Into the Heart of Evil (18 page)

In a moment, the Fates had done their work and all
was quiet again in the forest.

A
rdan
and the rest of Manebrow’s team, plus Durik’s servant Kabbak, finished dragging
the bodies and equipment into the enclosure and replacing the door.  Perhaps
the only thing that slowed the task, other than the pure horror of dealing with
the dead bodies of former comrades in arms, was the interest they took in the
equipment that was left strewn about.  Good gear was hard to come by.  But, for
all their interest, Ardan was not about to let them linger.  The order from
Manebrow had been clear, and he was not about to linger any longer than
necessary to take care of the bodies.

With a word from Ardan, the three remaining team
members and Kabbak lined up with the four packdogs in tow and began following
the trail left by the passing of now many kobolds and wolves.  Frustrated by
the fact that Arloch had not yet returned, Ardan took the lead and began to
read the trail left behind by so many feet.  They moved quickly at first, as
the trail was clear and there was no indication that anyone had broken away
from the main trail.  This lasted for some time, but eventually they came to
the same small clearing where Kiria had taken her first missteps and where
Durik and Manebrow had broken off of the trail of the attackers to follow her. 

Unlike when Durik and Manebrow had passed through,
after the passage of more kobolds the two separate trails were now rather
clear.  After a moment of smelling the ground and reading the trampled ground,
it seemed to Ardan that more wolves and less kobolds had passed one way than
the other.  Quickly, he led the team along that trail, sure that this would
lead to Durik, Manebrow, and hopefully Kiria.

After only a few moments, he saw something warm
coming through the forest, back from the other path.  Doubling back, the team
waited as Arbelk, riding Gorgon’s wolf, came riding to a stop in front of them.

“Arbelk, what news do you bring?” Ardan asked.

“Gorgon sent me back,” Arbelk began, almost
breathless from the ride, or perhaps from his untrained attempts at handling
the wolf.  As he caught his breath, he began to unbutton the front of his
wolf-skin outfit to cool himself off.  “It looks like the Honor Guard warrior
and the two remaining attackers have found the same game trail we were on
before.  Trallik says he also smells orc.  Gorgon thinks they’re heading toward
the Krall Gen and we’ll be chasing them throughout the night.  He thinks the
Honor Guard warrior has plenty of fight left in him and will give his attackers
a run for it.  He’s not sure what role the orcs are playing here.”  Arbelk
looked about the group. “Where’s Durik and Manebrow?  Gorgon wanted to know
where we should meet the rest of the group.”

Ardan was now more frustrated than ever and torn
by an indecisiveness as, in his mind, there was no clear answer to the question
of what he should do.  Though Manebrow had said to follow him, that was before
the tidings that Arbelk now brought of orcs.  He explained the situation
briefly to Arbelk, telling him that Manebrow believed the last Honor Guard
warrior to be Khazak Mail Fist and that he most probably had Kiria’s two younger
brothers with him. 

For a moment, he stood there silent, reasoning
within himself that if he followed after Gorgon and his team, he could lose
Arloch as well as Durik, Manebrow, and Kiria.  Yet, if he didn’t follow
Gorgon’s team and Gorgon’s team met with more than just the two traitors in the
woods, for instance the orcs they’d smelled, he would risk the lives of the
leader of the Honor Guard and both heirs to Lord Karthan’s throne. 
What
would Manebrow have me do?
  Suddenly an idea occurred to him.

“Arbelk,” he said, “can you track?”

Arbelk looked at Ardan, somewhat surprised. “Well,
I suppose so.  That is, if I have to I can.  I’m not all that bad at it, but I
don’t have the best of noses.”

“Fine, fine,” Ardan said hurriedly. “Kiria must
have lost her two brothers’ trail here at this clearing, because Manebrow and
Durik rode their wolves down this trail.” He pointed down the trail they had
barely started to follow.  “I want you to follow them and find Durik and
Manebrow.  Tell them what you told us and that, because of the new orc threat,
I’m pursuing Gorgon and his team.  Stay with them unless they tell you
otherwise.  They’ll need your strength more than Gorgon will right now, as
we’ll be going to Gorgon’s aid.  Also, if you find Arloch, tell him to stay
with Durik and Manebrow.” 

He looked Arbelk in the eyes to make sure his
instructions were being understood.  There was enough confusion this night, and
kobolds running in entirely too many directions for his liking.  “Finally, if
for some reason you get in trouble and aren’t able to make contact with Durik
or any of the others, make your way to the game trail you found and follow
after us.  Whatever happens, we’ll all eventually meet at the Krall Gen.”

Arbelk nodded his understanding and gently spurred
his wolf, moving quickly away from the group into the underbrush where Durik’s
and Manebrow’s path was clear.  Ardan watched him go and, breathing deeply to
abate the stress that was welling up from deep within him, he turned and began
leading the team down the trail left by Gorgon’s team.

Gorgon had begun to feel uncomfortable.  It had
been quite some time since he’d sent Arbelk back to get orders and a meeting
point, and they’d traveled many thousands of steps since then along this game
trail.  In his thinking, Arbelk should have been back some time ago.  While the
urgency of the situation spurred them onward, it was obvious his warriors were
feeling the fatigue of having marched all day, and now far into the night. 
With the possibility of a battle with orcs, Gorgon was wondering what was
delaying the rest of the company.

As he was worrying about this, far to his front he
saw two or three hot silhouettes standing taller than kobolds and without tails
through the trees.  There was much foliage between him and what he’d seen,
however, and a moment after he saw them they disappeared.  Gorgon’s senses
jolted back to full awareness.  Troka, Jerrig, and Keryak were trudging along,
mostly unaware of their surroundings and with a dazed look of fatigue on their
faces, tails hanging limp and eyes on the ground in front of them.  Ahead of
them, Trallik walked along in a crouch, his tail swishing from side to side,
still checking the ground for scents and scanning the underbrush to avert any
surprises. 

Gorgon smiled.  Trallik was a mixed bag; one
moment he was doing something totally unacceptable, the next moment he was the
only one doing the right thing.  If they ever made it through this, Gorgon was
determined to fix Trallik and make him into something they could all count on,
consistently.  For now, he had more pressing concerns.

Calling out to Trallik in a low voice, Gorgon
stopped the team.  Taking a knee together just off the trail, he explained what
he’d seen far ahead of them just off the trail.  He looked into their eyes as
they knelt around him.  In their eyes, despite the obvious fatigue, he could
see a look of determination to see this mission through.  Looking at each one
in turn, he asked them how they were doing.  Each one responded, “Fine.”  It was
obvious they were each determined to not be a hindrance to the mission. 

Grabbing his warhammer, Gorgon stood up.  “We go,
then,” he said in a low voice with a note of finality. “Let the Fates smile on
us this night.  Trallik, you and I will go many steps ahead of Keryak, Jerrig,
and Troka until we have a better idea of what we’re facing.  Come,” he
commanded Trallik as he pointed the way ahead, “lead the way.”

At first, the group went very slowly, being almost
overly cautious as they approached the area where Gorgon had seen the heat
silhouettes in the distance.  They were beginning to pass through an area of
slightly rolling ground.  Passing over each hill, they stayed low to the
ground, using the underbrush to their advantage to hide their approach.  As
they passed through each trough they would stand up and run to the far side,
crouching down again before they crested the next hill.  Slowly, they made
their way along.

This was a confusing night for Trallik, and he
wondered how it would all come out in the end.  When he’d first seen what had
happened at the enclosure, he’d been shocked.  But after a few moments, he’d
begun to understand.  This had to be part of what Lord Khee-lar was planning. 
Whatever it was that these Honor Guard warriors had been protecting, Khee-lar
wanted it badly.  He’d obviously sent Trelkar and the other four attackers to
kill the Honor Guard.  And if it was that valuable to Lord Khee-lar… 

Trallik’s mind swam with the thoughts of bringing
whatever it was back, and the glory he’d receive in this new organization.  To
that end, he was happy to lead his team to the remaining two attackers, before
they got whatever it was they were seeking.  After all, he wanted to make sure
that
he
was the one to bring the goods back to Lord Khee-lar.

The one thing that didn’t fit into all of this was
the group of orcs that had passed this way.  Probably, they were just another
random group of young orcs out raiding kobold territory to make a name for
themselves.  Whatever their intentions in this area, Trallik really didn’t want
to run into them.

After quite some time, Gorgon and Trallik came to
the hill that overlooked the area.  With a motion from Gorgon, Trallik slowly
crawled ahead, keeping behind the underbrush.  As he slowly worked his way to
the crest of the hill, he listened intently.  Around him, the sound of a wanton
breeze rustling the broomweed and shaking the branches of the pine trees was
all that could be heard. Then Trallik heard Gorgon rustling the dead leaves as
he came through the underbrush.  He rolled his eyes, but despite Gorgon’s lack
of stealth, Trallik was glad he was there. 

Trallik thought it strange that he didn’t hear
anything in the trough ahead of them.  Coming to the top of the hill, he lifted
his snout and tested the air wafting up from below.  There was the lingering
scent of both kobold and orc, but it was not strong enough to suggest that they
were still present.  Even stranger, as Trallik continued to test the air, he
detected the lingering scent of wolf.  As Gorgon approached, Trallik wriggled
down into a hole underneath a large root from the oak tree they were squatting
next to and raised his head over the lip of the far side.  From his vantage
point, Trallik didn’t see anyone down the hill from them or near the trail. 

As he looked farther down the trail they’d just
left a few hundred paces ago, however, Trallik saw what had to be orcs in a
line marching away from them.  He stared at them, studying them intensely. 
After several moments, they disappeared behind a hill as they followed the
trail toward the Krall Gen’s territory.  Trallik was about to turn to Gorgon
and tell him what he saw when something deeper in the woods caught his eye.  As
he watched, a pair of kobolds climbed up and over a fallen tree deeper in the
woods, in the direction of a large ring of hills south of the main trail.  They
wore fur cloaks like the dead kobolds at the enclosure.  Trallik turned around
and climbed out of the hole, motioning for Gorgon to follow.

Once the entire team was together again, Trallik
explained what he’d seen.  “There had to be probably six to eight orcs.  These
ones didn’t look like the others we fought earlier today.  It looked to me like
they were wearing cold metal armor, and they were carrying long spears with big
swords over their backs.”

Gorgon looked at Trallik. “We need to find out if
they’re on the Honor Guard warrior’s trail or not.”

Trallik nodded. “I don’t think they are, because I
also saw two kobolds going deeper into the forest.”

Gorgon grinned. “Aha!  We’ve got our first
sighting!  Well, what are we waiting for, let’s go after them!  Lead on,
Trallik.”

Trallik stood and led the team around the base of
the hill they were hiding behind.  He could almost taste victory now.  All he
had to do was get Gorgon to break up the team so he could sneak off and track
down these other two attackers.  Tonight was his night, and he knew it.

As the team gathered where the orcs had been
standing just a short time ago, Trallik took the opportunity to sniff the
ground.  He quickly found the source of the wolf’s scent; a fresh pile of
dung.  As he was standing to rejoin the team, a set of tracks caught his eye in
the moonlight; a kobold’s and a wolf’s.  What was interesting about them was
that the kobold’s tracks disappeared and the wolf’s tracks got deeper.  The
evidence was clear.  He wondered what a wolf rider had been doing here with the
orcs.  Trallik moved to rejoin the team, keeping his discovery to himself.

Slowly, the team made their way over fallen logs
and around the pine trees that were mixed in with the oaks in this part of the
forest.  Near the far end of the hill they were rounding was a small, icy cold
stream.  Little more than a trickle now, as the temperature grew hotter it too
would grow.  It was one of many that drained the water from the melting snow
and ice higher up down into the lowland lakes that lay near the home of the
Krall Gen.