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

by D. H. Aire

  “Of course, I do!”

  “Me, too!”

  “Stand back, girls,” Lawson said, kneeling down.

  Before he could stand back up, she tossed her bow to Ani’ya and threw her arms around Lawson and kissed him.

  Nessa winced.

  Greth sighed.

  Casber frowned, wondering what was wrong with the two of them. Girls married young, didn’t they? Well, he frowned, his cousin hadn’t wanted to, but still…

  Agwin had her arms crossed, caught his gaze, and she shrugged, grinned and laughed.

  ‘What’s good for the sheep is good from the ram, yes?’

  He blinked. Perhaps, there was such a thing as too young. He certainly was…

  Chapter 30 – THORINSKATH

  The Seeress stood once more atop the outer way. She felt the stirring in the earth. Sensed more than one reason. She closed her eyes, felt a nebulous probing, a prodding of dark magery within Thorn’s warded demesne.

  She could not see the goblins, but knew the goblin mage’s work. She turned her head northward, could not see Fenn du Blain, but could see that he no longer tried to breach the Empire’s northern keep. He had lost too much. His reserves were headed this way in force, the thousands she had already foreseen, who would lay torch to the Thorns.

  ‘Fool woman, you have tempted fate,’ the unicorn shared, ambling forth from the inner bailey courtyard and gate, then hesitated.

  “I know it would be better that I had died, but he interfered. I should never have set eyes on Gwilliam.”

  “Mistress?” her apprentice said.

  Ignoring the child, she continued, “That is when I glimpsed… this and the possibilities beyond.”

  ‘You have tampered with his destiny.’

  “What do any of us know about the nature of reality? How do you know that yours is the only way?”

  ‘This world is my charge! I am the last…’

  The Seeress turned away, closing off her thoughts, sensing…

  PROMISED! the word shook her, she fell.

  “Mistress!”

  On her knees, she shook herself. “Ah, the goblins think to curse us… all the more fools they… It is nearly time.”

  #

  Agwin knocked on the door. Nessa answered, frowned, “What?”

  “The Seeress says Lord Casber must come.”

  Lawson opened his door, Yel’ane following, “Uh, hi, Nessa, I need Casber.”

  “Doesn’t anyone believe in sleep?” Nessa said.

  Yel’ane blushed.

  Nessa shrugged, “Casber?”

  The boy came to the door rubbing his eyes, “Uh, what?”

  Agwin said, “The Seeress wishes to see you.”

  He looked at Lawson. “Sorry, we’ve something else to do. It’ll take just a few minutes.”

  Staring, Agwin shook her head, gesturing to the assigned guardswomen to follow him. Nessa shook her head and closed the door as Greth rumbled, “Just needs to call Mother. Go back to bed.”

  She sighed, wondering if she should stop trying… “Damn,” she put on her shoes and grabbed her quiver and bow. “Anything happens to him, Momma will never forgive me.” She knew she would never forgive herself. She opened the window and climbed down, not wanting to give Agwin the satisfaction. Casber was as good as her brother, just as much as Vyss was, though they shared no blood in common.

  #

  Casber saw the Seeress standing in their way only her apprentice by her side. “Good, you have come.”

  Lawson looked up at the second moon rising, “Hold that thought, we’ll be right back.”

  “I will walk with you… The best place for you to commune with your god is by the wall, there.”

  Casber looked at Lawson as Nessa dropped down from the stone wall behind them. The bodyguards drew their swords. The Seeress shook her head, “Sorry I forgot to mention to Agwin that Lady Nessa is expected… Let us go, we would not want you to miss your moment.”

  They walked in silence as Yel’ane glanced at Lawson, who frowned.

  “Has anyone told you of the history of Dragonmount?” the Seeress said, smiling at Casber.

  The boy shook his head.

  “It has been a place of ill omen to any but us of the Thorns who respect its ways.”

  In the distance Fenn’s army began setting fire to the forest, behind their troops who had already infiltrated through them and now lay in wait beyond the keep’s wall. Soon the watch would see the flames, yell warning, waking all in the keep.

  “Respect it not and you might wake the sleeping dragon, or so they say. Can you see its shape within the ridge line?”

  Casber chuckled, “You mean people believed…”

  “The dragon? Yes, see its tail curves that way and on the opposite side there must be its head… It must have died long ago. No one seems to know if it was in battle or from old age. But you know what I believe?”

  Casber looked at her as they approached.

  She smiled. “It was in battle with the greatest of warriors… a lord. A foreign lord, perhaps. He would have come at the call of an elvin lord who knew not how to defeat the dragon. Would that not have been wonderous? An elvin lord calling upon a human to save his Empire and here the lord and his archers stood and fought the black dragon.”

  The jewel about Casber’s throat began to glow.

  :Come in Assistant Engineers!:

  “Here, Mother,” Lawson whispered.

  :No time! Detecting movement just north of your position. The forest has been set fire! Immediately leave your current position!:

  Lawson cried, “Enemies at the gate!”

  Nessa and Yel’ane instantly drew their bow and the Seeress raised her hand, forestalling Casber’s bodyguards. Casber was staring at the ridge as the earth shifted. A claw ripped free of the ground.

  FREE ME AS YOU PROMISED!

  The words seemed to knock them from their feet. The dragon’s black scaled arm reached out and probed closer and closer as Casber scooted back and Nessa loosed one of her black arrows.

  YOU PROMISED TO FREE ME FROM THE FOREVER DREAM!

  The arrow struck, and there was an explosion.

  The dragon fought to rise, crying out in anguish. THE HATED METAL! NO! FREE ME!

  The Seeress rose to her knees. “Thorinskath! You shall keep your promise!”

  A scale landed in front of Lawson, he grabbed it up, “We’ve got to get the girls and get out of here!”

  Yel’ane nodded as the earth quaked around them and the wall began to buckle. Nessa looked back and gaped. Gwilliam and had taken position before the keep’s gate, while archers now stood atop the walls. The unicorn stood, horn aglow, before the outer bailey’s gate.

  “NO! FREE ME!” the dragon’s arm slashed about as they back out of reach.

  “My lord, demand the dragon keep his promise!” the Seeress cried.

  The boy’s eyes were wide, the jewel about his neck blazing, “YOU WILL KEEP YOUR PROMISE!” he shouted in an impossibly loud voice.

  “THORINSKATH!” a voice cried out the very heavens.

  The earth shook and not from the thrashing dragon trying to free itself.

  “THORINSKATH, YOU SHALL KNOW SUCH PAIN!” the voice screamed.

  Lawson stared, as the Seeress threw up her arms, “The Lady hears our plea!”

  Casber yelled, “Yel’ane! Nessa! Fire!”

  The loosed arrow after arrow. The dragon shrieked in agony as explosions blasted across its scales. It drew back, bucking. NO MORE! I, THORINSKATH, SHALL KEEP MY PROMISE!

  #

  Fenn’s troops had snuck up in the dead of night to Dragonmounts great outer wall. The expected the gate to open as soon as the fire heading toward them was seen. If not, they had battering rams enough. Fenn’s general had two thousand men readying ladders for their men to take that wall, which was Dragonmount’s best defense.

  The refugee rabble would fall to them, even with Gwilliam’s talisman to fend off magery as it did all their atte
mpts to scry the Thorns.

  When the earth shifted around the wall, the explosions and the cries from within were heard, the men wondered if the general had managed to infiltrate and open the gate to them. Then they heard from the very heavens: “THORINSKATH!” and the earth shook, knocking those two thousand and the thousand nearest off their feet. “THORINSKATH, YOU SHALL KNOW SUCH PAIN!”

  The soldiers gaped, hearing explosion after explosion.

  The towering wall atop the ridge swayed, buckled, toppled down upon them. The screams of men echoed, cut short and shouts fear as men sought to flee from the stone pouring down on them. A thousand died in moments, another thousand cried out, trapped.

  Fenn’s general stared as something huge climbed out of the very earth. He cried out to the second moon, spat flame.

  “Dragon!” thousands cried, turning to flee.

  The general turned to his mage, “The Lord of Demons raises a dragon against us?”

  The mage gaped, shook his head, “The dragons are His Creatures. It dare not—”

  Climbing the fallen stone, the dragon flamed, incinerated all it touched. It glanced back, roaring, turning to face the army before it.

  The mage ran forward, “The Lord of Demons commands you! We are its minions!”

  The dragon heard the mage, leaped into the air, wings spread wide. It opened its maw and spat flame.

  The general ducked as the trees around him caught fire, his archers fleeing into the woods. The dragon beat upward, the power of it ripping whole burning trees up from their roots, sending them down on the general who was crushed beneath them, as they trapped thousands. Weapons, bows were dropped and the dragon settled to the earth, bent its neck and fed after long centuries.

  #

  “What have I done?” the boy cried.

  The Seeress rose, “Fulfilled prophecy, Milord.”

  The unicorn bounded forward as Gwilliam’s archers raced to the east, where hundreds were trying to flee. Men with pitchforks, axes and too few spears ran off to the west.

  Casber climbed the stone of what was left of the wall. He stood and gaped at the dragon, which turned to look back at him.

  I AM IN THRALL TO NO ONE, LORD TO DEMONS OR YOU, CURSED HUMAN.

  THORINSKATH! Cried the voice from the heavens, YOU WILL KEEP YOUR PROMISE.

  The dragon looked up at the second moon, I WILL KILL HIM! MY MASTER DEMANDS IT!

  YOU SHALL NOT!

  The dragon cringed back. I CARE NOT. LEAVE ME EAT MY FILL.

  OBEY THE LORD AS YOU PROMISED OR KNOW SUCH PAIN.

  He glanced back at the boy, turned and spat fire into the night sky, then quieted and turned to feast on his terrible larder.

  The Seeress warned, “Lawson, quickly, Casber is about to fall.”

  He ran and grabbed the boy as the jewel went dark.

  “Mistress!” her apprentice cried as the Seeress collapsed.

  Interlude

  Breathing hard, she muttered, “No! No! No!”

  She could not help but read every word of the dragon’s wakening, of the death and destruction it wrought. Of reading of her cries being heard…

  “It’s my fault!” she shouted at the now blank page.

  No, it isn’t.

  “Well, I know it is… He’s woken and he’s going to… did… Oh!” she sobbed, turning away.

  #

  In the dimming past, the woman sat, knowing the girl would not see any words she wrote at this moment. “Help me,” she whispered. “If she closes the book, we are well and truly done…”

  #

  The library’s existence fluttered.

  Startled, the girl looked up, “What?”

  :You woke me.:

  “Huh?”

  :I thought it a dream… This story you read.:

  “Who are you?”

  :That is the question they always have, is it not?:

  She stood up.

  “This is Underhill. Underhill is not alive.”

  :Underhill is not, no. Then, again, this is not Underhill.:

  “It’s really a library, then?”

  :I have more than one face, and he redecorated.:

  “Who?”

  :The funny one… He had quite the sense of humor.:

  “Who?”

  :Casber’s friend.:

  “Greth?”

  :Oh, not someone in that book. Though, I recognize his hand in this. Oh, quite the sense of humor. The Demon Lord nearly died of apoplexy… Interesting word that. Thank you for it.:

  “You’re thanking me for it?”

  :It’s in your vocabulary; therefore, in mine. Fascinating this language… and such colorful language, apparently not to be repeated. I will keep that in mind.:

  “Um,” she muttered, uncertain, knowing exactly what colorful words her mother ordered her on pain of… well, never to use again. That she had learned them from her mother, she was careful not to admit. “Uh, who made the library?”

  :He is in that one there and those there. Hmm, that ash pile is one he had been in but hope died because of it… This book is becoming more hopeful by the chapter. There are others you will read that will not so easy to infect.:

  “Infect?”

  :As Thorinskath has been. He will still do battle with thy father… and there will be death and destruction.:

  “So this is my fault somehow!”

  :Yours? It was fated, child. But luck now plays its hand and with the power of such a paradox, unravel the Demon’s plans, perhaps, can be accomplished.:

  “You’re saying I’ve changed something. Father… lives?”

  :He is not here, child. Much that is hoped for is not. Changes have been made, but they were not enough. However, with your help there is hope of reuniting you with your father.:

  “By reading that book? These books?”

  :Child of the Moon and Stars, you have awoken me. The books offer knowledge of what was, and what must not be.:

  “Must not be… like Papa?”

  :That is but one piece. It will take many to save the world. Hmm, your body is thinking of a new word for me. Hungry. Are you hungry?:

  “Huh?” her stomach growled.

  :You are. You should not be, but you have been busy have you not. And, pondering it, I saw you licking your lips when they were eating in the cellar.: A pinprick of darkness appeared beside her, grew, rippling and a plate of cheese and slice of bread tipped out of it. :Yel’ane thought she had miscounted as she portioned the breakfast to the girls.:

  “It didn’t say that!”

  :She was embarrassed to admit it, so the Seeress long ago did not write it. Eat.:

  “That’s not possible.”

  :Why?:

  “You can’t just reach across time and space and…” she blinked, looked at the plate, looked back up. “Uh, you…”

  :Yes. At the time I was woken just enough to change fate, rather dramatically.:

  “You can’t be talking to me!”

  :Hmm, why not?:

  “Because I’m not… you know.”

  :Yet. But you did, would have… I find your words to be rather limiting.:

  She began eating, trying not to think about it. “Um, I am not going to start calling him, Milord.”

  :Of course, not. You are not Cathartan.:

  “I’m really going to?”

  :I suggest you finish reading this one, then all the others later. You will be surprised what fate might have in store with just a little luck.:

  Chapter 31 – Keep

  The goblin mage lay dead, his body dumped from the outcropping of rock that had been their vantage of the dragon’s rise. That it brought devastation to the Demonlord’s many unwitting minions and his Master’s Select left his blood near ice in his veins.

  The goblin lord felt no joy having strangled him with his bare hands. No, this was the unicorn and the damned trolls doing. The dragon now feasted on his fresh roasted meat, moving through the trees as the defenders rounded up the frightened Trelorian
prisoners, helms and weapons cast aside.

  He had not the mage’s breadth of knowledge, but goblin lords had magery of their own and he used it to keep all eyes from looking in his direction as he walked up to the open rear gate of what remained of the keep. The prisoners were ordered to sit and hand over their shoes, pants and small clothes.

  Embarrassed, none argued, the dragon briefly flew over the keep almost as if all the food he had eaten now was weighing him down. He settled at the edge of the forest there, turned his head upward and belched fire into the night sky.

  A half dozen men threw down their arms and walked toward the prisoners, unbidden. “We surrender!”

  He sniffed the cloth with its dried blood, then sniffed the air. The girl scent drew him. All looked away.

  The dragon looked back toward the keep, a look of cunning in his eyes.

  #

  “He’s so cold!” Nessa muttered, shivering under the blankets.

  “I cannot believe I am doing this.”

  “You can’t?” Nessa rasped.

  “Bring more blankets,” Lawson ordered. “Excellent, now we’ll leave you to get some sleep.” We waved the gaping servants out.

  “You’re not staying?”

  “With you looking so comfy?” he replied.

  “Lawson.”

  “The girls are half out of their minds with that dragon out there,” he said, backing away.

  “Lawson, the girls will be fine.”

  “I’m not getting any sleep tonight, I assure you. Gwilliam and Truthsayer want my advice later.”

  “He means they want his brute strength, since someone else we know is rather busy at the moment,” Yel’ane said, nudging Lawson out the door. “Let no one in there without Lawson’s or my leave.”

  The guards nodded, looking at each other. When Yel’ane and Greth had gone into their own room, one muttered, “Think it’s a trollish custom?”

  “I’m not one to judge,” the other grinned.

  #

  Casber lay unconscious between them, the blankets piled high. Nessa looked across Casber, “He’s making me really cold.”

  “What do you want me to do about it?”

  “I don’t know.”

  He frowned, “Chafe him.”

  “Rub his arms to stir the flow of his blood… The movement will likely both warm him and the activity will likely help you not feel so cold.”