“Drop your weapons!” The largest of the men walked to Premoran and pointed his sword at his nose. “No tricks,” he warned. “Come with us and you won’t get hurt,” he demanded.
Alemar calmed Giles with a look as she pulled her dagger out from her belt and tossed it on the ground.
“That’s a good girl,” he smirked. “Now the rest of you. Strangers aren’t common here, and they’re not welcome!” he stated bluntly.
“I have nothing to surrender,” Teetoo said.
“Neither do I. Unless you want to strip an old man of his only source of support,” Premoran said, leaning heavily upon his staff.
Giles removed his bow from his shoulder and dropped it in front of him along with the quiver and arrows. He drew his sword from its sheath and tossed it to the ground, followed by a slim dagger from his cuff and another he drew from the middle of his back.
“Check him,” the leader ordered the soldier beside him who patted Giles down to the sound of his snarls.
“The roads are dangerous these days,” Premoran explained. “We’d be fools to travel unarmed.”
“If you’re lying to me, you’ll regret it. I’ll slit your throats sooner than throw you in jail,” he grumbled. “Follow us. And don’t try anything funny!”
Chapter Thirty-five
Caroline’s eyes were filled with sand. She could scarcely see anything and when she tried to rub them, they burned and teared. She felt Dalloway next to her, and it soothed her despite her fear.
“Be careful Daly,” she said, blinking out the grains. She pulled a handkerchief from inside of her tunic and dabbed his eyes while he straightened his arms and tested his muscles. “We fell a long way.” She looked backwards. “The sand cushioned our fall. That arch has to be a hundred feet above us now.” The exposed stonework loomed dangerously.
“What about the people you sensed?” The fall hadn’t made him forget for long. “Where are they now?” They struggled to their feet, stumbling on the loose surface.
“It was an animal, not a person. I don’t feel it anymore.” She closed her eyes. “We’re too far. The beast suffered… badly,” her voice wavered. “If I could have spoken to it, maybe I’d know more. The images were awful,” she shuddered. “It was a horse. Its experiences were horrible. Its rider was cruel and the things it witnessed…” she shuddered. “Animals see things differently than we do. They don’t judge. When I speak with them or see what they’ve seen, I know their masters too.” Her voice was hushed, cautious.
“Don’t try again,” he warned her. “I almost lost you, Caroline.”
“I couldn’t help it. But I’m learning. I’m stronger,” she held her chin up, undaunted. “This one’s master was wicked.” She ground one palm against the other, remembering.
Dalloway separated her hands. “If the horse is here, its rider’s probably not far behind. Let’s get moving. We know we’re not alone anymore.” The stakes had changed. They were too exposed here.
“I don’t think whoever was riding that animal felt my presence. I would have known. I would have seen him. But what would bring one of Colton’s hunters here if not for the map?” she asked.
Dalloway pulled on her arm. “Come on,” he replied, sand falling from their garments as they walked. “If this is one of the western gates, we’re headed in the right direction.” I know we’re headed in the right direction. I’m sure of it.
“Look there!” She pointed to a sea of weathered slate roofs. “Isn’t that the water the sun’s shining on?” Off to the west was an endless expanse of gray. “I’ve never seen the sea, Dalloway.” Her mouth hung open. “Is it always so dark?”
“It looks like it,” he said, following her eyes. It is the sea. It is. “When I went to Merala da for the first time, I had the same reaction. From a distance, it looked as if you could walk on it, and then when you got closer, you could see how unstable it really was.” It was darker than he remembered. “When we get closer, maybe the color will change.”
“It’s everywhere,” Caroline said, awestruck at the vastness of it.
“Deadly too,” his mood changed. So deadly.
“We don’t need to travel on it. We only need to find the well,” she reminded him.
“Elfin legend has it that we’ll sail the sea when the world comes to an end. I’ve never wanted to go on a ship,” he said. “My brothers made fun of me. I was afraid when we climbed aboard. I thought I’d never again step foot upon the earth,” he admitted.
“The world’s not ending so soon, Daly,” she replied, but her own words made her skin chill. She rubbed her arms with her hands. “Let’s go before they find us.” The novelty passed and reality returned. “We should walk to the shoreline beyond those buildings. Can you see where the land meets the sea?”
Dalloway stared out over the outskirts of the city. “The buildings extend almost to the water. I can see the docks jutting out into the waves,” he described. Why am I so sure? “I see something like a bridge running from one of them, but it’s being washed over by the water. It might be broken or ruined, I can’t tell. I see it and then it disappears with the waves.” It’s a bridge. I know it’s a bridge.
“So let’s go there then.”
He took her hand. “There’s a path over this mound. It looks like it leads to the docks.” To the docks. The sea.
They climbed up the pile of sand and jogged down the other side of it. When they reached the bottom, they could see the path set with broad stones he saw from above. It was covered in spots, but it wound through the low buildings that lay ahead, and was clear enough for them to follow.
“Come on,” he hurried her along. “These were warehouses. Odelot was a trading city. The ships came in from everywhere and left their cargo here for distribution,” Dalloway explained. How do I know this?
“They’re enormous! This whole city is huge. All these people living together,” she couldn’t imagine it. “And now they’re gone.”
They reached the edge of the first structure they saw from above, and the path continued on beside it into the shadows of the flanking buildings.
“Odelot was one of the biggest, busiest cities one day, and the next it was deserted. No one knows what happened. There were no bodies and no conqueror. Whoever was here at the time died or disappeared along with the city.” Why is this so familiar? I don’t remember learning so much about Odelot.
“Amazing,” Caroline said, moved by it all. “It feels so strange. Everything’s dead. I sense nothing now, nothing. What about all the ships? If the harbor was such a busy one, wouldn’t there have been ships coming and going all the time?”
“There should have been, but none remained and none ever arrived at other ports with any information. The entire city could have sailed away and not come back,” Dalloway replied. Someone must have told this to me, but I can’t remember when. Or who. “The city just died one day, and this is what remained.” And everyone’s gone. His eyes flashed to the water. Almost everyone.
“It’s inconceivable, isn’t it?” she asked. They walked through the empty marketplace and deserted storage buildings, keeping to the shadows… but not too close to the walls. “All of the people gone.”
“I don’t understand it either. There aren’t any signs of war, or fighting. The city’s untouched, but the people are gone, and the animals. Everything alive is gone!” Not everything, he said to himself and he recoiled at his own thoughts. Where are these ideas coming from? I’ve seen this before. But how is this possible? He kept his thoughts to himself.
The city was unusual enough when they first entered it, but this area was even stranger. Most of it was still exposed, and though the black sand was everywhere, it was more ephemeral and less substantial here than in the city proper, finer, more powdery. It wafted over everything and coated the surfaces with an iridescent shadow, but it didn’t bury the structures as thoroughly as it did before. They kept moving toward the sea.
This path. I’ve walked this path. No! I co
uldn’t. I couldn’t. He looked away from Caroline. His eyes would betray him.
Wooden crates and storage bins were piled up wherever they looked. Empty wagons, harnesses hanging limp in the vacant spaces in front of them, stood motionless on the streets up and down the docks. Doors swung open and shut noiselessly, revealing glimpses of the insides of the buildings, covered in blankets of shimmering black particles. A breeze stirred the sand and the sand spiraled in the air.
They reached the sea wall. The hulks of a hundred ships, crumbled upon themselves and sunk into the shallow waters where they had been anchored, framed the horizon. The beams and masts poked the sky in all directions, like the skeletons of dead and broken animals. Disintegrating ropes hung from thick posts on the shore and dangled in the lapping water.
“If we step on any of those docks…” Dalloway pointed to a wooden frame that jutted out into the sea, “…they’d turn to dust at the first touch.” And fall into the sea. What’s in the sea? he wondered. Who’s in the sea? He couldn’t stop the images.
“They would,” Caroline agreed. She looked toward the center of the city.
“What is it?” Dalloway caught her glance. “Is someone there?”
“I don’t know,” she replied, uncomfortable. “I don’t think so.” Her eyes lingered on the hill behind them. “Didn’t you say you saw something before that looked like it was solid?” She turned away and stepped forward again.
“I thought I did,” he replied. It’s there. It’s there under the water. I know it. “But I don’t see it anymore. Maybe the tide’s coming in and covering it over.” I’ve seen this tide come in. A killing tide.
“No, it’s going out. Look at the beach.” They could see the drying sand as the water flowed out. “Where did you see it? To the left or to the right?” Caroline asked, worried, but he didn’t answer. “Daly? Are you okay?” She reached out to him.
“To the right. Over there,” he pointed. Can’t let her know. He stood up straighter. What’s going on? This is like a dream. “You don’t sense anything, do you?” he asked, forcing the words.
“No. And you don’t see anything, do you?” her hand trembled and she pressed it against her side.
“No. If something moves, we’d spot it easily, unless it moved with the same rhythm as the sand blows. But we’d better keep our wits about us.” My wits! I’d better keep my wits. What’s happening to me?
Caroline looked out at the water and her face soured. “It’s so sad.”
The motion of the waves coming and going so steadily, taking with them more and more of the city, more and more of the past, was depressing. He could see her reacting to it. Could see it in her face. The water prevailed. It pounded the shore, relentless, cruel and unfeeling.
“I think it was the sea that swept over the city and took everything away with it,” she said dreamlike.
“How could the water take only the living and leave all the other things behind? It has no mind of its own.” But it does. I feel it. She’s right… she’s right. Must guard my feelings.
“Maybe something possessed it, took control of it. Maybe it did have a mind and a will for that one moment.”
“Nothing’s strong enough to do that.” Nothing? He made himself speak calmly. He wouldn’t frighten her more now. “No wizard can command the seas.” Was there someone? Who did this? What did this?
Caroline’s hand shielded her eyes. “Why would the earth turn against this place? What did they do to deserve this?”
“I wish I had an answer, Caroline, but I don’t. Maybe they all wanted to leave.” No. They didn’t. They didn’t want to die. None of them wanted to die. He heard the screaming in his head.
“Could the well have something to do with it? Has anyone visited it since Odelot… since this happened?” she asked.
“No,” he replied without thinking. He knew no one had come back. He knew. “There would have been no reason to. People avoid this city.”
“What’s so special about this well then? Why do we have to throw the map down it? We never asked that. Where does it lead to? Is there something terrible down there? In the water?” she asked. She dropped his hand and her arms hung at her side as she stared into the sea.
“The water won’t hurt us.” It won’t. Not us. Not… “Let’s just find the well. We’ll know what to do then. I’m sure we will,” he replied. “I saw the jetty over there. Come on, walk faster. The path will take us right to it,” he urged. Right to it.
They jogged down the road until they reached the dock. Dalloway stared out at the water. “There it is! I see it. It’s mostly underwater. When the tide goes out we’ll be able to walk on it.” I walked on it. I waited for the tide, and then I walked on it. He remembered. He saw the rocks. He was here before. But I couldn’t have. It wasn’t me. These aren’t my memories. They belong to someone else. To… to…. Sidra? Sidra? The truth hit him. She’d been here . His heart beat fast, hard.
“Where does it lead? What if it strands us out in the water? Can you see anything, Daly? Tell me.” She tugged on his arm.
“I think so,” he replied, squinting his eyes. “There’s a building at the end, a domed building out in the water.” It’s the well. She saw it. Sidra saw it.
“That must be it!” she said, excited. “That must be the well.”
“The tide’s going out. We have to wait.” He was certain now. Like she waited. The tide went out and the well rose up. And then the tide came back in… “Duck behind here. If anyone’s here, they won’t be able to see us,” he said and reached for her hand. He sat against one of the posts the ships tied themselves to when the city was still alive. Their bodies disappeared behind it. He pulled his knees up to his chest. Caroline sat down in front of him and leaned against his legs. He wrapped his arms around her.
It won’t be long. He knew.
Chapter Thirty-six
On the hill below, the sands shifted with the breeze. Beolan and Maringar approached the city with caution. Their eyes stung, their muscles hurt, but they couldn’t rest. Beolan saw the pain on Maringar’s face. The Troll had hurt him and their furious ride only made the suffering worse. Beolan had bound them and seared the deepest of the cuts with a hot blade, but he couldn’t mend the broken bones. Beolan slid his fingers into his shirt and touched the cold metal of the key. This was what kept them going. It was why they were here.
They hadn’t seen anyone or anything since they left the flooded gorge behind. The countryside was quiet. Almost too quiet.
“This place must have been a magnificent one in its time,” Maringar said, leaning out from behind Beolan. His voice was scratchy and he winced as he moved.
“It was, from what I’ve heard,” Beolan replied. Now it made him sad. “It’s half buried, like a dream when you awaken. But it’s still enormous.”
“The craftsmanship is admirable,” Maringar said. An elaborately sculpted obelisk rose far above the ground to their left. “I wonder how much deeper that thing goes. Aren’t those roofs over there?” Maringar shifted in the saddle.
“We’re walking on top of them here.” A gust of wind blew across the uneven surface and everything looked different. The sand seeped out from under their horse’s feet and Beolan pressed his knees into its side, hard. It lurched out of the sink hole and clamored toward a steep embankment and flatter surface about twenty yards ahead. “We’re on the street level now. We better stick to the roads. If we follow them through the city, they’ve got to lead to the sea. Everything leads to the sea in a city like this.”
“How do you know it’s the sea we seek?” Maringar asked.
“No one would describe the middle of a city as the ‘world’s end’.”
“But Odelot is further west than any other city. The well could be anywhere here, and one might fairly call it the well at the world’s end.” Maringar made a good point.
“We’ve got to begin somewhere.” It was a place of mystery, a place people didn’t visit easily or often. “We have nothing else
to go by but the legends,” he said. “No one comes here any more.”
“Water again,” Maringar muttered. His leathers were stiff and uncomfortable and his body ached. “Maybe well be lucky and it’ll be in a cave instead,” he said. “I could go without seeing water for the rest of my life.”
“Maybe it’ll be in a cave by the sea!” Beolan said. “Would that satisfy you?” he joked. “Do you see that?” Beolan rose in the saddle and pulled on the reins.
“What? What? I don’t see anything.” He craned his neck but everything in the distance was a blur.
“There’s something hanging in the air over there!” Beolan pointed in front of them. “It looks like a rock.”
“I can’t see a damn thing,” Maringar said frustrated. “How could a rock hang in the air?”
“I don’t know, but it’s hanging there,” Beolan said, directing the horse toward it. They approached the globe and the air hissed. The horse shied and threw its head. Beolan stopped as close as he could to the object and dismounted. Maringar slid off the saddle to a series of moans and caught up with him. “What is it? Beolan asked. His bent his head down and looked into the hole in the surface beneath it.
“The way they built this square around it, it must have been important.”
“It survived the decay,” Beolan said.
“Everything but the people of Odelot seem to have done that.” Maringar’s voice was grim. “Most of the buildings are in good shape still. They didn’t use much wood to construct this place.” He couldn’t hide his admiration. A dwarf’s prowess was measured by what he built, what he carved. Creating beauty out of stone—hard, cold stone—marked his strength.
“Listen!” Beolan looked up. The air whistled as it escaped through the opening in the sand. “The sand beneath that thing doesn’t move. It mimics the shape of the rock above it, almost as if the rock was pressing upon it.” It looked like a huge bowl had been set into the ground beneath it.
The Revenge of the Elves Page 29