DragonSpell (18 page)

Once more the image of Dar playing a tune sprang into Kale’s mind.

“Music, Dar,” she said. “Music. Play something. It’s an enchantment.”

Dar reached inside his coat to a pocket and pulled out his harmonica.

“We’ve been blinded by magic.” Kale heard the urgency in her voice and couldn’t explain it, even to herself. “We have walked past the suffering without seeing. Play, Dar.”

The doneel raised his mouth organ to his lips and blew. A melody flowed out with a trill and a lively beat. The air around them wavered, and the image of the empty cavern seemed to melt and flow to the floor. In the room around them, nine cages held thin, worn prisoners.

“They see us,” called one in a weak voice. The sobs Kale had heard changed from mournful to joyous. “They see us.”

         
25
         

E
SCAPE!

Many different races sat in squalor or hung from the walls with chains about their wrists and ankles. Some watched Leetu’s rescuers with dull eyes. Others croaked out mournful pleas, begging for release, for water, for a crust of bread. A few babbled words that made no sense.

“We have to free them,” said Kale.

Both Shimeran and Dar nodded. Dar moved toward a cage and then paused. He turned to Shimeran.

“We can’t do this alone. Will your people help?”

“Not many have ever come into the fortress.” He looked around.

“There are nearly thirty prisoners here. Few of them are in any shape to walk, let alone fight if the need arises. If all the dungeon rooms hold as many, there will be hundreds to guide safely out of this hole.”

“We must find Leetu,” Kale said.

“Yes,” Dar agreed. “We’ll find Leetu, and while you and Gymn tend to her, Shimeran and I will come up with a plan.”

Kale closed her eyes against the sight of so many hurting souls, but her ears still heard their murmurings, their pleas for mercy.

Leetu, I must find Leetu Bends.

She opened her eyes and trudged back the way they had come, past those she could not help. Following that unseen pull that told her where she would find her comrade, Kale tried to ignore the sights and sounds of misery. She offered the captives words of encouragement, saying they would soon be free. For now, Kale had nothing to give them but hope.

She passed through several tunnels and caverns. None were vacant as they had appeared earlier. Cats, rats, and druddums slunk and scuttled along the passages. Each room held a despairing group of captives. Kale saw mariones, doneels, kimens, urohms, emerlindians, and tumanhofers. With a start, she realized some of the prisoners were o’rants. She had never met another of her race.

Dar urged her forward when she stopped beside an old o’rant man. “I know, Kale, but now is not the time. Tend to Leetu first.”

In the corner of the next dungeon, they found Leetu’s form rolled against a cold stone wall. Moisture oozed from the rocks and flowed down on the emerlindian. Leetu slept in damp clothing and a shallow puddle that smelled heavily of rusty iron.

Shimeran put his fists to his hips and glowered at the tenants of the dungeon. “Where is the kimen who stands by her friend at this hour?”

The wretched prisoners shook their heads, cowering away from the angry, two-foot-tall kimen.

Dar moved to stand by Shimeran and spoke quietly. “Do you think they even saw Leetu’s kimen companion?”

Shimeran shrugged off the question. “I will know why the emerlindian was left alone.” He knelt beside Leetu. He felt her forehead and shook his head. “Her skin is hot, yet she shivers. Let us see what we can do for her.”

Dar, Kale, and Shimeran moved Leetu’s body, limp and feverish, to a drier spot.

“This one is near death,” announced Shimeran in a solemn voice.

A fierce denial rose to Kale’s lips, but she bit it back. It had taken them a long time to reach their comrade.

I don’t really know if Gymn can cure someone so weak.

With help from Dar and Shimeran, Kale laid her cape on the dirty floor and moved Leetu onto the woven moonbeam material. Kale sat down next to her and tenderly pulled Gymn from his pocket-den at the edge of the cape. She held him close to her chest, nestled in her folded arms.

“Wake up, little one,” she cooed to the dragon. “We have work to do.”

Gymn wrinkled his nose against the putrid smells of the dungeon and tucked his head against Kale’s sleeve. With a forefinger, she lifted his scaly chin. The young beast blinked his eyes in the kimen’s light. She remembered Shimeran had called the golden glow “hope.”

“We must try,” she told Gymn. She peeled him off her arm and laid him against Leetu’s pallid cheek. The emerlindian did not stir. Kale left one hand on the healing dragon and placed the other on Leetu’s soiled arm.

A sparkling voice called to them. “You’ve come to rescue the emerlindian. What’s happened here? Only an hour ago this place was like a tomb. Nothing living but me and the Paladin warrior.”

“Seezle!” Shimeran’s voice rang with displeasure. “I should have known. Where have you been?”

“Easy, big brother. I went to get fresh water, a blanket, and some food.”

Kale looked quickly at the small female kimen. From under the folds of her garment, Seezle produced a loaf of bread, a flask, and a heavy, folded cloth.

Shimeran grunted. “The emerlindian cannot eat. We will dribble some water into her mouth. These comrades will eat the food. I know not when they last ate, but their journey has been long and ’tis not over yet.”

Kale gladly accepted the drink and bread. Although they still had some provisions in their stores from Granny Noon, it had been some time since they’d eaten. While Kale’s cape with its full hollows was within easy reach, Dar’s belongings were back in the forest with Celisse. Truthfully, she hadn’t thought about food and how hungry she was until she saw Seezle’s offering. Kale shared with Gymn. Dar eloquently thanked the kimen and set right to work on the scant meal.

With the edge taken off her hunger, Kale turned back to her role with the ailing emerlindian and Gymn. She wondered if the healing process would be as exhilarating as it had been when they worked on Celisse’s wounds. Leetu’s wounds were deep in her being—old, not fresh—and inflicted by an evil touch. Celisse’s wounds had been to the surface flesh, relatively newly dealt, and delivered by an arrow rather than the physical touch of wickedness. This would not be a simple healing.

Feeling unequal to her task, Kale positioned herself next to Leetu with Gymn again on the emerlindian’s cheek. Hoping Wulder would strengthen her poor efforts, the o’rant girl placed her hands in the correct position to complete the circle.

Kale felt Dar and Shimeran move away. They would plot the freedom of the other prisoners. Kale would concentrate on Leetu.

When Dar nudged Kale’s shoulder, she realized she must have fallen asleep. She lay beside Leetu, her hands still touching the emerlindian and Gymn, making the healing circle.

“Kale.” Dar’s voice penetrated the fog of her mind. She raised her head without letting go of the circle. She tried to focus on Dar’s face but found that his long sideburns on fuzzy cheeks blurred with the rock wall behind him.

He spoke quietly. “Shimeran has gathered all the kimens who live within the fortress.”

“They live inside?” Her voice felt hoarse.

“Yes, as uninvited tenants. In fact, Risto doesn’t know they are here.”

Dar’s eyes traveled around the dingy cell. He looked ill at ease. She noticed Shimeran’s light had been replaced with a torch on the wall.

Dar fingered a small metal pick and held it up for her to see. “I am undoing the locks while the kimens are gone.”

“We’re alone?”

“We are never alone.” Dar’s word echoed strongly on the solid walls. He straightened his shoulders.

She struggled to understand the doneel’s words. The intense process of healing Leetu shielded her thoughts from the things going on around her. He had said someone was gone, and they weren’t alone. It didn’t make sense. “Gone? Who’s gone?”

“The kimens. They’ve gone out to gather more of their people. Those kimens who are used to being inside the walls will guide kimens from outside into the fortress. Our hope is there will be one kimen to help each of these prisoners escape.”

Kale nodded. Her head sank back to the ground.

Some time later she felt a touch on her wrist. She opened her eyes. Dar bent over her, fastening a slender green rope on her arm.

“What is that?” she whispered.

“A glean band. It will protect you when the hornets attack.”

Kale sat up, letting go of both Leetu and Gymn. “Hornets?” Groggy from her sleep and the healing, she looked around the room for a battalion of stinging insects. Instead, she saw a dungeon devoid of prisoners.

“Not here yet,” said Dar as he placed the same kind of bracelet around Leetu’s limp arm. “I am learning the most amazing things, Kale. Kimens have warriors and arm themselves with natural weapons. They plan to bomb the bisonbeck soldiers with hornet nests. Clever, don’t you think?”

Kale shook the muzzy feeling from her brain. “Dar, what’s going on? Did the magic return and cover the people, or are we really alone? How long have I been asleep?”

“Whoa!” Dar sat back on his heels and grinned at her. His ears perked above his head and waggled with excitement. “It’s nearly dawn. Awhile ago the captives were taken inside the castle, being fed and given water, and helping themselves to clothing from the servants’ quarters.

“But now they are hidden in the third quadrant, awaiting the kimens’ diversion. While the outer quadrants are in confusion, they will escape. In the forest, villagers summoned by the kimens will hustle them off to hiding places in the valley. After the prisoners regain their strength, a plan will be made to get them to their homes.”

Dar’s torrent of words had finally awakened Kale from her befuddled state. “What?” She sat up straighter.

“The kimens arrived about an hour ago. They sneaked in past the bisonbeck guards, which was risky but easier than a normal invasion would have been.”

“Invasion?”

“Pay attention, Kale.” Dar situated himself in a cross-legged position and leaned forward. “The kimens came into the inner circle without arousing the outer guard. They then went through the castle and incapacitated the servants.”

“Incapacitated?”

“They stunned them.”

“How can tiny kimens overpower servants?”

“They stun them,” Dar repeated. “It’s absolutely fascinating. I guess the kimen race didn’t like being defenseless. They’ve come a long way since the days Pretender tried to subjugate them and the urohms came to the rescue.”

“Dar!” Kale rose to her feet and glared at the doneel. “Explain what is happening without all this chitterchatter.”

Dar frowned up at her, but his enthusiasm soon erased the glower. “A kimen springs out at a servant, leaping in front of his face. Then the kimen produces an explosion of light right in the servant’s eyes. I watched them do it dozens of times. The servant drops to the floor like he’s been clobbered on the noggin.”

“So all the servants were captured while I was asleep?”

“Yes, and then I tied them up, bound them hand and foot. They won’t interfere with our escape.” Dar looked at Leetu’s unmoving form. Gymn still sprawled across her cheek. “You weren’t exactly asleep, Kale. You were busy, too.”

Kale gazed at the emerlindian. Leetu’s complexion still looked pasty. Her breathing came in a long, shallow rhythm. She made no movements other than the rise and fall of her chest, indicating she lived.

Kale fought despair. “I can’t see that I did any good.”

“We’ll take her to Wizard Fenworth,” said Dar, rising to his feet. “She needs the healing power of someone skilled against the evil of Risto. Leetu won’t die now, Kale. You and Gymn have given her enough strength and us enough time to get her to Fenworth.”

Kale didn’t bother to say they had already failed at finding the bog wizard. She picked up the blanket to fold as she watched the still form of her friend.