Dark Tidings

Chapter 21 - Long Eye

The pursuers had all followed much the same route. Starting at The Black Bear tavern, Mifal's men had bribed and threatened the locals until they found out the direction in which the pair had fled. They had to endure many fantastical stories from a bevy of drinkers who all claimed to be key players in the previous night's events. Most of the men sampled the wonderful chicken stew before they moved on. It was tasty but unusual in that virtually every meat on the planet tasted of chicken, yet this tasted of something which was just a little bit different.

The wizards independently and surreptitiously watched the proceedings by mingling in the crowd, although wizards didn't mingle well. They always stuck out like sore thumbs, however years of experience told the man in the street to ignore them, otherwise you could end up with an outbreak of warts or pig's ears, or something a lot worse.

So mingle they did, 'unnoticed' by the crowd, while they watched. Why should they put themselves out if Mifal's men were doing the hard work anyway? Anyway, who wanted to talk to this ratbag of humanity?

From the tavern, they'd used all their senses and skills to follow the trail to the barn where Tung and Madrick had slept. Then, using logic and a little bit of trial and error, they'd tracked them the short distance to this spot where they all now stood.

The three groups arrived at the spot from slightly different directions. They eyed each other suspiciously. Everyone knew they were all after the same thing. In particular, the opposing wizards stared at each other with intense malice but a battle wasn't in any of their interests. Not yet anyway. Mifal's men had no idea who these strangers were but some deep instinct told them they weren't to be messed with.

Independently they all surveyed the scene.

Mifal's men made little sense of the landscape. In fact all they noted was a pile of charred clothes and the burnt out patch of grass by the roadside which had been the result of an ineptly used Fire Spell. Mifal's captain, who was commanding the soldiers, wanted to abandon the search and go home. There was something dangerous about the strangers and he wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible.

"The men we were hunting must have accidentally set fire to themselves and burned to death. Let's have a quick look around and then get out of here."

A cursory search of the nearby area revealed nothing of interest. The captain decided there was no more to see so he left the scene and returned to Mifal to make his report.

It was different for Gravalar, Stanverital and Devligrate. They appraised the scene with more educated eyes. They spotted the golden goblet and the endless flow of wine which poured onto the ground from it. They noted the hoof prints made by a large herd of cattle. This was unusual because generally cattle weren't found in these parts. They observed the luscious cornfield which was also out of character for the area. In fact, they identified the evidence of at least eight spells. What the hell was going on?

The two Black Wizards huddled for a tactical discussion

"The trail seems to end here. Time for some magic, I think."

Stanverital took out a faded scroll from his cloak and read the spell quickly. It was the Long Eye Spell which would give him a short period of extraordinary vision. He scoured the surroundings and within a few seconds he spotted a gathering of peasants cowering in the distance. They were staying a healthy distance away, although no doubt they'd be plundering the area once the wizards were gone. There was corn and a herd of beef for starters.

He moved on with his sweep and had soon scanned three hundred and sixty degrees around him. There was no sign of the thieves. Then he turned his eyes to the sky and searched the heavens. Again he began to scan three hundred and sixty degrees to make sure he missed nothing. After a few seconds, he stopped his sweep and stared intently into the blue yonder. There, far in the distance, he saw the flying men; one with great white wings and the other holding on for dear life.