Into the Storm Page 10

  Rather than allowing him to gain any sort of advantage, or to do something else to cheat, Vrawn shifted forward slowly and maneuvered herself to be able to fight more easily in the same stance.

  Her dwarven opponent snarled and came at her with a wicked right hook toward her jaw, but slashed at her knee with the bladed portion of his axe. Vrawn speared her training sword down behind the beard of the weapon and whipped it away and out of Vlegen’s grasp, his gasp of anger telling as to his frustration. But nothing compared to the swath of his beard that fell away from his face when she pulled a small carving knife from her belt. Half his face was a bloodied mess, and hairless as well.

  From there, Vlegen devolved into a screeching mess, his movements filled with desperation and hatred while attempting to batter the orcish woman with his fists and feet. His only weapon having disappeared into the crowd of dwarves around us and not one soul was willing to assist him.

  “Enough!” Vlegen spat, his face more carved up and bereft of facial hair than it had been before, only a slight wisp remained. He glared hatefully around the area at the spectators. “Ye stand with an orc afore ye’d stand with yer kin?”

  “You would stand against a chosen clan member, so named by Fainne?” I countered and stepped into the ring, he was only at 60% health, and this was growing tiresome. “You would leap off the Way over hatred?”

  “Over what be proper!” Vlegen howled, spittle flying from his lips, the whites of his eyes almost bursting from his head. “No one would allow a gods-forsaken orc into their clan without proof of honor! With Jaken, he fought his way in an’ won under the gaze o’ the Mountain, an’ proved hisself to be honorable an’ heroic!”

  “Excuses, Vlegen!” Farnik shook his head. “Ye cling to the old ways an’ times, the orcs have done nothin’ to us in hunnerds o’ years.”

  “Yer memory may nae be long, but mine be!” Vlegen snarled, his breathing labored. “Watchin’ brothers and sisters felled by the clans o’ orcs who sought to appease their war-lovin’ god by slaughterin’ those they thought weak—his rival’s people! That be us!”

  Vrawn stilled, listening as the dwarf continued his hate speech. “They came in droves, driven mad by their smoke an’ fire. Bringin’ their wargs an’ beasts to the fore as our families fought to hold the line so we could escape! An’ here they be again! Infiltratin’ our ranks an’ sewin’ discord an’ contempt among the finest warriors Djurn Forge ever know’d!”

  “I was adopted by humans and taken in by them,” Vrawn explained solemnly. “I was raised where people hated me and given the power to change that hatred into respect by serving the country who accepted me. That didn’t last because of my failure, and here I am, once again, trying to show people that I can belong.”

  Angry tears fled from the corners of Vrawn’s eyes as she stared down at Vlegen. “I didn’t ask for this, but for a second time in such a short period of my life, I felt truly welcomed by a people and finally a god. I may not serve Uk’Beth, but I will have you remember that I am a warrior, and I am worthy of respect.” Vrawn’s face hardened, her nose wrinkling, and her tusks flashing in the firelight. “If you will not respect me for my skill, then you will fear me for my wrath.”

  She stepped forward and clobbered him over the head with the weapon in her hand, the bands keeping it from cleaving him in two, but the crunch of it saw him to the ground unconscious. Vrawn dropped her weapon to the ground, where it clanged against the stone loudly.

  The dwarves surged forward to lift Vlegen and carry him away, but the leadership stayed behind, barring Vrawn from having to see the dwarf again.

  “You guys protecting him?” Bokaj asked warily, with a look of concern in his gaze.

  “No.” Farnik shook his head forlornly. “We bar the path to our shame, an’ stand before our newest member humiliated. We knew he hated orcs, an’ tha’ isnae an emotion that most dwarves are far from with the memories of the clan wars so fresh for some, but we had no reckonin’ it ran so deep as tha’.”

  “We be sorry, lass.” Gerty bowed her head as well. “Ye have a place here amongst us, an’ as a warrior of such skill, we’d be hard-pressed not to appreciate yer abilities.”

  “Thank you.” Vrawn tried to smile, but she still seemed a little ticked. “I understand that the voice of one does not speak for everyone. I will stand by this group for their mission and think on my time here with fondness. Should you have need, call on me, and I will come to you how I can, to aid you.”

  Both Farnik and Gerty seemed to understand that pressing the matter would be an issue and decided to settle for hugs and pats from the rest of us.

  “What the blasted hells is this thing made with?” Brawnwynn grunted. I glanced over to see him lifting the weapon but straining to do so.

  “It is normal metal with a much heavier banding around it is designed for training.” Vrawn’s attempted smile seemed to grow a little more genuine. “It was exceptionally well made. Each band weighs around ten pounds. And there are ten bands, so roughly one hundred and ten pounds total if I recall correctly.”

  “And you swing it so well and so fast?” Farnik blustered loudly as he booked it over to try and lift the weapon. He could, relatively easily, but trying to maneuver it was difficult, and he had to use both hands. “How?”

  “I trained with a weighted weapon from the time I was a child, and still carry one with me to train every day if I can.” Vrawn reached out and took the weapon into her grasp with ease. “I would recommend doing the same for yourselves if you wish to remain competitive. Weight training can be as important in developing stamina as running or fighting.”

  “We be puttin’ in an order for weighted axes right his second!” Farnik hooted and clapped his son on the back. “Go and get it done, Brawny. I trust ye to see it to perfection.”

  “I would start off on a lighter weight and work your way to a heavier,” I offered. Vrawn nodded her agreement. “That way, you cut back on injury, and you can keep people from growing accustomed too quickly.”

  “Good idea!” Gerty grinned at us. “This ought to be fun! We wish ye the best o’ luck on yer travels, the lot o’ ye. If ye need us, ye send the birdy to us, and we will get to ye.”

  I nodded, and Muu wandered over. “Hey, I just wanted to let you know, I’m glad you’re back. And Farnik can tell you about the joke I told him.”

  “Muu, he has already.” Gerty grinned and smacked him on the arm. “That were a funny jab, lad. I’d have taken ye in then an’ there were I there to hear it. Keep yer humor up, an’ come back safe, aye?”

  Muu nodded, and the others said their goodbyes as they were wont to do. After that, we walked through the streets of Djurn Forge with dwarves hailing us as heroes and shaking our hands. It was about another hour and a half in getting to the edge of the city closer to the exit. Though it was here that we stopped for Vrawn to browse some of the wares at a couple stands. The vendors wouldn’t even let her pay because she was with us. Some of them even offered us items for free, but we declined as it was the right thing to do. Though I did purchase something small that I thought she might like for later. I kept it close, though, not letting her see it. Vrawn took the two necklaces that she had picked out and put one on before pocketing the other.

  “That’s really pretty,” I observed on our walk away. The necklace was a simple thing, a golden-hued metal wrapped around a small branch of dark metal with an emerald leaf at the end. It was beautiful, and even against her green skin, the gem sparkled visibly.

  “Thank you.” She smiled softly back, she held up a match to it and offered it to me. “This is for Maebe.”

  I pressed it back toward her. “I’m absolute crap at giving gifts, she can tell you for sure. So can the others—”

  “He is!” Muu interrupted. “One time, I came home from work, and he had sat my gift on the table with no wrapping paper on it. Then pointed to it and said, ‘there you go, buddy, happy birthday.’ Like a schmuck.”

  “She doesn’t
know what that means!” I hissed angrily, but the story was true. “See what I mean?”

  Vrawn laughed, and she seemed to relax a bit more. “Thank you, all of you, for sticking up for me back there.”

  “Of course!” Balmur grunted as he took the fifteenth head-butt from a passerby in the last ten minutes. “You’re coming with us, and we know how important you are to Zeke and Maebe.”

  Vrawn tilted her head and regarded the man as another dwarf made their way over to him while he rubbed his head. “Do you?”

  “Of course we do!” Bokaj chuckled and wrapped an arm around her waist loosely while he waggled his eyes suggestively. “We’ve been trying to get the two of you hooked up since we first met you and knew that you were sweet on him.”

  “Hooked up?” Vrawn’s brow furrowed in confusion.

  “Yeah, together, you know?” Jaken offered with a slight grin on his face, his own tusks flashing at us as I glanced his way. “It wasn’t as much to mess with him as he likes to think. You seemed nice from the first time we met you, and we weren’t sure how things would turn out. You’re beautiful and strong, so we figured why not? And now, here you are!”

  I rolled my eyes at my lovable, if not affable, idiots.

  “You did not know me well enough to truly pursue this.” She seemed confused. “Why?”

  “Dating is a thing that is designed to help you learn about someone and to see if your personalities will mesh,” Yohsuke explained patiently. “My wife and I had dated for a long, long time before we got married, and even now we learn more about each other all the time.”

  Yoh’s face fell a little as he thought of his wife, but Vrawn put a comforting hand on his shoulder. “I am certain she is a good woman.”

  Yoh snorted. “She is, and I love her to death even though she can be a friggin’ pain in the ass at times. But she’s my pain in the ass. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  “So you see, every chance we got to try and bring the two of you together so you could learn about each other, was one we took.” Bokaj grinned up at Vrawn, and she smiled down at him. “I’m glad it worked out because both of them care about you a lot. Watching you watch him and Maebe, or them watching you, you can see it.”

  My cheeks burned fiercely as I stared ahead, the metal barrier to the outside looming closer.

  “I see, thank you for enlightening me in this.” Vrawn lifted her head in thought and stared forward as we walked, no longer talking. Though I did peek at her occasionally to ensure she wasn’t quiet just because she was upset. Her looking around and taking in the sights the city had to offer made me smile, and I had to stifle a grin when she found a little dwarven girl motioning at her then her tusks in a comedic sort of way.

  As we went to leave, a large crowd of dwarves stood before the door, all of them Ironnoses. They lined up on each side of the door as we prepared to leave and saluted with fists over their hearts.

  As we reached the end of the group, the clan head that we had seen at the party stepped forward and bowed at his waist. “Ye be safe out there, lads and lassie. And if ye ever need us, ye holler for the Ironnoses. Aye?”

  I smiled at him and nodded, “Of course we will! Who knows when and where we might need some of the ugliest dwarves to grace Djurn Forge?”

  The leader raised his head with a glint of mischief in his gaze as I grabbed his shoulders in both hands and whipped my head into his with a crack, and my health lowered about 7% from the strike.

  The leader guffawed and patted me on the shoulder affectionately as we all filtered out of the doorway to the tunnels outside the city.

  “We know where we’re headed?” James asked, then facepalmed. “We forgot Thogan!”

  “I think he was supposed to be with the historians or something, Zeke, you want to check in with him?” Jaken asked quietly, uncertainty coloring his features.

  I used the raven in my pocket and used it to ask. “Hey Thogan, we’re getting ready to leave, do you need anything? Are you okay?”

  The raven flew off and fluttered back a couple minutes later. “Aye, I be fine here, lad. I missed me people, and there be time now to talk to ‘em and explain our history. I’ll be doin’ tha’ a while, then I’ll be on me way with Shellica to the village to check on Vilmas and Rowland. Ye be safe now.”

  I nodded to myself, then turned to the others and smiled. “He’s good for now. He and Shellica will head to Sunrise in a while. As to where we’re heading, I was thinking that city that we had seen when we had traveled from the forest to the beach near the island. I think that could be the port city we need to get to, to head eastward for the Continent of Beasts.”

  “Seems sound enough as far as plans go, did Queen Chareen ever say how she got back and forth?” Yohsuke muttered, then sighed when I shook my head. “Send them a message and ask how things are going. Do they need our help with Lindyburg?”

  That was a great idea. I lifted the small raven out of my pocket and spoke into it in a genial tone, “Greetings, King Westwind, this is King Zeke. I wanted to check in with you and see how things in Lindyburg were coming along? If you need our assistance?”

  Was it a little late to ask that? Sure. Did I hold out hope we would be able to go back and put that evil bitch in her place, then hopefully get some kind of royal escort across the ocean? Also yes. All you following along, cross your fingers.

  The spectral raven flew off, and we waited patiently for it to return with the King’s reply.

  A brief flash of motion near my hand several moments later caught my attention, and the spectral raven had returned, the King’s voice greeting me, “Yes, my friend, things seem to be going well. She has returned a missive stating that she has no idea why you attacked her so ruthlessly, but if she is to be treated as a traitor, then we are to come. We march on her as we speak with your friends, the Braves of the Thorn to assist us, as well as some of the dwarven druids Nick has spoken of. We will root out this evil and set things to rights. I hope your mission goes well, and have you need of Zephyth, contact my family.”

  His voice disappeared with the raven messenger, and we were quiet for a moment until Jaken grunted, then said, “Seems they’ve got it under control.”

  “Well then, I guess I need to get ready to face the sun.” Yohsuke sighed heavily and pulled his shadow cloak’s hood up over his head.

  “I thought the shroud helped?” Balmur tried to lift the living shadows, but they washed over his hand and fell to the ground again. “She kind of never talked openly about it, but Jay said something about travel by ship as well.”

  “It does, but it still kind of sucks.” Yoh pulled the hood of the shroud up around his head and face so that his whole body was covered and stepped over to all of us. “Let’s go find us a ship then. Fuck.”

  I held my hands out and so did the others except Yoh, he allowed Bokaj and James to reach into the shroud and grasp his shoulders so that there was no exposed skin. Once all of us were touching, I cast Teleport, and we were on our way to the open-air once more.

  Chapter Six

  The sunlight beat down on us almost in waves after being underground for only a short time, I heard Yoh growl at the sun, but that was it.

  I allowed Bea to come out into the warmth so that she could stretch her legs and eat with Kayda, as soon as the light touched her, she blinked. Her beautiful brown eyes stared out at me.

  I reached out to her, and she tapped my palm with her muzzle, I could feel her discomfort.

  “You okay, sweetheart?” I pulled her head close to me so that she might feel a bit more comfortable.

  I remember all of it. Her voice was somber, lighter almost and she sounded so much more put together. The voices took over.

  “You’re okay, baby. I’ll help you learn how to deal with it and remain more in control.”

  She licked my palm, sadder than she had before. You don’t know how these voices shout.

  I leaned into her, pressing my forehead to her jaw and sent her memories of t
he voices I heard as instincts in my head. The alpha’s voice howling at me. The elementals and Mother Nature herself.

  Bea whimpered against me, her huff of sadness shaking me a bit, making Kayda drop down and grow to the point that she could cover us both with her wings. I love you both, voices and all.

  I chuckled at her and patted Bea’s thickly scaled hide, “I’m not going to put you back in the collar for a while if I can help it baby, but I do need to let you know that we’re going to a city so I may need to just before we get there. Okay?”

  Okay. We hunt? Bea looked up to Kayda, and the large bird nodded and puffed her chest out defiantly.

  Kayda spread her wings, and the sound of crashing thunder washed around us, the sky darkening with her presence. We hunt!

  I snorted at them and lifted my hands in defeat. “You can hunt, but you need to stay close to each other, and nothing on two legs. You be safe, and you communicate. Bea, I need you to listen to your sister, okay?”

  They took off, almost as if they were competing with one another as they raced southward.

  “Where the hell are they going?” Yohsuke shouted as he held out a leg of meat.

  “They want to hunt because Bea’s upset that the chimera’s personality is taking control of her,” I explained while observing our surroundings. This was the place that we had passed the city, but it had been about a day or so east of our position at the time. Striking my gaze easterly, I found the haze-covered city against the sea. “Think we need to come up with a story for why we’re heading to the C-O-B?”

  “The what?” Jaken grunted and pulled some jerky from his pocket, then flinched as he realized, “Oh, the Continent of Beasts, I like that. Yeah, it’s likely that we may need one. I’m not sure how we will be received for wanting to go there.”

  “Is it a bad place?” Balmur asked, his book of spells in his lap with a pen in hand as he glanced about. “Like, how bad can it be?”

  “It’s not a bad place per se,” James explained while pulling his notebook out to read from. “All that I’ve read leads me to believe that whatever is on that continent is powerful monsters and powerful people who have to compete with them for land and survival. The cities of the drow that are above ground are covered in domes protected from the sunlight there, and the Queen of Zephyth’s people who she wouldn’t tell us all that much about.”