The Wizard and the Warlord (The Wardstone Trilogy Book Three) (36 page)

Bzorch suddenly realized that it was far too quiet around the fang. This kind of silence was unnatural. Even the insects seemed to have fled. He began to wonder if Captain Hodge and his group hadn’t drawn the whole encampment to them. A glance westward told him that the Choska was still preoccupied.

“As soon as I’m out of the boat, start rowing back,” he said.

“We’re coming up on the face now,” one of the rowers said.

Bzorch turned and looked up at the western face of the fang. The sun was on it now; midday had come and gone. He realized that his shadow would be a long, drooping line on the rock. He would have to hurry. If the Choska came around and caught him halfway up, clinging like a lizard, he would surely be killed.

“Get me directly under that hole up there,” Bzorch commanded again. When the oarsmen had him in position, he checked to see where the Choska was. It was well to the west, circling slowly over the captain’s group. He didn’t hesitate. Like some big, lumbering gorilla, he began moving upward. Three hundred feet was a long way to climb, but Bzorch went about it with a purpose.

About a third of the way up, a shadow sped across him and made his heart blast through his chest. Looking up and craning his neck, he saw that it was only the shadow of a big dactyl, not the Choska. Still, the creature showed him its bright pink maw and hissed at his trespass. After checking to see where the Choska was once more, he resumed his climb. Luckily, the demon was still focused on what was going on with Captain Hodge’s group.

Bzorch couldn’t believe it when he finally pulled himself into the wormhole of the old red dragon’s layer. After he caught his breath, he pulled the looking glass from his belt and looked out westwardly to see what the Choska was so intently circling. The sun reflected back up at him in a bright coppery ray, making it hard to pick out details, but what had happened was clear. From his vantage point he could see a swath of marsh water littered with debris and stained red with blood. One of the three barges was half submerged, the others completely under water. The long, loggish shapes of several snappers eased about the pools searching for more men to eat. Bzorch swore under his breath. He saw that the Choska was now moving toward the camouflaged barges where his men were hiding. He had to move across to the eastern opening to see where they were hidden. As he went, he noticed that there was no sign of anything living in the cavernous hollow that opened up off of the wormhole. All he saw were bones from ancient meals and some hardened chunks of grizzly pelt piled in the spaces between. He wasn’t sure now if the Choska was roosting here.

To his horror, and anger, a monstrous swarm of dactyls was clouding around the concealed boats. The men weren’t able to stay hidden. The big, sharp-beaked birds were diving and slashing at them. The shadow of the Choska swept across the dark green collage of marsh below. Bzorch’s head shot up and located it in the sky. He nearly tumbled out of the wormhole when he saw her on its back.

Was it her?

Holding his breath and willing his heart to keep beating, Bzorch put his looking glass to his eye and found her in it. He wasn’t sure if he should feel relief or not when he saw the face. There was no patch of scorched flesh over her ear, no pink teardrop scar on her cheek, but he knew in his primitive heart that it was somehow Shaella.

He decided then that killing the Choska might not be as important as warning the High King of this discovery. A glance down at his men put a knot in his stomach. A plethora of life was swarming over the boats. Snakes, dactyls, and some huge, tentacled thing that was only half in the water, were all attacking. The dark channel took on a crimson sheen and, after only a few heartbeats, was only a churning mass of death.

He was alone now.

Bzorch found the Choska again and growled. He would survive, he told himself. He would wade back to Westland and tell King Mikahl of this bloody attack if he had to. The High King had to know that Shaella, or something very much like her, was alive.

He decided to use the time he had before darkness to make a plan. Alone, with no boat, it was all he could think to do.

Once inside the huge island castle of Afdeon it was hard to judge how massive it really was. The sections of the lower floors the party was able to see were plain in appearance, other than the overproportionate size of everything. The lower floors were crude and square, and looked to be carved into the natural rock. The walls were thick and the hallways narrow. Hyden figured that this was the foundation for the towering construction above, its function obviously more important than form.

They rode up on a disk-shaped lift. The large platform had several divans and benches. One was even built for human-sized folk.

“Look, Hyden,” Phen whispered as they marveled at it all. “Next to the giants and their furniture, Oarly looks like a bearded toddler.”

Both Phen and Hyden were disappointed when they learned that the elevating disk was a mechanical device and not magical. Cade explained that it worked by way of a system of counter weights and pulleys powered by shafts and chambers that vented natural steam from the Cauldron.

They passed hundreds of floors on the half-day ride, but they were only given glimpses of the vast variety of things that were on them. Some lower floors held cavernous pillared rooms full of livestock, bundled bales of grain, crated vegetables, and all sorts of goods and stores. Most of the floors opened up on long hallways with doors on either side. A few held similar corridors with merchant shops. On one of these floors, about an hour into the ride, a young hawker presented them with meals of devil goat meat wrapped in flat bread. The offerings were so large that no one could manage more than half of the meal, save for Jicks, who stuffed himself full.

“How far up are we going?” Princess Telgra finally asked after they had eaten.

“The royal apartments and the quarters for distinguished guests are above the steam cloud, Your Highness,” Cade answered her formally. “That is where we will exit the lift.”

“You said that King Aldar is expecting us this evening?” Hyden asked, fishing for information.

“He is,” Cade said.

“Will we be given time to wash the road off of us?” Hyden asked, thinking as much about Telgra as he was anyone. “And our cleanest clothes are down with our things.”

“Actually, your things are already being delivered to your rooms,” Cade informed them. “This isn’t the only way up to the royal chambers. And yes, Sir Hyden Hawk, I believe that you will have at least a few hours to wash and recover before King Aldar summons you.”

It was like sitting in a room where the open entryways changed every few moments. For a time, worked stone was all that was visible, and then an opening would seemingly slide down the wall, revealing a corridor full of closed doors, or a floor full of giants working leather, or another vast expanse of stored goods. Even though they had seen as much space as any human city offers, it was apparent that they were seeing very little of Afdeon.

Once, the giantess storyteller, Berda, had told the Skyler Clan a tale about a forest inside a castle. Hyden remembered Gerard asking, “You mean a forest inside the castle’s protective wall?”

“No,” she’d replied. “I mean a forest that is high above the ground, growing in a room in a great castle.”

The idea of it had boggled Hyden’s mind back then. He often wondered about such a forest, about where the rain and the sunlight the trees needed to grow would come from. Now, sensing an infinite largeness around him, it wasn’t so unbelievable.

“Slanted holes in the walls let steam in. It condenses on the ceiling of the cavern and then drops down like rain,” Cade explained when Hyden finally asked about it. The giant didn’t explain how the trees got sunlight, and Hyden was too busy thinking to ask.

“I just realized that this bench wasn’t made for humans,” Lieutenant Welch said, as if he’d made some great revelation.

“Who else would they be for?” Phen asked.

“For the children,” Princess Telgra grinned.

“True,” Cade said with a smile over at Oarly whose feet dangled a good foot above the floor. “My four-year- old son is at least a hand taller than Master Oarly.”

“I hope he’s not as ugly,” Phen joked.

“Or as hairy,” added Hyden.

“Bah!” Oarly grumbled, while everyone laughed. “How much longer are we going up?”

Cade peered at the passing floor, a ribbed hallway like the one they had traversed down to the Cauldron barge. The sconces holding the lamp flames along the walls here were gauntleted fists holding knife hilts. The flames rose up like short, wavering dagger blades.

“It won’t be much longer, Master Dwarf,” Cade answered.

On the next floor, toting one of Phen’s chests between them, two of the page boys went striding by in an adjacent passage. Hyden figured that somewhere nearby the ribbed hallway was another room with that unsettling portal symbol carved in its floor, and an unnatural pool of quicksilver suspended overhead.

The lift finally slowed to a halt at a floor far different from the others they had seen. They stepped off the platform onto a wide, short hallway tiled with glossy slabs of jade that were checkered with a lightly hued golden marble. The walls were covered in lavender silk, and several large, intricately carved, wooden doors were spaced down the length of the hall.

Small matching wooden tables, sporting clawed feet, sat between the doors. Each displayed a different work of sculpted art. Overhead, a chandelier of crystal and gold lit the area well.

“The distinguished guest quarters,” Cade announced regally. “There are only seven apartments. The master suite has been reserved for Princess Telgra; it’s the door at the head of the hall. The other apartments are all equipped to sleep up to three persons or couples. The first room here…” He indicated the door on the right. The carving in the door-face depicted the forging of Ironspike. Dwarves hammered the metal while elves hovered close at hand, their hands frozen in wild gestures of magical incantation. Beyond them, several giants poured melted ore into a kettle, while a lone human with terrified eyes watched it all. The scene was captivating. Hyden studied it in awe. He remembered another depiction of the same event, in stained glass high up on Queen Willa’s castle wall in Xwarda. He remembered seeing the destroyed pieces of it spread across the carnage after the battle, as if the gods had thrown a handful of jewels across the battle field.

“…all of your things,” Cade was saying as he opened the door and broke Hyden’s concentration. Inside, most of the group’s packs, their saddles, trunks, and other belongings lay spread out in neat piles.

“Across the hall, a chamber has been set up as a planning room, complete with maps and a council table.”

Its door carving showed a group of giants with long spears battling a sizable dragon. Cade didn’t open it. He told the others to pick from the four remaining rooms, then took Princess Telgra gently by the arm. He guided her to the door at the end of the chamber. On its face was a view of Afdeon they hadn’t seen. It was looking down on the city from the top of a mountain, or maybe some point higher in the sky. Cade opened the door for her and asked her what she might need.

To her great surprise, a beautiful gown made of some light material, that was the same yellow color of her eyes, had been laid out for her. The way its belted waist and layered shoulders were cut allowed for it to fit a woman with either a smaller, or larger, stature than her.

“A gift from Princess Gretta,” Cade explained. “About an hour before you’ll be escorted to the King’s Gathering Hall for the night’s festivities, two of her ladies will attend you with brushes and perfumes and such.”

“Oh thank you, Cade,” she said, so informally that it startled the giant when she hugged his waist. “Please give her my thanks.”

***

When the giant came back out of her room his look was perplexed. Hyden motioned for him to come into the room he had chosen for himself, Oarly, and Phen. Its door showed a sailing ship climbing a huge breaking wave during a stormy night at sea. Lightning split the sky, silhouetting the giant standing on the deck of the tossed vessel. He was trying to harpoon some undefined scaly thing which was rising up out of the ocean. The detail in the depictions mystified Hyden. He couldn’t fathom carving wood so well.

Once Cade was inside the room, Hyden shut the door. “You might take a moment to speak with the elven guardsman, Corva,” Hyden suggested. “The princess lost her memory and doesn’t seem to want to be treated as royalty. She definitely doesn’t want to be reminded of her past yet.”

“She wants to restore her memory to herself at the Leif Repline,” Phen explained. “But she doesn’t want to be influenced before then. She only learned a few days ago that she was the Queen Mother’s daughter and heir.”

“That brings up a most peculiar set of circumstances,” Cade said. “King Aldar had intended to honor her coming this evening. His daughter wants to get acquainted with her.”

“Would you tell King Aldar for me?” Hyden asked. “It would probably be better to keep our meeting private. Of course, Princess Gretta should be included. I’ve met her, and I will gladly explain to her Princess Telgra’s predicament.”

“That I can do,” said Cade thankfully. “His Majesty will be glad to avoid making our lady elf any more uncomfortable than she must already be.”

Later, standing near the entryway by the lift waiting for Cade, Jicks was complaining about not getting the apartment that Lieutenant Welch had chosen. Jicks had gotten the door with the hunting great wolves depicted on it. He admitted that this would have been his second choice, but he and Krey would rather have the door showing the great battle scene between giants and trolls. Huge clubs, spears, and thrown rocks rained down. Both sides had taken plenty of damage and the situation looked desperate. It was gripping.

“At least you didn’t get the silly tree,” one of them said.

“What about Spike?” Phen asked Hyden. It was all he could do to peel his eyes away from Telgra. Seeing her fresh and clean took his breath away.