The Callindra Chronicles Book One - First Quest (21 page)

Leading the horses toward the sound of
trickling water, she found a perfect crystal stream that erupted
directly from the side of the cliff that Tyreen’s tree grew
against. Usually the water from a spring like this was bone
chillingly cold, but when she tested it Callindra was delighted to
find it was the perfect temperature for drinking. The animals
needed no encouragement, they dipped their muzzles into the small
pool and guzzled greedily.

While the horses slaked their thirst
Callindra did her best to wash some of the day off her face and
arms, taking care to do so downstream from the drinking pool. The
water restored her vigor and even seemed to be a balm to her minor
injuries, leaving her refreshed and alert. Thinking her companions
would likely be thirsty she filled a water skin and brought it
inside, leaving the horses tethered to their saddles and cropping
the thick grass.

To her surprise, both Tryst and Cronos were
asleep. Before she could comment overmuch on this, she too was
feeling drowsy. The place was cozy enough she supposed, the thick
mat of moss that grew on the floor was softer than any carpet.

Tyreen hummed a beautiful song that seemed to
have a three part harmony in spite of coming from only one throat
as she ground herbs with a mortar and pestle. Even though they were
inside a fresh spring breeze seemed to be blowing. Callindra found
herself removing her armor and lying down on a bed of moss, curling
around Brightfang as though he was a favorite toy… or a lover.

Chapter 18

Callindra awoke with a jerk, having slept so
deeply she forgot where she was for a moment. Her eyes adjusted to
the morning light that streamed into the room from an open window
and she remembered. Tryst and Cronos were still asleep; they hadn’t
had the benefit of drinking the spring water. To her pleasure, she
found that the dirt, sweat and blood of the prior day had somehow
been cleaned from her skin during the night. She knew she should
find it strange, but it was such a relief to be clean that she
didn’t think about it too much.

She unwrapped and re-wrapped her breast band
before pulling on her loose cotton breeches and making her way
outside with Brightfang’s baldric slung over one shoulder. While
she practiced, clouds of butterflies swirled and dipped around her,
even landing on her hair and arms. Their probing feet tickled
unmercifully and after losing her concentration several times,
Callindra gave up. She ran and laughed amid the thousands of
brightly colored creatures, feeling like a little girl.

There were trees with apples and pears
growing on them, vines thick with grapes and edible mushrooms
growing on fallen logs. She picked enough for her friends to break
their fast and nearly skipped back inside, singing a bawdy tune
about what kinds of mischief the wives of sailors got up to while
their men were out at sea.

Her companions were all sitting around a low
table. Even Vilhylm was there, looking no worse for the wear other
than some dark circles under his eyes. Callindra set the fruits she
had harvested down with a smile.

“
I already ate as much as I
could hold. Dig in boys, we have a long day ahead of
us!”

“
You’re unaccountably
cheerful this morning.” Tryst remarked, although he couldn’t keep
the smile from his face. Even Cronos looked almost happy, or as
close to happy as Callindra could remember seeing him.

“
How are you feeling?”
Callindra asked, looking at Vilhylm and pouring herself a glass of
spring water. “Looks like our trip to Vonlar wasn’t
wasted.”

“
I owe Tyreen my life.” He
said in glowing tones, “It sounds like I owe this Jasmine as
well.”

“
We can pay Jasmine back by
routing those Kobolds from whatever hole they are hiding in.” Tryst
said stoutly.

-

The horses trotted like colts, their good
humor restored after a full night’s rest and good meals of grass.
The water from Tyreen’s spring probably helped too, Callindra
reflected, remembering how it had made her feel. They made good
time back to Vonlar and arrived just before the midday meal.

Tryst almost had to fight off a crowd of
anxious people before they would allow him to go and search for
their belongings and loved ones. Callindra was grinding her teeth
audibly before the crowd took the big man’s assurances that he
would do what he could at face value and let them get on their way.
He handled it with an aplomb that would have done a king proud,
promising any aid that could be given and explaining that the first
priority was to find the monsters and deal with them.

“
I know all of you are
anxious about your families. I can promise you that we will do
everything in our power to restore to you what has been taken. For
now please remain in your homes and care for your wounded and
grief-stricken.”

It was child’s play to follow the trail of
the Kobolds back to their lair. During the day, the creatures would
likely stay inside their caves and hadn’t even bothered to post
guard. After all there had been so little resistance in this area
that it didn’t make sense to waste the effort.

They snuck inside, even Tryst managing to be
quiet in spite of his heavy armor. Initially the tunnel slanted
downward, but eventually it widened and branched into two. On the
left, a wide ramp sloped slightly up and on the right the tunnel
grew even wider. Down the right hand side, they could see rude mud
huts built against the side of the cave dimly lit by torches.

Small kobolds, likely children, played
between pens of filthy human slaves and others carried out menial
tasks of daily life. It was almost surreal to see that the monsters
had young. Beyond the village, more tunnels gaped like empty eye
sockets, absent gods only knew how deep they ran.

“
I will not be party to the
slaying of children.” Tryst whispered, his jaw set. “They have done
no wrong and I will not see innocent blood spilled.”

“
I agree, but how will we
frighten them off?” Vilhylm asked. Callindra exchanged glances with
Cronos and she could tell he had been thinking the same thing she
had. They might be children but innocent was in the eye of the
beholder. Those slaves didn’t look too tenderly cared
for.

“
I have an idea.” Callindra
said after a moment. She knew a whisper carried further than a
simple low tone of voice and kept the sibilant sounds that carried
to a minimum. “If we all go up that ramp back there I think I can
make a distraction that will get most of them out of the way. Then
we can rescue the captured humans and see them safely
away.”

“
Are you sure it’ll work?”
Cronos asked, eyeing her dubiously.

“
Well… no, but if it doesn’t
we can always run away. The cave entrance is right over there and
there’s nothing between it and us right?” At the other’s nods, she
followed Tryst up the ramp. When they reached the top she worked
Brightfang in an intricate pattern and pulled the runes of power
from his flat, one spell swiftly followed by another.

A low moan echoed through the Kobold village
and a fog began creeping from the dark tunnel openings on the far
side. Flickering shapes showed amid the fog as it rolled toward the
huts, indistinct but suggesting something horrible with powerful
arms and hook-like hands. She wasn’t sure what it was, but the idea
had been pulled from the imaginations of the creatures she was
trying to frighten and the effect was nearly instantaneous. Mothers
grabbed children and fled shrieking past them, out toward the mouth
of the cave.

It only took moments to free the prisoners,
but to Callindra’s dismay they refused to listen when Tryst told
them they had to run.

“
Please, my wife.” One man
choked, “They took her… I need to rescue her.” He pointed a
trembling finger toward a tunnel that sloped down on the far side
of the cavern. A girl who must be his daughter clung to his leg and
stared at Callindra with wide, fearful eyes.

“
I aint leavin till I get
some back.” One man said, folding his arms over his chest. “Them
critters got somethin comin and I’m gonna give ‘em. Jest gimme a
knife and-“

His tirade was cut off by a deafening shout.
A line of Kobold warriors wearing good chainmaile and carrying
well-made short swords stood at the mouths of the caves. At the
sight of so many well-armed foes, the villagers finally took to
their heels and ran.

Callindra and her companions were too busy
preparing for the charge of their enemies to give them more
thought. With defiant screams the small green monsters ran towards
them, waving a motley assortment of weapons. With a smile, she ran
to meet their charge and was lost in the ring of steel on
steel.

She slid under a precise slash and
disemboweled the creature on her way past. These were much better
fighters than the group she had faced either in Vonlar or on the
road to Gomreed, not to mention better equipped. It didn’t matter
though, Brightfang parted the chainmaile the monster wore as though
it was made of paper. Spinning on her knee, Callindra brought her
blade in a smooth arc that took another of the creature’s legs from
its body.

Pain erupted down her back as a sword’s edge
was deflected by her armor, but she knew the bruising would take
days to subside. Snarling, she reversed her blade and stabbed
blindly backward, feeling the tip dig in and smiling in
satisfaction at the squeal of pain. Wrenching Brightfang free, she
used the momentum to slash the throat of another kobold and then
there were no more opponents left to face.

“
It is disturbing how well
armed and armored these are.” Tryst said with a frown creasing his
face into a pretty study of consternation.

“
They weren’t much better
trained.” Cronos remarked, wiping his sword on one of the
corpses.

“
Judging by how clean their
equipment is, I’d wager they haven’t had it for long. Kobolds are
notoriously filthy.” Said Vilhylm, gesturing at the general state
of decay of the huts and the muck of excrement on the
street.

“
Something feels wrong about
this.” Callindra said, “Who would be funding them, for what reason
and why would the little monsters agree? Regardless, from the size
of this settlement I’d say there will be a lot more of
them.”

Even as those words left her mouth, the
sounds of armor-shod feet and the guttural barks of the Kobold
tongue began echoing from the other side of the cavern. Tryst and
Cronos each grabbed a torch and, they all moved down one of the
passages that led deeper into the ground. Perhaps they could avoid
being ambushed and perhaps not, but staying here was asking to be
overwhelmed.

As the tunnel twisted deeper Callindra could
feel the air beginning to get warmer and an acrid stink of
something burning made her eyes water. She glanced at her
companions and saw their expressions grim. Something about the
smell of the smoke was bothering them, but she didn’t know what it
was. Just as she was opening her mouth to ask what the issue was
Vilhylm, who was in the lead, raised a hand for them to stop. Ahead
she saw flickering firelight and could barely make out some sort of
rhythmic chanting.

She slipped up next to Vil, pausing for a
moment before peering around the corner. The scene below made her
heart skip a beat and her stomach roll. A group of humans were
huddled naked and filthy in a ring of wooden slats surrounded by a
group of well-armed Kobolds. Beyond them, a stone altar with a
black stain running down the side stood and on the other side an
open hole in the cavern floor bubbled with molten rock. A large
bonfire blazed around which a motley assortment of Kobolds seemed
to be working themselves into a frenzy.

A short, twisted creature with a head of
stringy hair stood next to the altar, pulling the beating heart
from a body that still twitched and convulsed on the altar and held
it aloft. The assembled Kobolds raised a shout of triumph and
hunger and the priest barked a few words, shaking the heart and
showering the assembled monsters in a shower of hot blood. Two
soldiers dragged the corpse from the altar and threw it to the
shouting mob. They fell on it in a frenzy of snapping jaws and
razor sharp claws.

The heart was deposited in a golden box
hanging from the end of a steel pole on an iron chain and carried
to the crack in the floor. Here the priest began a guttural chant
and lowered it slowly into the lava where it burst into a greasy
flame. The acrid sweetish smell burned in her nose and she was
filled with an uncontrollable rage. This ended now.

Before anyone could stop her, Callindra stood
and leaped off the high ledge in one smooth motion. She landed in a
rush of air that blew the surrounding Kobolds off their feet. With
a scream of anger, the creatures closed in on her but she was a
whirlwind of magic and steel. Every time one of them tried to
strike her, she managed to dodge out of the way and deal a
devastating blow in return. By the time her companions arrived the
crowd of Kobolds were all laying on the ground, bleeding and
moaning.

“
Bloody stupid thing,
running off like that girl!” Vilhylm said.

“
Don’t listen to the old
stick.” Cronos laughed, “Nice work. Couldn’t have done it better
myself.”

“
We have bigger problems.”
Said Tryst, pointing toward the phalanx of Kobold guards who were
moving away from the slave pen. They were holding their weapons
like they knew how to use them and the chainmaile they wore was
polished to a mirror finish.