Dockalfar Read Online Free PDF

horse moved under him, and with a grunt of satisfaction the ogre urged it to start the down hill passage.
    They caught up with the other horses presently, and Alex silently caught Victoria’s gaze and held it. She was pale and scared, and trying her best not to hold on to the hairy form of the spriggan she rode behind. She wrinkled her nose occasionally as the wind whipped back at them, carrying the creature’s particular odor to her nose. He looked about for the cloaked man. The assassin, Zakknr had called him, was no where in sight. But then again, Alex had not noticed him either time he had appeared before until he was practically standing in front of them.
    Unnerving trait, that.
    It was full night before they reached the bottom of the slope and their horses hooves trod on the soft earth of the plain.
    It was a strange night. The stars in the sky glowed with such luminance and clarity, that it was not truly dark. An unearthly glow encased the land, the horses, the riders. The moon was a huge, looming globe just over his shoulder. Larger than the moon had ever seemed before. If it was the moon he was used to. He was beginning to doubt that.
    For what seemed hours they rode across the plain. The ogre would not allow him to speak with Victoria. His head rang from Zakknr’s slap the last time he had tried. She cast worried, sad looks his way. The chill seemed to have departed entirely, once down from the mountain. The air on the plain was almost spring-like. Behind him the ogre was sweating. The moon was high in the night sky when they reached the edge of the wood that had been hinted at from the vantage of the mountain. The foliage was thin and new at the outside edges, but the eye could not penetrate further than a few dozen yards, so it undoubtedly thickened further in. The party turned left and followed the line of trees, staying just outside of the wood’s boundary.
    Occasionally Alex saw lightening bugs flare up within the depths of the foliage.
    But they were strange colors, often blue and green instead of the yellow of the lightening bugs he was familiar with.
    There was no sound of crickets, but night birds trilled constant songs and once in a great while, there was the drifting note of what could have been music. It was distant and elusive, like the fleeting memories of a dream.
    At some point he dozed, for he woke suddenly to find himself leaning back against the ogre and straightened immediately. Zakknr paid no heed. Alex craned his neck to assure himself of Victoria’s nearness. She was leaning back, as far from the spriggan as possible on the back of a horse, staring into the wood. He thought he heard the music again, but it faded as soon as he thought he picked up the melody.
    Finally the ogre called a halt and they made camp just within the overhanging presence of the wood. The goblins gathered wood and started a fire. The spriggan settled himself a good distance away from them, folding its knees up to its chest and glaring into the wood, at the horses, at the ogre and goblins. He seemed a foul-tempered little man. Not knowing what else to do, Alex and Victoria sat down an equal distance between the spriggan and the goblins. The ogre moved about the horses, fumbling with the tact.
    He ambled back among them clutching a slab of brown dried meat of some sort in its hand and a leather wine skin in the other. He ravished the meat without offering any to the others, then greedily guzzled the contents of the skin. The goblins eyed him intently, whispering among themselves, then one of them scurried off to the horses in pursuit of food of its own. After a bit the spriggan followed suit.
    “What do we do?” Victoria asked him, her voice small and barely audible.
    The question took him off guard. He had no notion whatsoever what to do in the present situation. What could possibly be done? Fight free of the ogre and his beastly little companions and flee into a wood that held more trolls or things just as bad? If