Ulrich looked at her sharply, but she continued to clean the child while ignoring him.
He looked at the gleaming brooch of emerald stones fastened at the child's shoulder. A talisman for safety? He knew Iliana treated the sick with stones, but these were brilliant such as he had rarely seen and formed into a circle of silver. Putting it aside, he quickly divested the child of his soiled garments, then began the laborious task of trying to dress him in the garments he had pulled from the chest.
The old woman nudged him aside. "Stand there and watch if you must, but 'twill be quicker if I take charge of the child."
Ulrich stepped aside, but remained eagle-eyed as she dressed the child quickly and efficiently. He pointed to the circlet with the winking green stones, and the old crone retrieved it, turning it over in her gnarled fingers.
She looked up at him, but said nothing and fastened it at the child's shoulder. When the task was done, he looked at the child in bemusement. "He looks like a small warrior."
"This one must be taken care of, eh?" she said. She moved away from the now clean and dry William. "Come, eat quickly and then you leave."
He stared at her, eyes narrowed. "We leave upon Mandrak's direction."
Ulrich ate the watery bits of vegetables and boiled lamb on his trencher, also feeding bits to the child as he sat in his lap. He did not know if the child was used to such food, but it was that or starve.
"It is done," he said, rising.
"He will sleep now," she said. She looked out the open door toward the small dwelling where Mandrak's candle cast a small glow in the failing light. She wrapped a trencher and bits of stew meat in cloth, and held it out to him. "For him," she stated, jerking her chin toward the sorcerer's dwelling. "He pays me for food and so it is. But I am leaving. There will be no more food." She looked at him. "You must flee this place if you wish to save the child. It is possible he may survive," she added. "You will not."
Ulrich grabbed his weapon and sheathed it. "I have no time for this blather."
"It is never too late for the sinner to be forgiven the sin." She dared to grab him, her thin, puny fingers barely a fly landing on his arm. "Take the child and go now."
"Mandrak."
She laughed softly. "He has fallen into fascination with the spell book he came upon. He is intent on deciphering it." She smiled. "Bring his meal."
Ulrich hesitated, his bulk filling the small doorway. "Thank you," he muttered.
With the boy in one crook of his arm and the wrapped trencher of food in his other hand, he stepped outside and walked back toward the sorcerer's dwelling.
He entered the small room where Mandrak sat hunched over the book. He placed the wrapped trencher on the table and the sorcerer looked up. "Ah, the old crone sends my food. I had wondered if she forgot." He looked at Ulrich, his eyes piercing. "And you shut up him up."
"I will go back to my guard," Ulrich said, placing the child on the floor.
Mandrak waved a hand dismissively. "Take him with you."
"But my Lord, I stand guard all night and the air grows bitterly cold."
"No matter. If he is hardy, he will fare well."
"As you wish."
Ulrich turned to leave and as he stepped out of the dwelling, Mandrak called after him. "We are near the end, Ulrich, and your loyalty has done you well. You will be richly rewarded when the green gem is mine."
Ulrich clenched his teeth, fearing he knew how this would all end. But he bowed his head and managed, "Thank you, my lord Mandrak." He stepped out into the deepening dusk and looked down at his small charge. As the old woman had predicted, the child now slept with food in his belly.
His horse stood tethered outside and he looked back at Mandrak inside, then Ulrich looked for the old woman but did not see her.
He made his decision and mounted his horse. Mandrak, in his arrogance, would never imagine that anyone would dare to disobey him. And so Ulrich left with the child.
¤¤
Ulrich rode his horse hard. He hoped to put many miles between himself and Mandrak before he was missed. His guard watch would give him until day's break before he was supposed to report back. Even so, it was a simple truth that Ulrich knew there was no escape for him.
He would fight as he had been trained these thirty years and more, and he would not fight a coward's way, but to the end protecting the child as was right. If it all came to naught, then so be it. But he would go to his death doing what he had not done in life. Protecting the innocent.
For Ulrich, the outcome for his life no longer mattered. He had long ago lost his honor when he had signed on as mercenary, one campaign after another. His life tapestry had shriveled and withered away nine years before. Up until that moment, he had looked at it from time to time, seeing the many chances he had been offered to change his life's course, but he had turned away, and finally, the tapestry lay trampled in the dirt after one horrific campaign.
His tapestry had not been the only one trampled by hundreds of horses. So many men at arms had sold their souls, and all to no avail.
But now he could no longer fall in with the sorcerer's diabolic plan. Mandrak was a madman with no shred of anything kind left inside. He had once had a noble cause, but as time progressed, so did the twist of his evil.
Ulrich slowed his horse and allowed the animal to walk for a pace, the animal's breath blowing mightily in the chill night air. He opened the leather thongs on his saddle sack, and pulled out linen he carried onto the battle field to bind wounds. Although stained, it would serve its purpose. He wound the linen strip around his chest and tied it, then slipped the child down into the front, facing him, effectively binding him to his chest. The child still slept, and that was for the best. They had a hard night's ride ahead of them. He needed to find a safe stronghold. He knew he would not make it to the pretender and the Lady Iliana but he would travel as far as he could. He smiled mirthlessly. Perhaps the saints would smile kindly upon him, and this last action would make up for a life well lived, but not lived well.
It was as the sun began to rise along the ridge of hills that Ulrich knew his time was near. He could only hope there was a heaven and no hell.
He knew of the little monastery that straddled the red soil along the short hills, a short distance from where he had found the pretender and Lady Iliana. The child would be safe there.
He looked down at the child's dark curls just visible in the sling. "Sleep now, little one. The night grows ever short."
Chapter Eleven
Ulrich heard the swoop of wings before he saw the dragon. He looked down at the child, and saw the child was awake, watching him as the sun began to come up over the hills.
"William, I believe the sorcerer knows I have flown," Ulrich said grimly. His horse walked, and he could ask no more of the animal. They had run most of the night, trying to put distance between the sorcerer and themselves. He felt a deep churning in his gut, a feeling he had not had since he was a boy going into his first battle. For whom did he fear -- himself or the child? Death for the child and the depths of Hades for him? Ulrich gave a deep chuckle, despair something he no longer felt.
He knew it would be a gruesome death, and he could not welcome it for the child. He pulled his dagger from its sheath, looked down at the child. Surely it would be easier for the child if he killed him quickly than let him suffer the horrendous tearing apart by the dragons? A small hope began to rise as he saw they were close to where the red soil ended. Perhaps they could make it that far.
He saw the shadow of the dragons on the ground before him. Ulrich sheathed his dagger, tightened the linen which held the child to him and untied his shield from his shoulder. He held his shield up and used it to protect them. His mount ambled along as if in no hurry to go in any particular direction. The air grew thick with the dragon's sour breath, the sound of their wings filling his ears.
A grouping of rocks was in front of him. His horse stopped, fell to its knees and Ulrich threw his leg over the saddle
and with the child jumped to the ground and out of the way as the poor horse rolled and fell dead.
Ferociously, the dragons descended. William seemed to look at the sky in wonder, his green eyes wide.
Ulrich tried to run to the rocks for shelter, but the dragon was now at his legs, ripping the boots from his feet. He walked the last few yards to the rocks on feet raw from bites, his leather chausses sheared from him from the knee down. It attacked his back, dug into his flesh. Ulrich used the shield to protect the boy, wishing now he had used his knife to end the child's life quickly. Damnation, how had he failed in this!
He climbed through the rocks, falling to one knee.
The linen binding the boy tore apart under gnashing teeth, and William came free, tumbling to the red sandy soil, mercifully landing in a small depression between the rocks. Ulrich placed the shield over the boy, and unable to bear any more fell forward upon the rocks with William beneath him.
He let out a last great roar to the heavens above, the new morning sky once more shining down as the dragon retreated.
¤¤
Erik followed the thin path as the sun rose, stealing hot and bright across the red soil, its brilliance almost blinding him. Suddenly, upon large rocks lay a bloody remnant of a body with arms and legs splayed. The only reason he suspected it to be Ulrich were the remnants of wild black hair still clinging to the scalp.
With terrible dread Erik looked around and then dismounted. He knew Iliana would see this momentarily, as he had given her time to wash beside a small creek and he'd gone on ahead.
As far as he could see...empty red soil as the hills rose against the sky. A great depth of emotion ripped through him as frantically he continued walking, searching for something, a clue. Where was the boy?
"William!"
Nothing. Everything was empty, save the carnage before him.
Moisture burned behind Erik's eyes. Ulrich died unjustly.
Was William gone then? Air heaved from his chest, turned into shuddering gasps of breath. A child gone...Iliana would be devastated.
A child's cry. Again.
Erik fell to his knees, lay down beside what remained of Ulrich, and heard a whimper. Ulrich's shield lay beneath him. Carefully, he rolled Ulrich to the side, wiping the blood from his hands, and lifted the wide shield which rested upon the rocks.
William looked up at him, blinking in the sudden light. He held his arms up. "Da, da, da."
Erik took a shuddering breath and lifted the boy, held him securely in his arms and came to his feet, eyes burning as his chest heaved again.
"William!" Iliana's scream made him turn to see her gallop toward them across the arid red soil.
Erik carried William and moved away from the rocks. "The path!" he shouted in warning. "Stay on the path. The ground is unstable."
One moment Iliana was there, the next she and her horse disappeared, as if swallowed whole by the red earth. A cavern had fractured in the precariously dangerous ground around them, leaving a gaping hole.
¤¤
Iliana coughed, spit the dust from her mouth, sneezing as it went up her nose. She rubbed her palms over her eyes, trying to clear the grit so she could see. The mare lay beside her, shook her head and came to her feet. Iliana looked up from the dark hole she had fallen into. She could see Erik's silhouette above her, William in his arms.
"William!" she cried. "William." She started laughing.
"Iliana, we must make haste to leave this place. Are you hurt?" Erik called down.
"No." She felt giddy. She used her mare's legs to pull herself upright, then leaned against the horse's shoulder. She let out a small moan of pain.
"My ankle," she said.
"Have you broken it?" he asked.
"I do not think so."
"Can you see light at all?" Erik asked. "Is it possible it's an old cavern that might lead out? There are many caves up here."
Iliana looked around her, her eyes adjusting to the dark. "Yes, there is a light. I will follow it out."
"Be careful. Can you mount your horse?"
Iliana gritted her teeth as she tried to mount and managed to lay across the saddle, then swing her leg over the horse's hindquarter.
With her son safe, she would endure any pain.
Iliana followed the cavern down to where the light seemed to lead. However, going down further and further made her increasingly uneasy. What if after all this, she was buried alive in the red soil hills or emerged into a cavern where a dragon lived?
Despite her fear, Iliana kept her horse moving forward until she rode into a large cavern with an eerie green luminosity. She looked around in awe, remembered what she had read in Sir Robert's letter to the abbess, that the gem was safely laid beneath the dragon's wing. Transfixed, she stared at what lay before her.
¤¤
Erik rode through the short hills, searching each cavern opening close to where Iliana had fallen into the collapsed ground.
Suddenly he heard her calling him and she rode toward him, her hair a dark banner behind her as she exited a narrow opening in a rock wall. William, in the saddle in front of him, began to bounce up and down in excitement as he saw his mother.
Erik rode to meet her, dismounted and lifted her wriggling son into her waiting arms.
"William, you are a little knight," she exclaimed, kissing him again and again. She put her face down into his dark curls, tears spilling onto her cheeks.
Iliana looked up at Erik, surprised to see a trace of wetness on his cheeks. She frowned, her fingertips daring to reach out to him. "You care for my son," she said with wonder. "It is in your eyes and in your deeds." She took a deep breath, hugged William close. "I am sorry," she whispered. She looked down at him. "I have this terrible feeling I have been very unjust to you." She looked up at the canyon walls around them. "We must leave this place now, Erik," she said swiftly. "I have found the green gem."
"Touching," said a mocking voice above them. "And I would see the gem."
Erik turned. "Mandrak."
"Pretender," Mandrak said mockingly, bowing at the waist. Mandrak quickly traversed a narrow path down to where they stood. "My lady Iliana, you have found the gem -- excellent. Now I will have it," he exclaimed triumphantly.
Iliana looked at Erik.
"Do not look to your lover," Mandrak sneered. "If you value all you have just found, give me the gem now."
Iliana nodded toward the cavern she had just exited. "It is in that cavern. Half buried in the red soil."
"Then we shall unbury it," Mandrak said softly.
They entered the cool cavern, and it was several moments before Erik's eyes adjusted to the shadowy interior. But then he began to notice the strange green glow inside the walls. High above their heads were red and blue paintings of hands in the cavern ceiling. Thousands of palm prints. And before them sat a fierce green dragon, scales rippling as it breathed, its wings moving gently back and forth. Its eyes watched them.
Iliana sat atop her horse in the cavern aperture, William in the saddle before her. "The dragon sits upon the gem," she said.
Mandrak approached the dragon slowly, but it lowered its head warningly, and he stopped in surprise.
"In here you have no power over the dragon," Iliana said.
"You are the only one who can retrieve it," Mandrak snapped. "Do so now. Pull it from the ground and give it to Remington."
Erik saw the wink of a green stone beneath one of the dragon's feet, its claws easily as long as his own fingers. The gem appeared as wide as his palm. He noticed a much smaller gem lay half concealed beside it, and turning in a half circle, he saw the ground littered with similar emeralds.
"Call the dragon away, Iliana. I am sure as the lineage holder of the gem you have persuasive skills," Mandrak said harshly.
Erik moved to Iliana and lifted William from her saddle, then gave her his hand and helped her dismount. She approached the dragon, limping a bit, and stood still before it.
"I will make a pact
with the dragon," she said.
Mandrak narrowed his eyes at her. "What kind of pact?"
"A pact that will let us leave this place unharmed. But you must also promise on your life not to harm us," she said.
"Yes, yes," he said. "I will take the gem and leave."
"If you try to harm us or any of the people here, this dragon will seek you out. Your magic has no power over her now that I have arrived to claim the gem."
"Hurry," Mandrak said impatiently, clenching and unclenching his fists.
Iliana approached the dragon and Erik watched in amazement as the beast leaned its fearsome head down toward her, staring at her for long moments. Suddenly, the beast rose and turned within the close confines of the cavern. Erik quickly moved back as its tail slid past him, then it disappeared into the shadowy cavern beyond. The gem winked at them from the sandy floor.
Iliana reached down and gently pulled the gem from its resting place. It cast green lights across the cavern walls as she lifted it into her arms.
"Give it to Remington," Mandrak said.
Iliana hesitated.
"Do it now."
"You realize you risk this world if this gem does not stay here --"
"Now!"
Erik placed William at his feet as Iliana moved to him and handed him the gem. Erik felt a sharp jolt move up his hands and into his arms. The gem glowed with a life of its own. Almost mesmerized, he stared down into its green depths.
"Give it to me." Mandrak jerked it from him and stepped away.
"You have the gem," Erik said, "we are leaving." He lifted William back into his arms.
Mandrak stroked the stone with reverence. "The power of this gem is unrealized. I can move heaven and earth and perhaps a bit of hell." He laughed and looked at Iliana. "Thank you my lady Iliana. My people will dearly appreciate this gift."
"It needs to remain here so the land can be brought back to life," she protested. "Taking it from this world was not part of the bargain."
He waved his hand. "Go."
"But what about the people, the land here?"
Time Travel Romance Collection Page 67
