The Caspas Game

They returned to the lane and followed its southwesterly course, until they were walking by a wall of vine-covered trees well over a hundred feet tall—the edge of the Great Forest. In addition to the enormous oaks, beeches, and firs there were also many nameless trees that were only found in the Great Forest. Some of these had moss-covered trunks eight feet across and sent their upper branches two hundred feet in the air. Some of the vines growing on these trees moved and shifted about, although there was no wind to cause this.

Against this wall of trees and against a thick hedge on the other side of the road, Cedrin could make out red figures in the deepening twilight. A glance behind him showed more men in red in the lane. They had walked into a trap!

Chapter 9

Men approached from all sides, until they had formed a ring around the three travelers. A tall figure in a crimson robe stepped forward, and Cedrin felt a pang of fear go through him as he recognized Kalaric, and felt the man’s wrath directed at him.

“This is the second time that I am being forced to reclaim my property from you,” Kalaric said in a quiet, menacing voice. “This time, I am very angry with you.”

“The game does not belong to you,” replied Cedrin. “You took it from a vault in one of King Wencel’s castles, but that does not make it yours.” He looked over his shoulder, hoping to see an opening in the ring of pursuers; there was none.

Suddenly a gasp came from the throats of the men surrounding Cedrin. Moving behind the branches of an enormous fir on the edge of the Great Forest was a beautiful patch of blue and silver light. Each sparkling beam came from a small source not much larger than a man’s fist. But each ray that leapt out toward them was so clear and so dazzling, that light reflected form a perfectly cut diamond paled in comparison.

The men surrounding Cedrin cried aloud in amazement, and, abandoning their mission, charged into the Great Forest; trying to catch the elusive source of this marvelous light that darted between the fir trees swifter than a finch flying to her nest. Cedrin and his companions were no less attracted to the will-o’-the-wisp than the men in red. They stuck together, and ran through the arch that two leaning firs created, following the beautiful light.

Behind them they could hear Kalaric yell, “Catch the boy and come out of the forest!”