Fortress Draconis (2 page)

Will put his head down and started running in earnest when the rain’s second betrayal occurred. He sprinted through a puddle that hid in its murky depths a missing cobblestone. The youth caught his right foot in the hole and stumbled, smashing his right knee into the roadway. The cobblestones, while soaked by the rain,had not been softened , so the blow drove a jolt of pain up and down his leg. His ankle twisted before his foot came free. He rolled over onto his back, clutching his knee in both hands.

Cold rain splashed his face, and colder laughter rang in his ears. A knot of Vorquelves towered over him. The silver moonlight made them into ghosts, and what he could see of their faces indicated they were most malevolent. One bled from a cut on his forehead—Will took some joy in knowing his rock had flown true—and another’s nose looked to be swelling.

Predator leaned down and grabbed Will by the front of his tunic.“Should have known it was you. No one else would have been so stupid.”

“Stupid was making it so easy.”

The Vorquelf, his sapphire eyes glowing in the moonlight, raised a fist. “I won’t be easy on you, little Will. Give it back.”

It struck Will as peculiar that Predatordidn’t just pull the bag off his belt. It was there in plain sight;Will could feel its warmth against his right hip. He wanted to tell Predator to take it, but that idea died quicker than a lightning flash.

“You’ll never find it now. It’s halfway to the sea.”

Predator screamed and his fist fell heavily. Will caught it on the right side of his face and saw stars. Hedidn’t think he’d been hit that hard, but he found himself on the ground again, his face throbbing.

A rasped, edged voice cut through the ringing in Will’s ears. “I told you, years ago, if you ever touched one of them, you’d regret it.”

Predator whirled to face a hulking human silhouette limned in silver, but before he could square around, a fist flew and caught the Vork straight in the face. Predator’s nose cracked sharply. The Vorquelf stumbled back and splashed down in the puddle. From theway his body bounced and his arms and legs flopped, Will knew Predator had been senseless before he hit the ground.

The other Grey Misters pulled back away from the figure, hands falling to the hilts of daggers and swords.Poor fool should have stayed out of whatwasn’t his business. Will gathered his legs beneath him as best he could and began to inch away, then his head and shoulders butted up against something solid. He looked up, saw a massive Vork looming above him, and yelped.

The other Vorquelves looked down at him,then their heads rose as they studied the elf standing over him. One of the Grey Misters raised his hands, open and easily. “We don’t want any trouble, Resolute, but he stole something from Predator and we can’t have that.”

“This stripling stole from you?” Resolute laughed, and the mere sound of it seemed to stagger some of the Misters. “What was it he stole?”

The Mister shrugged. “Don’t know. Predator said it was important.”

Resolute dropped to one knee and plucked the velvet pouch from Will’s belt. Will grabbed for his forearm, but his cold, wet fingers found no purchase on the Vorquelf’s thickly tattooed flesh. “That’s mine.”

“Is it, now?” Resolute stood and opened the bag. Silver light poured out over his face, illuminating argent eyes and a snarl. The Vorquelf’s hands closed the bag quickly,then he took a step into the middle of the Misters and kicked Predator hard in the ribs.

“Get him out of here, the lot of you.He’s jeopardized everything with his greed. Get him gone before I kick his belly through his spine.” The Vorquelf spun and pointed a finger at Will. “And you, you’re going nowhere.”

The anger in his voice froze Will where he was. The Misters each grabbed an ankle or wrist and dragged Predator away. As they hauled him off, Resolute kicked water at them, hissing curses in Elvish. The other figure, whichWill discovered to be a white-haired man with a thick white beard, crouched down beside him.

“How’s that knee?”

Will shrugged.

The man looked up at Resolute. “Think he’s the one?Hardly washed in fire, here.”

The Vorquelf nodded, the thick stripe of white hair on his head glistening with rain. “Yes, but a piece of Vorquellyn he did redeem.”

Will shook his head. “What are you talking about?”

Resolute tied the velvet bag to his belt. “You’ll learn, eventually.”

“Maybe I won’t.”

The Vorquelf and the man both hauled him to his feet. “You will learn,if all things turn out the way they are meant to.”

“And if they don’t?”

“You aspire to what, boy?Growing up to be the Azure Spider, the Prince of Shadows? You want to be a master thief?” Resolute slowly shook his head. “Your life is wasted. Having it shortened will just save you pain.”

Willdidn’t like the sound of what Resolute had said and wanted to snap a remark that would hurt him, but he was mindful of two things that stopped him. The first was the way Resolute had kicked Predator. The Vorquelf was clearly not in a good mood, and Will did not want to become the focus of his ire.

The second was that Resolute obviously would hit harder than Predator.

Will had wanted to protest that what Resolute saidwasn’t true, but the word “wasted” kept bouncing around inside his head.Will the Nimble, King of the Dimandowns. That concept mocked him as he stood there, wet and aching, with his right eye swelling shut.But he’d been hurt before, laughed at before, told he was nothing before, so there was something else eating at him.

The man threw a corner of his cloak over the youth’s shoulders. “He’s shivering and probably hungry.”

Resolute nodded. “C’mon, boy, let’s go.”

Will limped along a few steps, letting the cloak slip off him,then stopped.

The Vbrquelf paused and looked back at him. “You can walk along with us, or I willmarch you along, boy.Your choice.”

Will’s nostrils flared. “My name is Will.”

“I’m Resolute, this is Crow. Now move.”

The youth frowned.“One thing.”

“And that is?”

Will reached out a trembling hand. “Let me carry the leaf.”

The Vbrquelf’s head came up. “You think I’m going to trust it to a thief?”

Crow laid a hand on Resolute’s shoulder. “He did get it. He can’t run off.”

Resolute’s eyes became crescent slivers of silver. “You lose this, boy, and you’ll wish Predator hadn’t been stopped.”

The youth raised his chin and snorted. “Predator could have never made me give it up. I won’t lose it.”

Resolute knotted the bag securely,then handed it to Will. “Come on, then.”

Grinning like a fool, Will held on with both hands.

The leaf is shining,

Glowing bright,

In my caring,

Clung-to tight.

The man’s head came up, the hint of a smile gracing his lips. “Let’s go, Will.”

The man letWill get in front of him, but the youth really didn’t feel Crow was there to stop him from running. He chuckled to himself, knowinghe’d bolt at the first opportunity, but the throbbing in his knee told him that opportunity would be a little while in coming. Besides, the man had mentionedfood, and going back to Marcus all wet and hurt and without anything to show for it would just get his other eye blacked.Might’s well have a full belly.

The warmth from the bag spread into his hands and Will started thinking on what Resolute had said. It seemed to him that the desire to be the King of the Dimandownshadbeen a worthy goal, but that had been before he saw the leaf and touched it.And then , when Resolute had taken the leaf from him, he was left all hollow inside. He knew then thathe’d been meant to steal the leaf. For what purpose he had no idea, but he sensed there was one.Andthat purpose is mine to fulfill.

These thoughts occupied him as Resolute led the way through theDowns to an inn thatdidn’t look nearly as decrepit as the other Vork haunts. Will seemed to remember having been in that place once before and having been chased away with a brown bucket of floor stoppings dumped over him. As they entered the common roomWill saw the emerald-eyed bartender scowl at him, but the Vorquelf’s expression eased into something shy of a smile as Crow closed the door behind them.

Crow pulled his cloak off and hung it on a peg. His white hairhad been gathered back into a thick braid that was knotted with a leather cord from which dangled a rainbow of feathers. His beard ran along his jaw and flushed full at his chin and moustaches, but left visible an old scar down his right cheek. Aboveit another scar ran up into his hair. The brown of his buckskin clothes ran lighter than the color of his eyes, save where the rain had soaked his shoulders and wrists. The sword he wore had a brass hilt with leather bindings and a big angular pommel. Daggers rode on his right hip, in his left boot-top, and, if Willwasn’t missing anything, in a sheath on his right forearm, up his sleeve.

Willcouldn’t begin to guess at his age. The man looked ancient—must be at least forty—but a fair bit of life still burned in his eyes. Crow’s-feet crinkled the corners of those eyes, nicks and cuts had scarred his cheek, nose, brow, and ears, but hedidn’t seem the sort of man to be wasting away, drinking off scartales in some Dim squalor-squat.

The wayhe’d moved through the streets, and the power with which he hit Predator suggested to Will that the man wasn’t as old as he first appeared. There was no doubting at all thathe’d seen a lot of life, and Will figured the man was more than content to let his coloration disguise him. Plenty of folks would look at him and dismiss him for being old, but Will determined thatwasn’t a mistake he’d make.

A shiver shook Will then, and itwasn’t from the cold. Conversation, which had been in Elvish and unintelligible to him save for the odd curse or two, had died. He turned away from Crow and saw two dozen Vorquelves staring at the man with expressions that ranged from friendly to respectful. Not a fewwere tinged with fear. Whispers started, but Willcaught little of them, save for a name.Kedyn’s Crow.

The youth turned back and looked at Crow again. “You’re Kedyn’s Crow?”

“Crow fits better, Will.”

Resolute laughed. “He’s more afraid of you than he was of Predator, Crow.”

Will shook his head, lashing his face with wet strands of hair. “Not afraid.” He shivered again.“Really.”

Crow smiled and guided Will toward a table, which Vorquelves quickly vacated. “Sit down. I’ll get you something warm to eat.”

“Yes.” Will sat, still clutching the bag to his chest. “And, sir, thank you, sir.”

His hasty comment sparked laughter from the Vorks, who went back to their drinking and eating. Will ignored them and stared after the broad-shouldered man speaking Elvish with the bartender.Kedyn’s Crow! If there were a more famous man, aside from King Augustus of course, Willdidn’t know of him. Minstrels in the Dim sung of his exploits, of his traveling north to the frozen plains of

Aurolan, killing hoargoun and temeryces.Those feathers, they have to be from some of the frostclaws!

Kedyn’s Crow didn’t seek fame for himself, but was known from when he and his companions—I know who the Vork he runs with is now—saved a Jeranese caravan from marauders, or showed up in a snowbound Murosan village and fought off Aurolani raiders or … The one Will liked best talked about Kedyn’s Crow hunting through the Ghost March, killing off a vylaen general that Chytrine was using to lead an army down into Okrannel.Willwasn’t certain where any of those places were, save for being far away, but he’d reveled in hearing those adventures.

Crow returned to the table and set a wooden bowl full of steaming stew in front of Will. Besideit he placed an earthenware mug from which steam likewise rose. “Eat slowly.”

Will nodded and tucked the bag inside his tunic, then grabbed the wooden spoon, stuck it into the stew, and shoveled up a mouthful. The stew tasted okay, though the cook clearlydidn’t know what he was doing because it was way too thick to be proper stew. The food’s warmth started to seep out of his belly into the rest of him. He grabbed the mug in both hands and gulped down a big swallow of the mulled wine, then sat back and burped.

Crow raised an eyebrow. “Slowly, Will. No one is going to take it away from you.”

Will nodded, notsure if Crow was talking about the food or the leaf. About the time Will realizedhe’d sooner give up the food than the leaf, Resolute came to the table. He brought with him two mugs of ale, one of which he handed to Crow. In his wake trailed another Vorquelf.

This Vorquelf brought a smile toWill’s face. Even though his eyes were a solid light blue, he dressed as if he were a real elf. Red hair hung in two braids at his temples and was long elsewhere in the current elven fashion; his clotheshad been cut along the lines of those worn by dandies in Hightown. Willcouldn’t see a scar or tattoo on him, and his straight nose had clearly never collided with a fist or shutter. The Vorquelf remained slender anddidn’t have a speck of dirt on his clothes or under his fingernails.

Andthe rings on his slender fingers…Will knew he could have them off in the blink of an eye, and could even nick the gold coins in the pouch at his belt—for gold weighed much more than silver and made itself apparent to the trained eye.

“Is this the boy?”

Resolute grunted. “No getting anything past you, is there, Amends? And he’s not a boy, he’s almost a man.”

“Small for a man yet.”

Crow laid a hand on Will’s arm. “Do you know how old you are?”

Will shook his head. “Fire took my mother, they tell me. Aunts kept me until I ran away.Been in the Dim since then.Around.”

Resolute rapped a fist sharply on the table.“Yourage, boy, not your life story.”

Will jumped,then frowned. “Fifteen years, maybe more, but not much. I’m just small.”

The clean, red-haired Vorquelf narrowed his eyes. “Are you sure this is the one? He doesn’t look it.”

“Of course he doesn’t, with his face swelling like that. Predator hit him.”

Amends snarled. “He’ll pay for that.”

“He already did.”

Amends nodded, then pointed deeper into the common room. “Charity, fix the boy’s face.”

Will turned around as a chair scraped against the wooden floor. A slender elf, not much taller than himself— a mere slip of a girl with golden hair and full sea-green eyes—got out of her chair and approached him timidly. She met his glance for a second,then seemed to look away.No black dot to their eyes, not easy to tell whereshe’s looking. Still, she came to him and stroked the right side of his face with her left hand.