Heilan
stood at ready to his right, and Edrin watched as the point of
his sword came up, and Heilan dissolved into the tree shadows
to his right. Edrin reached back with this right hand, and grabbed
his other long sword. Freeing it from the scabbard, he stepped
into the shadows, his ears straining to find what Heilan already
found. Was it a third one? The creatures didn’t seem intelligent
enough to possess a great deal of cunning.
He felt a trickle of blood run down his side from the deep
wounds which still had not healed from the potions.
Shadows shifted everywhere, as the winds touched the broad
leaf trees of the Hornsaw forest. Light flickered. A few birds
twittered, and circled above, then headed south. Behind him,
Edrin heard an impressively light foot fall in the dry and leaf
covered forest floor. He did not turn, but melded into the shadows
in front of him, then looked behind.
It took a moment to see the man, at first he was only an odd
shadow protruding from the trunk of a tree, and then he was
there. Once spotted, Edrin could no longer not see him. The
man straightened suddenly and stepped into plain view, raising
his left hand palm out. He was human, about 30 years old. Not
tall, but not short either, with a slim body. His shirt was
gray silk, but the rest of his clothing was leather. It was
in good shape, and well taken care of, but old and didn’t
fit him quite right.
“I wasn’t sure there were no more of those demons.”
The human said apologetically, taking a step forward. “I
didn’t want to get in the middle of whatever quarrel you
had.”
“A wise choice most of the time” Edrin said, stepping
out of his shadows, keeping his swords at ready.
“I have to admit, I didn’t think it was going to
be so easy to sneak up on you, especially in the forest and
all.” The man was smiling, “Have to test the skills
you know. Keep them sharp. That’s all I’m saying.”
Edrin smiled as Heilan’s heavy blade came down flat on
the man’s right shoulder, and then slowly traced its tip
down the back of his leather jacket, scratching a furrow through
the surface of the treated hide. “Need a bit more practice”
Heilan said, “And a little more humility in the presence
of a prince.”
“Hey, your prince, not mine,” The rogue spat out
reflexively, and the tip of the sword pressed into his back
a little harder, “but of course a prince is a prince in
any land.” He added and ferreted his eyes around him picking
out the nearest shadow.
Edrin didn’t recognize the man, but he knew what he was.
He was one of Drendari’s Shadow Walkers. Most of the Shadow
Walkers were direct descendents of the originals who fought
with her in the Divine war, against the Titans. That was 150
years ago. Some of the Shadow Walkers with elf or dwarf blood
still lived, but most of Drendari’s followers were human.
The Shadow Walkers now served Drendari by hunting down the
Penumbral Lords, and their followers. The Penumbral Lords were
a group of wizards that studied and benefited from shadow magic
stolen from the goddess. The story went that before the Devine
war, there was another war between the gods, the titans and
creatures called Slarecians. The war started, Edrin was told,
by the capture of Drendari, daughter of Enkili the Storm god.
From Drendari the Slarecians learned much about Shadow magic,
and taught this knowledge to a group of wizards known at the
Penumbral so that they could use it during the coming war with
the gods. The Penumbral however betrayed their Slarecian masters
and went into hiding as soon as the war began. The Slarecians
were wiped out, or that’s how the story was told. Edrin
often wondered just how accurate the story was on many points.
Two points were clear enough, Penumbral’s’ had the
mastery of Shadow magic and Drendari wanted them dead.
“I wasn’t going to hurt him.” The Walker
was complaining to Heilan.
“I wasn’t saving him from you, I was saving you
from my sister.” Heilan said, pulling the Walker back
a step by the collar of his jacket. Two arrows sang through
the air sinking deeply into a tree trunk inches from the Walker’s
nose.
“You should know that she doesn’t like to miss,
and she holds a grudge.” Heilan said. “Every time
she sees you from this point on, you’ll be an empty target,
something incomplete in her eyes, an aggravation.”
“Why are you here?” Edrin asked.
“Message.” The Walker barked.
“It couldn’t wait until we were back in Mithril?”
Edrin asked. “We would have been there by now if we weren’t
talking to you.” Which was true, more or less, what could
possibly be so urgent that a few hours were of consequence?
