Valeray shook his head. “This time I started by stepping through the twilight archway in the topmost tower, and it brought me to the one down the lower hallway yon. Then I crossed this chamber and went out through that one, and back to the topmost tower I came. Ah, fie! I keep thinking that there should be some combination of exits and entries that might set us free, for oft there are complex sequences a thief must master ere a treasure can be won. . in this case, our freedom.” Sitting on the dais next to Rondalo, Borel said, “Once when Flic and I were in the Endless Sands, I explained to him how such a place might be so named, and this prison in which we find ourselves seems to be but a variation on that theme.” Rondalo swung his leg from the arm of the chair and turned toward Borel. “How so?”
Borel looked at the Elf. “I told him to think of that vast desert as simply a room with two doorways, and when one exits out through one, he simply comes in the other, and, of course, the reverse as well. In the Endless Sands the twilight bounds could be thought of as the ‘doorways.’ I also mentioned that the Castle of Shadows might be constructed the same way.”
“And that’s why you believe we are now entrapped in the Castle of Shadows and not somewhere else?” asked Raseri.
“Oui,” replied Borel.
As Raseri lowered his head and Alain fetched Duran down, Valeray sighed and said, “I believe you are right, Borel, for what 246 / DENNIS L. MCKIERNAN
better vengeance could Orbane inflict than to hurl us all into the place where he himself was cast and held captive these many seasons.”
Alain nodded in agreement. “Oui, Papa, Orbane would do such, for you and Lord Rulon-Chelle’s sire-were the chief architects in bringing him to ruin. Yet I imagine that Hradian would rather have seen us slain in repayment for the deaths of her sisters than simply to be trapped herein.”
“I agree,” called down Saissa, as she and Liaze and Celeste and Camille traversed a balcony above to descend the long set of stairs. Scruff, riding on Camille’s shoulder, took to wing and flew about the chamber, the tiny sparrow chirping all the while.
Rondalo and Borel stood as the women reached the floor of the vast hall and passed around Raseri, the Drake inclining his head in acknowledgement.
“My lady Saissa, your seat of state,” said Rondalo, sweeping a hand toward the chair on the dais.
“Pishposh, Rondalo, I will sit on a step.” As the women took seat along the treads of the dais, and Scruff glided down to alight upon the back of the throne, Valeray looked ’round and said, “Inmates all and-” Valeray’s words chopped to a halt. But then he put a hand to his forehead.
“Oh, my, I just realized this is why the Fates spoke to Sieur Emile’s sons and not us.”
Celeste frowned. “Your meaning, Papa?”
“We are trapped herein and can do nought, while Laurent, Blaise, and Roel are free, as well as Luc. The Three Sisters knew it all along.”
“And yet they did not warn you?” said Rondalo.
Valeray slowly shook his head. “Perhaps there was nought anyone could do to prevent it.”
Rondalo blew out a sharp puff of air and glanced at Camille.
“Even so. .”
“What’s done is done,” said Valeray, sighing.
“Then,” said Celeste, “if we are truly trapped in the Castle of Shadows, we can only hope Roel and Laurent and Blaise and Luc recover the key and set us loose.”
Raseri growled and glared toward the entrance and asked,
“And just who will bring the key to yon portal?” Celeste turned to the Drake. “I do not understand, Raseri.”
“I am one of the few to know the way through the Great Darkness to come to the Castle of Shadows.”
“There is no one else?”
“I did not say that, Princess. But if someone is to come, they must be able to fly.”
“Fly?” said Liaze.
“Oui, for the Castle of Shadows floats free in the Great Darkness. There is no road to the gates-only dark emptiness-a place where any rescuer, flyer or not, can become lost forever.”
“Raseri,” said Camille, “if you have seen the Castle of Shadows by flying through the dark, does it have this shape? If so, then we will truly know where we are.”
Raseri shook his head. “Even though I have seen the Castle of Shadows, still I cannot say this is it.”
“Why so?”
“When last I saw the Castle, it was but a single square-based tower, fit to hold one person-Orbane.” Raseri looked at Borel and said, “In the manner of your explanation of the Endless Sands, two doorways it had, one on each side, and a shorn-off bridge leading away from each.”
“But this is not a single tower,” said Celeste.
“Non, it is not,” said Raseri.
“Then mayhap we are not in the Castle of Shadows,” said Liaze.
“Perhaps not, but then again perhaps so,” said Raseri, “for there are legends.” The Drake looked at Rondalo.
The Elf nodded and said, “My mother, Chemine, spoke of the lore and told some of it to me. She said the gods made the castle such that it would change to accommodate whoever was to be kept within.” Rondalo gestured wide. “Look about you. Behold this vast throne room-a hall to hold Raseri, n’est-ce pas?” Liaze shrugged, but said nought.
“Is there ought else of the legends of the Castle of Shadows?” asked Camille.
“Oui, and they seem to confirm that we are indeed imprisoned in it, for we need neither food nor drink, and we cannot escape.”
Valeray looked about the chamber. “We need a way to break out.”
“Think you we have not tried?” growled Raseri. He flexed his great black saberlike claws. “These walls resist my efforts to rend them asunder, and flame mars them not.” At these words, Camille fell into pondering, chasing an elusive thought skittering just beyond reach on the edge of her mind.
“I wonder if something the Fates said in one of their redes spoken to the three brothers tells ought of our fate,” said Alain, watching Duran clip-clopping his toy horse across the floor.
“Perhaps,” said Borel, also watching the wee prince down on his hands and knees with the toy. “For in the very moment that Orbane and Hradian appeared, I had solved at least a part of the rede Skuld gave to Laurent.”
“Which part?” asked Liaze.
Borel frowned and then intoned:
“Swift are the get of his namesake,
That which a child does bear.”
Liaze shook her head. “And its meaning is. .?” Borel pointed at Duran. “The colts of Asphodel-the Fairy ONCE UPON A DREADFUL TIME / 249
King’s horse-the namesake of that which the child does bear.”
Camille, who was yet in deep thought, seemed not to hear Borel’s solution, but all the others looked at the young prince and his white horse with its tiny silver bells ajingle.
“Mais oui,” said Alain, “you told us of that marvelous steed.
And now that you say it, I think I know what the very next part of the rede means:
“Ask the one who rides the one
To send seven children there.”
In that moment Camille broke from her pondering and exclaimed, “Aha! Now I know what it is I was chasing. Rondalo, you said that legend has it that the gods fashioned the Castle of Shadows such that it would change to accommodate whoever was to be kept within, oui?”
Rondalo nodded.
Camille then stood and turned to Raseri and curtseyed. “My Lord Dragon, your bedchamber upstairs is ready.”
“My bedchamber? Upstairs? What is this banter of yours?” Raseri gestured at the steps to the archways above and the corridors beyond. “The stairwell is too narrow, the passages too constricted. This is the only chamber large enough to contain me.”
“Then you have not tried?”
“Non.”
“Heed me, my dear Raseri, we must all of us here think beyond the bounds of our expectations, for, if the legends are factual, and this is truly the Castle of Shadows in the
Great Darkness beyond the Black Wall of the World, we can prove it by you going to your chambers above.”
“But there are no chambers for me above.”
“Perhaps if you believe there are, then they will indeed be there. After all, the Castle of Shadows is said to be enchanted to accommodate its prisoners.”
Raseri looked at Rondalo, and the Elf turned up his hands and shrugged, but Scruff gave a loud chirp as if to say “Try.” Rising up and wheeling about, the great Dragon headed for the stairs, and even as he did so, they swiftly started to expand, as did the balcony and archways and the corridors beyond.
Camille then turned to Valeray and said, “Given the legends are true, surely this confirms we are trapped in a prison we have not the means to escape.”
At these words, Saissa began to silently weep, and Valeray took her in his embrace, while Duran in his innocence laughed gaily as he galloped Asphodel away.
Corsairs
“Ah, there it is,” said Orbane.
In the distance ahead lay a rocky upjut of an island in the clear waters of the sparkling sea. Even from the height Hradian flew, as they neared they could see that its craggy interior was filled with scrub and twisted trees, though here and there groves of tall pines stood. Some five miles across it was and thrice that around, and the shoreline itself was nought more than a rocky shingle, sand absent for the most part. Massive blocks of stone reared up here and there along the perimeter, but mostly long cliffs of sheer rock rising up from the sea beringed the entire isle. On the far side loomed a fortress of gray stone, sitting atop a low rise jutting out from the fall of the land. On beyond and farther down, another half mile or so, stood a town, curving about a modest bay. Rover ships were moored in the dark waters of the cove, with the arc of the island shouldering up all ’round. Hradian and Orbane could see folk in the streets of the port, and the docks were busy. Farther on, out on the brine, vessels fared away from the bay, while others approached. They were three-masted dhows for the most part, with lateen sails a vivid red to strike fear in the hearts of their victims, for they were corsairs, and this was the Isle of Brados.
As to the fortress itself, roughly square it was, an outer wall running ’round o’er the rough ground, some ten feet high and three hundred feet to a side and five feet thick at the top, wider at the base. A road ran down through a series of switchbacks to the town below.
Between the outer bulwark ringing ’round and the main bastion lay nought but open space, the land completely barren of growth; ’twas a killing ground should invaders come.
Centered within this outer wall and killing ground, the dark citadel stood: also built in a square some two hundred feet to a side, a massive wall stood some fifty feet high to the banquette with towers and turrets along its length and a great courtyard within. And at the very midpoint of the quadrangle stood a tall slender structure, mayhap some seventy feet high, window slits up its length, arrow slits up its sides as well.
And as Hradian and Orbane spiralled down, from somewhere below there came the clanging of an alarm gong, and, on the fortress walls, horns blew, and men pointed upward at the besom-riding pair.
“Acolyte, land on the balcony ringing ’round the top of the tower.”
“Oui, my lord.”
But as they approached, armed and armored men rushed out, crossbows and cutlasses at the ready. Yet with a whispered word and a simple gesture, Orbane halted them in their tracks, and they stood like statues, no longer able to move.
As warders in the courtyard below and upon the fortress walls called out in alarm, Hradian came to rest among the men frozen in place, and Orbane moved past them and into the chamber beyond, his acolyte following.
They came into a large room, with windows all ’round overlooking not only the fortress itself and the nearby surrounding terrain, but also the town below and the dark bay beyond.
In the center of the chamber sat a large round table, a scatter of charts thereon, and at the far edge stood a swarthy and bearded man, also frozen in place.
“My lord,” hissed Hradian. She pointed at an open trapdoor, revealing a spiral stair leading downward. “More come.” But Orbane paid her no heed, and instead stepped to the man and made a small gesture, releasing him from the spell.
As the man raised a forearm in a protective flinch, louder came curses and running footsteps of ascending brigands, and Hradian darted to the trapdoor and slammed it to and shot the bolt, barring the corsairs from entry.
“You have seen but a mere iota of my power,” said Orbane.
The man, in spite of his fright, lowered his arm and glared.
“And you are?”
“I am Orbane.”
Once again fear filled the man’s features; even so, he found his voice. “You escaped?”
“I did.”
“What is it you want?”
“I want to see your commander, for I have an alliance to propose, one that will gain you incalculable riches.” A hint of greed flashed through the eyes of the man. “I am Burque, Captain of Captains.”
A hammering rattled the trapdoor, and voices called out,
“Burque, open the way. We’ll deal with these interlopers.” Orbane sneered at these words. “You command these rabble, Captain?”
“Oui. But, my lord, I ask you to harm them not, for they only seek to come to my aid.”
“Ah, loyalty, eh?”
“Oui, for unlike the days of Caralos, under my command they prosper.”
“Caralos?”
“The former Captain of Captains, slain here in this tower by an unknown hand during a fireship raid.”
“By an unknown hand, eh? Was it not you?”
“Nay, my lord, though oft I contemplated it. Instead it was someone who stole a valuable map ere it could be delivered to the one who commissioned its theft.”
“Well, Burque, ally with me and you will not have to stoop to petty thievery, but instead prosper beyond your wildest dreams.”
“And what would this alliance demand of me?”
“Just that you transport an army of mine from Port Cient to a distant shore.”
“A distant shore?”
Orbane nodded. “Another port.”
Burque frowned and said, “You want to loot the town?”
“Not just the town, but the whole of Faery and all the riches within. And you will share in the wealth.”
“But to dream of conquering the whole of Faery is folly,” said Burque.
Rage flashed in Orbane’s gaze, rage quickly quelled. “The army you will transport will be but a minuscule part of the whole, I merely need you to put them ashore at the nearest place where they can join me.”
Boom! Boom! There came a great pounding on the trapdoor, as if the men below were using a ram.
“My lord!” shrilled Hradian, desperation in her eyes.
Orbane sighed in exasperation and gestured at the entry, and a dead silence fell. Then he turned to Burque. “Well?”
“This army of yours we are to transport from Port Cient, are they assembled? If so, it will take me a good six moons to gather most of the fleet together.”
“Nonsense,” snapped Orbane. “Simply take me to where there are seagulls, and I will send messages to all.”
“You can do that, my lord?”
Again ire at being questioned crossed Orbane’s face, but he held himself in check. “The gulls, Captain, the gulls, and I will have your fleet at Port Cient in less than a fortnight.”
“And this army we are to transport, how many in all? For that will determine the number of ships.”
“Mayhap two thousand or so,” said Orbane.
“Your pardon, my lord, but a mere two thousand does not seem to be much of an army to me.”
Orbane smiled. “If they were just men, then I would agree.
But this is an army of Changelings.”
“Changelings!” blurted Burque. “I am not certain my men will put up with Changelings on their ships.”
&nb
sp; “Are you not the Captain of Captains?” seethed Orbane.
“I am, but-”
“Let me put it this way, my Captain of Captains, if you do not transport them, then they will find a way to come unto Brados, and when they arrive they will destroy all that is here.
They are Changelings, and you have no defenses that will stop them from the air and sea and land and under the land. So, you can either move my army for me and win your riches, or not do so and see your fiefdom utterly destroyed and your fleet at the bottom of the sea.”
. .
Three days later, with the agreement struck and the message-bearing gulls long gone, Hradian and Orbane left Brados. The Captain of Captains was glad to be well quit of them, for Orbane had ruined many a woman in the town, and Hradian many a man.
. .
Another day went by, and in the harbor at Port Mizon, a seagull landed upon a dhow, one of the ships captured of recent by a ship of King Avelar’s fleet. The gull, a capsule attached to a leg, did not seem afraid of men, and in fact sought one out. Within a candlemark the missive was in the hands of Vicomte Chevell.
“It is in the old corsair cipher,” said Chevell, peering at the runes. “One I well know.” He reached for a quill and parchment.
Within but moments he had the message decoded. He paled and said, “Oh, my,” and then turned to an aide. “Fetch me a horse.”
As the lad ran away, “A horse, Captain?” asked Armond, former second in command on Chevell’s Sea Eagle but now a captain of his own vessel-the Hawk.
Once upon a dreadful time ou-4 Page 22