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After a few days of pleasant weather, an evening storm was rolling in again. Lord Keld and his entourage hoped their travel cloaks would keep most of the rain off.
That morning they had crossed the east branch of the Avahast River. One of the defences of Valahir was that north of the fork in the river, there were very few places where an enemy could cross either branch. And where it was possible, these places were always watched. Close to the fork however, there were three bridges. One across the east branch, one across the west and one south of the divide, allowing travelers to easily reach whichever side of the river they wanted to travel along when heading north and south. Between Valahir and Arahir however, Lord Keld always chose the eastern side. That way, if there were any Angdar or bandits, he’d be on the right side to deal with them.
He wasn’t expecting trouble of course and so far, the ride south had been uneventful. They had seen a few trading ships sailing down to Orishelm and Ensildahir. They had seen trading ships heading the other way too, hauled up by teams of horses along the banks – the Avahast flowed too swiftly for anyone to sail up it – and all about them, they had seen the villages that dotted Valahir’s countryside. Nothing had seemed out of the ordinary. Until now.
Talon noticed it first. “Keld!” he called out. “There’s smoke to the south–east.”
“Come on,” Keld told the group.
The smoke was some way off in the distance and it was another hour before they reached its source. By that time, the fires that had churned it out had died down but there were still smoldering embers about the place. However, with the rain that was well and truly on its way, they wouldn’t be smoldering for long.
Keld and his companions surveyed the scene. There were a few scattered buildings about the place and two of them had been burned to the ground. There were several dead farmers as well and some who were wounded. A woman clutching the hems of her skirt came running over to them.
“You are men of Arahir?” she asked, recognizing the emblem of the great northern eagle on Keld’s tunic.
“We are,” Keld answered her. “I’m Lord Keld and these are my companions. What happened here?”
“We were attacked by Angdar,” the woman told him. “Some of our men tried to fight them and the Angdar killed them. Then they raided our stores. They took everything!”
“Where did they go?”
“That way,” the woman said, pointing east. “They left about two hours ago.”
Keld nodded. “Were there many?”
“I don’t know,” the woman said. “Fifty or more.” She shook her head. “Marauding killers, the lot of them.”
“We’ll find them,” Keld assured her. “And we’ll send for aid to help you here.” He turned to one of his men. “Ariath, ride north and alert the king. We’ll meet you back in Orishelm. Also tell him we’re heading east to pursue these creatures.”
“I will,” Ariath replied with a slight bow of his head, before leaving on his errand.
Keld turned back to the woman. “My lady, some among us have some skill in healing. Are any of you in need of urgent assistance?”
The woman shook her head. “No, my lord. We have some wounded, but they’re not grievously hurt.”
Looking around, Keld wondered whether the woman and the other villagers felt uncomfortable accepting their help and whether they might have been downplaying how serious the attack had been. “I’ll leave one of my men here just in case. Elha?”
“My lord,” one of his companions replied. He dismounted and began administering to the wounded villagers.
“More help will come soon,” Keld promised the woman.
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Cirreone had been many things over the years. In ancient times, it had been a great trading port, the center of a powerful sea–faring nation. Later, it had fallen under the sway of Strahd the Invoker and then Marshal Artaeis and it had been used as a fortress from which the marshal had orchestrated his war against the neighboring lands. Then, after his defeat, Cirreone had taken on a new identity, that of the great trading port it had been before.
Under the new marshal of Aracea, Lord Falk, and with the assistance of an army of artisans, farmers and other pioneers brought into the city by Tal Orson, the city had been largely restored to its former glory.
The people Tal had brought with him when the restoration work had begun had brought others, family and friends. Some of the traders passing through had settled in the city as well and the fields around its walls were once again green and fertile. And, Tal had come to realize over the past few years, he was not a part of it any more.
He kept watch over the lands of the east but for the day to day activities of the reborn city, he wasn’t needed. He had done what he had set out to do and then he had stepped back.
Morgiana and he had both stepped back. It was what they had agreed was right. Sól had told them to finish it before she had died and so they would. And now that Queen Heptapshu had trained Lord Falk to be as good a falconer as herself and they had both taught more falconers to improve communications throughout the Greater Realms, Tal believed the time was coming soon.
“It’s good to see you,” he told Morgiana as she entered his quarters. They had been through so much together, he and Morgiana. She was the closest thing to a lover in his life as well but despite the years of peace after the war, it seemed that union was not to be. Maybe he and Morgiana were too old for such passion. Maybe it was because in order to keep watch over as much of the Greater Realms as possible, they had to remain apart, he in Cirreone and she in Kalishar.
Morgiana smiled. “It’s good to see you too.” She gazed over the balcony and the single winding wall of the city to the ships coming and going in the harbor. Looking at the moored vessels bobbing in light breeze of the late morning, with a pleasant blue sky framing everything in sight, it was hard to imagine the battle that had taken place here just over twenty years before.
“So have you been well?” she asked, turning away.
“Well enough,” Tal replied, pouring her a glass of water and then another for himself. “I have nothing to tell you other than that things are fine. The city... well, you can see it for yourself. Nothing out of the ordinary is happening in either Carcasia or here in Aracea. Nothing strange has been reported in Hadras or Agamon, and it’s been some time since I last saw Angdar there. Also, Queen Haadeiya tells me that all’s fine with her people too.”
The Queen of the Ulak, who were now mostly living on the plains of Araseu, although some had remained in the southern region of the Entruscian Mountains. Haadeiya was Amoraak’s granddaughter and had been charged with the governing of her people after he died two years earlier. Morgiana felt a little sad thinking about that. It was hard to believe that a man so vigorous in life was no longer with them. Still, Haadeiya was a fine leader for the Ulak. She was not a warrior – the women of the Ulak did not fight – but she commanded the respect of all her people and with her guidance, the Ulak’s new settlement on the plains had thrived as Cirreone had.
Morgiana took a breath before replying. Her news wasn’t quite as simple as Tal’s. “Well, that’s good to know. I was more or less going to tell you the same thing when I set out actually. However, Shaala has just spoken to me. She and Karn think something’s wrong.”
“Something’s wrong how?” Tal asked.
“They don’t know,” Morgiana told him.
“Was it a premonition then, like the ones Karn sometimes had when he was with us?”
“It sounds like it and they both think the threat is one that may affect the entire continent.”
“Hard to believe,” Tal murmured. “But with Karn and Shaala...” He trailed off.
“They’re growing stronger and stronger with the gift,” Morgiana said. “And that extra sense of Karn’s, which Shaala seems to have picked up from him... I suppose it’s like your own heightened awareness. How you know exactly where an opponent will be at any given moment in a battle so you can counter their attacks. Or how you seem to know what your opponent’s planning before they do. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a mage who’s mastered that as well as you, to tell you the truth. Although Karn may be pretty close.”
“I think he would be,” Tal told her.
“But he and Shaala now seem to be able to extend that ability to sense things that are not as immediate.”
“I think,” Tal said, “I should head for Hallam.”
“Why?”
“Because if something’s wrong, then I want to be somewhere more central. If I’m here in Cirreone and then I find out Ensari and Kalishar are under attack, I’m not going to be able to get there in a hurry.”
“What about me then?” Morgiana asked. “Should I join you as well?”
“No,” Tal said. “Maybe you can join me later. However, I think you should return to Kalishar first and see if anything’s happened while you were away. I know two weeks is not long but sometimes, big things happen very quickly.”
Morgiana nodded. “You’re right. I’ll return to Kalishar and let them know what’s going on. And I’ll tell Queen Isabelle that you’ll be in Hallam as well.”
“No, no,” Tal said. “I’ll ask Lord Falk to send a falcon.”
Morgiana sighed. “We really are redundant, aren’t we?”
Tal laughed. “Yes, we really are.”
“Oh, well,” Morgiana said, “I’ll still go and see Queen Isabelle. Then I might come and join you afterwards.” She smiled. “Or come running for help.”
“Sounds good,” Tal said. “Also, I’ll stop by and see Queen Haadeiya so I can tell her everything as well. The Ulak can keep watch around here too while I’m gone. Maybe she can post some sentries nearby too. Help Lord Falk out.”
Morgiana climbed to her feet as well. “We should leave now.”
“Yes,” Tal said. He then paused as he realized that this was the first time he’d seen Morgiana for over a year. He held her for a few moments. The big events could afford them that much time at least.
“It was good to see you again,” he said as he let her go.
Then, as they left the room and went their separate ways, Tal though that if they still had many long years ahead of them, he would have to make time for the two of them. It was not right that they had lived for so long and yet had never reached the intimacy that others did in infinitely shorter periods of time. He would make amends for that, he promised himself, and soon.
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For four days now, Lord Keld and his companions had been trailing the Angdar party that had raided that village south of Arvenreign. They were impressive creatures, he had to admit. It didn’t matter if people feared and hated them; one couldn’t help but admire their physical prowess and their ability to push themselves harder and faster than any human. They’d manage to keep ahead of his party while on foot, and were now in the mountains near Wyvern’s Peak, eighty miles from that village.
However, something about this particular group had been bothering Keld the entire time they’d been hunting them. And not just the fact that they were making it difficult for his men. As they followed the rocky roads in the mountains, Talon voiced the concern that had been eating away at him.
“You know, Keld,” he said. “These creatures have the stamina of their breed, all right. They’ve led us on far longer than any bandit could.”
“Yes,” Keld agreed. “And leading us into that ravine where the horses couldn’t follow was a crafty move. With all the backtracking that caused, I think we lost five hours.”
“Yes,” Talon said. “They’re strong, fast and cunning. They’ve got all the qualities we love in our Angdar. But over the past few days, I’ve been thinking about what they were doing back at the village. Why would Angdar just settle for raiding food?”
“Well, this group killed a few villagers,” Keld pointed out. But Talon had raised the exact point he’d been turning over in his mind.
“Only the ones that fought,” Talon countered, which Keld also remembered. “It seems as though all they wanted to do was take their supplies, then leave the farmers so they could grow more crops and stockpile new supplies for next time.”
“That’s what I thought too. It makes sense.”
“But not for Angdar,” Talon said. “That’s not how they act. They don’t need to raid supplies. They’re tough enough to take care of themselves. I mean, I haven’t seen any of their camps, but – ”
“Me neither, but I know what you’re saying. Their way was to attack towns and villages and simply kill everyone they could find. However, when we think about what constitutes normal behavior for Angdar, we usually think about Angdar in the service of Strahd’s lieutenants and Marshal Artaeis. And their grand vision for the Greater Realms. These creatures have been living independently now for over twenty years. Who knows what they’ve made of all the changes they’ve been through?”
Talon nodded. They then had to clutch their reins as their steeds crossed a section of the road covered in scree. With evening falling, they had to be more careful where they led the horses. There were heaps of fallen rocks about the place. How the sorcerer Askenroth could have thought the area was the perfect place to build his fortress in the north, Keld didn’t know.
“Keld,” one of the forward scouts called out. “We’ve spotted them again.”
Keld and Talon rode up to the scout so they could see where he was pointing. Below the road, the mountain they were on fell away and flattened out. There was another slope in the distance, a slope that started out gently but rose to a sharp escarpment of rock with a road cutting back and forth across its front and the remains of a fortress on the buff.
“Wyvern’s Peak,” Talon murmured. “We have gone a long way out of our way, haven’t we?”
Keld nodded, looking at the fires just off the point where the road began to climb the rock. They were a good four or five miles away and while he and his companions were on higher ground at the moment, the most direct way to the encampment would be to descend onto the flat of the plateau and ride up the other slope. The other way would be to follow the road they were on for a little while. Presumably it wound its way around the eastern face of Wyvern’s Peak and joined the main road from the north. Askenroth’s servants must have built the damn thing originally, since the Eirahir had never had any use for the region.
“There are fifty or more of them over there,” he told the others. “And there are twenty of us. If we leave the road and head across, they’ll have us at a disadvantage. Also, I don’t care to take the horses across there in the dark. There’s too much scree and too many loose boulders. We’re turning back.”
“But Keld,” Talon protested. “We’ve ridden for four days chasing these creatures. Look, the moon’s behind the slope to our right so the Angdar can’t see us. Why don’t we just follow the road and see if we can get a little closer to them?”
As a younger man, Keld knew he might have said the same thing and he remembered now that the road did circle around the mountain and join the main road on the other side. There was also an intersection east of the mountain where the road crossed an old highway of Askenroth’s that ran east to Kharadaan. This was not the road that they had taken to Wyvern’s Peak back when Kaodas had been chasing the Angdar out of Valahir but, all the same, he recognized it now. It was all coming back to him and the more it came back, the more he realized that the whole place was the worst type of death trap imaginable. He didn’t envy the mages of the order who had fought against Askenroth and Gammoroth’s forces here.
“We can’t, Talon,” he said. “It’s too dangerous. There might be more Angdar we don’t know about and if we go ahead, they might trap us. They may wait in hiding and block the road behind us or ambush us at any point where it passes under higher ground. This area is far more favorable to a defender than an attacker.”
For a moment, he experienced a moment of self– doubt. He probably should have made the decision to abandon the pursuit two days ago. He wondered what Kaolin would think of the whole thing. She never risked the lives of her people on pointless errands.
However, at least Talon had conceded the point. He didn’t look happy about it but Keld could hardly fault him on that. He wasn’t happy about either.
“Do you think this is where the Angdar are coming from?” the scout asked.
“I don’t think so, Halvar,” Keld replied. “I think they’re heading farther east. However, our pursuit hasn’t been in vain. We’ve learnt that they’re using these old roads to evade our patrols and the Valahir border guards, and they may be using the whole area to set up forward camps from which to launch their raids. We’ll return to Orishelm now but perhaps we might send out a few more scouting groups to see where the bulk of the Angdar are hiding. I think we have a better idea now of where to look.”