A Vanishing of Griffins

by S. A. Patrick

  Again, Patch, Wren and Barver shared a look.

  “Of course it’s impossible,” said Alia. Then she looked at Barver, and at Patch, and lastly at Wren – a long, uncomfortable look, and Patch suddenly thought: she knows. “The three of you went to Tiviscan to tell Lord Drevis something important. You’ve never given any hint what that was. Yet since you returned to Marwheel Abbey, whenever me and Tobias wondered aloud about the source of the obsidiac used to build that Organ, each of you did exactly what you just did when Rundel posed the same question. You became wary, and looked at one another.”

  And once again they did just that, but this time they gave each other a short nod. Lord Drevis was beyond their reach, yet here were three of the Eight: Alia, Tobias and Rundel.

  “My mother told me to tell only Lord Drevis,” said Barver. “But I trust you all, and the time has come.”

  He told them the dark truth: that obsidiac was formed from the bones of dragons, and the bones of dragon children made the best obsidiac of all.

  The Hamelyn Piper had murdered a hundred dragon children, to obtain the raw materials to build his Obsidiac Organ.

  “And now we know what he did with the purest pieces,” said Barver.

  Their eyes all went to the picture of the armoured figure in the book.

  Alia and Tobias sat in stunned silence; Rundel Stone, though, seemed distraught. He clenched his fist and stood, walking through one of the many tunnels leading to other parts of the Caves of Casimir. A few minutes later, they all heard a distant, muffled sound – an agonized cry of frustration and rage.

  Tobias looked up from his misery. “He promised the people of Hamelyn that he would bring their children back,” he said. “When we discovered that the children had been murdered – with the Song of Dispersal, no less! – it almost destroyed him. And now…”

  “We finally hear the truth,” said Alia. “That it was only the dragon children the evil Piper wanted – their bones, left to darken over long years.”

  “But why take the children of Hamelyn?” said Tobias.

  “I can only guess,” said Alia. “But without that, the dragons would have blamed all humans for the crime. Their grief and anger would have led to another war between dragons and humans, even more terrible than before. He wouldn’t have wanted that. What good would it be to rule over a devastated world?”

  “He wanted the dragons to see that humans had suffered too?” said Tobias. “Imagine what kind of mind could think like that.”

  Patch didn’t need to imagine it. He’d met the Hamelyn Piper, face to face, and had seen for himself. “A mind that believes it’s better than everyone else,” he said. “A mind that must be stopped.”

  Nobody was going to argue with that.

  Alia continued to work on her translation of the text beneath the armour’s design, closely watched by Wren.

  When Rundel finally returned, he saw the notes Alia had been making. “You’ve made good progress,” he said. “Do you know what effect the armour has?”

  “On its own, it provides significant protection against both Songs and sorcery, and amplifies the power of a Piper,” said Alia.

  “By how much?” asked Rundel.

  “The book suggests tenfold,” she said.

  Rundel frowned. “I expected more,” he said. “I assumed ten thousand times at least, for him to think it was worth all his years of evil scheming!”

  “There is more,” said Alia, and she spoke with such dread in her voice that Patch knew something terrible was coming. “Look at the design of the armour’s torso; in the centre of the chest is a space meant for something else. The text on this final page tells of an amulet which it calls the Vivificantem, the Life-Giver, an ancient jewel of unique magical properties. Those wielding it, says the book, have the ability to call forth the sun itself and bring life to barren lands. Supposedly Lar-Sennen buried it in one of the Hidden Places. When positioned in the chest of the obsidiac armour, it completes the design. At that point, the wearer of the armour becomes invulnerable to all harm. It makes them immortal, Rundel, and gives them unimaginable power.”

  That took a few seconds to settle in everyone’s minds. It sounded very much in keeping with the Hamelyn Piper, Patch thought.

  “I think it’s safe to say that if he’d found that, he would have already marched on Tiviscan,” said Rundel. “So why is he in the Ortings?”

  “The Ortings has a long history associated with magic,” said Alia. “One of the Hidden Places was supposedly somewhere in the forests. I think that may be what he’s up to. He has his armour, and now he’s seeking the Life-Giver. His ghost army, I assume, is made up of his helpers. By scaring the locals away, he’s cleared the area of prying eyes.”

  “We can’t be certain of any of this,” said Tobias. “The book admits to being theoretical, a flight of fancy! What are the odds that such an ancient design could possibly work?”

  “The Obsidiac Organ worked well enough,” said Barver.

  “One design of many,” said Tobias. “That Organ was similar to the great Battle Pipes at Tiviscan, so it’s reasonable that it would work. But immortality? Nonsense!”

  “I know why you don’t want to believe it,” said Alia. “The possibility terrifies me too. What would convince you?”

  “Show me!” he said. “Show me one of these useless trinkets that we found on Imminus Rock a decade ago, these oddities we risked our lives for! Show me it doing something, and I’ll believe you.”

  “The only one I’ve completed the translation for is this, the ‘leap’ device I spoke of,” she said, patting the box on the table. “Perhaps with a small amount of obsidiac, we could prove that it works, but we have none.”

  “Actually,” said Patch. “That’s not quite true.”

  As Alia prepared, Patch couldn’t avoid Barver’s glare.

  It hadn’t really been his fault, as such.

  After all, he’d been inside one of the Obsidiac Pipes when Barver had flown into the whole contraption. When he’d emerged from the wreckage, and picked bits of Pipe out of his hair, he’d not thought to go through his pockets carefully and check. By the time he actually found the black fragment in a pocket of his coat, he was already in Marwheel Abbey. And what was he supposed to do? Tell someone?

  Well, yes, he realized now, he absolutely should have done that, but at the time he didn’t want to think about what the obsidiac actually was – the bones of murdered dragon children.

  Throwing it away seemed both reckless and disrespectful. That was why he’d wrapped the fragment in a bit of cloth and tucked it deep into a fold at the bottom of one of Barver’s harness packs. Then he’d done his best to forget that it existed at all.

  And so all this time, Barver had been carrying it around everywhere he went, and he was absolutely livid about that.

  Alia had been going over the Leap Device’s description in the book, making sure that her translation wasn’t disastrously wrong, and that she understood how it was supposed to work. At last, she was satisfied.

  “What exactly do you plan to do, Alia?” asked Rundel. The fragment of Obsidiac Pipe sat on the table in front of him, a thin shard of darkness two inches long. Rundel hadn’t been able to take his eyes off it. Reasonable enough, Patch thought – here was the entire purpose of the Hamelyn Piper’s evil deeds, the whole point of his horrific actions.

  “The device needs an item small enough to clip into this part on the side,” said Alia. Along one edge of the device was a spring-hinged piece of copper. “The item must be specific to someone standing near the device when it’s operated. They don’t need to be the ones who travel, but they will decide the destination.”

  “Specific in what way?” asked Wren.

  “A lock of hair, something like that,” said Alia. “The destination will be whatever place is most important for that person – closest to your heart, you might say. So if any of you have a place that pops into your mind right away, that might be…”

  “D
evil Pin Bay!” cried Barver at once. “Um, it’s my favourite place in the world. A vast white-sand beach in the Islands of the Eastern Sea, down in the southern parts where I spent most of my time. The nearby town does the best natter-clumps you’ll taste anywhere.”

  Patch found that the thought of natter-clumps made him simultaneously terrified and hungry.

  “That seems as good a place as any,” said Alia. “A feather should do it, if you would oblige?”

  Barver reached to his neck and tugged out a feather, giving it to Alia. As she clipped it to the device, Tobias didn’t seem happy.

  “Wait,” he said. “That seems very risky. How do you know you won’t just leap to the Dragon Territories, where Barver was born? Or anywhere at all, for that matter? You could end up in danger.”

  “I’m just going by what the book says,” said Alia. “It also makes clear that the obsidiac is destroyed by the device, making it a very expensive way to travel.”

  “So if it works, how do you propose to get back?” said Tobias.

  Alia reached to the table and picked up the fragment of Pipe. With some effort she snapped it in two, placing one piece in her pocket. “For the return journey,” she said. “All I do is use the device again, and I come back to where I left. Simple!”

  “I wish I’d never suggested this,” said Tobias.

  “There’s every chance nothing will happen,” said Alia. “Besides, the amount of obsidiac used determines how far you can go. These small pieces might only be enough to transport me somewhere much nearer, somewhere else close to Barver’s heart.”

  “The dining room,” said Patch and Wren at the same time.

  Alia smiled. “Could be,” she said. “The instructions state that I place the obsidiac on the ground, and set the device on top.” She kneeled, placing the fragment on the stone floor, before setting the Leap Device on top of it. “If you’d all step back, we’ll see what happens. The translation is a little difficult to make sense of, but some kind of ball should appear in the air, and will grow to a size depending on the amount of obsidiac used. Anyone inside the ball will be instantly transported when the device is activated. To begin, I just pull this little triggering lever.” With her forefinger, she pulled back on a copper lever mounted on top of the device. They heard a sound like the slow cracking of glass, an unpleasant crunching noise that grated on the teeth. Then, as promised, a ball formed around the device, a sphere with an oddly rippling mirror-like surface. The sphere grew slowly, and started to engulf Alia. Tobias looked horribly anxious. Within moments Alia was gone from sight, fully enclosed by the strange rippling air. Then the sphere stopped growing.

  “That’s as big as it’s going to get, I think,” said Alia, her voice sounding rather distant. “I’m going to let the trigger go in three…two…one…”

  The sphere suddenly contracted, vanishing completely with a gentle pop and an outrush of air. There were gasps from the others.

  Alia was gone.

  It was half an hour before she returned, but it felt much longer.

  They didn’t speak as they waited; with each passing minute it seemed more and more likely that something had gone wrong. Each of them wondered if they would ever see Alia again.

  And then they heard the strange sound of crunching glass echoing around the cavern, followed by a short noise like a single clap. A moment later, Alia emerged from one of the side tunnels.

  She held out her hand in a fist and uncurled her fingers; white sand poured from her grasp.

  Everyone let out a sigh of relief.

  “Devil Pin Bay is a fabulous place,” said Alia. “Apologies for taking so long. I had to find someone to talk to, and confirm where I was, which was harder than I’d expected.”

  “I told you it was big,” said Barver.

  “What did it feel like when you travelled?” asked Wren.

  “It was too quick to feel anything, really,” said Alia. “One moment I was here, and the next I was there.” She looked at Tobias. “Well, have I done enough to convince you that the book is to be trusted?”

  “Yes,” said Tobias. “The Black Knight is the Hamelyn Piper. He has his armour. If he’d found his amulet, he’d certainly not be wasting his time causing havoc in the Ortings, so we can assume he’s still looking.”

  Alia nodded. “Heaven help us if he finds it.” Tobias tilted his head, and Alia’s eyes narrowed. “You still don’t quite believe, do you?”

  “Not all of it,” he said. “A promise of immortality and unlimited power is pure fantasy, but if the Hamelyn Piper wants to chase a fantasy, let him – it means we have a chance to find him, and catch him at last.” He looked at Rundel. “Think of it! All these years he’s been laughing at us, and now we know where he is. We have him at our mercy!”

  “We must tell the Council his location,” said Rundel.

  “Are you sure?” said Alia. “The meaning of the prophecy is still to be settled. Betrayal is not to be taken lightly. Perhaps it would be better to leave the Council out of it entirely.”

  “Even so…” said Rundel.

  “There’s no point!” said Tobias. “Whether you trust them or not, it would take them weeks to act, and we must move quickly!”

  “What are you suggesting?” asked Rundel. “We three couldn’t hope to take him on again. I can’t Pipe! I’d be useless to you, and with whatever additional strengths the armour grants him, he’ll be a formidable enemy!”

  “The Battle Pipers of Kintner,” said Tobias. “I can raise the forces we need. They know me well, and would rally behind one of their most famous colonels – I guarantee it.”

  Alia saw Wren’s puzzlement. “Before he turned to Healing, he was a Battle Piper at the Kintner Bastion,” she said. “A decorated commander. Do you have a plan forming, Tobias?”

  Tobias nodded, and led them to the globe at the centre of the cavern. There, he found the Ortings, and Patch realized how large the forest was – a whole thumb’s width on the globe.

  “You said the Black Knight has been leading the attacks, Rundel?” said Tobias.

  “That’s what survivors reported,” said Rundel. “With two dozen or so ‘ghostly’ soldiers at most.”

  “That means his forces are small,” said Tobias. “If we had a hundred soldiers, and maybe ten Battle Pipers, we would easily outmatch them. I’d be happier with twice that, of course, but we’ll see.” He pointed to the north of the forest, where the words “Gossamer Valley” were written in minuscule letters. “This valley is where we’ll gather, just outside the Ortings. A good location to prepare, a two-day sail and a day’s march from the Kintner Bastion.” His finger moved out from the coast and up to an island two hundred miles further north, which bore the label “Kintner”. “The problem is finding the Black Knight and his soldiers. The Ortings are huge, and we simply can’t cover that much territory, either on foot or by horse.” He looked at Barver. “We need airborne scouts.”

  Barver stood to attention and gave a salute. “Barver Knopferkerkle volunteering for duty, sir!”

  Tobias smiled. “Much appreciated, but we need four, at least. We must be able to quickly lock down their position so we can prevent their escape.”

  “Perhaps Merta could help?” said Wren, but Barver shook his head, shocked at the suggestion.

  “Airborne scouting for an army of Battle Pipers, Wren?” he said. “Remember the Griffin Covenant!”

  “But this isn’t war!” said Wren. “This is the Hamelyn Piper we’re talking about.”

  “I doubt Merta would see it that way,” said Barver. “Even asking her would be disrespectful.”

  “We don’t need to ask Merta,” said Tobias. “When the Eight hunted the Hamelyn Piper before, we were secretly helped by dragon scouts on several occasions. It was invaluable.”

  Barver nodded. “My aunt’s position as a Triumvirate Delegate gives her some authority,” he said. “She’ll know how to arrange it. I’ll go to her in Skamos.”

  “I’ll go with you,�
� said Alia. “If anyone needs convincing, I’m sure I’ll be useful.”

  “And where Barver goes, we go,” said Wren, pointing to herself and Patch.

  “I shall return to Tiviscan with Erner, and see the Council,” said Rundel. “I’ll get to the bottom of the prophecy’s meaning, and determine where their loyalties lie. I’ll tell them nothing of this unless I’m certain they can be trusted.”

  Alia shook her head. “You’re a stubborn man, Rundel.”

  “I cannot give up on them,” he said. “Nor can I give up the hunt for Ural’s murderer. Even if the Hamelyn Piper was somehow behind his death, it’s unlikely he did the deed in person. I’ve vowed to bring the killer to justice, and I’ll need the assistance of whatever Custodians I can gather.”

  “We could do with you in the Ortings, Rundel,” said Tobias.

  “Nonsense,” said Rundel. “I told you, I can hardly Pipe! I’d be no use to you out there. We’ll reach Tiviscan within five days. With luck, Lord Drevis will have returned by then. If the Council prove trustworthy, I’ll make them send help.”

  “Very well,” said Tobias. “By the time you reach Tiviscan, we’ll likely be in position. And the hunt can begin!”

  They set off at dawn.

  Rundel and Erner would begin their travels by horse later that day; Tobias would ride with the others on Barver as far as Essenbach, from where he would sail to Kintner.

  Before they took to the air, however, Erner asked Patch if he could speak to him in private. Patch agreed, but he was almost trembling as they stepped out of earshot of the others.

  “We’ve not spoken,” said Erner. “Not really. But we must, before we part. I can see it eating at you.”

  “As it should,” said Patch.

  “Understand your mistake, and learn from it!” said Erner. “That’s all any of us can do. To punish yourself is damaging. This is a key part of the training for a Custodian Apprentice.”

  “I know, Erner. I know. I’m sorry for what I did. Do I understand why I did it? I think so – I was overwhelmed by panic and fear. Can I learn? I hope I can. But things between us will be marked by it, always. Nothing either of us can say or do will change that.”