Lotus Blossom chuckled at the memory, uttering a deep belch in lieu of conversation.
'I don't imagine much has changed,' Hornsbuck continued, not at all put off by his companion's behavior. 'Strange place-the ice is black instead of white. Kind of blue-black actually. Gives you a real strange feeling.'
'What were you doing there?' asked Mika.
'Oh, we were following someone. Nomad by the name of Klarg who stole the shaman's spell book and all his records and notes. Some sort of nonsense about thinking he could use the spells to work magic on the ice. Said he would raise an army of ice golems and come back and take over the village. All because of some woman the chief wouldn't let him marry. Woman! Pahh! They'll get you in trouble every time!'
Lotus Blossom elbowed Hornsbuck in the chest so hard that he lost his breath. He wheezed for a number of heartbeats until he was able to breath again. Lotus Blossom, ignoring his discomfort and the fact that she had caused it, emptied her horn without spilling a drop of the precious ale.
'Well, the whole clan was angry at him, all except the girl, and… and, well nobody listened to her,' gasped Hornsbuck, holding his chest with one hand, his face still pale and pinched. 'The clan council decided to have him brought back, make him an example for the young ones.'
'Did you find him?' Mika asked casually, hoping that the poor fellow had escaped.
'Aye,' said Hornsbuck. 'But an ice dragon ate him afore we could lay hands on him. Never saw a dragon so big. The thing must have been ten or even twelve times my height. And big! Why, I bet it was as big as Jayne's! All blackish blue it was, not white like most ice dragons. Its teeth were jagged and splintered like ice shards, and its scales sparkled like oil on a pond.
'Saw it get him, I did,' continued Hornsbuck. 'Sort of played with him, batted him around like a cat with a mouse. You know how they do it; almost let him get away, then caught him again. It ate him one limb at a time. The poor fellow was still screaming when it bit his head off. I thought about shooting him, putting him out of his misery, but I was out of bow range.'
'Oh,' said Mika in a small voice, unable to rid himself of the awful vision.
'Serves him right,' Lotus Blossom said sanctimoniously, belching a second time. Hornsbuck laughed as though she had told an amusing tale, and they soon lapsed into a conversation of their own, punctuated with giggles and furtive snickerings. Mika stared at; his gauntleted hand and wondered if there were any hope for him at all.
CHAPTER 12
They traveled for eight days through the strange forest, growing accustomed to the peculiar changes that occurred without warning. They would be riding on firm ground, the forest all around them, when suddenly things shifted imperceptibly so that the forest seemed to waver in and out of their vision and they would find themselves riding on the prairie, the forest gone completely. And then, just as mysteriously, the forest reappeared as solid rock.
Sometimes both dimensions were present at the same time and Mika was uncertain where they really were. It was disconcerting, but there seemed to be no real harm in it, and he soon learned to carry on as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
On the evening of the eighth day, they set up camp at the base of an enormous oak tree in a strange, circular depression. A number of large trees had fallen to the north of the oak, victims of blight and windstorm. Their piled trunks created an effective windbreak against the cold night wind.
The land rose slighdy on all sides of them, cupping their campsite in the center of the depression. Tall ferns grew thickly on the perimeters and spilled down the slopes. A small pool of water welled between the massive, gnarled roots of the oak.
One thing, however, was very unusual. A large number of enormous boulders were scattered about the edges of the circular depression on the high ground, their presence totally inexplicable. Each was taller than either Mika or Hornsbuck and could not be encircled by both men together. Marks found in the center of the depression suggested that they had once rested in the circle. But no amount of thinking told them how or why the boulders had been moved, or by whom.
Finally giving the problem up as unsolvable, they set about making camp. Several times during the night, Mika had had the eerie feeling of being watched, yet there was nothing to be seen. Even the wolves seemed nervous, whining and looking up abrupdy.
After dinner, Mika, Lotus Blossom, and Hornsbuck scouted the area, the wolves running before them, sniffing the thick ferns and whining through their muzzles, a shrill, high-pitched sound that Mika knew meant they were nervous and uneasy. Yet despite their thorough search, they found nothing to warrant further suspicion. Looking at the boulders, Mika had the nagging feeling that there was something obvious that he was missing.
They returned to camp and got ready to sleep. Mika's sense of being watched grew stronger as he unbraided his hair for the night, shaking it loose around his shoulders and combing it out with his fingers. He thought he caught a glimpse of a small, blue face looking at him through the ferns. He blinked, and when he opened his eyes the face was gone. The fern did not move. It must be my imagination, he thought. But then he noticed the princess staring at the spot and he wondered. Shrugging, he rolled himself up in his cloak and slept.
Sometime later, deep in sleep, long after the last coal had crumbled to ash, he heard a wolf barking. All of the wolves. It was the sound of danger, but he could not seem to rouse himself. He snuggled deeper in the warmth of the cloak, thinking that it was a dream. Then he felt the earth tremble beneath him, and he heard soft whispers. He wakened, but before he could even leap to his feet, he felt teeth grab hold of the tunic at the nape of his neck and jerk him backward. He came fully awake and jumped to his feet just as something large rushed past him, displacing the air with a great rush.
Mika stumbled; tripping over Tam, he fell to the ground heavily, an accident that saved his life. A club crashed through the space where he had momentarily stood and thunked into the soft ground. Mika leaped at the shadowy figure who wielded the club and wres- ded it to the ground, struggling to reach his knife without losing the unknown assailant.
All around him, small blue figures flitted through the camp and, silhouetted against the grayness of the sky, Mika saw a multitude of bodies darting through the ferns.
'Hornsbuck! Blossom!' he yelled at the top of his voice as he struggled with the small, strong body. All chaos erupted: strange, high-pitched shrieks, guttered voices speaking an unknown language, snarling, snapping wolf sounds, Hornsbuck's roars, and the alarmed whickers of the tethered horses.
Mika wrestled with his assailant, rolling over and over, each struggling to overwhelm the other. Then it was over. Rolling up against an oak, Mika pounded his opponent's head against a hard root, and the man lay still. Blue paint and blood stained Mika's hand, and from the limpness of the body, Mika sensed that the man would never rise again.
Then, with a rush, they were gone. Mika, Hornsbuck, and Lotus Blossom were left standing back to back, heaving great gasps of air. A wolf barked in alarm. Mika turned and saw a dark movement, barely leaping aside before one of the huge boulders came crashing down the eastern slope and rolled over the spot where he had stood. An enraged yell told him that Hornsbuck and Lotus had also jumped clear.
'Here comes another one!' yelled Lotus Blossom. Mika looked up in time to see a second boulder picking up speed as it rolled down the western slope.
'Look out, the first one's coming back!' screamed Mika, seeing that the boulder had come to a halt high on the opposite bank and was now rolling back toward them.
'Make for the high ground,' shouted Hornsbuck, pushing Lotus Blossom before him. Mika dashed forward, clawing at the ferns, attempting to reach safety before another boulder crashed down on them. Just as he reached the top, a swarm of tiny men, barely as tall as Mika's chest, darted toward him, brandishing small spears and swinging heavy, thorn-tipped clubs. Any one of the blows would have been painful, if not fatal, and Mika tumbled backward, rolling head over heels to the foot of the incline.
'Mika! Flannae! Aborigines! The spears and clubs are tipped with poison. We're surrounded. Get us out of here-use the gem!' Hornsbuck cried in alarm. Mika dove to one side as another boulder barreled down the slope, barely missing him and filling the air with the sharp scent of crushed ferns.
