“A hammer would have been a much better choice,” Jute said.
“A hammer would have shattered the bones in your arm,” Zollin explained.
“Obviously you aren’t acquainted with dwarfish bones. They don’t shatter, or even snap, like weak human bones.”
“And that’s why your arm was broken?”
“It got caught in tight place when I was struggling to escape the caverns. Your woman took care of that. It doesn’t even hurt anymore.”
Zollin nodded, ignoring the urge to explain to Jute that he had healed the break. Instead he sipped his wine and waited for the dwarf to ask for some.
“I’m thirsty,” Jute said after a moment of silence.
“I have water in a canteen,” Zollin said, pretending to look around their small campsite.
“I don’t need water, you oafish wizard. What are you drinking?”
“This is wine, but I wouldn’t recommend it to you. It’s pretty strong.”
Jute barked out a laugh of derision. “I would think that you would know by now that dwarves can drink humans under the table any day. Pour me some… please.”
Zollin poured a small cup of the potent wine, then handed it over to Jute who took it and sniffed at the contents. His eyes flashed as he raised the cup, then drained it in one long draught.
“It’s a bit sweet for my taste,” Jute grumbled.
“Sweet?” Zollin said. “This wine tastes like it was aged in a rusty metal bucket. There’s nothing sweet about it.”
“It tastes sweet to me, at least compared to strong, dwarfish ale. Now that is a drink that will put hair on your chin.”
“Well, we don’t have any dwarfish ale. Just the wine and some salt pork. I’ll fry potatoes in the grease if you like.”
“Fine,” Jute said, trying to sound aloof, but Zollin could see the hunger in the dwarf’s eyes.
They ate their meal and Zollin was happy to see that the dwarf had regained his appetite. He knew they had a difficult journey before them, one they might not survive. And it would be a long time before they had warm food and anything other than water to drink.
“Ferno should be back soon,” Zollin said. “Then we’ll get moving again.”
“Don’t you need to rest?”
“There will be time for that once we find Brianna.”
“And if we can’t find her?” Jute asked. “She sealed the underworld behind us. I don’t know if I can find a way back down.”
“We’ll find a way, and we’ll find Brianna. That much I’m sure of.”
“Yes, getting out will be the chore,” Jute grumbled. “I can’t believe I let you talk me into this foolish mission.”
Zollin hadn’t talked Jute into anything. The dwarf had volunteered to lead Zollin back into the caverns under the Walheta Mountains. He felt responsible for Brianna being lost. She had made it possible for the dwarves to escape their captivity at the hands of the fire giant, but she had been captured in the process. Captured or killed, they didn’t know for sure, but Zollin held onto hope. It was possible that she was dead, possible that even if he rescued her she wouldn’t want to be with him. But those were possibilities he would face when he had to. The world had turned against him. There were gargoyles in Baskla and a growing sense of evil magic that he wasn’t sure he could contain. Branock had murdered King Hausey and convinced his followers that Zollin was to blame, before taking the crown for himself. Zollin would deal with those problems once he had freed Brianna. He could only hope that she would stay with him and lend her strength to his.
“You can turn back any time,” Zollin said.
“Never,” was all the dwarf said, and for the first time Zollin knew that Jute was being completely honest with him.
Chapter 3
They could have returned to the shaft that Brianna had made leading down into the caverns, but Zollin felt that it might be guarded. The dwarves had filled the shaft with large stones, rocks, fallen trees, and anything else they could find to stem the tide of groslings trying to escape the underworld. Zollin could remove the blockage using magic, but he decided he would rather reopen the tunnel that the dwarves had originally used to escape the outcasts that were marching north through the mountains. He hoped he would be able to get to Brianna quicker that way even though it meant that they needed to fly to the southern side of the mountain range. Jute had explained that it had taken several days to journey from Brianna’s tunnel to the mine shaft that led down to the underworld. And once they went down they would no longer have Ferno to carry them.
They were flying on Ferno’s back through the night. The huge beast had needed to stop, rest, and hunt, but it had only taken Ferno a few hours to find a stag in the mountains. Once the dragon had fed, it regained its strength quickly and the three of them resumed their journey. They were each completely unique creatures. Zollin was a human, Jute a dwarf, and Ferno a monstrous dragon, yet they traveled together, focused on one task. Ferno was not happy about having to stay in the mountains and wait while Zollin and Jute went to rescue Brianna, but there was simply no way the hulking dragon could follow them down into the caverns, much less the underworld. And Zollin needed Ferno to reconnect with Sorva, the serpentine black dragon that had carried Brianna south.
Below them a winter wonderland stretched across the mountains. Unlike the Northern Highlands, which were craggy and barren, the Walheta Mountains were lush with pine, cedar, spruce, and fir trees. The dark green needles of the evergreens stood out in stark contrast to the white snow, which seemed to glow in the moonlight. Zollin would have liked to rest, but he couldn’t stop when every moment meant prolonged suffering for Brianna.
Zollin refused to think about the baby. He was worried, and yet he felt as if the pregnancy was unreal. He had seen Brianna’s body changing, but the idea of being a father was so terrifying to Zollin that his mind refused to accept it. But with the possibility that he might lose both Brianna and their baby, he felt a deep aching sense of loss that threatened to swallow him whole if he didn’t resist it.
The sun was just starting to rise when they reached the southern edge of the Walheta range of mountains. Ferno already knew what to look for. When they were preparing to fight the witch’s mutated army, Brianna had blasted the tall, sloping hills to make elevated fighting platforms for the allied army of humans, dwarves, and dragons. In one of the natural fortresses, the dwarves had fought and then dug a tunnel down into the caverns below to escape the witch’s army. Zollin hunched low on Ferno’s back, with Jute huddled behind him. They stared down at the snowy landscape, looking for the battlefield that had claimed so many lives.
Ferno was the first to spot the hillside fortresses. They looked like caves, especially with the deep layer of snow that covered the hills, but it didn’t take long for Jute to find the fortress where many of his kinsmen had died.
“There!” he shouted, pointing his arm with the vice on the end. “That is where we fought.”
Zollin sent a mental image of the cave-like fort to Ferno, who circled three times before landing inside the cave. Zollin was amazed that Brianna had been able to carve a space in the solid rock, but her power over fire allowed her to melt the stone and blast it out of the hillside. Ferno looked right at home in the cave, bobbing from side to side on its huge talons as it examined the cave. There were bones littering the ground inside the fortress. Animals had feasted on the dead from the battle, mixing the bones of dwarves and outcasts together. In the deepest recess of the cave, Zollin could just make out a depression in the floor of the cavern.
“That where you went down?” he asked Jute.
The dwarf nodded. Zollin used his magic to levitate first the dwarf and then himself down off the wide back of the dragon. Ferno moved toward the entrance to the cave and gazed out across the rolling hills that spread out from the mountains. The white landscape was quiet and still. Zollin had to stretch his cold muscles before moving further back into the cave to join Jute.
“We destroyed t
he tunnel once we got down into the cavern,” Jute said. “It could take weeks to dig through it.”
“Let me worry about that,” Zollin said.
His magic worked down into the rock, like water trickling through the tunnel. Only the upper section had been shattered, but there was loose rock all the way down the shaft. Zollin glanced over his shoulder to see that Ferno was out of the way, and cast his levitating spell once again. This time the rocks that filled the tunnel came flying up out of the shaft. They settled neatly on the cave floor, forming a pile not far away. There were hundreds of rocks, some smooth and round, others jagged and angular. Zollin’s magic lifted them effortlessly, or so it seemed. When he had first discovered his powers, using a levitating spell on even one of the stones would have left him exhausted and famished. But Kelvich, the old sorcerer from Brighton’s Gate, had taught Zollin how to tap into the deep reservoir of magic that filled him. He had learned how to control and use the magic without letting it sap him of his physical strength.
The task that should have taken days by hand, took only an hour thanks to Zollin’s magic. When the tunnel was open, the shaft was surrounded by several large piles of stone. Zollin felt drained, not physically, but mentally from concentrating on the tedious task for so long. He took a deep breath and looked down into the dark tunnel. It was small, Zollin would have to crawl through it, but otherwise the shaft looked to be intact.
“You ready?” Zollin asked.
“Always,” Jute said. “I’ll go first.”
Zollin gazed out at the sunlight one last time, then waved reassuringly to Ferno, before crawling down into the shaft with Jute. Zollin didn’t like enclosed spaces and it seemed unnatural to be crawling down into the shaft head first, but he didn’t want to waste any time. He kindled a small orb of light that floated out in front of him, casting a clear light down the tunnel. Jute seemed unfazed by the darkness, but to Zollin it was oppressive and made him cautious. Being able to see where he was going easily doubled his speed through the tunnel.
When they reached the large cave at the end of the tunnel, Zollin was amazed. He’d never seen anything like the wondrous cavern. He was in a large, open space. The walls were carved with reliefs that would have been the pride of any castle, and the ceiling glistened with glowing minerals. It was almost like the night sky, but closer, the light milky and soft. Zollin let his magical light fade away and his eyes adjusted to the gloom.
“What now, wizard?” Jute said.
“We find Brianna,” Zollin said.
“And how do you propose we do that?”
“By finding one of the creatures that you fought down here.”
“The groslings won’t help you,” Jute spat. “They’re stupid creatures who only understand fear.”
“They will fear me,” Zollin said grimly. “Let’s get moving.”
It might have made more sense for Zollin and Jute to move through the caverns without attracting attention, but that would require more time. Zollin had no idea what he was facing, but he was certain he had to find Brianna soon and get her back to the surface. Jute was familiar with the caverns, but the large mine shaft that led to the underworld had been sealed off by Brianna to save the dwarves. They had no idea how to get to where Brianna was without finding the creatures the dwarves called groslings, so Zollin set out to find one.
He closed his eyes and let his magic flow out all around him. He could feel the walls of the cavern and it seemed to the young wizard that he could almost feel the chisels that carved the reliefs. There was a sadness that clung to the caverns, a hopelessness that weighed on Zollin as he sent his magical senses further into the system of tunnels and caves. He could also feel a deep sense of dread. The magic of the caverns responded to Zollin’s own power, but the magic he felt was old, ancient in fact, and malevolent.
“This place is filled with evil,” Zollin whispered.
Jute only nodded. The dwarf’s sadness over the loss of his people ran deep. Zollin knew that returning to the caverns was the last thing Jute wanted to do, but he respected the dwarf’s decision to come back to help rescue Brianna. Finally, after several minutes, Zollin felt life. It was far away, in another part of the caverns. The creature was oblivious to Zollin, but surrounded by the ancient magic.
“This way,” Zollin said.
They set off down through the corridors at a fast walk. Jute almost had to jog to keep up with Zollin. He wouldn’t have been able to keep pace if the wizard hadn’t healed the dwarf so thoroughly. Zollin had repaired muscle and reversed the effects of months spent starving in the underworld. They moved swiftly through the dark caverns. Zollin wanted to stop and explore every room and tunnel, but he forced himself to ignore the wonders around him.
They moved deeper into the caverns, into shafts and great halls, past villages carved into the cave walls that made the great capitals of the Five Kingdoms seem like primitive villages. In most of the caverns the phosphorescent minerals shed just enough light for the wizard and dwarf to see by, but some of the areas were darker. Zollin wanted to use his magic to conjure light, but instead he used his magic to ensure that he wasn’t going the wrong way and let his eyes adjust to the gloom.
It took nearly three hours, but eventually Zollin slowed. They were in a short tunnel that led to a much larger room. He inched toward the cavern and waited, listening. Jute stood beside the wizard, patient and quiet. They both sipped from their canteens as they waited. Zollin knew that something was coming. His magic could feel the creature, even though he had retracted his magical senses. He wasn’t sure that whatever controlled the ancient magic hadn’t already noticed his own power as he sent it through the caverns. If so, they could be attacked by any number of creatures, perhaps even led into an ambush, but Zollin had no other choice. He needed to find his way through the labyrinth of tunnels as quickly as possible.
“Here it comes,” Zollin whispered. “Stay behind me.”
Jute nodded, but didn’t speak. Zollin took a deep breath and then stepped out of the tunnel. There was a screech of fear, and the grosling tried to flee, but Zollin levitated the squirming creature. It looked like a bat with a dark, furry body, a pointed head with round ears protruding up from the skull, but instead of wings it had thin arms with several joints so that the limbs folded up against the creature’s body. It had short legs and walked upright, and there were fangs sticking out around the creature’s mouth.
Zollin’s heart raced as he saw the beast. Holding it in the air was almost like levitating a fish from a stream, which he had learned to do when he’d first discovered his powers in Tranaugh Shire. He felt his magic flowing through him, the internal power was roiling like a pot about to overflow, fueled by his fear and the excitement of finally discovering one of the elusive creatures from the underworld.
“What is it?” Zollin asked.
“That’s a grosling,” Jute said in a tone that almost sounded bored. “They’re mutations, not unlike the witch’s army, but most are creatures that have been combined with others. That one looks like a bat with insect arms.”
The grosling was screaming in terror, the high-pitched wails echoing off the cavern walls. Zollin knew he couldn’t let the beast continue to scream, but he couldn’t kill it either. He needed the creature alive so it could show them the way down into the underworld. He brought the creature down to the ground on its back and pinned it there with his magic, squeezing until the grosling could barely breathe.
“That’s better,” Zollin said. “Stay quiet and I’ll loosen my grip.”
Jute grunted, but the young wizard was pleased to see the bat-like creature nod its head feverishly.
“Can you understand me?” Zollin asked.
The bat squeaked softly, sounding much like the small bats he’d heard leaving caves. It also nodded its head up and down.
“I need you to take me to the Fire Giant. Can you do that?”
The bat’s eyes grew wide and it opened its mouth, revealing all the crooked, yet d
eadly looking fangs. It shook its head from side to side, and struggled to escape the wizard’s magical grip. Zollin pressed down again and waited.
“If you can’t lead me where I want to go,” he threatened, “then you’re of no use to me.”
The creature started to squeal again, but Zollin wrapped the grosling’s muzzle in magic and clamped it shut. His power was radiating now, like a bonfire that was on the verge of roaring out of control. Zollin’s fears for Brianna and frustration at having to find her in the maze of caverns was feeding his power with raw emotions that made his magic powerful but difficult to contain. The amulet around his neck felt cold, but the magic flowing through Zollin made him feel strong.
“Can you take me to the Fire Giant that holds my wife prisoner?”
The bat creature nodded, and stopped struggling. It lay on the stone floor, whimpering.
“It may lead you to your death,” Jute warned Zollin.
“That’s a chance I’m willing to take. I won’t leave Brianna alone down there.”
“Nor will I,” the dwarf said.
“You have done more than I could have asked. You can turn back. There’s no need for you to risk your life again.”
“She saved me, then she saved my people,” Jute said. “If death is the only way to save her, then I will die proudly. Now let’s get moving. There could be hundreds of that thing’s friends rushing to help it.”
“Alright, let’s go find Brianna.” Zollin turned from the dwarf back to the bat creature, releasing his grip on the grosling enough that it could get back to its feet, but not so much that he couldn’t snatch it up again if it tried to flee. “Take us to your master, and don’t delay!”
The bat creature scuttled back the way it had come and Zollin followed it into the darkness.
Chapter 4
Mansel was back in Orrock, lurking in a shabby tavern with deep shadows where names were not asked or given. He had never felt such tension in a town before. Everyone seemed to be on edge and Mansel saw more than one local looking over their shoulder. Orrock was a large city with several districts. At the moment he was in the river district, a long, narrow section of town that stretched between the Tillamook River and city walls. On the far side of the river were large estates, mostly built by merchants who wanted private access to the river.
Chaos Raging (The Five Kingdoms Book 11) Page 2
