After her bouts with the frost piner Kyle, who was somewhat of an aficionado with weapons, she had continued to train on her own. She didn’t really know if she had a solid technique, but she was quick and knew how hard she had to plunge or slash in order to do some real damage.

  Most ruffians are cowards at heart. At least that is what I am going to keep telling myself.

  She never heard anyone sneaking up on her or hiding in the shadows. Tia simply turned a corner and they were there. A whole lot of them were there. All dressed in similar fashion to the two men in the bar. Dark cloaks, pinched features, and a stooped, hunched over stance. She never would have picked up on it simply by looking at the two men, but seeing a bunch of them together like this she realized that they weren’t human. They weren’t human or dwarf or gnome, but she had seen them before. Back in Lemure on their last day there…the monks, then the attack. “Muridai,” she spat and drew her sword and they advanced.

  The night suddenly became an array of colors and flashing lights and Tia was grabbed from behind, her sword ripped from her grasp as she was dragged down an alley. At first she thought the muridai had crept up on her and taken her from behind, but they seemed to be just as confused as she was.

  She tried to focus on the person dragging her at a run down the street, but they were cloaked with a heavy cowl. They were short, very short like a dwarf. She cancelled that thought because this thing was way too light on its feet to be a dwarf.

  They rounded a corner and Tia felt herself thrust up against the wall and Rain’s face suddenly filled her vision. Her sword was thrust back into her hand as Rain shouted for her to run and pointed down the alley. “Run! We’ll distract them.”

  “Where?”

  “Get to your boat, we’ll find you.”

  Tia took her advice though she didn’t really think they should plan on joining her on the skiff. As soon as Rowen showed up they were out of this city. She wasn’t lost yet, but she was getting there, the attack, if it could be called that, threw her way off track. These creatures or men seemed to be everywhere and attacking everyone at once. There was screaming and cries of rage and pain, the clash of steel and more than one thump from a large club or stave.

  A gangly body flew into her causing her to almost lose her sword as she slammed against the wall. She spun out to face her aggressor in a ready stance. The creature hissed at her and darted in low as if he was going to sweep her feet. She noticed that he was very fluid so low to the ground and side stepped, bringing her blade down hard on its arm in a two handed swing and felt it bite into meat after passing through fabric.

  It hissed again before howling out some kind of signal. Two more joined him one of which carried a spear. He began to jab at her, swirling his blade to try and fling her defensive slashes away. She pulled her long knife with her other hand, something Kyle had warned her against, but she had to have something to keep the other two attackers at bay and to block.

  The spear man lunged causing Tia to arch backwards and bring her blade up to force the spear point up and into the brick wall behind her. Almost too late did she see the sharpened edge on the spear tip poised perfectly to slice through her neck. She had to finish her quickly made arch into a fall flat on her back. She slashed her sword down as she fell catching the Muridai on the knee. He scampered back with a limp.

  Good, I’ve wounded two of them. Now to get off the flat of my back before they chop me into mush.

  She did a back somersault to regain her feet, pulling her farther away from the two swordsmen, but the spearman wasn’t out of the picture yet. She ducked as his point sliced above her head and rolled toward him in one motion. She came up with her sword in his belly, their faces cheek to cheek. She could feel the surprise in his being as his life slipped out from the large tear in his abdomen and he crumpled to the side. Tia was frozen, suddenly everything became very real. She had never killed before and here she did it almost without thought.

  A commotion behind her caused her to spin. A large shadow had broken off and was crushing the two remaining muridai with a sledge hammer.

  “Tia, follow me,” a man’s voice said.

  “Vern?”

  “Yes, come now, we have to get you to the skiff before the city is overrun,” Vern said and she caught up to him. Vern was big and amazingly strong, but he wasn’t a runner and she could hear him sucking wind after only a few steps.

  “Slow down, Vern, we’ll attract more attention by running.”

  He stopped, flat footed. “Oh thank god. I don’t think I could have made it all the way to second wharf at that pace,” Vern puffed out.

  “Where did they all come from?”

  “I don’t know, rumor has it they aren’t even human, but I don’t see how that could be, I mean they sure look human.”

  “Oh, they’re not human. They are muridai and the creatures that attacked Lemure the day I left. The dwarfs in Riverhouse are quite concerned about them actually.”

  “Really, what are they doing here?” Vern asked.

  “I don’t know; the real question is what are you doing here. I though you went home.”

  “I did, or at least I was when I was stopped by the constable. He was a friend so it was no big deal, but he told me about the goings on in the city and I got a little worried for ya. I caught up to ya when the elves helped you out.”

  “Yeah, that was weird wasn’t it.”

  “Yes, very weird. He also told me that Pine Hold was attacked and they are trying to assemble an army.”

  “Pine Hold? Where is that?” Tia asked having heard the name before.

  “I don’t know, a couple hundred miles north of Riverhouse I think. It’s just elves up in that part of the world.” He suddenly pushed her into a shadowed alcove and wrapped his hand over her mouth.

  “Don’t move,” the older man growled.

  Tia froze, not only terrified by the situation at hand, but also the sudden closeness of Vern who she had thought previously didn’t have a malicious bone in his body. Then he crushed the skulls of two of the muridai. He uncovered her mouth and slowly pursed his lips as if to try and kiss her.

  “Shhh,” he said and she felt more than heard the pattering of feet run by behind him, his massive back looking more like part of the building than a human being. The pattering passed and Vern pulled her back into the street and right into the rear entrance of a local business.

  “Where are you dragging me?” Tia protested once they were inside but he shushed her again.

  “This is a friend of mine’s shop. We can take the stair down to his store front on third wharf.”

  “Well, let’s go then.”

  “Can’t, something’s wrong. Kalmo should have accosted us as soon as we entered here. Shhh, do you hear it?” Vern asked.

  “What? I hear growling or some kind of deep low rumble,” Tia replied.

  “That’s him, he’s behind one of these doors up here.”

  “Hey look, that door has a dagger wedged under it and there is blood.”

  “Get your blades ready, he knows me so I should be good, but you he doesn’t.”

  “Well then why are you letting him out?” Tia said as she realized that Kalbo was their guard dog.

  “Because something is going on here, they have two sons and this place is never quiet.”

  He used his heel to kick the dagger out from under the door and made a familiar whistle that the dog seemed to respond to. He opened the door, or at least started to when a mass of fangs and muscle slammed the door wide. Kalbo ignored the two who were in front of him and raced down the stairs to the shop area.

  “Come on!” Vern said and tried to race down the stairs after the dog, luckily Tia got to them first or she would have gone crazy trying to rush behind his waddling ass. She broke into the storefront area to find a butcher shop, only now there was blood everywhere but in the display cases. Her attention was on Kalmo who had surprised two of the muridai and had pressed his advantage right between both of whom were starting to recover from the attack.

  Tia surprised herself with her speed as she leapt across the room and plunged her sword into the chest of the right-hand attacker. He fell back and Kalmo yanked upon the muridai’s arm as if it was the most offensive thing in the city and had to be removed. Tia saw it set itself up for her and she pulled the blade out in a flourish and right across the creature’s throat. He collapsed at her feet and Kalbo let go only to jump toward a muridai making for the door, his hands and tunic already covered in blood. Sadly, it wasn’t his own and Kalbo was determined to change that.

  “Look out!” Vern shouted and Tia turned just in time to stop a crooked sword from cleaving her head in two. She flicked his blade wide and plunged her long knife into his throat leaving it to set a defensive for four more who were in the room. Vern waded into them with his heavy hammer casting one to the side to land in a heap.

  Tia did something she never thought she would have the nerve to do. Maybe it was seeing Vern do it or hearing Kalbo continue with his… Tia attacked. It was a hard thing to stand there and defend yourself against an antagonist, but to attack was a whole different level of crazy. She trusted her skill set against these and had found the earlier spearman to have been the only one who was best trained.

  Of course as luck would have it the one she approached held his sword well and had some kind of emblem across the chest of his robe. It resembled a sword slash. He parried her thrust, forcing her blade down so the point dug into the floor, his face wearing something like a smile. His blade was sliding up toward her chest and she saw the flat of it getting larger as the end of her life approached. A motion from behind the swordsmen jostled him, causing his strike to slide off target. She brushed it higher with her gauntlet and reached for her knife, it was gone, left in the throat of the muridai.

  She ducked as he slashed his blade around at head height, managing to snap the tip off of her blade, freeing it from the floor. She struck at the first thing she could see, his leg, but all she caught was air as the beast jumped back and away to witness Vern crushing the last of his companions.

  The muridai hissed loudly and pulled out another blade, his objective being the front door and freedom.

  Tia stepped forward, noticing for the first time that her blade tip was missing. She didn’t care, she would slash the bastard to death if she had to. Vern swung his big hammer, a crushing blow right toward its head. It didn’t duck as much as crouch and caught the wood handle of the sledge in the crotch of his crossed blades. He jerked and let out a grunt of effort and Vern’s hammer handle fell into two pieces, the hammer part falling to the floor.

  The muridai would have advanced on him, but found himself defending from a mad slashing attack from the female. He had trained for this and easily awaited her energy to flag and he could insert himself behind her blades.

  In his mind it was only a matter of time, which proved true as Tia’s arm started to slow and her grip weaken. He saw his opening and he took it, aiming his blade right for her throat.

  When Vern became weaponless he slid behind the counter hoping to find something he could use. He came up with a large hammer-style meat tenderizer and a butcher’s cleaver, but it was too late, he saw the blade sliding toward Tia.

  Kalbo bit down on the neck of his muridai until it stopped moving. He had been ready for someone or thing to come chase him off the being, but it never came. Kalbo was a good dog and loved his family, his family seemed to be missing now though he could smell their presence, smell them in a most horrifying way. Kalbo was pissed and this corpse wasn’t putting up the fight he wanted it to, so he turned and there before him, was another.

  Kalbo lunged. His teeth clamped hard on the soft part of its throat before he could get his strike to the halfway point. To Tia’s eyes she was dead and suddenly Kalbo was feeding upon her adversary on the floor. The screams were cut short and turned to gurgles that soon couldn’t be heard above the growls.

  “Holy crap. Are you alright?” she asked Vern.

  “I’m fine, my friend didn’t make it though. It looks as if they were…eating them. Why, when there is all of this fresh meat in here, they would do that, I don’t know. Maybe they have a taste for dwarf.”

  “Your friends were dwarfs?” Tia asked stupidly.

  “Of course, all of the shops on third wharf are dwarf owned. Well, not this one anymore. Too bad to, he cut a helluva brisket.”

  “Vern!” Tia was exasperated.

  “What? Oh alright, too soon…I get it. Let’s go. Kalbo, come with us,” Vern said and Kalbo trotted obediently over and took the lead. It wasn’t that he knew where they were going it was just that he was a dog and dogs always take the lead. Vern had kept his cleaver, but felt at a disadvantage to the sword and spears their opponents were using. He cursed himself for not taking one of the weapons from the dead muridai. The avenue was surprisingly empty and the cries from behind them had seemed to stifle a little. They approached the ramp to the second wharf and heard her uncle cry out.

  They came into view of the ramp below and saw five men who were like Rowen, traders protecting their cargo. Rowen was holding his left arm to his side and fighting vainly with his right against what must be thirty of the muridai.

  Tia and Vern broke into a run to attack the group from behind, but they were standing still compared to Kalbo. He was over a hundred pounds of muscle, bone, and teeth hurtling down hill toward what he suddenly hated most in this world, muridai. The line of muridai showed a visible divot where the canine struck and the two aimed for it. Bodies were suddenly falling out of the sky around her, but she didn’t slow, she half expected them to already be here. A glance to her left showed the snarling face of Rain as they bore down upon the backs of the evil foe.

  It wasn’t a clash of thunder as armor hit armor like in the tales of knights of old. There were no screams or grunts only the silent wisps of blades slicing through the air. It was suddenly raining blood around her and she slashed high and low, her first three targets already picked out. The elves, however, seemed to operate at super natural quickness and soon more than doubled her body count. She wondered why they hadn’t used their bows, but didn’t worry too much. She was just grateful to have them there to help.

  The muridai were soon outnumbered, yet strangely they didn’t turn tail and run. They intended to fight until the last man, it was on the last five that the elves decided to use the bows. Once they were all in a line and the backdrop was secure, they let fly and the beasts all dropped dead.

  “Uncle Rowen, are you alright?”

  “I took a slash to the shoulder, I’m sure it isn’t anything you can’t stitch up,” Rowen said.

  “You’re not going to be able to go against current with that wound, sport,” an elven man said. “It looks like you’re going to need a hand or two getting home,” he finished with a smile.

  “Well met, Killdeer, I didn’t know you were in town,” Rowen replied.

  “You know him?” Tia exclaimed only to be answered by Vern.

  “He’s Killdeer, everybody knows him. He ranks quite high in their hierarchy.”

  “Hello, Vernon, I didn’t see ya there mate…how’ve ya been?”

  “I been good, Killdeer, how’re things out in the reaches?”

  “Sparse at best, my friend, sparse at best. So how about it, Rowen; can we hitch a ride to Riverhouse with you?”

  “Of course your Highness is always welcome aboard my ship,” Rowen replied with a smile.

  “Well, it’s hardly a ship now, is it,” he said as he made his way to Rowen. “Tally ho, people, before more of those nasty rat people show up.”

  Before she knew it they were sailing north, into the headwaters with eight elves and Kalbo, whatever he was. Tia shrugged, the poor animal’s family had been killed and she could use someone to watch her back.

  34

  Humble

  Tic sat in his newly landscaped lobby area thinking about how he was booted from the weaves the night before. He didn’t think that he was going to be allowed the freedom he previously had in searching the inner depths of Riverhouse and he just didn’t know how he felt about it. On one hand he felt sheepish because the house had warned him, tried to block him, and he didn’t listen. On the other side of things, he was brought here for a reason, he more than felt that…he knew it for a fact. Things were simply falling in line in a manner that left no doubts as to what his situation was.

  Why couldn’t I simply stop? I knew she didn’t want me going any further and I pressed the issue, he lamented through the night, His guilt slipping in to his dreams and affecting his concentration.. He wanted to try and delve back into the stone, but he was afraid that he would be spurned as he had right after it happened.

  Across the tributary that ran between homes so that you could float a canoe of product down to the main channel, which bled, into Lokai River where you could climb on to a ship, a line of colorful movement caught his eye.

  It was ten day here on this side of the Swirl, which unlike Lemure, meant that it was a day of rest. He focused upon the colors that seemed to bob and weave as a small group of kids were gathering around a ragged looking human who seemed to be handing out treats of some sort. Other children in plainly colored clothing seemed to file in skittishly from alleys and streets trying to get closer to the man who was setting up a stool directly in the center of the square. There were a couple of adults with the first group, but otherwise the only adult in the group was the man in the center with the stool. He had a small case that he set down on the ground in front of him, opening it in a way that made the children strain to see what was inside. A bird burst out of the case causing the entire crowd to jump back.

  It was a dove and it circled the crowd twice before landing on the man shoulder. Tic smiled and used a little bit of energy to enhance his vision as it was over a hundred feet away.