Mikahl caught the staff in his left hand before it even hit the muddy ground. He whirled back toward the Zard-men pursuing him and swung Ironspike wildly. The Zard nearest him fell in two bloody pieces and the one behind it decided to launch his pike instead of getting into the range of Mikahl’s blade. It missed.
Beyond the Zard, Mikahl saw the damnedest thing. The chubby, balding monk had taken up one of the cage poles and was clobbering a trio of Zard swordsmen. Chunks of meat and scale flew everywhere as the staff-like weapon spun and struck true again and again. A fist-sized black eye caved in, and then a clatter of teeth sprayed out with a mist of blood.
So much for the monk being incapable, Mikahl thought.
A woman’s cry, a scream full of sheer terror, from behind him caused Mikahl’s attention to turn. He whirled around just in time to see the red-robed priest being dragged out of the torchlight by a huge snapper. The look in the man’s eyes and his pain-filled yells brought a smile to Mikahl’s face.
From not very far away in the darkness a demon’s howl split the night. The sound was accompanied by a woman’s gasping and gurgling. Mikahl knew it was the Choska demon. He charged over to defend the unconscious elf. He knew the sound of the demon well. A Choska had killed Grrr in the Evermore Forest. The same Choska had later killed Vaegon in the Battle of Xwarda. It had nearly killed Mikahl, too.
Mikahl saw that the wound on the elf’s head wasn’t fatal. He had the staff that Hyden Hawk asked him to get, and the fargin priest was nothing but snapper scat now.
He glanced at the monk. The man seemed to be enjoying the damage he was doing to the skeeks. The monk’s tongue was poking out of his mouth in stern concentration as he pounded and jabbed and cracked away at the now leery Zard-men ringed around him.
Satisfied that he’d accomplished what he had to do, Mikahl unleashed a thunder clap from Ironspike’s blade. It was so loud that it sent the Zard, the snappers, and even the Choska demon fleeing into the night like startled curs. Even the monk bolted into the swamp away from terrifying sound.
Chapter 12
Even after three days of comfortable, semi-quiet traveling, the elven girl still couldn’t remember her name. Try as she might she just couldn’t remember anything about herself. It just wasn’t there.
Any unease she’d felt traveling with Phen and Oarly was evaporated by the pair’s antics and generosity. She’d learned that Oarly’s bitter attitude was more sarcastic jesting than actual ill will. Phen, she could tell, was smart and very humble. Even if she had no personal memory, she still knew how rare it was to have ridden and spoken with a dragon. The fact that he had snuck onboard a Zard ship using an ancient elven ring to help save a princess amazed her. She had to needle the details out of Phen and endure Oarly’s constant jibes, but she managed to hear most of the story. As they rode upstream in the crowded riverboat cabin Oarly told her about Phen’s next great journey to find the mysterious Leif Repline fountain.
“Leif Repline,” she said excitedly, not knowing how she knew the translation. “…means life replenish. Maybe if I go with you, the fountain will restore my memory.”
“Aye, it just may,” Phen agreed. Any reason to spend more time with the beautiful elven maiden was fine with him. Besides that, he told himself, she was probably right. The fountain would very likely restore her memory.
Noticing Phen’s attraction to the elf, Oarly had pulled the boy aside one day and gave him a friendly warning.
“Don’t let your thing get hard over her now, lad,” Oarly said, as deadpanned as he could manage. “It might break off. Then you'll be in a real fix.”
Since then, Phen had tried to keep his thoughts about the elf from drifting too far. Oarly’s little warning, though, only made it all the harder to avoid thinking of her in that context. Phen still hadn’t figured out if Oarly had been jesting or not. Either way, there was too much at stake to be taking chances. He found himself trying to associate her sweet scent, and the golden glint of the sunlight on her hair, with something repulsive, like the smell of the serpent, or visions of a half-naked Oarly fighting the iron skeletons in the cave. Spike was no help in the matter. The lyna cat spent more time with the elven girl than he did with Phen. She knew all the right places to scratch his ears, and did so fondly.
“So I can go on this journey with you?” she asked carefully. “I’ll not be a bother.”
“Can you do anything?” Oarly asked. “We won’t be riding in carriages, or traveling in boats. The Giant Mountains are as harsh as it gets, especially since winter is moving in. We won’t be riding much, either. Can you hunt, or wield a sword? Can you handle the rough of the wild?”
“I’m an excellent archer,” she blurted out defensively. Then she giggled happily, realizing that she just remembered something about herself.
Oarly’s winking nod assured her that he had planned the tricky questions all along.
Phen’s smirk showed plainly that he thought Oarly was full of it. “Yes, you can come along,” Phen answered her question. “But we need a name for you. Since our Master Dwarf is so smart, let’s see if he can drag you into blurting out your name.”
“I’ll do it too, lad,” Oarly boasted. “Just you wait and see.”
“I almost had it,” she said with an exasperated huff. “I can’t stand this not knowing.”
“Just make up a name for now,” Oarly suggested. “What do you want your name to be?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” she said with a contemplative frown. Her feral yellow eyes made her look angry as she thought about it.
“How about Karee?” Phen asked. “That was my mother’s name. At least that was the name the ladies at the orphanage told me.”
“Karee,” she sounded it out, tasting the way it felt on her lips. A smile spread across her face. “Karee it is.”
“Bah!” Oarly exclaimed. “That’s about as elven as Oarly Shardsworth.”
“Karee is a beautiful name,” she said. “And I like it. From now on, call me Karee.”
“Lady Karee,” Phen corrected. Her mannerisms and intellect spoke of nobility. Phen saw it even if she and Oarly didn’t.
“No, Phen, just Karee for now,” she told him.
“The idea of the exercise was for her to decide what she wanted to be called, lad,” Oarly grumbled. “You challenged me to get her to reveal her name and then you ruined my plan.” He got to his feet and scowled through his hairy face. “I’m going out to get some air.”
“Thank the gods,” Phen joked. “You are a miserable companion when you are sober. I can’t believe there wasn’t a drop of drink to be found anywhere in Oktin when we stopped over.”
“That’s what happens when a few hundred dwarfs start building a palace.” Oarly looked back and grunted as he exited the cabin. He paused at the door and had to fight to suppress his smile. “Remember what I told ya, lad,” he warned. “Don’t let it break off now.”
“Break off?” Karee asked, looking at Phen with a curious expression.
“Nevermind him,” Phen sighed. He took a breath, trying to focus his mind on the feel of Master Sholt’s wand smacking across his knuckles in class.
“What’s wrong, Phen?” Karee asked. “You don’t look like you want me to go on your quest with you.”