[2005/09] Under Cover of Night

[Ziv]

[turbine]

http://ac.turbine.com/?page_id=399

Two youths perched on the top of a ridge. Though they were young, not yet fully grown, they had the broad shoulders and thick limbs of Aluvian mountain folk. The bows they clutched in trembling hands were huge and thick, requiring enormous strength to pull properly. They were crouched down, trying to remain hidden behind a rock formation, and spying on a gathering of warriors in the valley far below.

"They didn't find our trail," said the younger one, Matthias, with obvious relief.

"See, I told you," said his brother, Jedeth. "We've been hunting Gromnies and Siraluun in these parts for years, we got the advantage on these big, clanking brutes. They don't know their way around our land. Especially not at dusk, when there's not that much light and a body's eyes haven't adjusted to the dark yet."

Matthias, now more calm, turned contemplative. "You ever seen any man that big?" he asked, as they watched the squad of monstrous Viamontian Knights on the valley floor, standing around the corpses of two of their friends. Red-fletched arrows perforated the chests of the two fallen Knights.

"Papa used to talk about how tough it was to fight Ferran Knights, in the Viamontian Wars back home on Ispar. But they were just men, same size as us. And Count Tenera, when he told us that these new Knights weren't Ferrans, but worse, and ten feet tall... Well, it's one thing to hear it, and another thing to see it. And to have to shoot at it while it's waving a sword as big as you are." He paused, and looked at his younger brother. "I won't lie to you, Matty, I felt a powerful fear when we sprung that trap. My hands were shaking when we attacked. Still are shaking. It's lucky we got them both."

Matthias put a comforting hand on his brother's shoulder. "I was scared too, Jed. But we did good. The plan worked. And we'll only keep getting better, as we get in more practice killing them Knights."

Down below, a smaller figure had joined the armored brutes. He, too, was armored, but of normal human size, and issuing orders to the great soldiers. He was clearly some kind of officer among these Viamontian invaders.

Jedeth pointed. "Look, there, a guy our size, in armor. What'd Tenera tell us about them?"

"He said they were the magic types," said Matthias. "That we'd better make the first shot count, because they could hit us from far away."

"Yeah, that's what I thought I remembered," said Jedeth. "This one may be more clever than them others, but he isn't that smart. He's not wearing a helmet." He drew another red-fletched arrow from his quiver. This one, however, had the word "Carenzi" painted on the shaft, in vivid red letters to match the fletching.

Matthias drew a similar arrow from his quiver. Both brothers moved quietly from their spying position behind the rock formation to a low crouch on either side of it. With great care, each nocked an arrow. "On three," Jedeth whispered.

They lifted their bows, pulled the strings slowly back as the thick wooden weapons creaked softly, and then aimed. "One... two... three."

Two soft twangs went off, and a heartbeat later, the Viamontian mage had two quivering arrows sprouting from his forehead. He toppled stiffly to the ground. The cluster of warriors looked up at where the arrows must have come from, but only saw rocks and empty ridgeline. Three of them broke from the formation and charged up the ridge at terrifying speed, but by the time they reached the rock formation, there was no sign of the brothers' passing.

******


King Varicci II stepped over the armored bulk of a dead Viamontian Knight and looked down on the dead mage. He bent to yank one of the arrows out of the corpse's forehead. He turned the bloodstained arrow over in his hands and saw the word painted on the shaft.

"Carenzi," he read. Varicci turned to his companion, Commander Enrico di Bellenesse. "What is this Carenzi?" he asked.

Enrico glanced at the arrow. "A small animal... like a badger from Ispar, but terribly ferocious. They are common on this island. It seems the local resistance has taken them as some sort of symbol. A cache of weapons recently went missing from a storeroom. There was similar writing on the storeroom's broken door."

"The people of the towns have come to their senses and are cooperating, but these Carenzi..." The King's face twisted in disgust. "They are probably Aluvian gutterfolk, again unable to accept conquest by Viamont. They are beasts, Enrico. You will have to kill every one of them."

Enrico nodded stiffly. "Yes, Majesty. It will be done."

The King put his hand on Enrico's armored shoulder and regarded the soldier with a cool and appraising eye. "We must have a quick pacification of this island so we can dispatch forces to the new land, Enrico. I cannot have these Carenzi rebels bleeding off my soldiers one and two at a time, not when there is such a pressing need to investigate this place called Vissidal."

"I have not heard much of Vissidal, Majesty, since I have been so occupied with the campaign on this island. What has happened?"

"It is an island that apparently has risen from the deeps of the ocean. We don't know what buried it, or what caused it to come to the surface again. But there is good reason to believe that at least some of the knowledge I seek is to be found there."

"May I ask, Majesty, what knowledge you seek on that distant island?"

Varicci smiled, his eyes glittering in the early evening moonlight. "The way to achieve true and final victory, my dear trusted friend. On Vissidal and elsewhere, I seek a way to destroy the only advantage of poor Elysa's ragtag army of Bloodless mongrels."

[Ziv]

[turbine]

http://ac.turbine.com/index.php?page_id=401

Ardry stepped out of the woods to behold the great stone battlements of the bandit chief MacDugal's fortress. He had a passing acquaintance with the inhabitants of the castle, and stopped by occasionally, when he was ranging in the area and needed to restock supplies. He approached and greeted the man who sat, trembling, by the front gate.

"What news, Karwin?" he called.

Karwin scrambled to his feet. "Got any beer? They stole my beer. It stole my beer. Darned thing, never thought to see another one again..."

Ardry held up his hands to slow Karwin's feverish speech.

"What? Who stole your beer?"

"A little green thing. Looked like... Well, Mosswarty. Very suspiciously Mosswarty. But blue! Like the sea..."

"A Mosswart stole your beer?" Ardry had heard many tall claims from Karwin before.

"It wasn't a proper Mosswart, but that's right enough. He said he was from an island to the northeast. And he smelled like the sea! The sea, and beer. Which he stole. The beer that is, not the sea." Karwin nodded very enthusiastically to punctuate his point.

"Karwin, there's no island to the northeast. There is only the ancient foundry island, north by northwest of here."

Karwin ignored him and pressed on with his story. "He smelled of the sea, and of beer, and he said that his god, who he named Angry Grandfather, wanted him to search all over for beer and come back to their island in the northeast!"

"Karwin, I am telling you, there is only the island of Aerlinthe, north by northwest..." He was interrupted by Karwin's furious babble.

"Didn't you feel the rumble? Didn't it make you stumble? Nights ago, who remembers when? But something has come up which once was deep! And before that, it was up again! To get there, you must pass the Watchers and go underneath the Leviathan!"

Ardry shook his head. "I'm heading in to resupply, Karwin. I'll bring you some food on my way out." He did remember the shaking of the earth, just three nights past. He'd assumed that it had been another eruption on Aerlinthe, but he tried to remember the sensations of that night as best he could... And now, to think about it, the rolling waves of tremors had seemed to come from the northeast...

An hour later, Ardry stood on the shore northeast of Macdugal's castle, his pack bulging with fresh supplies. He looked out over the sea, and sighed. "That lunatic was right after all."