Refuge: Kurt's Quest (16 page)

“Everyone stay in place, in case a second wave
comes back,” yelled Kurt as he stepped out of the ranks.  Everyone knew that
the Grogatha they had just scattered would not be coming back.  They had faced
the power of an Archmage, and had been almost destroyed as a tribe.  Whatever
shamans they had in their group had been near the center, and were the first to
die.  And on this world, when your magic users were destroyed with such ease,
there was no choice but to flee.

The Immortal had wanted to save his men from
the savagery of the big Ogres, and prevent James from wasting energy they might
need later, when they were up on the cold high path.  He ran at the first Ogre,
the largest of the brutes, the hilt of his two handed sword gripped tight. 
These were evil creatures, even if they were natural, and the blade shone
bright with searing white light as he prepared to hit the first one.

The Ogre brought up a club the size of a small
tree to try and swat the human away.  Before he could complete the motion,
Kurt’s sword had sliced into flesh and bone, and the arm holding the club fell
to the ground.  The Ogre screamed, and his yell was echoed by another, who was
trying to turn around with two katanas shoved through his back.  The three
remaining Ogres saw that as a good time to leave, and they lumbered away, while
Kurt took off the head of his victim, and Jackie cut through the spine of hers.

“They will be back,” said H’rrut as Kurt and
Jackie returned to their men.  “Oh, maybe not those particular Grogatha.  But
word will spread to other villages, then to other tribes, until this area will
be swarming with them.”

“How long before we come to this high road of
yours?” asked Jackie, nervously eying the brush around them.

“We should be there by this evening.  But I
wouldn’t recommend trying to climb the first stage in the dark.  And there will
be no place to rest until we get up to the clouds.”

“Then we need to find a place to camp that we
can fort up in,” said Kurt, looking at the canyon.  “Are there any other places
like this closer to the start of the road?”

“Many,” said the Nord, looking to the east, and
the way they must march.

“Then we will find one within an hour’s march
of the road, and build a palisade at the entrance.”

“You will do what?” asked the Nord, a look of
incomprehension on his face.

“You’ll see,” said Kurt with a smile,
remembering how primitive was the tactical theory and application concepts of
these people.

They moved for the rest of the hours of the day,
coming to what the Nord thought was the final canyon prior to reaching the
beginning of the high road.   The men grumbled after they were told to dig a
ditch and pack the dirt into a wall, while others were instructed to sharpen
stakes.  It took several hours, but when they went to bed that night they were
protected by an impromptu fort.  Everyone slept better that night, with White
Paw outside the fort scanning the night with his always alert senses while he
slumbered.  A trio of guards on the wall were enough to keep watch, so everyone
only had to stay up for fifteen minutes or so.

The sun came up over the mountains to the sight
of the party already preparing the breakfast that White Paw had rounded up
during the night, the deer falling under the control of his powerful mind.  The
animals just stood there, quivering in fear as the men cut their throats, then
field stripped them and prepared the meat for transport.  They quickly cooked
enough to give everyone a good bite before moving out.

“That seems really unfair,” said Jackie as they
started off.  “Those poor deer, I mean.  They didn’t have a chance.”

“And now we have more of one,” said Garios,
hauling a large haunch of meat wrapped in deerskin.

“Garios is correct, Fraulein,” said Kurt.  “I
have spent enough time on a front, freezing and without proper food.  We need
the food, and the deer would have become our prey either way, though it would
have taken much longer to have harvested them.  This way, we have food and nothing
is wasted.  Even the offal we left behind will be food for something.”

He could tell that the young woman still didn’t
like the idea of grabbing control of the animals and making them do what was
counter to their survival instincts. 
And if we don’t achieve the aims of
our quest, then millions of intelligent creatures will become living zombies,
slaves to whomever wears that crown.  So it’s some dumb animals, or us.  And I
prefer us.

An hour into the march they came upon the first
steps upward of the high road.  It was yet another nondescript canyon, leading
into the mountains with sheer walls on each side.  A small stream ran down the
center of the thirty meter wide rift, fed by small falls tinkling down the
walls.  About a kilometer in the canyon floor started to tilt up, not a hard
walk, but very noticeable.  After another kilometer it started to curve to the
east.  Soon they were high on the side of the ridgeline, looking down over the
tree filled valley below.

At one point they could pick out a pair of
substantial villages, smoke rising from the cooking fires, figures the size of
insects moving from hut to hut.  The temperature was starting to drop with
altitude, while a brisk wind blew along the side of the mountain, directly
along the path.  The path was still wide enough for three people, but most
walked either singly or in pairs, not wanting to crowd each other when a
misstep could result in a very long fall.

By early afternoon they were just below the
clouds that had now settled over the mountains.  The sky was starting to
darken, and the temperature had dropped to just below freezing.  Kurt began to
worry about whether they had enough warm clothing for everyone.  Fires were
started with the wood they had carried with them.  Not enough to last through
the night, but enough to cook most of the deer meat they had carried up with
them.

The party settled in for the night clustered
together as much as possible on the narrow track.  Kurt held Jackie as they
shivered under the cover of their fur jackets, taken off and used as both
ground cloth and blanket.  Complaints ran up and down the line, and intensified
when toward midnight the snow began to fall.

“The hell with this,” said Drake, climbing out
of his furs and standing naked on the pathway.  Kurt started to say something
when the young man started to glow with power, the ground beneath him
channeling its temperature differential into his body.

“What is he doing?” asked Jackie, poking her
head from under the furs.  She was shivering as she spoke, and Kurt remembered
she was from the Southern part of the United States, and probably didn’t like
cold, despite her immortal constitution.

“I think he’s trying to warm us up,” said Kurt,
watching as the young man glowed even brighter.  “But I don’t know if he’s
going to be able to help all of us.”

Drake pointed a hand at the rock wall and a jet
of flame shot out.  It played over the rock for almost a minute, then moved on
as the young Mage moved his aim.  The rock he had hit glowed red, and the area
thirty meters to each side became toasty.  Drake moved the flame over the wall,
creating a hot spot over twenty meters long.  He stopped for a moment, then
recommenced his heating of the rock, forming another hot bar twenty meters from
the first.  After he completed his third bar, he turned back to his furs and
crawled back in without another word.

“A handy man to have around,” said Jackie with
a smile.

Indeed
, thought Kurt, pushing off some of the jacket
as the temperature now seemed quite warm to him.

The next morning the clouds were still in
place, and the snow was still falling.  The path narrowed and became slick with
ice, and falling off the walkway into the depths below became a very real
threat.  White Paw scouted ahead, the big wolf having no problem with the
path.  Fifteen of the men, including a trio of Gromli’s knights, walked ahead
of the Immortals and their friends.  All were sure that the path was clear. 
After all, the wolf had trod this path, and nothing could get past its senses. 
Or so they thought.  Until the great white and gray bulk of a ten meter long
worm came bursting through an ice wall that lay hidden among the rock.

It wasn’t really a worm, despite having a
segmented body.  A quartet of pincers were arrayed around a mouth that was
filled with a circle of sharp teeth, and the body moved on twenty or so
insectoid legs that held it above the ground.

“What the hell is that thing?” yelled Kurt,
trying to make his way past the men who were to his front and standing before
the creature.

“Ice worm,” yelled H’rrut.  “It’s very deadly,
and we need to kill it quickly.  Or get away from it.”

That last option did not seem possible.  Over a
hundred people were strung out along a narrow path that only allowed two of
them to stand abreast, and there was no way forward because of the creature. 
The men far back really didn’t know what was going on, and didn’t understand
why they must back up, and so were only doing so slowly, and without much
enthusiasm.  There was a scream from further back, and one of the former galley
slaves fell from the path to bounce from the wall and continue down into the
depths of the valley, doomed.

The worm opened its mouth and breathed, and a
white mist flew out and engulfed the first four men on the path, spraying past
to touch the skins of the men behind.  The men who had been covered in the mist
froze into place, one toppling off the cliff to fall below.  As soon as the
body struck the rock of the cliff wall it shattered into numerous shards that
sparkled as they continued their fall.  The men behind the first group screamed
out, clapping hands to the parts of their bodies that had received the touch of
the freezing mist.  The arm of one man broke off and shattered as it hit the
path.  The man screamed in madness, staggering toward the edge and falling
over.

“Kill it,” yelled Kurt, pushing past another
pair of men, his hand reaching out to steady the one nearest the edge.

Bows twanged and a quartet of arrows hit the
creature.  Three bounced from its hard skin, one penetrated to a superficial
depth, and the creature sucked in another breath to unleash its deadly weapon
once again.  A spear flew in the creature, then another, both barely scratching
the skin.

Something flew overhead, and the men cried out
as they recognized the young mage, who levitated over and lowered himself
between the party and the worm.  The worm blasted out a breath of super cold,
which was met by a gout of fire unleashed from the hands of the mage.

Heat hit cold, and steam rose into the air in a
suffocating cloud.  The mage poured every bit of power he had, but it was
obvious that he was not winning this fight.  Whether because of the power he
had used the night before, or because he was still in the air and not in
contact with the ground, no one could tell.

The cojoining elements exploded, pushing the
worm back several meters, and ejecting the mage from the path and over the
cliff.

“Drake,” yelled Kurt.

“James,” screamed Jackie, as the young man fell
through the low clouds that were gathered hundreds of meters below the path. 
The Mage disappeared, and shouts of anger and dismay sounded across the path.

Kurt jerked a spear from the hands of one of
the men, whirled it overhead, and flung it with all his great strength at the
worm.  The tip of the spear hit the creature just behind the head and sank in
deep.  The creature let out a loud hissing roar and backed up on its insectoid
legs.  In a moment it scampered forward.

Jackie tumbled over the heads of the men in
front of her in a tumble, both swords drawn.  Kurt started to yell out, to
order her back, knowing that the cold mist might be enough to kill an Immortal,
especially if she were to shatter after freezing.  He also knew she had the
best chance of any of them to kill the creature.  She landed on the back of the
beast and plunged both of her blades into its body.

Ice
bounced from the creature, doing no harm,
while
Fire
slid in all the way the hilt, generating a wave of steam as
its magical heat fought with the mystic cold of the monster.  Jackie ran along
the length of the creature, pulling
Ice
back while slicing with
Fire
. 
The creature reared up on its multitude of legs, roaring out its pain and
anger.

Kurt pushed past the last obstacle, two of the
frozen men, shattering them both with his passage, hoping that they were truly
beyond aid.  His sword was held in both hands, and he thrust it like a spear under
the chin of the creature.  The sword met great resistance at first, then,
glowing with power, it slid easily through the flesh of the creature.  The
blade went through the mouth cavity of the worm, then through the bone and into
the brain.  Kurt rotated the blade as soon as the hilt hit the cold flesh, and
the creature shuddered and started to fall over.

“Get off of it, Jackie,” he yelled as he pushed
up on his sword, lifting the front of the creature, twisting it away so that
the body fell from the cliff.  He braced his feet, letting his blade full free
from the monster, hoping that Jackie had thrown herself clear.