Warlocks Index – Previous Chapter
Glowflies. Everywhere. The forest was full of them. I looked back behind me and noticed the fallen dimly lit shape on the ground. Several glowflies had settled onto the fallen giant of a man, his face covered in a dark liquid, the colour changed in the green glow.
Graciul’s hand urged me to turn away. Looking into my face, barely lit, he nodded slightly and started to move on. Casting one last look back at the body behind me, I turned to follow.
Further behind me, into the darker reaches, distance voices could be heard.
*****
It didn’t take long for the glowflies to settle back down with only the occasional distant signs of glowing movement. I wondered if the others in the forest, their voices distant and chaotic, would find their fallen companion in time. The sense of dread that I may have ended the time of another clawed at my heart.
A soft glow in my peripheral vision grabbed my attention. A single glowfly had rested upon my cloak, its glowing body flashing a slow beat. I softly brushed it away and as it took flight, it glowed brighter as it disappeared into the trees above. My eyes followed as my feet carefully walked to Graciul’s lead.
We took a slight detour to get further away from the clearing, then turned back towards the road to Haven. Sometime later, we came to the edge of the road. Back down the way we came, I thought I could see hints of torchlight, otherwise the night had returned to its oppressive darkness. Graciul moved first, staying low, and with an inhuman silence, across the road and quickly out of sight. I followed a second later letting the weight of my cloak drag close to the ground. Graciul whispered sounds to guide me to him. Then we disappeared into the depths of the forest.
The darkness within this part was somehow more smothering than before. I felt Graciul passing me something, and he loosely tied a length of rope to my wrist, which I thankfully grasped. We continued on like this for an age, before we heard distant sounds of movement. Someone running. Graciul moved towards the sounds tugging me forward. Whoever it was not coming toward us, but deeper into the forest, and as we got closer, I saw that their path had disturbed more glowflies leaving a glowing trail into the night.
Graciul softly huffed. “Huh. I’d wondered if this would happen.” He turned back to me, a dark shadow. “Our search is now a hunt.” I could almost hear his grin as he started to move parallel to the path of the runner. My heart pounded, fear sitting on the edge.
*****
Thankfully, it took some time for the glowflies to settle completely which meant that the trail left by the runner lasted long enough for us to follow it. Just at the point where we were likely to lose it completely, there was another glow to track. Torchlight in deeper glowed through the trees, and we moved silently towards it. Graciul stopped at one point and used his hands to turn my head, whereupon I saw patrols. Several men holding lanterns stood or walked the edge of a clearing. We weren’t close enough to see within the clearing itself, but there were the outlines of structures.
Graciul passed me his end of the rope, then climbed up a tree, leaving me crouched around the base, stretching a tortured back and shoulders. As we watched, three or four figures departed taking the same path back to the road that the runner had taken. This left three patrolling, that we could see. Graciul came back down after the runners had disappeared to no more than a distant noise, and led me back into the trees, before telling me all he had seen.
*****
We had circled around to the opposite side of the encampment, which was little more than a collection of hastily established huts, with two more central structures that seemed built around large tent-like frameworks. Graciul also suspected some covered pits, which is where we chose to focus our efforts. Anyone held captive were most likely there, we had agreed, and now we edged close to where he believed them to be.
The fire light glow was dim with only a few burning torches, and we were out of view of the patrols which appeared to be distracted by the recent activity. Following Graciul’s lead, we crept out from the trees using a nearby jumble of cut down tree trunks to hide behind. He motioned me to stay as he slipped around the edge and out of view. I grabbed at the crystal in my cloak and tried to focus my mind. My heart hadn’t stopped pounding since our arrival, or since my attack in the dark to be honest, so it was a struggle to focus. Regardless, I managed to expand my awareness and could feel the presence of a number of people nearby. Several were below within the pits we sought, and a number spaced around the area beyond.
My attention was drawn to a void in my awareness. A hole where I sensed only cold absence. A memory of the swirling face of the Dream Maker, when the Masters had walked my dreams came to my mental eye. The trap he had laid in the dreams of a young woman. This void had a similar feel. A curiosity itched my mind, and I pushed slowly forward. There was an unnatural draw the closer I got, where the void was drawing in to itself. I paused, and started to notice the tendrils swirling around me, like energies from the others I sensed around, all being drawn into the void. A cold darkness feeding off life.
In my mind I reached out a hand to one of the many tendrils and watched as it bent to my presence. Intrigued, I went to touch it, and as I did, it stopped flowing to the void and instead flowed to me. Where it touched me, a glowing light blossomed that then flowed over my mental finger, then my hand and up my arm. Then I saw other tendrils bend toward me, some breaking away to join the first. My mental self-image began to shine bright.
Images, emotions, thoughts, words flowed through and over me. I felt connected to something greater, a nexus of life. A group of minds linked like a fungal growth, tendrils of energy converging on me. In a mere second I could feel and hear the minds of others. Guards conversing. People quietly thinking. Dreams. Nightmares. Fear. Love. Aggression. Revenge. So many voices all clear and understandable, unlike a noisy crowd in the markets. I was the centre, the focus of their energies.
A loud bellow of menace pierced the night air. My focus was lost, fading into memory. Momentarily lost, I sat frozen in place. I could hear raised voices coming from the camp. I tried to think, my head was still filled with images. Distantly aware, there were sounds of approaching people, and the need to move became a powerful urge, propelling me back toward the tree line.
Shouts. Surprise. Urgency. Pounding footsteps. Close and closer. Sounds of arrows on the wind. Sudden cries of pain. Urgent voices barking orders. My heart and lungs stretched and in pain. Darkness edged by nearby lanterns.
I hid in the trees. Fear swamped my chest. I felt dizzy. I turned to head further into the trees. Something approached my face.
*****
My head thumped with pain. A wetness covered my right cheek. My hands felt bound. I forced my eyes open, blinking the blur away.
I caught a glimpse of someone leaving through the flap of the tent I was in. Another figure stood nearby watching me. I could taste iron on my lips. I found myself sitting on the floor, tied to the central support pole. My neck felt strained from resting forward for too long. My throat was dry. My voice was gone.
The flap was pulled back and in walked a figure in a black cloak, with a wide brim hat, which cast their face in shadow. With a flick of his hand, the other figure present slipped out the tent leaving me alone with the man in black. He walked to me and knelt.
“Welcome.” His voice had a familiar sound, but the tone was off. “Welcome to my… humble dwellings.” He lifted my chin, but I still could not make out his shadowed face. “I knew there were many secrets to my origins, cast out at such a young age, child to a banished Walker. Imagine my surprise when I discovered you.” He let my face drop as he stood again. “You, of all, should know, as I have come to learn, that you have been lied to.” The sound of anger filled his last words. He turned and walked into the light, his hat still casting shadows. “You have more than just a brother in spirit, you have a brother in blood.”
With a flourish that I thought felt practised, he removed his hat. Long strands of black hair fell about his face. A familiar face. My face. My face with a disturbing grin.
Reflection of a Ham 