City of Jade

by Dennis McKiernan

  Through the tall growth slipped the vixen, her nose questing, and another cheer rose up from the Rupt. Still the fox searched. Finally, she leaned forward as if on a point. “Go,” whispered Lissa, and ahead the vixen skulked.

  They slipped up behind one who must be a Mage and, Mage or no, Lissa with her single remaining arrow had to try. For had not Aylis said, “Magekind is just as vulnerable to slings and arrows and blades as are others; it is simply a matter of getting close enough to take him unaware”?

  Even as the being gestured toward the two Trolls afire, and as the one lifted the slab overhead to hurl, Lissa nocked the tiny arrow and drew aim and loosed.

  Malik was dead between one breath and the next, and certainly before he hit the ground.

  On the pier the Troll collapsed, the slab crashing down upon it. The other Troll crumpled as well.

  The dead were dead again.

  The jeering Rupt fell silent, and a Hlok near their newly slain leader howled in dismay.

  Without any Spawn shouting a command, of a sudden the entire force of Foul Folk fled away, most running upriver, a few running downstream, none running toward the City of Jade, for they dreaded what lay within.

  47

  Respite

  ELVENSHIP

  MID AUTUMN, 6E9

  With the Rupt fled away, Long Tom sent sailors in two dinghies to the stone quay, the boats pulling mooring lines from the ship to the shore. They landed and once again tied the Eroean to the pier. Then, using long iron pry bars, they rolled the dead Troll into the water, and down it sank like the heavy-boned thing it was, to become fish food along with the two drowned Trolls some forty-seven feet below. After the ship was tethered to the dock, Long Tom had the crew loosen the port-bow anchor winch and pay out the hawser, and with the mooring lines along the starboard side they drew the Eroean back to the pier. Yet, when safely tied up, they once again cranked the anchor hawser tight-“Should we need t’ pull th’ same trick agin’, lettin’ th’ river ’n’ anchor rope swing us away from th’ quay.”

  As soon as the crew ashore lifted the gangplank back into place, Aravan and a litter crew hurried to where James had fallen. The bosun was yet breathing, though unconscious. A grume-slathered Ruchen arrow jutted out from his back. The crew carefully placed him onto the litter and bore him back to the ship. As they went up the footway, Lissa and Vex followed.

  “Where were you?” asked Pipper.

  “Killing Spaunen, mostly Rucha,” she replied.

  “I got seven with my sling,” said Pipper. He smiled, but it did not reach his eyes, for killing of anyone, even maggot-folk, did not set well on his mind. “And Bink, here, got eight.”

  “I had twenty arrows,” said Lissa, “but I wasted one against a Troll. It did not penetrate that thick hide of his.”

  “What of your other arrows?” asked Bink.

  “Eighteen Rupt and one Mage.”

  Even as Binkton gaped at the Pysk and breathed, “Eighteen?” Pipper blurted, “The Trolls!”

  “Pip, she just said her arrows didn’t penetrate their hide.”

  “No, Bink. What I meant is that by Liss killing the Mage, that’s what brought down the dead Trolls.”

  “Oh,” said Binkton, the light dawning. “You’re right, Pip.” Binkton turned to Lissa. “You saved us all.”

  “The Knight!” Pipper exclaimed. And even as Binkton groaned, Pipper said, “Lady Aylis’s reading. Liss drew the Knight of Swords upright, and Aylis said, ‘Victory over a dire foe, in this orientation, though perhaps at great peril.’ Don’t you see, Bink, Lady Aylis had it right all along, for a Necromancer is a dire foe.” Pipper turned to Lissa, adding, “And out there among the Rucks and such, well, you were indeed at great peril.”

  “Vex kept me safe,” said Lissa. Then she looked about the ship. “What of the others? How did the warband and sailors fare?”

  “Some took wounds,” said Binkton. “Arrows and slingstones. Most of the Dwarves avoided the missiles, or their armor kept them safe. The sailors took the largest part of the hurt. Desault has commandeered space belowdecks to be an infirmary, where he’s taken the wounded for treatment.”

  Lissa said, “Well, I hope he knows about Ruchen arrows. They can be quite nasty, you see, as vile as they are.”

  Even as Lissa spoke, as he carefully worked the shaft back out from the chief bosun belowdecks Desault said, “It is essential for us to get all wounds as clean as we can, for these Rucken arrows, they bear a festering disease. A person can die days, even weeks after taking such a wound. They turn the flesh black, and a dreadful rot sets in. Were it an arm or a leg, and that were to happen, we would amputate. But where James is injured, all we can do is wait and see. So, let the wounds bleed freely for a short while, and probe gently with these cleansing swabs to clear out as much of the dark filth as you can, even though it will pain the patient.” Desault then held up vials of yellowish liquid. “Then hold them down and pour this fluid in the gash.”

  And so, amid groans of the injured, Aylis and others helped Desault treat the wounded-cleansing, pouring, bandaging, and giving the worst of them sops of poppy juice to ease the agony. As well, they set and splinted the bones of five sailors, bones broken by the large slingstones of the Spawn.

  And up on deck lookouts watched as along the shore Dwarves dragged slain Grg into a pile, heeding the Pysk’s warning to touch not any of her shafts that might be protruding from Ukhs or the back of the neck of the Mage. And as to the dead Troll yet ashore, it took nearly all of the Dwarven force to drag that still-burning corpse to the pile. When that was done, they splashed oil thereon and the licking flames on the corpse of the Troll set the whole afire.

  As black and grey smoke spiralled into the sky, Nikolai turned to Aravan and asked, “When we go City of Jade?”

  “On the morrow, Nick. Tonight we rest and recover.”

  And so that night, weary from the stress of battle, and glad to have survived, the crew entire took turns at watch and at sleeping, all but the wounded, that is, some of whom fell into drugged stupors, others to lie awake in pain. The captain and Aylis and Lissa and Binkton and Pipper and other comrades moved among them and spoke quiet words of support.

  And even as they did so, the sky began to darken, and a wind began to stir, as of an oncoming storm.

  48

  Calamity

  DARK DESIGNS

  MID AUTUMN, 6E9

  At the onset of night and smiling to himself in his aethyrial form, Nunde flew out from his tower in the Grimwalls and headed for the City of Jade. Surely by now, Malik had triumphed and had Aravan’s corpse in his possession. I will have to reward my loyal and clever apprentice for succeeding in his task. Yet, wait: should I reward him for something I planned? After all, he is merely an extension of my own hand. Oh, why not? Surely a reward will confuse him, and I would add to his distress, and that will please me much. And so, in astral contentment, Nunde sped toward that far-distant land.

  Yet when he neared and with his reversed aethyrial vision he saw along the shore a thin spiral of white smoke rising up as from a dying fire. Nearby and peacefully docked lay the Elvenship. Human and Dwarven lookouts aboard kept watch, yet these Nunde did not fear, for they could not see him. Only that trollop who consorted with Aravan had the ‹sight› to do so. Yet careful observation showed him the whore was not adeck, and so Nunde swooped low over the dwindling blaze, where he saw the massive bones of an Ogh amid the ashes.

  Shaken, he sped toward the col between the hills where the ambush had been set. No one was there. Where had they gone? Surely they couldn’t have been-

  Nunde sped back to the smoldering remains of the fire. Not only were there Ogh bones among the ashes, but a medallion that Malik had worn. Malik had failed! Malik had failed! Aravan, no doubt, yet lived.

  How did they discover his trap? The hawk! That must be how. That slut of a Seeress must have flown the bird under the canopy and had peered through its eyes and had found the ambush waiting. And th
at fool of an apprentice had somehow lost all in an attack on the ship. Four Oghi and a hundred Drik and another hundred Ghoki: more than two hundred Chun in all. How could he have done so, with the ship bound to the pier and as vulnerable as a puling child? Idiot! Imbecile! May he rot forever! May he have died in unbearable agony!

  Now I must do that which will put me in peril.

  Nunde sped back to his distant tower, where he ordered the roundup of hundreds of Drik. And in an orgiastic frenzy of killing, not only to vent his rage, but also to bloat his being with ‹fire›, he began an all-day slaughter. For what he now needed to do, in fact had been forced to do by that foul Dolh, was to cast a spell while in his aethyrial form, and to do that took energy beyond compare. And so he slew and slew, and tortured and flayed and sucked up the life force needed to perform the deed. But even then, even though swollen with power, he knew he might not survive the loosing of the thing he was about to set free to do his bidding, for if he could not reconfine it, the creature would come after him next.

  49

  City of Jade

  ELVENSHIP

  MID AUTUMN, 6E9

  Blustery dawn came dismal.

  Long Tom looked up at the flying wind pennants atop the masts and the glowering sky above, and then he turned his attention toward the swaying forest canopy in the near distance. “We be in f’r a blow, Oi think, Oi do,” he said to no one in particular.

  “Aye,” replied Nikolai, raising his voice to be heard above the flapping of the luffing staysails. “You t’ink we be go lost city today?”

  “Aye. The cap’n, he says y’ be, j’st as soon as th’ warband finish briakin’ their fast.”

  Noddy came topside, a glum look on his face.

  “Oy, naow, Noddy, y’ be all chapfallen, y’ be,” said Long Tom, when the bosun came up the stern ladder.

  “Oi wanted t’ go to th’ city with th’ others,” replied Noddy.

  “Wull, y’ can’t, what wi’ James all wounded and such. Oi mean, we can’t leave th’ ship wi’ no bosun.”

  Nikolai nodded in agreement with Long Tom’s words, but Noddy said, “Ar, they ain’t no enemies left, what with the Mage and Trolls bein’ deaders, and the livin’ Foul Folk all run away.”

  Nikolai shook his head. “Lady Aylis, last night she say she t’ink bad Mage might be Knight of Sword. If right, King of Sword still enemy. Ship might need sail.”

  “Wull, that’s easy f’r you to say, Nick,” Noddy dolefully said, “ ’cause you get t’ go, while me ’n’ Long Tom have t’ stay j’st in case some runaway Rucks ’r th’ like show up ’n’ th’ ship has t’ be moved. ’N’ wot ’r th’ chances o’ that, eh? Nought, I say. Nought.”

  Nikolai smiled and said, “I tell ever’ting we see.”

  “Won’t be th’ same,” grumped Noddy.

  Long Tom sighed his concurrence.

  As Aravan and Aylis came out onto the main deck, Aylis said, “You will need my ‹sight›. Besides, with scouts running ahead and your blue stone amulet and the warband about, I will have forewarning as well as protection should peril be nigh.”

  Nikolai leaned over to Long Tom and whispered, “Cap’n, he no win this battle.”

  “Aye, he won’t,” murmured Long Tom in reply.

  Aravan looked long at the jungle ahead, and then at Aylis, and then the jungle again. Finally, he said, “Fetch thy weaponry.”

  Aylis smiled and said, “They’re already adeck.” She gestured to one of the crewmen, and he stepped forward to hand Aylis her bow and a full quiver of green-fletched arrows.

  “I don’t think we’ll need climbing gear,” said Binkton, looking back downward as he reached the top of the ladder up from the main hold.

  “We might,” came Pipper’s voice from below. “I mean, Bink, who knows what lies past that col the Foul Folk were camped in? There might be cliffs and-”

  “All right. All right,” said Binkton, clambering on out. “Bring it if you wish. But, me, I just think it’s extra weight.”

  Moments later Pipper emerged, a backpack strapped on. Just as his cousin did, Pipper also bore a small horn to signal the band, should there be a need.

  “You’ve got your sling and plenty of bullets, right?” asked Binkton, he himself well armed with bow and arrows.

  “Right,” said Pipper, patting a pocket and touching a bullet case affixed to his belt.

  “Can’t be too careful, you know,” said Binkton. “As Uncle Arley says, ‘Be prepared.’ ”

  “That’s why I’m bringing climbing gear,” said Pipper, a superior smile upon his face.

  “Argh!” growled Binkton, shaking his head.

  Brekk and Dokan and the warband emerged, twenty of whom were going on the march, while the remainder of the Dwarves would stand watch on the Eroean , all but the two wounded below.

  A squad of nine armed sailors made ready to march with the warband as well-cargo handlers and other such, for they would make estimates as to hauling and lading in the event they all came upon something the captain would have them eventually stow in the holds.

  “Where’s Liss?” asked Pipper, looking about.

  “She and her fox have gone ahead,” said Fat Jim. “They left just a wee while ago.”

  “That little sneak!” burst out Binkton. “Come on, Pip, let’s go. I don’t care if her fox is faster than us; we’ll show her what Warrow scouts can do.”

  “Hold,” commanded Aravan.

  As the buccen swung about, Aravan said, “I would have ye two no more than three hundred of your paces ahead of the main body. Stay alert, for we know not what lies to the fore.”

  “Three hun-?” Binkton started to protest, but Pipper said, “You heard the captain. Three hundred it is.” Then he saluted and said, “Aye-aye, sir.”

  And so, as the warband and sailors assembled, along with Aravan and Aylis, Binkton and Pipper started down the gangplank, Binkton grumbling, Pipper whistling a merry tune.

  “One-two-three,” growled Binkton.

  “What are you doing?” asked Pipper.

  “Counting off three hundred bloody paces,” snapped Binkton. “Don’t want to get too far ahead, you know. Where was-? Oh, how about six-seven-eight-”

  And on they went: Binkton stubbornly counting, Pipper sighing at his cousin’s unseemly behavior.

  When Binkton reached the three-hundred mark, he stopped, Pipper stuttering a few steps before stopping as well. Binkton looked back toward the ship through the swaying foliage, the plants rocking in the wind. “Huah! I can see the top of the masts, but nothing else,” said Binkton. “You know, it’s quite far away.”

  “Well,” said Pipper, “give me a boost and I’ll see if the warband is following.”

  Binkton cupped his hands, and Pipper stepped into the finger stirrup and looked back. “Ah, they’re just now starting. And you’re right: it is quite far we’ve come.”

  He turned and looked the other way. “The trees are just ahead.”

  “Time to go in caution,” said Binkton, as Pipper stepped back down. Binkton lowered his voice and added, “Spread wide, but keep the path in sight.”

  Binkton slipped left of the overgrown path as Pipper moved off rightward. And into the canopied forest they went. All about them, giants of the rain forest reared upward, their trunks buttressed with flanges. Banyan trees, too, huge and many-trunked, added to the interlace overhead. But the forest was not silent, for the wind caused wood to creak and vines to swing and the leaves above to whisper shssh .

  Neither Pipper nor Binkton could see or hear the other, with Binkton somewhere off to the left and Pipper off to the right, and they moved stealthily onward, now and again making certain they had not strayed too far from the overgrown path.

  Far behind came the warband and sailors. And Aylis said, “Even with my ‹sight› invoked I cannot see the Warrows.”

  “They are stealthy, my love,” said Aravan. “I think neither of us will espy them unless they deliberately make themselves visible.”
r />   “Do you think they will remain within three hundred paces?”

  Aravan laughed. “Mayhap not. Yet I gave them that command so that they would not run off completely willy-nilly.”

  “Think you they would do so?”

  “Pipper sometimes strikes me as impulsive, but I also would not put it past Binkton to do so just to show Lissa that he and his cousin are scouts as well.”

  “Are they scouts or not?”

  “I deem someday they will be very good at the task, yet I think them more valuable as two who can get into places others cannot.”

  “Lock picking and acts of stealth and guile, you mean?”

  “Aye. After all, they were taught by one of the best.”

  Binkton froze in place, for, in spite of the wind in the forest, he heard quiet movement ahead. He nocked an arrow to his bow and silently stepped behind the bole of a tree.

  The stealthy movement continued to advance toward him, and Binkton envisioned a monstrous snake or dreadful jungle cat sneaking upon him. He listened, and as it drew closer he knew this was no snake, for it did not slither but stepped softly instead.

  And he waited. .

  And on it came. .

  Until. .

  It paused on the opposite side of the trunk.

  And then a voice said, “Don’t shoot. It’s just me.”

  Binkton exhaled the breath he had been holding. “Lissa?”

  “Of course.”

  Binkton stepped ’round the tree to see the Pysk and fox. “How did you know it was-?”

  “Vex told me.”

  “Ah. . yes.”

  “Where’s Pipper?”

  Binkton waved off to the right. “The other side of the path. Somewhere yon.”

  “I’ll find him.-Or, rather, Vex will,” said Lissa.

  “To tell him what?” asked Binkton. “For that matter, why are you here instead of out there?” He gestured upslope toward the hills.