“ Unless you boys plan to walk the whole ways I suggest you get aboard.” Joani said seemly in a pleasant tone. She had calmed down once Rinwid had left the city. She was actually a little excited to be leaving the mountain. Joani had always been a bit of a wild-child and being from a peasant background should have never been royalty but her take no nonsense attitude had been the thing that had made the king fall for her to start with. It would later be the thing that beat him into submission and left him at the whim of Joani but it was this aggressive spark to life that would lead the Dwarfs to aid the topsiders one more time.
“ How long will it take to reach Neeskmouth?” Calvin said as he struggled to pull himself up into the rear of the wagon. His legs had decided to go to sleep while they had been waiting and at his age it could be days before they decided to wake up again.
“If we can ride the horses at a gallop and they don’t tire to swiftly. A couple of days no more. We should arrive on Duwek or Midwek at the latest.” Joani said and she would have been right too but she didn’t know Fintan had been being followed. They had not taken off far down the mountain before being forced to stop.
“ Whoa.” Joani called out pulling back hard on the reigns of her horses in a desperate attempt not to plough into the rear of the cart in front. “What in the nine hells are you doing stopping like that?” She called out seemingly uninterested in the well being of the two others sharing her cart that had barely managed to hold on as the cart jolted to a stop.
“ There’s a girl in the road. She looks hurt, maybe bandits or something. We’ll need to move her to continue.” The Dwarf who had been in charge of the cart at the front of the convoy said loudly through a thick mesh of beard.
“Move her ?” Calvin exclaimed. “We need to help her. Is she still breathing?” He asked sitting forward trying to see over the mounds of supplies and horse backside that blocked his view.
“Is she with you ?” Joani asked shooting Calvin a glance that could kill. She had been in two minds about helping Calvin ever since Rinwid had reared his ugly head and she would not tolerate any more surprises.
“ No she isn’t, but I still need to tend to her wounds. She might have been bringing news from Neeskmouth.” Calvin said and took his chance to slip down onto the rocky mountain road with a clatter of loose stones.
“ You have five minutes old man. I think I’ve been more than patient enough with topsiders and surprises today already. If you can’t get her on her feet by then we leave her to elements.” Joani said not hiding her dislike for humans. It is true that Dwarfs and humans had once been allies but the incessant thirst humans had for conquest had over-time weakened relations to the state they were now.
“ That’ll have to do then.” Calvin said grumpily as he slugged his way slowly past the front carts until he could see the wounded women clearly. The woman was young and white. Her pale flat features suggested she was Neeskmouthain and her red hair, that could she be seen reveled by the falling back of her hood, backed this theory up. She was slender but looked well fed and showed no signs of dehydration. So that ruled that out as a reason she may have collapsed. Her blackened outfit had been stained by ash, lots of it and it looked like she must have come through the Scorched Lands or close by it at least. But if she was being pursued by bandits then why had she continued on past the Dwarfen kingdom, it made no sense. She showed no signs of being attacked. There were not any visible bruises or knife wounds. Calvin bent down to listen to see if the women still had a heart beat but before his ear could press against the tight cloth, the cold of steel clipped his throat.
“ Don’t move a muscle old man.” Erin Cleat daughter of William Boatswain said as she opened her eyes and looked up into the startled face of Calvin.
“ It’s ok young lady I’m here to help.” Calvin said trying his hardest to sound friendly, which with the demon inside him stirring at the imamate danger wasn’t particularly easy.
“ Help me you old fool. Aye, s’pose you might just do that. You see I need to be taking the heart you found in the Scorched Lands and I need to be walking away nice and quietly without one of your short friends there causing any hassle. We have an understanding?” Erin said slowly slipping from her back onto her haunches never once taking her eyes off of Calvin and the blade barely moving from his throat.
“ I was trying to help you. I thought you were injured.” Calvin said trying his damndest not to swallow. He was infuriated by the betrayal and wanted to let loose the power Rinwid was offering but he could not risk it. Calvin didn’t know how many more times he could resist Rinwid taking over. No, instead he would have to deal with this without magic.
“ That was the idea really. Poor pretty girl wounded on a mountain. I knew you wouldn’t be able to just walk on past. I didn’t plan for half the Dwarfs in the bloody mountain to follow you down mind. But, I’ll adapt. Now the heart where is it?” Erin said looking around and the gathering Dwarfs, They had dropped down from the carts and started to move towards her and Calvin. Fintan was with them. He had been so easy to track leaving more clues than a blind hippo through a wheat field. He had been more interested in making flowers grow and talking to the horse he had stolen. Than making sure he was alone. When he let the horse go and walked into the Scorched Lands he had become even easier to follow. The only time Erin had almost lost him was during the heavy winds that had hidden his footsteps. Fintan’s vanishing act didn’t last for long as Erin easily picked his track back up when the wizard had cast the spell and drawn her attention that way. At times she had been so close to Fintan she was sure he should have heard her footsteps, but he had been oblivious to her.
“ Is that what you’re after? Then you’re as out of luck as we were. The heart is still in the Dragon.” Calvin said deciding to be as honest as he could. Maybe it would put his would be assassin on the back heal enough for him to make his move. He was old but far from small and this girl was no more than eighteen or nineteen and didn’t look like she had actually seen much real battle, looks can be deceiving though and her accent hinted she’d spent time around the White Flags so Calvin was taking no chances.
“You almost look like you’re telling the truth. Shame I’ll have to leave you here once I get it or you might actually have had a future with the Flags.” Erin said absent minded. She cursed herself for saying it the moment the words left her mouth but it wouldn’t matter. Once she got the heart back to her unbeknown-father there was little an old man and an Elf could do to stop her. The only real threat would have been the noble Darcy she had been sent after in the first place. He could have called directly on the king for aid, but she had found his grave at the base on the other side of the mountain.
“ Look you skinny little poke-reed. Kill the old man if you really have to but he’s telling the truth the heart is still in the blasted Dragon and that is why we’re heading to Neeskmouth to try and stop it. Now either join us and help or kill the old man and be dead before you get off the mountain but do one quickly as you’re slowing down our trip and it’ll be nightfall soon.” Joani said stepping forward leaning against her walking stick. She had no need for one as she was probably the strongest person among the group, but she liked using one. She felt it gave her height.
“Who’re you calling a poke reed?” Erin said flabbergasted. The smirk and glance that was aimed at Erin from Joani told without words she was not joking about anything she had just said. She held little love for humans at the best of times and Calvin had brought a demon into her city. She would lose no sleep if he was killed and just wanted to get on with the journey ahead. Erin lowered her knife. What choice did she have really? At least joining the caravan would get her back to Neeskmouth quicker than on foot and she was tired. It had been a long month since new-year had been celebrated. This seemed as fitting end to Nylar as any, starting the return journey to Neeskmouth.
The carts rolled on down the mountains without further interruption. The weather held true and it felt like the planting season was
well underway and as soon as the caravan of carts passed down under the blanket of cloud the skies opened back out into the view that had taken the breath away from Calvin and Fintan on their way up. They could no longer see the Tower Plains or out over Briers Hill as they made their descent on the north side of the mountain but opened up in front of them was the city of Neeskmouth and the glorious sight of the sun shining back from the White Sea behind it. On the horizon low and green was the silhouette of the Alienage. It was the first time Fintan had seen it since he had set off in the rickety old boat with the crazy old White Flag captain. It was somewhat ironic that his journey home was being accompanied by another pirate.
“Why are you so glum then me old’ chum?” Erin said elbowing Fintan gently in the ribs as the carts rattled on gaining speed in the descent. “It’s nothing.” Fintan replied. The truth was he was still a little in shock from seeing Darcy die in front of him. It had been days since they had dug the shallow grave in the ashes and lay his body down to rest. They had used the broken table top to make a marker for the head of the grave and scratched Darcy’s name into it.
“ Doesn’t look like nothing to me. I-seen barnacles on the side of beached boats that looks happier than you.” Erin said tilting her head to look up into Fintan’s drooped face.
“ We lost someone back in the Scorched Lands. I don’t think the boys dealing with it all too well.” Calvin said from the rear of the cart. He couldn’t believe he had been pushed into the back to let this pirate tart sit up front but then at least he could keep an eye on her from back there.
“First time you seen someone die is it?” Erin asked and it seemed to Fintan that she was honestly interested, but she never gave him chance to reply, not that he was going to, before she continued. “Aye, it can be hard the first time. S’pose I just got used to it in my line of work. Sometimes it’s either them or us and sometime it’s just their time. You know what I mean. I saw the grave you dug the noble while I was following you. You did right by him. What was it, the ash get to him in the end then?”
“Thank you. I think. I just. I don’t know really. I just think I should have done something. I should have saved him. I had a clean shot at the Dragon but I couldn’t take it. I was in shock.” Fintan said not taking his eyes of the glistening golden reflection on the ocean.
“ Dragon, so you actually saw one then. I thought you were pulling my plank on that one. So the Dragons’ heart is really still inside a big fire breathing city pillaging Dragon?” Erin asked mainly just to make conversation.
“ I told you as much.” Calvin added from the back as he shifted around uncomfortably in the piles of ore that shifted with the roll of the carts and they begun to level out. The ground started to flatten into a low slope. In an hour or less they would be officially out of the mountains.
“ I know but I never believed you. Creators arse, Dragons. No wonder you’re in shock pointy ears. I’m just glad I wasn’t with you when you saw them.” Erin said bluntly. She had thought she had seen something big under the ash when she followed along a small gully before the foot prints vanished and she found a new set which with hindsight must have been when Calvin had teamed up with Fintan. She’d thought it was just a mirage though from breathing in too much ash. Erin never thought for a second that was actually a Dragon.
“Will you help us when we get to the city then? We’ll need everyone to help us fight them.” Calvin said not trusting Erin as far as he could throw her but knowing it would take every human on Neeska to repel the Dragon lords.
After a moment’s thought on the prospect of Dragons returning and having to tell William she had failed him for the first time ever. Erin replied hesitantly. “I guess I’ll have to. I just can’t believe it, Dragons.”
“ Best start believing quickly then. Not too many more days until we’ll arrive in the human city.” Joani said breaking her silence for the first time since she had reluctantly picked up the ‘hitchhiker’ and continued driving the cart onwards. The cart went mute for a time after that, everyone was deep within their own minds. Erin thought of home, she wanted to get back out onto the open sea as quick as possible when all this was over. Erin was the first to break the silence again. It seemed she shared the uncomfortable feeling her father William got around quiet. “I’d guess yours would have passed-on by now Calvin.” Erin said and before Calvin could ask what she was on about she continued. “And I’m not even sure if Dwarfs have them. But Fintan will your parents be waiting for you when you return.” Erin asked it seemed from nowhere, but the truth was it that this was her first real mission alone since the death of her mother, she felt oddly sad that she would have no one waiting for her when she returned home.
“No mine died when I was a boy. A huge storm hit while they were out travelling to the White Isle to trade. They never made it.” Fintan said still saddened by the whole affair. When he had left the Alienage on that little boat he’d wanted to make them proud as he stood shining in the royal armor but he’d accomplished nothing apart from getting it covered in ash that seemed like it would never wash off. Erin went quiet for a moment looking out over the ocean.
“ I don’t want to get your hopes up but. I seem to remember stories of a couple of Elves landing on the Isle long before I came to dock there. Judging from the stories had to be forty years or more ago. They’d been lost at sea for an age and their vessel was all but sunk as it crashed into the beach. They’d lost their memories.” She said. The story had come up a few times in the taverns, the Elves had stuck around the island for a few months after their accident and the plan had been to ransom them back to Neeskmouth if the petty squabble between then and the Elves ever died out. When it seemed like it was never going to Williams father had decided to send them off with a crew to the Brilanka monks in the hoped they might be able to help them recover what memories they’d lost.
“ You mean. They could be alive somewhere?” Fintan asked looking away from the horizon for the first time, his eyes penetrating Erin searching for any hint that this was some kind of sickening joke.
“ Aye just might be. Don’t get your hopes up. May not even be them. But when all is said and done here. I’ll draw you up a map and see if I can help you find them.” Erin said. She’d always fancied captaining her own ship and with the loss of her parents she could understand the pain in Fintan’s eyes, that and she didn’t feel all too comfortable at staying on the White Isle after failing William.
“ Don’t trust her Fintan. I can’t see what’s in it for a pirate.” Calvin said from the rear of the cart. He couldn’t see what angle Erin was working but he didn’t trust her to help anyone purely out of the kindness of her heart.
“ I have my reasons to want to help someone find their parents but for now I’ll talk no more of it. Time to get some shut eye.” Erin said turning her back towards Fintan and shutting her eyes. They still had a long way to go and she didn’t intend to be awake for much of it.
Chapter twenty one – a council reborn As with every month on Valadfar, Nylar had twenty four days, the month of the New Year had been and gone passing into the chronicles of history only to be recorded by the Brilanka monks who first decided on the calendar that the world would use forever more. The first few days of Olar had come with an uneasy peace. Word had been sent out from Neeskmouth to the Pole capital of Raidaridin, it had been taken by carrier bird and a similar white plumed bird was sent out to Slickrock for the White Flags to come to their leader William’s aid. He had been spared death in light of the Dragons returning. Word had even been sent to the Elves of the Alienage who Ingaild suspected were a long-shot to lend aid. It seemed unlikely that they would once again take up arms for a city that turned on them after the last time they had helped it, but he had to muster what aid he could and by the time the Dwarfs arrived at the cities edge on Bruwek fourth of Olar the gathering of the council was almost ready to begin. This would be the first time all the kingdoms of Northern Neeska would gather peacefully since the end of the Great
War just over a hundred years before. They had only four days until the Dragons were due to return to the city. That left little time to prepare an army let alone for the petty squabbles that had torn the races and kingdoms apart in the first place to be aired out and settled. Ingaild as proud as he was knew that he would have to act as a mediator if they would work together quick enough to be able to push the Dragons back. Not even he could stand up to the might of a Dragon horde alone. The reconstruction of the city had been called to a halt while Ingaild waited for his full army to march to the city. They should arrive easily before the Dragons so that left him free to focus on more important matters such as trying to find any reference in the city on how the Dragons were pushed out the last time. Ingaild was a mighty warrior and had amassed the Iron Giants into a weapon known as the Poles but he feared even his reach would not be long enough to swipe the Dragon lords from the sky when they came at him in force. The sight of Dwarfs coming over the southern bank of Copse Hill to the southeast of the city was the last straw. Ingaild called for the leaders of the many people of Neeska, who had started to trickle into the city, to be brought to his chambers. William, Harvey, Cadeyrn and these Dwarfen visitors would be brought to his room. They would thrash this all out in one evening like adults, for if they did not then the Dragons would ravish the city before it could be readied for war. It had been surprising how quickly the Elves had answered the summons but it seemed like they remembered the bloodshed of the Dragonkind better than most and a ship had docked in the harbor the very next day to the bird being sent. It was almost as if they had known about the Dragons appearance in the city during what should have been Harvey’s execution. That was something Ingaild would have to look into once this was all over. He would not make the same mistake as Harvey and spread himself too thinly fighting petty wars on each front.
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