by Darius Hinks
Haldus continued glaring at her.
She looked back at the battle and then at the stone towers.
‘The way is blocked,’ she said flatly. ‘And Lord Calaingor has power far beyond mine.’
‘There must be a way.’ Haldus stared at her as hawk riders died all around them. The combination of his scars and his low, brutal-looking brow made him seem almost like a wild animal. ‘It’s our only escape route.’
Laelia looked worried as she considered what he was asking of her. Then she let out a strange little laugh. ‘Perhaps there is a way.’ She thought for a moment longer and then nodded. ‘Lead your warriors to the towers and I’ll see what I can do.’
Haldus noticed that the doubt had not entirely left her eyes. The idea that she was scared shocked him but he knew he could not back down. There was nowhere else he could lead his kinsmen. Then another hawk screamed in pain and confirmed the fact. He placed Eremon’s horn to his lips and summoned the riders to his side, steering Nuin down towards the towers as he did so.
Less than half of the riders who entered the tunnel remained to follow Haldus into the Cromlech. The daemons raced after them on their flies but, as the hawks sliced into the invisible space between the rocks, the flies collided with a wall of air. There was a crunching and splintering as mandibles and wings were broken, sending daemon mounts spinning back through the air, shedding giggling riders and spraying fountains of black liquid, but the asrai passed safely through the stone portal. One by one, the hawk riders disappeared from view, slicing through the whirling shapes of the daemons and entering the hidden realm of Lord Calaingor.
Chapter Eleven
Prince Haldus closed his eyes for a second as he felt the warm summer evening roll over his body. Then, recalling his conversation with Calaingor, he realised the place no longer felt like such a welcoming haven. He looked back and saw his blood-drenched kinsmen gliding between the towers and following him to safety. With every second that passed, dozens more of the hawk riders followed him through the towers, looking around in awe as they saw the beautiful reminder of their lost home. Haldus whispered a thank you to Laelia.
He saw to his relief that the black fluid was gone from Nuin’s feathers. Every trace of the plague had vanished as they passed through Calaingor’s invisible wards. Not even a single spore could enter the Cromlech. Haldus marvelled again at the noble’s power as he steered Nuin down towards the meadows.
As he dismounted, Haldus allowed himself a brief glance at Calaingor’s sun-warmed idyll, but the scene no longer had the power to ease his pain. Wounded, ashen-faced warriors were landing all around him and Nuin was twitching and eager beneath him. He placed a hand on her neck and whispered soothing phrases into her ear. Her breathing became more regular, but he could see cuts all over her flesh – no longer infected with the plague, but still enough to cause her pain. He placed his palm on an angry red wheal at the base of her skull and whispered a soothing charm.
‘Laelia,’ he cried, trying again to spot her in the crowds of hawks that were landing all around him.
Dozens of his fellow riders were now rushing through the long grass to his side, but there was no sign of Ariel’s handmaiden.
One of the first riders to reach him was a tall noble. Haldus was so focussed on trying to locate Laelia that for a second he did not register him. He wore a swansdown circlet in his hair and a cloak made of the same gleaming white feathers. He was bare-chested, like all the other hawk riders, but his skin was so heavily inked with feather designs, that he seemed to be half bird. His face was long, handsome and fiercely intelligent.
‘My lord,’ he said, in a rich, melodic voice. ‘Where are we?’
Haldus finally noticed him and blinked in confusion. ‘Avernus. Where are we? What do you mean?’
‘What is this place?’
Haldus looked around. The survivors of the battle were wandering through the gloaming, throwing shadows across the rippling grass. They were looking around with a mixture of delight and confusion. None of them had expected such a blissful ending to such a dreadful journey.
Haldus glared at his captain for a moment, still wondering what might have happened to Laelia. The glimpse of fear in her eyes had been most unusual. As he looked across the fields, Haldus saw the distant arbours and, as before, there was a group of crowned nobles drifting out to greet them. They were moving much faster than before, however and they were flanked by hundreds of glaive-wielding warriors.
Haldus muttered a curse.
Avernus followed his gaze and blanched. Lifted a bow from his back. ‘My lord?’ he asked glancing to the hawk riders who were still landing all around them. ‘Must we fight our own kin?’
Haldus forced himself to forget Laelia and focussed on the crowds of warriors rushing towards him. They were already crossing the paved courtyard and would be on them in minutes.
He turned to face the remnants of his attack force. ‘Draw your bows,’ he cried, ‘but keep them lowered.’
Without another word to Avernus, he raced off through the long grass towards the approaching crowd of warriors. As he neared them, he saw that they were led by the same nobles he had previously offended. Their iridescent robes and elaborate crowns were unmistakable. The vague, distant look had gone from their eyes though and, like the warriors who accompanied them, they were now holding long, elegant glaives, with blades that gleamed in the dusk.
Haldus wracked his brains as he approached them, wondering what he could say that would wipe the rage from their faces.
He was just a few feet away from them when a hunched, wizened figure rose from the grass ahead of him and held up a hand.
Haldus grimaced at the sight of the thing. It was a grey, shrivelled husk and it seemed to have dragged itself from a grave.
The nobles and their warriors looked as disturbed as Haldus and stumbled to a halt.
Haldus paused too, staring at the cadaverous shape.
Then it dropped from view and vanished.
He rushed over to the spot but found no trace of the strange figure.
The nobles approached and Haldus fingered his bow nervously as he looked up at them.
As before, they were drifting a few feet off the ground, like the mages of Ariel’s court, but they looked at him with a wariness he had not seen last time.
Haldus realised what he must do. It was his lunge at Calaingor’s staff that had created this bad blood so he must be the one to make amends. He dropped to one knee and held out one of his hands, palm up.
‘I beg that your lordships forgive my earlier outburst,’ he said. ‘The fury of the battle was still upon me. I was not thinking straight. I assure you I would never have intended to offend the Warden of the Cromlech.’ His voice was awkward and stiff, contorted by his pride. ‘I beg you not to punish my kin for their lord’s indiscretion. They’re exhausted from battle and have only come seeking sanctuary. I would ask nothing more than…’
Prince Haldus’s words trailed off as he realised that the nobles were frowning at him in confusion. He rose awkwardly to his feet.
One of the nobles drifted closer. ‘You are not here to attack us?’ she asked, speaking in the same wooden tones she had used earlier.
Haldus shook his head.
There was a rustling of feathers as Avernus came to stand next to him. ‘My lord,’ he whispered, ‘they don’t know who you are.’
Haldus saw that he was right. They did not recognise him. He wondered how they could they have forgotten the person who had only just attacked their lord.
‘Don’t you know me?’
‘No,’ said the noble. Then after staring at him for a few minutes some slight recognition dawned in her eyes. ‘Or perhaps I do,’ she said with a soft, puzzled laugh. ‘There is something vaguely familiar about your face. Did you come to the Cromlech once before?’
She massaged her temples, trying to remember more clearly. ‘Was there some kind of awkwardness?’ She shrugged and held out her own hand with a smi
le, mimicking his gesture of peace. ‘No matter.’
Haldus looked at Avernus with a dazed expression, but Avernus was looking at the distant, shimmering sunset, already starting to guess that there was something odd about it.
Haldus turned back to the noble and waved at the glaive-wielding soldiers. ‘I thought you were coming to punish me for my poor manners.’
The noble laughed again. The sound was odd and cumbersome in her mouth, like her speech, but it seemed genuine enough. ‘Whatever happened in the distant past is lost to me, friend, and it can remain forgotten.’
She waved a hand and the soldiers lowered their weapons. ‘We saw warriors and wanted to be sure of your intent, that was all.’
Haldus remembered something. ‘What was that figure I saw, just before we spoke – the grey thing?’
The noble grimaced. ‘We have no name for it. It arrived, unannounced, centuries ago. Such a pitiful, wretched little thing. It does no harm though, so Lord Calaingor leaves it to roam in peace.’ The noble folded her hands across her narrow chest.
Haldus sensed that something had gone unsaid, but he was relieved to find the noble so amiable and decided not to risk upsetting her by pursuing the issue. ‘Could I speak with your lord?’ he asked. ‘I have been betrayed by one of my own kind and now find myself in a trap. I wish to see if Lord Calaingor could help me escape this valley.’
‘My name is Ailerann,’ she said, still smiling. ‘Let me escort you to the Warden.’
Haldus ordered his men to wait with their mounts and rest, while he and Avernus went on alone.
Ailerann led them back to the grove of trees and the vast hollow trunk that Calaingor used as his halls. The white hare was still visible in the flame-like mesh of the throne, but it appeared to be asleep – as did the cadaverous giant. After a whispered debate with the other nobles, Ailerann told Haldus and Avernus that they would have to wait until Lord Calaingor was ready to speak.
Haldus tensed, but Avernus gave him a pleading glance and the prince limited his response to a sigh.
Ailerann led them out the other side of the grove and on through the rolling meadows, her tall, angular frame silhouetted against the sunset.
She led them to another paved square, surrounded by banks of bobbing lavender and told them to rest until she returned.
Haldus paced anxiously back and forth, but Avernus sat on the ageworn stone, stretching his tired, bruised limbs.
‘My lord,’ he said after a few minutes, ‘stay still I beg you. What can we do until she returns? We’re trapped in this valley and would have died if not for this haven.’
‘We were betrayed,’ snapped Haldus in reply.
Avernus glanced up at him.
Haldus stopped pacing and pointed back the way they had come. ‘Cyanos told me to lead you all into that wretched tunnel. He swore to me that Calaingor was the ally we needed and that we would have no trouble reaching him.’
Avernus laughed grimly. ‘I suppose that explains why he never joined us.’
Haldus crouched next to him. ‘What exactly did he say?’
Avernus clutched his head in his hands. ‘Ach. I feel like a fool, my lord. He spoke to me on the eve of the attack, with all his usual charm, and told me he had to lead his kin home to the mountains, just for a few days, so that he could retrieve some more old books. There are so few of his warriors anyway, I did not think he would be missed. He said he would join us in time for the next attack.’
Avernus looked back at the grove of yew trees. ‘Perhaps he was right though – perhaps Calaingor is the ally we need?’
Haldus shook his head. ‘Calaingor is no more of an ally than Thenot was. He will never again leave this pretty bower he has created. He has bound all his magic into this one spot.’ He clenched his fists. ‘Cyanos assured me there would only be a handful of daemons to defeat. Then, he neglected to join us and a vast host arrived, more numerous than anything I’ve seen so far. We have been betrayed, Avernus. Half of our hawk riders are dead. And there’s no way for us to leave this valley and make our way back to the main army. I’ve been a fool to ever trust him. I worry now that everything he told me has been a lie. And it was at his advice that I left Findol and the others to defend the falls.’ He shook his head. ‘Why did Orion let him live?’
‘The Consort-King made many strange decisions this year. Trusting Cyanos was probably the least of them.’
It irked Haldus to hear such disloyalty, but he could not dispute the logic. Before the king passed away into his winter-long rest, he did little to help repel the plague that had overcome his kingdom. Like every other asrai, Haldus was already praying that the spring would bring them a lord with more than a passing interest in his own realm.
Avernus’s eyes widened. ‘If the rest of the army survives, it might come looking for us. Findol and the other lords could fall into the same trap.’
Haldus removed his wooden headgear and ran a hand through his long, plaited locks. ‘Perhaps… Perhaps not. Without me to hold them together, who knows what course of action they’ll take. It seemed a precarious alliance even when I was there to yell at them.’ He shrugged. ‘Either way, we must find a way out of this false haven. We can’t stay here forever, frozen in time.’
‘They aren’t frozen in time, actually,’ answered a rasping voice, coming from somewhere in the meadow.
Haldus and Avernus leapt to their feet, drew bows and aimed arrows in the direction of the voice.
‘Who speaks?’ cried Haldus.
The grass rippled a few feet away from them and a hunched figure emerged – the same wizened crone that Haldus had glimpsed earlier. Now that he saw the thing more closely, he found it even more grotesque. It resembled a shrivelled corpse, with grey, sagging folds of skin. Her eyes were clouded over and her scalp was bald, apart from a few greasy strands.
It was only as she stepped onto the stones that Prince Haldus recognised her.
‘Laelia,’ he said.
She did an awkward little pirouette, revealing the lumped, sac-like remnants of her wings. She laughed as she danced for them and Haldus felt a wave of relief. Hideous as she was, it was a delight to see her. Her wry smile was unmistakable, even on a face that was more skull than flesh.
‘You needn’t look quite so disgusted,’ she said, patting him on the arm. ‘This was your fault.’
He looked horrified.
She shrugged. ‘I knew Calaingor would never readmit someone who had only just tried to attack him, but time is even more malleable here than the rest of the forest. I have been schooled by the Mage Queen herself, remember. The Great Weave dances to my tune.’ At the word ‘dances’ Laelia tried to do another little pirouette. The effect it had on her aged flesh caused Haldus and Avernus to grimace, but that only seemed to amuse her and she did it all the more.
‘I simply took some of their centuries into my own flesh,’ she said staggering and lurching around them, wincing and wheezing as she went. ‘So that when you landed they could barely remember your face.’ She stumbled and, despite his revulsion, Haldus reached out to grab her.
She looked at him with milky, unseeing eyes. ‘I do feel a little tired now though.’
He stared at her, shocked by what she had said. ‘You did this to yourself, because I asked you?’
She patted him playfully on the face. ‘What can I say, Prince Haldus? I’m fond of you. It must be your cheery disposition and delightful manners.’ She stepped away and sat down with an exhausted groan. Her bones clicked like kindling as she settled into a cross-legged pose. ‘And besides, you have some powerful friends watching out for your interests.’
Haldus frowned.
Laelia winced as she shifted into a different position. ‘The Mage Queen’s final words to me were that I should watch over you. She seemed to consider you worth looking after, Prince Haldus. Naieth the Prophetess agreed. She has foretold that our survival hinges on your survival.’
Haldus reeled away from her. ‘Naieth said that?’
‘Amongst other things. She sees a link between you and the future of our king.’
Haldus looked down at his leathery, copper-clad limbs, as though learning the value of them for the first time. ‘Then why did you let me lead this ridiculous attack?’ As always, when he was emotional, Haldus’s glowering features blushed a deep crimson. ‘You should have locked me away somewhere.’
‘And stop you performing the very deed that Naieth has foreseen? I’m not sure that would win me any favour at court, are you? For all I knew, this battle might have been the moment of your greatest victory.’
Haldus sat heavily on the stones, looking dazed.
Avernus stepped past him and looked down at the strange, wrinkled little figure. ‘But what now? If Haldus is to perform some great act, he won’t do it here, sniffing flowers.’
Laelia laughed. ‘No. We must get you all out of this pretty valley.’
Haldus shook his head. ‘We will be butchered. There are more daemons out there than I have seen since the plague began.’
Laelia narrowed her eyes and looked at something in the fields. ‘I’ll have to leave you for a while,’ she said, rising to her feet. ‘They’re not so fond of me. I think they sense, on some level, that I have robbed them.’ She grinned at them both. ‘Laelia the time thief!’ Then she slipped away into the grass with surprising speed.
Haldus lurched to his feet, reaching out to her. ‘Wait! What will become of you?’
‘What will become of me?’ asked Lady Ailerann, drifting across the field towards them. ‘What do you mean?’
Haldus backed away and shook his head.
The noble looked confused, but said simply. ‘The Warden is ready.’
The hare watched them closely as they entered the gloomy chamber.
‘I remember you,’ it said, as Haldus kneeled before the arboreal throne.
Prince Haldus looked to see if there was anger in the animal’s eyes, but saw none.
He wracked his brain for cunning or beguiling words with which to win over Calaingor to his cause but, as ever, he could think of no clever way to adorn the basic facts.
