Kaliam smiled, pleased to have evened the score in front of his bride-to-be. “There is much I can teach you,” Kaliam said. “In time. Let us tilt again!”
On the third duel Kaliam rushed out to meet Robby’s charge, and their blades met with a tremendous crash. Kaliam tried to roll off the blow and spin like before, but Robby ducked it and slapped away Kaliam’s attack. Their weapons struck again and again, long, sweeping, heavy blows-always followed by grunts from the two fighters. Sweat poured off of them both and the straining muscles of each glistened.
Kaliam began at last to wear Robby down. He backed him into a corner, but Robby did something Kaliam did not expect. He turned the broadsword so that when he struck again, it would not be with the sharp blade, but rather the full flat of the blade. Robby chopped down with all his might on Kaliam’s claymore near the hilt. The force of the blow was such that it knocked the blade from Kaliam’s hand. Robby thought he had won, but before he could deliver the final shot, Kaliam grabbed the claymore and in one motion rolled and brought the blade point to Robby’s back.
“Uh, okay, I give!” Robby said.
Kaliam lowered the sword. “How did I beat you?” he asked.
“I didn’t think someone as big as you could move that fast,” Robby replied, shaking his head.
“Most cannot,” Kaliam said. “Still, you acquitted yourself well with my broadsword. I will see if something like it can be found for you to use more permanently.”
“You mean I passed the test?” Robby asked. “I’m a knight now?”
“You have more than enough skill with a sword to be a knight,” Kaliam said. “But there is more to it than that. Go now with Kindle. He will take you to Guard’s Keep for the midday meal. Afterward, we will meet again, and I will show you your chores.” He winked at Lady Merewen. “One of them in particular was Aidan’s favorite!”
“Well?” Lady Merewen asked after Kindle and Robby left the train-ing compound.
“Robby has no classical technique,” Kaliam replied, absently massaging his forearms. “But what he lacks in style, he makes up for in brutality! He is reckless, almost maniacal with that broadsword. Why, his initial charge is an onslaught of one person! I would gladly have him guarding the walls of our city, and I pity any enemy knight who scales a ladder only to meet Robby and his heavy blade.”
“Why do you still have hesitation in your manner, m’lord?” Lady Merewen asked.
“I wish I knew… for certain,” Kaliam replied, staring into the skies to the north.
“Is there something you guess, then?”
“Tonight, after Robby’s Confession Ceremony, I need to speak to him and ask him a question. Then I will have some wisdom and not just a hunch.”
“You speak in riddles, m’lord,” Lady Merewen said.
He turned to face her and said, “Perhaps it is one of many things I have learned from our King.”
She laughed but then pointed over Kaliam’s shoulder. “Kaliam, look!”
And there in the skies to the north were hundreds of gray winged shapes. A horn call came on the wind, and it was answered as the trumpets of the city rang out.
Kaliam sighed with great relief. “The dragon riders have returned!”
25
PENNATH ADOR
T his is grievous news!” exclaimed Kaliam. He banged his fist on the table, startling all those assembled in Guard’s Keep. “Mallik, is there nothing your resourceful folk can do?”
Mallik’s coppery brow was knotted in anger. He wore a sneer of distaste as he spoke. “Paragor’s attack was more precise than we ever could have imagined. Some of our cutting tools were spared, but every last one of our wind-carriages was burned to cinders! We are resourceful, yes, but we cannot carve walls without tools-nor trans-port stone without carriages!”
“In spite of our careful planning,” said King Ravelle, “the enemy then stays one step ahead!”
“So it would seem,” Kaliam replied. Lady Merewen’s light touch on his forearm calmed him enough to sit down.
“The gray walls of Alleble are yet proud and sturdy,” said Queen Illaria. “Can they not buffet Paragor’s attack?”
Farix answered, “If all the enemy brought to bear on us was his catapults and his fiery projectiles… then yes, the walls of Alleble would stand. But the Wyrm Lord’s fire is a weapon beyond the strength of normal stone. He would open breaches in our defenses and allow Paragor’s foot soldiers to invade.”
“And that is our chief fear,” explained Kaliam. “Paragor may try to drop his forces behind our walls with his dragon carriages, but our own dragons and archers will limit their effect. But if he is able to break through the walls, we are then forced to abandon our plan of attack to plug holes in our defense!”
“What then is to be done?” Lord Sternhilt asked.
“What indeed?” echoed Kaliam, and he shook his head. “For the Wyrm Lord was a mere shadow of his former strength-shriv-eled and weak from his captivity-when Clarion fell to him like kin-dling. Now that he has been nursed to health in the bastions of Paragory, his fire will burn all the hotter. And who can say what powers the firstborn dragon will wield when his strength waxes?”
“It seems we have little hope,” said Nock.
“There is always hope,” whispered a voice from a hooded Glimpse at the chamber door. And yet each knight in the room felt as if it had been spoken privately in his ear alone. They all turned as the stranger lowered his hood. He had dark feathery hair flecked with gray and brushed to one side where it rippled like willow branches in the wind. Luminous blue eyes with huge dark pupils peered out thoughtfully from under gray brows. A slight smile appeared above his squared goatee, but it was the smile neither of joy nor of madness. No, this Glimpse’s expression was in many ways grim, but his smile spoke of confidence and security, an anchor in the room where the sea had become so turbulent.
“Naysmithe!” Kaliam said, and he stood and went to shake his hand. “You are most welcome. Long has it been since you have offered your wisdom in this room!”
“I only repeat such wisdom as I am given,” Naysmithe replied mysteriously. “But I say again, there is always hope. The Three Witnesses are coming.”
Eyebrows were raised and those at the table broke into mur-murs. They spoke excitedly and asked such things as: “How do you know?” “Are the tales then true?” “Can they save us from the enemy?” and, of course, “Who are they?”
Kaliam studied the former Sentinel. “Naysmithe, friend and sage. .. why do you say this?”
“In a time when ancient, legendary evils threaten The Realm,” he said in that strange penetrating whisper, “the Three will come. All of Alleble awaits them. And soon I will complete the blades they will wield. It stirs the soul. Can you not sense it?”
Kaliam was silent. Though he could not explain how he knew, he could indeed sense the coming of the Three. Later, as he stood alone on the balcony above Guard’s Keep, he stared at the shadows in the west… and wondered.
“Mallik!!” Nock shouted as he sprinted into the dining area of Guard’s Keep. “At last I have found you!!” The hammer-meister was so startled he spit stew halfway across the table.
“Great moonrascals!” Mallik bellowed, swabbing his bearskin tunic with a clean cloth. “What in The Realm is the matter?!”
“You will never believe it, my friend!” Nock said. And he grabbed and tugged on Mallik’s thick arm. “Come, you must see!”
Mallik had barely enough time to grab his hammer before Nock dragged him out of Guard’s Keep, down several flights of stairs, and out into Alleble’s late afternoon sun. At last, they cut behind the gatehouse and made their way to the dragon pens.
There they found evidence that someone had been very hard at work. All of the pens had been raked clean of dragon scat. Huge, steaming mounds were piled in the dump zone beyond the last pen. The dragons all seemed to be resting contentedly on fresh straw. And that was not even the wonder Nock had brought Mallik to see.
“King Eliam, save us!” Mallik cried. “Is he dead?”
“Nay, my friend,” Nock said. “Only sleeping.”
“But that is Splinter he is lying on!”
“I know!” Nock said. “Why do you think I came to get you?”
“Who would be so foolish as to sleep on that beast?” Mallik asked. “I would wager my beard he is another from the Mirror Realm!”
“That is Robby,” answered Nock. “A good friend of Sir Aidan’s. Lady Merewen told me he is to be Twelfth Knight on the mission into King’s Forest tomorrow. But hush, we must rescue him without waking the monster.”
Mallik and Nock tiptoed to the pen, and Mallik held his ham-mer high above Robby’s sleeping form. “Go ahead,” Mallik whis-pered urgently. “But mind the eyes!”
Being incredibly light on his feet, Nock leaped to Mallik’s broad shoulders and walked across the haft of his hammer. Nock hooked his legs around the huge steel head and dangled down until he could reach Robby.
“Robby,” Nock whispered. “Robby, wake up!”
Robby shrugged his shoulders, but his eyelids did not even so much as flutter.
“Robby!” Nock said a little louder. “Wake up! You are in danger!” This elicited a growl from Splinter. And finally Robby opened his eyes.
“Oh,” Robby said. “I’m sorry! I was fixin’ to get back to work, but I guess I must have dozed off.” Then he looked strangely at Nock and Mallik. “What are you guys doing?”
“We are trying to save you!” Nock exclaimed. “This dragon is untamed-very dangerous!”
Robby sat up with an amused look on his face. “What, her?” he asked. “She’s just a big ole pussycat!”
“Nay, Robby!” Mallik argued. “She is ornery and tempestuous! Trust us. We have seen her aroused.”
Robby laughed. “You’re joking! I know I’m the new guy, so I should expect it, but c’mon. You could at least come up with some-thing serious!” Robby folded his hands behind his head and made no attempt to get off the dragon’s back.
“Grab on to Nock’s hands!” Mallik bellowed. His shoulders were beginning to wear down. “She is dangerous, I tell you!”
“Oh, stop!” Robby said as he spun around and straddled Splinter’s back. Then he made a clicking noise with his tongue and his teeth. Immediately, Splinter rose on all fours and spread her wings. She brought her nose close and nuzzled Robby’s chin.
“Ya see?” Robby said. Nock fell off Mallik’s hammer, and the two of them stared.
“I do not believe it!” Nock said. “No one has been able to sad-dle-much less befriend-that creature!”
Robby made another clicking sound, and Splinter took off from that spot and soared into the sky. She did a shallow loop, scattering loose straw all over Nock and Mallik before finally landing again in her pen.
“How did you do it?” Mallik asked, brushing straw from his armor.
“I don’t really know,” Robby replied. “I was cleaning her pen, and well, she just kind of warmed up to me. I’ve been that way with animals for most of my life.”
Mallik, Nock, and Robby talked about many things: the goings-on in The Realm, their adventures with Aidan, and the possibilities of Robby’s mission. Robby didn’t know much about that. Mallik and Nock did, but they would tell him precious little. They did not want to say anything without leave of their Sentinel.
Often their conversation turned to Pennath Ador. They found that the three of them had in common a love for mountains, and in short order they became friends. With the sun beginning to fall toward the horizon, Mallik and Nock needed to leave. “We are due to meet with Kaliam,” Nock said. “But we will see you tonight at the ceremony.”
“What ceremony?” Robby asked.
Mallik laughed. “Kaliam certainly enjoys keeping the new ones in suspense, does he not?”
“C’mon, you guys,” pleaded Robby. “Tell me something!”
“You will see,” Nock replied with a wink.
They started to go, but Robby asked, “Before you leave, I was wondering… do you know if it would be okay for me to take a little walk at the foot of the mountains?”
“That would be no little walk,” Nock replied. “But certainly it is permitted. I often go there myself. There is the beginning of a trail on the other side of the Elder Guard’s training compound. The path follows a steep incline through a dense patch of pines and will eventually lead you to the base of Pennath Ador. But do not linger past sundown, or you will miss your own ceremony!”
And with that, they departed.
Robby followed the narrow winding path through the pines, and just as Nock had foretold, it grew quite steep. Eventually, he broke through to the other side of the evergreens. And there it was. It really looks different up close, Robby thought. He couldn’t even see the snowcapped peaks. Just a sheer face of stone, much of it gray and angular with juts and clefts, and a few large fields of another kind of rock, smooth and white. Robby continued to look up until his neck ached. Standing at the foot of such a giant made him feel very small. Yet Robby felt a sense of peace-a sense of being pro-tected by the great walls of stone all about him. Robby actually walked up and placed the palms of his hands on the stone. It felt cool, but somehow vibrant. Robby smiled.
“You like these mountains, do you not?” came a voice from behind. Robby turned and saw an older Glimpse warrior, clad all in white, sitting upon a stone. Robby hadn’t heard anyone approach, but there he was as if he’d been there all along.
“You like these mountains?” he repeated, and Robby found his voice somewhat familiar… though he could not say where he had heard it before.
“They’re awesome,” Robby replied. “Where I’m from, we don’t have any mountains like these.”
“Yes, I know,” the Glimpse replied. “There are no mountains like these anywhere in this world. These are the first mountains born in all of history. They are very powerful.”
“When I touched them, I felt…” A word came to Robby’s mind, but he did not speak it aloud.
“You felt loved.”
Robby stared at the old Glimpse. How did he-
“Of course the mountain itself does not express love,” the Glimpse continued, interrupting Robby’s thoughts. “But like all pure things at the dawn of time, they were washed in the love of their creator. In spite of The Schism, there are some who can still feel the pulse of that time. Some who can touch the memory of The Realm undefiled. You are such a one.”
Robby stared. The old Glimpse stared back and sat so very still that he almost looked like he was carved from the stone upon which he sat. He was a curious being. Long, straight white hair flowed like a river over his broad shoulders. His mustache and beard were also long, straight, and white. Only his eyebrows were a bit unruly. They too were white, but they were bristly and thick, especially at the bridge of his nose where they seemed almost to meet. His eyes were utterly blue-even in the failing light. And as Robby stared into them he saw a depth of intensity he had never seen before. There was bright, beaming gladness there, but also wrenching sorrow. There was great fatherly pride, but also disappointment. Empathy and indignation. Love and wrath. The only emotion Robby did not see in his eyes was fear.
And there was one other thing that Robby did not see in the old Glimpse’s eyes: He did not see them glint a color. Not even once. “Please, sir,” Robby said. “Tell me your name.”
“My name?” he echoed. “I am surprised that you do not already know it. But come closer and let us talk.”
He saw that the strange being was girt with an immense sword, but Robby felt no threat. He stood right before him and waited. At a g
esture, Robby sat down upon another stone. They were silent for many moments. Robby’s mind was a whirl of thoughts and emotions-like a barely simmering pot that suddenly came to a rolling boil.
“You still have doubts,” said the stranger. It wasn’t a question.
“Doubts?”
“About all this,” the old Glimpse replied, holding out his arms. “About many things.”
Robby suddenly felt on the spot. “Doubts, I’m not sure if-”
“It is okay to have them,” he said. “A doubt is nothing more than an invitation… an invitation to think. So, tell me, what have you been thinking about?”
“My father,” Robby whispered. And as soon as the words came out, he wondered why he shared them with this stranger. But his deepest thoughts began to pour freely out as if he were talking to his closest friend. “Well, it’s just that Dad’s on the other side. I don’t think he’ll change, and… I don’t want him to die.” Tears streamed down Robby’s cheeks, and he choked as he tried to speak again. “There’s so much at stake, but he doesn’t see. Mama and Jill-them too! I don’t know…”
“I know the separation that you feel,” said the Glimpse. He put a warm hand on Robby’s shoulder. “And I never intended for you-for any-to have to feel it like this. But take heart! You are never alone.”
“But my family…”
“There is yet time for your mother and your sister. But your father made his decision a long, long time ago. He was deceived, and because of his willful refusal to seek the truth, he can no longer see it.”
“But there’s a chance, right?” Robby asked.
The Glimpse nodded.
“I’ve got to try, don’t I?”
“Very well, Robby,” said the Glimpse. And it seemed that the sun had gone down, for the base of the mountain was robed in shadow. “You have decisions to make, beginning with this one: You can aban-don your mission here and return to your realm-”
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