Ravenwild: Book 01 - Ravenwild (94 page)

to face the Wolf. It struck him right in the eye and he went down.

Ryan and Gracie covered the short span to Maxilius, Daria, and Forrester in a matter of seconds, slicing them free.

Orie wasted no time in gathering the dead Trolls’ weapons, which he tossed with a shout to Forrester and Maxilius.

Daria, once free, grabbed up Jacqueline and raced away into the woods. A deafening thought boomed into Jacqueline’s mind from the mind of their rescuer. “Wrong way! Wrong way! Head West! West! Get to the River.”

Jacqueline shrieked this to Daria, who bent the direction of her frantic run to accommodate the order. Simply reversing it would have meant charging directly back into the hostilities, which she was not about to do.

Forrester Ragamund, Maxilius Bravarus, and the great Wolf held the onrushing Trolls at bay. “
Go Ryan! Go Gracie! Follow Jacqueline!”
hollered Orie as he stood his ground, now concentrating on unleashing his arrows at the officer’s tent, taking out every Troll as quickly as they emerged. The first was a lieutenant, who thought that perhaps a fight had broken out amongst the soldiers. Such fights were not uncommon among Troll warriors in the field. He was casually holding a flask of ale and sporting a look of mild confusion when he first stuck his head out, which turned immediately to awe and disbelief when Orie’s first shot struck him in the center of his chest. Next came Sliphen, holding what looked like an iron poker that glowed red-hot. He never had time to say a word as he too went to his knees, an arrow suddenly protruding from his gut. The last was General Vladimir Dumfe. He looked upon the absolute bedlam in front of him and, showing the true cowardice of his basic nature, frantically turned around to retreat back into the tent. Too late. Orie’s next arrow struck him in the center of his back, and his last one in the butt as he lay there unmoving.

Now, the Trolls that had been gathering wood and tending the cook fires assumed they were under some kind of massive attack and raced about to secure weapons. This diversion allowed the first true opportunity for the rest to escape. “
Go Orie! Go!”
bellowed Forrester as he and Maxilius Bravarus felled Troll after onrushing Troll. Rather than retreat to safety, they took the fight directly to their onrushing captors.

Maxilius Bravarus was a study in fighting efficiency. He had made it to the rank of Commander not solely on the virtue of his intelligence, but fighting prowess as well, and in this deadly game of warfare, on this day, there was no better, as he gave it everything he had, felling Troll after Troll after Troll. “Follow the others. We’ll be right behind you!” Forrester shouted to Orie, who held on tight to his bow and sprinted after Ryan and Gracie. The Wolf ran along directly behind him, turning back every once in a while to challenge some of the Trolls who had by now made it over to the fray from the far side of the camp. They were clearly terrified of the animal, with her fangs bared and her growl deep and threatening. The invisible boy and the great Wolf worked in concert, the Wolf’s confrontations always forcing the onrushing Trolls to pause, giving him the perfect opportunities to make easy shots. In a matter of minutes, all the Trolls that were chasing them lay dead or dying on the ground. It was a good thing too, as he was down to just a few remaining arrows.

Daria pulled up, allowing Gracie, Ryan, and Orie to catch up. In the distance the combat raged on, the sounds of bellowing, the cries of pain, and the clashing of the swords drifting to them through the trees.

In between breaths that came quick and harsh, Orie said, “You … go … on. I’m … going back for … Forrester.”

“Orie, you can’t!” cried Jacqueline. “You’ll be killed. And how will you find us?”

“Go
,” said Orie. “I am
not
leaving him.”

“I’ll stay with him,” thought Cinnamon, the message of which was heard by both Jacqueline and their Wolf rescuer. “If I am with him, you can guide us to you.”

“We’ll stay too,” said Ryan. Gracie nodded her agreement without hesitation.

“No,” said Orie. “You all stay together. You have no weapons, and the ones the Trolls use are way too heavy for you. You all stay together. Go now.” He looked directly into the eyes of the great Wolf and saw unmistakable intelligence. He also saw confusion over the voice that spoke to them from the nothingness. “Thank you,” he said. “Now go. Keep them safe. Get them far away from here.” Jacqueline translated.

He turned and began his trek back into the lion’s den, his footfalls registering as subtle indentations on the forest floor.

The only sound was that of the King and his second conversing.

“Sire,” said Thargen, “you know I will always do as ordered by you. But, having said this, I would be remiss if I did not express to you my concern over the wisdom of removing me from the front.”

They were sitting alone behind the closed door of the same house in Utt from which Rolan had exited an hour earlier before addressing the Ravenwild troops. Andar Gall was meeting in the next house over with all of the officers and squad leaders to review, and set into motion, the plan for the trap that he had spent the last year of his life preparing for the enemy. He had given it his all, using hundreds of Gnomes who had labored for month after grueling month on the excavations. None of the vast fortune that he and Isandora had accumulated as a result of all the years they had poured their hearts and souls into the Inn, and other business concerns, was left, and he didn’t care a whit. No fortune in this life mattered to him any more. What mattered was avenging her murder, and this was to be that day or he would die in the attempt. He frankly didn’t care either way. Part of him had died
with
her that day …

Thargen continued. “The Troll horde will be on us in a matter of hours.” He paused and cleared his voice. They should have been here long ago, which undoubtedly means that they have been met by their reinforcements from the north for the counterattack. To be sure, if all goes as planned, it will be the most decisive victory to date in our efforts against them. But, as you know, the best of strategies can come apart in a matter of moments once the fighting starts, and if it were to go badly for us, for whatever reason, our cause would be best served were I here to help with the fallback plan. In truth, My Lord, where I
should
be, at this precise moment, is next door with Andar Gall. And directly involved in the planning. He is a great Gnome. Of this there is no question. But he is not a military man.”

Rolan sighed wearily. He knew his second in command was right. But this was his daughter, presently a few houses away and fuming bitterly at the fact that she was essentially under house arrest while her father finalized the plan as to how to get her as far away as he could from the impending conflict. He stood, crossed the room, and stared into the empty fireplace. He wondered when the last time it had been lit. When, if ever, a family had gathered around the warmth of the flames and exchanged pleasantries about their day …

“You are right of course,” he said. “But having said that, my decision is final. This is my only daughter, and she has told me that she loves this man. For all that she has suffered in this life, she deserves to be with him. As you point out, once the fighting starts, everything can come apart in a matter of moments. I do not want her here if that happens. I want her to be with him, far away, and the best one to get her there is you. Of all the fighting men I have ever known, yours are the skills I trust the most. It is decided. You will leave within the hour. Take as many or as few men as you feel you will need to get her there. But Thargen,” their eyes met, “get her there safely.”

They shook hands at the forearm in the military way, and Thargen left without another word. He believed it was a tactical mistake. In fact he knew it was a tactical error with the direst consequences possible. But having received his orders, he was prepared to do exactly as commanded by his King. It’s what soldiers did. They followed orders. Especially when the orders, such as these, left no room for interpretation.

He crossed over to the house where Diana was being kept. She was furious at the news and would not go without a last farewell to her father, arguing that there was a chance they would never see each other again. Once in front of him, she tried to protest, but he wouldn’t hear of it. He embraced her warmly and shooed her on her way, saying he had a battle to prepare for.

When they had made it to the edge of the south field, they exchanged one last wave by the light of the spring moons.

The Trolls arrived at midday. Having been joined by the reinforcements from the north, they now numbered well over twenty thousand, perhaps thirty. All had been worked into a frenzy by their commanders and wanted nothing more than to have at the ragtag Ravenwild forces that had managed to inflict such terrible losses on their army in the cowardly attack of days before. But this was a more organized effort than the mad chase up from King’s Port, and their leaders were not about to let them be tricked a second time. They began a methodical sweep of the village of Utt, burning each house to the ground, one at a time, once it had been thoroughly searched. There were signs in every one of these that the Ravenwild army had been there, but it was not until they entered the last one that they had any idea of where they were hiding. Up until now it looked as though they had vanished without a trace but, no, they had gone underground, for the last house was not a house at all, but a façade that had been erected to conceal the entrance to a large tunnel that burrowed into the hill behind it. Now they had them. They were trapped like the rats the Trolls knew them to be.

Then again, they did not charge into it like so many buffoons. Rather, once they discovered it, they summoned the company commanders so that they could look it over and determine the best way to proceed. It was decided that they would send a party of one hundred, all carrying torches, down inside as a probe. That way, if they encountered a trap, the rest of them would not be victims. These Ravenwild soldiers were smart, and the Trolls knew it. They had been fooled once, and they were not about to be fooled again.

The force of a hundred entered the tunnel in the early afternoon, while the rest of them were ordered to set up a camp. Hunting parties were sent up into the woods to get the meat that would be needed to feed them all. Having inflicted essentially no losses on the enemy, they were basically out of food, and the one thing an army needs to wage a war is food.

By the next morning, neither the hunting parties nor the probe had returned, and the Trolls were getting restless. Hunger was the issue. It had been weeks since any of them had eaten a decent meal, most of them having arrived from the northern reaches of Vultura after a nonstop march, and tempers were short. What they had expected was a decisive battle fought on open ground with a great feast to follow. Instead, they had found nothing but a hole in the ground. Fights began to break out amongst them, several to the death, but the few Trolls who were killed and consumed by the troops only served to fuel the anger in those who remained hungry. Kangaroo courts were held to punish those taking part in the fights. Their sentences were death, of course, but their bodies fell far short of the amounts necessary to feed the starving mob. More hunting parties were sent to the woods. Days later some of these returned, all empty-handed. Most did not. Another probe was sent into the tunnel, this one a thousand strong. Another day passed, and they too failed to reappear, putting the Troll army into a near-riotous state. All knew there would be no supply caravan arriving to sate their monstrous appetites, nor would there be the handouts they had all come to expect from the Gnomes.

All knew the commanders had made a big mistake by racing them here to the middle of nowhere with no thought whatsoever as to how to feed them. And all knew that they had two choices: Either retreat, or enter the tunnel en masse and take the fight underground to the enemy on their terms. The grumbling amongst them as the military leadership decided their fate was as loud as the grumbling in their empty bellies.

In the afternoon of the sixth day of their occupation of the valley of Utt, the decision was made to send essentially the entire occupying Troll army of the gargantuan Vultura campaign into the tunnel. Trolls did not retreat. It was just not their way, and it was where the Ravenwild army was hiding, so now the killing of their enemies meant much more than it normally meant. It meant they would not starve to death in this desolate valley. It meant an end to the interminable hunger that wracked their guts. It meant hope, and weak though they were, they clung to it the way a drowning man will cling to anything that will keep him afloat.