by M. L. Forman
Thrang laughed along with the rest of them and they finished their meal in high spirits.
After the others had gone to bed, Alex and Arconn remained beside the fire. After some time, when Alex felt certain that the others were asleep, he asked Arconn if he knew anything about Kat’s worries or about her dark feelings when she’d heard the name of the Isle of Bones.
“Perhaps it is best that you asked me about this,” said Arconn after a moment of thought. “There are places I have heard of and seen that would trouble a seer more than most adventurers, so I feel I can guess what is troubling Kat.”
“What sort of places have you heard of?”
“Most of them are desolate places,” answered Arconn. “The Valley of Bones. The Tower of Bones. The River of Bones.”
Alex nodded in understanding. “Places where a great many people died. Places where no one remained to bury the dead.”
“Or did not wish the dead to be buried,” said Arconn. “Yes, there are places like that. Most of those places are evil in one way or another, and all of them are very sad. I would not question Kat too closely about this if I were you. Such memories are best left in the past and forgotten, if possible.”
“Then I’m glad I asked you about it first,” said Alex. “I wouldn’t want to trouble Kat or cause her to remember such dark places.”
“You are kind,” said Arconn. “You have some connection to Kat already, though I cannot see what it is.”
“To be honest, I can’t see what it is either,” said Alex with a slight laugh. “I feel as if I’ve known her for years, and at the same time, I don’t think I know her at all.”
“That is strange,” said Arconn and then remained silent.
***
The next morning the company was up early once again, each of them sipping a bit of Thrang’s dwarf cure for soreness as they stretched and walked off their discomfort. Alex reminded himself to make some of this secret potion himself so he would always have it on hand if he needed it.
By the end of their third day’s ride, they came to the edge of the mountains, and the road they had been following turned sharply to the south. Since their journey required them to travel east, they left the road and halted for the night at the edge of an open plain that spread out before them. Alex looked out over the country they would be traveling across, admiring the peaceful scene of rolling hills covered with tall grass. Several hills appeared to be rocky toward their tops, and Alex wondered if the rocks might be ruins of some earlier time.
“No, they are just rocks,” Thrang answered when Alex questioned him. “No one has ever lived on these hills, at least as far as I know.”
“I’m surprised,” said Barnabus. “It looks like a nice place to live.”
“Men do live in the plain, but farther to the east,” said Thrang. “I think they like a little room between themselves and the dwarf realm.”
“Is there trouble between men and dwarfs in Thraxon?” Alex asked.
“No, but a little distance helps keep the peace.” Thrang laughed. “Don’t want neighbors to live too close or overstay their welcome.”
“Wise words,” said Kat. “Though your people seemed happy to have us in their city.”
“But we were not there long,” Arconn said. “And we are on a quest for their king.”
“The nature of our quest is not known in Benorg,” said Thrang, stroking his beard by the firelight. “People know that we are doing something for Thorgood, but exactly what we are doing is something only Thorgood and I know. Though I suspect Thorgood may tell a few of the dwarf lords about our quest before we return.”
“Do his ministers not know, then?” Nellus questioned.
“Well, yes,” Thrang admitted. “They had to agree to the terms of our contract, after all. I daresay they will keep quiet, though. They won’t want anyone to know how generous Thorgood has been to us. It might make people think Thorgood has lost his bargaining edge.”
“Is it not the sign of a great king to be generous?” Barnabus asked.
“Men see it that way, as do elves,” said Arconn. “Dwarfs are not stingy, but they are more careful with their wealth. To be overgenerous might be seen as a sign of weakness in the king.”
“Thorgood is not weak,” said Thrang, staring into the fire. “He knows our quest will be a hard one. Possibly dangerous. He is willing to pay a fair price for what he has asked us to do.”
“Dangerous?” said Kat. “You’ve said nothing about known dangers.”
“Simply the normal dangers that accompany any adventure,” said Thrang, his eyes still fixed on the flames. “Nothing out of the ordinary.”
“Still, the king must suspect something,” Kat went on.
“Albrek did not return from his travels,” said Thrang, speaking more to himself than to Kat. “The only members of his company to return came from the Isle of Bones, and they went back there after a short visit to Benorg. Where Albrek went and what he did after that is unknown. Something must have happened to him to keep him from returning or sending word, but who can say what.”
“The book in the library seemed to say more than simply where Albrek was going,” Alex said, thinking back over what he had read.
“Yes,” said Thrang, shaking himself from his thoughts. “The tale said that fifty of Albrek’s people returned to Benorg, bringing a fair amount of wealth with them. Those fifty reported to the king and then returned to the Isle of Bones with two hundred others dwarfs.”
“So Albrek had seven hundred dwarfs with him,” said Nellus.
“The dwarfs said that Albrek had planned to leave between one hundred and two hundred dwarfs on the island to work the mines he had found there,” Thrang said. “Once the fifty had returned to him and everything was in order, he was going to lead the rest of the group to the Lost Mountains and continue searching there.”
“And no one ever returned from the Isle of Bones again, or from the Lost Mountains?” Kat questioned.
“Nothing more was ever heard from them,” said Thrang, sinking once more into his own thoughts. “However, it’s not unusual for new settlements to remain isolated for long periods of time. If the dwarfs on the island chose their own king, the new leader would not want the king of Benorg making a claim on his new realm.”
“Is that likely?” Barnabus asked.
“If Albrek was still there, no,” answered Thrang. “But if Albrek had already gone south, who can say?”
“Well, we won’t know what happened until we get there,” said Arconn, stretching out on his blankets.
“And we won’t get there if we don’t get some sleep,” added Thrang.
Alex’s companions rolled themselves in blankets and went to sleep, but Alex sat by the fire, keeping watch and thinking about Thrang’s words. Closing his eyes, he pictured the writing in the old leather book from the library. The runes had sounded hopeful, even happy. There was nothing in the story—or at least in the part of the story he had seen—that would make him think there had been any problems at all. There was a chance, however, if the dwarfs had found some wealthy mines, that some of Albrek’s followers might have become greedy.
All of the dwarfs Alex knew were both kind and generous, but he had to admit that he didn’t know that many dwarfs—even though this was his third adventure. He suspected that some dwarfs, just like some men, could be corrupted by wealth and dreams of power. If that had happened on the Isle of Bones, there was no telling what they might find when they reached it. A new dwarf realm might be waiting for them, or the ruins of a dream gone badly wrong.
That night, after he had finished his watch, Alex dreamed about the Isle of Bones. He could see the beginnings of a beautiful dwarf city made of stone. The city faced south, and the sun warmed its stone houses all day long. In his dream, Alex wandered the newly made streets and entered the huge stone caverns in the mountains close to the city. It was a wonderful place, but nobody was there. The caves and mines of the city were empty, and he could see no sig
n that anyone had lived there for hundreds of years.
When Alex woke the next morning, his dream was already fading. He lost the dream completely as he rolled out of his blankets and found that it was starting to rain. Barnabus was at the fire, cooking their breakfast and looking unhappily at the cloudy sky.
“Unusual,” Thrang said as they ate. “It doesn’t often rain this time of year, but when it does, it doesn’t last.”
“Perhaps our wizard friend can push this little storm away,” Kat joked.
“A clear day here might mean a flood somewhere else,” said Alex. “And a little rain never hurt anyone.”
As the day went on, however, Alex began to doubt the wisdom in his own words. The rain grew steadily worse as they traveled and showed no sign of quitting. By midday, they were all soaked to the skin, and Alex had to start their cooking fire because neither Thrain nor Thrang could coax anything more than smoke from their pile of wet branches.
“A little rain never hurt anyone,” Arconn joked. Of the entire group, he seemed the least bothered by the rain.
“Oh, shut up,” said Alex.
They ate quickly and resumed their journey, moving slowly across the muddy grasslands.
Thrain muttered something about the weather, and Nellus and Barnabus teased him about adventures not being all sunny days and dragon hoards.
When they stopped for the night, the rain finally started to let up. They set up their tents and took care of the horses. Everyone changed into dry clothes and felt their spirits lift once more. Barnabus cooked their evening meal, and while they ate, Thrang told a story about one of his early adventures where he had experienced some remarkably bad weather.
“Rained for thirty days and nights, did it?” Nellus joked.
“I’ll bet crossing the road was more like fording a river,” Barnabus added.
“Laugh if you will,” said Thrang, brushing aside their jokes. “I’ll tell you this, though, it took me six weeks to get all my gear dry after that adventure, and that’s a fact.”
“You should have taken your gear out of your bag,” said Kat with a smile.
“Or at least dumped out the water,” Alex added.
“Maybe I should have added a swimming pool to my bag and saved myself the trouble,” said Thrang with a laugh of his own.
It was a merry night, and they were all happy to see the moon rising over the open grassland. Alex spent his watch looking at the sky and not really thinking about anything. The clouds were drifting to the west and south, and before his watch was over, there were more stars than clouds in the sky. As he went to his tent, he took one more look at the sky. The clouds seemed to be shifting again, and he feared they might have more rain the next day.
Chapter Six
The Lost Fiddler
Alex’s premonition that more rain was coming proved correct, as a light mist was falling when he woke. The clouds were not as dark as they had been the day before, so he hoped that the rain would not last. Thrang looked at the sky and grumbled to himself about it being strange weather for that time of year.
“Perhaps we will have rain for thirty days and nights,” Barnabus joked as he cooked their breakfast over the fire.
“Oh, I hope not,” said Thrain, glancing at the clouds, worried.
“It will clear off,” said Thrang, as he rubbed his chin and looked at the sky. “Storms don’t last long this time of year, and a few days of rain won’t ruin our adventure.”
“I imagine we’ll experience worse things than rain before this adventure is over,” Alex said, stamping his boots. “And if rain is the worst thing we meet, then I say thirty days of it would not be so bad.”
As they broke camp and were preparing to leave, the sun broke through the clouds, flooding the land with golden light. Their spirits rose along with the sun, and they talked happily as they continued eastward.
The land they rode across was still completely uninhabited. Alex remembered Thrang’s words about how men lived farther east, but he still thought it odd that there weren’t at least a few farms or a path in the open land. He kept looking at the ground from time to time, but if there had been any tracks, the rain had washed them away.
“Do you sense something?” Kat questioned after the third time Alex looked around.
“No,” answered Alex. “I just thought there might be some tracks about. It seems a fair land to be so empty.”
“It is not empty,” said Kat. “There are many birds and beasts living in this land.”
“But no people,” said Alex. “Not that people always make a land better, but it seems a little odd.”
“It wouldn’t seem odd if you saw a winter here,” said Thrang. “We may not be that far north, but winters in this open land are hard. It would be difficult to farm here during the cold months.”
“How many months of the year are cold?” Alex questioned, remembering that the Thraxon calendar had fifteen months instead of twelve.
“Normally only six,” said Thrang. “Of course, there are two months of spring and two of fall when the weather is unpredictable.”
“Five months of summer, then,” said Arconn.
“Yes, in a normal year we can expect five months of fair and warm weather,” said Thrang. “Though some years it is less and some more. Luckily, it is still early summer. We passed the last days of spring on our way to Benorg.”
“That means we will have at least four months to reach the Isle of Bones and search it before the weather starts to change,” said Kat.
“Yes, that sounds about right,” agreed Thrang. “Though it shouldn’t take us more than a month to reach the island.”
Alex wondered how long it would take to search the Isle of Bones once they got there. He assumed it must be a fairly large island or it wouldn’t be worth trying to mine there. He worried that it might take a long time just to find any sign of Albrek’s party.
As the days passed and they continued riding just north of due east, they discussed the size of the island and several other things, but there were no real answers to many of their questions.
One of the most important questions, however, was how they would get to the island once they had reached the Eastern Sea. Luckily, Thrang had an answer for that one.
“There are cities and villages along the coast,” he said. “We can hire a boat to take us there and bring us back when our search is done.”
“How did Albrek get to the island?” Alex questioned.
“I don’t know,” said Thrang in a thoughtful tone. “The records didn’t say anything about him taking boats of his own, so I have to assume that he hired boats to carry him and his people to the island just as we will.”
“Perhaps the dwarfs built boats when they reached the sea,” Arconn offered.
“Perhaps,” said Thrang, considering the idea. “Though I don’t know of any dwarf who’s ever built a boat big enough for that. We’re land folk and not much for riding water and waves.”
“I’ll remember that when we make our own crossing,” Alex teased.
***
One evening, as they were looking for a campsite, the unmistakable smell of smoke filled the air. Arconn rode up a small hill to the south of the company in order to take a look around. Alex wondered where the smoke was coming from and if there might be trouble close at hand.
Arconn soon returned with a smile on his face. “A town. A mile or so ahead of us.”
“How large a town?” questioned Thrang.
“Perhaps thirty houses,” answered Arconn. “If we turn south here, we will come to the main road.”
“I don’t remember there being a town so near the mountains,” Thrang said. “Though it has been a long time since I or any of my people have come this way.”
“Did it look like there was a tavern in the town?” Nellus questioned.
“I believe there was,” Arconn answered.
“It would be good to sleep indoors if we can,” Thrang said. “Let’s stop at this town and see if the
tavern will put us up.”
“An excellent idea,” said Barnabus.
“And remember,” said Thrang, turning in his saddle to look at them all, “our honors are bound together. Small towns are not always friendly to outsiders, so try not to cause any unwanted trouble.”
They all agreed and followed Thrang as he and Arconn led them to the main road. The town was not impressive to look at as they rode into it. A handful of small wooden houses were clustered together along a single dirt road. Alex noticed a few fields that looked well cared for, but nothing that could be called a proper farm.
“The Lost Fiddler,” read Nellus, nodding to the sign outside the tavern.
“He must have been lost to find himself here,” said Barnabus.
Thrang dismounted and entered the tavern, returning with a thin, balding man and a red-faced boy.
“Seven of you?” the thin man said, a look of surprise on his face. “Not many travelers in these parts.”
“Can you put us up for the night?” Thrang questioned.
“Yes, we have room,” said the thin man. “If you don’t mind doubling up.”
“That will be fine,” said Thrang. “Though we will require one single room for one of our company.”
The man nodded. “Three doubles and a single. That won’t be a problem. Ned here will take care of your horses.”
Ned seemed more cheerful than the tavern owner and bowed politely to them. Alex whispered softly to Shahree and then followed Thrang and Arconn into the tavern. The smell of cooking meat and smoke met him as he entered the building, and he realized how hungry he was.
“If you’d like something to eat or drink, Rose can get you what you need,” said the thin man, pointing toward the bar area. “I’ll see to your rooms.”
With these final words, the man hurried off, and Alex and his friends walked into the bar. A few locals were sitting at tables around the room, and a group of three rough-looking men was standing together at one end of the bar. Another man stood alone at the far end of the bar, and something about him caught Alex’s attention.