Читать книгу Vanor: The Journey Begins - Vicki Inc. Wilson - Страница 6
Chapter 3 Battles
ОглавлениеNearly a week later the Old Man came in to change Vanor’s fever-drenched clothes and bed linen. He found Kajn sitting on a stool asleep , his head resting on her bunk, his hand holding hers. As the Old Man stood and watched these two loves, Vanor started to murmur “blood.” The Old Man touched Kajn and he instantly awoke. When the Old Man immediately made the Shh finger sign, he heard her distinctly say, “Why would blood be the answer?” Her voice was croaky but very clear. The Old Man looked at Kajn and opened his mouth to say something when she said, “Is it the blood or the love that heals?” Then all was silent.
She fell again into a deep slumber. The Old Man looked thoughtful for a few moments, and then with purpose reached over to Kajn, grabbed his wrist and produced a jewelled dagger. Kajn, looking fearful and thinking that the Old Man was possessed, tried to withdraw his wrist but seeing that the Old Man’s age betrayed his strength, held steady. “What are you doing Old Man, are you wanting to kill me?”
Pulling Kajn forward over Vanor, the Old Man sliced Kajn’s hand with the dagger, and amid protests from Kajn he clenched the hand. When the blood started to drop he aimed it onto the bite wounds of Vanor.
Both were surprised when the blood hit the wounds, as a loud howl could be heard in the air, and the blood dissolved like acid int the wound. As they watched, the wounds closed and only a pink scar remained.
Kajn reached out and gently caressed the side of Vanor’s face and quietly begged for Vanor to come home.
Vanor’s arm stung and throbbed and she reeled in terror with the deepness of that pain. She had been floating for so long that it was a surprise when her full senses returned. She heard a voice in the distance repeating a message. Wanting to investigate further, she floated in that direction. “Please Vanor love, come home.” She realised she was missing home and wanted nothing more than to snuggle close to her Kajn and breathe in his love. She closed her eyes and his voice became clearer.
She felt cold somehow and opened her eyes. Kajn hugged her so tightly that she felt she couldn’t breathe and when the Old Man pulled the tearful Kajn off her, she sighed deeply and said, “I thought I’d never get back.”
The next day after a restful sleep Vanor awoke to find Kajn gently holding her hand and staring at her.
“What?” she asked embarrassed that she probably looked a mess. Kajn laughed. “You’ve got a lot more colour now and the Old Man wants you to start work again if you feel up to it.”
Kajn had hold of both of her hands as she gingerly pulled herself off the bunk. She had healed really quickly, and with Kajn and the Old Man acting like mother hens, she had decided to get up anyway. Within a few short steps she realised she was weaker than she thought and decided to not overdo it the first day. But she told them both to go get some sleep, “real sleep”, as she was fine. When both had gone she quietly slipped into a healing trance and soon felt her body rejuvenated and full of life. Slipping quietly out of bed she felt that her body was now lithe and fit and she reached for her sword ready to limber up, as she knew that very shortly she would have to be in battle again and did not want to be weak and unprepared.
She nearly jumped when a voice, half chuckling, said, “I knew you would start without me.” Kajn stepped from the shadows and gave her a great bear hug. “Well if you insist on overdoing it, let’s get moving before the Old Man wakes up. Did you know that he didn’t sleep at all when you were ill?”
Vanor quietly reflected on those words and answered, “No, but I would believe it as he takes his responsibility of me sometimes too seriously. But I love him as a father, even though I deeply miss my real father.”
“You must tell me about that one day, but for now let’s do some slow – and I mean slow warm-up exercises.”
Vanor chuckled and said, “You are up for a challenge are you?” and her voice was lost in the clanging of weapons.
The Old Man stepped back from the scrying pool and sighed. “Little do you know, Vanor my child, but at least now I can get a little rest.” After three hours of deep sleep he awoke and started fumbling around for his alchemy ingredients. By the time he had placed the tooth and a few ingredients into the centre of the pentagram, drew the protective designs and placed the candles at each corner, it was getting dark.
A mouse could not have heard the Old Man’s footsteps as he walked into Vanor’s room. He found them arm in arm asleep in the comfortable old chair with both swords at their feet. Looking at them he realised that this may be the last time for a very long time that they would be at peace without something haunting them. He came out of his reverie and with a “hmmph” said, “Time to get up you two, there’s work to be done, monsters to kill and general ‘saving the world’ type stuff.”
After explaining the scrying failure of the demon the previous night, he told them what he had seen before the demon’s face had turned to him, and the scrying pool had burst into a shower of stones and water.
“He is strong and located not far into the north province. There is a short castle possibly going underground, but is distinctive by the red wall, well half a wall, on the south side. He seems to be partially magical, although how much I’m not sure, but is intent on killing you Vanor.”
“You are strong now both physically and mentally and should be able to defeat him but the earth elementals may be harder to kill. According to legend, if one elemental is killed the other three gain the slain one’s strength. Here is a ring for you to call me when you are in front of the Mora demon, which is distinctive by its red jewel at the third eye region. I may be able to help you with him but I need to do more research. It appears indestructible, but I have some tricks which may work.”
“Tell me again Old Man why, if it cannot be destroyed, you are sending us?” The Old Man’s eyes looked sad but he replied, “It will destroy every warrior in the land if not stopped and it has to have a way of being destroyed. You both are the strongest and quickest I have. Now you have to leave soon before he recruits more demons or monsters, but don’t forget to destroy the elementals first.”
The black snorted and pranced as Kajn searched the woods on his left for any sign of danger. Either the black was just misbehaving or there was real danger off in the dark wood, but by the look of the plumes of steam and the terrified look that the black gave he knew it must be the latter. Vanor had sensed the presence too and had stopped her grey to stare at the woods. Her horse was showing the same terrified look as the black; Vanor was having a hard time trying to control the grey enough to stay in the saddle, as it just wanted to flee.
Kajn eased the black beside Vanor and looking towards the wood they both saw it at the same time. “My God, look at the size of it!” Vanor exclaimed as she jumped from the saddle, grabbing her crossbow as she did so. The grey, having been relieved of its burden, wheeled in terror being held only by the reins that Kajn had grabbed. Kajn’s immediate response would have been to turn tail and run, but he controlled that urge and knew that they must destroy this beast. “Obviously the earth elemental,” Vanor said as she drew her crossbow from its holster. Automatically she loaded her normal bolt and fired.
Rising to its full height, the giant earth elemental towered over the forest spilling trees and dirt in its wake. Thirty feet high with a great girth, eyes ofjade green and long spikes of teeth, the monster put despair in both Vanor and Kajn. Vanor’s bolt bounced from its massive bulk, but shaking herself with resolve Vanor replaced the useless bolt with the bolt that the Old Man had given her.
With the sound of crashing rocks and trees, the elemental moved towards the two warriors with a speed that defied its massive weight. With one blow of its arm it wiped the grey from the snow like a chessboard piece and the reins were torn from Kajn’s grasp.
The black obsidian bolt slid easily into the shaft and when the giant turned towards Vanor, with calm and determination she fired. The bolt slid quietly into the heart of the beast and the green eyes flashed once. As Vanor watched, the bolt and its surrounding area turned light grey like potter’s clay and spread across its body. With a look of astonishment the elemental turned solid and then started to crack and crumble.
“If that’s only the second one to be killed and it’s that big, what the heck are we going to face next?” Kajn asked, looking at the giant elemental’s remains.
“Don’t muck about just build me a fire so we can melt some snow to pour on this thing. Remember we haven’t destroyed it yet.” Vanor walked over to the remains and poured a large canteen of water over what was left of the clay-coloured pieces of the elemental. She realised she had underestimated the size of the creature but she could work with that.
The grey was definitely dead and her pack was strewn about on the snow. While the snow was melting in the cook pot she stowed her gear in her backpack and walked back to the fire.
“Looks like this will be a little harder than we thought,” Kajn said as she approached the fire.
“Yeah, but only fire and wind to get through, should be easy enough if we keep our heads,” she said with a rueful grin. “The grey’s gone so looks like we’ll be walking for a while.”
Kajn looked thoughtful for a moment and then replied, “There’s a village not far away, we could get another horse there.”
“Sounds fine to me, as soon as we’ve completely destroyed this creature we’ll head there.”
They could smell the smoke long before they got there. They had passed two farms so far that were burnt to the ground complete with all animals and humans. It was as if a great forest fire in the heat of its flame just rolled down to the farms and devoured all before it; only a path remained of burnt blackened earth devoid of any life. They had followed that path to the town and it was still blazing with a wind accompanying it that pushed the fire quicker and with more ferocity than either had ever seen.
“Looks like the last two have joined forces,” Kajn murmured to Vanor. Vanor was not really listening but entranced by the fire on the roof of the inn. It seemed to be a different colour and shade to a normal fire. The roof at that moment caved in and then the fire elemental stood up as Vanor gasped. It was the height of a three-storey building with red skin and flame-coloured eyes. It had hair of grey smoke and vivid flame that floated in the strong wind. It seemed to be preoccupied with something screaming within the inn and had not noticed Vanor or Kajn yet.
“Keep an eye out for me for the other elemental while I see what I can do with the fire,” Vanor whispered to Kajn, although the noise from the flames, falling timbers and screams from the few remaining villagers would have drowned out normal speech.
The Old Man had enchanted her weapon and armour but she was not sure if it would work with such an opponent. As the fire elemental was busy with its back to her, devouring something within the inn, she decided to at least try. The outer stairs were mainly intact and she raced up them to get to the roof. Flipping herself onto the roof from the railing, she meandered through the fire to the edge of the fallen timbers, and looked down to the crouched fiery form that was playing with a burning human screaming in terror.
She prayed that the enchantment would work on her armour as she decided to leap onto the back of the elemental with sword drawn above her. It seemed to take forever to reach down to its back, but within a moment she realised that it had noticed her, and turned swiping her with one sweep of its flame-enshrouded arm into what was left of the barn wall. Her trousers and shirt were on fire and she quickly rolled to put it out holding her sword close to her. The elemental came towards her and picking her up like a feather examined this small “insignificant”human who dared to defy it.
Vanor’s clothes were on fire again and she felt a deep burning pain in her back. But she ignored the pain and with one powerful sweep of her sword amputated the two fingers of flame that were holding her, and fell amidst flame and ash to the floor. She rolled as she landed putting out the flames on her singed hair and clothes. Now she was angry. “These were my best work gear!” she yelled at the bellowing elemental. She needed to get out of the inn quickly as it was starting to fall apart. She raced to the door passing the dead human who was now burnt beyond recognition. Kajn was yelling at her but the strong wind ... now she realised the wind elemental was here. She had an idea.
Watching Kajn battle the tornado with a sword almost made her laugh but she realised she must act soon. The inn made one last groan and collapsed as the fire elemental followed her out as she backed up to Kajn. “When I yell ‘now’ dive to the ground,” she screamed at Kajn over the noise of the wind.
She leapt out towards the fire elemental and attacked with such strength and power that it even surprised her, but she was desperate and this was her only chance. This human was ducking, weaving and slicing and it stung when it hit. Nekvar had always been in control and this puny female was hurting him. He, with the power of the gods, had always given fear to humans and yet this slight of a girl was giving pain.
“I must destroy her,” he determined, as his rage overtook him and he became engulfed in flame. Vanor stepped back from the heat and hit again forcing the elemental to fight back. Ducking, rolling and weaving away from those fire-starting hands, she moved with a swiftness caused by desperation. The elemental did not notice that Vanor was moving it closer and closer to Kajn. With a quick thrust to its midriff that evoked a satisfying roar of flame, Vanor was back to back with Kajn.
The fire elemental charged in rage at Vanor, wanting to get rid of this pesky human who could hurt so much. It had never been hurt before and it did not like it one bit. “Now, Kajn, now!” Vanor yelled above the roar of the wind and the crackling of the flames. Nekvar was surprised when the puny human grovelled at his feet but then realised his mistake. His sweeping arm had gone through the wind elemental and then he felt pain so unbearable. And then nothing.
Kajn and Vanor had to cover their ears when the explosion rocked the earth and cracked the air. They both tentatively looked up, let out a whoop of delight and gave each other a gleeful hug. “We did it! We did it!” they cried as they were showered in ash, soot and dust.
“Ow, Ow, Ow,” Vanor whimpered as Kajn let go of her. Her adrenalin had slowed down and now her body was giving a very large protest of pain.
“You’re hurt,” Kajn, looking concerned, stared at Vanor. Her hair was badly singed and her clothes were in tatters, so much so that only her chain mail was intact, although even that was blackened and dented.
She had a very deep burn down one arm and across her shoulder and as Kajn laid her down on the ground she started to shake all over. “This was a good plan wasn’t it?” she laughed. Kajn now knew what to do and asked her to rest. He lay down beside her holding her in his arms and prayed that he could help.
The world turned white and Vanor lay at his feet. He gently picked her up and carried her to the temple. The steps leading up were steeper than he remembered and he stumbled on a step but kept his hold on Vanor. When he reached the top step he was met by the tallest light being and without a word the being guided him to the altar. He was asked to say “goodbye” and with much effort reached out and said, “Goodbye for now, Vanor. I love you.”
He stopped at the top of the temple and looking around to try and stop the tears from falling, he noticed huge different-coloured gems cut into the top of the temple windows. Each gave a different beam of light that started to move towards Vanor and then a giant force pushed him out of the temple and the world turned white again. “Damn, I wanted to watch that,” he mumbled.
Reaching up to the black to get his water flask, Kajn heard Vanor moan. He raced back to the clearing where he had laid her down to rest and found her sitting up holding her head. “Are you okay, Van love?” Vanor turned to him and he stepped back as her eyes had turned into purple flames. She looked confused but replied, “Just on a high, but I’ll settle in a moment. What’s the matter with you?”
“Ummm, your eyes are purple. Oh but they’re returning to normal now, what happened?” he asked, as he stepped back to her.
“You know, that was the first time that has happened. It was very intense, was I that hurt, and how did I get there?”
Kajn paused for a moment and replied, “They let me take you there and yes I didn’t notice but you had a lot of burns that would have killed someone else twice over. You also had a deep gouge in your back that had burnt flesh and bone but by the looks of it, that too was healed. Well done, that’s what I say, and I have no doubt now that this is a very special gift that has been given to you.”
After Vanor had washed off all the residue dirt, dust and ash at the village well, and Kajn had buried the few remaining bodies, they went in search of another horse for Vanor who was riding pillion on the black. After riding a fair distance from the destroyed village without success they decided to take turns riding the black.
“How are you feeling now?”
Vanor looked down from the black and said, “Well I seem to have just added countless scars to the list on my body but other than that I seem to be fine. Why do you ask?”
“Well, it’s a bit unnerving when you think you know the colour of your love’s eyes, and then it changes while you watch, that’s all, nothing serious.”
They both laughed, and what little tension was there was lost in the whispering wind.
That night they stayed at another town and it was very comforting for Vanor to have a warm bath, a good hot meal, a change of clothes and a comfortable bed to sleep in. She slept very well snuggled close to Kajn’s warm body. When they awoke the next morning, they had their breakfast; the innkeeper told them that the blacksmith had a spare horse, which they were delighted with. The gelding took a liking to Vanor straightaway and had a huge appetite for apples and seemed to be forever nudging Vanor’s back for a scratch behind the ears. The blacksmith had told them that he’d given up adventuring now, but the horse hadn’t, and was delighted with the price given by Vanor.
“I’ve always called him Greedy Guts because of his apple fetish but I’m sure he won’t mind you calling him something else.”
Vanor and Kajn laughed as Greedy Guts nudged Vanor’s back for the apple that was in her pocket.
The next day they set a good pace, with the black trying to outdo Greedy in the galloping stakes, but Greedy soon tired due to his unhealthy lifestyle and paced himself at a steady trot. At last they reached the castle and it looked more terrifying than it had seemed; when they got close to the “red” outer wall the horses shied away from it, baffling both Kajn and Vanor. Vanor dismounted and nearly threw up when, on closer inspection, she saw the wall was covered in blood.