Lord Tolen found himself standing by the side of the mountain, with heavy snow falling all around him.
He glimpsed two cloaked figures walking through the snow, a man in a white fur coat and a dark-haired woman in gray fur coat, holding on tightly to his elbow. The woman stumbled several times, but the man gently held on to her and helped her to keep her footing.
"Please, I must stop." The woman begged breathlessly. They found shelter beneath the outcropping of rocks. As darkness swiftly fell around them, the wind grew stronger, whipping up flurries of snow. In the tiny enclave, the two clung to each other, the man protectively enclosing the shivering woman with his white cloak in addition to her own.
"It is growing colder, yet. How much colder is it going to get?" The woman cried. "How can anyone live in such a place?"
"Those savages can." The man said angrily.
"Do you think they'll follow us this way?"
"Not if we cross from these lands."
"I am so afraid." The woman whispered, clinging closer to the man, burying her face in the white fur of his cloak. "Do you think we are the last?"
"I don't know. But we are lucky to have left when we did. If we stayed... I don't think any of those who stayed survived the massacre. They had not spared even the little children."
"What harm have we ever done to them to provoke such evil upon us?"
"We have done nothing. They do this evil because they are monsters, heartless savages." The man growled. He suddenly looked up at Tolen with glowing, angry green eyes. Tolen's breath caught, but the man's gaze was unfocused, as though he was looking past Tolen.
"What is it?" The woman asked nervously.
"Someone's watching us..." The man said. "It is not one of us... Who are you?" The man asked of Tolen. His voice was puzzled, rather than threatening. Terrified, Tolen stumbled back and fell through the dark.
...
Tolen startled awake with his heart pounding and his shirt drenched with sweat. His breathing came ragged, as though he had emerged from the wild chase through the woods. After a moment, his grip on his sword relaxed. Still, he could not go back to sleep, fearing the return of the disturbing dream, one of many that began to bother him of late. Irritated, he rose, threw on a fur coat, and left from his tent into the winter dark.
His captain greeted him quietly at his post, one of several in a chain placed inconspicuously across the slope of the mountain, covering the North-Western pass. There, lord Tolen remained until the wee hours of the morning. Just when he was about to depart once more, to see about a breakfast at the camp, a bugle horn sounded the alarm.
Lord Tolen, his captain, and their men ran to the lower post, where alerted men stood, aiming their arrows down the mountain.
"There are two of them, sir. They've taken cover behind those trees." A sergeant of the guard pointed to several tall snow-bound evergreens that sparsely grew between the rocky fingers of the mountain.
"We've hit them."
"With the poisoned arrows?" Tolen inquired.
"Yes, sir."
An echoing roar drew everyone's attention to the trees. Lord Tolen's hair rose on the back of his neck and his breath froze at the pain and anger that he heard in that inhuman, terrifying sound.
"I don't think it's paralyzed." The sergeant of the guard commented.
"If the arrows only nicked them, the poison will not have full effect and they could heal of it."
"We should take them down now, before they retreat back into the valley." The captain pointed out.
Courageously, Tolen drew his sword and cautiously led the men down into the pass, toward the trees. The demon burst out at them from the snow, in the shape of a giant snow lion with thick, shaggy, white fur. He was upon one of the men before they could blink. Tolen saw a familiar flash of light, and six of the men fell to the ground senseless around the beast.
Crimson blood splattered the ground, and the snow exploded while the rest of the men and the snarling beast fought. Lord Tolen felt the holy relic he wore grow cold from absorbing the power of the demon's curses, crackling all around him like a sparkling net. He found himself thrown a distance away, with no memory of falling. He shook his head to clear his vision, sprung to his feet and thrust his sword, piercing the lion's hide. The beast snarled, lifting its bloody maw from its moaning, torn victim, and fixed its deadly black gaze on Tolen.
Tolen saw the beast's muscled body tensing, preparing to spring upon him, and his breath caught. The beast was huge. And then several arrows struck it. The fiend snarled again, and turned to face the new threat. Archers were already drawing more arrows, and released them just as the beast broke into a run and sprung for them. Raised spikes and swords met it, and a stout net, which tore, but still entangled the beast, the more it viciously swung its clawed paws.
Lord Tolen and the least wounded of his men joined the rest and furiously stabbed the lion until it grew too weak and sluggish to fight them. Lord Tolen suspected that the poison of the arrows had at last begun to take its toll. The fiend was still alive when Tolen commanded the exhausted men to step away from it. They held their bloody swords at the ready, breathing heavily, while Tolen slowly circled around it, his boots slurping through the melting red sludge. Tolen noticed that most of the lion's blood spilt red, except for the slightest tinge of bluish-green leaking from wounds in its chest and belly.
Tolen wanted to see the demon's eyes before he slay it. The memory of the other, whom he had killed by Durnaldeen cliffs despite his plea, haunted him. This demon's eyes were a threatening black, and met him with hatred. Unlike the other, Tolen perceived, this one had no intention of surrender. Instead, staring into the demon's fiery eyes, Tolen read a deadly promise that it would kill more men if only it could. Chilled in his heart, Tolen lifted his sword above the snarling lion's neck and swiftly brought it down with all his strength.
Wearily, he turned to his men.
"Burn it." He commanded.
"What about the other, my lord?" The sergeant of the guard reminded him, pointing back to the trees. Grimly, Tolen gripped his sword and nodded to the men to follow him, and cautiously trod their tracks back to the trees, ready for another attack.
There was someone, much smaller than a snow-lion, laying in the shade beneath the branches of the tree, from where the snow-lion had sprung. Coming closer, Tolen momentarily paused, unsettled. He recognized the dark fur-coat of the woman from his dream. It completely covered the still form. Slowly, he and the men approached it. Tolen saw long, curly dark hair showing from beneath the coat.
With his sword, Tolen poked against the coat, but there was no response.
"The arrows, my lord. I think she is already dead." His captain commented, pointing at the arrows that has been pulled out and cast not far from the still form.
Lord Tolen then changed the grip on his sword and went to a knee, to get a better hold on the fur coat. And when he turned the body, the coat opened and revealed the translucent form of a demon curled within, in the shape that Tolen remembered seeing them before at the crystal caverns, and which he suspected was their true form.
"A demon, not a woman, then." The captain said with relief.
It was dead, Tolen knew without a doubt as soon as he beheld its dark, still heart. Darkness spidered from several unhealed wounds, where the poisoned arrows had struck it. And when Tolen's gaze travelled lower, to the demon's enlarged belly, his breath caught with disbelief.
Three tiny beings stirred within the creature's womb, still alive, even though the one who bore them was not. The darkness that spread across the demon's body was yet held back from the unborn by a bright placental barrier. Yet, while Tolen watched, he saw that darkness break through, cross, and quickly spiral along the shiny cords that connected the unborn to their mother. The bodies of the tiny beings jumped at the touch of darkness when it engulfed the brightness of their fast-beating hearts.
Helplessly, lord Tolen grimaced when he saw the movements of the unborn still, one by one. His heart was overcome with a sudden urge to save them, yet he realized that it was too late and that there was nothing he could do. He looked up at his captain and caught the man's eyes filled with pity. Then, lord Tolen understood the pain he heard in the roar of the monster that attacked him and the reason for his desperate wrath. Troubled, the knight covered the demon's body with the fur cloak to hide the disturbing sight.
"Burn it." He ordered the captain and his men, before wearily stumbling away to check on the wounded men. Although four of them were badly mauled, their wounds were treated, and they were all going to live.
...
That following night, sir Tolen dreamed again. He fought again with the shaggy-haired white monster. But when he opened the fur coat of the other, who lay in the snow, he found his own beloved wife bleeding from his arrows and his own unborn child dying within her. Lord Tolen's own cry startled him awake. He lay for a while, struggling to subdue the overwhelming grief and loss that still gripped his heart.
"A dream... Nothing more... T'was not real..." He spoke firmly to himself, his heartbeat and breathing gradually calming. It was early, but Tolen had no desire to sleep, and again left his tent for an early patrol. Greeting his captain, he stood with him at their post, watching the still, frozen forest spreading below them.
"I thought that their spawn birthed from the bodies of those taken captive. The ancient tales say that the spawn would eat their way free, like the maggots of flies." Captain Kanith commented, also still bothered by what they both had seen on the day past.
"Perhaps, the tales are wrong." Tolen answered. They were the first to see a messenger approaching, who relayed to the knight an urgent summons from home.
"My lord, lady Rowena's health has taken a turn for the worse, I fear." The messenger reported the physician's concern. Her latest pregnancy was not going well, the message warned, and his physician feared that the child might be lost. What the physician worried for even more, but which he did not have to tell Tolen, was that Lady Rowena might be lost with the child, due to the persistent bleeding that severely weakened her. The physician humbly requested if lord Tolen could take leave and return home.
Leaving his captain in charge, until sir Remaud's men came to take their turn, sir Tolen immediately rode to the city of Lunn, determined to speak with sir Remaud, with whom he shared estate borders and the responsibility for guarding the pass.
He spent part of the night at sir Remaud's castle. As soon as sir Remaud heard lord Tolen's request to cut his duty at the western pass two weeks early, he agreed to send his men to replace Tolen's team.
The laeden Ondesganos, the fiery-eyed priest Tolen recalled was present at the battle of the crystal mountain, sat in place of honor not far from sir Remaud, and listened intently to their conversation.
When lord Tolen stepped outside for a breath of fresh, cool air, the priest found him and stood with him by the marbled balcony railing.
"I heard that your lady has fallen ill, honorable knight. I will pray for her."
"Thank you."
"There is something else that I can offer, which might help." Lord Tolen turned to look at the priest. He disliked the half-smile that appeared on the man's face whenever he spoke. The man's face seemed otherwise emotionless and cold, yet his dark eyes burned, and the incongruity struck Tolen as odd. The priest brought out a glowing blue-green vial that hung concealed from a cord around his neck.
"This is a remedy that I have recently discovered."
The priest opened the bottle, then pulled out a sharp knife and before lord Tolen's startled expression cut into the palm of his hand. With the same faint smile, the priest dropped a glowing drop from the bottle upon his cut. The remedy sunk into the welling blood. Lord Tolen watched with disbelief how the bleeding stopped, and the cut closed before his eyes, leaving behind only a faint scar. The priest grinned at his amazement.
"Take it. Of anyone here, you deserve it... For your honorable service in carrying out your duty. You protect us all."
Lord Tolen took the vial. "Thank you, laeden." He said, this time with unfeigned gratefulness and respect. The priest nodded to him, his eyes satisfied, and walked away.
Lord Tolen rode to his estates the next day, accompanied by a small group of his men for protection against brigands. He found his wife abed and in tears. She was still bleeding. The physician was certain that she lost the child. Yet, the lady refused to believe him, and would not take the portion that would bring on her labor pains early. Her cheeks were flushed with fever. Yet, she smiled at her husband when he walked through the door, and asked him how his hunting went.
Tolen did not tell her about the pregnant demon, nor about the strange and disturbing dreams he had been having of late. Instead, he hugged her and brought forth the miraculous cure that the priest of Lunn had given him. The physician frowned, because the lord did not consult with him beforehand.
"What must I do with this?" Lady Rowena asked trustingly, the vial in her hand.
"You must pour it upon your skin, in place wherever you feel the pain. That is what the priest said." Tolen said, his hands caringly enfolding the hot hands of his wife. She smiled and obeyed, pouring the vial upon her belly. The glowing liquid appeared to sink into her flesh. The physician moved uncomfortably, his tongue itching to question the remedy, but did not say anything until Tolen left his lady's bedside, and she leaned back into the pillows to rest, contented.
He questioned the lord as soon as they stepped out of lady Rowena's chambers.
"What is that cure?" The physician asked mistrustfully. Lord Tolen shrugged.
"The laeden of Lunn had given it to me."
"Laeden Ondesganos?" The physician said with deep misgivings. Lord Tolen looked questioningly at him, but the man merely pinched his lips and shook his head with disapproval.
"I had not known that laeden Ondesganos practiced healing medicine."
"Perhaps it was his priests, then. The remedy has miraculous healing properties. I have seen the effects with my own eyes."
"What is in it?"
"I am not an expert like you, Ganim. I did not ask."
"Hmmm. I guess we shall see if any good comes of this..."
Lord Tolen said nothing. His doubt dissipated the next day, when lady Rowena joyfully said that her bleeding had stopped, and that she felt the slight movement within her womb again. The physician checked her, and had to admit that whatever was in the cure devised by Ondesganos seemed to have wrought a miracle. The man still looked very cautious and doubtful, but did not voice his continued misgivings out loud.
In the next two months, lady Rowena was in better health than Tolen ever remembered. Her cheeks glowed with vitality, and she flitted from place to place, supervising the affairs in the estate and preparing for the traditional winter festival celebration in anticipation of their son's return from Reolth. Lord Tolen allowed himself the luxury of going hunting with his men, as was his favorite past-time. He looked forward to going to Reolth, to bring back his young son, who has now been gone nearly a year in knightly training, to forge bonds with the king's own son, who was of the same age.