For Whom the Bell Trolls: Hands of the Highmage, Book 1

by D. H. Aire

  She wondered if the boy had gone off with the men, when she went to the cellar, and checked on her secret guests, she stopped and gaped.

  There was the sleeping boy, sleeping beside a resting unicorn, who looked at her appraisingly. Its horn providing more light than the lantern she carried. The little girls were nestled around the shorter troll. The ten foot tall one was pumping water into the great trough, which now lay behind a series of strung blankets. She blinked seeing the old harnesses that had long been found in the trunks in the back of the cellar laid out.

  “What’s going on?” she half-whispered.

  Greth sighed, “The girls need a bath and so do my friend and I.”

  “You speak our tongue?”

  “Um, I’m a quick learner.” Thanks to Mother, he thought, and the Blessed Chip, which Lawson calls an “implant.” Our tradition of inserting one in the cheek of every infant having more basis than I ever realized.

  “Oh, uh, good,” she replied. “You’ll be leaving soon?” I hope.

  “We’ll be on our way later this morning. I happened to note there are no other horses about.”

  “If you’re asking about trying to buy one, there aren’t any but yours here in the vill, now,” if you include the unicorn staring at me as a horse, she thought. “A lot of men rode ours earlier, seeking after these girls and their kin.”

  “Which way did they go?”

  “Toward the Badlands.”

  Greth nodded, “Good.”

  She glanced at the leather straps laid out, each embossed with a different symbol.

  “Uh, might we have these?” he asked.

  The unicorn gave her a look.

  “We’ve no use for them,” she admitted. “My husband’s family found them down here. They look in better repair than I was told, actually… Somehow I think they’re yours. Dare I ask what you plan to do with them?”

  “I plan to adjust them a bit…” he replied cautiously. The unicorn gave him a long look. “Let’s just say I’ve a feeling they’re going to come in handy. Oh, and, um, about breakfast…”

  “I’ll bring bread, butter, and cheese. We don’t have much in the way of fruit.”

  “That sounds lovely.”

  The unicorn’s horn sparkled. ‘You will be blessed for thy aid, Child.’

  Her hands went to her stomach, “What?”

  ‘You had not reason to expect any but a girl child, though, you have despaired of having any in this ill-omened land. But you shall bear your husband a child, a boy.’

  She trembled, made a bow to the unicorn, “Thank you, Holy One.” She turned and fled, grinning, A baby! Then she stumbled, A boy? But… but… She willed herself to calm. She had given up the life where such mattered, even if the Curse flowed in her veins. She blinked, I’m believing a unicorn. She smiled, glancing back, happy to believe that she would have a child at long last.

  “Holy One?” Casber muttered, waking.

  ‘Humans are a superstitious lot.’

  “Oh, really?” he replied as the girls yawned, sitting up.

  Greth gestured, “Young ladies, your bath awaits. Breakfast will be arriving soon.”

  Lawson sat up, “Ladies definitely first.”

  Yel’ane frowned as Nessa clapped her hands, “Ladies, you know where the privy is. Then let’s get you washed.”

  #

  Greth was adjusting the straps as Ani’ya, hair dripping wet, paused to watch at the curtain’s edge. “What is that?”

  “Hmm, a riding strap,” he answered, gesturing her over. Once she did he held it up to her. “Put your feet in those.”

  Frowning, she did.

  He called Lawson over and asked him to adjust them further. “Uh, Greth,” his friend asked as Ani’ya found herself shooed away, “what are you doing?”

  “Oh, you’ll see,” he replied, looking back at him as if sizing him up before adjusting some of the larger leathers he had strung and belted together. “You’ll see.”

  En’sta hopped about putting on one of her shoes to see what Ani’ya was staring at. Trying to smile reassuringly, Greth gestured her over and Lawson was soon adjusting the stirrup-like loops around her feet. “Why don’t you keep that with you for now? You, too, lass.”

  Ani’ya took hers as Vi’ya said, “Hey, what’re you doing?”

  #

  Nessa frowned as Greth knelt and measured her against one of the leather contraptions. “What’s this all about?”

  “All in good time,” he promised as the unicorn nodded and the last of the girls finished their bath.

  Nose wrinkling, she said, “You are going to take that bath as you promised.”

  He sighed, “All in good time… and Lawson’s going first, anyway.”

  “Uh, Casber, you go ahead.”

  “Oh, the unicorn made me bathe in a lovely stream yesterday,” the boy answered, cheerily. “I’m just fine, thanks. You go right ahead.”

  Chapter 18 – Hounds

  Lawson growled as he prepared to settle into the trough, “Keep them away from me.”

  “Oh, I am, my friend,” Greth said, “but they’re a rather nasty bunch.”

  “This is damn cold!” Lawson protested.

  “We survived!” En’sta yelled back.

  “We’ll be happy to scrub your back!” another girl laughed as Lawson heard a round of giggles.

  “Greth!”

  “I’m keeping them back, my friend!” Greth averred, blocking Ani’ya’s playful attempted dash on the right. The girls were half-dressed, their hair still drying after bathing in the cold water, and kept trying to get past him.

  Yel’ane apparently wasn’t playing. Though, when the girls all charged, trying to get past Greth, she did manage to peek at Lawson from the end of the strung curtain of blankets. She frowned. He was just as hairy as she thought he was.

  “Yel’ane!” Nessa shouted.

  Lawson’s head turned, but she had already ducked back out of sight.

  “I could use your help getting them to sit down and eat, you know,” Nessa admonished.

  “I’m helping, Nessa.”

  “No, you’re fooling around, when we’ve no time to. You know we have to catch up with the others, soon, or we might never.”

  Yel’ane sighed and cut the bread in good sized slices.

  “Aren’t you going to cut up those half loaves further?”

  “Huh? Certainly not, those are for Greth and Lawson.”

  “They can eat slices like the rest of us, Yel’ane.”

  “Nessa, that’s ridiculous. They’re trolls.”

  “Remember that,” Nessa said as Casber came over.

  “Um, could I have some of that before—”

  Nessa smiled, “That’s your plate right there, Milord.”

  “Mi— um, thanks,” he replied.

  Yel’ane gave her a look, whispered, “Milord?”

  “He’s my mother’s nephew by the bond. I have to show him respect.”

  “Uh, just how much respect do you intend to show him, Nessa?”

  Frowning, she replied, “What do… Oh, such a thought. I’m not bonding him, Sister.”

  “Just remember that,” Yel’ane replied.

  “And you remember you’re not bonding, Lawson, either.”

  She blinked.

  Ani’ya overhead that and frowned as Lawson called out, “I’m done, my friend. Your turn.”

  Yel’ane turned and shouted, “Use more soap! That’s what it’s for!”

  “You heard the young lady,” Greth added. “Or do I let these volunteers come help?”

  Lawson moaned. “No, I’ll use more soap!”

  Minutes later, Lawson rose from the trough, sniffing himself, then began dressing. “I am clean! Greth, your turn.”

  “Wonderful,” Greth muttered, “ladies, if you wish to live, go have breakfast and do not disturb me.”

  Nessa and Yel’ane stared as the girls instantly quieted and came over for their breakfast.

  Gr
eth nodded, then went to refill the buckets with water from the primitive looking pulley system well. He set the first bucket in place, then pulled on the chain, which turned the almost paddle wheel-like mechanism, with troughs at the end that caught the water flowing beneath the ancient keep and drew it into the barn. Then saw the unicorn nod to him. He left to see to matters outside.

  #

  Without a howl, the hounds hunted out all the rabbits, which made the hills about the old fort home, and kept hidden from the riders who rode away that morning. More than an hour later, several hounds stiffed, then more. Moments later a pack of them raced off without a sound toward the fort.

  The old guard normally slept through everything after he had breakfasted and gone to bed. He made his home in the half-collapsed tower near what had been the West Gate. It had been long useless with its mechanism broken, without which the thick chain of the stout wood and bronze portcullis could not be raised.

  The sound of it creaking upward startled him. He had thought he had heard that sound before, but when? He blinked, thinking he was dreaming of opening the portcullis as he had for far too long. Shaking his head, he wondered why he was remembering it wrong. Frowning, he thought, he’d had a similar dream the previous day hours before needing to wake for his shift. But the sound was missing something. His eyes widened, realizing he wasn’t hearing the portcullis mechanism.

  Hurrying from his bed, he threw open the shutters of the tower’s only unbroken window then gaped.

  The troll glanced over at him and smiled as a hound raced into the overgrown courtyard followed by two more, then three, then… He blinked, shuttered the window, and went back to bed. “Hounds… Yep, I’m sleepwalking.”

  As the hounds burst past, Greth held the chain taut, shaking his head, smiling. Well, the unicorn did promise this wouldn’t draw any undue attention. What was going to happen next was another story.

  #

  The large hounds bounded through the half-open door above and came running up toward the unicorn, whose horn was once more aglow, as the girls cried out, “Oh, no!”

  “Where did all of them come from?” Nessa shouted.

  Casber laughed, “Oh, don’t worry, they’re friends!”

  The hounds halted one by one before the unicorn, tongues lolling.

  Greth appeared at the top of the ramp and secured the door. “The hounds are apparently here to help,” he said.

  “Help?” Yel’ane rasped. “Are we hunting something now?”

  Casber stared up at the unicorn, “She, um, oh…”

  Lawson choked, “Greth, you can’t be serious…”

  Greth shook his head, “What are we taught from the earliest age, Lawson?”

  “Never argue with Mother… or the Unicorn.”

  “I never expected to want to argue with Mother,” Greth admitted as the girls stared at him. “I’m certainly not arguing with her.” He gestured.

  The mare stood watching and nodded.

  Nessa demanded. “Will someone explain please?”

  Sighing, Greth answered, “You know we rotated which girls walked and which rode this last leg. The horses, well, show every sign we’ll lame them if we keep this up. They need days of rest.”

  “Well, Lawson can use his magic,” Yel’ane said.

  “It doesn’t work that way,” Lawson replied. “A broken leg or wound of a Human; that I can do something about. But horses? The mednannies weren’t designed for them. It could be dangerous to even try without great need, indeed.”

  “What you’re saying is we have to leave the horses here?” Nessa said.

  “Yes, that would be best for them.”

  “What are we to do then?” Ani’ya asked. “We can’t walk all the rest of the way.”

  Greth scratched his head, “Well.”

  Yel’ane gaped, “You expect the girls to ride them?”

  ‘They must,’ echoed through their minds.

  “We’re going to ride them?” one of the girl exclaimed.

  “That’s ridiculous!” Nessa said. “If you think those straps will—”

  Vi’ya clapped her hands. “Just like in the murals!”

  Everyone stared at her.

  “Hound racing… You’ve seen the murals in the Court of Lords,” Vi’ya said.

  “That’s just depicts legend,” Nessa said, lamely.

  Vi’ya glared back, “And so was Lord Kyrr, too, many people say. The same ones who say that there’s no such thing as a real prophecy of the Secondson, but we know different.”

  “The mural,” En’sta said, glancing at her strap. “This symbol. One of the racing hounds had this symbol on it.”

  “This one, too.” Girls stared at Thri’la. “Vi’ya’s right and you know it. Mistress Men’tin mentioned the legend in class.”

  “When we were, what, four or five years old?” another girl chuckled.

  Vi’ya frowned, “I’d forgotten about that.”

  “Well, I remember,” Thri’la said. “Uh, the hounds were said to have been as big as these, and ridden in races by specially trained girls.”

  “They also served as defenders against goblins and anything else that tried to infiltrate Cathart,” En’sta said.

  Ani’ya blinked, “There was something else…”

  Lowering her head, Vi’ya said, “Weren’t most of the hounds female, like us?”

  Yel’ane shook her head, “If I remember right, hounds led our ancestors through the Blight and suffered the Curse like our people did.”

  ‘The hounds were bound to your fate… and to your Houses’,’ the unicorn shared.

  “But they’re supposed to be all dead,” Yel’ane said. “The legend said the last male died centuries ago.”

  The hounds panted, listening patiently, then Res’yr snuck closer and found herself being licked and starting hugged the hound. “It tickles!”

  #

  “What are they doing?” Yel’ane muttered as they strapped the girls each to a hound.

  The girls wouldn’t stop giggling as their hounds milled about with them on their backs. “If I were you, I would work on how to direct them.”

  Ani’ya’s hound reared up, then leaped over Vi’ya’s. “Hey!”

  ‘Gently set your hands and feet against their shoulders and legs,’ the unicorn shared.

  Wide-eyed, the girls did so, soon learning how to make their unusual mounts stop, go forward, and to the right and left. Turning their heads, the hound’s tongue lolled out, licking their cheeks, and lips. “Yuck!” a girl cried.

  “Somehow I think I’m going to need another bath,” another chuckled.

  ‘Practice…’

  Casber shook his head at their antics.

  Greth set one of the large interwoven straps to Lawson’s back, then belted his much more expansive set on. Greth looked at Nessa. “You good with that bow?”

  “Where did you even get this?” Nessa replied, frowning. The bow was a recurve and gripped as Cathartan ones typically were made.

  “You good with one or not?”

  “Very.”

  “Then fetch one of those two quivers and—” Greth knelt down, “climb and mount up. We’ll be taking point.”

  Yel’ane stared at Lawson stepped back, getting used to the harness of straps hanging from his back as Casber mounted the unicorn and retrieved the other bow and quiver full of arrows.

  Nessa set her right foot on to the lowest of what looked to be the rungs of a ladder as Yel’ane watched. “Your bow and quiver.” She handed it to him and he connected them to the straps beneath his left shoulder. You will need to take hold of each of those straps lying below the rungs as you climb up. I looped the ends.” Taking each of the long flat straps in her hands, she started her climb. “The rungs are slipping upward behind me.”

  “You like that?” Greth chuckled. “They will form a seat.”

  “Greth,” Lawson said, “you engineered that.”

  “Um, no, found them in the second chest. But I did pay en
ough attention in our lessons to understand their operation, Lawson.”

  His friend laughed. “Always quick witted.”

  “The difference in being a live hunter over a dead one.”

  Nessa shook her head, “The rungs are getting narrower and narrower.”

  “Yes, part of the design,” Greth replied.

  She finished her odd climb.

  “Hand me the loops of leather.”

  She did. He pulled up first one side, buckling in the straps first at his shoulders. The rungs top most rungs came up beneath her spread legs, then the originally furthest ones came up against her back, creating a perch. “Let me know if I belt you in too tightly.”

  “It fits me rather, um, perfectly.”

  “Perhaps, made for you.”

  Yel’ane stared at the shorter leather ladder hanging from Lawson’s back, which every time she tried to reach for it, swung just out of reach as Lawson moved to belt the harness’s long straps.

  “Well, are you going to let me climb up or what?” the girl demanded as they realized the hounds sat on their haunches, all the girls harnessed, half-standing.

  Lawson sighed, “As I think we both understand its operation better, please do.”

  Crossing the straps across his chest, Greth linked buckles around them at the front of the harness, then slipped the wide loops at the end over his boots and around his ankles. “I can loosen or tighten the straps to make you more comfortable.”

  Yel’ane set her bow and quiver in place, then climbed, glad it was nowhere near as high, while envying Nessa the taller perch and resulting seat.

  “Good up there?” Greth asked.

  “It’s different.” She retrieved her bow and tried to sight it. “My leaning this far over when shooting straight ahead is going to be a problem?”

  “No, I have good balance and your weight is rather negligible to me.”

  Yel’ane foot in the stirrups, and began handing Lawson the strap loops. The rungs formed her perch. She blinked, then realized the girls were grinning.

  Ani’ya asked, “Perfect fit?”

  “Likely as good as that harness you’ve got,” she replied.