by J Battle
With Richard stretched out across two tables pulled together, she disappeared, muttering as she went. ‘He should have let me read his hand, he should have, and that’s for sure.’
‘Will you take me back to the place we found Lord Richard?’ asked Ferrooll, when he’d finished the brace of tankards Garraldi had pulled for him.
‘But...what will you do?’ Cavour frowned at his new friend.
‘Well, I reckon I’ll take a sit down by one of the entrances or exits, though I can’t really tell the difference, and I’ll wait for the last Trytor to return, and then I’ll just finish him off and call the job done, I will.’
‘But, you won’t see him coming.’
‘No, but if you put out them torches that light the place, then he won’t see me sitting, so I reckon we’ll be even, like.’
‘Will you stay with Richard here, Garraldi? I won’t be long,’ said Cavour, as he guided the Giant from the room.
‘Ay, I’ve nothing better to be doing than sitting in a tavern drinking ale, and I don’t think he’ll mind me not paying, seeing as how we went and saved his life.’ He held up the tankard of ale he’d just pulled, and nodded fair thee well.
‘How long will you wait?’ asked Cavour, as he led the Giant once more into the caves.
‘Well, let me think. If he’s a little bit injured, then he’ll be back soon, I reckon. If he is mortally wounded, we won’t see him at all, because he’ll be in a dark corner somewhere taking care of the business of dying. Does that sound about right to your clever little human mind?’
‘Ay, it does. Left, just here, and then.., right, here and...duck your head, there.’
‘Then, if he don’t come today, I’ll await ‘til the morning and come and break my fast with you at the tavern, and we’ll see how the little lord is looking. Well, you’ll look, because I can’t see, and you’ll tell me. That’s how I reckon it should work.’
‘How will you know when it’s morning?’
‘Oh, you don’t need to go worrying about that. My stomach will tell me, and I’ll be listening, I will.’
‘Right, here we are. Sit down now, just here.’ He touched the Giant’s hand to help him. ‘Now you’re beside the middle exit, but he won’t be able to see you until he comes into the room. So, be quiet and don’t be muttering everything that comes into your head like you usually do.’
‘I don’t do that, do I?’
‘Mostly, you do. Now you’re settled, I’ll douse these torches and you’ll be complete darkness.’
‘I’m always in complete darkness these days, so it don’t make no difference to me, it don’t,’ said Ferrooll, sadly.
Cavour sighed and touched his shoulder, and then he was off, leaving naught but darkness behind.
Chapter 24 Rekk
He moved from one room to the next and his anxiety grew every time he opened a door.
She wasn’t to be found in her bedchambers, or in Meldon’s. He searched all the rooms on the top floors, and he saw things he would rather not have seen, for his associates had gone before him and there was rape, and murder, and theft and destruction.
He found one, Ellis by name, and he was bending over a maid, no more than 18 Falls of Leaves was she, and he was tearing the clothes from her back, with one hand pressed against her mouth to silence her, and his face was red and he panted with lust, and there was spittle on his chin.
Rekk found his knife was in his hand and, soon enough, it was buried deep in the would-be rapist’s back.
‘Weren’t right,’ Rekk muttered, as he left them. ‘Weren’t right at all.’
And still he couldn’t find his sister.
‘What would she have done? She wouldn’t have hung around here waiting to be abused, for sure she’d be too clever for that.’
He stopped at a window. He could see the garden, and the tangleweed encroachment, and beyond that the road leading to town.
‘She would have gone to town if she could, ‘cause I reckon she’d feel safe there,’ he said, and for a moment there was hope. ‘But, the road is narrow, or the path through the tangleweed is, and we passed that way, and we would have seen her, we would. Unless...she’s not in the garden, but she might have hidden in the tangleweed and slipped by when we came into the palace.’
He smiled then, for he could see her, sitting in The Stuff of Life tavern, or mayhap it would be The Dog and Egg; she had an eye for the landlord there. Yes, she’d surely be having a tankard and laughing at the antics of her brother and his friends.
‘Mayhap I’ll just trot along and join her, and she can buy me a drink, she can. I don’t need to worry too much about Huldroyd and the guys; they can take what they will, because Fleur has the Stone, and she’ll work out how to use it, because she’s that clever, she is.’
As he spoke to himself, he trotted to the back stairs and began to descend.
‘No need to go out the front and have to look at Huldroyd’s ugly face.
**********
Blodnes bowed to Shenti, as was only right, with him being a broarlord, but it didn’t mean she wasn’t going to give him the benefits of her considerations, and a taste of her sharp tongue.
‘So, sir,’ she said, softly as she tossed back the blonde human hair of her wig. ‘We couldn’t persuade a mere human to carry us ashore in a more...appropriate manner?’
Shenti frowned, and he glanced around to see if there was anyone to rescue him from her beautiful blue eyes.
‘Indeed, we are here now, and there was really no need for conflict or agitation.’
‘No need, sir? No need for respect for the Elvenfolk? No need to keep the slimy humans in their rightful place?’
She held his eyes for a moment, blue against blue. ‘Well, what does a mere crawlady know about these things? If a broarlord declares this acceptable, then, of course I am mistaken. Mistaken to think that we deserve better than this, though we are the much vaunted Elvenfolk. Why should we expect a certain...dignity? Crawlord Elstar would have had something to say about it, I’m sure.’
‘Indeed, crawlady. I believe you have said enough already, and we hardly need more foolish words from that particular crawlord.’
He spun away then, catching the eye of another broarlord.
Blodnes watched him go, and she allowed a sneer to form on her wrinkled lips.
Then she looked down at her bags, beside her feet. She shook her head at the very idea that she would have to carry them herself. With a muttered curse at the back of the departing broarlord, she bent to pick them up.
Chapter 25 Fleur
The pain had gone now, after such a long time and for that she would give her thanks to all of the gods, if they would only free her as well.
She twisted a little, but she could move her arm only so far before the dark thorns of the tangleweed tore at her skin.
She could turn her head a few inches this way and that, and lift one leg to ease the cramp.
That was as far as she could move without beckoning back the pain.
She tried to work out how long she’d been there. Could it really be only hours? It felt as though she had been there years, locked within the tangleweed’s gross embrace.
‘Someone comes,’ said the voice in her head. Her child, unborn but aware; his every word chilling her to her bones.
‘I...’ She stopped, for what was there to say?
‘You know him. Call to him. We need more blood, and you can spare no more. I wouldn’t have you die just yet.’
‘What do you mean by that?’
‘You surely don’t expect to survive my birth, do you? But less of this, call him now.’
‘I’ll call for no-one, for no-one else deserves this.’
‘It is your brother, come to rescue you. Call him now and tell him where you are. He’ll rush to save you.’
‘No! I will not. Let him look for me elsewhere, and then he can mourn me for a while before he forgets me altogether.’
‘Call him now, before he leaves the gar
den. He seems happy enough to be leaving. Surely seeing you will add to his happiness?’
‘No! No! I will not. Whatever you do to me, I shall remain silent.’
‘Now, mother. Is it wise to offer such a challenge?’
The vines of the tangleweed tightened around her and the thorns bit into her skin, across her face, her chest and her back.
She closed her eyes and she gritted her teeth and fought against the low moan that was building up inside of her.
She was strong and determined and she would not give in. Let him do what he would, she would resist. Then she felt the sharp pressure against her left eyelid and she jerked her head away, gasping at the pain she caused across the whole of her poor body.
Then the spines found her right eye, and she couldn’t move away. She held her breath and her body was rigid as her eye was ripped and torn, and there was nothing in her life but pain. No family, no brother, no friends. No past, no future. Nothing but this everlasting moment of agony.
And yet, still she held out; no longer knowing why.
Then she felt the thorns attacking her remaining eye, and her will fled, and her strength drained, and her mind sought a warm dark place.
And she screamed.
Chapter 26 Rekk
Rekk would have been long gone, if he hadn’t spotted two of the gang in the garden, arguing over a poor girl. She was no more than 16 Falls of Leaves, and she crouched on the ground between them, sobbing and covering her face with her hands.
‘What’s going on here, lads?’ asked Rekk, as he strolled onto the grass.
‘I saw her first, Rekk, so I gets her first, that’s only right, ain’t it?’ He was a scrawny individual with an ill-favoured face that even a mother would struggle to love.
‘But he went first last time, he did, and he took his own sweet time, he did, and now it’s my turn,’ snapped the other, who could have been a brother to the first.
‘But she was old, and she don’t count, and this one’s fresh as a daisy, so if you’ll just give a man a bit of room, I’ll try her out for you.’
‘Wait a minute, there. It’s Neell and Noell, ain’t it?’ asked Rekk, his face all innocent.
The pair frowned, and then they nodded.
‘Well, I’m glad I found you, ‘cause Huldroyd is looking for you, he is, and he said he wants you now.’
‘What for? We ain’t done nothing, have we Noell?’
‘No, not unless he means...’
‘Shush yourself now! He won’t know about that, unless you told someone. Did ye tell someone?’
‘Do I look like a fool?’
Rekk held up his hand as it appeared that they could jabber on at each other all day long.
‘You’re not in trouble, lads. He don’t know what you’ve done. He’s got a job for you, and he says only you two can do it. And he said you’ll be well rewarded, he did.’
The brothers looked at each other, one with a smile and the other a frown. After a moment, they switched expressions and turned back to Rekk.
‘I knew he’d want us for something special, I did,’ said Noell.
‘I said he would, last week, like,’ said Neell.
‘You best be off and not keep him waiting.’
‘But...what about her?’ asked Neell, looking down with a glum expression at the girl.
‘Don’t worry about her. I’ll keep her nice and warm for you.’
‘You won’t, you know, use her?’ asked Noell.
‘Hardly at all,’ he laughed as they set off back into the palace.
‘Don’t, sir. Please, sir,’ begged the girl as he touched her shoulder.
‘Now, lass. No need to get all upset now. You best get off and be on your toes and run just as fast as your little legs can go. And don‘t you be looking back now. Off you go.’
She was gone before he’d finished speaking, and he couldn’t help smiling as he watched her go.
‘I don’t know what’s happening, but I must be getting soft in my old age,’ he said, as he set off to follow her at a much more leisurely pace.
He was on the edge of the garden, with the dark wall of the tangleweed to his right and the path that would lead to the main road into town just before him, when the screaming started.
‘Fleur!’ he yelled, for he had no doubt that it was her.
He spun around on his heels and his blade was in his hand, but there was nothing to see.
The screams continued and he sobbed at the agony they attested to.
She was in the mist of the tangleweed and she needed him.
Without another thought, he bent and dashed into the darkness, oblivious to the sharp thorns tearing at his skin.
Soon he was crawling and the screams became louder as he drew closer.
Then he found her, and he sobbed even more as he began to cut away at the living ropes that bound her.
All of a sudden, she stopped screaming, and he stopped cutting.
He touched her face, between the thorns, and she felt cold to his touch.
‘Oh, no!’ he sobbed, as he gripped the vines with his bare hands and tried to free her. ‘You can’t be dead! Just hang on there and I’ll have you free.’
He ignored the first vine that fell across his shoulder, intent on saving his sister.
By the time he saw what was happening, it was too late. The thorns were biting into his skin in a thousand places, and the vines were already hugging him in a deadly embrace.
As the knife fell from his hands and the air was being crushed from his lungs, he heard a voice in his head.
‘Greetings, Uncle. It is so nice to finally be together.’
Book II
Who is truly the last of the Trytor?
Chapter 27 Alice
‘So, Mr Lestott, will you give your opinion on what should be done?’
Alice smiled and stepped to one side, to give him room. He was somewhat taller than her, with a slim form and a neatly trimmed dark beard. But it was his eyes that drew her to him, with the way they twinkled with amusement whenever he saw her.
‘Good day, everyone,’ said Lestott, with a nod and a smile.
They were in the council chamber, with the mayor, the chancellor, and several other worthies.
‘I’ve taken a day or two to walk up and along your valley, and then another couple of days to look at the adjoining valleys.’
‘Get on with it, man! We’re busy people here,’ said the mayor, with something of a sneer.
Lestott ignored the interruption.
‘If you look at this map, you will see the expected extent of the glacier’s encroachment over the next year or so.’
He pointed at the map on the wall with a short stick he’d brought with him.
‘As you can see, based on what has happened to either side of the valley, the glacier will reach three quarters of one mile into the valley by the end of the year, and that will be a full mile by the end of next year.’
He removed the map displaying the glacial movement from the wall, leaving exposed a new map.
‘This map shows the area of land that you will be able to cultivate next year.’
There was a combined gasp from the audience.
‘That can’t be right! It’s less than a quarter of what we have now!’ said the mayor.
‘Indeed, and you will be unlikely to have more than one crop per year.’
‘But…we’ll starve!’ snapped the chancellor, who looked a long way from needing to worry about starving.
‘Not necessarily. If you change to ground-fruit and other hardier crops, and graze woolbeasts on the higher slopes, and fill your reservoir with silverfish, and make the other changes I have listed in my report, then you will be able to support your population as it stands. There is really no need for your people to starve just because you no longer have access to Magic.’
The mayor stood up and adjusted his fine silk waistcoat. ‘Now, Mr…, thank you for your hard work on our behalf, and you have made some interesting poin
ts, indeed. But it is far too soon to be making such drastic changes, when we may have Magic back any day now.’
‘Mr Mayor, we spoke about this, sir,’ said Alice.
‘Yes, indeed we did, and I listened out of respect for your father. But it is still my opinion that Magic will return and all will be fine, with Hesselton and with the valley.’
‘You can’t base your plans for the future on mere hope, sir.’
‘There has always been Magic in the valley, my dear, and there will always be Magic. It will return, and you can cease with your worrying and think on more suitable things for a young lady.’
Alice opened her mouth to respond, but she held her words back. What was the point? She knew that there was Magic back in the valley, and she’d seen what it did to Sam; she wanted nothing of it. It came hand in hand with danger, and the price wasn’t worth the paying.
She didn’t listen as the mayor finished off with one or two more pompous words and then he bustled from the room with the rest of the council members in his wake.
Lestott was standing by his map with his eyes on her, and she felt suddenly embarrassed at his attention.
‘Forgive me, sir. For a moment, I was far away. It happens sometimes when the mayor is being...’
‘An interminable bore?’
‘I would never say...well, mayhap you’re right.’ She stood up and walked closer. ‘Show me, if you will, the maps again, and I would be obliged if you could tell me in full detail what you think will happen to the valley and how we can best deal with the situation we will find ourselves in.’
Lestott smiled, and it was such a wonderful smile, and he took her arm.
‘By all means, Lady Alice. It would be my pleasure.’