Black wizards - Douglas Niles [152]
After a two hour rest, they resumed the march, traveling between the forest and the sea. The coastline here was a low bluff that rolled down a grassy slope to the shore. The beach itself was lined with coarse gravel.
They encountered more groups of stragglers along the shore, and all of these joined their ranks. Finally, in their march to the south, they came over a rise and saw a small fishing town spread before them – Cantrev Codfin, according to one of the soldiers.
There were no signs of activity around the village.
"Stay here, with the men," Tristan said to Daryth and O'Roarke. "I want to have a look at this."
"Take some of the men with you," urged O'Roarke.
"We will be safe," Robyn said. "The danger is past here."
Tristan and Robyn walked down the gentle hill into the village. From a distance, they had seen few details, but as they moved closer they entered a scene of grim horror. In the village, sprawled grotesquely, were a hundred or more bodies. Torn and mutilated Ffolk lay motionless in their cottages and yards. There was no living thing left in the village. Humans, dogs, chickens – everything had been slain by those tearing claws.
"What could have done this?" asked Robyn, her face ashen. "Not the ogres. They wouldn't tear the bodies like this, and they would have burned the place to the ground.
"Not even the sorcerers would do this!" Robyn whispered. She was certain, in some mysterious way, that this attack was part of a larger scheme.
"But what – or who – would do this?"
"I don't know," said the druid, but she pointed to the ground in a soft patch of wet sand. Many prints of feet that were both webbed and clawed crossed the patch. The feet looked familiar to the prince, and he remembered where he had seen them before. "The sahuagin have come from the sea."
* * * * *
"What's a scatterbrained faerie dragon doing here?" growled Finellen, in no mood for idle chatter.
"Why, looking for Robyn, of course! I should think that would be obvious, even to a dwarf! But what are you doing here? Now that's a good question!"
Finellen was too tired and discouraged to argue. "We flee one battlefield, and look for another – one where we can die with honor?'
"Well, that seems like a silly plan. I mean, like you plan to lose the battle or something! Now, wouldn't it be much better to find Robyn and Tristan and do something fun?"
"What do you know of the Prince of Corwell?" demanded the dwarf. "Quickly, Wyrm, speak!"
"Well, I certainly am not in the mood to talk to someone who speaks to me like that! Wyrm, indeed! Why, if you weren't a friend of my friends, I would use a spell on you that would -"
"Tell me!" growled Finellen in a voice that even Newt could not ignore. Yazilliclick, invisible some distance away, actually feared for the little dragon's life.
"Well, it started when we went back to Doncastle…"
* * * * *
By the following evening, Tristan estimated his fledging army's strength at nearly a thousand men. At the same time, reports of more vigorous pursuit by the king's army came to them through stragglers. That afternoon, they were discovered by crimson-coated horsemen. The riders shadowed them for the rest of the day, and the prince knew that it wouldn't be long before the entire army gathered for the attack.
Indeed, as they came over a hill just before sunset, they saw a full brigade of the Scarlet Guard's human mercenaries. These spearmen and swordsmen stood shoulder to shoulder, facing north.
"Damn!" Tristan, in the lead of his force, stopped.
"That's not all" said O'Roarke, stepping to his side. The bandit lord had been cooperative and forceful in getting his troops to march beside the prince, and Tristan had been grateful for his presence. "There, to the north!"
Looking behind them, the prince saw more red-cloaked figures emerging from the forest. These were huge, rumbling shapes – the ogres!
"We're trapped," he said bitterly. The