Troy Denning - The Verdant Passage

Rikus shook his head in derision. “Only a noble would be soft enough to worry about eating a spider.”

“Perhaps,” Agis replied, not taking his eyes from Anezka. “But I’m serious about what I say.”

The noble put the halfling’s dagger in his satchel. He had intended to return it to Anezka as a sign of good faith. From the way she had stared at him, however, he knew the halfling would only have used it to attack him the first time his back was turned.

After Agis slipped his satchel onto his shoulder, Rikus released the halfling. Anezka angrily gathered her things, then led the party down the crest of the ridge, moving through the forest as effortlessly and as silently as though she were walking on barren, level ground. Behind her, Rikus and Neeva crashed through the trees with all the grace of a matched pair of boulders tumbling down the hillside. Sadira followed the gladiators, carrying Ktandeo’s cane in one hand and grasping at tree fronds with the other as she fought to keep her footing. Agis came last, carefully weighing each step, yet cursing under his breath as he slipped with every fifth or sixth footfall.

They descended along the top of the muddy ridge for over an hour before it abruptly ended in a sheer cliff. Without pausing, Anezka simply changed directions to avoid the precipice. She moved down the side of the ridge, descending its steep slopes with the grace of a rock leopard. The others followed more laboriously, punctuating the soft patter of raindrops with the sounds of their passing: snapping sticks, tumbling rocks, and occasional cries of alarm as they slipped and fell to the ground.

After some time, they heard a faint hiss coming from the gully at the bottom of the ridge. Rikus and Neeva drew their weapons, carrying them at the ready position. Agis unsheathed his sword, and Sadira silently considered the spells she had memorized at the moment.

Anezka laughed at them and continued down the hill. The hiss grew louder, changing into a steady, loud sizzle that echoed off the trees. Agis tried to imagine what kind of strange creature could be making the noise, but he had never heard anything like the sound and failed to think of a single possibility.

At last they came to a break in the underbrush. Rikus and Neeva stopped dead in their tracks. Sadira and Agis quickly stepped to either side of the two gladiators, then also stopped, their eyes wide with shock.

A twenty-foot ribbon of water blocked their path, flashing silver and white as it ran down a narrow, rocky channel. Agis stood at the stream’s edge, listening to it roar and gurgle as it flowed down its jumbled course. Anezka waded out into the stream and began to drink.

“Where does it all come from?” Rikus asked, taking his satchel off so he could fish out his waterskin and fill it.

“From the rain,” Agis answered, also fetching his waterskin.

“There’s too much water for that,” Neeva said. “It would have to rain every day to keep this gully full.”

“What makes you think it doesn’t?” Sadira asked, waving her hands at the dense forest around them. “Plants need water. This many plants must need a lot of water.”

“Rain every day?” Rikus scoffed, “That’s impossible. I’ve seen five rainstorms in my life, and that’s a lot for someone my age.”

“Perhaps the rain is attracted by magic,” Agis suggested, his mind wrestling with the problem of how something as wondrous as a forest could exist. “If sorcerers draw their magic from plants, maybe plants can make magic that causes it to rain.”

“There’s no doubt that something magic is at work here,” Sadira said. “But who can say what? It could be the forest itself or it might be something else, I’m not sure we’ll ever understand-and maybe we shouldn t.”

“No, that’s where you’re wrong,” Agis countered. “If the forest can exist in the mountains, then it can exist in other parts of Athas. For that to happen, we need to understand what makes it grow first.”

Rikus finished filling his waterskin. “The noble’s soft in his head as well as his body,” the mul mumbled.

“I don’t know about that,” Neeva said. “Did you see his faro orchards? If anyone could grow a forest, I think it would be Agis.”

“My thanks, Neeva,” replied Agis, encouraged by her support. “If I could just live in the forest for a year-”

“Whatever Kalak has planned for Tyr would be done and over,” Sadira said. “Maybe we can make Athas green with trees someday, but not now.” She pointed downstream. Anezka had left them and was already far ahead, picking her way silently along the stream bank. “Let’s try not to lose her again. I’m afraid she won’t come back for us.”

They quickly closed their waterskins, then crashed down the gully in pursuit of the halfling. Eventually the ravine descended into a deep, steep-sloped canyon, and the stream transformed into the frothing waters of a wild river. The whole canyon trembled with the power of the mighty watercourse, and the thunder of its torrents overwhelmed every other sound within the valley.

Although the drizzle had finally let up and the sun was baking the rocky shoreline, Anezka continued without letting the party stop to marvel at the river. The halfling led the way along the shore, and eventually they came to a trail overhung by mossy tree boughs.

As they stepped onto this path, Agis caught sight of a quaking branch out of the corner of his eye, then glimpsed the silhouette of a halfling hiding behind the tree itself. The halfling was pointing a small bow at Rikus’s back.

“Rikus, down!” Agis called.

The mul obeyed just before a twang sounded from the small man’s hiding place. A tiny, foot-long arrow sailed over Rikus’s head and lodged in the bulbous trunk of a frond tree. When Agis looked back to the attacker’s hiding place, the halfling was no longer in sight. Neeva and Sadira swung around with their weapons ready. When Agis drew his sword, Anezka disappeared into the forest on the opposite side of the trail.

“Where are they?” Rikus demanded, returning to his feet.

“I only saw one, and he disappeared,” Agis reported.

“You lost sight of him?” the mul snapped angrily.

“ You didn’t even see him,” Agis pointed out, his eyes still searching the trees.

Neeva plucked the arrow from the white bark. “They’re not going to do much damage with this thing.”

Rikus snatched the arrow from her hand and peered at the tip. “It was coated with something,” he said. “There are still traces above the tip.”

The other three spoke at the same time. “Poison!”

Another twang sounded from the side of the trail. This time, the arrow struck Neeva in the thigh. She let out a frightened scream and slapped it off her leg. With her other hand, she pointed her trikal at a clump of trembling conifer boughs. “There he is,” she said, stepping in the direction she pointed.

Her knees buckled on the second step, and she pitched face first onto the ground. Sadira kneeled at her side. Screaming in anger, Rikus leaped over the two women. Ignoring Agis and Sadira’s panicked cries to be cautious, he disappeared into the shadowy forest.

Agis started to follow, but almost immediately Rikus yelled, “Got the little varl!”

A sharp smack sounded, then the mul stepped back into the trail with the halfling’s unconscious body in one hand. “Maybe a hostage will discourage-”

Another twang sounded from the other side of the trail. An arrow lodged in the mul’s bare chest. Rikus brushed it away with a quick swipe, then hurled the unconscious halfling at his attacker. He charged toward the underbrush again, cursing and growling, but collapsed before he left the trail.

Sadira pointed her cane over the mul’s head, but Agis called, “No!”