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Part 4: Moors

(1) Armadyl and Ikov and their company set about a more systematic exploration of the moors. The moors extended east from the troll-mountains and north from the ice-capped mountain and ridge of hills, covering a small corner of the vast northern steppes. Few lived there: some lonely exiles, mostly witches. The witches lived in thatched huts hidden among tepid pools and large, twisted roots of plants which grew upon the ground; they ate the same strange mosses and herbs growing there that they gathered for their potions. For outsiders, there was little food to be found. Occasionally the troops spotted a bird hopping amidst the foliage, having lost its way in flight through the fog - a welcome addition to their sparse rations of dried meat and bread for at least a couple soldiers. The occasional ray of sunshine also lifted their mood; otherwise it remained dampened by the frequent, freezing rain.

(2) After a few weeks the company of about five hundred sea-folk, Asgarnians, and woodsmen had surveyed all of the moors and had discovered little of interest. The troops longed to leave the inhospitable wetlands: open plains lay to the north and the east. But Armadyl and Ikov counseled patience, for they knew that something waited for them there. Ikov and the company had left Kathekontos with plentiful rations that they could make last for another three months - which Ikov planned to do.

(3) From what wood could be gathered, the soldiers built a small wall around their camp, as well as shelters in which wood for fire could be kept to dry. Armadyl and Ikov dispatched scouts continuously to monitor the land. On a few occasions Armadyl and Ikov attempted to speak to the local witches, but each time the witch would respond in riddles or crazed laughter. They were not surprised, for the witches lived wretched lives attempting to manipulate and in turn manipulated by the spirits who lived in the barren land.

(5) Once a scout caught a witch hidden in the fens performing an enchantment just outside the camp. He brought her to Armadyl and Ikov. Armadyl immediately recognized that she had been directing her malicious magic toward the camp, and he slew her on the spot. On the next day, a soldier reported that his troubling dreams and the anxiety daily induced by them had ceased. The troops again raised the question a second time of whether they ought to slaughter every resident they encounterd in the barren land, but Armadyl spoke against it strongly, and it was not suggested again.

(6) To have discovered and addressed one source of the disturbances among his troops encouraged Ikov, but many more disturbances continued, and they weighed on him. The weather discouraged him too. Despite improvements to the camp - shelters for fires and drying wood, fresh dirt packed atop the soft ground, and tents reinforced to endure the rain - Ikov missed the dry, warm winds of the Kharidian, as well as the sunlight - which remained forever blocked by the thick, gray fog.

(7) Day after day, Ikov spoke with the soldiers, watched their drills, listened to the reports of scouts, and consulted with Armadyl. Each day neither could report that he had discerned their purpose there; they simply knew that there must be a spirit in the moors for them to quell. A strangeness dwelt there, but not one that would reveal itself. Again and again Ikov walked through the fog, attempting to feel the spirits at work in the land. But nothing came to him, only fog, fog and more fog, fog which weighed upon him and pressed him to the edge of despair. And then Ikov understood: it was the fog; the fog was an evil fog that had been at work against him and his troops from the moment they entered the moors. Despite their courage and their confidence, it had continuously brought them low; it tempted them with strange thoughts and desires; it invited them again and again to manipulation, to plotting, to conspiracy and paranoia. It had brought the rain and the witches and was attempting to drive them out of the land or to drive them mad.

(8) Ikov immediately went to Armadyl. "It is the fog," he said, and Armadyl understood. The god responded, "I have a sense of how we can drive this spirit out. As in any place, many spirits live in the land, but this one spirit has sought to control them all, to bend the native spirits to its will - this is why we could discern nothing here. In order to drive out the spirit of this fog, we must draw upon the native spirits. But this is going to be a difficult task and a task for you alone. Ikov, you must grapple with the fog and release the native spirits who are wild and angry; you must hold fast the spirit of the fog while the natural spirits destroy their bonds and banish their captor. You and we will need to endure their beating while they cleanse the land." Ikov understood. After the scouts returned in the evening, Ikov commanded that no more scouts would be dispatched and that all should eat well and sleep well, in preparation for the next day.

(9) Ikov spent the following morning alone; he ate little. The troops waited for his command. In the late afternoon, as the autumn sun began to set above the troll-mountains, Ikov had each soldier stand at attention before his tent. Then Ikov stood in the center of the camp in a trance; in his mind, he addressed the fog. He seized it and held it fast. The fog did not resist, but the spirits it held captive began to stir. The soldiers watched as storm clouds gathered and lightning flashed across the sky. Winds began to whip about the camp, cold winds that bit through their coats. Thunder rolled across the moors as a heavy rain approached, heavier than any rain they had yet seen. The wall of rain swept across the camp, and every soldier retreated into his tent. The rain was cold; the drops were large and struck hard against the tents. Then came hail. Large hailstones pounded against every structure in the camp. The wooden huts were smashed. Some soldiers screamed out in pain, but no one dared leave the safety of his reinforced tent. Only Armadyl stood exposed, watching his servant Ikov.

(10) Ikov remained standing still amidst the wind and rain and hail. "Release me," whispered the spirit of the fog, "or use my power to quell these wild spirits, before they crush your body and tear your mind." Ikov recognized the truth of its words. They might kill him, might rend his body or soul. He endured their rage in his mind, just as violent as the elements around him. But he knew that should he release the spirit of the fog or attempt to control it, he would be controlled by it; he would quell the native spirits only to tighten the grip of the fog over them and him. Therefore he endured, offering his body and mind to their beating, risking his life to their rage.

(11) The sun set, the fog thinned, the red light of dusk faded from the sky, and the storm raged on in the darkness. For six hours Ikov stood still. No hailstone struck him mortally. He gave no heed to the minor injuries he sustained. His mind endured, even as he exposed it in sacrifice. Then the rain stopped, and the wind died down. A cool breeze blew through the moors. Soldiers emerged from their tents and beheld the stars in the clear night sky. Ikov allowed himself to be carried to a tent, and there he slept.

(12) On the following morning, the soldiers salvaged what they could from the camp, whatever had not been crushed into the mud. A small contingent formed to carry the severely injured and the bodies of the dead back to Kathekontos. The rest prepared to journey east and to leave the moors. The campaign there lasted for four months.

Part 5: Mountain

(1) Coming down from the wetlands, Armadyl, Ikov, and their company traveled east across the plain. The days became shorter and the weather colder as the end of autumn approached. But the troops were glad, for travel was easy, and game was plentiful in the uninhabited north. Not Armadyl, nor Ikov, nor any other soldier there knew the northern steppes, so it was decided that they would explore the land until the time came to entrench themselves for winter. Until then, they would wander the wilderness.

(2) Except for the occasional bundle of hills, the land was flat, and dotted with forests - the forests would provide them with wood in the winter. And any of the clusters of hills could provide them with shelter from the winds, high places for keeping watch, and a defensible location if necessary. Yet it did not appear that defense would be necessary. They encountered no enemies: they encountered no one at all. There were ruins here and there, of settlements long forgotten, and also abandoned campgrounds of pioneers who passed through the land, some old and some new, but they met none of the explorers along the way. Armadyl and Ikov walked together and spoke often, just as they had at the start of their journey together over a year before.

(3) After a week on the march, the company passed a large mountain in the distance to the north. Then Armadyl decided to turn the company northeast. Keeping the mountain on their left, they marched for two more weeks, until scouts reported smoke rising on the horizon. They soon came upon a village. The villagers rejoiced at their arrival, for they were Asgarnians. The army and the villagers feasted together that night, and afterwards Armadyl and Ikov listened to the story of the village leaders of how they had come to live there.

(4) Many months before, some Asgarnians who had lost their fiefs at the end of the rebellion, as well as those who desired adventure and a fresh start, had migrated to the steppes and had found fertile farmland in the far northeast. There they established two villages. They had divided the land amongst themselves, according to their custom; gathered food and supplies for the harsh winter they would endure; and intended to wait for the coming year to begin to work the land.

(5) Before the Asgarnians had finished their account, Ikov asked them, "Why have you built such high wooden walls and towers? We encountered no enemies on our way." Their faces darkened. They told Armadyl and Ikov of a mountain which lay upon the horizon, on a penninsula which extended from the furthest northeast corner of the continent. From the mountain they had been attacked. A horde of creatures came upon the other village, slaughtering many of the Asgarnians there and burning down their homes. Many more of the Asgarnians had escaped to the surviving village. The horde did not follow them; soon thereafter the Asgarnians were prepared to defend themselves - though they did not know what kind of creatures had attacked them, how many of them lived on the mountain, or when they might attack next.

(6) Armadyl called for some of the Asgarnian villagers who survived the attack and asked them to describe the creatures. The villagers described them as small, squat, fleshy humanoids, beige in color. They had beedy, black eyes, pointed teeth, and sharp claws. They moved quickly, running or bounding on all four limbs by dropping their knuckles to the ground. They attacked in the day and retreated in the night. Some of them had carried torches, but they were for burning and not for light - the creatures did not seem to prefer either day or night - rather it appeared that they had very poor eyesight, which allowed many Asgarnians to escape.

(7) Armadyl and Ikov thanked them for sharing their account and then retired to sleep in their army's camp, pitched within the village walls. In the middle of the night both awoke to the sound of horns: the villagers were arming themselves and rushing to the walls; the torches of the horde had been sighted upon the horizon, leaving their mountain home. Armadyl and Ikov ordered their troops to prepare for battle. Armadyl inquired of the estimated number of creatures coming against them - twenty torches suggested about two hundred of them; exactly one in ten had carried torches in the last attack. Armadyl had every soldier in his army procure a torch; then he asked for the gates to be opened, and he ordered his troops to form into columns before the village walls. He spoke to Ikov: "These do not sound like intelligent creatures to me," he said, "We will test them tonight, and perhaps follow them home."

(8) Armadyl called some soldiers apart; he ordered them to dig a small ditch a few inches wide in front of every row of standing soldiers and then to fill the ditches with oil. When the village soldiers stationed in their towers signaled that the horde was only a mile away, Armadyl ordered the oil in the ditches set aflame and for all the soldiers to light their torches at once. Armadyl himself lept up to the top of a tower to watch what the approaching horde would do. At the sight of more than four hundred torches before them, the creatures stopped. The horde stood still for several minutes. Standing at the front of the company, Ikov could only see a handful of lights on the horizon; he waited quietly. Every soldier also stood still, sweating from the heat of the fires, chilled by the wind, nervous in the silence, not knowing what enemy and what numbers they might face, unable to see into the darkness around them, for they were blinded by the glare of the torches.

(9) At last the lights of the horde began to move away, back toward the mountain. The soldiers of the village cheered, and the company of Armadyl and Ikov sighed with relief. But then Armadyl spoke with a clear and commanding voice: "Drop your torches where you stand. We will follow them to the mountain. Move quickly and quietly." Armadyl, Ikov, and their company pursued the creatures at a light run. By the time the company had covered half the distance to the mountain, it was clear that they would not catch the retreating horde. But Armadyl did not stop the pursuit.

(10) Once the torches reached the base of the mountain, they turned left and disappeared around its western side. Soon Armadyl, Ikov, and their company were crossing a narrow isthmus of rock, bounded on both sides by the sea - none of them had seen the sea for over a year. But for their running, the cold, salty air threatened them with fatal chill. Once they too reached the sheer rock wall at the base of the mountain, Armadyl turned left to follow whither the horde had run. Rounding a wall of rock jutting out from the western side, the company met a strong, freezing wind from the north, blowing between massive formations of rock, from over the arctic sea. The company ran into the wind, north along the side of the mountain.