Victim of Fate (8 page)

Karthor shook his head and raised his torch
higher to shed more light. The gory remains of the insects were
smashed into the ground and each other. "Two or three? Maybe?"

Alto nodded. "We're not needed; let's just
send the horses to the hive!"

Karthor chuckled. "Tristam won't risk it—he'd
be afraid they might want a part of the pay!"

"What about pay?" Tristam asked as he walked
up behind them. He grabbed the reins of his horse and ran his hand
along its neck before turning to look at the scabbed-over wound on
its haunch. "Seems you can heal horses, too."

Alto and Karthor glanced at each other and
let his comment slide. Alto hurried to the horses and looked them
over, checking for other signs of injury. Sebas had a scratch along
one leg but other than that, they all seemed fine. "I think they'll
be all right," Alto ventured.

Tristam grunted and swung up into his saddle.
His stallion bore his weight without complaint. "Mount up. We can
be at the forest in less than an hour with the stars above. Douse
the torches, to be safe. Besides, we'll need them when we enter the
woods if we're to root out this hive."

"I think for wasps it's called a nest," Alto
corrected.

Tristam turned and stared at him. "Nest or
hive, I mean to make it a bonfire."

Feeling chastised, Alto nodded and climbed
onto Sebas's back. The rest of the Blades of Leander followed suit
and then followed Tristam as he led his horse to the west. The
leader waved at the farmhouse once and then let it fall behind
him.

Alto rode up next to him and stayed beside
the silent veteran for a few minutes. He surveyed the countryside
but had trouble making out any details beyond a few dozen feet. "Do
you really think James's right?"

"Which part? Us dying or his daughter being
killed?" Tristam replied.

Alto hesitated. "Us dying, I guess."

"Are you worried?"

"I'm not scared," Alto said without
pause.

Tristam smirked. "Bold words, my young
friend. Foolish, but bold. Without fear, you'll die a quick death.
It keeps us from trying that which we shouldn't."

"I'm not a fool," Alto defended. "I spoke
rashly, but I meant it. I'm not afraid. I recognize the danger and
yes, if there's as many as the villager says, it is dangerous, but
I'm at peace."

Tristam turned in his saddle and looked Alto
over for a long moment. "And you say you're not a fool? What sort
of a man rides into this without fear?"

Alto shrugged. "I don't know. I've seen
battle and I've been scared before. Now I know enough to fight and
I know some of my limits. But it's not me I'm thinking about."

"Who then, the damsel in distress? What's her
name, Rosalyn? You've not even met the girl, not to mention the
girl whose ribbon you still wear!"

Alto glanced down at Aleena's favor wrapped
around his wrist. He felt his cheeks heat at the memory of it. "I'm
not dreaming of the farmer's daughter," he muttered. Tristam
smirked again, stoking Alto's ire. "I'm not! I'm worried about
these people. They're simple folk, like my family. Life is hard
enough for them without disasters like this."

"Glad you left home?"

Alto frowned and then nodded as he thought it
over. "I am. If I hadn't, I'd be just like the farmer. Trapped and
not knowing enough to make a difference for my family or others.
But I'm not like him. I'm here and I can help them. Maybe someday
I'll settle down to a simple life, but it would be a waste to do so
now."

"Awful sure of yourself," Tristam teased. "Is
that what your father did, he lived a life of adventure and then
settled down when he met a serving maid that caught his fancy?"

Alto felt his cheeks heat again. "I don't
know, maybe," he admitted. "He has a sword and armor, the sword I
had when you first found me. He kept it when I left, too, told me I
had to earn my own blade."

Tristam nodded. "Wise enough, although some
men's idea of earning is different than others."

Alto fell into silence as he considered
Tristam's words. Thieves and bandits would take anything they could
get their hands on, whether it was coin, bread, or weapons. To
them, they'd earned it. For Alto, earning something meant having
the right to own it such that no one could deny him. He turned back
to Tristam to ask him about the kindness the warrior had shown to
the farmer when Tristam stiffened in his seat and then thrust his
arm out to silence the soft conversations behind them. He pointed
ahead.

Alto sat up in his saddle and saw the river
cut across the ground ahead of them after it came out of the hills
they'd ridden through. It ran along the edge of a mass of darkness
and disappeared into the shadows. It was the forest but only the
outermost edges of the barren tree limbs were visible. Even the
breeze that made the sticks rub and creak against one another
couldn't give the woods the semblance of life and growth.

"How will we find it?" Tristam asked him in a
hushed voice.

Alto racked his brain for an answer. He was
their best tracker but that was a far cry from meaning he had any
real skill at it. He could trail a bleeding deer on a winter day,
but the ground here was hard-packed and covered in the brown and
dying summer grasses. Tracking would serve him little purpose; they
sought something that flew.

"Look to the trees," Alto suggested. "They
build their nests in trees and safe and dark places."

"Sounds wonderful," Tristam grumbled. He
twitched his reins to encourage his horse regain the speed they'd
lost when he'd slowed it at the notice of the forest. "The entire
damn forest looks dark."

Alto nodded. "We'll need torches. As long as
we don't pose a threat, the wasps should leave us alone."

"You know our job is to kill them,
right?"

Alto nodded. "Well, yeah. I mean we should be
okay before that."

Tristam scowled and rode on. Each passing
minute, Alto felt himself growing more and more excited. He hadn't
been in a real fight since they reclaimed Highpeak. Everything
since then had been skirmishes or brawls. He was anxious to test
out his skills. He'd learned new moves and new ways to protect
himself.

Alto's pondering kept him so preoccupied that
he gasped when Tristam called a halt and swung off his horse. The
bony sticks of the forest blocked the stars above them. Alto
dismounted and grabbed his shield off Sebas.

"Torches," Tristam ordered as he grabbed one
from the bundle on his saddle.

The rest followed suit and soon Namitus
struck a spark to it that burst into a flame. The others lit their
torches from his and waited for the flames to set before they
turned to face the forest.

"Well, now what?" Kar asked.

"Now we search. Any idea where a wasp nest
would be? Other than in a tree?" Tristam looked at Alto as he asked
the question.

"Maybe along the river? Closer to water that
way."

"Wasps need water?"

"Um, I think so?" Alto guessed. He flashed an
apologetic grin.

"Flowers need water and wasps feed on
flowers," Kar pointed out. "The river is a fine place to
start."

Tristam grunted and turned away. They'd
crossed over the stream on their way to the forest a short distance
back. He turned and headed along the dark edge where the barren
trees met the brown grasses of the plains. The wind whistled and
rattled the branches above them but didn't reach down where they
walked.

"At least we're not buried under tons of rock
and surrounded by goblins," Kar offered.

Tristam turned and glared at him. His message
delivered, the warrior continued along the edge of the forest. They
peered into the woods and up at the trees looking for the wasp
nest, often tripping or breaking sticks or bushes. They'd escaped
the trip with no more than a few muttered curses and scrapes when
they found the edge of the stream.

"Come on," Tristam said, turning and heading
into the dark forest along the bank of the stream.

"Shouldn't we walk on the other side, so it's
quicker to get out of the woods?" Namitus asked.

"The wasps won't fly as well with all the
trees and branches as they will in the open," Kar pointed out.

"Oh."

"And the horses are on this side of the
forest," Tristam reminded him.

"Yeah, I get it, I'll stop," Namitus
said.

They continued on, staring so hard into the
darkness that Kar slipped and fell down the bank into the stream.
He rose up sputtering and cursing. He splashed out of the small
pool he'd fallen in and started wringing the water out of his
clothes while the others looked on with grins splitting their
faces.

"A pox on you all," Kar muttered when he saw
their amusement.

A cracking branch deeper in the forest caused
Alto to snap his head around. He stared into the darkness but could
see nothing beyond the light of their torches. The others took
notice and fell silent, each searching for whatever it was that had
spooked the young warrior.

"What is it?" Tristam whispered.

"I'm not sure. I heard a branch break. A
deer, maybe?"

"Those wasps went after horses; a deer
wouldn't last a minute!" Karthor reminded him.

"I don't know then. Maybe a squirrel or a
falling branch. We'll not find it sitting here," Alto said.

Namitus hissed to get their attention and
whispered, "I hear something."

They turned as one to look at the rogue. Each
of them lifted their heads or cocked their ears to try to help
them. "Another stick?" Tristam asked.

"No, it's…" Namitus paused, frowning. "I'm
not sure. Over this way though," he pointed down the stream.

"Lead the way," Tristam bade him, abandoning
Alto’s discovery.

Alto continued to cast glances to his left.
He feared whatever made the noise would be upon them when they were
least ready for it. Tristam's hand on his arm stopped him a few
moments later. Alto jerked to a stop and looked at Tristam, and
then ahead into the gloom. A darker shape lie ahead of them,
bridging the stream from bank to bank. Alto squinted harder and
realized that it was shifting and moving in the darkness.

"Found it," Tristam whispered.

The shape was a massive wasp nest, Alto
realized. A nest with wasps crawling over it. He heard the noise
now, too; it was a low hum that he hadn't even noticed at first. A
hum that was the beating of wasp wings.

"That's going to take a lot of smoke,"
Tristam said. The stream was less than ten feet across and in the
shadows, the nest looked to be at least three times as long and
twice as thick.

"Resting over a stream, too," Alto whispered.
"If it breaks or burns, it will fall in and put the fire out."

"Got an army of giant bears on the prowl for
honey?" Tristam quipped.

Kar cleared his throat. "Be careful what you
wish for, this forest may provide it."

"What do you mean?"

Kar shrugged. "There is fey magic about this
place. It's not mere superstition and ignorance that makes the
villagers call this forest enchanted."

"Can we drop a tree on it or something?"
Namitus asked as he peered up into the towering trees around them.
Each one seemed sinister in the darkness, as though they would
reach down with their branches and grab them up.

"Be silent!" Kar hissed. He forced his torch
into Namitus's hands and sniffed the air, and then began to mutter
a quick spell while weaving his hands back and forth in front of
him.

Alto watched the wizard and tested the air
himself. He glanced about, remembering the noise he'd heard
earlier. Another noise intruded on the buzzing of the wasps, a
bubbling and popping noise. He followed his senses to the stream
and saw the water bursting as bubbles rose to the surface. "What's
that?" he asked, pointing at it.

Kar finished his spell, only to curse a
moment later. "Back! Away from here! Now!"

"What, why?" Tristam demanded.

Kar grabbed his torch back from Namitus and
threw it ahead of them, towards the wasp nest. It fell short by a
dozen feet but it was close enough to cast a light on it and show
the wasps that crawled across the nest growing clumsy and losing
their grip. They fell off and landed on the ground or in the
stream. They continued to move sluggishly and then stiffened or
jerked to a final rest. "Some poisonous fog is arising."

Tristam sucked in a gasp of breath and turned
away. He grabbed Alto and yanked him after him, but lost his grip
as Alto was staggered off balance by the abrupt motion. In moments,
they were all hastening away from the bubbling brook.

Alto felt his vision swimming as they ran. He
slipped and staggered, and then pushed himself to his feet. He
looked up at one point and saw the shadows twisting and taking on
shapes of their own. Shapes with claws and beaks. Something reached
out of the darkness at him and knocked the torch from his hand.
Alto cried out and reached for his sword. His shield, he realized,
was gone.

Alto twisted and looked behind him. Where had
it gone? When did he drop it? A growl from his left alerted him to
turn back in time to catch the claw from something with black fur
smash into his mail-covered shoulder. Alto staggered away and
slipped down the bank into the stream.

"Alto!" Tristam cried out from farther down
the stream.

In the poison-induced confusion, the others
had gotten ahead of him. He rose to his feet and was about to rush
after them when the black-furred creature jumped into the stream in
front of him. He stared at it, trying to make sense of the beast.
Other shapes moved through the trees following his friends and
separating them further.

"Go, I'll meet you at the horses!" Alto cried
out. He knelt down and picked up his fallen sword and lunged
forward as he rose. His blade plunged into the belly of the
horrific creature, causing it to cry out in a noise that was a
cross between a shriek of a bird and a howl from a bear. The
creature had a beak and cold avian eyes but its size, claws, and
the way it stood on its hind legs were all bear.