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They reached the trailhead in the early evening, just as Keld had predicted.
“No wonder not many people know about these paths,” Lorial remarked.
To reach it, they had climbed through a crack in the bottom of a cliff face, scrambled over a heap of rubble, descended fifty feet below the ground and then made their way up through a network of caves until they emerged somewhere on a ridgeline.
“Yes, there’s a reason not too many people know about the Ulak,” Keld said. “Come on. With luck, we might be able to reach one of the guard shelters.”
“Are they likely to welcome us with open arms?” Lorial asked. “We are dropping in uninvited here and with all the fighting near here, these people might not be feeling overly hospitable to strangers right now.”
“The Ulak are always generous to those in need,” Keld said. “And they can tell their friends from their enemies.”
They traveled late into the night until they saw a light from a small cabin ahead and two figures coming down the path towards them. They were strong in build, their skin tougher than human skin and their heads each adorned with two horns that curled down then forward. Yet despite this, they were handsome even by human measures.
“Greetings, my friends,” one of the men said, his voice resonant and warm.
“Greetings,” Keld replied. He introduced himself and his companions. “We’re seeking passage through the mountains.”
The Ulak who had spoken frowned. “That may not be possible. There’s a Korlaki near the western paths.”
Keld and Ishtvan exchanged glances.
Lorial turned to them. “What’s a Korlaki?”
“A relic from a bygone era,” Ishtvan told her. “One of the fallen mages created them in the first war. They should have all died out a long time ago but there are a handful of them left in deep caves around the place and they seem to live indefinitely.”
“And they’re very dangerous, are they?” Lorial asked.
“If the one that’s terrorizing the eastern paths is typical of its kind, they’re lethal,” the first Ulak guard told her. “This is an extremely agile and aggressive creature. I don’t know if it’s evil as such. It kills in the manner of any beast that consumes flesh to survive but...” He let the words hang in the air.
Keld turned to Ishtvan. “Maybe we should just chance Avani’s Pass.”
Ishtvan shook his head. “No. Those riders from the other night are expecting us to go there and that gives them too much of an advantage. A few archers could cover the pass and we’d never even see them.”
He looked back at the Ulak. “Sorry. Just consulting.”
The spokesperson of the two Ulak shrugged. “That’s all right. However, as you’ve come this far, you should rest. And you’re welcome to whatever other hospitality we can offer. Then tomorrow, if you want my advice, you should keep going to the villages and find Amoraak. He may be able to help you.”
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The following morning, they left the Ulak guards and set out for the main villages, following a ridgeline that crossed the main range. There were much higher mountains a little way to the north but by and large, the mountains this far south didn’t tower over the surrounding landscape quite as much as those at the far northern end of the range.
Lorial looked at the sharpened precipices of rock that pierced the thick dark clouds that had enveloped the range overnight, piercing them like twisted blades. These peaks were unlike the northern mountains in more ways than one. This was a barren land, as lifeless as the desert wastes of Damasi.
“How can the Ulak survive up here?” she asked. “What do they eat?”
“They manage to grow some crops in terraced fields near their villages,” Keld told her. “And there are plenty of mountain goats around here as well. They’re even greater survivors than the Ulak.”
“Have they always lived in these mountains?”
Keld smiled. “Who, the Ulak or the goats?”
Lorial laughed. “The Ulak.”
“No,” Keld said. “Sól found them on the plains of Agamon early in the initial fighting with Strahd and the Angdar.”
“Where is Agamon?”
“North of Hadras, east of Aracea.”
“And what was Sól doing out there?”
“Well oddly enough,” Keld said, “she was trying to find where the Angdar had come from to see if there was a way to stem the tide of Strahd’s armies. And, as it turned out, she found his answers in the Ulak. They had been enslaved by the armies of Kharadaan for a time, bred and magically altered and eventually, their bastard offspring became a people of their own, sharing the Ulak’s strength and stature but little else.” He shook his head. “The Angdar are violent brutes. Anyway, Sól led the Ulak here.”
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They traveled all through the day and well into the night, stopping for short rests. Then, just before the following dawn, they came to a number of villages with thatched houses cradled against the mountain slopes. Beneath them, Lorial saw the terraced fields that Keld had told her about, all joined together by small stairways, while farther down the slopes gave way to sheer cliffs that plunged into valleys.
Back the way they had come, over the mountains and far off in the distance, Lorial saw the rising sun, its light glimmering off the higher snow–capped peaks like molten diamonds.
Keld waved his hand, indicating the nearest group of homes. “Well, this is the main village. If Amoraak’s close by, this is where we’ll find him.”
As they reached the buildings, a group of Ulak came out to greet them, the head of the group smiling at Keld in recognition. “Keld,” he said, clasping his hand.
“Mebarak,” Keld replied. “It’s been a while.”
Mebarak grew solemn. “It has. I was sorry to hear about Orishelm. And I was equally sorry to hear about Liulfur.”
“Thank you,” Keld said. He held Mebarak’s hand a moment longer before letting go and turning to Ishtvan and Lorial in order to introduce them.
“We need to see Amoraak,” he then said. “We want to traverse the range and go down the paths to the western plains.”
Mebarak frowned. “Didn’t the sentries tell you about the Korlaki?”
Keld nodded. “They did. But we have to try. We must reach either Ensari or Kalishar and Avani’s Pass may be being watched.”
“I see.” Mebarak was silent for a moment. “Well, Amoraak will be back soon from a hunt. Why don’t you and your companions join us for breakfast while you’re waiting?”
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They ate well and Amoraak arrived shortly after they had finished. He wasn’t large when compared to the other Ulak men, and he appeared to be older than them, but he was no less impressive for it.
“Mebarak tells me you have to cross the western ridge,” he said to them. “And that you’d rather risk the Korlaki than brave Avani’s Pass.” He looked at Keld. “I assume you’ve weighed the choices carefully and that you’re not doing this out of bravado or sheer stupidity.”
Keld shook his head. “I’m too old for bravado. And I’m probably too old for stupidity.”
Amoraak smiled. “Very well.”
“We have to assume Avani’s Pass is being watched,” Keld said. “As bad as the Korlaki is, a dozen archers waiting in ambush seems more dangerous to me. I don’t imagine the Korlaki’s expecting us for one thing.”
“True,” Amoraak said. “And it acts out of instinct rather than malice. But it’s a dangerous creature.”
“That’s true,” Keld agreed. “We’d be careful of course but –”
Amoraak held up a hand. “No, we wouldn’t dream of allowing you to go alone. My people are at least familiar with this creature. We will accompany you.”
“We don’t want to endanger anyone unnecessarily,” Keld said.
Amoraak shook his head. “No. Your coming here is the prompting I needed. Sooner or later, we will have to deal with Korlaki because we can’t have the western paths closed to us indefinitely. So why not now?”
“Well, if you think so,” Keld said.
“I do,” Amoraak said, stopping any argument. “And now you and your companions must rest. I have to think. All things being equal, we’ll set out in the morning.”
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When they awoke the next day, the group shivered. It was noticeably colder than it had been the night before and a layer of snow covered the ground around the village. A blizzard had descended upon them.
“It looks like we won’t be able to go anywhere today,” Amoraak told them later in the morning. “I’m afraid this sometimes happens. It’s out of season, certainly, but it’s not uncommon for winter to occasionally rear its head again in the early days of spring.”
“Is there nothing we can do?” Lorial asked him.
“Shall I wave my hand and make it stop?” Amoraak suggested with a smile. “No, I’m afraid we’ll just have to wait it out.”
He put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry. By the end of the day, it’ll probably blow itself out and we’ll be able to set out tomorrow. I’m sure of it.”
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Amoraak was right. By late afternoon, the blizzard was gone. Unfortunately though, they couldn’t set out the next day as Lorial had hoped because with a lot of half– melted ice about, the Ulak didn’t think it was safe to travel on the path yet. However, the day after that, the weather was clear and the conditions on the path looked much better.
Heartened by the news that they would soon be on their way, the party had a simple meal of fruit and grain and then they were ready to leave. Amoraak led the group himself and several other Ulak warriors accompanied them, bringing bows, spears and, to Lorial’s puzzlement, goat carcasses.
“What are they for?” she asked.
“They’re bait for the Korlaki,” Amoraak replied. “If we can draw it out into the open, we’ll have a better chance of fighting it.”
“You want to fight it?”
“We mean to kill it,” Amoraak said.
Lorial fell silent. Obviously, the Ulak had to deal with the threat this creature posed to their safety but if Ishtvan were right – and the remaining Korlaki were relics of a bygone age – then any one of them that was still alive could well be the last of their kind. She contemplated these thoughts for some time as they walked along the trail.
Soon, they were following the western path that would lead them over the mountains. The pathway followed a ridgeline and was surprisingly easy to negotiate but even so, it still involved a lot of walking. And when night fell, they still had a long way to go.
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The following night, there was no rest to be had. They were in the Korlaki’s territory.
“We’re very close now,” Amoraak said. “There’s a small crevice ahead that we must pass through. It’s one of the Korlaki’s haunts.”
The terrain on both sides of the path was now getting steeper and up ahead, it meandered into the darkness with scree covered slopes to either side. Lorial swallowed.
Around her, the Ulak warriors lifted the goat carcasses they had been carrying off their backs.
“And now,” Amoraak told her, “we will lay down our own trap.”
Lorial drew her sword from its sheath and held it at her side. She saw that Keld did the same, while Ishtvan and Amoraak reached for their bows.
“What now?” she asked.
“We run,” Amoraak told her and shot off down the pathway.
Lorial and the others followed, sprinting as fast as they could. As they ran, the Ulak men threw the goat carcasses behind them, leaving a trail along the path. Then just as suddenly as he had started off, Amoraak stopped and signaled the others to do so as well. As one, the group turned back to look at the path and were confronted with a terrifying sight. The goat carcasses were all gone.
There had been plenty of moments in Lorial’s life when she had been afraid but they all paled into nothing compared to this.
Then a gigantic clawed hand plunged down from above and snatched an Ulak warrior from the path, crushing him.
A volley of arrows flew through the air and Lorial would have screamed but terror trapped the sound in her throat.
Now the party knew where the Korlaki was, just above them on the right side of the path. They restrung their bows and watched the steep slope above them. They heard a few pebbles fall behind them and whirled around to look. Then they heard a sound from farther up the path and they turned back again. Amoraak lowered his bow and pulled out his spear, motioning everyone to be quiet. He then stepped back and hurled the weapon over the embankment.
A moment later, there was a terrible shriek of anger. The sound pierced their ears and rang between the nearby mountain peaks. Then the great beast itself appeared, leaping down on the path in front of them for all to see.
It was enormous. Leaning over on its hind legs, it stood five yards high at the shoulder with long double– elbowed arms dangling beneath it, balanced by a stumpy bone tail. Its head and shoulders were encased in bony armor that grew out of its thick leathery grey skin. Massive horns protruded forward from its skull, its long elongated claws scraped the pathway and its yellow eyes were hidden deep within its skull, watching them with anger from their dark recesses.
The Ulak warriors fired another volley at it. Some arrows bounced off its skull, while others penetrated the deep folds of its skin. The creature bellowed with frustration then tried to lunge at them but the ferocity of the Ulak assault drove it back. Then disappeared once more behind the embankment.
Once more, the group waited, wondering when it would strike next.
Again, it was Amoraak who made the next move, not only demonstrating how skilled a warrior he was but showing Lorial why the other Ulak followed him so loyally.
He picked up a left–over goat carcass and threw it down the path. Then a moment later, he had his bow at the ready, aiming at the top of the embankment. The Korlaki appeared once more, snatching the meat at lightning speed but Amoraak was faster, shooting an arrow straight into its eye as it grabbed the carcass.
In its pain and fury, the Korlaki dropped the meat and stood at its full height, letting out an agonized roar. Lorial pitied the bewildered creature as she watched it retreat, scurrying up the slopes and stumbling down the other side. It roared once more, whimpered and then it was gone, limping into the darkness to die in peace. And whether it was the last of its kind or not, no one ever knew.
The Ulak did not celebrate. When the Korlaki had gone, Amoraak put his hand on Keld’s shoulder. “We must return to the village now,” he told him. “And I must tell Kaatib’s mother that her son is dead.”
Keld nodded. “I am sorry. He was a brave fighter.”
“As are all our sons,” Amoraak said. “We shall have a feast in his honor. You however have an urgent errand so you must keep going. Don’t rest here tonight. Rocks sometimes fall near here. Just keep going a little longer. You’re almost out of the mountains now.”
“Thank you again, Amoraak,” Keld said. “You’re a good friend.”
Amoraak smiled and clasped Keld’s hand in his own in parting. He and the other Ulak then nodded in farewell to Lorial and Ishtvan and headed back up the path on their journey home.