The Ice Warden | Chapter 4
Out of the woods, and back into the light of day again, they returned to the spot where they had left the Imperial guards, only to find no one.
Yuri exchanged looks with Atres, they both knew something was wrong. Their hands went to their weapons.
“Someone followed us,” whispered the mercenary.
Cautiously looking around, Yuri spotted something on the ground, poking out from behind the woodshed. A pair of boots. The body of one of the guards. He clenched his jaw and tapped Atres’ arm.
“Damn it,” he hissed. “You stay behind me,” he then told his sister.
They retreated toward the house.
Four Hagwiz, humanoid lizards, came out into the open. Further back, in the shade of one of the trees that lined the street, was their commander. A skinny man dressed in black, with elbow-length dark hair and an emaciated look. A sinister smile rippled through his face. “I apologize,” his voice was as unpleasant as his appearance. “My pets didn’t mean to frighten you. Are you by any chance coming out of the Soth Woods?”
“He’s a warlock,” Yuri heard Sheila’s voice murmur behind him.
The man seemed to hear it too and came closer. “The young practitioner who’s with you seems to have noticed me.”
“Who the heck are you?” It was Atres this time.
“Forgive the rudeness, my name is Heimlik. Just this. I believe you have with you something we’ve been seeking for a long time. If you will hand over the stones of Law to me, we will let you go without a scratch.”
“Who sent you?” growled Atres.
The man named Heimlik looked amused at their unease. “Someone you don’t want to anger.”
Yuri barely heard Sheila whisper something to her brother about not giving them the stones, and then Atres raised his voice again. “Sorry, I don’t know what you’re talking about. We have nothing to give. We are just travelers passing through.”
The man in black shook his head in disappointment. “Mercenaries, always ready to lie when they see fit. I can pay you three times what you were offered for this little job.”
“Or you can take your pets and go look elsewhere for whatever you’re looking for.” Atres taunted him.
Yuri realized things were about to go down. Four of those beasts, against the two of them, was not a fair match. The lizards were already pawing and hissing, ready for blood.
“I see we have no choice but to do this the hard way, then.” The grimace on the stranger’s face and his nod prompted four more men to join them on the main street. “Take them. Dead or alive.”
The Wodran scout cursed between his teeth, while Atres was telling Sheila to seek cover in the house.
He stayed in front of them, axe in hand, ready to fight.
The first reptile attacked with his sword. Yuri parried and hooked the blade to pivot him around so that he could use the lizard’s body as a shield from the others. Of course, the beast didn’t agree with that and pushed him back with all his body weight.
Yuri’s heels dug into the dust while he tried to counter his force. He saw in his peripheral vision Atres on his right side, and two other enemies approaching from the left.
Yuri kicked the lizard back and moved around him, toward Atres. At least they could cover each other. He disengaged the axe and swung down, thrusting the blade into the reptile’s chest. Then he shoved him toward the other two. He hit one, who fell under the beast, while the other managed to dodge and had all the intentions to get his exposed flank.
Yuri pulled to free his axe but it was stuck, and he didn’t have enough time to even try to parry. He just went with the motion, applying all his strength on his weapon’s handle to direct the lizard’s body as it slumped to the ground, then used it as a shield. Afterward, he reached for the dagger at his belt.
The second lizard’s sword swung downward, only meeting the flesh of his companion, while Yuri moved to the side and thrust the dagger’s blade under his enemy’s chin from his lower position.
He finally had a few seconds to unstuck both weapons, leveraging with his foot on the fallen corpse, and then snapped back to his feet.
Between the sweat and his heart pounding in his chest, there was another unpleasant sensation making him uneasy. It felt like Sheila was trying to do something with her dark magic, yet nothing seemed to be happening.
He couldn’t have a clear view of what Atres was doing, but he trusted that he could handle himself with a sword. He had to trust him, because he already had other two opponents to take care of.
Between the clanging of metal, he heard Sheila’s voice, way to close. “Use your power, you must create a barrier between us and the warlock.”
Was she trying to get herself killed?
He dodged a cut, turning around and finding her in front of him. “What are you doing here?” he hissed, pushing her backward, away from the attackers and against the wall of the house. A surge of energy ran through him and he felt the light-blue star resurfacing to his cheek.
“Use the ice,” she insisted. But he had not time to reply, since the two men had already caught up with him.
He parried with both the axe and the dagger, but his left arm failed him and exposed his guard.
There was only one thing he could do, while the enemy’s blade descended on him: listen to the word that was bouncing around his head, speak it again. “Ljed.”
A wall of ice rose in front of him, stopping the blade, inches from his chest.
Then he heard Sheila mumbling a spell, and a purple smoke spread beyond the ice. He felt slightly disoriented for a moment.
“Come on, now, we have to go back to the woods!”
“What…?”
“Help me lift him,” Sheila was leaning over Atres, who was kneeling and coughing. “Hold your breath for a moment…”
Yuri got back to his senses and helped her brother back on his feet.
“Couldn’t you have… warned me before…?” Atres complained, between coughing fits.
“There is no time, let’s run to the woods while they are distracted,” she insisted.
No time to question. They moved quickly down the path and out of the purple cloud.
But half-way, Sheila let go of her brother to turn toward the man in black. “He eluded my spell,” she whispered, running back and then stopping in the middle of the road.
She was definitely trying to get herself killed.
“What are you doing?” Yuri shouted.
“I have to stop him, go ahead.”
The warlock seemed to be unaffected by her spell and was already after them, approaching in strides. On the palms of his hands were floating two black orbs, growing in size by the second.
That dark, unpleasant energy washed over him.
Yuri went after her.
He had to stop those things before they hit Sheila. His instinct took control again and the word came back. “Ljed!”
A wall of ice formed between Sheila and the warlock, he heard something crashing against it. The ice cracked but didn’t break.
Yuri grabbed Sheila’s arm, and before she could say anything, he dragged her back toward the woods. “Let’s get away from here.”
* * *
Back into the Soth woods, they could stop to catch their breath.
They seemed to have lost their attackers.
Yuri went to check, hiding among the trees. “Are we sure they won’t follow us here?”
“They know about the guardian spirits,” Sheila replied. “They won’t dare cross them. Only a Warden can pass through this place unscathed.”
Atres found his voice again, after the coughing fit. “Then why are we safe in here?”
Sheila looked up at the Wodran scout. “Because Yuri is a Warden.”
Her brother raised an eyebrow. “This guy? And we just happened to bump into him at the docks?”
“It seems like Destiny is on our side at the moment,” she explained.
Atres shook his head. “It seems like someone else is on our tail at the moment. Who the hell was that guy?”
Sheila hugged herself, concern crossing her face. “Heimlik… I’ve heard that name before, I think he serves the Mists.”
Finally, Yuri decided to step back into the conversation. “What are the Mists men doing in this part of the Empire?”
“You know we are at war, don’t you?” Atres scoffed.
“The Ice Kingdom has not yet been involved. I have to warn my Lord about what happened.”
Sheila interrupted him. “I don’t think they are here to attack your kingdom; they were looking for the stones.”
Yuri reached into his pocket. “These stones?” He showed his hand. In the palm were two polished gems in the shape of a curved teardrop. One was light-blue like aquamarine, the other purple like amethyst.
Sheila seemed particularly impressed by that sight. “What happened beyond the mirror?”
“There was a small room with strange inscriptions on the walls and in the middle a pedestal with the stones,” he explained. “The Fay said that I’m the Warden of Duty. Even if I’m not sure what that means.”
“The light-blue stone belongs to you. You must keep it until the time comes to bring it back to the Temple.” Sheila’s eyes shifted to the purple stone. “This, on the other hand, belongs to the Warden of Betrayal. You must hand it over to him when he manifests himself.”
“That’s pretty much what Sahama said. Do you know who that might be?”
“As Sahama was the Warden of Duty before you, there is currently a Warden of Betrayal. It’s Duchess Arjanna, the Lady I serve. But we were sent here because we know a new Warden is about to manifest. We don’t know who it’ll be yet.”
Yuri frowned. “Is that why you knew about my power before I did?”
Sheila averted her eyes. “I have a sense for detecting magic, as you might have already noticed.”
“What exactly happened in here earlier?” Atres stepped in.
“Only what was meant to,” she shook her head. “We got what we came for.”
“What should we do now?” asked Yuri, putting the stones back in his pocket.
“First of all, we find a way to get out of here without those guys catching us,” Atres replied. “Let’s see how good you are at finding your way in the middle of nowhere.” He smirked at him.
Yuri was still searching for a point of reference to locate one of the paths leading out of the woods. “We can take an alternative route to Laske…”
“No,” Sheila interrupted him. “We can’t go back to Laske. They will have spies everywhere, expecting us to return to the harbor, and they will be ready to attack us again.”
“So where do you want to go?”
“We have to go straight to the Star Kingdom. Do you think you can lead us there?”
Yuri widened his eyes. “The Star Kingdom? It will take at least… a couple of weeks to get there. And we have no provisions, we’ll need to find safe passage, get on a ship…”
“I know it’s much to ask but the matter is very serious.” Sheila’s gaze looked pained. “Now that you’ve shown to be a Warden, you are bound to the Empire, and the Golden City is the place where you’re supposed to be now. We hope to find other Wardens there, and there will be Imperial soldiers to protect you.”
Yuri sighed. “I can’t just disappear for such a long time. I’ll have to at least inform my Captain and my family.”
“We’ll take care of that. We’ll send a message to Laske as soon as we reach the nearest town.” Sheila pulled the flaps of her cape tighter around herself as if suddenly feeling cold. “The people following us… they won’t stop at anything, and they’re willing to kill you if they deem it necessary.”
He clenched his jaw. “Why?”
“To take the stones. That’s as much as I know. Their intentions were pretty clear earlier. We have to disappear, and make our way to the Star Kingdom. We have no choice.” She looked at her brother and he just shrugged.
“You’d better listen to my sister on this. I’d like to keep my head connected to my neck. They already killed two of us, they won’t be much nicer if they find us again.”
Yuri gave a deep sight. He pulled the journal from his bag and flipped through it, looking at his notes on the area. They couldn’t know how many men the Mists had, scattered around, searching for them, and that warlock had seen him use the power so they now knew who he was. “There’s a small harbor east of Laske. They may not foresee us going there. It’s a little out of the way, but we’re on foot, so it will be easier to go unnoticed.”
“How far?” asked Atres.
“We’ll have to go eastward, around the wooded area. Three to four days on foot. Quicker if we find horses or take the river route. There are small villages on the way where we can stop for food and sleep, even if maybe we’ll have to make camp in the wild.”
Atres patted his shoulder. “Great. Then let’s leave quickly. I hate this place.”
