by BJ Hanlon
“There are hundreds of caves in the mountains,” Berka said. Exhaustion was in his face. “The range is nearly five hundred miles long.”
“But we saw the direction they were coming from. Northwest. And the mountains are only a few miles away,” Rihkar said.
“If there was anything, it was probably destroyed during the purges,” Berka said.
“Maybe,” said Dorset, he seemed a bit annoyed with Berka, and right then, Edin couldn’t care less. For now he needed to concentrate on not yakking again.
Dorset continued, “it’s our only choice. I know they wouldn’t be in Delrot, the ancients that worked there cared little for the underground of Bestoria.”
An idea came to him then, a great one. “Then do me a favor, see if you can find a great lake somewhere in the mountains. It’d be large and completely surrounded.”
“Why?” Berka asked and he could feel the eyes turning to him.
Edin closed his own eyes and threw a hand over them. “I have a hunch.” Edin said. “And Berks, I need you to deliver the other two letters.” He glanced up. “To the High Priest and the Earl…”
Berka looked uneasy but nodded and took the two missives from Edin’s pack.
Edin hoped Berka would deliver them. “When you have finished we’ll set out—”
“You’re not leaving until you feel better,” Rihkar said. “I won’t have you trekking through the mountains while ill. You are still my son you moron.”
“We can stay a day, two at the most. Keep me updated with the search for the tunnels,” Edin said. He needed to find Arianne and the tunnels may help. If there was a map with an underground river, he could follow it to the giant lake.
Edin closed his eyes. He hoped he didn’t have to talk for the rest of the day.
He did, but it was very little. Edin sweat and shivered for the duration and he thanked the woman who took his clothes to be laundered and the man who served him a warm chicken soup with carrots and peas. Edin was in bed for the rest of the day drifting between awake and asleep and that weird in between.
He found more mintweed tea on the table next to him at one point and drank it despite the taste, then fell back asleep. He heard soft talking near him but didn’t look over. At one point, he heard someone scream outside though he still had no energy to be inquisitive.
Through it all, he felt a presence in the room. At one time he woke to the feeling that he wasn’t alone. Edin looked around but there was nothing there. No one around. It was creepy and harrowing but he pushed it to the back of his mind.
The next morning, he guessed, somehow, the sun was out. A yellow light pushed into the room and through his eyelids. Edin rolled over and dug his head deeper into his pillow.
After a few moments of realizing he was awake and didn’t feel like a total waste of life, he looked up toward Dorset’s bed. Empty.
Edin turned over as the sun, which had been so bright only a moment ago, was suddenly covered by more clouds.
But at least they were the thin clouds that moved rapidly and there were open sections where the sun and the gods, if the latter existed, could peer down at the upper town of the double layered city. Edin pushed himself up and stretched. A moment later he sneezed, but it was only one and not a constant succession like would’ve happened only a day earlier.
Edin saw tea on the end table. It wasn’t steaming but it smelled of cold mintweed which was usually worse than hot mintweed.
Edin ignored it and set his feet on the hardwood floor. He took a deep breath, though not as deep as normal, and pushed himself to his feet. The room swayed for just a moment. Edin pressed a hand to the wall to steady himself and the wobbly world.
A few minutes later, he was dressed in clean clothes and felt twice as good as the day previous. Three times maybe. Then he noticed Dorset’s bed didn’t look to have been slept in.
Outside, he tried to remember what the other guys’ room number was. He could barely picture it from when they took up residence. Across the hall he guessed.
He took a few steps and then knocked on the door. Then he knocked again and leaned his forehead against the wall.
A few moments later the door opened. Edin blinked as he was looking at a small child. Extremely small, nearly the height of his hip. Then Edin saw a beard and mustache. Edin was astonished and he gasped. “Are you real dwarf?” He didn’t let the man, no dwarf answer, “my gods…” he swayed slightly. “Tell me dwarf, what do you know of the underground cities and rivers. What of the tunnels?”
The little man glared at him. The statue in the peak above Olangia showed a rather broad-shouldered man, with square features and strong. This guy, dwarf, didn’t look like that.
He growled, a low, unintelligible growl. “I ain’t no dwarf in the racial sense ya big eared ape. I’m a little person.” Then the door slammed shut and he heard grumbling behind it.
It took Edin a moment to work it through his mind. “A midget!” Edin gasped while laughing.
“Blast you in the face!” The man cried through the door.
Edin laughed and instantly felt bad as his chest hurt. He tried the room next door, no answer, then the room to the right of his own. Still no answer.
“Where are you guys?” He said to himself.
The world outside was gray and light in patches but he couldn’t tell where the sun was and there wasn’t a clock in the room. Downstairs he found an innkeeper wiping out mugs and having a conversation with some thick-shouldered man that had long, feminine hair that drooped to his shoulders.
Edin stumbled up to the counter and took a seat.
“Feelin’ better are we?” the innkeeper said.
Edin wobbled his hand and blinked. For a moment his vision blurred again. He really wasn’t back to normal. Who knew how long it’d be until he was?
“My companions? What room are they in?”
“Next to yours, though they disappeared out the doors bright and early this morn.” He paused, grabbing another glass, spat in in and began wiping it out. “At least the one-armed guy and the big man. The others I haven’t seen.”
“Did they say where they were headed?” Edin said. He didn’t know what to do but he really did not want to be in that room anymore.
“One left this for ya.”
Edin took it and broke the seal. ‘Edin, at the university library, if you’re feeling better and wake before I return, come there. It’s on Elleir St., Rihkar. P.S. Dorset is annoying the heck out of me.’
He wasn’t sure about how he felt at the moment but thought maybe a walk would be good. “Where’s the university library on Elleir?”
“Street is ‘bout half a mile south. The university is near the castle,” the innkeeper said.
“Thank you,” Edin said and pulled the cloak over his shoulders. It took him nearly an hour to push through the crowded streets. Overcrowded by the look of them.
People who looked like country folk were begging and being swatted at by the guards. A young kid, maybe two or three waddled up to Edin and held his hand out. His soft blue eyes were crusty around the edges despite the tears forming in them.
It was a good sales ploy, only Edin didn’t have anything. Apparently, someone had taken the small coin purse the duke gave him.
“I have nothing,” Edin said, his heart breaking for the child. Then the kid let tears fall and boy did they, he wailed and whined. Guilt crashed over Edin like a giant wave he could summon from the depths.
Edin checked his pockets again and found nothing. Not that he expected to find anything. He sidled past the kid to the right and kept his head down. He suddenly wanted a wide hat that could hide his face.
Everywhere he turned there were more people. So many of them begging. They smelled of the farms, forests, and fields from which they’d come. There were other people standing around metal barrels with flames burning in them.
A line of men on carts was coming through the street and the men were screaming at people to get out of the way. Guards
grunted and pushed and looked generally angry.
He stopped about halfway to the library to lean against a wall. Edin tried to catch his breath and to steady himself. This walk was not a great idea, he thought as he watched a group of thuggish people push past. Maybe the Raven’s folk.
As he was about to move, he spotted someone. A figure beneath a dark hood that seemed to be staring in his direction. Edin stared back, his eyebrows raised. He couldn’t see the face, but he could feel a sort of heat and hatred from the man’s glare.
Then someone, a large man carrying a huge barrel over his shoulder, blocked Edin’s view. When the man passed, the dark hood was gone.
He knew he was being watched and started off with his head down. A few minutes later, he found the street, big letters on a building read Elleir. An arrow to the right and toward the headwaters of the branching river said, University; Government; Palace. Another to the left said, Docks; Hightown Merchant Quarter.
Edin scooted around the corner. To the right, he spotted a small alley between a wooden building and a wrought iron fence with bushes pressing through the bars. He could barely see over it, but saw trees, shrubs, statues, and a fountain. A park, like the one he’d been sleeping in when Foristol had found him.
Edin ducked in there and waited. After a moment, he peered around the corner, waiting for the follower to show up. The cloaked person reminded him of the two Por Fen that had been conversing with Merik as he went to meet the duke. Did the Inquisitor send men to spy on him? Or were they here to assassinate him?
It was almost ten minutes that he waited. But the dark cloaked man didn’t come around the corner. People glared at Edin with anger while others offered him pitying glances. He didn’t know why.
A guard stared at one point and seemed poised to attempt to speak with Edin before someone screamed and a commotion happened to the east that took the guard’s attention.
Edin caught a glimpse of a small boy, or maybe a girl as the hair was long, in a faded and threadbare red tunic darting through a crowd. A woman shouted after him or her and although her words were muffled by the cacophony of people around, he knew she was yelling ‘thief!’
Edin finally stepped out and pushed through. His pure white cloak seemed to stand out as it always did. He wondered if Suuli and the Foci Dun Bornu were around and again thought of Yechill. He’d left the warrior in the Northlands and alone.
Thinking about him made Edin feel worse and then, just to compound the terribleness of the day and of his mood, it began raining again.
He spotted stairs to the underground beginning to fill up with throngs of people pushing to get out of the rain. At least they had that. And Edin was sure the nobles didn’t care if the homeless crowded the undercity.
Edin wondered if he should try to find the Raven down there in that rabble.
With the rain coming down, the roads soon cleared and he picked up his pace. It also made looking for shadows easier.
He didn’t see any.
Edin reached the library. It was a tall square building made of brick with a great dome at the center. At the four corners were stone towers that rose almost twenty feet higher than the dome. There was an intricately designed circle that crossed the entire structure horizontally at three intervals. They were thin carved ledges with people and animals on it and the carvings seemed to repeat themselves. A man, a man standing, a man walking, a man riding, and then an empty space. One that looked to have been chipped away. Maybe a man flying, but that would’ve been indicative of a mage. The ancients couldn’t have that. But they also weren’t stupid enough to go around and destroy old buildings because they were built by magi. That would’ve been idiotic.
“But destroying books was okay…” Edin whispered and shook his head. He walked toward the large double doors with iron knockers and a face on each. One was a man, the other a woman. They both seemed wizened somehow, maybe it was the pointed noses and sharp eyes.
Edin entered and brushed off his cloak, and it dried almost instantly. The puddle on the stone floor grew around his feet however.
Edin walked up and stood before a small desk with an elderly man looking up at him through spectacles. He wasn’t as wizened as the faces outside and the tufts of hair standing out from the bottom half of his head were like ruffled feathers on tiny wings.
There were oil lamps secured to walls and columns. The great dome was glass and it let in the soft gray light, and he heard the constant tinkling of the rain overhead. The place was huge. It seemed like it could take another hour just to find out where his friends were.
There were four stories around that great dome with an open-air reading space at the center. He saw desks with dividers and the bent heads of people who didn’t care about anything around them. He assumed they only cared about their collegiate work.
It was the first time he’d ever been in a university. His mother would’ve been happy to see him here.
He glanced at the man, “I’m looking for—”
“Are you perhaps, Edin?”
“I am...” Edin said hesitantly but a little loud.
“Quiet, it’s a library. Fourth floor, southwest wing.” He said pointing a hand toward a stairwell. “Make sure not to drip on the books.” he glared at Edin’s cloak. “If you ruin an ancient tome I swear—”
“It’s dry, feel it.” Edin held out his hand as the clerk gave him an odd, appraising stare. “It is, really.”
“I’ll take your word for it.” He said.
Edin was about to walk away and then stopped. “How did you know I was Edin?”
“The guy said you’d look like you don’t belong.” Then he squinted, “no stuff in the stacks okay. It’s a library not a brothel.”
“I’m,” he paused, “wait, what?” Edin gasped. “What makes you think that?” his voice was growing louder.
“Shhh…” Someone hissed over a shelf to his right.
Edin glanced that way, his mouth gaping.
“Yeah,” the clerk said. “Don’t make me tell you again.”
Edin was shocked, and he closed and opened his mouth as if to say something. Anything really to try and get a word in but he didn’t have anything to say.
Did the weird little clerk play some sort of mind trick on him?
Edin shut his mouth and turned. He headed in the direction the clerk pointed. Near the corner, he found a thin switchback staircase and began climbing. The railings and inner walls were a deep mahogany and it felt very regal in here. Regal and old.
A statue of a falcon stood on a pedestal on the second floor, and Edin saw that around the circular floor were other statues. The third had some sort of deer and the fourth had what looked like a dragon.
Edin paused and looked left and right. He read the signs. To the right was History, to the left Lore. They could be in both.
Then he wondered if either were looking for the lake. If not, he’d have to. Maybe he could check the geography or map sections.
After barely two minutes, he found Rihkar in Lore. The one-armed terestio was concentrating extremely hard on a text in a small nook at the back of the wall.
“Have you found anything?”
Rihkar looked up. He was wearing spectacles which looked very odd over his beard. Before him, a scroll was laid out with the top held in place by two small carvings of smart looking people holding scrolls. Next to Rihkar were other scrolls, huge tomes, and normal sized books.
“You look terrible,” Rihkar said. “why are you not in bed?”
“Couldn’t stay in. Have you found anything?”
“It’s been two days and it’s only me and your bookworm searching. I tried to get Henny but he can barely read.”
“And Berka?”
“Haven’t seen him since yesterday.”
“Well, what have you found?”
“Little. There are boring texts about land and a few maps that show mountains that have disappeared somehow or forests that have grown, spread, and then faded into oblivion. Of
f the southern coast, there used to be a land bridge that connected Bestoria to a few of the southern islands, but nothing about a great lake in the mountains.”
“What about the tunnels?”
“Dorset’s looking into that. I’ve found mentions of them, but that was it, they were only mentions. Side notes really and no maps. Not that I’d expect dwarves to give that info up. They were said to be notoriously enigmatic, hence they built underground.”
“I never even knew dwarves existed, how did you?”
“The Boganthean Tower,” he looked up at a golden chandelier, at the rows of books, and the chairs. “This place reminds me of it, even that musty old book smell.” Rihkar smiled. “Mersett used to find me books that he thought would interest me.”
Edin swallowed, it seemed the old councilman was like Rihkar’s Master Horston. Did he know that Mersett died during an escape attempt from the dungeons? Edin wasn’t sure.
There was a faraway look in Rihkar’s eyes. One that said he did know and that he missed the old man. It seemed that there was also regret in that look. Like he’d said something that he wished he could take back.
Edin put his arm on his father’s shoulder. “He was a very good man. He helped me, watched out for me and didn’t let Pharont kick me off the island as soon as I stepped foot on it.”
Rihkar adjusted his spectacles and tried looking back down at the scroll.
“He treated me like his favorite student. I’d like to thank you for that.”
Rihkar put his good hand up and patted Edin’s. “Thanks.” He sniffed. “His nerdy nephew is over there; you might want to check to see if he found anything.”
Edin waited a few moments, gave his father’s shoulder a squeeze, then removed his hand and crossed back toward the circular balcony overlooking the rotunda below. Edin glanced to the clear dome above. It was still a gloomy and rainy day but at least there wasn’t snow.
Edin lowered his gaze to the first floor. As he looked over, he spotted on the ground floor across the cubed off spaces, a hooded figure standing between two stacks. The odd thing was that he wasn’t facing either of the stacks but facing the center of the rotunda and Edin’s general direction.
