Shepherd's Quest: The Broken Key #1

  They rode in silence as each listened for the pursuit that they feared would materialize at any moment. What words that did pass between them were hushed and few. Once they had ridden for an hour and still no pursuit presented itself, they began to relax.

  All attempts by Riyan to engage their new companion in conversation was met by silence. The apprentice didn’t seem really there, he was drawn inward dwelling upon his own misery. Another hour of riding had the fire far behind them. Its glow could still be seen where it raged in the night. Riyan figured the fire wouldn’t come their way seeing as how a gentle breeze was blowing from the north. If it had been blowing in from the south he would have been more worried.

  “I can’t believe he’s gone,” the apprentice suddenly said.

  So shocked by the declaration was Riyan that at first he wasn’t exactly sure what was said. He remained quiet as the apprentice continued to speak.

  “We came here to gather components for a spell he was working on,” he said quietly. “He lost his life for nothing.” Bitterness, anger, and sadness could all be heard in his voice.

  “What was his name?” asked Riyan. He wanted to keep the apprentice talking so he wouldn’t withdraw back into himself again.

  “Allar,” he replied.

  “I’m sure Allar felt the need was worth the risk,” he assured him.

  “He did,” the apprentice stated. Then he quieted for a moment as the sobbing returned for a short time. “He said they had to be harvested this time of year. That to do so at any other would negate their usefulness.”

  Riyan waited for him to continue but he had lapsed into silence once more. When it didn’t look as if the apprentice was going to continue the conversation, he asked, “What’s your name?”

  “Kevik,” he replied. “That’s not my true name. Magic users aren’t supposed to go by their true name. Kevik was the name my master gave me when he took me on as his apprentice.”

  “Very well then Kevik,” Riyan said. “It might be a good idea for you to travel with us until we can return you back across the mountains.”

  “Thank you,” he replied. “I would appreciate that.”

  They rode in silence for some time after that. Kevik seemed to have his emotions under control for there were no more outbursts of sobbing. As they rode, the moon overhead continued its arc across the star filled sky.

  Then in the early part of the morning, from out of the trees before them, three goblin warriors suddenly appeared. Both sides were startled to see the other. Kevik cried out a word unintelligible to the others and green goo suddenly materialized around the goblins.

  “Ride!” yelled Bart and he kicked his horse into motion. As he raced past the goblins, his horse accidentally brushed up against one of the goo coated goblins. His horse stumbled when the goo covering the goblin attached itself to the upper part of his horse’s rear left leg. Bart looked back when and saw where the goblin was being dragged along with every step his horse took. The goo was acting like glue as it held the goblin to his horse’s leg.

  Turning in his saddle, Bart kicked out with his foot in an attempt to dislodge the goblin but only managed to get his foot stuck in the green mess. The goblin was screaming as it struggled to free itself but the goo was too strong, making its attempts futile.

  “Riyan!” Bart yelled to his friend who had already disappeared into the trees ahead. “Chad!” He tried to get his horse to move forward, but the added weight in the position it was, made it all but impossible for it to keep going.

  Suddenly Riyan and Chad reappeared out of the trees and immediately saw his predicament. “Kevik!” Riyan yelled to the apprentice in the saddle behind him. “What can we do?”

  Kevik looked around him and saw the goblin, the horse, and Bart all stuck together. “I can cast a counter spell to dispel it,” he explained. “But it will remove it from the others as well.”

  “Do it!” shouted Bart.

  Kevik nodded and with a wave of his hand and two words of magic, the green goo vanished. Immediately the goblin fell free and Bart righted himself back in the saddle.

  “Let’s go!” Riyan yelled. From the direction they had just fled, he heard the other goblins that were just freed from the goo shouting as they crashed through the brush in pursuit.

  They turned their horses away from the sound of the approaching goblins and bolted through the trees. Behind them the goblins shouted in their guttural tongue as they gave chase. Then from just ahead and to the right, other goblins were heard as they begun moving to intercept. In the darkness of the forest they were unable to see exactly where the goblins were, but they couldn’t be very far away.

  “Find us a way out of this!” Chad yelled to Bart who was now back in the lead.

  “What do you think I’ve been trying to do!” came the reply.

  The goblins chased them for what seemed like an hour. Though they never saw their pursuers, they could tell by the continued calls and shouts the goblins made that they weren’t increasing their lead.

  Light slowly began to brighten the sky and the stars winked out one by one as the coming dawn hid their beauty. In the light of dawn, they were able to catch glimpses of their pursuers from time to time running behind them. It was incredible that they could still be in pursuit and haven’t fallen behind by now. The only reason Riyan could come up with was that the sheer size of the horses hampered their movement through the tangled undergrowth of the forest. While the goblins, being smaller in stature, were better able to forge through on foot.

  “Stop!” Kevik suddenly yelled.

  Riyan failed to heed his warning as he glanced back to him over his shoulder. “We can’t!” he yelled. “If we stop they will kill us.”

  “But you don’t understand…” he began.

  “We’re not stopping!” Bart yelled from his position at the lead.

  Kevik opened his mouth to urge them to stop once more but instead kept silent. He knew it wouldn’t do any good. How could he make them understand that it might be worse to continue than to stand and face the goblins.

  He had seen the totem that they just passed and understood its significance. The goblins have many totems and his master taught him the meaning of the more common visages they used before setting out. Each of the visages held different meanings for those who understood them. Also, the meanings could convey varying degrees of warning depending upon which visages were combined onto the totem and which position each of them held.

  The one that they just passed had been overgrown by the forest and he had caught but a glimpse of it as they rode past. His master had been most emphatic about one certain visage, one that should they come across it, must be avoided at all costs. Kevik wasn’t able to see the other visages on the totem due to the brush and the speed of their passing, but he had seen the one at the top very clearly. Goblin totems always have three visages or other representations that give the totem its meaning. The one on top is the primary message the totem is there to convey while the other two give added emphasis as to either the degree in which the top one should be taken, or something else.

  The one that he saw simply meant, Death.

  Riyan was soon to realize that the sound of pursuit behind them had begun to fade away in the distance. He wasn’t sure why, but the goblins were breaking off their pursuit. “Looks like they finally gave up,” he said. They began slowing down to an easy walk now, seeing as how there was no longer any immediate danger.

  Chad grinned. “Guess they realized they couldn’t catch us,” he said.

  “No,” announced Kevik, “that’s not the reason they are no longer following us.”

  “Oh?” asked Chad. “Care to enlighten us?”

  “Back when I shouted for us to stop I saw one of their totems,” he explained. “You may not realize it, but the totems are like markers, warning signs if you will. The one we passed proclaimed that to proceed beyond it meant death for any that do.”

  “Death?” asked Bart. Bringing his horse to a s
top, he turned around and came back to Riyan and Kevik. “What sort of death?”

  “It didn’t go into that much detail and I only saw the visage at the top,” he replied. “My master warned me about that one. He said that they only used it when extreme danger was present.”

  Chad glanced around at the forest around them. “It doesn’t look all that dangerous,” he commented.

  “Be that as it may, it warned of danger and I think we should be on our guard,” asserted Kevik. “Just because there is no visible danger now, doesn’t mean we won’t run into what that totem was there to warn us about further in.”

  At that Riyan and Bart suddenly grew quiet. Riyan glanced at Bart and could see that he was thinking the same thing he was. Perhaps the totem was warning them about where they were heading.

  Chad saw their expressions and asked, “What?”

  Ignoring his question, Riyan asked Kevik, “Do you know anything about this area?”

  He shook his head. “No. My master said he’s been here a couple times gathering various spell components. He probably would have known more than I.”

  “Did he ever mention someplace old in these parts?” Riyan asked. “Say ruins or anything like that?”

  Kevik’s eyes widened. “Is that why you’re here?” Glancing first to Riyan then to the others, he knew that it was. “You’re a bunch of treasure hunters.”

  “I suppose you could call us that,” nodded Riyan. “We’ve been told there is a place around here that may hold great wealth.”

  Kevik thought about it a second and nodded. “He did mention that there were ruins of a place called Algoth somewhere around here,” he said.

  “What did he say?” asked Bart.

  Kevik noticed that they were keenly interested in what he was about to say. “Nothing much,” he replied. “Just that it was old.”

  “Old?” asked Chad. “That’s it?”

  “Yes,” Kevik said. “He said and I quote, ‘There once was a realm here long ago, long before the goblins came. A colleague of mine years ago told me that there were ruins of a place called Algoth on this side of the mountains…’ From there he went into a lecture about various spell components that grew in this region, the best time to harvest them, that sort of stuff. Did you know that the…”

  “Yes, yes, yes,” Bart said as he cut him off. “That must be the place we’re looking for.”

  Riyan nodded. “Would stand to reason.”

  “Then if this Algoth is where we’re headed,” Chad said, “why would the goblins mark this place as deadly?”

  Shrugging, Bart said, “Who knows? Could be they’re superstitious about this area. Maybe it’s taboo to them?”

  “That’s not what it said,” corrected Kevik. “It proclaimed that to enter here was to die. Period!”

  “Alright, calm down,” Riyan said. “But you did say that the totem had been overgrown?” When he received a nod from Kevik, he continued. “Then it could be possible that whatever danger there was is no longer present.”

  “I wouldn’t trust to that,” Kevik stated.

  “What do you two think?” Riyan asked Chad and Bart. “Should we heed the warning of the totem and turn back?”

  “Turn back?” asked Chad incredulously. “After all we’ve done to get this far? You have to be kidding.”

  “We accepted the possibility of death before we even left the Marketplace,” Bart said. “I don’t see how this could be any different.”

  “That’s true,” agreed Riyan. “We press on then?”

  Chad and Bart both nodded their agreement.

  Riyan nodded as well. He then turned back to Kevik and said, “If you don’t want to accompany us, we’ll understand.”

  “I don’t have much of a choice one way or the other,” he replied. “The unknown danger ahead with you or take my chance with the goblins behind on my own. Better the unknown than certain death.”

  “Excellent,” Riyan said with a grin. “I was hoping you would say that. Glad to have you with us.”

  Kevik gave them a halfhearted grin.

  Bart turned and resumed leading them northward. With the sun almost ready to crest the horizon to the east, it was easier for him to determine which way was north. He angled slightly more to the east after a bit in order to reach the river flowing south. According to the map on the key fragment, Algoth lay on the western shore of the small lake at the northern end of the river.

  As they made their way through the forest, they began to feel relatively safe. Seeing as how this area was warded from goblin incursion by the totem, they rode without fear of being discovered and attacked.

  Kevik remained quiet as he rode behind Riyan. He took in his new traveling companions and didn’t think much of them. They were all as young as he was, two of them gave the appearance that they may never have done this sort of thing before. The third on the other hand had a definite presence about him. A confidence if you will. He wasn’t entirely sure that linking his fate with these three was the wisest course of action for him. But seeing how his alternative was to strike out alone, he had little choice.

  “There’s the river,” Bart said after they had ridden for awhile. Through the trees ahead they could see the sun glinting off the water as it flowed southward.

  “How much further to where we want to go do you think?” Chad asked.

  “Won’t know until we get there,” replied Bart. Now that the river was in sight, they began following it upstream. Somewhere ahead is a ruin or something else situated near where the river leaves the small lake.

  Kevik at times during the ride would turn inward and remember his master. The things he taught him, the promise of what would have come had his master lived. He had been quite lucky that his master had chosen him to be his apprentice. A magic user of such power and skill was much sought after by those wishing to learn the skills arcane.

  He’s not really sure why his master had chosen him out of all the others he tested that day. From Kevik’s viewpoint, he didn’t do all that much better than the others in the tasks that they were set to do. But when Allar had announced that Kevik would be his apprentice, it would be difficult to describe the emotions he felt.

  He grinned at the memory of some of the mistakes he made that first month, it’s a wonder he’s even still alive. All of a sudden he snapped out of his reverie when his eyes passed over another of the totems. “Riyan, stop!” he hollered.

  “What?” he asked.

  “There’s another of the totems,” he explained. Pointing toward the river, he directed Riyan’s attention to the totem that stood near the edge of the river. It was several feet from the bank on this side and facing the water. “We need to see what the other two visages are. They may give some insight as to why this place is death to those who enter.”

  “Alright,” Riyan said. “Bart!” he hollered up to him. “Kevik wants to stop and examine that totem over there.”

  When Bart looked over and saw the totem, he nodded.

  Riyan rode over to it and Kevik dismounted. Kevik then moved to the other side and looked up at the faces upon the totem.

  He pointed to the top one and said, “That one declares that it is death for any who continue past the totem.” The visage looked to be a representation of a goblin skull.

  The visage just below it was one he recognized as well. “The second one means strength.” Just below the skull was carved the semblance of a tree.

  “Strength?” asked Chad.

  Kevik nodded. “Being in the second position as it is, I believe it’s trying to convey how serious the one on top should be taken. Seeing as how it means strength, I think it is saying that death has a strong presence here.”

  “Death itself?” asked Riyan. “Or could it mean the possibility of death?”

  “I don’t know,” he admitted. “My master just gave me a quick rundown on the most used visages and their meaning.”

  “What about the third?” Chad asked. The third one was a circle with two wav
y lines carved across its center.

  He shrugged. “I don’t know,” he replied. “It doesn’t match any of the visages my master told me.”

  ”What is the significance of the third spot?” Bart asked. “If the top one is the overall message and the second one if I understand you right, tells the observer to what degree he needs to heed the first one, then what is the third one’s function?”

  “It is supposed to give the observer some understanding of what lies ahead,” he explained. “Say a totem was placed to warn of a pool of poisoned water. The top one would be the visage representing poison. The second one would state how bad the poison is. And the third would resemble a pool of water. In essence it would say, ‘Poison, strong, pool of water.”

  Bart looked back up at the totem before them. “So here we have, ‘Death, strong, and a circle with two wavy lines’,” he stated.

  “Yes, exactly,” nodded Kevik.

  “Would be nice to know what that third visage could mean,” commented Riyan. They stood there for several minutes as they tried to come up with ideas as to what it represented.

  That’s when Chad happened to glance across the river and noticed a party of a dozen goblin warriors. “We’ve got company,” he said. The others turned towards the far bank of the river.

  “They’re not crossing,” observed Bart.

  “No,” agreed Riyan. “But it looks like they want to.”

  The goblins were acting very agitated. One even went so far as to fire an arrow in their direction. But they easily avoided the missile after it peaked at the top of its arc and came at them.

  “Maybe it would be a good idea to move further into the trees,” suggested Chad. “Out of sight out of mind as it were.”

  Bart snorted. “We may be out of sight, but I highly doubt if we’ll be out of their minds.”

  “Still, let’s get out of here,” Riyan said. Moving back to his horse, he mounted and lent a hand to Kevik as he swung up behind him. The other two were mounted by the time Kevik was settled in behind Riyan and Bart took the lead once more as they left the totem by the river. A few minutes later the trees obstructed their view of the river and the totem.

  As they rode, each continued to think about what the totem they saw might mean. None of them were very thrilled by its presence, other than the fact it kept the goblins from coming after them.

  A short time after they left the totem, Bart noticed an outcropping of stone that seemed to stick up out of the ground ahead. Its presence seemed rather unusual as the rest of the land was relatively even as it moved over the gently rolling hills. It was covered in moss and overgrown with bushes. The only reason he noticed it at all was that it protruded upward more than the lay of the land would warrant.

  The course they were taking led them in the direction of the outcropping. As he rode closer, something about the moss covered rock felt odd to him. When he neared it, he realized what it was. Partially hidden beneath the moss were the unmistakable signs of carving. He brought his horse to a halt and dismounted.

  “What are you doing?” asked Riyan. Kevik looked around him to where Bart was moving toward the outcropping.

  Bart didn’t reply, instead he came to the rock and scraped off a section of the moss. He could hear Chad’s surprised intake of breath when the section of moss fell away. It had revealed an eye. The eye was on its side and after removing more of the moss, they were able to tell that it was part of a head. Most likely the head of a statue.

  The eyes and general features were somewhat eroded away, but the face was definitely that of a human. “Looks like we’ve reached Algoth,” Riyan said as he swung down from his horse.”

  Bart glanced behind him and saw the others were coming to examine the statue for themselves. The head looked to have been broken off from a larger statue, since after they pushed back some of the bushes the jagged neck was revealed.

  Chad moved further down to see if he could find the rest of the statue but only the head was there. “We better be on our guard from here on out,” said Chad. Returning to the others he added, “Whatever the totem was warning of is likely to be found within the ruins of Algoth.”

  “What are you looking for?” Kevik asked. “Why is it so important for you to come here?” The others glanced from one to the other. He could see they didn’t want to let him in on what they were up to. “Don’t you trust me?” he asked, slightly hurt.

  “It’s not that we don’t trust you,” Riyan explained. “It’s just that we don’t know you well enough. You understand that right?”

  Kevik didn’t like it but could see the logic in what he was saying. He nodded and said, “Yes.”

  Riyan gave him a grin and patted him on the shoulder. “Let’s go see if we can’t find what we’re looking for.” Returning to his horse, he again helped Kevik up behind him. The staff that his master gave him had been an ever present companion. When riding, he always kept it clutched in his right hand. After they left the head behind and continued on, Riyan asked him if he knew how to use it.

  “For the most part,” he admitted. “It can paralyze an enemy, that one I know. My master never went into very much detail about it. I’ll have to get a king’s scroll of identification in order to fully understand what it does.”

  “What would a king’s scroll of identification tell you?” he asked.

  “Everything about it,” Kevik replied. “But for now I’ll have to settle for what my spell of identification can reveal.”

  “You know how to cast a spell of identification?” Riyan asked hopefully.

  “Well, just the basic one,” he explained. “As I grow in mastery of the arcane arts, the effects of my spells will become more enhanced.”

  Riyan grew silent for a moment as he contemplated what he had just heard. He wondered if perhaps Kevik’s spell of identification would reveal anything about the fragment of the key. But then he thought that it might be best if he were to purchase one of the scrolls from a scriber like Phyndyr. That way what he learned would remain with just him. He liked Kevik, but he just didn’t know if he was one in whom he could trust the secret of what they were doing.

  “What other spells can you do?” he inquired.

  “Just a couple,” he replied. “One of them you already saw. I can restrict the movement of another by encasing them in a green sticky substance.” He grinned as he said, “The spell is called, ‘Glavir’s Miraculous Spell of Binding’. From what I’ve learned so far, every spell has a fancy name. I just call it my green goo spell.” Then he laughed. He was surprised that it burst out of him, he really wasn’t expecting it.

  “What’s so funny,” Riyan asked.

  “My master would get so mad when I referred to it by ‘the green goo spell’,” he explained. Then he grew silent as the memory of his loss returned. He had almost been able to put it behind him.

  “What else?”

  “I can identify objects, inflict damage by sending red bursts of power, and half a dozen cantrips,” he told him.

  “Must be neat to be able to do such things,” he said.

  “It is,” he admitted. “But it takes a lot of time to learn a new spell. I’ve been an apprentice now for little over a year and I only know a handful of spells.”

  “I’m sure that once you’ve done it longer, you’ll be able to learn faster,” stated Riyan.

  “So my master taught me,” he agreed.

  They continued making their way through the trees with Bart in the lead. After awhile they came across more evidence of the people who had once lived there. Overgrown sections of walls that once must have stood tall were now little more than shattered remnants of their former glory.

  The trees began to thin as they entered an area where the broken remnants of Algoth became more visible. All of it was overgrown and broken. Then all of a sudden a structure appeared through the trees ahead. Rising tall, it was covered in moss and vines. The ground floor and the one above it seemed to be intact, but the jagged outline of the upper w
alls revealed that it had once stood taller. More structures were visible further behind it.

  “Looks like it collapsed,” Chad said as they rode towards the building. No doorway was visible so they went around to the right to locate one. When they rounded the corner they saw that the right wall had crumbled and the interior of the building had completely collapsed in on itself. Over the years dirt had been deposited over the rubble and now trees and bushes grew out of the crumbled remains. One of the trees had grown very large and rose up out of the ruined building to the sky.

  Dismounting, they gave the building a once over but found nothing of interest. Moving on, the led their horses over to one of the nearby buildings. This one looked like it may have survived better. It was three stories tall and other than a few cracks coursing through the walls, seemed to be intact.

  “This is it!” exclaimed Bart as he rushed forward.

  “This is what?” asked Kevik.

  When Riyan and Chad saw what had excited Bart, they too realized this was going to be important. For engraved on the front of the double doors that led into the building, was a coat of arms they both had seen before. A sword pointed downward with a dragon grasping the hilt as its body twined around the blade.

  Riyan grinned as he looked upon one of the coat of arms they had seen back in the diamond shaped chamber deep within The Crypt.

  Chapter Eighteen

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