Roland's Path Read online

  The second ogre had retrieved his club now, seeing that his crossbow was beyond repair and of no use.

  Eldryn tried his shoulder and was relieved that it worked smoothly. He did, however, grieve the loss of his shield. He took up his bastard sword in both hands to improve his control and speed with the blade. He prepared himself for the fight. The ogre could out match even Eldryn in strength, but not in agility. Eldryn was strong, but also quite skilled.

  The creature came in and swung its brutal club toward Eldryn. Eldryn struck the club twice attempting to beat it off of its course. Seeing that the strength in his attempted parry would fail, Eldryn rolled over backward and outside the arc of the club. Eldryn regained his footing and attempted to come in behind the path of the club to attack the ogre. The remaining gray ogre, however, brought the club backward along the same arc catching Eldryn in the same position he had just barely survived a moment before.

  Eldryn braced himself, and struck out hard against the blow of the club. He shifted his feet and, when the powerful strike from the ogre came, Eldryn used the force to drive himself in a circle around the creature. Then Eldryn noticed his advantage. He continued his feigns and allowed the attempted parries to drive him around the room as the last one had. The ogre believed that he had Eldryn on his heels and that victory would come as soon as Eldryn was backed into a corner that he could not retreat from. The ogre could already taste his flesh.

  Eldryn continued to back away and allow the attacks to drive him in circles around the room. The creature finally had Eldryn backed against the west wall of the room.

  The ogre prepared his attack and his shock was complete when his right leg folded, dropping him to the floor. The creature looked behind him as he fell to see the other man, the one that the ogre had thought was out of the battle, sitting behind him with a bloody axe in his hands.

  Eldryn wasted no time. He stepped forward and cut a deep furrow in the ogre’s throat. The creature collapsed, dead. Eldryn went to Roland’s side.

  “Can you walk?” Eldryn asked.

  “I don’t think so,” Roland admitted through gritted teeth. “Judging from the angle, I don’t even know if I can set my knee aright.”

  “I can,” Ashcliff said, startling both boys. “I apologize for being late. There were some things I needed to gather.”

  “Things?” Eldryn asked.

  “Yes,” Ashcliff replied. “While I was in jail in Fordir I sent a message to someone I trusted to have some supplies hidden near the entrance to this place. I needed to retrieve them.”

  “How did you get a message out from the jail?” Roland asked.

  “I have my ways,” Ashcliff replied.

  “I am in no mood for your secrets,” Roland said sternly. “This is something you will tell me, one trusted friend to another. If you will not, then I care not for your help or your friendship.”

  Eldryn surprised himself by readying his defense of Ashcliff. There was no need for Roland to take such a tone with a friend, with their friend. Ash was his friend now. It had been true for some time, but not fully recognized by Eldryn. He was not as close to Ash as to Roland, of course. But Roland was in the wrong, and Eldryn meant to tell him so.

  “I mean you no dishonor by my quiet nature,” Ashcliff began. “Please understand that it is part of who I am and what I do. This particular secret I will tell you. I have some limited magical capabilities. Very specific capabilities. It was through those skills that I escaped your jail for a short time by appearing as another who was to be released. You remember the drunk that you released, and you had to jail him again that very evening? I disguised myself as that drunk. I only had a short time of freedom because I knew he would eventually awake from the ground root I put in his food. If he were to awake and ask why he had not been released, then I would have been in some very hot water. If, due to his clamor, you had conducted a head count then I would have been discovered missing. Then I would have you hunting me too.”

  “What would you have done if I hadn’t released you and solicited your help?” Roland asked, genuinely curious now.

  “I would have escaped Sir Sanderland before he presented me to his cleric. I would not want the likes of your father, Lord Velryk, on my trail. Therefore, I decided that Sir Sanderland was the weaker of the two. If I was forced to make an enemy of one of them by escaping their custody, I would prefer that enemy to be Sanderland. One of two things would have happened should I have escaped Sir Sanderland. Either Sir Sanderland would have told of my escape from him and I would be hunted by him and the church, or he would have kept quiet about my escape, and his failure to bring me in, and I would have been truly free.”

  “You called him ‘Lord Velryk.’ What do you know of my father?” Roland asked. “He is the local reeve and was once a soldier, but I have never heard him called a lord.”

  “I make it my business to know about every legend that still walks. You never know when that knowledge might save your life. I assume that your father has not hunted us thus far because he has duties where he is, and he did not declare my ‘release’ as an escape. To do so would have indicated his son in the escape and made you two wanted criminals. I assume he came up with some story to tell the clergy.”

  “You didn’t answer my question,” Roland said. The pain in his knee was severe, however, he burned with curiosity about his father. “What do you know of my father, and why do you call him ‘Lord Velryk.’”

  “I’ve heard enough to know that I don’t want him for an enemy. It is said that he fought viciously during his time in the wars with Tarborat. He was counted among Tarborat’s greatest enemies at one time. The ‘Lord’ in his name is just a courtesy, of course. He does not hold his own lands, but the King considered him of equal or more importance as those that do hold lands and bring their own armies to the front.”

  “He has never said anything of it,” Roland said.

  “Do you want to talk, or fix your leg?”

  “The leg first,” Roland said. “I do, however, want to finish this conversation later.”

  Ashcliff took a potion from his newly acquired backpack and handed it to Roland. Then he prepared a yellow paste out of several berries he took from his pack.

  “Do you want something for the pain?” Ashcliff asked.

  “No, just get it done.”

  “You will need to hold his upper body, El. I’m going to pull the leg back in line.”

  Eldryn held Roland, and Ashcliff took Roland’s leg just below the twisted knee. Roland and Ash exchanged looks and Roland nodded. Ashcliff jerked and turned Roland’s leg brutally. Roland gasped, but did not cry out.

  “There,” Ashcliff said. “Now drink the potion, it will heal the muscles around your knee rapidly.”

  Roland’s face was still flushed from the effort. He took the potion and drank it without question. A few moments slid past and suddenly Roland felt relief from the crippling injury. Roland relaxed his gritted teeth and stood shakily. He tried his knee and stood more firmly.

  “You are truly an amazement,” Roland said to Ashcliff.

  “I am well trained, as are each of us, in certain areas. That is all.”

  “If you are just now catching up to us,” Eldryn said, “then it wasn’t you that took the two dark elves we found in the entrance tunnel?”

  “It was not I,” Ashcliff said. “I was hoping that the two of you had felled them.”

  “I suppose Dawn is more to be reckoned with than we had assumed,” Roland said. “When we face her, we must close the distance quickly. We cannot give her the opportunity to hurl daggers at us while we advance.”

  “I think I should take point from here on in,” Ashcliff said.

  “Good idea,” Eldryn confirmed.

  “What about that door there?” Roland asked indicating the door that the two ogres seemed to have been guarding.

  “We don’t want to stray down there. What we are here for is in this upper level, and I don’t think we could open it anyway.
”

  “What’s down there?” Eldryn asked. He looked over the door more closely now and saw carved runes and magical warding surrounding it.

  “An evil that you do not want to know.”

  chapter V

  A Question of Time

  ASHCLIFF BEGAN UP THE STEPS LEADING out of the room that Roland and Eldryn had trod down. He led them back to their left and they traveled east for about seventy feet and turned back to the south. They followed the hallway along its winding path until they came to a T intersection. The hallway ran north and south. They all heard the sounds of battle coming from the northern hallway.

  “I’ll take a look,” Ashcliff said. “I’ll be right back.”

  With that Ashcliff trotted silently down the northern hallway and turned out of sight just before reaching the edge of the torchlight.

  “How will he see in the black?” Eldryn asked Roland.

  “Your guess is as good as mine.”

  Roland and Eldryn waited impatiently for Ashcliff’s return with their weapons ready. The minutes went by slowly. The damp air of the deep cavern filled their noses with a tangible dread. Finally, Ashcliff returned as softly as a breeze up the hallway.

  “We may have encountered some luck,” Ashcliff said. “Yorketh and Dawn are outnumbered and locked in a battle with twelve of the dark elves. If they aren’t killed, we will at least have the time to get part of what we came here for.”

  “I came here for them,” Roland said.

  “We can go back and get their corpses in a while,” Ashcliff said. “If they are not felled in combat then they will at least be weaker so that we can take them with more ease.”

  “What else are we here for?” Eldryn asked.

  “Treasure,” Ashcliff said, grinning.

  “There is no treasure here or anywhere that I want more than I want those two in irons and on their way back to Fordir,” Roland said.

  Ashcliff’s grin dropped.

  “Look, the items I was sent for are of great value,” Ashcliff began. “I am not talking of silver and gold. They could change the outcomes of wars and save many lives. If in the wrong hands, Daeriv’s hands, many will die. Which do you want to pursue? Two spies who have thus far failed in their mission, or something that could change the tides of kingdoms?”

  With that Ashcliff took up the lead again and began south down the hallway. Roland and Eldryn exchanged a look. Neither possessed a magical telepathy, as some did, but they did have a more natural means of communication. The type of communication that comes from years of friendship. They turned and followed after their friend.

  Ashcliff froze thirty feet into the hallway.

  “Trip wire,” Ashcliff said, pointing out the thin wire running across the floor of the corridor.

  Roland and Eldryn carefully stepped over the wire with their breath held, and then continued on following Ashcliff. Ash pointed out three more traps along the way that the other two young men would have certainly fallen prey to without him to guide them.

  Ashcliff led the boys down a series of hallways and through several hidden doors. The boys trod on into the dark. Roland and Eldryn had lost track of time and distance in this heavy blanket of dark that rested around their struggling torch. Finally, they reached a large iron bound wooden door.

  “Through here is our goal,” Ashcliff said. “There is a great beast within. Beyond it is another room. In that room we will find the treasure we seek.”

  “And what about Dawn and Yorketh?” Roland asked.

  “If we can obtain what is in that room then they will come to us. That is why they are here and they will pursue that item until they have it or they are dead.”

  “What is it we seek?” Eldryn asked hoping this time to get more than generalities about mystical powers.

  “There is an ancient holy book, The Book of Fate. Next to that book should be a large hourglass. The Hourglass of Time. Both items are artifacts and are pursued by some very powerful individuals.”

  “And this beast?” Roland asked.

  “That is for you to figure out as you go. I’m afraid I won’t be much help against the creature. As you may have already put together, that is not exactly my specialty.”

  “Well, there is no time like the present,” Roland said. With that he went through the doorway.

  Eldryn prepared himself and stepped through behind Roland. Neither boy noticed where Ashcliff went.

  Inside they discovered a large, hair covered creature that resembled a lion with the exceptions that it possessed two heads, and its back was almost twelve feet from the stone floor. A smell of stale musk oil filled their noses. The beast was enormous and immediately vicious. Both boys felt an uncommon fear shake them to their cores.

  Both young men were courageous. Either from a birthright of strong blood, years of training, or the fact that most young men lack the ability to fathom their own demise, these two were sturdy in the face of danger. This fear was not that. This was somehow magical in nature and stole throughout them until it reached their center. Until it crashed into the minds of two warriors and the will forged within.

  In less than a second this struggle of magic versus determined minds was fought. In less time than the flap of a bird’s wing was the power of this creature repelled.

  The beast came for Roland and then veered away rapidly. When Eldryn entered the room and began to circle it, the creature turned its attention on him.

  Both heads struck at Eldryn in turn. Eldryn could smell the decaying meat on the beast’s breath as he struggled to parry the bites with his sword. Roland struck the creature’s hindquarter with his axe and it whirled on him. It bared both sets of its great fangs, and then turned to face Eldryn once again.

  Roland struck the beast again and again, sinking his axe deep into hide and muscle. However, it maintained its attention on Eldryn. Eldryn dodged several swipes from the great monster’s claws before it defeated his defenses.

  The creature’s large claw caught Eldryn squarely, knocked him back and crushing him against the stone wall. Eldryn dropped to the ground, breathless and disoriented. The creature prepared its maws and started toward Eldryn’s fallen body, preparing to rip him in two.

  Roland, desperate to save Eldryn, threw down his torch, and drew his other axe. He leapt between the creature and his fallen companion. The creature began attacking Roland with its massive forepaws and Roland found himself hard pressed to avoid and parry the blows.

  Two large claws came in for Roland and it took all of his strength and speed to dodge certain death. He realized too late that the paws were just a distraction. The large creature’s right head came down swiftly, not to bite, but to ram. The creature struck Roland’s helmet with its own head knocking him to the floor. Roland grasped for his consciousness with weak hands.

  The teeth came in now. Roland’s vision cleared just enough to see the monster’s mouth coming for him. He rolled quickly to the side and slapped out with one of his axes as he did so. The blade somehow nicked the creature’s gum just below its fangs. The two-headed beast jerked its wounded head back and eyed Roland dangerously with the other.

  Roland wondered why the creature faced him now. It had avoided him before even after he had dealt it several bloody wounds. The view of the flaming torch on the floor gave him his answer.

  Roland rolled again traveling underneath his vicious opponent. One of the creature’s paws slapped him across the floor. Roland skidded until he slammed into the stone wall of the room.

  Roland retreated around the room and positioned himself behind the torch. The creature stepped back away from him and then returned to Eldryn who was still struggling to stand.

  Roland took the seal skin full of lamp oil from his pack. He sprayed oil across the beast’s back and hindquarters. The creature turned both heads back toward Roland in time to see Roland hoist and throw his torch.

  The great monster ignited in flame and roared. Roland ran as best as he could around the edge of the room attem
pting to avoid the enraged creature. He made it to Eldryn’s side and helped him up from the ground. They both watched as the beast burned as if made of kindling. The temperature in the room climbed rapidly. The smell of the burning, otherworldly, flesh turned their stomachs.

  Roland and Eldryn stood for a few more moments catching their breath and wondering how much Bolvii had a hand in their survival. Neither of them knew, or could know, that even Fate herself was dumbfounded at their fortune.

  They walked toward the other door to the inner room that Ashcliff had told them about. It was of sectot wood and bound in steel, not iron. Although the years had made their marks on the great portal it still maintained a vestige of what must have once been great majesty.

  They were sweating from exertion before, but now sweat soaked their clothing from the heat of the burning beast. Both boys watched the burning monster cautiously as they moved around it.

  They arrived at the door and found Ashcliff there, already working on the lock. Ash labored his way around the door frame with a small set of tools.

  “What are you doing?” Eldryn asked.

  “Disarming traps. We can’t merely walk in.”

  Roland and Eldryn kept their eyes on the dying creature and the door leading into the room on the other side. Both were beginning to realize the danger they had put themselves in.

  “How much longer?” Eldryn asked.

  “Give me about ten minutes. I think I have them all disarmed, but I must be sure.”

  “So, it is unlocked?” Roland asked.

  “Yes, but…”

  Ashcliff had barely begun his answer when Roland struck the door with his shoulder, knocking it wide open. In spite of age the door moved smoothly on hinges masterfully crafted.