Questing Sucks (Book 1) (33 page)

Franklin opened his eyes, and shouted his own cry of surprise. The arrows were still being fired, yet rather than ending lives, they were instead bouncing off of a giant orange beam of light, transparent and invisible, except for when an arrow crashed into it. It continued to turn invisible, reappearing only when a soldier fired an arrow into it.

The human woman was responsible for it, it was obvious. She was standing in front of the villagers, each one of them huddling behind her. Her arms were crossed over her chest, and she continued to chant something indiscernible.

“Kellar!” Shina called. “What are you doing?”

The boy, Kellar, was walking to the soldiers, slowly, his hands empty. He mumbled a few words, something Franklin assumed to be magic. The pavement in front of him rumbled, and then exploded, rocks levitating in mid-air. It was spectacular, yet everything these people did transcended the ordinary. The rocks hung in the air for a moment, before twisting, reforming, and then fashioning themselves into a blade. Franklin held his breath, while he watched the transformation. What had been rocks, had changed into something else altogether. Now the boy brandished a real weapon, the bright blade glimmering in the sunlight.

“Shina,” he said. “After what you told me, I cannot let these men leave here alive. No good Drashian would allow that.”

So, he’s a Drashian?
Franklin thought.

The Drashians were an honorable tribe of people that roamed mountainous areas, said to be among the strongest living humans. In recent times they’d developed somewhat of a bad reputation as some of them had gone into the slave-trading business. But as a whole, they were an honorable and noble people.

“We had a plan!” Shina yelled. “We agreed we would scare them away, and then leave.”

“Then they’ll just go to another village, and do the same things they were going to do here. Shina, turn around. I don’t want you to see this.”

“But Kellar, I—”

“Turn around, Shina!” the human woman commanded.

“Mistress Orellia, why are you allowing this?”

“Because he’s right. Shina, turn around, that’s an order.”

Kellar approached the men, standing before them without fear. Franklin had no doubt that he was a tough child, but he’d have to be crazy to think he could take on sixty armed men. “You’ve seen what we can do,” the boy said. “I’m sure you know what comes next.”

Delatore, still clutching his ruined hand, growled at Kellar. “Ye be dead, boy! Ye be dead. Kill em!”

“Remmos MAHR!”

There was a deafening explosion, followed by a blinding display of light. For a few terrifying moments Franklin became senseless, clutching his daughter while the blinding light filled his eyes and a painful ringing filled his ears. Screams of agony and pain rang out across the town. When the light faded, Franklin could make out the forms of about forty men, rolling on the ground trying to put out the flames that consumed them. The center of the square was an inferno, the smell of torched bodies overpowering all else.

In an instant, the boy had slain more than half of them. He charged at the rest. The men drew their weapons, rattled and confused, yet determined to live. They didn’t even have a chance.

Kellar danced around them with ease, dealing death each time his summoned weapon made contact. Each time he moved his powerful young arms, another limb would fly, or blood would spray from an open mouth.

One tried to decapitate him with an overhead swing. He dodged it as easily as the rest, returning his own horizontal slash, and cutting the man open, displaying his insides for his companions to witness. There was something off about the blade, too, something Franklin couldn’t grasp. It seemed that even if the blade barely made contact, something that should have resulted in nothing more than a scratch, it still resulted in a mortal wound. A gruff-looking soldier managed to narrowly dodge one of the boy’s attacks, something that at the most should have given him a nick on the cheek. Instead, Franklin had to jump back as the soldier's head rolled along the pavement next to him, leaving a streak of dark blood.

Magic is a fearsome thing,
Franklin thought.

When the carnage had ended, and the village was colored red by the insides of the attacking soldiers, Franklin ran to his wife. He’d never know who the men were, or what they wanted. He’d never understand why the three mages had arrived, or who they were as well. But he’d always be grateful.

The mages spent the night, and the villagers showered them with gifts and thanks, offering their most prized possessions. The three mages accepted none of them, and when they flew off on their wondrous animals early the next morning, Franklin shed a tear. If not for them, his daughter and wife, the only things in the world that had ever, or would ever matter to him, would’ve been lost to him forever.

Chapter 33: Wolly’s Crunkets

 

“Sehn, ignore him!” Cah’lia screeched. Once again her foolish brother had opened his stupid mouth, and now Sehn’s life was in danger. It wasn’t the boy’s fault, he was only seven. Yet, Nero was really going to have to learn what not to say in front of Sehn.

They’d awoken earlier than usual, intent on getting a move-on. The way down was proving to be significantly easier than the climb up, and just a few hours after setting out, they’d made it halfway down the other side of the mountain.

The trip down continued in a steady descent, which they carefully treaded for most of the day. Now, however, there was a gap. The path running along the leaf-covered dirt ended in a narrow cliff, with a somewhat steep drop. They needed to find an alternate route down.

Cah’lia’s feet crunched on the twigs and leaves as she walked over to Sehn. She placed a hand on his shoulder. “Please, Sehn, just ignore him.”

“I will
NOT
ignore him, Foo’lia,” Sehn growled. “My disciple has just said, and I quote. ‘Hey, Sehn, I bet you can’t jump down there and land on your feet.’ Hah! I shall jump down, climb back up, and then jump down yet again!”

This wasn’t going to end well, things with Sehn never did. Cah’lia tried to reason with him, but as usual his inflated ego caused him to ignore anything she said. She gripped his shoulder tighter, enough to cause pain, and he spun around to face her. “Ouch! What gives?”

“You’re not jumping down there, Sehn. No way, that’s ridiculous. You’ll break both your legs.”

“Bitch please. The Great Sehn’s legs cannot be broken. The moment I land, energized greatness shall envelope each of my bones, forming a protective cocoon around my lower body.”

“Oh yeah? Then how come you almost broke them when you jumped off that building in Koringrath?”

“I already told you, I was simply seeing if—”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ve heard the story a million times. Look, we’re finding an alternate path, and that’s that.”

Sehn muttered something under his breath, and Cah’lia chose to ignore it. If she had to drag the Elf she would. She marched over to Nero, and grabbed his ear, tugging on it. “From now on keep your mouth shut, you silly boy,” Cah’lia whispered. He cried out, throwing weak child-punches at her abdomen which served as nothing more than an annoyance. She tugged harder.

“Rina knows what Nero said was stupid.” Cah’lia smiled at her, and Rina smiled back. She was becoming more and more of a joy to be around. She was smart, curious, and Cah’lia grew closer to her each day. Cah’lia and the little Human were inseparable.

It didn’t take long to find what she was looking for. Veering just off to the left, under a series of arched trees, Cah’lia spotted a small opening. There was a small circular crack in the tough stone of the mountain. It wound down into a series of descending boulders, letting out into the gap below them.

“This way,” she said. “Be careful going down, and make sure you don’t fall.”

Nero pulled away from her, and peered into the small opening. “Whoa, this is so cool! It’s like a staircase made of rocks. I bet I can jump down two at a time.”

The words left the boy’s mouth before Cah’lia could stop them. Sehn was quick to one-up him. “Oh? Then in that case, I shall jump six at a time.”

“Neither of you is jumping any at a time!” Cah’lia snapped. “You’ll both follow me, and carefully go down one at a time. Nice and slow, until we get down all of them. If either of you tries to show off, even just a little bit, you’re getting a beating.”

It amazed Cah’lia just how well she was shifting into a commanding role. She was firm when she needed to be, and while Sehn gave her grief at every turn, he always ended up listening to her. In fact, Cah’lia was probably the only person in Sehn’s life that he actually obeyed, the thought of which filled her with conflicting emotions. Lately, it seemed she was growing some type of power over Sehn, something that made her feel both affection and heartache toward him.

“Let’s just go,” Sehn grumbled. “But let it be known, that had Nero and I contested, I surely would have emerged the victor.” Cah’lia narrowed her eyes on her little brother. Squinting, she gave him the fiercest look of warning she was able. He wisely chose to remain silent.

Cah’lia led the way, ducking under the small opening, and crawling into the darkened crack in the mountain. She looked behind to make sure they were following. Aside from the sounds of her hands and feet crawling along the brown rock, she could hear Nero and Rina giggling.

“Rina saw that,” the girl giggled. “Rina saw Sehn look at Cah’lia’s butt.”

There was an explosion of denial, with Sehn swearing his innocence up and down. Cah’lia was glad she was facing away, or they’d see her blush.

So,
she thought with a hidden grin.
Sehn likes to take peeks, does he?

She wiggled as she crawled, hoping it would cause Sehn to feel a bit of unease. He deserved to be teased a bit, for all the trouble he’d put her through since they’d left Elvar.

They only crawled for a short while, before exiting the small tunnel and arriving at the first gap. It was only about ten feet below them, easy enough to drop down without much trouble. Nero was right—it really did resemble a natural staircase made of giant rocks.

Cah’lia hopped down, and landed softly on her feet. When it came to alacrity, Cah’lia was unrivaled. She held out her arms to catch Rina. “It’s okay, don’t be afraid.” The girl hopped down to join her, giggling when she landed in Cah’lia’s arms. “All right, Nero, you’re next.”

“No way,” he said.

Cah’lia argued back and forth with Nero, the boy refusing to let her catch him, swearing that she was insulting his dignity.

“Move!” Nero demanded. Cah’lia shrugged and took a step back. Nero jumped, and landed with a thud on his feet, falling forward and scraping his knees. He looked up, and his lips quivered.

Here he goes,
Cah’lia thought with a sigh.

“Owwww!” he cried, tears falling down his face. “W-why did you l-let this happen, owwww,” he wailed. “Cawiah, it huurrtss.”

“Quit being such a baby,” Sehn growled. “You’re my disciple, not some wimp. Back up, Cah’lia.” Sehn leaped into the air, twisting into a spin, before landing exactly the same was as Nero. He fell forward, and scraped his own knees.

“Fucking hell!” he shouted. “You provoked me to do this! Gods, it fucking hurts!”

Cah’lia shrugged again, and refused to console either one of them. It served them right for being such stubborn idiots. What was worse was that they repeated similar incidents the entire way down. Each time Cah’lia begged them to let her help, and each time they refused. They laughed at her and then cried out in pain when they scraped their knees, or bruised their ankles. Sehn didn’t shed any tears, but by the time they got to the final rock, he held a look of relief.

“All right, let’s keep going. Here,” Cah’lia said, reaching into her bag and passing Nero a tube of ointment. “Put this on your knees.”

“D-do it for me,” he pleaded. His eyes were drying from the tears, leaving small red marks behind on his boyish face.

“No, Nero. You made your own stupid choices, so now you put on your own ointment. Quit being a baby.”

“S-Sehn, will you—”

“Fuck that! How dare you even ask me that, Nero? You’re lucky I don’t increase your torture sessions to four per day for that unmanly display of tears.”

Cah’lia tuned out the two idiots, still bickering behind her. As long as they kept up they could argue all they wanted. Rina remained by her side, holding her hand and pointing out many of the weird-looking animals that lived on the mountain. There were large cats similar to lions, but with the horns normally seen on bulls. There were round purple birds, with snouts instead of beaks.

Around mid-day the slope evened out into a flatter surface. Within another hour, they’d finally be gone from the mountain, and from there it would only be a day’s travel to Hahl. It would normally take a few hours, but they’d left the horses behind. Not that they’d have been able to get the beasts up the mountain at any rate.

The sound of feet kicking leaves grew louder, and Cah’lia moaned once again at the stupidity of the two boys. Sehn and Nero were apparently engaged in some kind of leaf-kicking war, seeing who could kick as many and as far in a single swipe. As the dirt came closer and closer to her back with each violent kick, she gripped her hands into fists and whirled around on them.

“If you two fools kick any of that dirt on me, well, trust me you don’t want to find out what’ll happen.”

They laughed at her, but at the same time they offered each other nervous glances. Good, let them try and play off their fear as laughter. Her patience was wearing thin for Sehn and her stupid brother. Rina looked up at Cah’lia, and tugged on her sleeve. “What is it, Rina?”

“What is that noise, Mistress Cah’lia?”

“What noise, Rina?” Cah’lia knelt down to meet her eyes, confused. She hadn’t heard anything.

“Rina hears something, from over that way,” she pointed, “it sounds like yelling.”

At this Sehn and Nero stopped kicking dirt, and huddled next to Rina to find out what the girl was on about. “Who’s yelling?” Nero asked.

“Rina has very good hearing,” the girl said with pride. “There’s someone yelling over that way.”

Cah’lia looked where she was pointing, through a series of trees that ran parallel to the western rock-face of the mountain. Cah’lia followed along the path, sliding her hand to her leather-hide pants, and gripping the dagger at her side. This wasn’t the type of place people visited often, and Cah’lia wasn’t willing to take any chances.

They followed along the path, and eventually Cah’lia could hear it too. It was a high-pitched voice, screaming something that sounded like a cry for help. Cah’lia turned her walk into a run, looking behind her to make sure the other two were following along. She didn’t have to worry about Rina. Wherever Cah’lia went, Rina was always by her side.

They came across a small clearing in the path, and Cah’lia was taken aback at the sight that greeted them. There was a tiny man, no bigger than Rina, stuck with his head inside of a small crack in the mountain-rock.

“Oi!” he shouted, wiggling his tiny butt as he attempted to break free. “For the love of me Gods, is there any that’ll be helping me. Poor Wolly, always getting
me’self
into trouble. Oi! Someone, anyone!”

Cah’lia cleared her throat, and the man paused for a second, halting his shouting. “Is...Is someone there? Oh, please, let there be someone there. Old Wolly has been stuck in here all day. Please, if anyone be there, then get Old Wolly out of this Gods-cursed head-trapper.”

“I’m here to help,” Cah’lia said. “Just hold still.”

“No!” Sehn cried. “Cah’lia, I forbid you from helping that man, not until I’ve burned this hilarious picture into memory. Quick Nero, start drawing!”