Child of Fate (15 page)

The third fork in the tunnel led to a mine
that had been active recently. The irregular oval chamber was large
by underground standards, easily forty feet long by half that wide.
Wooden supports were spaced every few feet between the floor and
the ceiling. Carts were half-filled with rocks and silver ore.
Picks, shovels, and hammers rested on the ground or in the
carts.

The final tunnel they explored continued
deeper into the mountain but they stopped at a breach in the
lefthand wall. Tristam poked his head around the opening and jumped
back just as fast. Namitus stumbled back, knocked to the ground by
the larger man. Three short-handled spears bounced off the rock
wall just ahead of them.

“Charge them!” Tristam shouted. He reversed
direction and ran through the uneven opening.

William leapt over Namitus before the man
could pull himself out of the way. Karthor followed but Kar chose
to move to the other side of the opening and peer through. The
wizard glanced at Alto and Trina. “Well?” he asked them, motioning
them forward with his hand.

Alto jerked himself into action. He lurched
forward, holding his shield in front of himself and trying to keep
the torch’s flames from licking at his face and hair. Alto knew
Trina followed behind him by the muffled grunt Namitus made when
she kicked him on her way past.

{(no scene break here)}

A host of goblins were waiting for them in a
small cavern with a river running through the middle of it. Tristam
had breached their front ranks already, taking them by surprise
with his charge. He hewed back and forth, focusing only on offense
and seeking to strike down as many as he could before they
recovered. William joined him on the rocky ledge that served as the
bank of the river, striking into the goblins and either killing
them or knocking them into the fast flowing water.

A large plank of stone served as a bridge
across the river. Tristam leapt onto it, intent upon reaching the
other side where goblins armed with spears were waiting. Karthor
filled his spot, using his mace to keep the recovering goblins at
bay. Alto saw that the goblins on the near side numbered less than
a dozen now and his companions had things in hand. He jumped onto
the stone bridge, intent upon helping Tristam.

A spear clipped the farm boy’s shield,
jerking his arm and causing him to smack himself in the head with
his torch. He dropped it into the river but stopped himself before
swatting with the sword in his hand at the embers that burned his
brow and neck.

Alto clenched his teeth and leapt off the
rock into the group of goblins to his left. He swung his sword,
smashing aside spears, axes, and knives as best he could. Some
poked through, but he moved aggressively and prevented any from
striking a telling blow. He lashed out savagely, taking inspiration
from Tristam’s earlier assault.

By the time Alto had run out of targets, he
was gasping for breath. He turned slowly, his shoulders heaving,
and saw nothing but the bloody remains of the goblin defenders. His
own hands, arms, and clothes were covered in blood, some of it his
own. He looked over to Tristam and saw the man holding his hip
while he limped over to where he’d dropped his torch earlier.

Alto turned and stared at the river, where
he’d dropped his torch. Tristam’s had burned out after he’d used it
as a club on the head of a goblin. Only the lights from Karthor’s
holy symbol and a pair of goblin corpses that were still smoldering
near Kar lit up the small chamber.

“Gah, roast goblin stinks!” William held a
hand to his nose and kicked one and then the other burning goblin
into the stream.

“Did you clip their fingers first?” Tristam
yelled over at him. “We don’t get paid without trophies.”

Tristam stared at the water and cursed. Alto
walked over to Tristam, his own leg tightening from a poke he’d
taken in the calf. He fished the flint and steel out of his pouch
and held it up. Tristam grunted and held out his torch for Alto to
light.

“Thanks,” Tristam said. He looked at the
bodies surrounding them before taking a sack out from his belt and
handing it to Alto. “You fought well. Foolishly, but we’re standing
and they’re not. At the end of the day, that’s what matters. Now
the gruesome part of our business. Cut their right thumbs off and
put them in here.”

Alto stared at the bag, and then at the
goblins. He took a breath to steady his nerve but found the stink
of blood and worse did little to help. He nodded and turned to get
to work, but was joined a moment later by Trina.

“I’ll do it,” Alto insisted. “This isn’t the
work for a lady.”

Trina smirked at him. “I’m not a princess,”
she reminded him. “To my people, I’m just as capable as anyone
else.”

“I didn’t mean disrespect,” he stammered. “I
meant this is gruesome work and—”

“How many goblins did you kill?” she
interrupted him.

Alto glanced over. “I’m not sure. Eight,
maybe?”

She nodded. “I slew five. Do I look like the
kind of girl that’s afraid of blood?”

Alto blushed and looked down at the goblin in
front of him. He grimaced as he used his knife to cut the thumb off
the body. “I guess not,” he mumbled. “This is no proper way to make
a living, though.”

Trina laughed, a light sound that seemed
ill-fitting for their situation. She popped a thumb off and tossed
it to him. “No, I don’t suppose it is, but we’ve got to start
somewhere, don’t we?”

“This isn’t what I had in mind when I wanted
to grow up to be a hero,” he admitted quietly enough so that only
Trina could hear him.

“That’s what makes you heroic,” she said with
a twinkle in her eye. “We’ve many tales of haunted tombs and
rampaging monsters among my people. You want to be a hero—you
should come to my land sometime.”

Alto stared at her until she blushed and
looked away. “It’s so far,” he said.

She shrugged but wouldn’t look at him. “I’m
here and that’s no farther.”

“Yeah, you are,” he said after a moment of
thought. He grinned. “Maybe I will!”

Trina met his eyes for the first time since
she’d looked away. “I’d like that.”

“What kinds of monsters are there?” Alto
asked her.

“What?”

“You said rampaging monsters, what kind? I’ve
heard stories but never seen any real monsters.”

Trina’s eyes narrowed. “All kinds. And they
like to eat boys that are too stupid to know any better!” She stood
up and stormed off, heading back across the bridge. Namitus didn’t
get out of her way in time and received an elbow in his side that
helped him clear the stone bridge and land near Alto.

Alto watched her go and then turned to look
at Namitus. The young-looking man rubbed his side and stared after
her. He shrugged and bent down to start collecting the thumbs from
the goblins. “She’s got a fire no sea can ever put out,” he
offered.

Alto grunted, forgetting for the time
Namitus’s betrayal. He went back to work, focusing on not thinking
about how he was desecrating the goblin corpses. By the time he
finished, his body was aching with the minor injuries from the
battle. Karthor had done his best to bandage the wound in Tristam’s
hip and offered similar treatment to Alto, but the youngest member
of the Blades shook his head. His cuts had stopped bleeding and it
seemed likely they’d need more of Karthor’s skills later.

“Now what?” William asked. “We’ve got one
torch amongst us and it looks to be nearly burnt out thanks to the
long trek through the mines and using it to brain a goblin.”

“Karthor and Kar can light the way,” Tristam
grunted. He turned to look at their surroundings and then pointed
his sword at a cave that led away from the room. “We go this
way.”

“I’m a wizard, not some fool with a deck of
cards at a tavern!” Kar snapped.

“Does that mean you can’t guess my weight?”
Karthor asked him.

Kar snapped his mouth shut after a moment and
glared at his son. “Bah, I should have left you with your mother’s
parents!”

“You did,” Karthor reminded him.

“Well, you’re here now, aren’t you?”

“Only because you feared me spending time at
the church of Leander.”

“Rightfully so!” Kar declared. “Pedophiles
and hedonists, the lot of them!”

“Father!” Karthor snapped. “Leander would not
allow such a thing amongst his followers!”

Kar harrumphed. “Patron of growth all
right—the growth a priest gets in his robes when he sees a new
acolyte.”

“Kar!” Tristam snapped. “We’re miles from
allies, deep underground, and short on supplies. Try not to upset
our healer.”

Kar scowled but bit off any further comments.
Karthor walked past Alto across the bridge, a barely contained grin
on his face. When Alto raised his eyes to Kar, he saw the wizard
wink at him. Alto risked a glance at the priest. He wasn’t sure
what was going on between the two but he knew it wasn’t nearly as
bad as their squabbling sounded.

“Alto, up front with me,” Tristam called out.
“William, take his place. You’re better with your crossbow than
your sword.”

William offered Alto a salute and waited for
the others to move ahead so he could take the boy’s place in line
next to Patrina. Namitus trailed after Alto as they moved off
single file down the new tunnel.

The cave twisted and went up; crude steps
chipped out of the rocks made the passage easier in spite of the
dampness coating the walls and floor. The mines had been dry once
they’d gotten away from the back door Alto and Drefan had found,
but since they’d left the mines behind and crossed the river
everything, even the air, had a chilling moistness to it.

The cave ahead of Tristam leveled out briefly
and branched off into a small room. He swung his torch into the
opening and jumped back as a goblin shrieked and leapt out at him.
Alto reacted without thinking, stepping around his leader and
hacking into the back of the goblin deeply enough to sever its
spine and leave his sword lodged in its back. Alto put his foot to
the goblin and wrenched his sword free, and then looked to the dark
chamber, expecting reinforcements.

“They’re down to the females now,” Tristam
said after nothing attacked them.

Alto glanced down and saw that Tristam was
right. The goblin he’d killed was female. He stiffened, appalled at
what he’d done. She hadn’t even been wielding a weapon, he
realized. She’d leapt at Tristam with bared teeth and dirty
fingernails.

Tristam entered the small room while Alto
continued to stare at her. The others gathered round, some
following Tristam until the room was full.

“It didn’t matter to her that we were men and
she wasn’t,” Namitus offered. “She’d have killed us all if she
could.”

Alto nodded. It made sense, but it didn’t
take away the feeling that he’d done something he shouldn’t have.
He looked up and saw Trina staring at him from the entry into the
chamber. Her eyes widened when their gazes met but only for an
instant before she turned away.

“Let’s go,” Tristam said as he emerged from
the chamber. He climbed up the next staircase, favoring his injured
hip, and forced Alto to hurry after him.

They found three more small chambers. The
first had some crude possessions, a goblin’s treasures that held no
real value. The second had two more goblins in it, both of them
female. They hissed and shouted at them but William’s crossbow and
Tristam’s sword ended their protest. Even for goblins, they looked
short. Alto wondered if all the goblin women were like that.

The third chamber was the largest yet, but
still not big enough for all of them to enter. The cave’s floor had
scraps of crude clothing, tufts of hair, and a few bits of bone
scattered about. It was a flat spot on the back wall of the small
room that drew their attention most. Scratched into the stone was
the picture that Alto thought was a giant bird at first.

“This doesn’t bode well,” Kar muttered when
he studied the crude art work.

“This carving could have been here for ages,”
Tristam said.

Kar studied {it} closer and shook his head.
“With the water running down the walls, it would be worn down were
that the case.”

“What are you saying?” Tristam growled.

Kar turned and stared at Alto. “Come, boy,
what do you think?”

“This is no time for lessons!” Tristam
snapped.

Kar held up his hand to stall Tristam. “The
lesson may be for you or for me; now let our young friend
answer.”

Alto swallowed and studied the picture again.
The lines between the bird’s beak and the ground didn’t look like
worms. For that matter, the mouth didn’t look much like a beak; it
was more like the snout of a horse or a dog. Alto’s eyes widened.
Birds didn’t have arms either, like the picture did.

“Dragon?” Alto whispered.

Kar nodded, confirming Alto’s youthful
imagination.

But dragons were big. Huge, even, from the
tales he’d heard. None had been seen for years in the Northern
Divide, at least not since he’d turned eight. Alto thought back,
trying to remember the last time he’d heard about one. His father
had given him Sebas and then had to ride out to tend to some
business the next day. He’d been so caught up in caring for the
foal and taking the lion’s share of the chores, he’d never paid
much attention to why his father had been gone. It was a week
before he’d returned. A week where his mother had been quick to
snap at the slightest offense.

“A dragon wouldn’t fit in these caves,” Alto
offered. “If the goblin women live in these parts, maybe they draw
pictures and tell tales to their children, just as people do.”

Tristam and William laughed at his
suggestion. Kar’s expression remained fixed. “Mayhaps they do, but
I doubt their nursery rhymes are the same as the ones you were
told.”