The Hidden Realm: Book 04 - Ennodius (13 page)

A PRANK

In the willow wood, Elerian suddenly opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was Enias standing nearby on his right, his gray coat dead black in the night. The stallion was staring intently through the screen of willow branches that sheltered them, facing the unseen river. Standing next to him was Ascilius’s mare, shivering with fear. The oval ears of both horses were erect and swiveled forward as if they were listening intently.

“What do they hear and where is Ascilius?” wondered Elerian to himself.

Stiffly, without his usual grace, he rose to his feet, slipping silently through the willow branches that hung down around the campsite like a leafy curtain. With a light, silent step, he walked stealthily through the trees toward the river, the world around him painted in varying shades of gray and black under the starlight. He saw no sign of Ascilius.

Pausing behind a screen of branches near the west bank of the river, Elerian looked out at the swift flowing waters of the Catalus, dark and mysterious under the light of the stars, except where some ripple was edged in silver where the river flowed over a hidden rock beneath its surface.

Raising his eyes, Elerian examined the far shore. Most of it was screened by the drooping branches of tall willows, but directly across from where he stood was an open, rocky shelf where no trees grew. Silent as wraiths, five shaggy, wolflike shapes suddenly trotted out from under the willows on the far shore onto the shelf. Hardly daring to breathe, Elerian watched as the pack of canigrae paused in the opening, their eyes glittering coldly in the starlight.

“How far behind them are their masters?” he wondered to himself. “Another battle with the Goblins now might prove disastrous,” he thought to himself worriedly, for he and Ascilius were still not fully recovered from their last encounter with Torquatus’s servants.

As Elerian watched from his hiding place, some of the Goblin hounds put their noses to the ground while others raised their pointed snouts to the heavens, testing the night currents for scent. The wind was blowing from the east into his face, so Elerian was sure they would smell nothing from the west bank of the river, but the slightest unusual sound would immediately attract their attention. He could only wait and hope that Enias’s presence would have a calming effect on Ascilius’s frightened mare, and that Ascilius would not suddenly stir in whatever place he had hidden himself.

Across the river, the canigrae abruptly gave up sniffing for scent. Lining up on the bank, they lapped up clear river water with their long red tongues. Elerian could see the white gleam of their fangs as they drank. Its thirst satisfied, one of them suddenly raised its shaggy head, staring intently across the river. There was a purposefulness about the creature that seemed out of keeping with a mere animal to Elerian.

“That one is surely a lupin,” he thought to himself. “Has it heard something?”

Hardly daring to breathe, he watched the shape changer, which seemed to be staring directly at him. Suddenly, the creature glanced up and cringed, as if expecting a blow from above. Its pack mates did the same, crouching like gray statues beside it. Because of the screen of branches overhead and in front of him, Elerian could not see what had frightened the Goblin hounds. For several seconds the gray pack crouched motionless, then, as one, they rushed back under the shelter of the willows, heading south with their bushy tails between their legs.

 Elerian remained motionless until he was sure they were gone.

“What frightened them?” he wondered to himself.

Carefully, he parted the branches before him. He looked both upstream and downstream but saw nothing unusual. The night sky above him, bright with stars, was also empty.

“I had best find that dratted Dwarf and discuss what we ought to do next,” Elerian finally decided

Stealthily, he first searched along the riverbank to his right, his light footsteps making no noise. His choice proved to be the right one, for he soon found Ascilius sitting motionless with his back against an ancient, broad trunked willow. The Dwarf was fast asleep between two humped up willow roots. Luckily, his cloak had hidden his recumbent form from the canigrae.

The spirit of mischief, which coursed through Elerian like the powerful, unseen current of a swift flowing river, suddenly stirred and came to life. Quietly, he retreated deeper into the wood until he could see the horses. Enias had his head down and had resumed grazing. The mare was also peacefully cropping grass by his side.

“The canigrae must be out of earshot,” thought Elerian to himself. “Still, I should not take the risk,” he cautioned himself as returned to Ascilius side, approaching the Dwarf with a silent step that gave no warning of his presence. Gray eyes gleaming, trying to persuade himself to be sensible, he stared for long moments at the slumbering Ascilius like a hungry lion who happens upon some helpless prey. The sight of his companion sunk deep in blissful slumber was too much for him, however.

“If I play a prank on him now, it will serve him right for falling asleep,” thought Elerian to himself as he ended the illusion spell which gave him the appearance of a middle-aged man.

Immediately, he raised his right hand, watching with his third eye as a flow of golden light spilled from his fingertips, covering him from head to foot. Closing his magical eye, Elerian turned and leaned over the nearby bank of the river. Reflected in the dark, smooth surface of the Catalus, he saw a perfect copy of the water horse that he and Ascilius had encountered in the underground lake below Calenus. Eyes gleaming in anticipation, Elerian turned back to face Ascilius. Leaning over the Dwarf, he snorted loudly, the illusion spell transforming the sound into a perfect imitation of the undine.

Ascilius immediately started awake. When he raised his head and opened his startled eyes, their dark irises became outlined in a gleaming circle of white as he took in the narrow head and gaping, fanged mouth of his old nemesis only a few feet away from him. With a strangled cry, Ascilius drew the long knife hanging from his belt with his right hand, stabbing it wildly at the undine. In the instant before the keen point of the knife struck its long, vicious head, the water horse suddenly disappeared.

Heart pounding, Ascilius scrambled to his feet, looking wildly all about, but the undine was nowhere to be seen. After a moment of confusion, his eyes suddenly narrowed suspiciously, but when he retreated into the willow wood, he saw that Elerian was sleeping peacefully beneath his blankets. The horses were calmly cropping grass nearby.

“Could it have been a dream,” wondered Ascilius to himself. Returning to the riverbank, he bent over and carefully examined the ground where the undine had stood, but there were no marks in the turf from its clawed feet.

Suddenly, a voice said softly in his left ear, “What are we looking for?”

Badly startled, Ascilius dropped his knife and shot straight up into the air. When his feet came back to earth, he tottered on the edge of the riverbank wildly windmilling his arms for a moment. With a horrified look on his face, he finally toppled backwards into the river with a loud splash.

Delighted beyond words at the success of his prank, Elerian threw himself flat on the ground, snatching up the end of Ascilius’s beard with his left hand before it disappeared beneath the surface of the river. With an effortless pull of his arm, he brought the heavy Dwarf back to the surface. Reaching out with his right hand, Elerian seized Ascilius by the collar with his right hand and pulled him out onto the bank. Water cascading from his hair and beard, Ascilius sat up and glared fiercely at Elerian.

His companion’s face looked innocent enough, but there was a gleam in his eyes that immediately roused the Dwarf’s suspicions. He opened his mouth to make an angry accusation and then shut it abruptly.

“If I blame him without proof, I will never hear the end of it,” thought Ascilius to himself, seething with frustration.

“Thank you for pulling me out of the river,” said Ascilius, putting a bland expression on his face. “I thought I saw something in the grass and somehow slipped off the bank.”

“It could happen to anyone,” said Elerian, making his voice warm and sympathetic. “I am glad you were keeping watch. This looks like the sort of place an undine might choose for its home.”

Ascilius scowled at Elerian.

“He did it to me again,” thought the Dwarf furiously to himself. “Somehow he made that creature appear.”

For a moment, Ascilius’s uncertain temper threatened to flare out of control. Then, after taking a deep breath to steady himself, he suddenly leaped to his feet. Muttering to himself, he stumped over to their campsite. Casting himself full length on the ground, he rolled himself into his blankets without saying a word.

Elerian followed him, laughing silently as he recalled the startled expression on Ascilius’s face when he first opened his eyes and saw the illusion of the undine. The fact that the Dwarf’s knife had come within a whisker of stabbing his face before he called his invisibility ring to his hand and ran to his blankets fazed Elerian not at all.

“What good is a prank without a little danger to make the heart beat faster?” he asked himself

Feeling lighter in the heart than he had for some days now, Elerian raised his right hand and cast a spell at Ascilius, who had already fallen into an exhausted sleep despite his wet clothes. With his third eye, Elerian watched as a small golden orb flew from his fingertips, striking and enveloping the Dwarf’s sleeping form with a golden film of light. Reforming itself, the orb suddenly lifted away from the Dwarf’s body. It was larger now, for its golden boundaries contained all of the water that had soaked Ascilius’s clothes. Suddenly, the orb vanished, and Elerian heard a slight splash as it dumped its liquid burden back into the river. Warm and dry again beneath his blankets, Ascilius stirred but did not wake.

Standing still and silent as a shadow, Elerian probed the night around him, but all was still and silent. Satisfied that his prank had not put them in any danger, he fetched a currycomb from his pack and brushed Enias until he shone like polished jet in the starlight. Then, even though his shoulder had begun to ache from the wound that he had received from the septilire, he brushed the mare, too, an occasional tremor of silent laughter shaking his lean frame whenever he pictured in his mind the horrified expression Ascilius had worn on his face when he realized that he was about to fall into the river.

When he was done grooming the horses, Elerian ate a biscuit from his pack and took a sip of wine before taking Ascilius’s place under the same willow by the riverbank. Hoping that Anthea would come to him again he kept watch, he remained there until the first pale light of the rising sun broke above the crowns of the willows on the far bank of the river.

Rousing himself, Elerian idly ran the long fingers of his right hand over the rough bark of the ancient willow at his back. At once, the silver band on his left bicep began to feel warm. Pulling off his stiff leather tunic, Elerian rolled up the long sleeve of the brown linen shirt he wore beneath it. When he touched the tree again, the silver band shone with a pale light, the multi faceted emeralds set in its twisted web glowing like new leaves in the sunlight. Through his fingertips, Elerian felt an odd stirring in the tree as if it had responded in some way to the torque.

Extending a little of his shade into the tree, Elerian asked, “What do you feel ancient one?”

He received only a familiar silence in return. If the willow had an answer to his question, it was one that it was not willing to share.

Elerian removed his hand from the rough bark of the tree. At once, the band on his arm became an ordinary piece of cool silver.

“Why did Dymiter fashion you and why did you come to me?” wondered Elerian to himself as he put his leather armor back on. “As if I do not have enough questions to answer already,” he thought to himself, sighing in frustration.

Rising lithely to his feet, he looked across the river but no sound or sight of their pursuers came to his ears or eyes. When he returned to the willow that sheltered Ascilius and the horses, the Dwarf woke suddenly and sat up, a grumpy look on his face.

“He is still angry,” thought Elerian to himself with a slight, unrepentant smile on his lips.

Ascilius stretched and stood up stiffly. Maintaining a cool silence, he shared a cold breakfast of bread, cheese, and dried meat with Elerian as the golden disk of the sun chased away the shadows of the night.

“We should travel along the west bank of the river for a little longer if we can,” said Elerian when they were done eating. “I saw a pack of canigrae on the far shore last night. Something frightened them off, but if they return we will be safer on this side of the river.”

“We will have to cross back over by nightfall,” said Ascilius worriedly. “The river will enter a gorge then where we cannot easily follow it.”

“Perhaps by then, the Goblins will give up their pursuit,” suggested Elerian.

“Considering how badly Torquatus wants us, I doubt it,” said Ascilius gloomily. “His servants are sure to resume their hunt for us as soon as the sun goes down. They will probably pursue us right up to the gates of Ennodius if they must.”

When their breakfast was done, they packed their things and mounted up. With Enias following along behind Ascilius and his mare, they rode north along the west bank of the river. The thick cover of leaves and branches overhead masked their movements and provided welcome shade the sun climbed high in the sky. A light, warm wind blew out of the south, rustling the willow branches overhead, but otherwise, the land around them remained strangely quiet and hushed. Besides the whisper of the leaves and the occasional splash of running water from the river, Elerian heard only the soft footfalls of Ascilius’s mare.