“Something’s wrong, Commander,” Liam said as he stepped out of the wagon and took the dark brown stallion’s reins from Aldric. “It’s like she’s awake, but there’s nobody home.”
“Thank you, Liam.” Aldric stepped up into the wagon and eyed Dnara. The wagon’s balance shifted with the commander’s bulk then settled as he sat across from her. His concerned expression registered in her mind but she felt unable to react to it. He too waved a hand before her eyes and she kept staring ahead, waiting to feel something.
With a deep breath raising his broad shoulders, Aldric turned back to Liam. “Ride ahead to the gate and inform them I wish to have an audience with the king upon our arrival, and perhaps a mage. It would do well to have a representative from the Red Conclave see her immediately. Maybe they can make sense of this.”
“Yes, sir!” Liam beat a fist to his heart and looked to the tall brown stallion before stopping short. “If it please you, sir, I think it best I take a runner.”
The corner of Aldric’s mouth twitched in an amusement Dnara couldn’t share. “Sounds wise,” he said.
Liam hitched the enormous stallion’s reins to the wagon and left off in a trot after a last lingering look Dnara’s way. Aldric returned his gaze back to her, ever steady and focused, and he beat a fist to the wagon’s sideboard. The slapping of reins followed and the wagon lurched forward. Dnara bobbed with the motion, following it like the horse now walking obediently behind them.
Aldric evaluated her in silence. Galloping hoof beats approached the wagon from behind, passed along its side without slowing and faded into the distance far ahead. Dnara rocked with the wagon and blinked, staring past Commander Aldric and into nothing.
“You missed Carn,” he said, then paused to evaluate her reaction. When she gave none, he continued. “We reached the Red City just as dawn broke. I had hoped to show you the sunrise, when the red bricks glow and give the city its name, but you would not wake. We’re now on the Dragon’s Road and will reach the Red Keep before nightfall.”
Dnara stared without blinking for a long moment, her mind trying to pull Aldric’s words past the fog they were stuck in. Behind Aldric, rocky, unsettled lands passed by in a blur of brown earth, black stone and scraggly yellow shrubs backed by the golden hue of a lowly hung late afternoon sun. They were moving uphill at a steadily increasing incline, and from somewhere far away the sounds of crashing waves joined a chorus of seagulls.
“Perhaps I can take you to Carn once this business is settled,” Aldric said, his eyes still waiting for a reaction. “The ever sprawling edge of the great city is only a short ride from the keep. One day, it may even reach the keep walls, if they ever learn how to securely fasten houses to the sea cliffs.”
He’d meant it as a joke, she was sure, but not even a polite giggle tickled her chest. Part of her knew it had been funny, and part of her wished to ask questions about Carn. She knew she should feel disappointment at having missed the ride through what sounded like a city of unimaginable size and wonder, but the feeling itself remained out of reach. All of it, her emotions, the commander sitting in front of her, the hunger in her belly and the thirst scratching her throat; everything felt far away, like the sea she could hear but not see.
“Dnara,” he spoke her name softly and placed his hand atop hers as they lay folded in her lap. “Do you understand what I’m saying?”
His question broke through the fog in a second of clarity. Her mind filled with a ringing tone. Heat flared at the back of her neck.
“Yes, sir.” Her voice replied, but it had not been her mind that had given the command to do so.
With unfelt alarm, she realized it had been the collar commanding the answer. She wanted her eyes to widen, for her hand to squeeze Aldric’s in a plea for help, but her body simply moved with the swaying wagon as its wheels maneuvered up the cliff-side road. At the back of her neck, the buzz emanating from the starstone increased until it overtook her panic. When the buzzing reached its peak, the fog surrounding her closed in and the emotion faded into nothing. Within seconds, she could no longer remember what they had been discussing or the question he had asked her.
He leaned back, uncertainty adding weight to his dark eyes. Glancing to the side, he found the untaken offerings from Liam and held them out to her. Once again, she didn’t react despite the way her stomach involuntarily rumbled. Aldric’s gaze flicked down to her stomach then up to the thin collar circling her neck and finally settled back on her glassy eyed stare.
He held the corn cake out closer to her. “You should eat.”
“Yes, sir,” she said and took the cake from his hands. She ate it with small unhurried bites, methodically chewing and fully swallowing each before moving onto the next. When she finished, she placed her hands back in her lap and stared blankly ahead.
Aldric furrowed his brow in thought then held up the waterskin. “Here is some water.” When she did not reply, he reworded the statement. “You should have a drink.”
“Yes, sir,” she replied as before and took the waterskin from him. She took one long drink from the skin then offered it back.
Aldric reached for the skin then stopped, his eyes questioning an idea he was on the cusp of understanding. “Take another drink.”
“Yes, sir.” She did as asked then held the skin out to him.
“Are you thirsty?” he asked.
“No, sir,” she replied, her throat no longer parched.
“Take another drink,” he said instead of taking back the waterskin.
“Yes, sir.” And she did, despite not being thirsty.
Aldric now wore a heavy frown to match his furrowed brow, setting lines in his stony skin that aged his young face considerably. He took the waterskin from her and hung it onto a hook overhead. It swayed from its strap to the wagon’s movement along with Dnara as Aldric looked on in concern.
Sunlight glinted through the wagon’s slatted sideboards and reflected off Aldric’s armor, gilding it with an amber sheen that colored the edges of Dnara’s murky mind. She watched the light as it gave form to shadows. A thought blossomed but quickly wilted under the starstone’s pacifying tenor. Dnara’s mind sank further into the mud, and even Aldric’s concerned expression blurred into nothingness before her eyes. Her world became one of filtered light, hazy shadows, muted sounds and disjointed comprehension.
“When we meet King Lelandis,” Aldric said, “follow my lead. I’ll do my best to explain the situation. He is a fair man, I promise, but sometimes...” Aldric frowned and thought twice about his words. “He has been getting headaches as of late, and with them his patience can be thin. There is much resting on his young shoulders, but he bravely bears the weight of a heavy crown for his kingdom in a hope to keep the blight at bay.”
The wagon jostled onward, creaking wood and clopping hooves breaking apart the silence left as Aldric rubbed his chin in thought. “I suspect Delmurra will be there, too. She’s the Red Covenant’s Grand Mageraetas and has become a trusted advisor to the king. She’s a stern sort and not one you want to cross, so do as she says and be honest with her. If anyone can help you sort out this wind and magic business, it’ll be her. She’s the most powerful mageborne of this age, people say. She’s also the one who’ll decide if you’re innocent, so best stay on her good side, understand?”
“Yes, sir,” Dnara replied, but her monotone response didn’t make Aldric look any less concerned about the meeting to come.
If Dnara could feel anything at all, she would be even more concerned than the commander. She tried pushing past the haze, using the dark blue of Alderic’s eyes as a mooring point in an unfocused world. The starstone hummed at the back of her neck, sending a pulsating shiver up and down her spine. Her muscles locked and her head tingled. Pouring all her effort into one thought, she managed to make one finger twitch.
Aldric’s gaze flicked down to her hand and stared at the finger. She tried to do it again, but the starstone had won the battle. As its buzzing pitch increa
sed, the fog around her vision turned to shadow. The wagon hit a deep rut in the road, jostling its passengers. Dnara slumped forward, exhausted, and let the starstone have its way. Aldric caught her and looked on into the setting sun behind her, worry written deeply upon his expression as the Red Keep’s distant silhouette finally came into view.
“Ancestors,” he whispered, his eyes filled with an uncertainty he had not felt in years. “Please watch over this one, for I fear I may have made a mistake.”
38
Dnara regained awareness as the wagon came to a stop and Aldric lowered its back gate. The collar’s buzzing had subsided, possibly assured she would no longer put up a fight. In all truth, she no longer had the energy to do anything but accept Aldric’s assistance down from the back of the wagon. Stepping onto finely paved, red brick ground, Dnara found herself in the middle of a large circular courtyard barren of all vegetation save for one massive silver leafed oak tree growing from the center. Circling all around were high walls built of giant black stones that must have taken a thousand men to set in place. The stones were so precisely cut, it may not have been men at all, but magic that had built the Red Keep.
“This way,” Aldric said, gently turning her shoulders and facing her away from the walls.
In front of them rose a wide stairway flanked on both sides by armed soldiers, their eyes following her as their heads remained still as statues. The stairs led to a black iron door three times as tall as Aldric, its foreboding exterior barbed and its massive weight moved by pullies connected to a stone wheel pulled by two large oxen. The last soldier on the right stepped out of line and walked to the center of the top step. Aldric stopped halfway up as the soldier saluted.
“Welcome home, Commander.” The soldier hit his fist upon his heart, metal on metal.
“Thank you, Mattias,” Aldric replied. “All is well, I hope?”
“Yes, sir,” Mattias confirmed, his gaze never straying to Dnara. “A full report awaits you in your quarters. There is one matter I would like your input on, sir, once you are settled.”
“Oh?” Aldric questioned.
“Security arrangements for the envoy from Ka’veshi. They should arrive in six days and have a long list of requests.”
Aldric let a small groan slip. “I thought that was still months away. If Ambassador Ja’nesh is with them again, I may have to find some reason to suddenly be in the Grey Marsh.”
Mattias chuckled quietly. “Please, take me with you.”
“Noted,” Aldric replied.
Mattias opened his mouth to say more, hesitated then leaned in with a lowered voice. “Is it true the fires are dying in the east?”
“I see rumor still travels faster than my squadron,” Aldric said, earning a smirk from Mattias.
“The unfortunate way of ravens, sir,” Mattias retorted. “They don’t follow the roads.”
“Speaking of ravens,” Aldric said instead of affirming the rumor. “I need you to send one to Lee’s Mill, directed to Mayor Whitehall.”
“Of course, sir.” Mattias dropped his question about the fires along with his smirk and stood up straight, accepting his commander’s order. “What should the message say?”
Aldric’s fingers gently flexed against the back of Dnara’s shoulder. “Tell him, the girl has reached the Red Keep without harm, as promised, and now resides under the safety of His Majesty’s authority.”
“Understood.” Mattias repeated it once under his breath to commit it to a well-trained memory. “Anything else, sir?”
Aldric thought on it for a moment. “See that an extra provision of the king’s wheat is sent to Lee’s Mill.”
“It will be done, sir.” Mattias saluted again then stepped back in line.
Mattias called out an order to raise the gate. From the wheelhouse nearby, a whip snapped and the oxen set their heads low to pull the great stone mechanism. The door raised upwards with a bellowing groan, revealing sharpened spikes along its bottom and turning the opening gate into a gaping maw. As the door lifted, a narrow iron grate slid into place along the floor, covering the holes carved into the black stones for the gate’s massive teeth. Torchlight flickered beyond, illuminating the darkness, and there to greet them waited the enormous red skull of a once monstrous dragon.
Despite the collar’s control, Dnara’s feet stopped short at the sight. The skull’s bone had a blood red sheen, and the skull’s eyes were black voids larger than her head. Thick was the skull’s brow and sharp were its teeth, some the length of a forearm and others big and flat like paving stones. From the top of its broad crown grew two obsidian horns, shaped much like a bull’s, meant for fighting other dragons over territories that had long ago fallen to the spears of men. The skull’s empty eyes held her in place, her feet on the iron grate and the gate’s teeth rising overhead. Whispers spilled in from the shadows, offering glimpses of flesh and scale and raging fire. The collar’s hold on her waned, her heart pounded, and she lifted a hand towards the once magnificent creature’s remains.
Overhead, the gate clicked loudly into place with an echoing thunder. Torchlight flickered and the whispering shadows scattered. With a hand on her arm, Aldric kept moving, his guiding nudge stealing her moment of clarity away.
Flame-lit lanterns along the walls led the way into the keep. Whatever had extinguished the fires of Lee’s Mill had not reached Carnath’s capitol city nor its king’s castle. The lanterns painted the interior’s red stone walls with patterns made of light and shadow that danced as Dnara and Aldric passed by. From behind, thunder rebounded as the gate slid back into place. There would be no leaving the way she had come without the king’s word, and the collar kept her moving forward with one foot in front of the other towards an unknown fate.
Footsteps approached and into the lantern light stepped Liam. “Sir.” He placed a fist to his heart, glancing to Dnara before meeting his commander’s gaze. “Your request has been accepted. The king waits for you in his chambers. Delmurra is with him.”
“His chambers?” Aldric sounded disquieted by the news.
Liam took a quick look around the hallway where soldiers were stationed at regular intervals. None seemed close but Liam leaned in and lowered his voice. “His headaches have worsened, sir, in the weeks we’ve been gone. He... He doesn’t look well.”
Aldric’s lips set into a heavy frown. “We could wait until morning.”
“His Majesty insisted,” Liam replied.
Aldric considered it for a moment before nodding. “Very well. See to it that the squadron gets fed and rested. There’s no telling how long we’ll have before being sent out again. Then send a messenger to Haden’s Crossing. If Ren can be safely moved, I’d like to have her home.”
“Yes, sir.” Liam hit his fist to his heart then stood aside as Aldric and Dnara walked by.
She could feel the soldier’s concerned eyes following her but she could not offer a glance in return. The mention of Ren’s name touched a place in her heart that felt hollow, but the collar’s insistent buzzing took away the feeling before it could grow to anything more than a dull ache. As she obediently followed Aldric deeper into the keep’s interior, the ache faded into numbness.
Beautiful tapestries were hung along the walls between painted portraits and scenes of distant lands. Long spears, axes, swords and shields served as decorations with a different intent, and every so often the mounted head, claw or bones of defeated beasts filled in the empty spaces. Engraved golden plaques offered names and descriptions, but Dnara’s eyes remained straight ahead, seeing everything and nothing at the same time.
Upon exiting the maze of entryway corridors and entering the keep’s inner sanctum, the hallway widened and a lush crimson carpet padded its center. Lanterns were replaced by large fireplaces providing light as well as heat to ward off the still chilly nights of early spring. Aldric led Dnara on with confident footsteps, knowing his way through these halls and rooms without second thought. What might appear a disorienting configurati
on to an enemy’s invading force served a well-planned castle and home to the half-Orc’kothi commander.
Dnara followed without question, her limbs numb yet moving and her mind trapped within the hazy visions of this chosen path. The collar let her understand that one thing clearly; she had been shown multiple ways forward and she had chosen this one. Given the chance to choose all over again, even knowing what it had cost her, she would still have chosen the collar. The other paths had meant death, to herself or to others. This was the only way forward where lives would be spared, she was certain of it. If the prospect of being forever trapped within the collar’s control frightened her, she could not feel it. At least there was that small boon to be thankful for.
“This way.” Aldric directed her up a wide set of stairs to the keep’s second floor then turned left at the landing.
Dnara stopped suddenly at the top of the stairs, Aldric’s hand slipping from her elbow as the fog lifted from her eyes. Backlit by the final rays of a golden setting sun, a tall stained glass window filled the wall in front of her. It depicted a mighty king with a raised axe in one hand and a spear in the other. Overhead flew a red dragon, and under the point of the spear cowered a dark, hooded figure.
“Impressive, isn’t it?” Aldric said, stopping beside her. “It’s Retgar defeating Demroth with the help of the dragon. I’m sure you know the story?”
She nodded once and stared up at the window in silence. Retgar, the first king and savior of men. She knew his tale, had read his saga. A god who had walked amongst mortals to save them from themselves. Or, if Athan’s belief’s held true, simply a man whose story had become a god-birthing legend through the blurring lens of time.
When the Wind Speaks (Starstone Prophecies Book 1) Page 33