Delver Magic I: Sanctum's Breach by Jeff Inlo (ebook reader 8 inch .TXT) 📖

greater speed, hoping to offset the limited sight distance with a quicker review of everything around her.

Ryson considered making conversation to ease her discomfort, but he quickly realized such an action would only compound her difficulties. He knew that his questions or comments would be viewed as a distraction. He remained quiet, concentrated on finding the quickest and easiest path through the trees.

Holli did eventually speak, but only to request a slower pace. She could not keep up with him if he concentrated solely upon movement. That would mean she could not fulfill her obligation of protecting him. Every time he began to pull away, she rebuked him, almost ordering him to remain within her grasp.

The remainder of this long day ended as the final light of dusk disappeared. Holli requested they remain in the trees for the night and Ryson did not object.

They barely spoke. She told the delver to sleep the entire night. She would take the whole watch. She made some reference about being trained to rest while remaining awake. Indeed, a highly trained elf guard could go unencumbered for several days without actual sleep. They only needed breaks from strenuous activity. Holli found such a break as she perched herself between two thick boughs of a large oak tree.

Ryson bent back the branches of a soft blue spruce, tying them together to create a makeshift hammock. He sprawled out without fear of falling and drifted into a deep sleep. When he woke, he could not recall a single dream.

Holli woke the delver at the first light of day. They both used the new light to inspect the surrounding area. Ryson even dropped to the ground to check for signs of intruders. Holli followed him unhappily. She did not wish to leave the trees, but she could not forget her duty to remain at his side. Nothing was found, and they decided to move forward. They were traveling again before the sun rose above the tree line.

Ryson kept them moving at the quickest pace Holli could follow. To his pleasure and surprise, she showed no signs of fatigue from the lack of sleep. They moved southwest and she made no complaints over his speed. If anything, she seemed more apt to follow the delver as if she spent the night preparing for the task, both mentally and physically.

Their diligence paid off as the trees became more diluted. The dire heaviness of the forest began to lift. Pines and deciduous trees spread themselves further apart. Their travel quickened, unencumbered by the stifling forest. Before them, thick branches formed long bridges in nearly every direction. As the number of trees dwindled, the space around them opened. Holli found it easier to survey the encompassing grounds, her eyes swept across the landscape with broad scans.

The heightened senses of the delver grasped the forest’s weakening hold in the direction they set. The soil content below them was becoming rocky and dry. Moisture in both the air and the ground was fading. The trees showed signs of a greater struggle to reach the sky. Browning leaves and withering branches were a testament to the harsher environment of the desert that waited well ahead of them.

The Lacobian desert remained far off, they would still have to travel the sparsely vegetated and rocky hill regions which separated the forest from the desert, but by all accounts, they should reach the outskirts before late afternoon.

Before the sun was overhead, they were forced from the trees. To Holli’s dismay, this form of travel was no longer possible. The trees grew too far apart for them to leap from branch to branch. They tried for a while and each showed the leaping ability of the nimblest of squirrels. The soil, however, became dryer with each passing step. The forest thinned to a cluster of trees and then a smattering. Soon, the landscape was nothing more than rocky terrain spotted with more sagebrush than healthy trees.

Holli reluctantly accepted the inevitable and they trotted upon open ground. Only the increased range of her vision gave her any solace. Without the thick forest to block her view, she could see far off to the horizon in each direction. She remained cautious and at her urging they shied away from the steeper of the hills or any large boulders. She directed them in a path that would keep them in areas of little cover.

Ryson questioned that tactic as he recalled the weapons of the goblins. Walking through the open ground left them vulnerable to crossbow fire. He asked if they might be safer keeping close to the hillsides. She disagreed flatly.

Holli knew the path she chose left them without protection, but it also reduced the chance of ambush. This was her greatest fear. She knew enough of elflore and listened well to Mappel’s advice. The goblins did not pose a true threat in this area. They hated the dryness of the desert, perhaps almost as much as the elves. Thus, she did not fear an attack from crossbows. If they were to be assaulted now, it would be by creatures that cared little for using arrows.

She explained no further and they continued forward. They made excellent time and the scent of the dry desert air soon became clear even to Holli.

Upon a high clearing, Ryson squinted his eyes and peered across the horizon. In the far distance, the sparsely vegetated hills and rocky terrain were replaced by sandy dunes. Tall cacti reached toward the sky. They numbered more in the distance, but a few jutted up from the land they now traversed. Ryson examined the ground and saw more signs of sand accumulating among the rocks and gravel.

“The hard ground is starting to give way to the desert,” he exclaimed. “Pretty soon we’ll be walking on pure sand. Can you see it in the distance?”

“Yes,” Holli stated simply. “It will not take us long.” She said nothing further.

Ryson, however, felt the need to talk. He saw the vast emptiness of the desert before them, and its far reaching desolation brought loneliness to his spirit.

“You know, when we get there, I’m not really going to know where to go.” He offered this as much as a warning as an attempt to open a conversation. “So far, I’ve been traveling with a known objective. I mean, I knew how to get to the desert, but when I reach it, I won’t know much after that. I don’t know how to find algors. I might be leading us into nothing more than empty sand. Don’t misunderstand, I’m not worrying about us getting in any trouble out there. We can get food and water if we need it. It’s just that we may end up wandering around for weeks and I still might not find what we’re looking for.”

Holli’s eyes remained focused on unseen threats. Her reply was short and to the point. “Trust your senses, delver. Mappel does and so do the forces that sent you to us.”

Ryson grunted. It seemed every elf he met couldn’t resist tying his meeting with Lief to some act of fate. Couldn’t they understand the curiosity of a delver and how it led to his current predicament? It was the tremor which initiated his desire to renew explorations. It was his brush with the walking dead which commenced his meeting with Lief Woodson. Yet, every elf, from the spirit of Shayed to this elf guard, wished to act as if Godson himself placed him within their midst. Could they not understand coincidence?

The delver could not refrain from discharging his annoyance with the suggestion. “Here we go with that again. I keep trying to tell you all that I’m not here by any special providence. I think you’re all putting too much faith in something that may not even be a factor.”

“I only know what I am told and what I see,” Holli replied simply.

“I just see a coincidence,” Ryson insisted. “But no one else seems to agree.” With a shrug, he turned his attempt at conversation back to the subject of the Lacobian desert. “Anyway, I’m just warning you that I really have no idea where to go when we reach the sand. I remember everything that Mappel told me, but I don’t think it will help me choose one direction over another. I just want you to understand that.”

“I understand that we are both on a mission. You will do what you must, and I will guard you.”

Holli did not let the conversation deter her from scanning the rocky terrain. Small rock formations filled the area amid a barren landscape. Brown hills, basically appearing like large, rounded boulders buried half underground, broke the level plane of the horizon to the north and west. Any signs of Dark Spruce were far behind them. Cactus and sagebrush presented the only break from the hard surroundings, and their own brown, dry, harsh appearance accomplished little in offering any cheer.

Again, Ryson could not help but notice the ever watchfulness of the elf guard. “Did you know that watching you do that can be very unnerving?” he asked. “You’ve been looking around in every direction since we started. I have to admit you have me more nervous than I think I’ve ever been. I keep thinking that something’s going to jump out at us. It was hard to deal with in the forest because we couldn’t see very far. Now, that we’re out in the open, I’ve been able to deal with it a little better, but it still gets me uneasy when you look behind us. What is it that you keep looking for?”

Holli spoke as if the answer should be obvious. “I watch for things which may or may not be there. If I do not search, I will not be prepared.”

“But shouldn’t one look around here tell you that we’re not being followed or that nothing waits ahead of us in ambush.”

Holli simply could not agree. “Things change from moment to moment. What I see now may change within an instant. I will not know unless I check.”

“So you never rest at this?”

“Not while on duty.”

The delver considered the proposal. He understood the initial inspection, which fit with his own delver instincts, but to keep examining the same thing, that sounded more like tedium. It was a delver’s desire to find something new, not to inspect for consistency. He knew he would find it irksome to reexamine the same rock formations over and over again just to remain alert. For him, for all delvers, there were other ways to sense change or even danger. The sounds of loose rocks being disturbed ever so slightly, tracks off in the distance, or the scent of an intruder; these warnings would gain a delver’s attention, but constant visual inspection seemed arduous at best.

“I imagine it would get pretty boring just looking around at the same stuff all the time,” he remarked. “There hasn’t been much going on since we got out of the trees. I don’t know what you could be looking at, but we can see for a pretty good distance out here. Not much is happening.”

“That is exactly what a guard wants to see,” Holli acknowledged.

Ryson raised an eyebrow as he considered the short statement. “I guess that’s true. I suppose if things kept changing you’d be pretty nervous. Let me ask you this, have you ever been ambushed by anything?”

Holli answered without hesitation, though a note of displeasure drifted among her words. “Not while at a post, and not on escort, but once on patrol.”

“What does that mean exactly?” Ryson seized upon the response, hoping to coax something new from the tight-lipped elf guard.

“A post is a fixed position. It is the easiest duty. A guard will take a