“Can they think?” Astrid asked. “Do they have free will?”
“They can think, certainly. And feel too. Free will? No, that I’m afraid not. They obey their creator. I’d say they’re his slaves. They’ll carry out his wishes, to the death.”
“I like this Olagar, he’s a clever guy,” Viggo said as he tried to wrench off a pincer from a lobster-man.
“How can you say that after what you’ve just seen?” Ingrid asked angrily.
“Because he’s made an army of crustacean-men with hard shells who follow his orders. In my book that counts as very clever and ambitious.
“Ambitious?” Gerd asked him, not understanding what his friend meant.
“He’s creating an army, and you do that to conquer other lands.”
“Oh … I see …”
“And he’s doing it by kidnapping people from other realms,” Astrid added. “Those turquoise men are from Uragh’s realm.”
Eicewald nodded in confirmation of this.
“Brilliant, this Olagar,” Viggo commented. “He creates his army out of his enemy’s soldiers. I like him better and better.”
“Don’t be a smartass and don’t put him on a pedestal. We’re here to destroy him.”
“And now we have a very good idea why,” Astrid added.
“Yeah,” Ingrid agreed, “we have to put an end to this atrocity.”
Lasgol breathed out heavily. What they were finding was simultaneously abominable and deeply troubling. What they were yet to find, might be even worse.
Chapter 30
After a demanding passage through the jungle, they reached a small hilltop from which they could see the southern part of the island. They lay down on the ground and took a careful view of things. Olagar’s base of operations was a stone fort built on a cliff, with a view of a bay in which they could see five sizeable ships. These were no canoes, but merchant ships and ships of war, both Nocean and Rogdonian. They must have been attacked in the ocean and then brought here.
“It seems to me the Turquoise Queen forgot to mention a couple of things,” Viggo said. “Such as Olagar already having an army to hand.”
“How many men do you make it?” Ingrid asked.
Astrid had closed one eye and was examining the ships with the other. “Those ships are pretty big, they could easily fit a hundred men, I’d say.”
“How many in the fortress?” asked Nilsa.
“Lasgol?” Ingrid said.
Lasgol used his Hawk’s Eye skill. A green flash ran though his head, and he took a good look.
“I’ve counted thirty or so. I imagine there’ll be more inside, resting, that I can’t see from here.”
“Are they like those we’ve met?” asked Viggo. “Half-man, half-crab or lobster?”
“I’m afraid so. All the ones I’ve seen are transformed men. Even the ones on the ships I saw.”
“That’s all we needed.”
“I don’t like this at all,” Nilsa said. “I don’t want to fight against creatures that are fused together. It seems utterly horrible to me.” She shook herself to get rid of her unease, but failed.
“Nor me,” Gerd joined in.
Viggo jabbed his finger at him. “I saw you hammer one to pulp. You can’t be afraid of them by now.”
The giant shrugged. “Well, now I know what they are, they don’t sort of scare me anymore, obviously.”
“What’s the plan?” Astrid asked.
“Easy,” Viggo said nonchalantly. “We go into the fortress, we kill this shaman, then we get out fast.”
“That’s not much of a plan!” Ingrid grumbled.
“You’ve turned into a real nagger lately. Is that because Captain Fantastic doesn’t worship the ground you tread on?”
“You’re going to find yourself worshiping my fist!”
“Stop it, both of you,” Astrid interrupted them. “We’ve got quite enough trouble without you arguing.” Gerd pulled Viggo a couple of paces back, and Nilsa did the same with Ingrid.
“I think in this situation a diversion would be the best idea,” Eicewald said, and his deep voice commanded attention.
“Tell us …” said Lasgol encouragingly.
“We’ve got to get into the fortress, and it’s under constant surveillance. We can also be practically sure there’ll be reinforcements inside, quite apart from those on the ships. In my opinion we need to create a solid diversion so that we can get into the fortress without being seen, and then get as far as Olagar.”
“Would that mean splitting up?” Ingrid asked.
Eicewald nodded. “One group needs to create the diversion, while the other gets into the fortress where the shaman is, without being seen.”
Ingrid grimaced. “I don’t like having to separate.”
“It’s the best alternative. I don’t really think we’ll be able to manage it any other way.”
They discussed it for a while, and after suggesting and discarding a number of ideas, they decided to follow Eicewald’s plan. They thought it all out carefully and went over all the details until they were clear. After nightfall they made their preparations.
Group One, made up of Gerd, Nilsa and Ingrid, was the first to leave. Their job was to create the distraction, and it had to be a major one. Group Two, made up of Astrid and Viggo, left a moment later. Their job was to eliminate the sentinels and clear the way for Group Three, which comprised Lasgol, Eicewald, Camu and Ona. Their job would be to locate and eliminate Olagar. Although the plan was a good one, there were a million things which could go wrong, since it was an improvised one and they did not know the fortress, nor how many guards there were or their exact whereabouts. The chances of everything going as planned were very slim.
Astrid and Viggo went down the hill through the scrub, like shadows of the night with a lethal purpose. The waning moon was their ally that night – not that Astrid and Viggo needed it, since their skill at concealing their presence was masterly. When they neared the northern wall of the fortress, they
