Sword of Might, Chapter 3

Chapter III

With the conclusion of his tale, Urki yawned.   "So you see Jerrod, though you find it hard to credit, magic and might can work well together.  There are things that each can do that the other cannot.  That is how we came to know Astall and why your mentor sent us to fetch you.  In ending this incursion of arctic weather we have once again been faced with a task that neither than can accomplish alone.  And it is a far greater challenge than the challenge which the arachnids' queen represented.  But the threat is one which Astall can explain far better than my sister or I can.   Anyway, now you know a little more about your companions and how they came to be your companions, but you'll just have to wait until we get to Pond Eddy to hear the full tale."

Jerrod shook himself, still more than a little spellbound by the story which Urki had told.   Urki's concluding remark, however, was not what he had hoped to hear.   "Why am I not surprised this muscle-bound oaf and his sister cannot explain the danger which threatens Seremoreh," he thought to himself.   "They may have been useful to Astall in one freak misadventure and they may be useful as escorts, but they clearly are still ignorant bravos who have little concept about what really makes the world work."   Still consciously satisfied with his own analysis and convinced of his own superiority despite any evidence to the contrary, Jerrod stretched and yawned.  

"Well," he said, "thank you for the interesting yarn.   I clearly have much to think about -- although perhaps not so much as I would like.   I suppose I will have to wait until we reach Pond Eddy and someone who truly understands the problem for fuller enlightenment.   At any rate, it is late and we still have a long road to ride ere we reach our destination.   I bid you good night.   Wake me in the morning."   With that, the young mage turned unceremoniously to make his bed.

Urki looked at his sister.   She sighed and shook her head.   As they settled in for the night without a word passing between the two of them, the twins both realized that making a dent in the prejudices of their companion toward warriors was going to being a long and arduous chore.   But many days and nights and much danger lay ahead before the three would once again go their separate ways.   Perhaps in the course of that time -- preferably sooner rather than later -- Jerrod would realize that there was more to the world and to life than he realized.

Although the next few days were colder if anything than the previous few days had been, they passed with few incidents.   As the three travelers passed through the frozen snow-covered land there was little sign of life.   No birds sang or flew among the rime-covered trees.   The rolling hills were barren of both animals and humanity.   All the eye could see for miles was either the glare of the sun as it reflected off the ice and snow with the peculiar brilliance that light takes on during the winter or, during the less hospitable days, the trio could see naught but snowflakes falling so thickly that it was difficult for the trio to even catch a glimpse of one another if they were more than ten feet apart.

Day and night, the wind howled menacingly.   At times in the dark of night, the even more menacing calls of dire wolves, beasts which were foreign to the climes through which the triad passed, punctuated the silence.   The dire wolves had come down from their haunts in the mountains and in the northlands to seek food.   Since the singular cold had set in, there was little to sustain them anywhere and even less around their former lairs.   Their calls sent shivers down Jerrod's spine.   But even the pitiless howls of the dire wolves paled in comparison to the chill the young mage felt when he heard a strange hissing caterwaul which pierced the evening at sunset as the trio made camp on the night before they reached Pond Eddy.   Even more alarming to Jerrod was the look of consternation which passed between his two companions at the sound.

The dire wolves were apparently not the only strangers who had left their usual dens to seek new prey.  Other more malevolent denizens of harsh and inhospitable climes far to the north had come to the land around the Silver Sea.

Enki scowled, "It looks like we will have to have double watches tonight.   Jerrod, you will have to stand a turn at guard.   Three watches, four hours each tonight instead of the usual two and six.  Jerrod, your watch is the second.  Urki, one and three.  I'll take one and two.   Urki, that leaves you alone for the last.   I hope that it will be done with its hunt ere then.   If it isn't, you may be in for a tense time.   Is that alright?"

Urki merely growled in response.

"Why the change?  What was that howling?" Jerrod asked anxiously.  He hadn't seen his travelling companions quite so unsettled before.

"Troll," replied Urki quietly.

"Troll?  I thought that trolls were creatures of myth," Jerrod was puzzled.  "Besides, what would trolls be doing in Seremoreh?"

"They're no myth.   As to what they might be doing in Seremoreh, Jerrod, I suppose that they do two things.   First, trolls are servants of evil.   If they are here, they have been summoned for nefarious purposes.  But more immediately, and more importantly right now, like the dire wolves they are hunting," replied Urki.

"Hunting?  Hunting what?"

Urki looked at Jerrod and shook his head.

Enki responded to his question.  "Jerrod, if you have heard stories of trolls, as I surmise you have, then you must know what trolls eat if they can find it.  They hunt us -- or others of our kind."

She turned to Urki and said, "This does not bode well.   The danger must be even greater and more pressing than anyone suspected."

He nodded, "Well, we'll know more tomorrow.   Assuming we see tomorrow," he laughed, but there was no mirth in his eyes.

The trio did see the light of the morning.   The night passed without incident.   The troll or trolls apparently had sought other prey than the twins and Jerrod.   The only ill effect that any of them suffered was the extreme lassitude that resulted from having had to stand watch for the first time which troubled Jerrod throughout the next day.

It was exhaustion which was well worth the price, however.   Jerrod had gotten to see a time of the night which he had never seen before.  It had been beautiful in its stillness and quiet.   The cloudless sky had seemed like velvet upon which were strewn multi-colored bits of brilliance which had no earthly parallel.   He also had gotten to spend four hours with one of the twins without the other's active presence.   Although little was said between he and Enki, he did begin to realize she was extraordinarily competent at what she did.   Her stillness while she waited was so absolute that at times he thought she had fallen asleep.   But any sound which he heard caused a heightened alertness in her which was obvious but indescribable.   She made no move.   Nor did she generate a sound.   Somehow of sudden her entire demeanor changed to that of a cat about strike.   It was extraordinary and totally outside the young mage's experience.   Still, it was impressive, even if totally alien, to the youthful spellcaster.

That was one part of his midnight experience which impressed Jerrod.   The other revelation which startled him was that Enki was not really much older than he.   She was no more than a hand of years his elder, yet she carried herself as if she had seen and experienced the world.   "A seeming which may well be true if even half of Urki's story of the Arachnid queen had been even half true," Jerrod mused to himself.

"She is also rather attractive despite the patch and the leathers in which she clads herself," he thought.  When he looked at Enki he saw someone who was obviously in the peak of physical condition.   Yet there were more to her looks than that.   She had long auburn hair which she kept wound in a warrior's braid.   She was about a hand short of two strides in height with long, slender legs which had a strength that was belied by their slim appearance.   Her face was unmarred by blemishes with the single exception of the patch. Her single forest green eye which surveyed the world with a calm that verged on impassivity.   To Jerrod, that eye seemed alight with an intelligence that he found hard to credit in a swordslinger.   Yet her brother had demonstrated a vocabulary which showed a depth of education that he would not have given credence had he not heard it with his own ears.