Riverwind p2-1

by Paul B. Thompson

  But it was the topmost terraces that caused the Que-Shu men to gape in awe. Two hundred feet above the basest dwellings rose spires of translucent alabaster and marble. The spires joined together in complexly carved facades, designed to look like knotted cords or the roots of a gigantic tree. The massive columns climbed upwards many hundred feet to the roof of the cavern, there growing into the ancient, vibrant stalactites.

  “Amazing,” said Catchflea at last.

  “There is no other city that can rival it,” Vvelz said proudly. “As diamonds and precious metals are found underground, so the crown jewel of Krynn is found in this cavern.”

  He turned back to the panting diggers and once more called to them in his telepathic voice: Attend and be quick! Push! Though Riverwind heard Vvelz's command, it seemed less intense than before. Perhaps he was getting used to it. The wagon creaked along with Riverwind and Catchflea in its wake.

  Ramps led from the cavern floor up to the first terrace level. The tired diggers faltered on the slope. None of the soldiers stepped out to lighten the load.

  “Can't you do better?” Karn said impatiently to Vvelz. “Spur them on.” The sorcerer clenched his upraised fists.

  Push! Ignore the strain-sweet rest awaits you in the city. Push! Push! He lashed at them psychically. The diggers buried their cut and bleeding feet in the dry cinders of the roadbed. They churned and writhed at the handles, but the grade was too much for them. Finally, Vvelz relented and summoned other diggers to assist.

  Listen who can

  Come hither and bend

  Your backs to our task.

  The vassals of Her Highness

  Are needed with haste.

  Thirty elves, all clad in digger black, filed down the ramp. Some got behind the wagon to push, others packed in around the crowded trace poles to help pull.

  Riverwind dug an elbow in Catchflea's side. “I'm going to help,” he said. The old man unhesitatingly followed the tall warrior. They leaned over the backs of the shorter diggers and planted their hands against the rear of the wagon. The diggers paid them no mind, but the soldiers snickered and made rude comments.

  “Ugh-pay them no mind,” Catchflea said. “Oof!”

  Riverwind narrowed his eyes at the soldiers. “No proper warrior despises hard labor,” he grunted. “No man is better than the work he does with his own hands.”

  The slope eventually vanished, and the wagon rolled forward in a rush. Vvelz dispersed the diggers and stepped down from his place. Karn and the soldiers followed.

  “Why have we stopped?” Karn asked.

  “I thought it would be instructive for the giants to see the city in a more leisurely fashion,” Vvelz replied smoothly. “We can always get more drudges if we need them.”

  The broad street that fronted the terrace was thick with diggers. They paid little attention to Riverwind and Catch-flea, but moved about their tasks with heads downcast and shoulders drooping. Catchflea watched them intently, his wizened face a mix of pity and thoughtful speculation.

  “They have no wills of their own,” Riverwind said. To Vvelz, he added, “Is it magic that keeps them docile?”

  “Certainly not! The common folk of Hest are diligent and loyal to their masters. No magic compunction is necessary. Oh, we do use the Call and the Summons on them, but only to give them direction and purpose. The diggers are docile because they are content.”

  Riverwind could not believe it. He recalled Di An's frantic scramble to resume her place pulling the wagon. Fear made people act that way, not loyalty.

  “Enough idle wagging,” Karn said. He raised his sword an inch out of its scabbard and slammed it back down. “Her Highness awaits!”

  The soldiers formed around the Que-Shu men, two behind and one on each side. Vvelz and Karn led the way. They had not gone half a dozen steps before one of the trailing soldiers called out to Karn.

  “What about this one, sir?”

  Riverwind and Catchflea looked back. Di An still lingered by the wagon. She leaned over the trace pole, panting in exhaustion, but her eyes were bright upon them.

  “Come here, girl,” said Karn. Di An moved quickly to him, but stopped just out of his reach. “Since you're responsible for bringing these outlanders here, you must face Her Highness's judgment.”

  Di An paled. “It was a mistake, noble warrior! I–I did not bring them here! They chased me-”

  “Don't talk back, digger. Get over there.” He gestured to Riverwind. “And don't lag!” Karn barked.

  Karn and Vvelz moved away. The soldiers prodded the plainsmen and Di An into motion.

  Riverwind touched the elf girl's shoulder. She was trembling violently. “Who is this 'Highness'?” he said in a low voice.

  She raised large, terror-filled eyes to him. “Li El, First Light of Hest. A terrible mistress! She will have my head!”

  “Not with us here,” Catchflea said soothingly. “After all, Riverwind is experienced at saving your head.”

  Di An lowered her eyes. “Thank you, giant.”

  He lifted her pointed chin until their eyes met once more. “Riverwind is my name.”

  “Why was Karn trying to shorten you?” asked Catchflea. “What was your crime?”

  “Warriors do not need a crime to slay diggers,” she said grimly. “But what I did was disobey the oldest law in Hest, not to go to the Empty World above.”

  Riverwind asked, “Why did you?”

  Di An glanced at Karn and Vvelz. They were involved in their own conversation ahead. The soldiers lagged behind several paces. Softly, she said, “It is what I do. I am a barren child, so my life is of no value. I am sent up the slow passage to the Empty World to find things we do not have in Hest.”

  The light of recognition dawned on Riverwind. “I see. So all the ordinary goods in that chamber-wood, leather, cloth-you collected because you don't have such things underground?”

  “I did not collect them all. There are other barren children.”

  “If it is forbidden to go above, then who sent you?” Catchflea asked.

  Before she could reply, Vvelz spoke. “See, giants, the foundries and workshops that produce all the marvels you see in Vartoom,” he said proudly.

  The left side of the avenue was lined with low, oval doors and round windows, the sills of which were stained with soot. Inside, sparks danced and fire flared as diggers toiled over crucibles of molten metal. Vvelz gave leave for the humans to have a closer look. Riverwind and Catchflea hunched down and peered in an open window.

  It was stiflingly hot inside. Against a background of flickering flames and acrid smoke, dim figures moved with the stiff motions of clockwork puppets. A bar of red-hot metal was drawn from a furnace by two elves with tongs. A gang of four diggers fell to beating it with hammers. Fire splashed around the cramped room like errant raindrops.

  Catchflea backed away quickly. His face was red and sweat had trickled into his beard. “By the gods, I'm baked!” he exclaimed.

  Riverwind blotted his face with his leather wristbands. “Not even the dwarf smiths of Thorbardin live and work in such an inferno.”

  Vvelz entwined his fingers and regarded them beneficently. “Here in Hest we wrest the finest metals from the ground. We make everything we require in these foundries.”

  Ramps and stairs of stone led from the Avenue of Foundries, as Vvelz called it, to the next, higher terrace, the Avenue of Artificers. The diggers were just as numerous here, but instead of smoke and fire, the street resounded with hammer strikes and the clatter of machinery. Again, the sorcerer bade the Que-Shu men look in any window. They saw elves making chain, drawing wire, and hammering bronze and copper into thin plates.

  “Do you notice,” Catchflea said in the barest whisper, “there are few children about?”

  “There's Di An.”

  “She's no child, whatever she says. I mean little ones.”

  Riverwind knew the old soothsayer was right. He asked Vvelz about the lack of children.

  �
�There have not been many children born these past years,” the sorcerer said thoughtfully. “I believe it's due to-”

  “Mind your tongue,” Karn said, tersely. “Her Highness will tell the outlanders what she wants them to know.”

  The third terrace was the Avenue of Weavers. There, fine wire was woven into copper or tin “cloth.” By brushing on certain chemicals, the metal cloth could be colored. Riverwind saw mounds of black-dyed copper, the universal wear of the diggers.

  Soldiers became more numerous as they ascended the city levels. The common soldiers showed great deference to the officers. Karn was evidently a high personage, as ranks parted for him and armed elves stood at attention while he passed.

  The sixth terrace was called the Place of Swords. Here there were no diggers at all, only soldiers in bright steel or burnished brass. Vvelz explained that the differences they saw in armor and helmets was due to the different regiments in the army, or Host.

  “I don't like this,” Riverwind muttered. “All these swords, and us with only our bare hands.”

  “Be easy, tall man. There's no obvious threat yet,” said Catchflea.

  'Tell that to Di An.”

  The girl was trembling so badly now that Riverwind had to brace her with his arm. Vvelz and Karn led the little band to the center of the street of the sixth terrace. There, guards with drawn swords stood on each side of a monumental gate, its supporting columns made from naturally formed, gigantic quartz crystals. They raised their short-bladed swords in salute as Karn approached.

  “Inform Her Highness that I have returned, with prisoners,” Karn announced.

  “Guests,” Vvelz corrected.

  Karn glared. “We shall see.”

  One guard departed with Karn's message. He returned a few minutes later with a single-word answer: “Come.”

  “I am afraid!” Di An declared, trying to pull back.

  Catchflea ruffled her short, stiff hair with one hand. “The gods are merciful,” he said, looking down into her frightened eyes.

  “So men say,” Riverwind said. “I hope it's true.”

  Through the gate was a long colonnade of quartz crystals, open to the air. Honor guards lined the way, their closed visors embossed to resemble the faces of lions. The elves' metal shoes clanked loudly on the brilliant mosaic floor, which was made up of millions of tiny garnets, peridots, and amethysts. A second gate, twenty feet tall and made of riveted iron plates, swung inward as they came near.

  Within, the palace was dim, as a heavy vaulted stone ceiling blotted out the brazen “sun.” Statues of Hestite warriors filled the entry hall, all larger than life and wearing complete suits of armor. Each statue bore the name of a dead warrior: Ro Drest, Teln the Great, Karz the Terrible, Ro Welx. All looked stern and soldierly. None looked sympathetic.

  The entry hall ended with a vaulted passage that led into the next hall. A blazing hearth, ten feet in diameter, dominated the far end of the room. More curious were the scores of blue globes mounted on carved stone pedestals on each side of the walkway. The tallest pedestals were nearer the walls, the shortest close to the center path. The display was solemn and arresting.

  “What are these things?” Riverwind said. “I thought they were lamps.”

  “Perhaps they are, and this is some kind of shrine,” Catchflea said. Di An was too frightened to say anything.

  “What are you mumbling about there?” Karn asked.

  “These globes, they are lamps, yes?”

  Karn laughed unpleasantly. “This is just a collection of old relics,” he said. He laughed scornfully.

  Vvelz frowned. “They are lights indeed,” he remarked, not looking at Karn. “Very old, some of them.”

  “Why are some dark?” asked the plainsman.

  The sorcerer's gaze slanted at him. “In time, all lights go out,” was all he said.

  At the hearth Riverwind noticed that, while the fire blazed as high as his chest, it did not crackle, spark, or hiss like all the fires he'd ever seen. Moving closer still, he discovered it gave off no heat. In the midst of the flames were bright, glowing piles of coals.

  “What sort of fire burns without heat or smoke?” Riverwind queried.

  “This is the Hall of Light,” Vvelz said. “The sorcerers of Hest created this magic fire centuries ago. In all that time it has not diminished.”

  “What does it burn?” Catchflea wondered aloud.

  “I do not know,” Vvelz confessed. “The parchments upon which the secret was written decayed long ago. Only the fire remains, silent and cold.” An expression like sadness or pain passed quickly over his face, vanishing when Karn called after them.

  “Come along,” the soldier said impatiently. “Her Highness awaits.”

  They circled the hearth, and behind it was another huge door. Lion-faced guards opened the door for them. The room beyond was circular, thirty paces wide, and the ceiling was domed. The surface of the dome was a vast mosaic, showing a heroic figure leading a haggard group of elves from a shattered town to a hole in the ground.

  “Karn? Is that you? Come forward.” It was a light voice, female, that came from no certain direction, yet filled the domed room. Karn replied with great courtesy, and preceded the others into the room.

  They entered to the sound of chimes and splashing water. Neither chimes nor water was visible. A delicate aroma drifted in the air, not like flowers exactly, more like the freshness that sunlight imparted to morning air. The center of the room was screened from view by a circular wall of golden drapes, hanging from linked brass posts. Riverwind could just see over the top of the curtains. Something glittering and golden moved inside the screened area.

  Karn drew aside a drape. Vvelz, Riverwind, Catchflea, and Di An entered. The elf girl immediately threw herself on the polished floor, face pressed against the cold mosaic. Riverwind looked straight at the figure before them, but it took him a few seconds to realize what he was seeing.

  Seated on a sculpted stone couch was a beautiful elven woman. Her milk-white face was framed by a golden hood that fell to her shoulders, covering her hair. The hood was cut out to reveal her ears, which were high and tapering. Gold beads of decreasing size studded the shell of each ear. Her lips were painted deep red. The rest of her figure was lost in the elaborate folds of her golden garment, a loose clerical robe woven of hair-thin gold wire.

  Karn dropped to one knee. “Gracious Highness,” he said with verve, “I have brought you these prisoners, whom I captured deep in the southern caves.”

  “Lost foreigners,” Vvelz said smoothly. “Innocent travelers, who perchance fell into your realm, Li El.”

  Absolutely emotionless eyes passed over the Que-Shu men. “Which is it, then? Intruders or victims?” Karn opened his mouth to give an opinion, but Li El transfixed him with a single upraised finger. Her eyes fastened on Riverwind. “Speak, giant. You alone.”

  Riverwind swallowed and found it unexpectedly difficult to make a sound. Was it fear, or was it the beauty of that unwavering gaze?

  “Your Highness,” he began, “I am Riverwind, son of Wanderer, and this is my friend, Catchflea. It is entirely a trick of fate that we are here now.”

  Li El leaned back on her couch. The smell of a sunlit morning intensified. She said, “Who tricked you then?”

  “We were camping in the mountains when we were robbed in the night. Hearing a thief, we gave chase, then fell down a deep shaft. Some unseen hand supported us, and we arrived in your domain, unharmed by the fall.”

  Li El slowly clenched a hand into a fist. “Karn, did you locate this shaft?” she said with icy precision.

  “No, my lady-”

  “Why not?”

  The warrior's face paled inside his helmet. “I-we- caught this thief-” He indicated the cringing Di An with his foot. “-and shortly thereafter captured these outland giants. I thought it best to return to you at once.”

  The queen of Hest stood abruptly. All the pleasant sensations in the dome were gone: the chime
s and splashing water were silent. “The shaft, foolish Karn, is more important than a digger girl or a pair of giant barbarians. All the old slow passages were supposed to have been closed a half-century ago. How is it this one escaped our notice?” She never raised her voice above a conversational level, but Karn winced under Li El's questioning like a slave under a lash.

  “I will return at once, Highness! With twenty warriors, I will find this cursed shaft, and-”

  “You will do nothing until I give you leave,” Li El declared. The short hairs on the back of Riverwind's neck prickled, and a new aroma reached his nose-incense, sharp and spicy. The sounds and smells, he deduced, must be controlled by Li El's magic.

  To Vvelz, the queen said, “What do you know of this affair, brother?”

  Vvelz waved a hand carelessly. “Not very much. I was waiting for the return of Karn's troops, as you ordered, when I snagged this digger running out of the tunnel. She babbled some wild tale about giants. When Karn entered the upper cavern, I met him and put the amulets on the out-landers so they could converse and understand us.”

  “Very convenient, that,” Karn muttered.

  “As for the shaft, as you said, dear sister, all of them were closed by your edict fifty years ago.”

  Li El sat down in a crush of crinkling gold cloth. “Were they? I wonder.”

  “No one could create a new one,” Vvelz remarked. “No one but you.”

  Karn couldn't stand it any longer. “Your Highness, what is to be done with the outlanders?”

  “Done? Why should anything be done? This barren child did not act of her own will; someone commands her. Exactly who, we will discover.” Di An's breath caught in an audible gasp. “She led these humans here. Do you propose I execute them for trying to recover their property, or for stumbling in the dark?”