Emerald, p.11
Emerald, page 11
Regardless of whether they were real or not, Karria knew that she had to leave. The city was being attacked, of that much she was certain. And if the city was being attacked, it meant that the palace was most likely the main target of this attack.
Her eyes flicked to the drawn curtains, noting that pale blue moonlight still shone through. This meant that she hadn’t been asleep for long, though she couldn’t be sure just how long it was. Her gaze landed on the lily she’d conjured just before going to sleep, noting that the petals had only faded slightly, and the stem had grown a bit less substantial.
The door to her room crashed open, and Karria spun, already summoning the only attack magic she knew. She froze, her hand cocked back to hurl the ball of destructive energy when she saw Kya. For the first time ever – not counting when she’d been attacked – she looked disheveled, her normally neat honey-colored hair looking tangled and her hazel eyes were puffy and heavy from sleep.
She was, however, dressed in a similar manner to Kya, in clothes meant to take some punishment and not one of her usual dresses.
“Oh good, you’re awake,” she said, noting Karria’s fading magic.
“Obviously,” she replied, wincing as another explosion shook the palace. “Kinda hard to sleep through all that. Any idea what the hell is going on?”
“I’m afraid not. Mother stopped in and told me to pack a bag for the road, then ran out. I figured she might not have had time to warn you, so I came.”
Karria nodded, already moving to pack the essentials.
“Are you already packed up?” she asked, moving to pull some clothes from the wardrobe.
“No. I got dressed then came here to warn you,” Kya replied, making Karria feel a bit bad for not thinking of anyone other than herself when the explosions had started.
“Alright. Go pack up. Take clothes that are suited for the wilderness only. We’ll meet in the hall in five minutes,” Karria said, pulling the sheathed dagger Sliver had given her from a drawer and strapping it to her waist.
“Okay. Be careful,” Kya said, turning to dash back to her room.
Karria could detect a waver in her friend’s voice. She couldn’t blame her. Her home was under attack, and no one knew what was going on. Truthfully, she was terrified as well, but not so much that she was unable to act or think rationally.
She’d lived through an attack on her home, and she wasn’t about to sit back and allow herself to be captured or killed. Worse, if the city was overthrown and captured, and Arbor didn’t know about it, he would be in danger. She couldn’t allow that to happen.
By now, she was half-convinced that what she’d seen in her dreams was, in fact, a reality. She couldn’t be sure and would need to consult with someone who knew more about her magic, but something told her that her assumptions were correct.
It didn’t take her long to finish packing all the essentials. She did one last sweep of her room, wondering if she might have forgotten anything, when a chain of explosions rocked the palace, sending dust cascading down from the ceiling and small fractures to appear in the walls. It seemed their time was up, so, taking an extra second to snatch the glowing lily off her bedside table, Karria dashed out into the corridor, hoping against hope that it wouldn’t be too late for her and Kya to escape whatever was coming.
13
“Oy! Wake up, lad. You’ve been asleep long enough. We need to get going!”
Arbor winced as Hord’s booming voice woke him from a very deep sleep. He cracked his eyes, wincing at the sunlight pouring in through the cave entrance.
“What time is it?” he asked, wincing once more as his head and body throbbed in unison, highlighting all of the injuries he’d taken the previous night.
“Nearly noon. We let you sleep as long as we could, but the second group of scouts just got back, and we really should get going.”
Arbor nodded, looking down at himself and grimacing at the still-visible damage to his body. Both his arms were an angry red in color, though there was no longer any black visible from the burn-marks the bear had left. His chest and abdomen were bruised and covered in discolored spots of all colors.
His legs were mostly undamaged, for which he was grateful. More than anything, he was grateful for his body’s ridiculous ability to heal itself from the most gruesome of injuries in such a short period of time. Had he been anyone else, he was sure he’d either have died or been bed-ridden for months. With a pang in his heart, he remembered how terrible Grak had looked.
“How’s Grak?” he asked as he pulled a shirt over his head, hiding his discomfort.
He’d stayed up for over an hour, fixing her as best he could. By the time he was finished, he was just about ready to pass out but knew that she would survive.
“The scouts brought her back to the main camp to recover. It’ll probably take her a couple of weeks, but she should make a full recovery with only some minor scarring,” Hord replied.
“That’s good,” Arbor replied, slowly getting to his feet, feeling his partially-healed muscles screaming in protest.
“Is that all you have to say?” Hord asked, surprised.
“What else should I say?” he asked, cinching his belt and stretching to the side. “You said she’d be okay, so I don’t have anything to worry about.”
Hord stared at him incredulously for a long moment before bursting out. “You saved someone from certain death! Grak had absolutely no chance of living after that bear toasted her, yet you brought her back from the brink, and with only the smallest amount of scarring! Even if she had somehow survived, she would have been so horribly disfigured she’d never be able to face anyone again! And you’re just brushing it off as though it’s no big deal?!”
Arbor had the good graces to look embarrassed at that.
“Um, yeah. Guess I’ve gotten so used to using my power that it just didn’t seem like such a big deal. But when you put it that way…” He shuffled in place, feeling very awkward.
Hord just shook his head incredulously once more, before turning away and barking out a few orders to pack up camp. He turned back just before exiting the cave, his expression serious.
“The lass was only awake for a few moments before she left. You really should speak to her when she’s feeling better. She’s…” The dwarf trailed off, shaking his head before continuing. “Well, you’ll see when she comes back.”
With that, he nodded and exited to the cave to allow him to finish getting dressed. Arbor had to wonder what Hord had meant by that but decided he could think about it later. In all honesty, it might be good for the two of them to have a couple of weeks apart. It would give him time to parse out his feelings for her, and hopefully, give her time to recover, away from him.
Stepping out of the cave, Arbor was immediately hit by the freezing temperature as the wind buffeted him from his right. He shivered as he quickly pulled his now dry cloak around his shoulders and buried his hands in the pockets.
He’d forgotten just how cold this part of winter could be. The few weeks leading up to the spring moon could get as cold as twenty below zero. Right now, with the wind chill, he guessed it was sitting at around zero degrees, perhaps three or four below. The ground underfoot crunched as everything had frozen up with the rain.
The gremlins were moving around the small clearing outside the cave, tying the last of their belongings to their Yakdaws. Arbor noted that several furs had been brought in overnight, likely from animals found and killed in the last few hours. He also noted the skeletons of the two bears, though it seemed that there was hardly anything left of the Sunburst bear.
“How are you feeling today, Sir?”
Arbor turned to see Shukle, wrapped in a heavy fur cloak, approaching him.
“My arms are pretty much still shot,” Abor replied. “It’ll take a few days before I can really use them, but other than that, not too bad. What did you do with the Sunburst’s body and fur?”
“Hord had us skin and gut them. He removed all the claws, bones, and teeth he could get and put them in his pack. The meat was cut up. Some was sent back to camp and the rest we kept. We actually saved the pelt for you,” he finished, gesturing to his Yakdaw, where he could see the golden orange fur hung over its saddle.
Arbor nodded his thanks. Riding would be much easier if he could cover himself in that fur. In these temperatures, staying warm was key. His body was just as vulnerable as the others until he healed up. He’d learned a valuable lesson last night about pushing too hard in these conditions.
He shivered as the biting cold seeped into his bones. All that time on the hot Flatlands must have softened him up, and he was determined to get back into the mindset of living in these extreme conditions.
Hord trundled over then, brushing powder off his fur cloak – apparently, it had gotten cold enough for even the dwarf to don one – and grinned.
“You ready to head on out? We stay here any longer, and the rest of the army will catch up to us.”
“Not likely,” Arbor snorted. “In these conditions, they’ll be staying put. Frunk is smart enough to know that. So, if anything, we’re the idiots who are out when we shouldn’t be.”
Hord laughed at that, patting him on the lower back before heading over to his mount.
“By the way,” Arbor called after him. “I expect to see everything you pulled from that bear when we set up camp for the night. And don’t even think about hiding anything.”
Hord froze in place, then turned and gave Arbor a hurt look.
“Do you really think so poorly of me, boy? That I’d withhold your share of the loot?”
“Yes,” Arbor deadpanned.
The false expression vanished from the dwarf’s face in an instant, and he barked out a laugh.
“You know me too well for your own good! Don’t you worry, you’ll get your fair share.”
“More than my fair share,” Arbor replied, turning to his Yakdaw. “Mount up!” he called out, swinging into the saddle and hiding a wince.
It would be pretty easy to keep a hand on the reins, but aside from that, there wouldn’t be much else he could do. He’d have to follow behind the others so his mount wouldn’t need him to constantly adjust direction. And, if worst came to worst, he might have to tie his beast to one of the others.
Thankfully, as the group of six set out, his beast followed without a problem, its padded feet gliding smoothly over the frozen ground. The rain had changed to snow at some point after he’d fallen asleep, and fresh powder coated the forest floor. The sky overhead was overcast, and Arbor could smell another storm incoming.
It seemed that they’d picked a very poor time to leave the Flatlands, but at the same time, it was better that they hit weather like this right away. No one would be crazy enough to travel in conditions like this. And likewise, it was sort of like a trial by fire for his troops. If they faced the worst immediately after coming and survived, they would have no problem moving in the days to come.
The storm set in around five in the evening, just as Arbor had predicted. Luckily, he’d stopped them at the first promising site he’d found and had them set up camp. Now, with the storm howling outside, the five of them sat in the relative comfort of their triple-layered tent, which was mostly shielded from the wind by a tall snowdrift.
Hord’s heater sat in the center of the space, and they’d lined the ground with a heavy tarp, on top of which they layered their furs. They were a bit damp, due to having the snow that had been clinging to them melt, but overall, they were about as comfortable as they could be. Arbor had sent one group of scouts back around two, telling them not to send another until the next day, and that they’d leave a trail for them to follow.
“That’s a fair beast of a storm going on out there,” Hord said, slowly turning a few pieces of bear meat on top of a portable stove.
“I’ll say,” Shukle replied, shivering a bit as the wind howled. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my entire life!”
“It’s definitely one of the worse storms I’ve seen,” Arbor said with a yawn.
He’d barely been up for five hours, yet he was already exhausted. He hadn’t done anything other than ride today, his arms forcing him to allow others to do all the work for him. He shouldn’t really be so tired, but he knew that it was normal. His body was using a lot of energy to heal him, and that had downsides, such as extreme fatigue. He was just grateful he wouldn’t be stuck in bed for three weeks.
“This will slow our progress, as well as that of our forces significantly,” he continued. “But there’s nothing much we can do about it. You can’t fight the weather.”
Shukle and the two remaining scouts nodded in agreement as Hord deposited their food onto wooden plates and began passing them around.
“Well, as my ma used to say: ‘nothing like a good bear warming your belly.’”
Everyone gave him an odd look at that, and the dwarf just shrugged.
“My ma was a little weird. I won’t deny that.”
They ate in silence after that, everyone too consumed by their grumbling stomachs to say much else. Within a few minutes, they’d all polished off their plates and were preparing to turn in for the night. There wasn’t much else they could do at the moment, so conserving their energy would be the most efficient use of their time.
The storm still raged when Arbor awoke the next morning. He was extremely thankful for the heater that Hord had brought along; otherwise they would have had to go out several times to chop firewood. As it was, they had to go out and tend their mounts.
He was feeling a bit better today and moving his left arm didn’t cause him as much pain as it had the previous day. He helped feed and water the mounts, all the while enduring the buffeting wind and blowing snow.
The world around them was pure white, so they’d had to tie a rope to the tent, just to avoid getting lost. By the time he got back in with Shukle and one of his scouts in tow, Hord and the other scout, whose name was Ross, had gotten breakfast going.
“Doesn’t look like we’ll be doing much today,” Arbor said, stamping his boots in the bare area they’d left near the front of the tent. “If anything, it feels like the storm’s getting worse.”
“Nothing we can do about that,” Hord replied, sliding a few pieces of meat onto a plate. “I’m sure we can find some way of filling our time.”
“Yeah,” Arbor replied with a halfhearted grin. “Like showing me what you took from that bear.”
14
The storm finally broke after an agonizingly long four days. Arbor had filled his time as best he could, using it to heal and meditate on improving his understanding of magic, but there was only so much of that he could do.
He and the others had spent some time going over all the various bits and pieces pulled from the bear, so at least they weren’t bored the entire time. Hord had harvested more than just the teeth, claws, and bones. He’d also taken three organs that Arbor had never seen before, or even knew what they were used for.
“These are called Charge Sacks,” Hord had explained. “This is where the Sunburst bear collects and stores its electricity, which it can then conduct through its bones.”
Arbor was surprised to find that while extremely dense and made of some sort of metal, the bear’s entire skeleton was actually hollow. Hord had explained that it was that way because they were filled with a special fluid that stopped the bear from falling victim to its own power.
The bones weren’t made of Mythicallium, but rather from a mix of several metals that Arbor couldn’t hope to pronounce. The result was something Hord called Titansteel, one of the hardest naturally occurring metals in the world. It couldn’t hold enchantments like the Mythicallium claws and teeth but could be forged into some of the strongest weapons and armor known to the Dwarves.
They did have limited uses, however. Due to their extreme density, only those who were very strong could hope to wield anything made of the metal efficiently. This was why Mythicallium was by far the superior metal. Because, in addition to it being the hardest metal in the world, it was also the lightest and would drink enchantments as no other metal could.
There was a difference between the grade of Mythicallium from a bear, as opposed to one of the mythic cats.
“I’m sure you noticed,” Hord explained as he showed him the silvery metal. “That while the bear was able to conduct electricity, it couldn’t actually use it. That’s how they’re different from the cats. While the bear uses its power more as a defense mechanism, those beasties can use it to their advantage, attacking or defending. In addition, they can also use it to warp the terrain to their advantage.”
He’d held up the metal then, showing him that the silvery sheen it had had when attached to the bear had been retained in its death.
“As you can see, none of the bear’s magic was transferred to the Mythicallium when it died. This is what you’ll mostly see come to the market. The Mythicallium from the cats is far more valuable. Something like this goes for roughly fifteen-hundred to two thousand gold per pound.”
Arbor had whistled at that. Compared to the Mythicallium from the Roc-Jaguar, which had commanded an astounding eighty thousand per pound, this was comparatively cheap. They had roughly three pounds of the stuff, so they were probably looking at around five to six thousand for the lot if they decided to sell.
The Titansteel went for quite a bit less, roughly two-fifty per pound. Though seeing how dense it was and how much they had, they could get a hefty sum for it. What was inside the bones, though, was apparently what was valuable.
Hord said it would take some special equipment to retrieve the fluid but that it had some amazing uses and applications for creating enchanted items. Likewise, the three Charge Sacks could imbue some equipment with the same power as the bear, imparting an electric shock with each strike.
Arbor remembered well what those shocks had done to him and his system. So, he decided that these would not be sold. Rather, he’d decided to pay Hord to create weapons for his three captains. After all, if they were in it for the long haul, he may as well invest in their protection.
