Into the Wastelands: Book Four of the Restoration Series (21 page)

Heather immediately reversed course and stepped back into the trees. She could not see any movement, nothing implied any danger, but still her heart was pounding. They had reached Saprasia.

Heather’s initial thought was that this trip had been an enormous waste of time. The plateau stretched out in front of her and the remains of what has once been a beautiful city were obvious. The problem was that after thousands of years, the city was an absolute ruin. There wasn’t a single building still standing and she cursed herself for not thinking about this sooner. Of course the city would not be standing, the goblins would have seen to that when they sacked the place. Not to mention the thousands of years since the city had fallen.

Here and there, the bases of grand buildings were still visible but for the most part the ruins were mostly hidden by the vegetation. Trees had pushed their way through the stones of the streets and short thick bushes covered the ground. Dislodged stones were scattered around and everything was covered by a layer of vines.

She waited for the others to catch up and it didn’t take them long to arrive. They each stared out over the plateau, the futility of their mission settling on them. Only Dagan was unaffected by the scene before them.

“What do we do now?” Aaron asked.

Sighing, Heather looked to Dagan. “It’s a good question. Do you have anything to say?”

The sorcerer didn’t answer immediately, instead he stepped to the edge of the trees and surveyed the destruction. “Not much left, is there?”

“You said the armor was here,” Mikela said. Her face was flushed and she looked angry. “Well?”

“I did not say the armor was here,” Dagan said, his tone going slightly frosty. “I said this was the last place it was ever seen.”

Mikela opened her mouth to retort but Heather held up a hand and the magician fell quiet.

“Dagan, what are we supposed to do?” Heather asked, struggling to remain calm. “There’s nothing left. Nothing for us to search through.”

“Perhaps, but I think it’s a little early to decide that,” Dagan said. “I do agree that the armor will not be easy to find, but it has to be here, or at least
a clue as to where it’
s located.”

“And why is that?” Aaron asked. “Perhaps the Church already has the armor.”

“No,” Dagan said, shaking his head. “If the Church had the armor then they wouldn’t still be sending expeditions here. And I daresay that if Zalustus had it then he would hav
e worn
it when he attacked Mul-Dune. No,” he said again and took a deep breath, “it has to be here.”

Several of the Guardians had rather angry looks on their faces and Heather moved quickly to forgo an argument.
“It’s getting late in the day. Atock, find us a safe place to make camp and we’ll wait until tomorrow to start our search.”

Atock shot another angry look Dagan’s way and then turned to Heather. “You want to camp on the plateau or in the woods?”

Heather thought about it for a moment. The plateau would probably be safer, if they could find a hidden defendable location for camp. “Let’s try the plateau,” she said, “but only if you can find a decent spot.”

Moving quickly and staying low, Atock bolted from the tree line and out onto the plateau. He nearly tripped several times as the stones that had made up the roads and such were no longer level.

There was approximately twenty yards of open area that he had to cover before the shrubs and ruins hid him from view. As soon as he was under cover, Atock came to a stop and listened for any sound
that
would signal something
out of place. Nothing. Breathing easier, he began moving through the rubble.

Even after thousands of years, it was easy to see that this city had once been marvelous. He passed a small stone wall, probably part of a wall from a building, the wall was only several feet high but there was no gap where the stones joined each other. He had seen dwarven stonework before and
the ruins reminded
him
of that type of craftsmanship.

After only a few moments of exploring, he came across what looked like a small hill to his right. In reality it was the remains of the base of a large building. The building had collapsed a long time ago, and just the base remained. The remaining walls were higher than Atock’s head and covered with vines. Luckily the rubble lay up against the wall and he quickly climbed up and looked into the base of the building. He sighed at the sight before him. The wall he was looking over was the only wall that remained standing. This structure offered no cover, no protection. Sighing, he climbed back down and moved on farther into the plateau.

Atock checked several more small hills, which he presumed
were
the ground floor
s
of larger stone buildings
,
but he couldn’t find an acceptable campsite. After wandering for nearly a quarter of an hour, he was just about to give up and return via a different route, when he stepped into a small clearing.

The Gods only knew what the clearing had once been used for, but it had remained relatively free of rubble
and for the most part was still level
. The clearing was open and rather broad, perhaps indicating that it had
once
been some sort of open air market.
Regardless, it was way too exposed for their campsite and Atock was about to return when he noticed two more of the small hills on the far side of the clearing. “Might as well check them out,” he said aloud. He immediately clamped his mouth shut and listened for any sounds. It was fairly quiet and his words had been louder than he had
intended
. After a couple of moments, he stopped holding his breath and began crossing the clearing.

The first small hill was open on the north side and Atock quickly dismissed it
since two of the walls had fallen
. The second hill, however, was intact and looked promising. Like the others, the hill looked to be the base of a building, how big the original building had been, he had no idea and it really didn’t matter. When the original building had fallen, it had left the four walls of the ground floor reasonably intact. Over the years the trees and shrubs had grown up right around the walls and had helped keep them
standing
. It took a moment for Atock to find a way up to the top of the wall, but it was worth it. The four walls of the building formed a sort of bowl at the top of the hill. It was perfect for their campsite. They could make camp in the bowl, have walls to defend
them
, and be hidden from sight.

He spent almost another quarter of an hour searching the surrounding area, just to make sure it was safe, and then he turned his steps back to where the others waited for him. 

The
y
made their camp that night in the structure that Atock discovered. The only shortcoming, as they quickly discovered, was its lack of overhead covering. The rain continued to fall in a slow steady drizzle but no one complained too much. They preferred the hidden and defensible campsite in the rain to a more exposed location under a covering. Still, no one was foolish enough to ask for a  campfire.

As they had done last night, two people were assigned to the watch. Heather really didn’t expect for any of them to fall asleep, but it would be easier for two people to spot trouble than one person.

Heather lay down and placed her cloak over her head. The cloak was leather and had been oiled recently. She desperately hoped it would keep the rain from bothering her all night long. She lay there for several moments, listening to the plop
,
plop of the rain hitting her cloak and wondered how she would ever get to sleep.
That was the last thing she remembered until Agminion shook her awake.

She bolted up to a sitting position, her whole body tensing up. Upon seeing the sorcerer, she relaxed, yawned, and began to stretch her neck. “Is it my turn…”
s
he started to say, but Agminion did not let her finish.

“Shh!”
h
e said quietly
, holding his finger to his lips
.

Once again Heather tensed up and she studied his face. There was a defin
ite worry there. “What is it?” s
he asked in a much quieter voice.

“Goblins,” Agminion said so quietly that Heather almost didn’t hear it.

She looked past Agminion and could make out Atock’s outline against the top of the wall.
The rain was almost gone but it was still overcast which hid the moon’s illumination.
She threw her cloak off and quietly climbed up the slope to where Atock peeked out over the
top
. He didn’t even glance her way as
she
moved in beside him.
Even before she reached the wall, she could hear movement outside their camp. Occasionally a low guttural word reached her ears. Her first thought was that somehow the goblins had managed to track them here and that was followed closely by the memory of what the goblins had done to the agents of the Church. Her stomach seemed to tighten at the thought of her fellow Guardians’ heads on pikes.

Raising up slightly, she peered out into the darkness. It took her a moment to make sense of what was happening and then she nearly slumped in relief. The goblins were not circling their campsite, they were
moving
past. Then she realized just how many of them there were. She leaned down and whispered into Atock’s ear, “Any idea what’s happening?”

His only answer was a quick shake of the head.

They stayed there and watched as the horde of goblins moved past their hiding spot. Goblins are evil creatures, with wicked looking fangs. About as tall as humans, they’re much stronger. Even though they’re covered in fur, they sometimes wear clothing. They live in clans, or tribes, and constantly fight amongst themselves.

They continued shuffling past the Guardians’ camp, mostly headed towards the northwestern edge of the plateau. Heather’s forehead wrinkled in confusion. It seemed an odd choice as the mountains appeared impassable. It took her a moment to remember the mountains on the north and northeastern part of the plateau were fairly sheer, but the slopes weren’t quite as steep to the northwest. The travel would still be tough that way, but it was
manageable
.
Still, it was hard to discern any reason for this many goblins to travel in that direction. That only left one explanation to Heather’s way of thinking. There must be a system of caves or whatever the goblins called home.

After a short while, the goblins’ numbers thinned until finally there were no more of the foul beasts. She still waited, leaving plenty of time for any stragglers to show themselves. “What do you
think?” s
he asked finally, although she still kept voice so low that it was nearly inaudible.

Atock shrugged. “Well,” he began but cut off as two more figures climbed the wall and joined them. Agminion and Dagan peeked out over the wall from just to the right of Heather.

“Are there anymore of them around?” Heather asked.

Dagan got a faraway look in his eyes and he didn’t respond for several moments. “No,” he said finally, shaking his head. “They’re all moving towards the mountains.”

“Sure was an awful lot of them,” Agminion said. He was looking to the northwest, but the mountains were hid
den
by the cloudy night. “
Do they normally live together in such large numbers
?”

“Not that I’ve ever heard of,” Heather answered.

Atock looked over, “You think they’re doing Zalustus’ bidding?”

Heather considered the idea for a moment before shrugging. “No idea, but I find it strange that the Church sends its agents here at the same
time that Flare claims Ossendar, a
nd then there just happens to be a huge number of goblins waiting for them.”

Silence settled in but it only lasted a moment. “It’s possible the goblins were waiting on us,” Dagan said quietly.

“What?” Atock asked looking surprised.

“I mean it’s possible the goblins are waiting on us,” Dagan repeated. The other three had surprised and confused looks
on their faces and he continued,
“I don’t mean waiting on our group necessarily, but they had to be expecting Flare to come looking for the armor.”

“And we came in his place,” Heather said softly.

They lapsed into a brief silence which was broken by Agminion several moments later. “So what do we do?”

Heather had been wondering that herself.
She had only come up with one idea and she wasn’t overly fond of it. She turned to look at Dagan and Agminion. “Can you do something,” she waved her hand in the air, “to make the goblins not see me.”

Both Dagan and Agminion just stared at her for several moments. Finally, Dagan roused himself enough to shake his head. “No. The best we could do is to muddle how they see you. It might work and it might not. Why do you ask?”

“Because I think I should follow those goblins,” Heather said rather matter-of-factly.