by Cindy Dees
“He has help,” the young man declared. “Not only from his priori but also from his fellow Kothites. They’re all in on the conspiracy to keep people in the dark.”
Now that she looked at him, she recognized him as the messenger from this afternoon, the one who’d brought her Talissar’s reply. In fact, now that she thought about it, she realized she’d seen him around the palace any number of times in the past.
“Why didn’t I remember you before now?” she asked him.
He smiled enigmatically. “That, my lady, is a story for another day. Right now, I would hear more of what our guest can tell us of his former life, if you think you can hear it without growing confused.”
“Confusion is one trait I am rarely accused of,” she said lightly. Indeed, she had a reputation for being one of the smartest consorts at court, along with Talissar. Both of them were known to provide wise counsel to their powerful spouses.
The young man turned back to Bekkan. “When the Kothites came, what happened to the giants and dwarves who shared Ymir with the etheri people?”
“The giants did not take the Kothites seriously enough at first. One by one, the Kothites killed and enslaved the giants until the few who were left fled Ymir or went into hiding.”
“And the dwarves?” Gabrielle asked breathlessly. “What of them?”
“Initially, we stayed inside our mountains and under our hills, thinking ourselves well clear of the invaders. But then they came for Under Urth, and we, too, were overrun and overwhelmed. Without the might of the giants to aid us, we were not able to hold off the Kothite scourge.”
“And your king?” the young man asked urgently. “What happened to him?”
“As a last resort to save him from the mind control of the Kothites, the giant Hoardunn transformed my king into stone.”
“Like you?” Gabrielle asked.
“I was transformed into storm copper—for I am a coppervein dwarf—to protect me and the knowledge I held. My lord king is an ironvein, and it was into iron he was changed. Septallum, to be specific.”
Talissar asked, “Where is your king hidden? It is our intent to find him and wake him. The time of the Three Kings draws nigh.”
“Three Kings?” Bekkan echoed.
Talissar explained, “Prophecies speak of a time when three ancient kings will rise up and reclaim their ancestral lands. We believe that time is now, and a small cadre of people with memory of them seek out these kings.”
“The three dwarven kings?” Bekkan asked eagerly.
The young man answered sorrowfully, “Among the dwarven royalty of your day, only your king survived the Kothite conquest. And even now, he is lost, hidden away for millennia, the knowing of how to wake him long lost in the dust of time. If we can find him, maybe we can wake him.”
“You woke me,” Bekkan declared. “The knowledge to do the same for him must still exist somewhere.”
“We were lucky with you,” Talissar replied. “The Kothites never found the Great Storm Forge.”
The young man leaned forward, clutching the arms of his chair intently. “Please tell us, Bekkan. Where is your king hidden?”
* * *
Raina considered Lakanos’s question. What did she need to do first? “I need to rejoin my friends as quickly as possible. And as we travel, I shall make inquiries as to the location of an elven clan known as the zinnzari.”
Kadir said, “As for me, I rather urgently need to find a man. I could scry the mark upon him if I had access to ritual components—”
The dryad Callisia purred, “Components, you say? I have lots of those.”
Kadir looked at her in interest. “Perhaps we could come to some sort of mutually beneficial trade?” He moved off out of Raina’s hearing to barter with the dryad, which she frankly thought was an exercise in folly, but good luck to him.
Apparently, Kadir struck a deal with the dryad because in a few minutes, Raina spied him laying out a ritual circle on the ground with the rope from his belt. She would have liked to watch him cast the scrying ritual, but Lakanos insisted that she stand well back from the circle, clear of any possible blast zone.
She’d already been hit by one magical backlash in the past day. She supposed she didn’t need to risk another. Particularly since she still had a smashing headache from the first and the voices were back, lurking at the edge of her hearing.
Justin joined his master in the circle, and jealousy speared through her. Not because he served Kadir or because he could now perform ritual magic but because he’d changed and grown without her. He’d become a man in the two years they’d been apart, and she didn’t know this new person he’d become.
Eventually, Kadir ended the ritual and smoothly let down the iridescent dome of ritual magic, announcing, “The man I seek is well south and east of here in mountains.”
Lakanos, lazily sharpening a magnificent sword, commented, “That would place him in the Heaves.”
“Just so,” Kadir agreed. “What of you, Justin? Will you come with me?”
Raina met Justin’s conflicted gaze with one of her own. She hated to part with him again after having just found him. He was her best friend, and he reminded her of what it felt like to be a seventeen-year-old girl. But they both had places to go now, their own paths to pursue. As much as she wished to be with him, and as much as he seemed to return the feeling, now was not their time.
He drew her into a hug. She burrowed against his chest just like old times. A deep sense of comfort unlike any she’d experienced since she left home draped over her like a comforting blanket. How was she supposed to let him go?
“One day, muckling,” he murmured. “We’ll find a way for the timing to be right for both of us.”
Hot tears burned in her eyes and throat. Would she never have the home and family she craved? Was she doomed to always leave behind the people she loved? Just once, she would like to do what made her happy and not be forced to do what duty demanded of her. Was that so much to ask for?
A premonition that they would never end up together swept over her, crushing her in a loss so heavy and deep she could not see any light at all in her future. When he left her this time, he was never coming back.
CHAPTER
19
Kerryl led them quickly through the Sorrow Wold. Will took much of Rosana’s gear into his pack so she could keep up. He had to give her credit. She was small, but she was tough. She kept up with the fast-moving party and still had energy to help set up camp and cook the greens and small game animals the rest of them hunted and gathered.
On the evening of the third day, they burst out of the forest without warning, and the expanse of the Estarran Sea stretched before them, tinted orange as the sun set behind them in the west.
Thank the Lady. He was more than ready to be quit of the cloying misery of the Sorrow Wold. The place had weighed upon his spirit until he could hardly breathe. Well named it was.
Kerryl announced, “We separate here. Good luck, and may the Lady watch over you and your quest.” He traded short, hard hugs with Kendrick, muttered a gruff good luck to his protégé, and disappeared swiftly back into the forest.
Sha’Li suggested, “To the north, the shore looks more open. With the last light, let us proceed that way and look for a bell to summon a Merr vessel. Failing that, mayhap we will find a likely camping spot.”
They hiked the pebbled strand into the twilight. The sea turned black to their right, and the forest turned blacker to their left. But then the trees gave way to a massive stone outcropping. A silver-gray strip of sand arced around it and disappeared.
Sha’Li pointed up the bluff. “I see a cave.”
“What if there’s a bear in it?” Rosana asked nervously.
Will laughed. “We’ll evict it. It’s getting cold out here, and I, for one, am ready to sleep on dry ground next to a warm fire.”
The past few days had hinted at spring to come, but the weather today had turned cold, bringing frigid air on stiff
northern winds. Low gray clouds scudded across the sky, with only that one short break in the cloud cover at sunset. Wind whipped around them now, tearing at their clothing and hair. If he didn’t know better, he would say snow was on the way.
Eben piped up. “I vote for the cave as well. I feel wetness, and lots of it, in the clouds.”
“Stay here,” the lizardman announced. “I will scout the cave.”
In a few minutes, Sha’Li emerged from the cave entrance, waving at them to join her. It wasn’t a long climb or particularly difficult, but the rocks were damp with sea spray and coated in green sea slime that made them slippery.
Will helped Rosana up the outcropping to join Sha’Li.
“Is it empty?” Rosana asked her, breathing hard.
Sha’Li grinned. “No. It’s not.”
Will and Eben reached for their weapons.
“No blades necessary,” Sha’Li announced, clearly enjoying herself.
Frowning, he moved in front of Rosana protectively and followed Sha’Li into the narrow opening. A dozen lizardmen sat around a blazing fire in the middle of the large, warm chamber, and the smell of fish cooking filled the space.
Honestly, most lizardmen looked pretty much the same to Will unless they were colored differently from one another, Sha’Li’s black compared to the olive green scales of these other lizardmen, for example. But as Will spied an aged bronze lizardman across the big fire, he could swear he’d seen that one last year in the cliffs of the eastern shore of the Estarran Sea.
Will sidled up next to Sha’Li to mutter, “Is that the same bronze lizardman from last fall? What was his name again?”
“Brozhen. And yes, it is,” she answered under her breath.
“What’s he doing here?”
“Eating supper.”
Will huffed. “No, I mean what’s he doing on this side of the Estarran Sea?”
“I do not know. I have not had time to talk with him. He recognized me and invited us to share their fire. Be polite—he does us great honor.”
His mother hadn’t been an elf for nothing. She had been a stickler for etiquette and polite comportment, and he’d been trained to be courteous to everyone.
Their hosts made room for them around the fire. The lizardmen spoke rapidly in their odd syntax, trading stories and jokes almost too fast for Will to follow. Thankfully, he’d had experience listening to Sha’Li when she’d been fresh come from her swamp two years ago.
The lizardmen shared the delicious fish, and a skin of some fermented liquor was passed around. Will tilted it cautiously, but the lizardman on his right intentionally bumped Will’s elbow, tipping the skin up and sending a gush of the stuff down his throat. The liquor was so strong it made him cough, and it burned all the way down to his belly. His face got hot, and he began to feel light-headed in a matter of seconds.
“What’s in that stuff?” he gasped.
Sha’Li laughed. “Most lizardmen are resistant to simple poisons, so our liquor has to be very strong to have an effect on us. Be careful, pinkskin, or you will end up flat on your back.”
“It’s a little late for the warning,” he wheezed. Gads, the cave was already spinning around him. The other members of the party seemed similarly knocked on their behinds by the liquor. All of them were leaning a little off-kilter or grinning stupidly.
“Hey, Sha’Li,” he slurred. By the stars, his tongue was twice its normal size. “Ask the old one about the bow. Maybe he knows where to find it.”
Brozhen stared at him across the fire and then turned his glittering golden stare on Sha’Li. “You told them of the bow?” the bronze lizardman demanded.
“I trust my companions,” she replied defensively. “We seek Eliassan’s bow together.”
Will noticed that all the lizardmen had gone silent, staring at him and his friends.
“Why?” Brozhen demanded.
“We seek to wake the Sleeping King,” Sha’Li answered. “He will need his bow when he wakes.”
Now even Brozhen seemed shocked silent, studying Will and the others.
Will blinked hard and shook his head a little to clear it. This conversation was important, and he needed not to be too drunk to remember it on the morrow.
“Who are you?” the bronze one asked. The question was not aimed at Sha’Li but rather at her friends.
Rynn spoke up first, and Will was impressed at how well the paxan was enunciating his words. “We are a party of like-minded friends. We near completion in our quest and lack only the last pieces of the Sleeping King’s regalia to wake him.”
It was an exaggeration. They didn’t know where Gawaine’s physical body rested or whether those who guarded it would let them even attempt to wake him. But those were minor details in the grand scheme of things.
Brozhen surprised him by saying, “Eliassan’s bow is said to rest in his final home.”
“Where’s that?” Will managed to ask him without slobbering down his own chin.
“The Wychwold. That was where Eliassan is said to have spent his latter days.”
“Where’s that?” Eben asked.
Rynn answered, “Western Valelands. At the headwaters of the Lance.”
“The Lance?” Will echoed.
Rynn nodded and then winced as if moving his head rapidly had been a bad idea. “It’s a river. Runs east through the Vale to the Estarran Sea.”
Rosana listed to one side, and Will grabbed her arm as she nearly fell off her seat. He propped her back upright, and she nodded her thanks as she asked their hosts, “If the Lance goes to the sea, can we take a boat up the coast, then up the river, then into the Wychwold? I’m tired of walking.”
Brozhen shrugged. “Merr control Estarra. You will have to obtain passage from them. When you get to Lifton, the port where the Lance meets the sea, you will have to transfer to an inland vessel. Humans control the Lance.”
The firelight wavered wildly as the liquor overwhelmed what little sense Will had left. The last words he heard before the ground came up in slow motion to meet his face were the bronze lizardman saying, “Nearest Merr bell’s a day’s walk north along the coast. At a human settlement called Bannockburn.”
* * *
Gabrielle held her breath as Bekkan considered the two men seated before him.
Talissar urged the rokken, “I am sorry to push you, but events are accelerating quickly at court, and we need your answer.”
“What has happened at court?” Gabrielle asked quickly.
“Tyviden Starfire has returned from his exile.”
She sucked in a sharp breath. He was the infuriating Kothite lord who’d gotten her knight exiled many years ago and started her down the path to rebellion against the Empire.
“In typical Tyviden fashion, he has been bragging that he brought back great treasures from the Sea of Glass along with knowledge of how to cross the Ice Bridge.”
The young man spoke up. “I have caught whispers that Maximillian is elated at whatever Tyviden brought back and believes it will solidify the Emperor’s hold over his subjects. Particularly the dwarves.”
She said, “You think Tyviden found something to do with the Dwarven King?”
The young man answered, “He is the last and only remaining true king of the dwarves. Destroying him would eliminate any hope the dwarves have for a revolt against Koth and a return to freedom. Worse,” the young man continued, “we have received news that Tyviden departs very soon on some secret journey at the bequest of the Emperor. It makes sense that Tyviden follows up on whatever he discovered in the Sea of Glass.”
Gabrielle looked over at Bekkan. It all came down to this. Would he share with these relative strangers the information he’d protected for the past five thousand years or not?
“Why should I trust you?” he finally asked them.
Talissar answered soberly, “You have no reason at all to trust us, other than the fact that we are the ones who found you and freed you from your copper prison. At great risk to ourse
lves, we have not turned you over to the Empire. We risk not only our own lives but the lives of thousands of other people to ask you this one question.”
Bekkan frowned. “How are thousands of lives at risk if only four of us sit in this room?”
Talissar answered candidly, “Her Highness Queen Gabrielle and I, a prince in my kingdom, have conspired against the Emperor in freeing you. Should either of us be caught, not only we but our families, our friends, our subjects, anyone who’s ever met us would be put to death. I wouldn’t put it past Maximillian to wage war on our respective kingdoms and wipe out the populations of both in punishment for our crimes.”
Gabrielle gulped. It was an inconvenient truth she tried hard to avoid thinking about, and not surprisingly, an iron band around her chest began to tighten. She tried to calm herself and her breathing, but it didn’t do any good. She had betrayed everyone she loved, everyone she served by bringing Bekkan to court. She had stepped across the unforgivable line of treason.
At length, Bekkan nodded slowly. “Kothites were a pestilence when they came, and I see that five thousand years have not changed them.”
Talissar and the young man held their tongues, waiting, and Gabrielle did the same, even though she had to bite back an urge to plead with him not to make her sacrifice be in vain. Not to let what she had done and everything she had risked mean nothing.
She could never come back to court. She must avoid Maximillian for the rest of her life lest he look into her mind and see her crime. She could no longer support her husband, could no longer work on behalf of the people of Haraland at court. She had thrown all of that away.
Although how she was going to explain it to Regalo, she hadn’t the slightest idea. He would insist she join him at court, and he would believe he had failed her as a husband in some way if she refused. Her heart ached at the idea of being apart from him, but it ached even more at the idea of him believing less of himself when it was all her fault.
Bekkan took a long, deep breath. Released it slowly. “Funny how I never considered the pleasure of breathing until I was encased in metal and could no longer do it.”