Ch. 29: Not For the Faint of Heart

The sun was beginning to set when Viktor made his way back to the camp. I had just sat down beside Kovin, when Viktor came in to the tent.

"Greetings Sir Kovin and Champion." Viktor knelt to one knee.

"Rise and report," Kovin ordered.

"Thank you m'lord. This servant was successful in obtaining an audience with Silvantia's leaders. They will be waiting for a small entourage to meet with them at the edge of their border to discuss the matter of their famed trials."

"Did they say what type of trials it would be?" I asked.

"No, they did not. However, they did say to come prepared." Viktor responded.

I sighed and turned my head to Kovin, "So what do you think? Should we check it out?"

Kovin raised an eyebrow, "You're the Champion . . . You decide."

I smirked, "Let's go then."

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We walked to the edge of the border. It was misty and several spikes lined their territory, all with decomposing severed heads placed on top. We were holding several torches to light our way, but with the mist and fog, we could barely see anything more than a few feet ahead. I looked around at our small entourage which consisted of Kovin, Rodair, Viktor, Toval, a few more of our better fighters and of course Richie. He insisted on coming along just in case - not like he would do any good if this were a trap but somehow he talked me into it.

"Soooo . . . we just gonna wait here? Where is everyone?" Richie whispered my way.

Viktor pointed ahead, "There they are." Following his gesture, we looked into the dark fog. All I could see were shadowed forms with glowing yellow eyes quietly walking our way.

"Greetingsss," One of the forms hissed, "We underssstand that your company wissshesss to passss through our land?"

Thoroughly creeped out, I nodded in agreement, "Yes, we would like to pass through without having to enter into war. Surely we can come to a peaceful arrangement?"

The forms looked at each other and nodded, "Sssurely you can. To do ssso you mussst complete our trial. It isss not for the faint of heart."

"What does this trial consist of?" I asked. I was trying to get this agreement done as quickly as possible. The whole area was macabre; I could see this scenario playing out with each of our heads displayed proudly on their spikes.

"You mussst choossse three people to travel to the other end of our territory line. If you make it through before dawn, you will be deemed worthy and we will allow your entire army to come and go asss you pleassse with no harm . . . However, if any of the three people die or do not successsfully passss through our land, your army forfeitsss one hundred men for our dining pleasssure. Longpig is a delicacy for our kind - we hardly get sssuch a huge sssupply at one time."

'What?! These people were cannibals??' I looked over at Richie and his eyes were bugging out. He was shaking his head as if to say not to enter into this agreement.

"I am not allowing any of my men to be eaten." I glared at the glowing eyed form. I couldn't see any facial expressions from them, but I tried my best to appear fearless.

"Then I sssuggessst you complete the trial sssuccesssfully. It isss your decisssion - we could just weed out your army asss you attempt to battle your way through our land. I ssshould warn you - what we catch we eat."

"Give us a moment." I turned around to speak with the men I had with me.

"Any one else think this is ridiculous? I mean - hello??? They want to eat us Ez!" Richie whispered harshly.

"I admit it's unorthodox, however we have to get through this land in order to reach the uncharted side." I pointed out then asked, "Did anyone know that they were cannibals?"

Everyone looked at each other, shaking their heads no; except for Kovin. He looked up and said, "I was aware that they were interested in different meats . . . But they are such a stealthy race it's quiet hard to tell for sure if human was one of them. Besides, they did say that they don't get to eat it often - perhaps they are not really cannibals but just rare meat enthusiasts."

Each of us looked at Kovin like he had done lost his mind. Kovin appeared slightly uncomfortable (which was a first) and coughed, "Well, so long as we complete the trial successfully then there will be no harm to any member of our army. Ezran - since your used to having to move quickly, you would probably do well enough."

Toval's stocky violent face immediately lit up with rage, "Yeah but what about afterwards? Huh? What if this woman doesn't pass through and fails! Besides, I'm pretty sure that these yellow-eyed demons are just waiting for us to pass through their line and gobble us all up . . . Although that wouldn't be such a bad fate for you, oh glorious Champion."

I narrowed my eyes at Toval's crude comment, "Toval if you are so worried about me doing a bad job, why don't you volunteer yourself along with me to get through to the other side? That way if I do perish at the hands of these cannibals, you would have a front row seat." I purposefully goaded him on. I had already thought it out - Kovin had to stay here to command the army if we were to fail, Richie was completely useless at fighting, and I didn't trust Viktor to do anything but get messages through. The other fighters might be useful, but if I could gain Toval's trust during this experience then my goal might come to fruition.

Toval seemed to consider it. He glared up at me with his amber eyes, "Alright wench. You got yourself a deal. But keep in mind I won't be watching your back - if you make us lose that will be on your own head."

I rolled my eyes and looked around before hearing a loud voice, "Rodair will go too. Rodair will watch lady Ezran's back and make sure that the Empire is victorious."

I took in a deep breath, "I guess it's decided then. All we have to do is make it to the other side before dawn."

'How hard could it be?'