Protector Of The Grove (Book 2) (32 page)

“And how did it go with you, Yntri?” Justan asked.

“It was a disgrace,” Hilt said before the elf could get out a word. “Half of my family and the other nobles treated him like he was some kind of exotic animal on display.”

“They were respectful,” Yntri clicked. Justan found that after a few weeks hearing the elf both in his mind and aloud, he had picked Yntri’s language up. The elf didn’t even bother speaking to him mentally anymore.

“They acted like you were stupid just because they couldn’t understand you,” Hilt argued.

“They were ignorant, not rude,” Yntri replied and rolled his eyes. “You humans put too much emphasis on speech and appearance. It was not their fault they did not know better. Your father was quite nice.”

Hilt nodded grudgingly. “Well . . . father is ever a diplomat. He did let you listen to him.”

“Yes. He is a good man, though he wears too much perfume.” Yntri looked at the rest of them, wrinkling his nose. “I can still smell it.”

“Of course, once the rest of the nobility saw it done, they thought it was a quaint game.” Hilt shook his head in embarrassment. “They all lined up to be listened to. That’s why it took us so long to return.” 

Yntri looked at Justan with wide eyes. “These Dremaldrian women have large bosoms.”

Jhonate scoffed. “Two thousand-years-old and that is what you comment on?” she said with a scowl. “Are you not going to comment on their heavy perfume?”

“I didn’t notice,” the elf clicked in reply.

Qurl sighed. “Now that everyone is here does this mean we can finally return home?”

“That would be the plan,” Hilt replied, his smile returning. “I settled up with the inn keeper before we left so we can head straight there. We just need to check in at the border. We should make it to Roo-Tan’lan in a few days. They’ll be waiting for us. I sent a pigeon to Beth while we were at the Mage School. She should have let them know we were coming.”

Roo-Tan’lan, translated from the old Roo tongue, meant City of the Roo-Tan. It was the first and largest of the Roo-Tan cities and was located to the west of the Jharro Grove. It had long stood as a proud fortress between the grove and the troll swamps and dark wizards of Alberri. It was also the main political hub of their people and contained the palaces of Xedrion where Jhonate had grown up.

They traveled southward, staying among the trees until Gladstone’s road traffic was behind them. The roads near the border of Malaroo were much less traveled. The Roo-Tan left their country only rarely and they let few visitors in. Those that were allowed to travel within Malaroo borders were levied a hefty fee.

They reached the border checkpoint less than two hours after leaving Gladstone. Oddly, the Roo-Tan guards were not at their station. The rest of the party waited at the road while Sir Hilt and Qurl walked to the guard barracks where the soldiers stayed between their rotations. When the two men returned, there were unsettled looks on their faces.

 “No one was there,” Hilt said. “There was just a note posted at the door that said to wait for their return.”

“It cannot be correct,” Qurl said. “We keep ten men posted here at all times. Fine warriors. They would not all leave their post.”

“Do you think it was the nightbeast?” Poz asked, his voice concerned.

Yntri clicked in reply, “That is not their way. A nightbeast would not kill ten men who were not targets just to set up a trap.”

“This one might,” Justan said, thinking of the letter.

Hilt shook his head. “I checked inside. There was no sign of a fight. No blood anywhere.”

Justan sent instructions through the bond and Deathclaw and Gwyrtha ran over to the barracks. Gwyrtha sniffed around outside the walls while Deathclaw slipped inside the door. Justan had shared with them the scents of basilisks and they would know what to look for.

“Please don’t be offended, Hilt,” Justan said. “But they might be able to find something you couldn’t.”

“So what are we going to do?” Aldie asked. “Do we really want to wait here like the sign said?”

“No,” said Hilt, rubbing his chin. “I don’t think that would be wise.”

“If these men did desert their posts, father will deal with them severely,” Jhexin said, a scowl on his face.

“Gwyrtha did not smell any blood,” Justan said as he heard back from her through the bond. “But there was something else, an odd smell she couldn’t place.”

Deathclaw soon returned, Gwyrtha at his side. “There was no blood or sign of violence inside,” the raptoid reported. “However, everything in the human’s lodging place was damp. Even the blankets were wet. I too smelled the strange scent that Gwyrtha described.”

“Something is going on that father needs to know about,” Jhonate said. “We should hurry.”

“Agreed,” Hilt replied.

They set off across the border, Deathclaw, Gwyrtha, and Yntri running ahead to scout for danger. Hilt kept the party at a swift pace but they weren’t on the trail more than fifteen minutes before Justan received a message back from Deathclaw.

There are many men here and they are coming your way from the west
, the raptoid warned.
They are armed for war
.

“Deathclaw says a group of armed men is approaching,” Justan said. He took his Jharro bow off his shoulder and grabbed an arrow. Gwyrtha soon reported back as well. “Gwyrtha says another group is coming from the east.”

“Everyone ready yourself!” Hilt said, drawing his swords. “How many?”

“Deathclaw saw a dozen, Gwyrtha maybe more. She isn’t good with numbers,” Justan replied. “From the images they’re sending me they look kind of like Roo-Tan, but they’re covered in strange paint.”

“Roo-Dan, then?” said Jhexin. “Here?”

“And only ten of us,” said Hilt. He lifted a small pendant from a chain around his neck and kissed it. A slight smile ran across his face. “Prepare yourself for spirit magic attacks. They may have witches or sorcerers with them. Also their weapons may have spirits bound to them so don’t let yourselves get hit.”

“Are you sure they’ll attack?” Aldie asked.

“Roo-Dan filth!” Qurl spat. “They wouldn’t come all this way unless they meant to fight.”

“Gwyrtha and Deathclaw will follow them and attack from behind,” Justan said. “There’s something else. Gwyrtha is catching more of that strange scent she smelled back at the border. She thinks there is magic in it.”

Justan opened himself fully to the bond, letting his mind touch all of his connections except for his bond with Fist. A shudder passed through him as he drew in a small portion of Gwyrtha’s energy and fed it through each bond in a continuous stream. Justan could feel his every muscle crackling with energy.

He was now hyper aware of both his bonds and his surroundings, his senses tingling. He would be able to defend against magical attacks to both bonded simultaneously in this state. He didn’t know how long he could keep it up without losing his concentration, but he had practiced it with Deathclaw and Gwyrtha a lot before the raptoid left on his mission.

He even sent a little of that energy through the ring,
Are you ready, Jhonate
?

She shivered with a surge of adrenaline. “I am.”

Justan could hear the approaching Roo-Dan now. They had begun a whispering chant that to Justan’s heightened senses sounded like a low roar. “They come!”

Some of them have blue magic
, Deathclaw sent suddenly.
I see it with my Mage Sight
!

“
Merpeople
!” Yntri whistled aloud and through everyone’s Jharro token. The elf darted from the tree line in front of them, dodging as a narrow spear arced from the trees, plunging into the ground next to him. Yntri ran past them and up the trunk of the nearest tree, climbing to a thick branch and standing there, drawing an arrow.

Justan willed the world to slow around him.

The Roo-Dan warriors poured from the trees. They did indeed look similar to the Roo-Tan, with their braided hair and light brown skin color, but that was where the comparison ended. The Roo-Dan saw their party and screamed like savages. Their skin was covered in white painted runes and instead of the hide armors that Jhonate’s people favored, they wore only animal skins. Their weapons varied from short spears and cudgels to curved swords.

Justan didn’t hesitate, but began firing arrows. He took three of them down before Hilt rushed forward to meet them. The named warrior danced into their midst, slicing with his swords, Northwind and Southwind. Each slice sent blades of air into his enemies, toppling them.

Jhonate and the others leapt into the fray, the Roo-Tan warriors working the savages over with their constantly morphing Jharro weapons. Butcher Poz lived up to his nickname, lopping off Roo-Dan limbs left and right. Aldie seemed to have learned his lesson with the use of his sword and kept his enemies at bay with wide swipes of his blade.

Then from the tree line emerged the merpeople. There were five of them, two females and three males. They looked a lot like the Silvertree elves, with fair skin and pointed ears, though their features were a bit puffy. They wore elaborate multicolored leather armor and carried long metal spears. They were eagerly pointing at the tree Yntri was standing in.

Next to the merpeople emerged a new group of Roo-Dan that looked a lot different from the others. There were both males and females in this group and they wore only loincloths. Their bodies weren’t painted with white runes but were instead smeared with runes of blood. These people didn’t carry short spears or swords like the others, but instead wielded strange scepters wrapped in animal skins and topped with bleached skulls, a few of them human. These were the Roo-Dan witches Hilt had warned them about.

He shifted to spirit sight and saw them begin weaving strands of white spirit magic mixed with long ropes of gray and dark spirit magic. These new Roo-Dan began gesturing wildly, sending out long nets of this intermixed spirit magic over his party.

Justan knew that these were the biggest threats and sent Deathclaw and Gwyrtha after them. Trusting the rest of his group to fight off the melee attackers, he turned his bow on the witches, firing just as their net of spirit magic settled over him.

Justan felt the beginnings of a deep fear stir within him, and reached out with the bond. Forming his spirit magic like a blade, he sliced through the strands of the net, taking it apart around him.

Hilt and the Roo-Tan warriors were able to steel their minds and fight the attack, but the two academy fighters were not so well prepared. Aldie slowed, losing ground to his attackers and Poz took a wicked sword slice across his ribs.

Justan’s first arrow took one of the witches in the chest and he fired again, sending his next arrow into a witch’s eye. Then Deathclaw and Gwyrtha leapt among them. Deathclaw swung his sword and lashed out with tail and claws while the rogue horse, having grown larger than her normal size, pounced on one of the female merpeople pulling her down to the ground. The rest of the merpeople remained focused on Yntri, their faces twisted with hatred and their arms outstretched as they worked spells.

The elf was up in the tree, leaping from branch to branch as huge orbs of water tried to coalesce in the air surrounding him. If he was trapped inside one of the orbs he knew he wouldn’t be able to get out. Each time one of their water attacks failed, the merperson would let the orb of water crash to the ground and try again.

Finally Yntri was forced to jump out of the branches and roll to the ground below, coming up on his feet and firing. His arrow struck one of the mermen in the chest and burst into flames, causing the merman to scream, clutching at the fiery arrow in a panic.

Justan took down two more of the witches with arrows before a man broke past Poz and ran towards him. The man carried a short spear and a wooden shield wrapped with animal hide. A rune was branded in the middle of the hide and the shield had a dusty white glow. To Justan’s slowed vision, the man approached at a crawl, yet he still had no time to put away his bow and draw his swords.

The Roo-Dan man had an unnatural rage in his eyes and Justan saw a halo of gray mist surrounding his head as the man thrust forward slowly with his spear. Justan dodged to the side. He waited for the spearhead to pass by, then reached out with his right hand grasped the man’s forearm. In one smooth motion, Justan yanked the man forward and, at the same time, kicked out with his foot, tripping the man up.

The Roo-Dan man crashed to the ground, then rolled to his feet and came at Justan again. This time Justan grabbed the man’s spear just below the head and pushed it up into the air. He brought his knee up into the man’s belly and the Roo-Dan warrior doubled over. Instinctively, Justan brought Ma’am down, willing the front of the bow to sharpen down to a razor fine edge. The Jharro wood obeyed, slicing open the man’s neck.

The man dropped his spear and stumbled away, clutching at his spurting wound. Justan looked at Ma’am in shock, watching as the sharp edge rounded back out to normal. It had worked. He hadn’t even known what he was doing, but he had willed the bow to change and Ma’am had obeyed.

A horn sounded out, sharp and loud across the field. A score of warriors wearing stiff hide breastplates and carrying Jharro weapons walked from the trees. Several of them lifted Jharro bows and began to fire.