The moonlight shining down from above turned the branches into dark, reaching arms. He couldn’t help but think of the story Professor Cleary had told them earlier about the tree coming to life and squeezing the life out of their helpless victims.

A branch snagged on his jacket, and he savagely hacked at the tree with his machete. It took a moment to calm down and continue along the path.

He heard a scream from off to his left. It didn’t sound like anyone who he was chasing but, after a moment of indecision, he headed towards its source.

He carved a path with his machete until he reached an area with little underbrush. Students cowered against trees in the area, staring transfixed at a Clachward that was standing in their midst, turning its head back and forth as if sniffing the air.

He stepped forward, his light held before him and stared at the Clachward. Jerel had described them to him, but he had never seen one before. He looked at its large, rocky body, searching for a nonexistent weakness.

The Clachward was taller than a man, and much heavier. The edges of the rocks forming its body looked sharp, as if they were freshly made, but the moss clinging to it must have taken many years to grow.

It turned its head towards him, and tilted it back slightly, before advancing straight at him.

He sent his dim light towards it, and it barely flinched as it continued its trek towards him.

He brought forth a new light, a vibrant yellow in color and as bright as he could muster. He sent it forward and the Clachward recoiled.

“Everybody get up,” said Caddaric. “We can hold it off with lights while we escape.”

“Where are we going?” asked a dark figure whose voice he didn’t recognize.

“The clearing. We’ll gather in the clearing. I don’t know how many Clachwards there are, but if we work together we should be able to hold them off.”

He backed the Clachward away until they got to their feet and headed for the clearing. They encountered several other groups of students on the way, some panicking, but most unaware of the Clachwards. They heard many Clachwards crashing through the brush, sounding menacing in the darkness as branches snapped and were crushed in their wake. A few Clachwards seemed to head straight for them, but they held them off with their lights as they quickly outdistanced them.

Leaving the dark forest, Caddaric was glad to be back in the moonlit clearing. A dark bank of clouds was building near the horizon, but they’d have time to get organized before the storm reached them. Many other students had the same idea and were already in the clearing.

“Everyone get over here,” bellowed Caddaric.

Relieved to hear someone of authority, everyone gathered around him.

“Everybody needs to remain calm. Yes, there are Clachwards wandering in the woods, but has anyone actually been attacked?”

By the dim light of several floating balls of light, he saw everybody shaking their heads.

“Good. Just because they haven’t attacked yet, doesn’t mean that they won’t. I’m going to split you all into groups to go collect firewood. As long as you watch each other’s backs then we should all be fine. Don’t abandon your friends. Hold them back with lights while you collect as much wood as possible. We’re going to build a circle of fires in the center of the clearing, so if they cause problems we can hide behind the fires.”

Caddaric quickly split them into groups of four and sent them to gather wood. He kept one group with himself who began clearing an area for the fires.

A few students continued to trickle into the clearing and were assigned tasks to keep them distracted.

Looking up from the pit he was digging with his machete, Caddaric saw a group of three Clachwards enter the clearing.

“Just focus on what you’re doing,” said Caddaric. “They aren’t a threat to us.”

Despite his reassurances, everyone kept giving them nervous glances as they wandered around the clearing. More Clachwards entered the clearing one at a time and began milling about. They turned their heads side to side as if searching for something which they couldn’t find.

The students slowly adjusted to their presence, and their terror turned to mistrust. Giving the Clachwards as wide a berth as possible, they made many trips into the woods, and amassed an impressive pile of wood.

Several students started stacking the wood into piles around the middle of the clearing. Others used their Gift to heat the wood to remove the moisture from it, but not enough to actually light it on fire.

The adrenaline slowly subsided and students began to tire. Caddaric called everyone together in the center of the clearing. After spending several minutes conducting attendance and asking if anyone knew where the missing students had camped, he sent out a few groups of volunteers to try and track them down.

As they were talking a single Clachward approached them. It appeared that it was intent to trample right through their midst, but when Caddaric walked up in front of it, it stopped. It tilted its head back, as if sniffing the wind, before standing there motionless, looming over him and unnerving the students only a few feet away.

***

“R
avyn! Delaney!” screamed Kort, as he scrambled back to where they were camping.

Cresting the rise, he nearly ran into Ravyn who was running up the other side.

“Where’s Delaney?” asked Kort.

“There was a Clachward,” said Ravyn. “She ran off towards the clearing where we’re to meet the professors before I could stop her. Where’s Donovan?”

“Dunno. They realized that it was a joke and started chasing him into the woods.”

“We should put up a red light and wait for a professor.”

“Didn’t you here that whole speech about us becoming representatives of Haven. We can’t expect someone to come along and help us every time we’re in danger. You told me that you wanted to become a War Wizard. What would a War Wizard do in this situation?”

“First off, I’m not a War Wizard. Secondly, shut up.”

“Think of this as a practical test. The Clachwards are only here to distract us. We need to stay calm and think this through.”

“You? Think this through? Are you sure you didn’t fall and hit your head?”

“Many times, but none recently. Look, if she’s running towards the clearing, then she should be fine, unless something happens.”

“That’s reassuring,” she said. Kort missed her rolling her eyes in the darkness. “I happen to agree. Donovan needs us more. The Clachwards seem to have an interest in him, and he couldn’t create a light to save his life.”

“He might have to.”

They headed in the direction that Donovan and Caddaric had headed earlier. They kept two lights floating ahead of them, one on either side of the path. They crossed through Caddaric’s camp and followed the snapped braches into the forest until they reached a narrow animal trail.

“This way,” said Kort. “He wouldn’t have wanted to accidentally run into anyone else while trying to lose them.”

They walked along the trail watching for signs of someone leaving the trail. Kort had hunted many animals with his father and brothers, and was searching for any spoor to indicate someone had passed this way. Between Donovan and his pursuers, he had no problems finding broken branches along the edge of the trail and kicked over rocks.

“We’ve got to go faster,” said Ravyn. “They would’ve been running and we’ll never catch them at this pace.”

“If we miss their trail, then we’ll never find Donovan at all,” said Kort.

He continued along the trail at a measured pace, before dropping to one knee. Ravyn couldn’t see what he was looking at, but he turned and left the trail.

“They went this way,” he said.

Ravyn had no choice but to follow behind as he led them down to the edge of a creek. The shallow creek flowed over a rocky bottom. The banks were a couple of feet high, but it was narrow enough to jump over.

“Wait here for a moment,” said Kort. “He might have tried to lose them in the creek.”

Kort headed off along the bank of the creek, sweeping his light over both banks, looking for any signs. His light slowly faded into the darkness.

Ravyn weaved her light around the trees on the opposite side of the creek. Having spent her entire life in a city, she had no idea what Kort was looking for. She began to go over the multiplication table in her head to help her relax. She was most of the way through it when she heard a set of heavy footsteps approaching from behind.

“Did you find anything?” she asked. She finished the multiplication table as the footsteps continued to advance. “Kort. What’s going on?”

Still no response.

“Kort? Stop trying to be funny.”

She waited until the footsteps came close before spinning around to scare him, and bounced off the chest of something that was hard and heavy. She stumbled backwards, slipped over the edge of the bank, and fell into the creek. She let out a cry of pain as she twisted her ankle on a rock, and fell onto her back in the water, with a splash.

Looking up she saw a large figure looming over her on the bank. Broad, with sharp edges, she recognized it from the descriptions that Donovan had given her of the Clachwards he’d seen. She was frozen in terror and couldn’t call Kort for help or summon her magic.

The Clachward just stood there, scanning the area. A ball of light flew at its head and it recoiled from it. It wasn’t a terrified motion, but rather a deliberate distancing of itself from the light. Every time the light moved closer, it moved an equal distance away.

“Are you okay?” asked Kort, slowly walking forward, carefully placing each step as he kept his attention fixed on the Clachward.

“I ... I think I twisted my ankle,” she said.

“Try not to move it. Can you manage a light?”

She summoned a bright yellow light, and sent it towards the Clachward. Kort let his light disappear as he climbed down into the creek.

“I’m going to pick you up and take you to a drier spot to look at your ankle.”

He bent down and picked her up in his arms. He set her down on the far bank while he climbed up, then proceeded to carry her away from the creek. He found a suitable tree to climb, he thought it might have been an apple tree but didn’t take the time to examine it in detail. He readjusted Ravyn so her arms were wrapped around his neck and her legs around his waist. With his arms and legs free, he slowly climbed until they were a dozen feet off the ground. He gingerly set her down with her back resting against the trunk and her legs resting on branches in front of her.