Shepherd's Quest: The Broken Key #1 (49 page)

“We can’t stay here!” Riyan whispered earnestly in fear.

“Quiet!” replied Bart.

The two fishermen had finished releasing the mooring lines and were beginning to head out.

“Come on,” Bart said. Moving out quickly, he practically ran in the dark towards the dock. Riyan followed.

All around them they could hear goblins speaking to one another within their homes.

Terror at being caught almost immobilized Riyan but he somehow kept going. They hit the dock and Bart immediately went all the way down to the small, four-seater moored at the end of the dock. “Hurry Riyan,” he whispered back to him as he reached the boat and started untying the lines.

Riyan quickly raced down the end of the dock and made his way into the boat. He glanced back to the village and could see goblins moving about, fortunately none were heading their way at the moment.

Then the rope that had moored the boat to the dock was tossed inside followed quickly by Bart. Riyan held one of the oars in his hand that had been lying in the bottom and handed the other to Bart. Working together, they began paddling the boat quickly out onto the lake.

Riyan kept glancing back to the village, but so far none of the goblins had yet discovered the theft. He sighed in relief and his fear began subsiding as the distance between them and the dock grew.

To the east, the sky was just beginning to lighten with the coming of dawn. They needed to find Kevik and Chad quickly before it grew light enough for the goblins to see them out upon the lake.

They rowed for another quarter hour as they searched the shoreline for the other two.

The fishermen they had seen earlier must have gone to a different location to fish as they didn’t encounter them.

Finally, they saw the pair on the shoreline waving to them. They paddled harder and when they reached the shore, ran the prow of the boat up onto the beach. “I started thinking something had happened to you,” Chad said as he threw the packs into the boat.

“We need to hurry,” Riyan said to them. Gesturing back to the village he added,

“They’re beginning to awaken.”

With the packs now in the bottom of the boat, Kevik hopped in and then Chad pushed them off the shore. As Chad jumped in, Riyan and Bart used the oars to turn the boat around and headed towards the mouth of the river leading to the larger lake by the Marketplace.

The sky continued to lighten as they rowed across the lake. The mountaintops of the range separating the two lands became more distinct and the darkness around the four comrades in the boat began to diminish. Also visible was a dark plume of smoke rising some distance away between them and the mountains. Obviously the fire still continued to rage.

“Look!” said Kevik and they turned to see several other boats now out on the water.

Goblins were seen throwing nets out over the water as they gathered in the fish.

“Doesn’t look like they’re searching for the missing boat,” Riyan observed.

“No it doesn’t,” replied Bart. “It may not ever occur to them that it was stolen by humans. After all, how often do humans make it this far?”

“I hope you’re right,” said Chad.

They continued rowing hard until the mouth of the river appeared ahead of them. As the bow of the boat entered the river, Riyan glanced back one last time to see if any pursuit had developed. He was greatly relieved to see that none had.

While the sky continued lightening, they rowed. They kept on the lookout for a place to hole up through the day as they didn’t dare risk being on the river during the daylight hours. When the sky lightened to the extent that they dared not proceed any further, they beached the boat and carried it inland to hide among the trees.

The boat was fairly heavy but they managed to lift it and carry it into the trees so as not to leave a tell-tale drag mark on the shore. They carried it a hundred feet into the forest before setting it back to the ground. Exhausted and hungry, they settled down to wait for the coming of night when they would return to the river and make their way to the large lake before morning dawned once more.

“Riyan,” Bart said. “Why don’t you use your sling and find us something to eat?”

“I really don’t want raw meat,” Riyan said. “I’d rather go hungry another day.”

“With the smoke in the air from the fire downstream, I doubt if anyone is going to notice if we have a fire,” Bart argued.

Riyan knew they were all hungry, with naught but a few strips of meat a day or so ago to sustain them. “Very well,” he said, and took his sling. Picking up a couple stones he soon disappeared into the trees.

By the time he returned with two rabbits, the others had a fire going. They built it close to the side of the boat in order to hide it in the event a goblin passed by. But given the relative wildness of the surrounding trees and bush, it’s unlikely goblins have traveled through this area recently.

The meal of roast rabbit was one of the best meals Riyan had ever had in his life. His mother always said hunger was the best seasoning, and she was right. Once the meal was over, they turned in. Riyan took the first watch as the others began resting. He kept an ever vigilant eye out for possible incursions near their camp by goblins, but what was on his mind mostly was the fire.

Smoke rose high into the sky before the upper air currents began pushing it eastward.

What little breeze there was blew towards the fire, so hopefully it would keep it moving away from them. But, whether it does or not made no difference come morning for they planned to ride the river south, directly into the flames. Riyan wished they didn’t have to come near the fire, but being on foot such as they would have to be in order to circumvent it, would take them far too long to reach another pass. And every extra day on this side of the mountains increased their chance of being spotted.

Throughout the day as the others took their turns at watch, they too couldn’t help but watch the smoke rising. One shift at watch led to the next until darkness came again and they deemed the time was right to go. Bart went to scout the area by the river and once he made sure it was clear, returned to help bring the boat back to the water.

The mood in the boat was somber as it began floating down the river. Each kept his thoughts to himself as the river brought them ever closer to the forest fire.

It didn’t take long before smoke began having more of a presence in the air. The further they went the thicker it became. Then from up ahead they saw the glow of the fire coming up ahead of them.

Sections of the forest were burning off a ways from the river on both sides.

Smoldering areas adjacent to the river grew more frequent and in the moonlight they could see the burnt, smoking husks that had at one time been tall, stately trees.

Ash started to rain down on them as it settled back to earth and the heat from the fires began to be felt as well. Then all of a sudden, the boat came to a jarring stop as it ran aground. They were knocked off their seats from the unexpected impact.

“What happened?” asked Riyan as he got himself off the bottom of the boat.

“We ran into something,” replied Bart.

As it turned out, they had run aground at the spot where they had forded the river on their way in. They could make out the roads moving from the river on both sides.

“Everyone out,” Bart said. “We have to pull the boat across the ford to deeper water.” They climbed out and positioned themselves around the boat. Then altogether they pulled it across the ford to the deeper water on the other side. When the boat once again floated freely, they hopped back in and continued on.

Smoke thickened, ash rained down on them constantly, and the temperature was beginning to climb. Some of the pieces of ash coming down were still glowing red, even full blown embers began dropping out of the sky. Riyan wondered about that until a tree next to the river suddenly popped.

Embers flew in all directions and they saw that the interior of the tree was glowing red. Even though the fire had already swept through this area, some of the trees were still smoldering on the inside.

“Kevik.” Bart broke the silence as he said, “We need some light.”

“But they’ll see us!” argued Chad.

“We’ll announce our presence,” Riyan warned.

“Look, the smoke has all but obscured the moon’s light,” he explained. “We can’t see where we’re going. Besides, if there are any goblins in the area they’ll either be going to the fire to fight it, or moving away from it in flight.”

“Very well,” replied Kevik. Then his bobbing orb appeared and began dancing above the boat.

“Thank you,” said Bart. Kevik just nodded in reply.

Around them they could now better see the destruction left by the fire. Trees broken and smoldering, the ground a charred mess, and the ash raining down looked deceptively like snowflakes. Further along they began seeing small animals, or rather what was left of them, that had sought refuge by the fire. Some lay dead looking for all the world as if they were asleep, these must have died from the smoke. While others had their fur singed off and in some cases were still smoking, there was no doubt that the fire had gotten to those.

“Oh man,” Chad said.

Riyan turned his gaze from the dead animals and glanced to Chad. He saw that he was looking ahead of them in fear. Riyan turned his gaze downriver and saw the fire arcing to the sky. To either side of the river the forest burned. The river looked like it was going to pass through the fires of hell, which wasn’t that far from the truth.

When Bart turned and saw the inferno they were approaching, he immediately grabbed an oar and said, “Riyan, help me bring us to the shore.” Riyan grabbed the other oar and began paddling. The boat turned and began to angle towards the riverbank. “Are we going the rest of the way on foot?” he asked.

“No,” Bart replied. “I was thinking we could soak our clothes and fill the bottom with water.”

“That won’t do any good,” countered Kevik. “Not with what we’re about to go through.”

“What would you suggest then?” Bart asked. He again glanced to the inferno that began a little over a mile away.

“Turn the boat over,” he said. When the others looked at him, he explained. “Turn the boat over and use it as a cover.” Reaching down, he grabbed the edge of the seat. “We can hold onto the seats to keep our heads out of the water. Then we allow the river to carry us through.”

Chad nodded. “That might work better than just soaking our clothes.” Bart grinned. “I like it too. Let’s do it.” Paddling hard, he and Riyan soon had the boat grounded on the riverbank.

They stepped out of the boat and put their packs on. Then they all moved to one side of the boat and as one, lifted the edge until it tipped over. Riyan and Bart then each took the oars and carried them as all four of them dragged the boat back into the water.

When they had it out far enough that they could duck under the surface of the water and get inside, Bart and Kevik went first while Riyan and Chad held the boat steady. “I hope we survive this,” commented Chad.

“We will,” Riyan assured him. “This idea of Kevik’s is pretty good.” A knocking came to them from the inside of the boat telling them Bart and Kevik were set. The two friends then ducked under the water and came up under the overturned boat.

“Grab on,” Bart said as they broke the surface. Inside they found the bobbing sphere doing its annoying dance.

Riyan laid the oar he brought with him on top of the upside down seat and then grabbed on. The water wasn’t so deep that their feet couldn’t touch, so they began walking the boat out to deeper water. It didn’t take long before they were floating free and the current was taking them towards the inferno.

“You can get rid of the light now,” Chad said. A second later the orb disappeared.

Beneath the boat it was dark as they continued to float blind down the river. Then the water around them began to glow as they drew ever closer to the fire. Soon, the glow coming through the water was bright enough to allow them to see each other vaguely.

“We’re within the fire,” stated Chad. Indeed, the water was growing warm as the fire consuming the nearby trees heated it. The air within the boat grew warmer by the minute as well. Then falling debris began to patter against the topside like rain on a tin roof.

“We never would have made it through the fire if we were still sitting exposed in the boat out there,” Riyan said.

“It doesn’t look like it,” Kevik said.

Suddenly from the other side of the bottom of the boat, they heard pounding. It wasn’t the sound of debris falling, rather it sounded like the rhythmic banging a panicked person would do.

“Someone’s out there!” Riyan exclaimed. Fear of goblins again surged within him.

Then he saw the light coming through the water near him become occluded as the lower half of a body was seen right next to the boat. It was unmistakably that of a goblin.

“We can’t leave it out there to burn,” Chad said. From the intensity of the glow coming through the water, it was clear the temperature from the flames had to be pretty hot.

Then it grew quiet as the pounding ceased. Riyan watched the shadow of the body as it began to sag into the river. The need to help someone in danger somehow overcame his fear. He reached under the side of the boat and grabbed hold of it. When he pulled it beneath the boat with them, they discovered it was a young male goblin. One side of its face was scarred pretty badly with burns, and it lay unconscious in Riyan’s grasp. The skin of the goblin was tougher than that of a human, to Riyan it felt akin to that of a reptile.

“Keep its head above water,” Bart said as he moved over to assist Riyan. Together they managed to hold onto the goblin lad as they continued down the river.

“Is it alive?” asked Kevik.

“Yes,” replied Riyan. He gazed at the face of the goblin youth and wondered just how old it was. It couldn’t be too young as its size was approximately two thirds that of an adult.

“What are we going to do with it?” asked Kevik.

Bart turned to him and said, “Once we’re safely past the fire and near the goblin settlement on the shore of the larger lake, we’ll drop it off.” Riyan nodded, “They’ll find him and take care of him.” He and Bart continued holding on to the goblin youth as they drifted further into the inferno burning on the other side of the boat. The glow in the water by this time had intensified from an off orange to a brighter white. Curious, Riyan touched the top of the boat and drew his hand back quickly.