by Joseph Lallo
Breslin shrugged. “The tree is probably gone now, but if it lies between us and the sea then perhaps we can get the dragon to fly by the area so we can see for ourselves. If the dragon refuses, then I won’t lose any sleep over it.”
Prixus nodded. “I’ll inform my staff about the map in case you go.”
Meeting adjourned, the Kla Guur visitors were shown to a large chamber where they were allowed to stow their gear and rest. As soon as the door closed, Venk grinned broadly and clapped Breslin on the shoulder.
“Never have I witnessed a more superb example of manipulation! Master Breslin, you have my admiration.”
Athos also nodded. “Is it safe to say we finally caught some good luck?”
Breslin beamed, his smile infectious. “I would say so, lads. Now all we have to do is –”
“What?” Tristofer interrupted. “We’re still going to search for the tree? But I thought... I thought...”
“That’s why I told you to let me do the talking,” Breslin reminded him. “I learned from my father long ago that practically any situation can be turned in your favor provided you know how to handle the participants. It was just a matter of convincing them that we weren’t interested.”
Tristofer sniffed. “You inferred I was a charlatan.”
Breslin surprisingly pulled Tristofer into a one-armed hug. “You, my friend, have been right at every turn. Well, almost every turn.” Breslin’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Look what we have so far! We only need the handle to complete our Narian power hammer and now even that is within our grasp. Forget your old Master, my friend. We leave at first light!”
Tristofer was nonplussed. Slowly he nodded and his smile returned.
“Good. I really didn’t want to see him anyway.”
Chapter 9 – Two Trees or Not Two Trees
“We’ve been at it for hours,” Tristofer complained. “All these mountains look the same. How are we supposed to find a single tree amidst so many?”
“Have you decided where you want to look next?” Rhamalli’s voice called down to them. “I have not seen any trees that match the picture on the boy’s back.”
“Neither have we,” Breslin admitted. He frowned at the map he was holding. “Can anyone follow this? Does anyone recognize any of these landmarks?”
“No one can,” Venk told him. “We’ve all tried. No one can make heads or tails of it. Look at this. What is this supposed to depict? Either a group of five enormous trees growing in a circle or else it could be a family of trolls relieving themselves.”
“And for the record, we haven’t seen either,” Breslin added.
“Why would Prixus give us a difficult map to follow?” Athos gripped the walls of the basket tightly as Rhamalli banked right. “To purposely keep us aloft in this infernal basket?”
Venk twirled the tip of his beard around his finger before poking it back into his belt. “That’s an interesting idea.”
Tristofer looked up. “What is? That they purposely gave us an incorrect map?”
Breslin shook his head no. “I didn’t sense any malicious intentions coming from Prixus.”
“Maybe you weren’t as convincing as you thought you were?” Athos suggested.
“Who do you think made the map?” Venk wondered aloud. “We know it wasn’t Prixus. He said he’d have his staff take care of it. What if someone is trying to lead us astray? What if... what if this is just a prank?”
“It’s not very funny,” Tristofer grumbled. He, too, along with the others didn’t care for flying and would just as soon be back on the ground.
“So what do we do now?” Venk wanted to know. “If this map is inaccurate, we should pay it no heed. Do we explore on our own?”
“Then my original argument comes back into play,” Rhamalli’s voice reminded them. “I do not think I would be of much help without knowing where to focus our attention.”
“Don’t fly over the mountains,” a soft, quiet voice said. “Fly next to them instead.”
Rhamalli’s long neck stretched down so that he could peer under his own belly at the basket he was holding.
“What did you say, young Master Lukas?”
Lukas flushed. He had directed his comment to his father but apparently the dragon had taken it to be directed towards him. Lukas looked up at his father for guidance but Venk was curious as well.
“Speak up, boy,” his father gently prodded. “What did you say?”
Lukas cleared his throat and found his mouth completely dry. “Rhamalli, you’ve said you can’t see the tree as you pass overhead, right? Not unless you slow down?”
Rhamalli’s great head nodded.
“Then don’t,” Lukas told him. “Fly next to the mountains, but not over them. That way we can look for the tree from the sides. It’ll be easier to see.”
Surprised, Breslin glanced at the dragon. Rhamalli cocked his head as if surprised he hadn’t thought of that simple idea.
“Nice,” Venk told his son.
“Prixus told us the tree was on a mountainside,” Tristofer reminded him. “Think he was telling the truth?”
Breslin nodded. “Aye. We just have to find the right mountain.”
“If we are to assume what Prixus told us about his youth is correct,” Tristofer began, “and we are to assume this map is wrong, then all we need to know is what’s the most direct route from Bykram to the sea? Rhamalli, do you think you can spot the route a dwarf would travel starting back at Bykram?”
Rhamalli angled his head down to study the passing landscape.
“I believe so.”
“How many mountains do you think might contain the tree?”
The dragon’s enhanced vision located the stump that was Bykram’s main entrance and followed it northeast towards the sea.
“At least a dozen.”
“Circle around,” Breslin told him. “Start at the stump that serves as their main entrance and head towards the sea. We’ll have to inspect each mountain from here to there.”
Hour after hour they searched, endlessly circling around the numerous mountains and hills that lay towards the sea from Bykram’s location in the southern Selekai mountains. On numerous occasions did they spot trees with the potential to be what they were searching for, but upon closer inspection, however, every single tree they encountered had only a single trunk. Nowhere could they find a tree comprised of two smaller trees merged together.
With sunset only an hour or two away, and after circling endlessly around the first six mountains which lay in their path, Rhamalli spotted a tree high up a steep rocky mountainside on the seventh that showed the most promise yet. Vigorously beating his wings to gain more altitude, Rhamalli flew as close as he dared to the mountainside so that everyone could see what he had noticed, namely a tree with two distinct root systems perched precariously on the tiniest of ledges. Three other straggly trees were situated nearby, also clinging unsteadily to the rocky cliff.
“That’s it!” Breslin said excitedly. “Look! That’s clearly two trees! You can see two separate root systems!”
Rhamalli circled around for another pass.
“Are you sure?” Venk asked as he squinted at the distant tree. “Looks like just one to me.”
“It’s the right one,” Breslin assured them. “You can see the roots of each stretching off in opposite directions.”
“The tree does match the illustration on young Lukas’ back,” Rhamalli agreed. “Note the foliage. The northern half of the tree has leaves that have turned bright red while the southern half has leaves that remain brown.”
“We need to get down there!” Tristofer said excitedly. “That tree should be the last piece of the hammer’s final resting place! It must be there. We have to find it!”
Breslin and Venk eyed each other as they observed the steep slope, the tiny outcropping of rock the tree was clinging to, and the overall lack of ground on which a person could stand upright on.
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“How exactly do you propose to do that?” Venk asked as he and his brother turned to stare at the scholar. He hooked a thumb back towards the tree and frowned. “There’s no place to stand. How are we going to inspect the tree when we can’t even move around?”
“Take us back to the ground,” Breslin told the dragon. “We need to figure this out.”
The long scaly neck slowly bent down until the dragon’s enormous head was looking straight at the basket. Two slitted eyes focused on the dwarf.
“Please.”
Satisfied that the dwarf had turned the sharply worded command into a request, Rhamalli gently glided to the base of the mountain and set the basket down upon a small grassy knoll.
“Now what?” Athos inquired as he craned his head to look back up at the distant tree. The tree alone had to be at least a thousand feet off the ground.
“We brainstorm,” Breslin answered. “We need some ideas. Let’s hear it. Anything, no matter how preposterous. How do we scale a mountain without tools or rope?”
“Get what we need from Bykram,” Venk suggested.
Tristofer automatically shook his head no. Breslin agreed.
“We can’t return to Bykram for supplies without making it blatantly obvious that we found something. The Kla Rehn are out. No offense, Tristofer.”
“None taken, I assure you.”
Lukas turned to look up at the dragon’s towering form before facing the mountain and slowly raised his gaze until it fell upon the distant tree.
“It’s just a tree up on a mountain. I say we climb it.”
Venk shook his head. “Without a safety harness? Without rope? I think not.”
“We used to climb all the time when we were underlings,” Athos told his brother. “Over much worse terrain than that, I might add. Climbing a tree shouldn’t be a bother. I’ll do it.”
“We’re not talking about a simple tree,” Venk pointed out. “Don’t forget about the mountain that the tree is growing on. I don’t want to climb that far up without the proper gear.”
“How do we even know the handle is up there?” Breslin wanted to know. He turned to Lukas. “Could you sense its presence when we flew by it?”
Lukas shook his head. “I forgot to try. I’m sorry.”
Venk studied the distant tree for a few moments longer before steering his son back towards the basket.
“Only one way to find out. Rhamalli, if you’d be so kind as to take us back up to the tree. Son, just like you did at the waterfall, see if your back starts to tingle. We’ll figure out what to do next only if we know we’re at the right tree.”
Athos hopped into the basket and then leaned over to pull his nephew in. Venk climbed in moments later.
“Wait here,” he told Breslin and Tristofer. “We’ll be right back.”
Ten minutes later they were back on the ground.
“Well?” Breslin demanded. “Is it there?”
Venk turned to look down at his son. He gently prodded his shoulder. Lukas smiled at Breslin and nodded his head.
“Aye. My back began to tingle the moment we got close to that tree!”
Breslin nodded. “Alright, the handle’s presence is confirmed. Master Athos, are you still willing to risk exploring the tree?”
Athos nodded. “I am.”
Venk raised an arm. “I’m going, too. My brother will not go alone.”
Athos nodded in appreciation.
“I’m going too, father!”
One look from his father had Lukas wordlessly dropping his arm back onto his lap. The underling sighed. It wasn’t fair! This was his quest! He should be the one allowed to go!
“Don’t argue with me, boy,” Venk warned, sensing his son was preparing to resist. “Trust me, if it’s up there, we’ll find it.”
Strapping daggers, chisels, hammers, and various other tools to both their belts and their baldrics, the two brothers retrieved the final addition to their gear: their primary battle axes. With a gentle clink as both brothers knocked their blades together, they strapped their axes to their baldrics so that the axe was fastened securely across their backs. Venk elected to leave his crossbow behind as he didn’t think he’d need it. Together they turned to face the prone form of the dragon.
Athos approached the basket and made to jump in. Rhamalli finally stirred. A dark red foreleg snatched the basket off the ground just before Athos could hoist himself up.
“May I make a suggestion, master dwarf?”
Thrown off balance by the sudden disappearance of the basket, Athos spun around and lost his balance, plopping unceremoniously down on his butt. A small hammer and a chisel went flying off his belt in the process.
“What the ruddy hell did you do that for?” Athos demanded as he rose to his feet amongst a series of clinks and clangs his gear made when he rocked to his feet.
“You won’t be needing the basket,” Rhamalli told him.
“Why not?”
“Did you see anywhere the basket could be set down?”
Surprised, Athos shook his head as he realized he hadn’t.
“Er, no. What are you going to do? Let us ride on your back?”
Rhamalli’s neck jerked straight up and his nose lifted.
“Absolutely not. I will carry the two of you in my right claw.”
“Carry us?” Venk asked, hoping the queasiness he was feeling didn’t come through with the tone of his voice. “I don’t know if my stomach can handle that again.”
“Lukas handled it perfectly,” Rhamalli reminded him. “There’s no chance of harm befalling you.”
Venk scowled. “Great. Let’s get this over with before I lose my nerve.”
Bidding the others farewell, Venk and Athos climbed into Rhamalli’s open right claw. Cringing nervously as the massive claw began to close, both dwarves eyed the two foot long talons as they edged ever nearer. Fortunately, with his claw partially closed, the brothers felt fairly secure as they were carried up the mountain.
“If a month ago you would have told me that I’d be willingly riding in the claws of a dragon up a mountain,” Athos mumbled uneasily, “I’d have labeled you insane. What the blazes are we doing up in the air like this?”
Venk smiled amidst his own queasiness.
“You’re a good uncle. I appreciate what you’re doing for Lukas.”
“Don’t you ever forget it.”
“This isn’t going to be easy,” Venk warned, as they both eyed the tree as it loomed closer with every passing second.
“If it was, then I’d say we have the wrong tree,” Athos replied. “Nothing about this quest has been easy so far.”
“Be ready,” Rhamalli told them as the wind from his flapping wings bent several of the double tree’s branches back to almost the breaking point. “I cannot approach any closer. I’ll put you down on the ledge on the northern side of the trunk.”
Venk eyed the tiny ledge from the safety of Rhamalli’s claw.
“Ledge? You call that a ledge?? That’s no bigger than a stair!”
Athos slid one of his hammers across his belt so that it was within easy reach for his right hand. If he had to make a quick handhold on the mountain’s rocky surface, he’d need easy access to his best rock cutter.
Rhamalli deposited the two of them upon the tiny ledge then retreated to a safe distance of about twenty feet away. He had located a suitable place to wait for the dwarves and was now clinging precariously on the side of the mountain by gripping a circular ridge that looked as though it wound its way all around the mountain as though someone had dropped a large ring down onto a cone.
Both dwarves had lunged forward the moment their feet hit the ledge. Both had leapt for the low lying branches and had wrapped their arms around sections of the trunk and held on as though their life depended on it, which unfortunately in this case, it did.
“How long can you hold on like that?” Venk called out to the dragon.
> “As long as is needed,” Rhamalli answered. “The rock is bearing my weight. I’m not fatigued. And you?”
“We just have to get up the nerve to move,” Venk told him, “which is easier said than done at the moment.”
“Several feet to your left and just over your shoulder is another branch similar in girth to the one you’re holding. Once there you’ll be within reach of a branch just off your left shoulder and slightly above your head. Make your way there. Numerous other branches will be within reach that lead all over that half of the tree.”
Without releasing his death grip of the branch he and his brother were clinging to, Venk angled his head up and turned to look to his left. Sure enough, there was the branch the dragon wanted him to take. Inching forward at a pace less than that with which his beard grew, Venk finally convinced his left hand to unclasp the branch it was holding and reach for the one just above his head.
“I’ve seen grandfathers centuries older than you move faster than you are now,” Athos told him. “Get a move on!”
Scowling at his brother, Venk pulled himself to the higher branch and waited for his brother to follow suit. Under Rhamalli’s careful instructions, the two dwarves slowly explored the left-hand side of the Dual Tree, as they had started referring to it. They crawled up as high as they could go without finding anything remarkable.
After an hour of climbing all over every inch of the Dual Tree, both brothers decided to take a moment or two for themselves to rest. Sitting in the fork of several large branches a fair distance from the tree’s base, Venk leaned forward to inspect the trunk up close.
Reddish-brown and fibrous, the northern half of Dual Tree was at least seventy feet tall. It had thick, sharp, spreading, needle-like leaves that varied from two to three inches long. Venk gently sniffed. He detected a light, fragrant smell emanating from the wood.
“What are you doing?” Athos asked him from his perch several feet away. “Would you like a moment alone?”
Venk scowled at his brother. “I’m trying to learn as much as I can about this tree, alright?”