SONG OF POWER

Chapter XVIII: Abolition

SONG OF POWER

CHAPTER XVIII:  ABOLITION

The party rode through the day, not stopping for a midday meal.  Ninthalsaya rode ahead as a scout, but left Guts behind with Cipher.  Through her link with the magical lizard she was able to communicate basic information to the rest of the group.  It was rather like employing a child as a courier; while Guts would receive her whole message, his comprehension and vocabulary were lacking, and so the message was filtered through the intelligent reptile and was not quite the same for it.

“Mama” for that is what Guts referred to his mistress as, “says she sees them now.  Two wagons are pulled by big animals.  She say there many mean people.  She wait for you,” Guts told Cipher in his strange, dry voice.  Cipher pet the lizard under the chin and thanked it for the information, then spurred his horse on to catch up to the half-sidhe. 

He reined in his horse when he approached a stone obelisk the height and girth of a man in a depression between hills.  “Leave wagon here,” whispered Guts, and Cipher understood; Ninthalsaya had used her magic to create this as a warning.  The group dismounted and let the oxen and donkey graze in the depression, though they did not unhitch the wagon.  The party covered remaining distance on foot, guided by the surprisingly fleet-footed lizard.  While they moved more slowly, they had the advantage of stealth.  Cipher found Ninthalsaya crouched near the crest of a hill, hat in the grass beside her.  Guts immediately secreted himself inside of his “mama’s” hat..

“Careful, but see there?  They have stopped for some reason.  Not for a meal, I fear.  It seems one of the slaves is ill, or injured, or even dead—I cannot be sure from here.  Whatever their reasons, it was important enough for them to stop,” Ninthalsaya whispered to a Cipher who was not paying attention—his silver eyes were fixed upon the Veil.

The Veil loomed before them, a solid, oppressive wall of fog that stretched several hundred feet, clogging the only pass through the Sentinel Mountains.  The Sentinel Mountains earned their names by their steep sides and tall, tower-like appearance.  The range continued in a great curve that encircled an entire valley that lay beyond the Veil.  What this valley contained, no one knew.  Though the valley beyond had existed long before the Veil was conjured, all living memory and written records were erased when the Veil was set in place, another side effect of Arvis’s magic.  Scholars, bandits, and adventurers had painfully discovered that it was impossible to fly over the mountains, to scale them, or to pass unscathed through the Veil itself.  Whatever secrets lay beyond, the Veil kept them sealed.

Stopped within bowshot of the Veil were the slavers.  They had one large, barred wagon that was crammed with bodies and two smaller wagons that carried supplies.  A line of seven figures trailed the large wagon, secured to it with chains.  Each wagon was pulled by a pair of mighty tyranka—plodding reptilian beasts of burden that resembled oxen—and the wagons were attended by a motley crew of humanoids.  Cipher recognized most of them as larger, more intelligent goblinoids known as hobgoblins, but could also see normal goblins and even a few more savage humanoids.  While a few were lazily patrolling their half-formed camp, a group of the evil goblinoids stood around one fallen figure on the ground as if unsure of what to make of it.

The downed figure, as near as Cipher could tell, was human.  Distance and foliage made it impossible to know more.  Cipher crawled back down the hill enough so that he could turn to face his companions without risking being seen.

“I don’t know what fortune has caused them to be distracted so, but we must strike quickly! The two smaller wagons may hold the information we’re looking for.  We’re outnumbered, but we have the element of surprise,” Cipher said, and Jake raised his hand like a student in a schoolhouse.