CHAPTER NINETEEN - BASE CAMP

It was difficult to determine how long Raedrick and Selam followed the path through the gloom. Without the moon overhead, Raedrick had only his own internal clock to figure the passage of time, and he knew well how imprecise that could be. Also, very soon after setting out, the cliffs again vanished from sight. Without a reference point, it soon became impossible to judge distance either. It was almost as if time had stopped and distance had lost its meaning. Even though he knew it to be an illusion, Raedrick still found that notion extremely uncomfortable to consider.

So he was relieved when, out of the gloom ahead, shapes appeared: two columns flanking an open doorway were set into a rock wall. At first, Raedrick thought the wall was just another part of the cliffs, but it was too smooth and not nearly as tall. The gloomy mist swirled the same distance above this wall as it had the cliffs, however. Very strange.

Biting back a yawn—it was well past midnight—Raedrick drew his saber and ran toward the column to the right of the doorway.

The whole setup made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. It wasn’t just the oddness of the place. Where were the sentries? He half expected arrows to begin raining down from atop the wall, but none came.

He reached the column and pressed flat against it. On the other side of the doorway, Selam had done the same. It was good that he hadn’t needed to be ordered to do so; Raedrick was becoming more and more impressed with him as time went on.

And with his sword. This was the first time Raedrick had seen it unsheathed, and he found himself doing a double-take.

The blade was standard length, but curved almost as much as Raedrick’s saber. Its edge was sharpened on the convex side of the curve and on the last half-foot of the concave side just below the point. Nothing unusual there except that it was obviously high quality workmanship.

It was the flat of the blade that drew Raedrick’s attention. Stylized symbols and designs were etched into the metal down the entire length of the blade: game animals, fantastic creatures, stars, the moon in its various phases, and all manner of strange letters and symbols that Raedrick did not recognize. Done poorly, such a collection of inscriptions would have been cluttered, awkward. Not so in this case. Every symbol or picture flowed flawlessly into the next so that the whole became a beautiful work of art that captured the eye and would not let go.

Selam noticed Raedrick’s study and moved the blade so he could more readily examine it. “A family heirloom,” he said in a whisper that just reached Raedrick’s ears, “It has been passed down from father to son for many generations.”

“I can see why.”

Selam teeth flashed in the gloom as he grinned.

Back to business. Raedrick slid around the column until he could just peek through the doorway. Again, Selam followed his lead without needing to be told.

There was not much to see at first glance. The path turned to the left beyond the doorway and sloped upward along the outside of another wall. Raedrick presumed it reached another level area above somewhere, but that was obscured by the gloom.

For a moment, he wondered if it was more cheerful here in the daylight. Given the lack of moonlight, he would wager no. Talk about a depressing place to lair, if that were the case.

“I imagine we’ll come upon some sign of them before much longer,” Selam offered. “Sentries, horse pickets…something.”

“You’d think. Keep alert.”

Raedrick noted Selam’s expression from the corner of his eye as he slipped through the doorway: the annoyed look of a man who has just been told the obvious.

The trail started out ascending at a shallow angle, but before long the grade increased and the climb became more difficult. Raedrick imagined it would be even more difficult on horseback. Maybe they made a practice of walking their horses from this point. The slope made for a good way to slow an assault, regardless.

After an indeterminable climb, shapes began to emerge from the gloom ahead and above. Squared off like blocks, it was hard to make out what they were for a long moment. Then he and Selam ascended a few more feet and the structures came clearly into view.

It was a gatehouse, complete with crenelated walls, a portcullis, and a thick wooden gate. And a pair of guards with torches on the battlements on either side of the gate.

“Cover!” Raedrick pressed against the wall and slowly edged his way backward down the trail until the torches and battlements were only just visible.

“That will be difficult to breach,” Selam observed. “At least from this approach.”

Raedrick nodded. “But are there any other approaches? I wouldn’t want to try to find a different way through this place to find it, would you?”

“Not in this life.”

Raedrick hesitated. This was, without a doubt, Isenholf’s lair. But they only knew marginally more than they had before coming. He was loathe to leave without getting more information. Perhaps they could scale the wall… But no, it was shear and smooth, with hardly a seam between the stones it was built from.

It was useless. They had learned all they could this night. “It’s time to go,” he said with a sigh.

Selam nodded and began moving down the trail. With one last look up at the gatehouse, Raedrick followed.

* * *

They made better time going out than coming in. Partly because they knew the way already, but mostly because of relief. Raedrick was not about to admit it to Selam, but the thought of leaving the oppressive gloom of this place, wherever or whatever it was, lent extra speed to his stride.

Before long, they stood before the chasm opening in the side of the cliffs. Beside him, Raedrick heard Selam breathe a sigh.

“Not a moment too soon. This place makes me nervous.”

Smirking, at his own cowardice in not admitting similar feelings more than anything else, Raedrick replied, “I know what you mean. Let’s get out of…”

The sound of metal striking stone echoed down the chasm toward their ears, causing Raedrick to stop talking mid-thought. He froze, sudden anxiety flooding through him. Then, far down the chasm, a glow appeared. Flickering and bouncing, the glow could only be from a torch that someone was carrying.

“Son of a bitch,” he breathed.

He and Selam exchanged glances and Raedrick was again impressed by the other man’s calm. They exchanged nods, then darted to the cliff face beside the chasm mouth. Just as they had at the columns, Raedrick took the right and Selam the left, blades drawn. There they waited.

Slowly, more noises began to emanate from the chasm. Footsteps, metallic clinking, and voices. It was hard to make out the words at first, but before long, the conversation became more clear.

“…good take.”

“Ya. Farzal was right again. Didn’t even try to put up a fight.”

A short pause followed, then the conversation continued.

“Ain’t it s’posed to be brightening up in here? Sun came up a while ago.”

A loud snort followed, along with mocking laughter.

“Things don’t line up here, you know that.”

“Whatever. It’s unnatural, I tell you.”

A general murmur of agreement followed.

Raedrick glanced across the mouth of the chasm toward Selam and held up four fingers. The other man nodded agreement: there were four distinct voices in the conversation. If they got the drop on the brigands, it should be an easy fight.

If.

Though maybe a minute passed, it felt like an eternity, waiting there. His heart rate increasing rapidly from tension, Raedrick took a deep breath. Then another. He forced himself, in spite of becoming more and more keyed up, to breathe slowly and deliberately; he had found over the years doing that helped him to focus. It did not do anything for his nerves, though.

Just when Raedrick thought they were never going to show up, a pair of brigands stepped out of the chasm mouth walking side by side. They were armed and armored the same as the others Raedrick had seen so far, though they looked weary, with bags under their eyes.I probably look even worse, Raedrick thought with an inward smile.

The two brigands looked neither left nor right, but continued straight ahead on the trail. Raedrick met Selam’s eyes and nodded.

The two men sprang into action as soon as the next pair of brigands stepped from the chasm. Raedrick darted in with a backhanded rising cut from his saber at the same time Selam attacked his foe. The brigands both wore nearly identical expressions of shock as they fell, spurting blood from their throats.

The first two brigands had just begun to turn around when Raedrick and Selam spun and advanced on them.

Selam’s man managed to duck beneath his cut and roll to the side away from him.

Raedrick’s man also had quick reflexes; he turned all the way around and had his sword half-drawn when Raedrick’s cut reached him. Only luck saved his life. Raedrick’s saber struck his sword on its blade just above the hilt, sending the brigand staggering backwards but leaving him otherwise unharmed.

Shrugging off the sounds of fighting to his right, Raedrick advanced, feinting low and then cutting high in an attempt to end the fight quickly. But his foe was skilled and recovered his equilibrium faster than Raedrick expected, leaping backward to avoid the true attack as he finished drawing his blade. Then he countered, a straight thrust that should have run Raedrick through his midsection.

Except that Raedrick was not there. He lunged far to the left, lowering his weight fully onto his left foot as the thrust passed harmlessly through the air where his torso used to be. Then he followed up with another backhanded cut.

The brigand screamed as Raedrick’s saber cut through the tendons in the back of his right knee, and he fell to the ground.

Desperate fear and agony contorted the brigand’s face as Raedrick moved forward, and the brigand made an awkward attack to ward him off. But Raedrick simply stepped within his swing radius and grabbed his sword arm by the wrist.

“Please no,” the brigand begged.

Then Raedrick’s saber tip entered the hollow where his jaw met his neck. The brigand spasmed once and went limp.

Raedrick turned around to assist, but found Selam’s foe already dead and the fishing man standing there calmly with his arms folded across his chest.

“Why do you toy with him?" Selam asked.

Taken aback, Raedrick was not sure how to respond at first. Bending over to wipe the blood off his saber using the brigand’s cloak, he looked askance at Selam. “What do you mean?”

“You let him counter twice. You are skilled enough he should not have been able to counter at all. So…why do you toy with him?”

Raedrick had no answer.

Glimmer Vale is the first book of the Glimmer Vale Chronicles, an ongoing heroic fantasy series set in a world of valor and magic. It will be published here, one chapter per week, on Tuesday.

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