“Enough talk,” Creagon added before Bandor could question him further. With a large swig, he emptied his mug of ale and stood. “I will leave you to rest. In the morning you will go to meet the Gaergaen. He would like to welcome the visitors to his village.”
Bandor rose also and walked with Creagon to the door of the tavern. “We thank you again for your generosity,” he said.
“You can thank the Gaergaen in the morning,” Creagon replied. “It is his generosity.” He turned and departed with the six warriors behind him.
Bandor closed the door and returned to the fire. “This may sound a little strange,” he said, “but when the door opened, I thought I saw Undeani warriors with spears standing out in the snow guarding the door. They disappeared quickly of course.”
Another long silence followed as the companions sat looking at one another. Then Cane spoke. “This is ridiculous. What more could we ask for? What did you all wish for during the storm today? What could be wrong?”
“Why are we being watched?” Noab asked.
“Nobody said we are being watched. If Bandor saw anybody at all, they were just as likely standing guard to protect us. Or maybe they were waiting there for Creagon.”
“In which case they would be gone now,” Bandor said casually.
Everybody stared at him, then at one another. “Okay. Easy enough to check,” Cane said. He rose and strode to the door. He paused an instant with his hand on the handle before he swung it open and peered outside. Then he shut the door and returned with a smug smile. “If anybody had been there, then they are gone now. Just because Braga and his people were hostile doesn’t mean we should expect it everywhere. How many of us really know the Undeani, anyway? Even Theo and Bandor confess to knowing little about them.”
“True enough,” Bandor admitted. “All we hear as children may stem from old hostilities. Perhaps the Undeani say the same of the Andani.”
Several others nodded. They settled back down with a few attempts at conversation. Aram commented again on the ale. The Ceadani returned to talking among themselves in a corner near the fire. Nahoon spoke briefly with Namha in the strange tongue of their tribe. Even in the stoic expression of the Amanti, Elynna could see a hidden sadness. She knew he had many reasons for it, but whatever words he spoke, she did not understand, and she did not ask Nahoon to translate.
Marti had moved to another corner and spoke to Keet in a low voice. He had given his brother a knife and some warmer garb but also warned him several times to stay out of the way. The Northlanders played a game involving the tossing of colored stones into a circle drawn on the floor. It was the first time Elynna had seen her companions play since the quest began, and she was fascinated to watch how the game was played. Soon she, Falien, Pietr, Theo, Lluach, and Alrew watched as Hruach, Hrevia, Cathros, Aram, and Kayle played.
“It will be interesting to meet this chieftain—the Gaergaen,” Cane commented as he made a winning throw of the red stone. “Creagon said he has protected the village from the Daegmon. Could it be he is also one of the gifted? Or that he wields some other power as great as ours?”
Nobody answered. “Maybe we should ask Creagon,” Cathros suggested a short time later. However Creagon did not return again that evening, neither to talk more nor to gather the leftover food as he had said he would. For that Elynna was thankful, for by nightfall she and several of her companions were hungry again, and they consumed the remaining morsels of food. Nonetheless, some of them would have felt more comfortable if they could have asked a few more questions of their host.
“Who’s going to venture out in the storm to find him?” Cane asked. Again there was no answer. Sometime later they did discover a large wooden bolt hidden behind a woodbin in the corner of the room. Cathros tested it and found that it slid into channels in the door frame, providing some extra security—at least against human intrusion. After that, Elynna’s companions, one by one, found places to lie down.
Elynna was one of the last to claim an empty bench and wrap herself in a blanket. Though she heard the snoring of companions all around her when she lay down, sleep eluded her. After an hour or more, she was still wide awake, and she knew why. The Daegmon had again come closer or made its presence known. Her spine tingled all night with the sense of its nearness.
Once, she rose in a near panic thinking it was attacking, but it didn’t come. She threw wood on the fire and lay down again. Not until the late hours of the night did her mind finally give way to exhaustion and allow her to fall into sleep.
34
IN THE LIGHT OF A COLD DAWN
Morning came, and Elynna was woken by impatient pounding on the door of the hall. She sprang upright and looked around, then realized that the others were just now awakening also—all except Namha, who already stood near the fire dressed and armed, staring at the bed of orange coals. Exhausted from their trek, she and her companions had slept late. While the pounding continued at the door, Elynna rose along with her companions, donned her boots, and, following the example of Namha, grabbed her weapons.
After all the companions were dressed and armed, Cane went to the door and slid the bolt free. Creagon stepped in. Several warriors came with him and even more waited outside. Outside it was light and the snow had stopped falling. Though the air blasting through the door was cold, the sky was blue.
Creagon glared at his guests for a few moments. Was he annoyed at having been locked out of his own hall? But after a moment he smiled. “The Gaergaen awaits. I will lead you to the great hall.” He paused and then added, “You do not need your weapons. They would be”—he stopped as though searching for a word—“an offense to his generous hospitality. We will wait outside for you. Dress quickly and come join us. Do not delay overlong.” He disappeared outside with his followers.
Elynna’s thoughts filled with unease—with an awareness of intense malice—even as her nerves burned with an unusually powerful sense of her enemy’s presence. Her distrust of Creagon was growing also. “I don’t care what Creagon says or what the Gaergaen thinks,” she said to the others. “The Daegmon is near. Bring your weapons.”
She could see the apprehension in the faces of her companions as they took in this news. “This man, Creagon,” Noab said. “He speaks lies. I can taste them. They are bitter in my mouth. I do not know what he intends for us, but it is not good. When we leave here, we walk into danger.”
Cane nodded. “That may be. But we have little choice, I think. We are in just as much danger if we stay. If they wanted to, they could set fire to this place.”
Little choice, Elynna thought. Again. But then she remembered Tienna’s words and knew it wasn’t true. She had a choice. And she chose to go on.
It was as though the Daegmon sensed her resolve, for the malice of its thoughts seemed to double. She felt as if she had stepped into a furnace or been wrapped in the arms of a giant balloon fish. But Cane stood beside her. He took her by the arm, more gently than she expected, and just held her for a moment. She could feel the new power flowing through him. She was still aware of her enemy’s malice, but the intensity of the pain broke like the passing of a fever.
She took a moment longer to regather herself, then nodded to Cane. He let go. The next step, she thought. She knew that the lessening of the pain did not mean their enemy was gone or that their danger had decreased. It was nearby. Waiting.
Elynna looked at her companions. They glanced about nervously, as though Cane’s words might become true, and the place might burst into flames. They began to move quickly. Elynna grabbed her pack and her bow. She was glad to see the others grabbing their weapons without any further urging from her or Noab.
When all of them had dressed and armed, Cane led the procession out the door. Nine or ten inches of fresh snow lay on the ground, but the blizzard had long since passed, and Elynna got her first real view of the Undeani village. It was no more than a quarter the siz
e of Tanengog. A dozen small wooden houses sat in a circle around three larger halls. A number of smaller sheds, barns, and coops made a second concentric circle outside the first. There wasn’t much room for the village to grow; steep slopes rose on all sides except the east. The back of several of the barns butted against a steep rocky outcropping. Elynna realized that in the blizzard they had somehow marched right into a spur of the northern peak of the Twin Mountains. From the doorway of the hall she had to crane her head to see the summit.
Elynna had little time to look around, however. Creagon was waiting. About forty more warriors spread out in a wide half circle around Elynna and her companions. Was this an escort for guests or guards for prisoners? she wondered. She feared the latter, and her heart pumped faster. But she could do nothing now.
Almost immediately Creagon turned and began walking through the village toward the west where two ridges came together in a corner.
Tienna walked beside Elynna. “There are no women here,” she said in a quiet voice. “No children either.”
The observation only heightened Elynna’s fears. What type of trap awaited them, she did not know. But the Daegmon was there—that, she knew. And they had come to fight it.
They continued around the third of the three large halls. There Elynna saw something that, for all her will to continue, made her pause. Built into the rock face of the mountain stood a great stone building, twice as large as the one they had slept in. Its high arched entrance, thirty feet wide and fifteen feet high, looked like a giant mouth.
Then it struck again—another searing pain in her spine. Once more she crumpled to the ground in agony. This was no mere probing of her mind; this was an assault. She had felt no attacks that intense since the company had acquired the mysterious stone.
Tienna was at Elynna’s side in an instant. “What is it?”
As quickly as it came, the scent of the Daegmon disappeared. Elynna lay still for a few seconds before she answered. “The Daegmon. It is close. Did you feel anything?”
Tienna shook her head. “Something perhaps. Something ill coming from over there.” She nodded toward the large building. “But I don’t know.”
Cane reached down and took Elynna’s hand. “Is it attacking?” he asked as he helped lift her to her feet.
“It is very near.” Elynna groaned.
“The Gaergaen awaits,” Creagon called. If he noticed their weapons, he gave no indication of it. His face was pale. He and the other Undeani soldiers looked nervously about them, shifting their weight. Elynna knew at once that they were afraid. Afraid of her and her companions? Or of something else?
“I tell you again, something is wrong,” Noab whispered softly. “Creagon is hiding something from us.”
But Elynna did not need Noab’s gifts to see this.
“We have nothing to fear now,” Cane said confidently. He put one hand on the stone at his neck and the other hand upon his blade. A flicker of blue flame ran up his fingers.
Creagon called them once more, and Cane followed him through the village toward the large hall, with the others close behind.
Elynna now fought the growing panic that came with the awareness of her enemy. She would have turned and fled, but she could feel also the opposing power coming from Cane—the hidden source of strength that lessened the terror of their enemy. She tried not to let her fear show. “We are getting closer,” she said loudly. “I feel it. I think it waits within.”
Her companions drew their weapons and peered up at the rocky ridges above them, enclosing them. Marti pulled his young brother in close beside him. It dawned on Elynna then—they hadn’t found a place for Keet to hide. Creagon and his people hadn’t given them a chance. Run, she wanted to yell at them, but there was nowhere to run. And nothing Elynna could do for them.
Trembling, she turned her attention back to the great door in front of them. Cane put his hand out to steady her. The strength flowed from him and from the stone, but though it warded off the panic, she was not comforted. The Daegmon’s strength was great also—greater than she had ever felt it. The very mountain seemed to bear the awful weight of their enemy’s presence, as though it had become the mountain. Or the mountain had become their enemy.
“Should we warn the Undeani?” Theo asked.
“I think they already know,” Cathros replied. Elynna looked around. The Undeani had drawn their weapons. Soon Cathros was the only one not armed. Still, Cane, Cathros, Elynna, and their companions marched onward to the entrance to the hall—the great gaping stone mouth.
There they stopped.
Inside, the hall was even larger than it looked, stretching a hundred feet back under the mountain. Dozens of torches illuminated strange paintings on the walls and ceiling—images of fire, distorted or grotesque human figures, as well as various odd geometric patterns painted in dark colors. Unlike the aged tapestries that had decorated the halls in Gale Enebe, these paintings looked new. Several empty benches lined the cold stone walls. Between the benches a path led up the middle of the hall to a high dais at the far end.
Elynna’s eyes were drawn there. Upon that dais, seated in a large stone throne, sat the one Elynna assumed was the Gaergaen. He was a tall man—taller than any of the Undeani but with the same facial features. He wore a dark-red robe inset with jewels, and a heavy crown sat upon his head. His right hand rested on the arm of his throne, but in his left he held a wooden staff.
Elynna knew at once what it was and why she had felt such a strong sense of the Daegmon’s presence.
“Look out,” she warned. “He is one of them.” Her voice echoed in the stone building.
Cane looked at her oddly. “One of whom?”
Before Elynna could answer, the man raised his hand. Elynna was struck with a searing heat. She stumbled back a step, and several seconds passed before she could answer. “One of the Daegmon. Like Koranth.”
35
KREANA
Thimeon sat in silence astride his mount for several minutes and considered Jhaban’s arguments as the others waited. The prince looked at him. But many of the others watched the prince.
“What will it be, Prince?” the duke finally asked. “I am not one to rush my commander into a decision, but we’ll be safer if we get off this road or at least kept moving. I don’t think Koranth will give up searching for us. Especially if that sword is as great a talisman as your old counselor thinks, and Koranth finds out we’ve escaped with it.”
The prince nodded, but he gave no answer. After a minute he said to Thimeon in a low voice, “I know little about this war we are now running toward. I trust you to lead us. But I will also tell you that Armas is right. It is not safe to stay still for long.”
“Yes,” Thimeon answered with an absent nod. His thoughts were not there, on the road. They were with his former company. Were they still in the Plains? Had they traveled north into the Undeani Mountains? Was Golach still after them? Another minute passed as the company fidgeted. Finally the Andan guide turned to the prince. “It may be that Koranth has other things to worry about,” he said, more to himself than to anyone else. “But even if he cares little about you, I think he will be after the sword if he finds that we have it. And the book. In any case, we are still too far away to help them.”
“Help who?” asked Armas.
“Hmm?” Thimeon said, barely aware he’d been speaking aloud. Then he looked around at the others, eventually resting his eyes on Jhaban. A memory of his little sister, Siarah, and their family farm near Aeti flashed across his thoughts. “After so many days away from home, it would be difficult for me to pass within half a day’s ride of Aeti and not make the detour to see my sister and my home. Let us follow Jhaban to his home city.”
Jhaban smiled, and a collective sigh of relief came over the company. The Southland lieutenant wasted no time taking the lead, and the others followed. Leaving the northern trade rout
e, they took the right fork and started down the Kreana road. Thimeon, the last to follow, took one more long look northward up the looming slopes of the southern range of the Ceadani mountains. Then he turned his horse and went after the others.
The way was smooth and well traveled, though narrower and more winding than the road they had just left. Over the next two hours they descended several hundred feet through coastal hills of red rock and stunted conifers. And as they descended, the smell of the sea grew stronger and the air moister, until rounding a bend in the road, they came to the top of a long, straight descent, and Thimeon saw Kreana spread out below them.
Thimeon had been there once many years earlier. The coastal city lay at the mouth of the Ana River, a cold freestone stream flowing down out of the highlands through the Ana Notch. In the late spring and early summer, when the snows were melting in the Ceadani mountains, the river became a raging torrent carrying silt and ice. But now it was placid. It emptied into a wide and deep bay, sheltered by a row of narrow islands half a mile out from the mouth. On the northeast side of the bay lay the docks and warehouses of the city, where merchants’ offices and trading centers could be found. To the southwest, across the river mouth, lay the residences and smaller shops. A single stone bridge, wide and sturdy and anchored by a pair of piers in the middle, spanned the river about a third of a mile upstream of the city, carrying a continual flow of traffic from one side to the other. A handful of ox-driven ferries carried the rest of the traffic by a more direct route across the water.
Thimeon rode up beside the prince and followed Jhaban, who led the company down the hill and over the bridge to the southwest side of the city. His family’s house stood on a hill a hundred yards up from the water. It was one of the larger estates of Kreana, with several barns and other outbuildings, surrounded by an eight-foot-high wall. Jhaban rode up to the front gate with Thimeon and Prince Dhan beside him, and the others spread out behind them along the street.
The Betrayed Page 34