Morgan Rice - A Vow of Glory

Not wanting to waste any more of her precious energy on a confrontation with these women, Indra turned, sprinted across the courtyard, and went right for Thor, Krohn at her side. As she reached him, she saw his eyes were glazed over, that he was still in a trance.

Indra quickly sliced all the ropes binding him, then sliced the rope of his hammock, and he fell and hit the ground with a thud. He looked up at her, his eyes still glazed.

“Thor, listen to me,” she said. “You’re in a trance. Do you understand? You have to snap out of it! You have to save the others and yourself before it’s too late. Please. For my sake. Come back to me!”

Krohn leaned forward and licked Thor’s face again and again.

Somewhere deep inside of Thor, a part of him began to stir. He began to realize that he was lost, deep in another realm. Slowly, the music of the sirens began to fade in his head, and the face of the woman before him came into focus.

Indra…the slave girl…she was speaking to him…telling him something…telling him to get up…to go…to go now!

Thor shook his head and jumped to his feet. Suddenly, he was free of the spell.

Thor felt a tingling rise within him, rising up from his toes through the tips of his fingers, felt himself overcome by a rush of heat.

As the first of the women reached him, charging with a spear, Thor sidestepped, snatched it from her hands, took the shaft, and butted her in the head with the wooden end, knocking her down.

He then spun around and used the spear as a staff, knocking the spears from the hands of the other women, then spinning around again and knocking them down. He didn’t want to kill any of them—he just wanted to stop them, and to rescue his friends.

“Free the others!” Thor yelled to Indra.

Thor and Indra split up, Krohn running by Thor’s side, as they went from one legion member to the next, slicing their ropes, freeing them. They all remained in a trance, but as Thor knocked out more of the women, slowly the spell lifted. The boys finally became suggestible enough to at least obey Thor’s command.

“Follow me!” Thor yelled to each of them.

Thor, Indra and Krohn ran with the others, leading them as they all crossed the small island, back to their boat.

They all jumped in, and Thor reached out with the tip of the spear and shoved off hard from shore, Indra doing the same beside him.

The other boys, all finally snapping out of it, began to paddle with all they had, fighting the tide as they pulled away slowly from the island.

The women left on the island ran to the shore, to the water’s edge, and watched them go; distraught, they began shrieking and tearing out their hair. Their screams, even more awful than the sound of their music, echoed off the waters, haunting Thor as the tide finally picked up and carried them away.

Thor was sullen as he paddled silently with the others. A somber feeling had permeated the boat, as they paddled for hours, putting more and more distance between themselves and that island. They passed by ever-shifting terrain, and Thor could not help but contemplate how close they had come to being killed. He still didn’t entirely understand what had happened back there.

After they had left that place, for the first several hours they had all been riding on adrenaline, their fear and excitement propelling them to keep the boat moving. But now, as the second sun grew long, the excitement was wearing off, and Thor and the others were feeling drained in the pervasive silence which had fallen over them. Thor’s shoulders were growing tired and his back stiff, as he wondered if this paddling would ever end.

“How long shall we keep going on like this?” O’Connor finally asked aloud the question that had been on all of their minds, putting down his paddle and wiping the back of his head. “It is useless. We are not getting anywhere.”

“And we don’t even know where we’re going,” Elden added, in equal frustration.

“Yes we do,” Drake said defensively, hoisting the map.

“You and your stupid map,” Conval said. “The map of a thief. How do you even know it’s accurate?”

“It almost got us killed back there,” Conven said.

“We should have listened to Indra from the start,” Elden said.

“Yes, you should have,” Indra said. “We are going in wrong direction. I told you that.”

“This slave girl doesn’t know what she’s talking about,” Durs snapped. “The map is very clear.”

“Don’t you call her that again,” Elden snapped, turning to Durs, reddening. “Indra saved all of our lives back there, lest you forget.”

Durs fell silent, and it was the first time Thor had ever seen him back down to anyone. Then again, Elden was bigger and broader, despite his age, and it didn’t appear that Durs wanted a confrontation. Elden was also more heated than Thor had ever seen, and in that moment, Thor could tell that Elden had really fallen for her.

“The point is,” Dross said, “we know where they are taking the Sword. This map leads us there. And this channel of water is the only way. We just have to stick to the course.”

“I will tell you where these waters take us,” Indra said darkly. “These waters will bring us to the Land of the Undead. An evil and uninviting land; a place of the deepest gloom and death. Those who enter never come out. Ever. That is for certain. Haven’t you noticed the tides?” she asked, looking down. “They have grown stronger. They pull us in one direction: to the great waterfall. Once we go down it, there is no turning back. This is your last chance: turn back now.”

They looked at each other with apprehension.

“And go where?” Reece asked.

“Back to where we began,” she replied.

There came a collective groan from the three brothers.

“All the way back to the beginning?” Dross asked.

“So you would have us fight these tides, all the way back, start over again, without a map, without anything to go on except for your word?” Drake asked.

“And who’s to say you don’t have an agenda of your own?” Durs added. “You are not one of us. Are we to put our lives into the hand of a wild slave girl, a professed thief?”

“You already have,” Indra remarked, “and you came out alive.”

“I would trust her with my life before I would you,” Elden said, sneering back at Durs.

The group fell into a tense silence.

Drake sighed.

“So then what would you have us do?” Drake asked, turning to Thor. “Since you are leader of this mission. Would you have us all start again, follow this slave girl’s word, this stranger who we don’t even know, and ignore this map from the Ring?”

Thor sat there, feeling all the eyes on him, and debated. Some part of him, deep down, felt as if something was not right with where they were going. But at the same time, he wasn’t getting a clear feeling. Something was obscured. He did not know why—and that frightened him. He did not know for sure that going back was the best route. And even if they wanted to, the currents had become too strong, and they were all too tired. He didn’t see how that was even a possibility. At least the three brothers had a map, a destination, a plan. Plus, they couldn’t risk losing more valuable time in searching for the Sword.

“We’ll give your map a chance,” Thor said to them. “Until tomorrow. If we don’t have progress by then, some concrete lead, then we will turn back around and follow Indra’s way.”

Everyone nodded, seeming content, and they all went back to paddling.

“Assuming we all live to see tomorrow,” Indra said ominously, as they all fell back into silence, the only sound in the world that of the lapping of the water beneath their oars.