DragonSpell (32 page)

         
44
         

I
N THE
S
TRONGHOLD

As soon as the last soldier marched through the exiting tunnel, Kale began to claw away loose stones around the small opening. Minutes later she crammed her body into the narrow hole and pushed and wiggled and squirmed until she fell out the other side. She tumbled and slid before coming to rest against a boulder covered with black dirt. Metta and Gymn flew through the shallow slit she’d made and landed beside her.

She stood and walked around in a daze. She picked up Fenworth’s pointed wizard hat and bunched it into a wad, much the way the wizard did when he was thinking. She walked aimlessly around the destroyed campsite. Metta and Gymn followed, making sad chirruping noises to each other.

Kale stooped to pick up Dar’s flute. A dent in the side showed rough treatment by the vicious bisonbecks.

“Dar will want this,” she said to the dragons. “Maybe he can fix it.” She wiped it off with the wizard’s hat and stuck it into one of the hollows of her cape. She picked up Dar’s smashed harmonica and several other small musical instruments, all variously damaged, and quickly stowed them away.

The tumanhofer’s stack of books had been kicked over and thrown in all directions. Kale gathered them, dusted off the sooty grime, and fitted them into a hollow. Picking up a pair of Librettowit’s reading spectacles, she noted a cracked lens and put it with the other things she had collected.

Collapsing on a boulder, gray with Crim Copper’s smudge, Kale dropped her head into her hands, fighting the urge to cry.

With a shudder, she sat up. “It’s no use pretending things aren’t bad.” The dragons flew to her shoulders. “We’ve got to consider what’s best to do and then do it.”

She stared at the debris around her, absent-mindedly putting Fenworth’s hat on her head. She shook herself as if trying to wake up.

“Keeping broken things won’t help.”

She pulled out the spectacles and intended to throw them as far as she could. Gymn hopped on her shoulder and trilled. The high-pitched warble pierced the silent room.

“What?” Kale lifted a hand to rub against her ear. Gymn’s excited squeal had been all too close to her eardrum. At his urging, she looked at the broken lens. “It’s fixed!”

Kale jumped to her feet. The dragons lost their balance, fluttered beside her for a moment, and then landed on the rocks. Kale pulled out the books and found the pages unwrinkled, untorn, the book covers pristine clean. The flute was dentless. She lifted the harmonica to her mouth and blew. A reedy chord resounded merrily in the forlorn cavern. She marveled at the undamaged instruments as she laid them in a row on the ground.

“You’d think somebody would have told me.”

She repacked the items in her cape and continued to rummage through the mess left by the bisonbecks. She picked up items belonging to each of her comrades except the kimens. Again she puzzled over the fact that she had rarely seen them carry anything.

“Do you suppose they have hollows in their light clothes?”

The dragons didn’t offer an opinion.

Kale picked up Leetu’s bow, broken into two pieces. She looked from the pieces in her hands to the dragons watching her with expectant faces. Kale could feel them urging her to try it.

She fitted the two ends of the bow together. The shaft stretched taller than she did. Kale slipped it into the hollow opening. The bow slid in easily, moving down and down until the whole bow disappeared. Kale held her breath and pulled it back out. The jagged edges where she’d put the two pieces together had mended; no sign of breakage existed, not even a seam.

“Look at that! Wait till I show Leetu.”

The emerlindian’s words echoed in her memory. “Follow orders, Kale. And don’t play with your talents. Treat them with respect, or more disaster will fall upon your head.”

Kale looked quickly at the dragons. Both had turned their heads aside and refused to look her in the eye.

“This isn’t my talent. It’s something the cape does.”

The dragons made grunty noises in their throats.

Kale growled back. “All right. Guilty,” she said, and her shoulders slumped. “When will I ever learn?”

She shoved the bow back into the hollow and gathered Leetu’s arrows into the leather quiver. When she finished, she gazed around The Cavern of Rainbows and sighed over its dulled appearance. Her eyes rested on one of the many tunnels leading out.

“Well, Gymn, Metta, we have things to do.”

Kale marched across the disheveled room exiting the cavern by the same tunnel the bisonbeck warriors had used earlier.

I’m supposed to be looking for the meech egg. It is probably kept in the center of Risto’s stronghold. The bisonbecks were probably returning to their underground fortress. It is reasonable to follow them. Now, if I just happen to come across my friends on the way as I’m looking for the meech egg, and I happen to see a way to help them escape, then that wouldn’t be disobeying orders.

She could feel the direction she needed to turn each time she came to tunnels branching off, just as she could judge the distance between herself and the last of the marching soldiers. She put the hood and veil over her head so she could see in the dimmer passageways. Following her captured friends was not difficult. However, staying out of the way of citizens of this underground community became a problem.

For a while the stone corridors were eerily empty. No druddums, no insects. Kale concentrated on the movement of the troop of soldiers surrounding her comrades. Gymn and Metta darted about, unsuccessfully looking for snacks. As they approached one bend, the two dragons bolted for Kale and dove into their pocket-dens. She got the distinct impression someone was approaching around the blind corner and flattened herself against the wall, remaining still so that her cape hid her. She heard heavy footsteps slamming against the stone floor.

Five seconds later, two soldiers, large and surly, tramped past her without one look in her direction. She soon discovered that Gymn and Metta could hear someone’s approach better than she could. As they neared the center of Risto’s stronghold, the dragons warned her repeatedly when someone was coming.

The humid air became harder to breathe. A stale, rancid odor burned her throat. The dragons coughed, objecting to the unpleasant atmosphere. The tunnels widened, and they met carts pulled by donkeys and people on horseback.

Just when Kale thought she would not make any more progress with all the stopping they did for traffic, the army marched down a wide staircase and entered a less populated region. Kale and the dragons followed, and followed again, when the prisoners were taken down another, narrower set of stone steps.

The dungeon!

Gymn, Metta, soon they’ll put our friends in cells and leave them. Maybe then we can do some good.

Once more the tunnels branched, this time in three different directions. The major part of the bisonbeck guard marched off to the left. A few took the weary prisoners down the central corridor. When Kale got to the intersection, she turned right.

She stopped and turned around, coming back to the point where the tunnels merged. To her left was the way back from where she had come. Straight ahead she could sense more bisonbecks than she had ever encountered before. To the right lay the dungeons, she was sure. Her body turned and headed back down the wrong hallway. She stopped again and tried to turn.

I don’t know!
she answered the dragons’ inquiries. One foot moved forward, and Kale strained to keep the other from following. She lost the battle and took several steps before she could stop again.

She peered down the dark, rocky hall and saw nothing beyond dreary walls and a few dim lightrocks. She took a few steps forward before she even realized she was moving.

“I want to follow Dar and Leetu.” She tried to turn. “But I can’t.” She stomped her foot. “What’s down there? Is this a trap? Maybe it’s the meech dragon egg pulling at me.” She shivered as she looked at the cold stone walls of the wizard’s domain, realizing she was far away from home, friends, and anything good. “Maybe Risto has some kind of enchantment that lures trespassers into his clutches. And I’m the next victim.”

Metta and Gymn exchanged a nervous chitter. Kale understood they wanted to stop her in some way. Metta began to sing, and for an instant Kale felt a release from the pull. When it came back, it tugged so hard she ran a ways before she could slow herself down. She couldn’t stop. Ahead she could see two bisonbeck guards standing at attention beside a large archway.

Probably Risto’s hall where he receives visitors. He’s probably waiting in there to see what his enchantment has brought him this time.

Don’t go in with me, Metta, Gymn. Fly away, hide. There’s no reason for you to be caught as well.

The soldiers ahead spotted her. They lowered their spears to ready position.

“Halt!” one ordered, but she was helpless to do as he commanded.

Metta began to sing, a slow melodious tune, soothing and peaceful.

Thank you very much, Metta. But my nerves are beyond succumbing to your ministrations. I’m about to be killed, I think.

The second guard took a step forward. “Halt!”

I’m trying. Believe me, I’m trying.

Metta crooned.

Why did Paladin choose a singing dragon? A fighting dragon, a fire dragon, an invisible dragon would have been useful.

Metta flew forward and circled the heads of the guards. They did not seem to notice her but stared at Kale’s approach.

Maybe Metta
is
invisible.

Gymn gave an excited flip in the air and landed back on Kale’s shoulder.

Neither guard challenged her again. Kale walked up to them and studied their faces as she passed. They breathed, but they did not blink. The pupils of their eyes were mere dots. Their gazes were locked on some point down the hallway where she had been moments before.

They don’t see me. They don’t hear me either?
Metta continued to fly slowly around them, singing her soothing syllable-song.
She entranced them.

Gymn somersaulted in the air. Kale turned her head to observe the room she entered.

Who will be here to greet me? More guards? More mesmerized guards, I hope…No one?

She searched the corners of the room with her eyes while she continued to step toward a wooden cabinet. Her palms itched to open the elaborate carved doors set in the opposite wall. Her hand went up to the knob, twisted, and pulled as soon as she reached it. The door swung open noiselessly.

Inside, a huge egg sat in a velvet-lined basket. It was twice as big around as Kale and as tall as she was from her waist to the top of her head.

Gymn chirruped a note of victory.

Kale put her hand tentatively on the hard shell. The surface shimmered with a pearlescent luster.
Don’t be so happy, little friend. How am I supposed to lift something this big?

         
45
         

T
HE
V
OICE OF
E
VIL

“Gymn, now I
have
to go get the others. Brunstetter could carry this, but I can’t.” Kale rubbed the cold surface of the giant meech egg with her fingertips. Colors surfaced on the glossy white shell and rippled like oil in a rain puddle.

Gymn flew into the huge cupboard and circled around the egg. His eyes glowed with admiration, and he voiced his excitement with a constant stream of trills and chirrups.

“It is beautiful,” Kale agreed. She tried to step back from the meech egg to get a better look. Her feet did not respond and her hand stuck to the shell.

“No!” She pulled again. She grasped the stuck hand with her other and yanked. The palm resting on the egg burned as if she were ripping off her skin.

Tears welled up in her eyes. “Is this a trap? Do I have to stay here until Risto comes?”

“Ah! The o’rant girl.”
A deep voice filled her mind. A gloating laugh followed the words.
“I suspected ten years ago that your existence was a myth. I’m actually gratified that you have come to me.”

Who are you?

“Wizard Andor Tarum Risto, and you are Kale, the last of the Allerions.”

For one second, Kale wanted to ask him about the Allerions. But she realized that evil had access to her mind, and Granny Noon had warned her about the dangers of communicating with the wicked in any form.

I stand under Wulder’s authority.
As she repeated the words the old emerlindian had given her, she felt Risto receding from her thoughts.
I stand under Wulder’s authority.
She heard his sinister chortle before his presence completely left her mind.

“I stand under Wulder’s authority.” She looked quickly around the room, expecting the evil wizard to appear.

“We have to get out of here. Surely, he’s coming.”

She pulled away from the egg and fell over, sitting down hard on the stone floor when her hand was released. She tried to jump to her feet, ready to run from the large chamber, but her legs would not obey.

Gymn chirped at her.

“I
can’t
take the egg with me!” She turned on Gymn and blistered him with a frustrated glare. “Think of something useful.”

Kale clenched her fists and drew her arms inside the moonbeam cape, folding them over her chest.

I can’t carry it. What can I do?

“Nothing, o’rant girl.”
Risto’s voice mocked her. The taunting words sounded as if they came from somewhere in the room. Kale whirled around but saw nothing in the shadows.

“I stand under Wulder’s authority,” she shouted. She clapped her hands over her ears and tried to block any word Risto might hurl at her. The cloth of the cape came up as well in her haste to cover her ears.

“The cape,” Kale whispered. “If I can get the egg onto the cape, I might be able to push it into a hollow. Then I could carry it!”

She whipped the cape off her shoulders and spread it on the floor, lining side up, in front of the cabinet. Gymn flew around her as if inspecting her actions from every angle.

“I don’t think I will hurt it if it drops,” she said. “But I’ll try to ease it down just in case.”

Kale put her arms around the egg and braced her legs, ready to lift with all her strength. She gave a mighty heave and discovered the egg weighed less than Leetu. She lost her balance and staggered backward. Gymn flipped several times in the air and landed on the floor just as she steadied herself. She carefully lowered the egg onto her cape, then stood shaking her head in amazement.

“Weight’s not a problem,” she said after a moment. “But the opening to the hollow is way too small for the meech egg.” With Gymn sitting close, intently watching her struggle, Kale tried to get the hollow opening to stretch.

It’s hopeless.

“Ah yes, o’rant girl. It is hopeless. But your task is unnecessary at any rate.”

Kale wrinkled her brow and tried to think. Her head hurt now as Risto mindspoke. She needed to concentrate on how to solve the problem of moving the egg. The talent that attracted her to dragon eggs would not let her leave without the meech egg.

“I would like to discuss my plans with you. Would a new race be such a bad thing? Did Wulder really say new races should not be created? I merely want to supply the world with a work force.”

Kale regretted not ever having read the great tomes which told the history of Wulder’s involvement with the world. She knew the general story from tavern songs and bedtime stories. Wulder molded the land and sea and air out of His thoughts. He’d taken a bit of land and sea and air and formed each of the seven high races. But there were many things she did not know. She didn’t know if Wulder had said not to make any more races.

The ache in her temples eased a bit. Now she remembered that in all the tavern songs the making of the seven low races resulted in tragedy. A sharp pain streaked behind her eyes. Kale bent over and held her head in her hands.

“Did you like cleaning chicken coops? Scrubbing floors? The race of beings I propose will actually get pleasure out of doing things the high races disdain. This is not a bad thing. You are not wise enough to make judgments against me, Kale Allerion.”

The way Risto said her last name made Kale shiver. He hated her. She knew it.

I stand under Wulder’s authority. I stand under Wulder’s authority.

The pain in her head subsided. She sank to the floor, feeling drained.

Mistress Meiger’s blue scarf! I can make a sling like the ones I used for carrying an infant while I worked.

Gymn dove into a pocket and returned in only a moment with the long strip of soft cloth. Kale tied the bottom two corners of the cape to one end of the scarf and the top two to the other. The large meech egg hung as if in a snug hammock. With the scarf over one shoulder and across her chest, the cape cradled the egg against Kale’s back. She felt no weight to speak of, but the shifting bundle was bulky and cumbersome.

“It’s the best we can do, Gymn. Let’s get Metta and get out of here.”

Metta continued to fly around the two guards and sing until Kale and Gymn had raced down the corridor away from the room.

“It is hopeless, little Allerion. Hopeless.”

I stand under Wulder’s authority.

Metta caught up with them. Kale wondered how long the effect of the purple dragon’s song would keep the guard immobile.

Better to hurry and not waste time wondering.

Kale could feel in which direction the masses of Risto’s minions were gathered. She figured she could avoid pockets of concentration. She needed to go higher as quickly as possible to reach a tunnel leading outside. Her plan was to avoid meeting anyone and move upward at all times.

At the first corner she met a parade of people moving down the hall as if they all had a common gathering place in mind. Few of these citizens of the underground stronghold were soldiers. The smattering of high races among the bisonbeck women and tradesmen puzzled Kale. She watched for a moment or two before turning back into the tunnel she’d already traveled. She’d have to find another, less crowded passageway.

“You see, o’rant girl, not all your people are so stubborn. Some embrace the benefits of joining me in my efforts to make the world a more pleasant place to live, an easier place, a place where individuals struggle less.”

I stand under Wulder’s authority.

I won’t listen to Risto. If those people are so thrilled to follow him, why aren’t they smiling? Those poor people looked as mesmerized as the guards did when Metta sang to them.

Granny Noon said never to mindspeak with one of the evil ones. They get a foothold in your mind that way. I won’t listen to him.

I stand under Wulder’s authority. I stand under Wulder’s authority.

After several false starts, dodging people, backtracking, and hiding, Kale found herself trudging down a stone hallway with branches sprouting off every few yards. Small niches in the wall where boulders had crumbled and fallen into the corridor offered places to hide. Kale was ready to jump into one at any moment. The feeling of a great populace of bisonbecks nearby made her edgy.

Gymn and Metta flew for the most part instead of riding on her shoulders. Grateful for their vigilance in spotting trouble, Kale also longed for them to be constantly near.

“I walk beside you, dear o’rant girl.”
Risto’s voice came rich and warm into her thoughts.
“I am not in the habit of sending my friends into dangerous situations alone. I find it reprehensible that you must face these hardships without proper training, without comrades. Who prevented you from going to The Hall? Who allowed your friends to be hurt and captured?”

Before Kale could repeat the words that closed off Risto’s intrusion, Metta and Gymn darted back around the corner. Kale scrambled into one of the stone pockets in the wall behind fallen boulders and flattened herself on the floor. She knew as long as she was still, the cape would cloak the egg from sight.

Kale held her breath as the bisonbeck soldiers stopped a few feet from where she hid. She could see something of their movements between two rocks. Two argued vehemently over whether or not the men had time to go to the alehouse before evening duty. Three men, waiting for the arguing two to come to a decision, leaned their massive shoulders against the walls and rested. One man came and sat on the boulder shielding Kale and her friends.

Kale felt Gymn trembling within his pocket-den. Her own heart pounded. She clenched her fists, willing herself to stay still.

“You see the peril you are subjected to. If you were under my command, these men would be no threat to you.”

Leave me alone!

“But I don’t want to leave you alone. I care about what happens to you. Ask yourself, Kale Allerion, who is beside you in this time of trouble? Paladin? Wulder? No. I am. I offer help.”

Again Risto’s tone of voice, smooth and coaxing, slipped on the name
Allerion.
A bitter edge poisoned the sweet, persuasive speech.

Kale gasped. She had been listening to him.
I stand under Wulder’s authority.

Just as she felt the heavy presence of Risto leave her mind, a strong hand grasped her shoulder and jerked her out of hiding.

“The o’rant girl!” A coarse voice bellowed in triumph.

“Surely it is not the one Risto seeks.”

“You fool, who else would it be?”

“One of the peasants.”

“A drudge. Look at the burden it carries.”

“They are all at evening discourse. None would be brave enough to forgo the instruction.”

“Let’s see what it carries.”

Kale twisted in the bisonbeck’s hard hold and kicked out. He grunted but did not loosen his grip.

“Aargh!” cried another. “My eyes!”

Kale spotted an irate soldier wiping purple dye from his face. He pawed at his eyes. “I can’t see!”

“Minor dragons! It
is
the mighty Dragon Keeper. Hold fast, Deemer. It will be your head if it escapes.”

Kale squirmed against the iron grasp. Both Metta and Gymn flew around the bisonbecks’ heads, spitting into their faces. When a spew of green or purple liquid landed directly in a soldier’s eyes, he doubled over in pain, clawing at his face, trying to wipe away the thick spittle.

The last one to get sprayed was the one holding Kale. His hands jerked away from her shoulders. She ran. The little dragons zoomed beside her. Their wingtips brushed her hair and cheeks. The outraged cries of the blinded men echoed in the stone corridor.

The meech egg bounced against her back, reminding her that she could only duck into tunnels large enough for its unwieldy bulk.

She passed several small crawlways and turned into a dark burrow she hoped would be a tight squeeze for the soldiers should they recover enough to follow. The passageway narrowed. She ducked her head out from under the blue scarf strap and dragged the egg behind her. She came to a fork.