Foxwise

Chapter Three

Three

Being elves they needed no light to see, but Barb made a bit of arcane fire to help warm and dry them. Under a thick-leaved sticker bush, Thorn felt fairly well protected. He had no idea what sort of predators inhabited the island but he doubted any of them would prickle their mug to get at them where they were. He was having a hard time wrapping his mind around the fact that Bristle was dead. He’d been a good elf, and had a wife and daughter back in the Underland.

“Look,”

Barb pointed up into the sky. Her magical fire vanished with a static pop.

Thorn saw Sloffin up there circling. The malformed griffin beast circled again and again, but eventually moved out of view.

They took turns sleeping until the sun pinkened the sky, then they started exploring the island. It wasn’t pleasant for either of them. They’d both respected Bristle and missed him dearly. Their hearts were heavy, but they closed in on the towers in a safe and methodical fashion. The climate was another thing. They were used to the Heart Tree’s perpetual spring. The cold quickly began taking its toll on what little energy they’d restored with their rest.

“Let’s go down here,” Barb pointed at a snow-slicked stairway that led down from the rubble of the tumbled tower.

“We can at least get warm and have a sit while we prepare. I’ve a flask of battle-berry juice, and another of rum.”

“I’ll sip the juice. I was thinking the whole tower would be where the wizard kept his valuables,” Thorn replied, but didn’t hesitate to follow Barb as she crept into the rubble and down the stone stair.

“Queen Corydalis said that we would find the shard in the complex of passages that connect the towers underneath.”

Thorn followed her with his hand on the hilt of his sword. They didn’t need light to see by, but Barb cast forth a small glowing orb and sent it ahead of them. They were lucky for it.

As Barb stepped onto a lower floor, Thorn saw a large shape dive at her from the shadows. The old magic blade he was carrying came clear of its scabbard and went slicing down between his companion and her would-be attacker. He felt the slightest bit of resistance when it met flesh, but it only slowed a fraction as it clove through the wolfish thing.

There was no jolt of powerful magic when the blade impacted, so Thorn knew this was no witch born beast. It didn’t matter what it was now anyway, for it was in two pieces and bleeding out on the dingy half-rotted planks.

Barb moved away and made her light flare brighter. To his surprise there was nothing on the floor. Had the creature he’d just slain been an illusion? Or did it disappear after it died?

“’Twas a door ward is all,” Barb said as she gathered her composure. “’Twas put there to scare off scavengers and such.”

“About scared a stain in my britches is what it did,” Thorn said.

“Here,” she cast a sizable blue blaze into existence. It appeared in its own fire bowl right there in the floor. “Pull up a stool and get warm. I will cast a few detecting spells and we can get on with it.”

Just as soon as he was comfortable Barb handed him the flask she had been sipping from. He could tell by the smell that it was battle berries. Once he drank of the stuff he would be revived and eager to get into a scrap. He knew he would be warm too, so he tilted the tin back and took two good swallows.

The tower’s weather-rotted furnishings were all made to accommodate a human, or maybe a gargan. Thorn wasn’t sure which the wizard had been, but he was sure he felt small here. The tabletop Barb had placed her pack on, was really the seat of a sitting bench and the dusty wooden spoon he’d spied looked big enough to row a ship with.

“Have you found anything?” he asked.

He sat the flask in Barb’s reach and climbed over a fallen beam of tar-covered wood.  He could see a perfectly straight line of shadow on the far wall, and after considering it, he was hoping he’d found a secret door or something similar.

He stopped before a tilted wood divider panel. It was a small door all right, but he doubted it had been any sort of hidden thing. It was probably just a cabinet. Thorn wasted no time wondering. He let the confident surge of the battle berries fill him and opened the door.

“I sense a trap or two is all,” Barb said over her shoulder just as a sharp, pain-filled jolt of energy zapped Thorn into a momentary stupor.

“Tha—Thanks for that,” he managed. He hoped she didn’t see his foible. As he eased away from the cabinet he stopped. He saw a shining bit of something in the corner of the cubby and grabbed it. It was a piece of polished silver with a symbol carved on it. The symbol was a triangle over an ellipse and seeing it made him drop the thing and move back over to Barb’s side.

“What was that?” Barb asked as the trinket thunked on the floor.

“A Trigon pendant,” Thorn said. He patted at his hair and adjusted his armor. He was sure it looked like a self-conscious gesture, but he was just trying to make sure he wasn’t on fire or something because Barb was looking at him as if he had suddenly sprouted leaves.

Barb giggled and Thorn followed her eyes. His chest and arms were splattered with a thin coat of yellow goo.

“Falriggin studied the Trigon. By the way, you were just sprayed by Lectrius Aracnus. You should probably wipe that stuff off before it gets hard and ruins your gear.”

“What? Lectris Arcanus?”

“A shock-spider,” she shook her head and helped him clean the sticky stuff from his leather armor. “This isn’t our tower,” she spoke as she helped him. “I think you were right. The two ruined towers were damaged long before the old wizard died, so he probably lived and worked in the whole one. I don’t sense anything below us here, save for a cellar.”

Thorn found the flask and took another long pull from it. He handed it to Barb who only nipped at the stuff before putting it away and repacking her gear. A moment later she made their fire disappear and led them up and out into the cold again.

They only made it twenty paces before Thorn stepped past and stopped her.

“Look,” he pointed at some fresh tracks in the snow. “Dire rats.”

“We must have scared them from their holes. They don’t usually brave the cold.”

“They lead right to the entry of the whole tower,” Thorn said.

“Maybe they’ll try and surprise us.”

“Let’s go find out,” Thorn nodded his agreement. The battle berries had his blood up and he was ready. Obviously Barb was too, for she was mouthing the words to a spell as she stalked ahead of him.