by Tony Daniel
“He’s been well treated,” replied Trigvi. “But we’ve had to confine him for his own good. He was trying to harm himself, you see. We can’t have that.”
Otto nodded, as if in agreement. “Yes,” he cried out. “I’m feeling better now, Mother.”
“Duchess, we know your people are starving,” said Trigvi. “You have to let us in so we can feed them. It’s the merciful thing to do.”
“No,” said Malwin. “We will hold the castle.”
“You have to realize that’s not possible.”
Anya was tugging on the top of Saeunn’s sleeve, and when that didn’t work she tugged on Saeunn’s hair. “What is it, Evinthir?”
“I see Rainer,” Anya whispered in her ear.
“You…what? Where?”
“Look over there on the top of the wainwright’s house. The one with the red roof.” Anya raised her hand and tentatively pointed. Saeunn looked in that direction, found the one building in sight with a red roof…Anya was right. There was Rainer. He was waving his arms frantically.
She reached up and cradled Anya’s pointing finger. She gently pulled down Anya’s hand.
“Yes, Evinthir,” she whispered back. “I see him, too.”
Was there any way to let Rainer know he had gotten her attention?
In the end, she just waved back with the arm that wasn’t holding Anya. There was no way anyone on the ground could tell what she was waving at. At least she hoped not.
Rainer had seen her, because he began making another signal. He crossed his arms over his head again and again.
Trigvi was finishing up a reply to the duchess. “The main reason you must open the gate, Duchess, is because if you don’t, I will kill your son right here, before your eyes.”
Trigvi stepped back from Otto. His bowmen sighted in on their real target.
Otto called out once again. “Open the gate, Mother. Let me in. They’re going to kill me. Please, let me in.”
Anya gasped. She squeezed Saeunn’s neck tightly.
On the red-roofed building, Rainer was signaling wildly, crossing his arms. Even at this distance Saeunn could see he was shaking his head vigorously.
“He doesn’t want us to open the gate,” Anya whispered.
“Duchess,” she said, tugging on Lady Malwin’s dress sleeve. “I am being signaled that we must not open the gate.”
“Signaled?”
“A man on the roof yonder.” Saeunn nodded in Rainer’s direction, but did not point. “I think it is Rainer Stope.”
The bowmen held their stances. Trigvi looked up at Duchess Malwin. “Truly, I plead with you, Duchess. Don’t let Lord Otto be slaughtered here like an animal.”
“I believe Rainer knows something we don’t,” Saeunn continued.
“Rainer?” She gazed frantically around, but was too agitated to spot Rainer. “I don’t see him.”
“But I do, Duchess.”
“I don’t know, Saeunn. I don’t know. Maybe we should—”
As if in anticipation of Duchess Malwin’s wavering, Otto shouted again. “Please, Mother! Open the gate! I am your son. Please save me. I’m begging you!”
Duchess Malwin stumbled backward. She was shaking, and Saeunn could see her foster mother was undone. But she caught herself and hurried back to the balustrade.
“All right!” she called out. “We’ll open it. We’ll open the gate, just don’t kill my boy!”
Prince Trigvi’s expression softened. “Of course not, my lady.” He motioned for the bowmen to lower their bows. He bowed deeply to the duchess.
Rainer was still frantically signaling for them not to do it.
Duchess Malwin called into the observation room. “Open the gates, Captain Morast,” she said. “That’s an order. Open the gates and let them through.”
“But Your Excellency . . .”
“Do it now.”
Chapter Thirty-Five:
The Dead
Saeunn looked at Ulla, who was shaking her head.
“This doesn’t feel right, Saeunn. Something’s terribly wrong with Otto.”
“Yes.”
“Can we stop them?”
“I don’t think so.”
Ulla nodded. “Maybe I can talk some sense into her.”
She rushed past Saeunn to go after her mother. Saeunn followed, still carrying Anya in her arms.
Duchess Malwin was standing directly in front of the gate when Saeunn walked out of the tower’s spiral staircase.
“Castle guards, lay down your weapons,” the duchess called out. “No one is to make the slightest resistance. I want no excuse for a slaughter.” She turned to Captain Morast, who was standing near. “Morast, see to it.”
Morast nodded that he would. When he called out the order to disarm, there was a sob in his voice. Saeunn retreated across the bailey with Anya. They crouched under the overhanging roof of the castle stables. Across the way, she saw Ulla hurry to Grer’s side outside the smith’s shop.
Duchess Malwin stood alone as the gate rose and the drawbridge was cranked down. When it was all the way down, the Sandhaveners charged in. They wasted no time. With swords, spears, and halberds they prodded the men toward the center of the bailey, rounding them up like sheep.
“Hands on your head!” shouted one of the Sandhaveners. He was very tall and seemed to be the captain. The guard slowly obeyed, and the Sandhaveners prodded those that didn’t with points of weapons until they did.
“On your knees,” the Sandhavener captain yelled. “And keep those hands over your heads!”
Some of the guard submitted. The rest were beaten to their knees by soldiers who waded in among them.
“All right, Nesties, bind those hands behind them and throw them on the ground,” the man called out. The men with weapons moved in. Each had several ropes dangling from their belts.
The Nestie soldiers were disciplined. They did as their captain ordered with little fuss.
If men resisted, they were beaten. There were a few guards and soldiers who were Tier, and they were hit and kicked even harder.
After the castle warriors were secure, the Sandhaven captain whistled and motioned for the prince to come in. He strode forward. Otto walked beside him. His legs moved woodenly. His toes dragged with every step.
Then something horrible entered the bailey. It walked several paces behind Otto.
The horrible thing was a coal black creature with a vulture’s head and the form of a man. On its body, bizarrely, hung the tattered gold and gray robes of a Raukenrose University docent. The thing’s coal black clothing shone through the tattered robe as it moved.
I know what that is!
Saeunn let out a shriek before she could cover her mouth.
“Saeunn?” asked Anya. “What’s wrong? What is it?”
“Evil, little one. Look away.”
It was a draugar.
The draug were elves. Or they had been elves. They had begun as elder elves who had awakened into being in the time before both men and Tier. Only a handful of stars twinkled in the sky then. The dragons were embryos just beginning to take their forms.
The draug had given up their stars. They had been seduced by the evil one, the void, Ubel. Ubel hated the dragons. He would later hate men and Tier and everything that came from the dragons. The draug did, too. The draug gave up their stars. They filled the place where their starlight soul used to be with Ubel’s bitter malice. While their stars fell from the sky, they survived. It was an eternal life in death. They were chained to Ubel’s will.
She wasn’t sure which of the draug this one was. There had once been four. One was no more. Now there were three.
Graus’s dread, fallen joy
Geizul’s whip, broken pride
Trester’s lust, twisted love
Wuten’s rage, rancid revenge
The draugar Trester was gone, but the other three lived on, if you could call that living.
Saeunn watched in horror as the draugar stepped forw
ard. It was walking carefully. And for each step it made, Prince Otto made one, too. Their walks were an exact match.
Otto shambled up to Duchess Malwin. He jerked to a stop directly in front of her.
“Mother,” he said. Saeunn saw the draugar mouthe the same words. “You should have known.”
Duchess Malwin was trembling. Saeunn knew she wanted to grab Otto and hug him. Something held her back.
“Known what, my dearest?” the duchess asked in a small voice.
“You should have known…that I was already dead, Mother.”
And with those words, the animation went out of Otto’s body. He collapsed in a heap at the duchess’s feet.
She screamed. Then she knelt to hold Otto’s body.
“Cold, so cold.”
Saeunn held Anya tightly. The little girl buried her face in Saeunn’s dress. She was shaking. But she wasn’t crying.
“I knew it,” Anya said. “I knew he was dead. Poor mother.”
Saeunn shifted her gaze back to the draugar as if pulled by a force she could not control.
He was looking straight at her. Saeunn gasped.
The draugar mouthed a word. She couldn’t hear it, but she knew what it had said.
“Elf.”
Its death smell filled the bailey. She heard somebody gag and vomit.
The smell was a sign. Rancid revenge.
This was the draugar called Wuten.
Saeunn was so intent on the draugar that at first she did not hear Anya whispering in her ear. It wasn’t until Wuten looked away from her that she was finally able to listen to Anya.
“What is it, little Evinthir? What did you say?”
“I can’t tell Otto now. I promised to, but he’s dead and I can’t tell him.”
“I’m sorry, little Evinthir,” she answered. “Otto knows you love him. That isn’t Otto over there. He’s somewhere else. The real Otto loves you.”
“I know that,” Anya said. “It’s something else that I promised.”
“I don’t understand, dearest.”
“I can’t tell Otto what the owl said.”
“What the owl…what do you mean, Evinthir?”
“I promised the owl I would tell Otto something, but now I can’t.”
Saeunn gazed down at Anya. Anya was looking up at her. Her eyes were clear, and her jaw was set.
“The owl told me where the hammer is.”
“What hammer?”
“The dragon one. The Dragon Hammer. She said to tell Otto where it was. I promised I would, but now I can’t.”
Saeunn tried to make Anya’s words make sense. She grasped at the only part she understood.
“You can tell me,” Saeunn said. “Where is the Dragon Hammer, Evinthir?”
Anya told her.
PART FIVE
Chapter Thirty-Six:
The Duel
“Anya is not imagining things,” Saeunn said.
“But the child’s had a terrible shock,” Grer Smead replied. He worked the bellows and fired his forge as he spoke. “How can you be sure?”
“I know her. This is real. Tell him, Ulla.”
“Saeunn is very good at figuring out lies, dear,” Ulla said to Grer. “I never could get away with telling her one.”
“But if Lady Anya believes what she’s saying, it isn’t a lie to her.”
“Not this,” Saeunn said. “I know when Anya is telling a story. This isn’t made up.”
Grer nodded gravely. He took an iron stirring from a swage block and spread the coals in the forge furnace. “We must go and get it.”
“How?” Ulla said. “The gate is guarded day and night.”
“Rainer is out there,” Saeunn said. “We could signal him.”
“What is he going to do, m’lady?” Grer asked. “That’s the sort of thing that’s going to take special tools to remove it.”
“You could do it,” Ulla said. “But don’t.” She stepped up next to Grer and held on to his arm as if he might be yanked away from her at any moment.
“Aye, I could,” he said. He sighed. “And you know I have to.”
Ulla shook her head in frustration, but didn’t contradict him.
“We’ll have to get you out,” said Saeunn.
“I suppose you have a plan, Lady Saeunn?”
Ulla squeezed Grer’s arm. “Saeunn always has a plan. She’s very devious. And her plans usually work.”
Ulla and Saeunn had been allowed the freedom of the bailey. The castle was filled with Sandhaveners, and there was no way past the gate. And unlike the poor men-at-arms, who were chained below in the castle dungeon, Grer was permitted to work and move freely in the keep.
Saeunn was beginning to understand Prince Trigvi. He believed in justice and law. But the just thing turned out to be whatever Trigvi wanted. Grer’s minor freedom was an example. It was supposed to be a balanced punishment. Grer would be forced to work like a dog. Every limping step Grer took would be a reminder that Gunnar had crippled the smith for life. Saeunn had seen Trigvi smiling serenely while he ordered Grer to fetch water and haul wood for him.
Saeunn thought Trigvi looked ridiculous.
The prince had completely misunderstood Grer. The smith only cared if somebody thought he was slacking at his job. Nobody, even Trigvi, could accuse Grer of that. He worked like a madman keeping the castle fires supplied with wood and water in the central basins. He also handled endless requests for horseshoeing and armor repairs from the Sandhaveners.
Trigvi looked on Ulla with a mix of revulsion and lust. He had announced that he would marry her in time. But first she must learn her place as his queen. He’d made her a housemaid. Her job was to draw water from the castle basins and sweep the halls after his men.
What alarmed Saeunn was that he was also paying attention to Anya. Trigvi had said to Ulla that he might take her sister as a second wife as soon as Anya was of age in the old tradition. That was three years away.
Ulla and Saeunn had been prepared with an excuse if they were stopped when coming to the smithy. None of the guards seemed to care. As long as the girls did not make for the gate, they were ignored.
Saeunn was not bothered by the way she had been treated. The lewd comments she’d received from the Nesties were laughable. She knew they were too disciplined to go against orders and try to take her against her will. She feared for the women of the township, though. The Sandhaven common soldiers she’d seen at the castle were much less disciplined.
Mainly she tried to avoid getting anywhere near the draugar. She could feel the pull of his empty soul. Being near him was like standing in a high place and thinking about jumping. Daylight and clouds never harmed her connection to her star, but being near the draugar made her feel weak, sick and out of touch. She also had the sneaking suspicion that the draugar had some special plan for her. She dreaded finding out what that might be.
He was many thousands of years old. The elder elves hadn’t even been shaped like people at first. They had been forces of nature. The four draug were powers of the north, south, east, and west of the world. They had been sent from the never and forever to soothe the dragons’ dreams. They’d done their duty for eons. Then Ubel, the void that existed in the tiny spaces between the dragons, had talked the elder elves into giving up their stars and following him.
He had promised them freedom, then made them slaves.
Wuten was trying to find the Dragon Hammer. He was questioning everyone in the castle, one by one, but men first. It would be only a matter of time until he got to her—and to Anya. They had to do something before that time came.
This was the reason for the meeting in Grer’s shop.
“I do have a plan,” said Saeunn. “I went to visit my horse friend Slep in the stables to see how she was doing. Not well. The place is packed with Sandhavener horses. The stable boys are mucking out the manure constantly. So far they’ve been piling it in a wagon outside the stalls. They’ve been terrified to take it down to the river and dump
it.”
“Aye, they should be. If you get on the wrong side of those Nesties, they’ll throw you in the dungeon with the castle men-at-arms. It happened to my apprentice, Luki.”
“A strong man could pull that manure wagon,” Saeunn said. “He could tell the gate guards he was going to dump it. It’s a job that has to get done.”
Grer was silent for a moment. Then he let out a quiet, “Aye.”
“But why wouldn’t one of the Nesties do it?” Ulla put in.
“They don’t know where to take it. Those Nesties are hard, but they’re by-the-rules sort of men. They wouldn’t like the idea of dumping it outside the gate. They’ll want it properly taken care of.”
“You are willing to gamble my fiancé’s life on them having proper manners?” Ulla replied.
“They’ll turn him back if they don’t want him to do it.”
“Or throw him in the dungeon if they’re in a bad mood,” Ulla said. “I’m not sure if I like this idea, Saeunn.”
“He has to try,” Saeunn said. “The evil thing is on the trail. If he gets it…I think this land will die.”
Grer nodded. “She’s right, Ulla. That thing…what do you call it?”
“A draugar. I do not like to say his name. We elves are ashamed of the draug. They are our own kind gone bad.”
“It’s evil, that’s plain enough,” Grer continued. “It’s been going into the dungeons, you know, asking its questions. You can hear the men scream. Grown men and soldiers.”
“It senses that the hammer is close.”
Grer sighed. “I must do what I can,” Grer said. “I’ll need tools.”
“You can hide them in the manure.”
Grer nodded. “Right then. When should I do it?”
“At imbiss bell the stable hands change shifts. That would be the time.”
Ulla breathed in quickly. “So soon?”
“The sooner the better,” Grer said. “I want to get this over with before I realize I’m staking my life on what a talking owl said to an eight-year-old girl.”
Captain Rask strode determinedly past the picket and headed for the cane patch in the bend of the river. This was where his brother had told him the fight was going to take place.