Fireclaws - Search for the Golden (25 page)

Knowing that words would by no means cover the situation, I reached down and claimed her hand, putting my other arm around her back. Giving her a quick squeeze, I turned us so that we were both facing the Royals.

“I’m sorry, your Majesties, but Daphne and I both need to accompany you. We are a team.” I looked up, expecting to see a wrathful king, or at least a stern look of annoyance at the interruption. Instead, Alex was smiling with a bemused expression, and his reached over and took Maya’s hand in his own. The two exchanged a glance and a shy smile, and then the king resumed the discussion.

“Kerrik, a little advice,” Alex chuckled. “I have some experience in dealing with a spirited woman, and when your lady fair and wife takes a stand like that, you had better listen; I know I do…”

“Not my wife yet, King Alex,” I said, keeping my eyes solidly ahead, not daring to look over at my girl. “But I intend to work on that.” I noticed that Queen Maya’s emerald eyes were dancing with mirth, and her chin dipped in approval as I felt the pooka melt into my side.

Before anyone could say anything else, the Nia buzzed back and did a loop over, then addressed the Royals. “Are you ready for the real message now? It was a cipher!”

Rosa stalked over and handed Alex a fresh sheet of paper. The King thanked her and then started to read.

“Greeting, my King and Queen. I apologize for the subterfuge in this letter, but the stakes are very high, and I couldn’t be sure that this letter wouldn’t fall into the wrong hands. For the same reason, neither Kerrik nor Daffi is aware of this information, not because I do not trust them implicitly, but because they cannot give up information they do not know.

“Sadly, I must report that Kailemora, the golden dragon that you sent me to find, died hours after the great battle. All is not lost, however; Andi led me to an underground complex built by deep gnomes that was the former home of Kailemora, and in her library and her letters, I found the answer. With the exception of the sole King or Queen golden dragon, every dragon on the planet, both good and bad, drops into a deep sleep periodically. We were unable to ascertain what triggers the process, but we know for a fact that it is a celestial event that releases them from their slumber. There lies the catch. If you consider that the planet is no longer where it was, that particular celestial event will never occur again. As a failsafe of some sort, the ruling golden dragon of the species does not succumb to the great sleep, and its duty is to watch over its flock during the vulnerable time. From what we have learned, the golden dragon has the ability to revive the dragons of the world in the event of a celestial disaster. That’s the good news; the bad news is Kailemora was the last living golden dragon!

“Dragons are very wise, Your Majesties. She foresaw something like this happening and hid an egg preserved in stasis. That is the prize that the evil Verledn’s minions are seeking and the reason for kidnapping Andi; they are using her to find the egg. It is an opportunity for the forces of evil to bend the last living golden dragon to their will and cause untold destruction. For us, it means the chance to revive all the dragons of the world, including Dawn and Dusk, and make things right.

“We must rescue Andi and recover the egg before it falls into the hands of another demon lord! Please send aid quickly.

Your loyal servant always, Ryliss Tancreek”

Marl Fremvoller sniffed the evening air and growled slightly. It was two hours before midnight, and the temperatures were already dropping sharply. Those of his men who weren’t on guard duty were huddled around small fires, which reflected light off their worried faces. No one was happy with this trip. They were all used to the burden of traveling with the prickly, malevolent fire wizard, Lebahn. But the last couple of days had taken them out of the plains and into the foothills of the mountains to the north. Marl didn’t even know the name of the range that faced them, but it had a dark and cold presence.

It also didn’t help morale to hear the cries of the young girl the gargoyle had kidnapped and brought to them. Lebahn had been especially cruel to her, trying to gain information about some egg he was seeking. While, like him, most of his men were rough mercenaries, a few had sisters or mothers they still thought of fondly, and the girl’s agony wore them down.

At midnight, Lebahn had vowed to allow his captive demon to have the girl; at least that should silence the whimpering. Marl strode forward and threw back the flap of the tent where Lebahn spent his time when they were not traveling.

As usual, the fire wizard was sitting cross-legged on a soft mat, conversing animatedly with the large red, or sometimes black, crystal that was never far from his hand.

“What is it, Marl,” Lebahn snarled, “I have preparations to make for our event at midnight.

“Just a report as I furnish every evening, Lebahn. I don’t like this area; too many rocks and shrubs for things to hide in.”

“Double the guard if you think it necessary, I don’t care! I assume the girl is secured in her tent as usual?”

“Until midnight, at least, three men and the gargoyle surround her tent at all times.”

“Then leave me be, I will summon you when I want her brought to me.”

Marl nodded curtly and started backing out of the tent. Suddenly, the night air was rent violently by numerous equine screams. “Shit, something is at the horses!”

“Well, deal with it; that’s what you are paid for,” the wizard grumbled, returning to his meditation. Marl stormed out into the melee of running men, who were quickly putting on their armor and snatching up weapons. A few called for more torches to be lit while others strung their bows hastily.

Perhaps fifteen minutes later, a furious Marl stuck his head back into Lebahn’s tent. “Giant cats! I’ve never seen any that large before. Three of my outer guards are dead with slashed throats, and an entire string of horses broke loose and ran off. We’ll play hell getting them back in this darkness!” The mercenary Captain paused and gulped shakily. “There’s something else, Lebahn…the girl is gone!”

“What?!”

“It looks like something burrowed up out of the ground under her tent and took her!”

‘Well, don’t just stand there, you idiot! Send out search parties and find that girl; she can’t have gone far!”

“Yes, sir,” Marl muttered miserably and disappeared back into the night, storming after his men.

Lebahn, glared for a moment at the tent flap that had fallen closed; then he picked up the blood-red crystal, gazed into its depths, and allowed himself a small crooked smile.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ryliss

We had been riding hard for twelve hours or more now. Andi barely felt like a weight on my back; her previous experience as a horsewoman kept her instinctively sitting tall and balanced. But I could tell she was nearly at the end of her rope. The constant fear, pain and travails of the past few days had sapped what little strength the young girl had. I couldn’t speak in horse form, but it mattered little as the seer silently concentrated on clinging to my back and little else.

I stopped periodically to leave a breadcrumb for what I hoped were our reinforcements; each probably a little sloppier than the previous, but, as usual, time was not on our side. We were traveling up the slope of some foothills in the shadow of an ominous line of “steamers,” mountains which off-gassed plumes of dirty steam or smoke. The gasses shrouded the mountaintops like a thick cloak and gave them an even more dire appearance. Their presence meant volcanic activity, possibly even open flows of magma, ahead. We would have to be careful. Rakka was ranging far out in front and behind to watch for danger; so far she reported no signs of pursuit. Diori just disappeared into the earth to travel, finding it easier and faster to move that way.

I thought uneasily about the past evening’s adventure. Everything had gone as planned; the distraction of Jag’uri attacking the horses and guards coupled with Diori’s textbook snatch of the seer out of her tent. But now I worried about the abilities of the demon gargoyle. It had found Andi once; assumedly, it could do it again, and if it did strike, our only defense would be to have Diori take her far underground. The luxury of hiding and waiting out our pursuit was not something I could afford. The thought of Dawn and Dusk dying slowly from starvation was something I tried not to dwell on too much, but it was never far from my mind now. Time was not my friend. All these thoughts swirled through my brain as I galloped along.

“We are getting closer now, Ryliss.” Andi leaned forward and spoke into my ear. “I can see the egg more prominently in my visions.” She attempted to stifle a small sob of sorrow as she continued, “But there is also great pain ahead as well. I’m sorry that I’m not a better seer for you; I wish I could tell you what to expect, what to guard against.”

I pondered her words for a few moments. Dark elves are not an especially superstitious lot in general, but my rational mind knew that any foreboding that came from a true seer would occur somehow, perhaps just not at the time or place we expected. With a horsey sigh, I expunged the worry from my mind; every soldier goes into battle knowing that he or she might not return. If you let your mind fall too deeply into doom-faring, it became a self-fulfilling prophecy. We kept moving.

I caught myself stumbling a little and wondered how much longer I would be able to negotiate these steep slopes with no trail; my hooves were not meant for this type of surface. A mountain goat might be more agile, but just copying the form of an animal doesn’t mean I gain all their skills. Part of a goat’s climbing abilities comes from years of experience, which I didn’t have, but it was worth a try. Andi gave a small cry of surprise when the horsehair beneath her changed suddenly to thick, rough, layered hair, her mount shortened, and her seat became narrower and considerably less comfortable. At least my horns gave her something solid to hold on to. We pressed on, it was perhaps another two hours before even my mountain goat feet were starting to fail me.

Finally after the third time she nearly slid to the ground, I found a small copse of wind- and nutrient-tortured aspens that offered some cover. I stopped to build a small fire and let her take a break. As she warmed herself and rested, I dug through my pouch and found a couple of dried apples remaining and handed them over.

“Sorry, Andea, that’s the last of them…I wish I could do better.”

She smiled weakly. “Don’t worry about me, Ryliss. It will be over soon; I just hope it will all be worth it.”

“Can you tell me what you see, Andi? I know you can’t see yourself, but what about Kerrik, Daffi, and Diori?”

“From what little I can tell, Kerrik and Daffi are well enough at the moment, but still far away. Diori is a blank to me, it’s like she doesn’t exist to a seer.”

“But the golden dragon was a seer as well,” I mused, turning it over in my mind.

“Perhaps that was part of the appeal of creating the perfect servant,” Andi opined cautiously. “Someone whose direction can never be discerned by outsiders.” She shifted uneasily. “What of you, Ryliss? Do you not wonder about your own fate?”

I thought about it for a few moments, then shook my head. “No, I may not be a warrior, but I was raised among them. I have no desire to know the future beyond any information that could spare my friends an injury or death. If I die in the service of my King and Queen, I will pass over with no regrets or sorrow.”

“Thank you, Ryliss,” she said quietly as if I had just given her a gift.

At that point, a great black shape slunk into the small camp and curled up, practically encircling the small fire.

“No sign of any pursuit, my Mother, but you should hurry on to our destination. I dislike this mountain, it growls like a badger in a hole, full of teeth and bad temperament. The trail continuing would best be done on two feet. What way there is, even the mountain goats have long abandoned, and nothing lives up here.”

“What did you find up ahead?”

“A few hundred paces ahead, there is a spot where you will have to decide to go through the rock clefts to the right or left, continuing on to the next mountains, or blaze a new trail straight up to the pinnacle of this peak. It is nearly straight up, but there are old goat switchbacks and the like. It will tax every ounce of strength you have to proceed.”

“Andi, we come to a junction; left, right or straight up, which will it be?”

The seer paused and grimaced. I saw several raw emotions transverse her young face, each option considered and then dismissed. Finally, she just sighed wearily and spoke, “Straight ahead, Ryliss. This is the mountain where we will find our destiny. There will be an entrance somewhere near the top, and the egg is inside.”

“If we are so close, I will go on alone or with Diori if she shows up. It would be hard for you to go further and I can leave Rakka here to protect you.”

The seer gulped and shook her head firmly. “No, I am in part responsible for what lies ahead; I need to see this out.”

Naurakka got up and, with a snort, loped off down the trail in the direction from which we had come, disappearing quickly into the lichen-covered boulders. I pulled Andi to her feet and we started back up the slope, shattered pieces of rock slipping out from under my boots. It seemed like for every two steps I took, I slid back one. Andea, who couldn’t see where to place her feet, was having an especially hard time.

I squinted up at the top of the mountain high above us and estimated we had at least another thousand vertical feet to cover before reaching the top. Both of us were breathing in ragged spurts now, the altitude and fatigue taking its toll. Curiously, instead of becoming colder toward the summit, the air around us seemed to be getting warmer, as were the rocks beneath our feet. I had Andi wrap her arms around my neck and hold on as I attempted a particularly steep section. I thought of turning into an eagle and flying to the top, but my last experience carrying Andi was nearly disastrous, and that was at a lower elevation and when I wasn’t so exhausted. At the moment, I was pretty sure it would mean both our deaths.

Abruptly, Diori popped out of the ground next to us. She looked at us both, but the fact that we were exhausted failed to register with the stone creature as she questioned cheerfully, “Are we near our destination yet, seer?”

I eased Andi down on the flat edge of an outcropping and she immediately went to her knees and hung her head, too tired to answer the kobold.

“Yes, Diori, we are close,” I panted. “But this is too steep for us to keep going much longer and nightfall approaches. I am thinking about going back down to a decent resting spot and trying again tomorrow.”

Diori tilted her head quizzically. “If it is a conveyance the seer requires, might I offer some assistance? I could carry her to the top of this peak and you could become a winged creature and follow.” I think I could have kissed her at that point!

A few minutes later, I was a kestrel pacing the kobold and Andea just below me. Diori gently carried the young girl in her arms, while the lower half of her body seemed to be submerged in the rocks as if she were striding forcefully through a pool of waist-deep water. Neither changes in the type of rock nor the steepness of the climb seemed to affect her momentum at all. She was as much at home in the stone as a fish is in a pond.

Shadows were already starting to darken the lower elevations of the mountain when Diori pulled up short on a small, flattish area perhaps two hundred feet or so below the summit. It appeared to me that this had been a larger area at one time, but a rock slide had all but obliterated the shelf. I saw Andi nervously waving to get my attention, so I landed and changed back into my dark elf form.

“This is the place. We are very close, Ryliss,” Andea whispered, taking a deep, hesitant breath as if she were about to enter a den of rattlesnakes.

I examined the mountainside before me. It just looked like thousands of tons of mixed boulders and loose rock to me. I’m not sure how anyone would even attempt to start excavating it with mere hand tools.

“I concur, Ryliss,” Diori said happily. “This is exactly how Kailemora would have protected a covert lair. This would be unrecognizable to dragons and nearly impossible for humans to enter.”

I sighed and looked back down the mountain at the advancing shadows. “That’s wonderful, Diori, but unless there is a secret door or other passage, we are going to be stuck on this ledge tonight.”

“You forget, Ryliss; I said it was nearly impossible for humans to enter. But the Auric wanted me, her loyal servant, to enter. Watch!”

The kobold grew to approximately three times her/my normal size and, again, she sunk down to her waist into the rock and then strode forward. I heard a slight sizzling sound as she bored through the side of the rock fall. Amazingly, her outline seemed to melt and cauterize the loose rock so the ceiling and sides of the passage were as smooth as glass.