Iska closed her eyes for a moment, fighting the narcotics in her body. ‘You must not let him know how much strength you have regained yet Bark. Call him in here in a little while, saying you think I am waking. As I open my eyes, I will send a call as strongly as I can to the south.’
‘There are others within these mountains who say they will help.’ Bark whispered. ‘Rhaki will immediately sense your call. He is unstable – he could kill you.’
‘Whatever happens Bark, you must play no part in this. You have another task to do in this battle – for battle it is now.’
‘Stars help you then Iska.’
‘And you also, Silent Thinker.
Baras had led the following party at a rapid but steady pace. The tunnels were wide enough for three fengars abreast, but neither fengars nor men had ridden in such enclosed spaces before. Some of the fengars had resisted and caused some delay before they were brought under enough control to force them into the darkness. The Merigs had led them to the entrance to the tunnels and had agreed to lead more Guards from Gaharn’s main barracks.
Emla and Kemti had both exchanged their usual robes for trousers and shirts beneath heavy cloaks. Kemti rode at the head of the troop with Baras, who had insisted the Golden Lady rode, Shan at her side, within the main body of the Guards. She had argued that she would ride with Kemti, but Kemti had supported Baras’s argument that she must accept the protection of the Guards rather than ride in the lead.
They had no means of judging time other than their own weariness and that of their mounts, but after what they guessed as four days riding, they had halted once more. Baras had equipped each Guard with several torches, not knowing how long they would be under the mountain or if the tunnels would have any form of illumination within them, left perhaps by Rhaki’s fighters. He set men to watch a short distance ahead each time they halted, to warn of any attack, as others fed the fengars and shared rations among themselves.
‘They will know we follow, Lady.’ Baras squatted beside Emla and Kemti. ‘They must have been led by an experienced man – they will expect us to follow. No attempt was made to disguise their direction once they had the Lady Iska.’
‘So you expect a welcoming party fairly soon, Baras?’
‘It is what I would do, Lord.’ Baras agreed. ‘But what bothers me is, who will welcome us? So far there has been no hint of Shardi. Men we can deal with, but in this confined space, with Guards who have not faced Shardi before, I fear we could suffer heavy losses.’
‘What about the fengars?’ Emla asked. ‘There is height enough for them to rear and do battle, but would they cause more trouble to ourselves in this – as you say – confined space?’
‘That is what has been occupying my mind Lady.’ Baras paused for a moment. ‘I think at the first sign of trouble ahead, all should dismount and let the fengars go forward riderless. Then we should light the torches as swiftly as may be to see just what we face.’
Kemti nodded and Baras left them to speak with his Guardsmen.
‘You and I are not enough against Rhaki, are we Emla?’
She sighed wearily. ‘I do not know. Unhappily, I suspect not. But how did all this start Kemti? Just the one Weight of Balance lost and suddenly chaos threatens.’
‘I think perhaps we had become complacent. We thought we knew most things about this world – at least the things of any importance, and so let our lives drift on along their untroubled paths. Our scholars have lost themselves in matters of the mind rather than seeing the outer world in its colourful confusion.’ Kemti stretched his aching back. ‘Even we are not free of this guilt – look how amazed you were at finding intelligence had been deliberately concealed from you – I mean the Merigs, the Kephi – and the great Dragons.’
‘We have been complacent indeed, and how much have we ignored or chosen not to notice in these last Cycles? I have felt events pressing on us since Jerak – disappeared. And now we face Rhaki, unprepared as we so foolishly are.’
‘Sir! Sir!’ Several voices called suddenly in alarm.
Kemti pulled Emla to her feet as Baras moved in front of her, his sword bared. They looked where Guards pointed. A section of the tunnel wall seemed to shimmer, then, with a slow soft grumble, it slid apart into two halves.
‘Dear one!’ Emla laughed aloud as a long silver blue face peered through the opening. Sapphire eyes whirred in delight as Farn advanced to the Lady and Kemti. Tika slipped through at his side, then Jeela and Dessi and two of the Snow Dragons. After touching brows with Farn and Jeela, and hugging Tika, Emla looked in amazement at the other three newcomers.
Tika touched the face of one Dragon saying: ‘This is Uma, and this,’ she touched the second, ‘is Ulla. And this is Dessi. She is Kran –’
‘Delver’ interposed Dessi, smiling up at Emla.
‘The Merigs told us of Delvers within these mountains. I am glad to be able to greet you Dessi.’
Tika interrupted these formalities. ‘The larger Dragons have gone outside, Mim and Ashta with them. A Snow Dragon guides them to an upper part of the Guardian’s stronghold where they believe they can force their way inside. Nolli will unseal a tunnel soon and Soran and the Guards will enter that way. We will come with you through this side of the mountains. We decided you would need some help from Dragons.’
Emla’s expression conveyed some misgivings. ‘You will use fire, within these tunnels?’
‘Of course!’ Farn’s cheerful reply resounded in everyone’s thoughts.
Emla’s eyes met Tika’s. Tika grinned at her. ‘As Farn says. . .’
‘Hmm. Well, let’s discuss it with Baras, shall we?’
‘There is nothing to discuss Lady,’ said Farn. ‘We will stand ahead of you. Our fire will not harm any of you then, only whatever comes in front!’
As the new arrivals moved further into the passage, Dessi turned to the opening in the wall. As she stared, so the two sections slid gratingly together, not the faintest scratch indicating where the opening had been. Dessi had just rejoined Jeela when a Guard shot round the curve of the tunnel ahead.
‘Something comes Sir! Stars know what it is, but the smell is worse than any midden!’
Before he had finished speaking, they were all assailed by the pungency wafting down the tunnel.
‘Farn, Jeela, to that side. Uma, Ulla – this side. Stay as close to the wall as you can!’ Tika drew her sword and stood at Farn’s shoulder. Jeela stood between her brother and the rock, the Snow Dragons taking similar positions against the opposite wall.
Some Guards were bringing the fengars forward as others lit more torches. Tika noticed, with some concern that even the normally evil tempered fengars were dismayed by the thickening stench rolling towards them and were almost quiet. She saw that Kemti had pushed Emla and Shan behind the Snow Dragons, but she also saw that Emla had her cloak thrown back and a naked sword in her hand while Shan stood firmly beside her Lady, a wicked looking curved knife at the ready.
Tika drew a shallow breath, wanting to retch as the foetid stink filled her lungs. Then she concentrated on finding Kija’s mind beyond the rock. Swiftly she warned of what was happening, and instantly felt Kija’s strength and love pour back to her. ‘Stars guide you, small one, and my son.’ She felt warmth from the other Dragons, and from Mim, as a clattering of hooves began to sound from beyond the curve ahead.
Dessi had squeezed in beneath Jeela’s chest and she murmured aloud: ‘It is the Guardian’s monsters, but they have no true Power, except the power to terrify by their appearance.’
Tika glanced at her, about to reply, but Farn was stretching up, his eyes glittering blue ice. ‘Fear not, I will die before you are harmed.’
Tika and Dessi both looked at the magnificent silver blue Dragon who, as Tika knew only too well, was still really only a baby. Tika’s eyes filled with tears, which she dashed furiously away on her sleeve as she returned her gaze ahead.
Now a screaming sounded above the rattling of hooves, an inhuman scre
aming, but they gradually realised mangled human words were mixed among the screams. ‘Kill’ was the clearest word and every hair on Tika’s body stood on end. She made herself relax her over tense grip on her sword and let her left hand rest on Farn’s smooth scales.
Baras stood just in front of her, his sword raised as he watched the tunnel. For a brief second, the clattering faltered, as though whatever approached had decided on some caution before rounding a corner beyond which light showed clearly. Then the screams rose to a crescendo and the first Cansharsi crashed into view. Baras’s arm dropped, Guards released the fengars who joined their battle shrieks to the Cansharsi screams as they charged to meet them.
While there was still space between the two groups, Farn and Ulla both loosed jets of flame and the first two Cansharsi’s battle screams turned to howls of agony as their bodies were seared with fire which burnt deep as knives. Then others were pushing past the writhing bodies and storming on to crash into the advancing fengars, and battle was joined.
Chapter Thirty
Gan, on Fenj’s back, was huddled as low as his tall form would allow, Lorak considerably sheltered behind him. Brin flew directly behind his father carrying Trem and Kran. They were following the Snow Dragon, keeping close against the towering ice cliffs on their left. Ashta and Kija brought up the rear. Kija was alert for any sign of Ashta weakening as they fought not only the howling north wind but the sudden gusts and eddies which swirled up from bottomless crevices below them. The Snow Dragon, Meppi, warned them he was about to fly sharply upwards and they watched his manoeuvring ever more closely as the snow thickened.
Mim, clinging to Ashta with Khosa silent deep in her travelling sack against his chest, began to think they would reach the very stars themselves when Brin swerved ahead of them, angling his great crimson body down between two sheer ice walls. Mim blinked snow from his lashes, trying to see more clearly. He realised Brin’s wingtips only barely missed touching the sides as he flew. A concentrated jet of fire from the Snow Dragon was reflected again and again in the ice alongside them and then Ashta was slowing, as though preparing to land.
Mim rubbed his eyes free of the frozen snow and looked over Ashta’s head. He saw that Meppi had cleared a narrow ledge with his fire. The Dragons stood now on a lip of rock, its wetness from the melted snow already freezing again.
Meppi said: ‘Inside this part is where dwells the Damaged One. We have sung to him through much Time but there is no tunnel near, where we might reach him.’
‘Can we call him?’ Gan asked, as he slid carefully from Fenj’s back.
‘No!’ Meppi’s answer was sharp. ‘These who ride with you must make their way in – there is an opening below this ledge.’
Gan immediately peered down and if not for Lorak grabbing his arm, would have slipped straight over. He nodded thanks to the old man and looked at the ice behind them.
‘There is nothing we can fasten a rope to, to let us lower ourselves.’
‘I will hold a rope,’ Brin rumbled.
Kran pulled a coil of rope from his pack and handed it to Gan.
‘We will wait a brief time,’ said Meppi. ‘In case you have to return this way. But we must go higher and around this peak to the main entrance to the stronghold.’
‘The main entrance?’
‘It is sure to be the easiest place for those of our size to enter Gan.’ Fenj said. ‘And we thought the more distractions the better – it will give Tika more chance to get to the place where the Balance is concealed.’
Meppi drifted out over the chasm and searched for the place he had in mind.
‘It is directly below here,’ he announced as his talons scrabbled for a hold on the ice-covered ledge beside Ashta.
Trem wrapped a length of rope around one of Brin’s forearms, looped it once over the other, and the Dragon gripped the end in his jaws. Ashta’s agitation became apparent as Mim stepped forward to grasp the rope.
‘No.’ Gan put his hand against Mim’s chest. He glanced at Ashta. ‘You go with the Dragons Mim – one of us should be with them and surely it should be the Dragon Lord?’ Gan stared at Lorak who was leaning against Fenj for shelter from the driving snow. ‘You also Lorak, will go with the Dragons. You are not trained to the use of weapons – the five of us will not have time to keep watch over your safety, and we will be moving fast once we are inside.’
Lorak looked hard at Gan from beneath the snowy brim of his hat, then he nodded, climbing onto Fenj’s back without a word.
Gan pointed at Trem and the officer moved to take the rope and prepared to descend over the ledge.
‘Tug the rope to signal for the next of us to come down,’ Gan told him.
‘Sir.’ Trem, the rope secured around one arm and leg, stepped backward into swirling snow filled space.
After what seemed an interminable wait, three steady pulls came on the rope under Gan’s hands and he nodded to Kran to go next. When Sket and Motass had also vanished down the rope, Gan turned to the Dragons, Mim and Lorak.
‘Stars guide you, my friends, and protect you now.’
‘You also Lord Gan,’ Kija replied. ‘We will wait here only a short time and then we will go to the great gateway Meppi spoke of.’ She moved forward, lowering her head until her golden brow touched Gan’s. He stroked her beautiful face lightly with his gauntleted fingers, then turned to grasp the rope Brin held.
He gasped as the wind clawed at him, turning him to smash, like a plaything, against the glassy wall of ice. Gan fought the wind and the rope to twist himself back so that his feet could hold him clear. He lowered himself carefully, an arm length at a time, until at last he felt his ankles held.
‘Keep a hold the rope Sir, there’s no room to stand here.’
Gan peered down and saw only the top of Motass’s head and outstretched arms gripping Gan’s lower legs. As he let himself down the final distance, Motass guided his body through a small opening, a window, he realised as he squeezed his shoulders through.
Trem was standing by the door as Gan unwound the rope from his arm. The exposed skin of his face burnt and stung now that he was out of the relentless wind and snow. Sket pulled at one of his gauntlets and Gan grimaced as he flexed his fingers.
‘It’s a servant’s room Sir, but quite isolated. Officer Trem went along the passage a short way, and he says there be other storerooms, half empty, but none where it seems anyone lives.’ Kran explained quickly as he pulled Gan’s other gauntlet free.
Gan stared at the small hearth with its heap of dead ashes. He looked at the single chair and the table and lastly at the long, narrow bed.
‘This is where Bark has lived,’ he said, almost to himself. ‘All these Cycles, shut away in this cell.’
He tucked his gauntlets firmly under his belt and moved to Trem’s side. He looked out into the dimly lit passageway.
‘All the rooms to the turning are empty Sir. No servants or fighters.’
‘Did you look beyond the corner?’
‘The passage leads downwards. There are similar doors as along here, but no sign or sound of occupants, although I didn’t venture to check Sir. I thought I should wait till we were all inside.’
Gan nodded. ‘You and I lead, Trem. Sket, watch our backs.’ And sliding his sword free of its scabbard, he moved silently out of the room.
A faint metallic ringing told him that all swords had been drawn behind him as he went towards the corner. The light was dim but sufficient; glow lamps holding only one glower apiece were set at regular intervals along the wall. The five men made their way quickly but cautiously round the corner and on down a passage identical to the first. Gan stopped close to the first door then silently lifted the latch. He pushed the door open fast, keeping hold of it lest it bang against the wall. Empty. As Trem said of the first rooms, this one too seemed to be a long neglected storeroom, thick with dust and ancient spinners’ webs. He stepped back into the passage, closing the door gently again. With a glance at Trem, he moved on past th
e remaining doors to the next corner.
Ahead, the passage split, the right fork continuing a downward slope and seeming to be completely unlit. The left fork remained level and Gan guessed it was a quick route directly to the Guardian’s quarters. The rest of the Gaharnian forces would be in the lowest levels and Gan decided his party’s best plan would be to continue downwards. Hopefully they would at least disconcert or distract any of Rhaki’s fighters who might be already engaged with Soran’s group.
Gan took the right hand passage, unhooking a glow lamp as he passed. The path turned and twisted but led always down, and after perhaps thirty minutes, Gan stopped again. He looked at the floor ahead. There was a thick layer of dust over his boots and as Gan stooped, holding the lamp ahead of himself, it was clear that the dust in the passage had lain untrodden for a long time indeed.
‘I judge we must be nearly to the depth we were in the Delvers’ tunnels Sir,’ Motass said quietly.
Gan nodded. ‘Just pray this isn’t a dead end,’ he whispered back.
They hurried on, a sense of urgency building in all of them.
‘Sir! Listen!’ Trem caught Gan’s sleeve.
Faint and distant cries came to them and the ring of metal, then the sounds ceased. Gan increased the pace and the five sped along the seemingly endless passage.
Soran and his Guards had watched Nolli stand before a solid wall of rock. She lifted her hands and the rock trembled into two halves, opening with only the faintest sigh. She turned to Soran.
‘You must go on now. Choose only paths to your left. I will follow, slow though I may be. Stars guide you all.’ She remained standing, Lanni’s arm round her waist, as Soran raised his sword before his face in salute then moved past the Wise One with his men behind him.
They travelled at the loping trot they were trained to, five Guards carrying lamps to guide their feet. But this tunnel had not been used since the days of the previous Guardian Kovas, and was as thick with dust as the one Gan’s group travelled. Several times the tunnel divided and each time, Soran led his men without hesitation to the left.
Soul Bonds Book 1 Circles of Light series Page 29