Along the riverbank to the right and left, the cry was going up that they had been found. Soldiers began emerging from alleys and streets. Riyan held the boathouse door open for Chyfe as he raced through. He and Kevik were now the only ones outside the boathouse.
Inside there was a small, six seater rowboat tied to a small dock. The boathouse itself was barely wide enough to accommodate the rowboat. A locked door stood between the rowboat and the river. Bart was forced to stand on the prow of the rowboat in order to work on the lock with his picks. Seth and Soth held the sides of the boat to keep it stable for him.
“We’ll hold them off,” Riyan hollered through the door. “Just get that door open!” Turning to Kevik, he removed his sling. “He needs a few seconds.”
“I hope not much more than that,” he replied. Then he mouthed arcane words and a shimmering field appeared. A split second later, arrows deflected off its surface. As Kevik started casting goo spells and energy missiles, Riyan’s sling began to whine as he brought it to a quick twirl before sending its bullet on a deadly trajectory. Aiming for the archers, he began bringing them down while Kevik’s shield protected them.
“Try to get the archers on the other side of the river,” urged Kevik. Energy missiles leapt from his fingers and raked the leading edge of the advancing soldiers to their right. “Downriver,” he added, when he saw Riyan’s slung bullet take out an archer upriver.
Riyan quickly grasped what Kevik was getting at. Once they left the boathouse, the current would take them downriver. Changing his stance, he faced toward downriver and took aim at the nearest archer.
“Okay!” hollered Seth. “He got it open, let’s go!”
Kevik cast two goo spells before entering the boathouse, one to the left and one to the right. Inside, he saw that the others were already in the rowboat. The seat in the stern was vacant for him and Riyan.
Bart, Chyfe, and Chad were crammed into the prow while the twins held oars in the middle seat. Riyan allowed Kevik in first then gave the boat a push to get it moving from the boathouse. Once it was on its way, he jumped in.
Seth handed him a third oar and said, “You steer.” Once the rowboat cleared the boathouse, he and his brother began rowing for all they were worth.
“Archers!” hollered Bart.
A second later, Kevik cast a protective field between them and the archers on the shore. When an arrow embedded itself in the other side of the boat, he cast a second one to shield them from the archers on that side too.
Rowing for all they were worth, the twins quickly had them skimming across the water. At the stern, Riyan held the oar in the water and maneuvered them toward the center of the river, then turned to follow the river south.
On the banks of the river, arrows flew toward them. Kevik’s shields kept the deadly missiles from reaching their marks as they steadily pulled away. The soldiers ran in pursuit, but between the river’s current and the effort of the twins, they couldn’t keep up. Once they realized their quarry would escape, they gave up the chase and quick-timed it back into town.
Kevik kept the protective shields up until the spells had run their course, just in case. Behind them, the town of Tryn slowly fell away. Ahead of them, the river began entering a canyon.
“The Wrath of Hennon,” Chyfe stated as he gazed to the mouth of the canyon.
“What?” asked Bart.
Chyfe turned to him. “It’s what the locals call it,” he replied.
From behind Bart, Soth added, “This is where The River Man got his name. He survived.”
The mouth of the canyon drew ever closer as each thought about what that might mean. “It’s before the spring thaw,” Riyan said encouragingly. “The river would have to be at its lowest point right now, right? We should make it.”
“Let’s hope so,” Chad replied. Then more quietly to himself he said, “Let’s hope so.”
Bart clapped Chad on the back and gave him a grin.
As the mouth of the canyon rose before them, the twins rowed on.
Chapter Twenty-One
If they had been expecting a wild ride, they were sorely disappointed. Having been in the canyon well over an hour, they encountered nothing but gently flowing water. Chad and Riyan were rowing hard, having taken over from the twins to give them a break. With the threat of pursuit likely to soon develop, they had to keep a fast pace.
“This isn’t so bad,” commented Bart. In fact, for those not rowing, it was a quiet and peaceful ride. The canyon walls rose high on either side of them. In places they were almost vertical while in others there was more of a gentler incline.
“No it isn’t,” agreed Riyan. “How far should we go?”
From his position at the prow, Bart replied, “At least until dark. We’ll find a spot to make camp before the light completely fades.”
“Won’t that afford those behind us a chance to catch up?” asked Seth.
Bart glanced to the walls of the canyon rising above them. “Any pursuit likely to overtake us will come down the river,” he said. “And from what you’ve said of the conversation you had about this place, it sounded like they would be hesitant to follow.”
“The average citizen, yes,” agreed Seth. “But these will be soldiers in pursuit.”
“Look,” interjected Chad, “riding along an unknown river in the dark is dangerous. Especially one with a reputation of being deadly.”
“I see your point,” agreed Seth.
Another couple of hours found them even deeper into the canyon with no sign of it ending. None of them had ever heard of one so long before. Oh sure, in the mountains around Quillim there were many canyons, but none like this.
The sides of the canyon were dotted with scrub brush and the occasional tree. In one area they came to it looked as if the canyon wall on the right had given way some time in the distant past. A great pile of rocks had been deposited in and around the river. Some of the rocks ranged from being the size of a small boulder to that of a large house. Passing through that area gave them a few anxious moments of white water turbulence, but it wasn’t anything they couldn’t handle.
For the rest of the morning and afternoon, they continued rowing. Every half hour they would rotate the rowers so as not to overtire anyone. When the sun reached the rim of the canyon and the light started to fade, they sought a place to camp. It only took them a short time before a suitable location was found.
The canyon widened a bit as its walls grew less vertical. A beach of sorts opened up on their right side, large enough to afford them sufficient dry, level ground upon which to camp. Kevik, who had tiller duty, steered them over to it where they disembarked.
“Gather what wood you can,” Bart said as he left the boat. “We’ll need a fire. It’s going to get cold tonight.” It was already nippy. With the wind whipping through the canyon as it was, it brought the wind chill down to well below freezing. When night came, it would be even worse.
As it turned out, there was plenty of wood to be had. Dead limbs fallen from the trees high on the canyon walls, not to mention a large pile of driftwood that had washed ashore some time in the past, provided all they needed. While the others gathered wood, Chyfe created a ring of stones for their fire pit. Within he placed some of the drier sticks and brush then stood back while Kevik shot sparks onto the wood. Twice he cast his sparks spell before they had the kindling smoldering. Then with a gentle breath, Chyfe encouraged the wood to catch. After that it was a simple matter of slowly adding wood as the fire grew.
Soth, ever the creative one, arranged the boat on its side upwind from the fire. With help from his brother and Riyan, they used several good sized boulders to prop it into position as a wind break. Once it was in place, the affects of the wind diminished rapidly and the fire was better able to warm them.
As the evening settled into twilight, they sat around the fire. Everyone that was but Seth, who had the current watch. Wrapped in two cloaks against the cold, he was some distance away keeping watch on the river. He
