by Thomas Rath
Hilden put a hand on Segford’s arm and squeezed it. “No need to git yerself all upset Segford,” Hilden hissed. “I’m sure that Teek here will handle it. Won’t ye, lad.”
Teek stared at the two dwarfs, Segford holding a scowl and Hilden smiling. He jumped when Jancar’s hand touched his shoulder. “No need ta fear, lad,” Jancar said. “This be the way to our home. We almost be to the door.”
Teek watched the dwarfs for a long moment unable to decide when Segford suddenly broke loose of Hilden’s grasp and started towards Tchee. “’Tain’t no matter to me what ye do, lad. Stay or come, it all be the same to me, but be so kind as ta move yer friend here so that I might be gettin’ home ‘fore dark.”
Tchee let out a deafening roar as Segford approached bringing the dwarf up short. Turning back to Teek he threw up his hands. “Well, lad. What’s it gonna be?”
Teek let out a deep breath. “I’m sorry. Of course, I’m coming but how do I get her to move?” he asked pointing at Tchee who seemed ready to perch there forever.
Segford looked at the Roc and then back at Teek and shrugged his shoulders.
“I’ve got an idea,” Hilden said moving over towards Segford. “Ye stay here, Teek, while the rest o’ us go through and then ye follow. Let her know it be all right and that ye’ll be back tomorrow. If she let’s ye past, then we’ll be at supper together within the hour. If she don’t, then we part ways here an’ we’ll give Helgar yer best.”
Without another word, the three dwarfs moved toward Tchee and then walked their way around her to the right, watching her the whole time as they did so. Tchee made no move to stop them, keeping her eyes locked on Teek the whole time. When he could no longer see the dwarfs, he started towards her, his arms outstretched.
“It’s all right, Tchee. I’m just going to go with them for tonight. Tomorrow I’ll come out the same way and we can leave.”
Tchee gurgled low in her throat as if in rebuttal but made no sign of moving. Teek stopped in front of her and reached up and rubbed the soft feathers on her chest. She let out a soft coo of approval and then gave a gentle chirp. Teek stepped back and looked into the blue eyes that were taking him in. They held him for a moment as if drawing him into a hypnotic state and then without warning she raised her head and blasted the mountain walls with a loud cry. EEEERRRRROOOOCCCCC!!! He quickly pressed his hands against his ears trying to protect them from the explosion of sound. And then, to his amazement, she hopped away from the opening.
He smiled. “Don’t worry, Tchee,” he said softly trying to reassure her. “I’ll be back tomorrow, and then we can go home, all right?”
Tchee didn’t move or make a sound.
Teek shrugged and then moved towards the crack in the mountain. Just before he entered he paused and looked back at her. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he started to say when a pair of rough hands grabbed hold of him and yanked him into the narrow opening. Tchee’s head darted forward like lightning just barely getting it into the crack but it was too late; she couldn’t move in any farther and Teek and his captor were already too far away for her to reach.
Teek kicked and thrashed about with his tiny body trying to free himself from the hands that accosted him but they were too strong. “What are you doing?” he shouted, as he realized the hands belonged to Segford. Tchee was digging at the side of the rock now with her razor talons trying to break the mountain away to get to him, her cries ones of fury and promised death.
Segford didn’t answer but just pulled him back farther, deeper into the canyon and away from Tchee. The Roc’s cries were getting farther and farther away when Segford dragged him around a corner where the canyon suddenly separated into a bowl shape that curved up the walls and around overhead and then straight up again. Teek saw Hilden and Jancar waiting there and called out to them. “Help, Segford’s gone mad!”
“Shut up, ye thief,” Jancar spat, grabbing his legs and quickly tying them together with rope.
“Thief?” Teek cried. “What are you talking about?”
But there was no answer. A sack was forced over his head and then something hit him in the back of the skull.
CHAPTER THREE
Teek slowly regained consciousness in a swirl of dizzying motion that seemed to move with the rhythm of the pounding that shot through his head from the back of his skull and then out through his eyes. The ground itself seemed to tilt and sway with the spinning in his head upsetting his already weak and empty stomach. He gripped at the rough-hewn floor in a futile attempt to stop the perceived motion and gain a tiny bit of relief. The cool hardness of the uneven ground was all he could grasp as reality so he concentrated on it, feeling the surface with his hands and gaining the slightest relief from its chill. He took deep breaths in an attempt to calm his stomach and clear his head through the ache but it was slow in coming. He tried to think of what happened but his senses were muddled and thinking only made his head pound harder.
The air smelled damp and moldy giving him the strange perception of death. Was this death? He never thought it would be so disorienting and painful. Was this where you went until someone completed the appeasing journey to release you to the ancestors? That thought ignited a spark and tiny flashes of memory began peeking through the haze and pain. He suddenly felt an urgent need to be going somewhere and to be doing something. Faces flashed in his mind that he knew he recognized but couldn’t quite identify. Suddenly, a voice pushed through the fog. I will watch over you on your adventure. What adventure? He reached for the voice as it came again echoing through his mind. I will watch over you on your adventure. He knew that voice, he knew he did. The face of an old man came into focus in his mind as he repeated the words. I will watch over you on your adventure. Twee? Twee. The name meant something, he was certain of it. Twee. Then he remembered. Something connected in his brain and the fog and confusion dissipated in a rush.
Reaching down to the cloth around his waist he felt the hidden pocket that was laced inside it and touched the hard figure of the medallion his old friend had given him at his death. He had forgotten it was there but felt great relief to find it still safe. That and the dagger his mother had given him were all of his cherished possessions. He felt his side for his mother’s gift but knew before he reached for it that it would not be there. The dwarfs. But why? His mother had always told him that the dwarfs were a good race of noble people. It was a dwarf that had given her the dagger and also the gems to help her complete her own appeasing journey. Why would they attack him? It was all too confusing and trying to work it out only made his head ache more. The best thing for the moment was to merely lie still and wait for the beating in his skull to cease. He listened to the wispy sound of his own breathing and tried to will the pounding out of his head and into the cool rock beneath him.
* * *
He awoke with a start. He thought he’d heard a door close. A tiny candle winked at him just a few feet away straining to beat back the darkness of his new home. It wasn’t bright but was just enough to reveal the outline of a hardwood door just to its right. On the left he could make out the shape of a bowl emitting just the tiniest hint of steam. Taking a deep breath, he tried to catch the scent of it but only caught the dusty smell that haunted his cell.
With a heavy sigh, he crawled slowly toward the light, shading his eyes as he did so. Though a tiny flicker, his eyes had become accustomed to the suffocating blackness that squeezed in on him and they were now reacting as if they’d never seen light before. Had he been here that long? Of course, there was no way of telling, though he figured it couldn’t have been more than a couple of days. His head felt better, the pounding more like an echo now, but he didn’t want to move too suddenly and wake the pain again.
Reaching for the bowl he found a mound of something pasty. Pulling it up to his nose he took a hesitant sniff but could still only catch the dusty scent of the room. Dipping in a finger he touched the mash to his tongue and found its taste was not much stronger than its odor. Taking a la
rger piece he swallowed it down. His stomach didn’t seem to object, in fact, a rumble traveled up his chest as if pleading for more, so he put his whole hand in and grabbed what was left. As he ate, Teek glanced about his surroundings taking advantage of the tiny amount of light before the candle went completely out. It became obviously that its purpose was to allow just enough time to eat before consuming itself in a tuft of smoke.
The light revealed a crude cave of sorts carved out of sold rock that formed a perfect square. He figured he could stretch his arms out from the middle of the room and still have just enough space to take a step in any direction. It was small and confining. The door was made of a solid piece of hardwood that snuggled in perfectly with the rock opening making a tight seal except for a tiny crack along the bottom. It was curved at the top and lacked a handle. It was obvious that escape was futile. And even if the chance to get away presented itself, he didn’t know where he was; where would he go?
The candle flickered and gasped and he knew it was only moments before he was embraced by darkness again. Surprisingly, he found that he was not as afraid as he thought he might be. Having accepted his circumstances he felt little anxiety as to what was going to happen to him. It had to be a misunderstanding. That’s how he comforted himself anyway. His mother had told him of the dwarfs many times. They were a fair and honest people. He would just wait until they came for him and then everything would be worked out. The candle suddenly gave one last breath of life and then choked itself out encasing him in a cocoon of darkness.
* * *
Time became meaningless, crawling along slowly with tiny breaks marked only by the occasional meal and candle wisp. At first Teek had kept count of the times his meals came trying to keep track of days by the number of bowls he’d licked clean. But, his idealistic thoughts of dwarfs and their fairness were snuffed out with the faded candlelight ten bowls of gruel ago. His previous feelings of eventual release had quickly dissipated leaving him with the growing pain of loss and loneliness that brought on a dreaded sense of hopelessness. Would he live out the rest of his life in this tomb, forgotten by all and given up for dead by his family? It seemed almost inevitable. He began to sink into despair. The thought of death quickly became a welcomed friend if he could only find it. Better dead then left alone in such solitude and darkness.
The latch on the door clicked and the door moved outward. Was it time for another meal? He wasn’t sure but it seemed like he’d eaten only a short time before. He was puzzled why they even bothered to feed him if his lot was to stay trapped in this solid rock prison. No matter. He’d decided to stop eating. There was no pleasure in it anyway. A slop of gruel three times a day was nothing to look forward to. He would rather just be left to his dark tomb to die. The pain of starving to death could not compare to the pain he felt for his family. They would never know what happened to him. They would always wonder why he never returned. He supposed that, in time, his mother would depart on another appeasing journey to send his soul to his ancestors. The thought of her putting herself in harms way just for him was almost too much for him to bear.
A bright light followed the open door this time forcing him to roll away and cover his eyes. It was not the tiny candle he was used to that flooded his cell. A rough voice growled, “Put this over yer eyes,” just as something landed in his lap, startling him. He felt it with his hands and discovered a small piece of oval leather with small cords tied on either side. Picking it up, he wrapped the cords around his head and quickly tied them at the back leaving the leather as a protective shield over his eyes.
“On yer feet,” the voice growled again.
No sooner was he on his feet then rough hands grabbed him and forced his arms behind his back tightly tying his wrists. The hands then grabbed his arm and dragged him forward and out of the cell. He didn’t know whether to feel elation or dread. Was he to be set free or executed? They turned left down another corridor but then made so many twists and turns that he lost all sense of direction. They did ascend a number of stairways but such knowledge was of no use to him and only made his legs tire more quickly to the point where he had to be carried. He was surprised that the time spent cramped in his little cell had weakened him so.
Suddenly, they stopped and he could hear a door being opened. The guard carrying him stepped through and Teek felt a cool breeze wash over his body filling him with renewed life. It was like knocking down the cobwebs left from a long winter and sweeping the dust out the door. He was outside again! He could feel the warmth of the sun caress his tired limbs warming them in its embrace and sparking his heart with a newfound hope. Could it be he was finally going to be let go? The thought was almost too much to hope for. He would go straight home and take his family in his arms again and never let them go. He had had enough adventure for one lifetime. Twee had been right. The best adventures were those spent at home with his family. Twee. Oh, no. He still had his appeasing journey to complete. He had to complete the task, and he would. But, then it was straight home for good.
As they walked, he could make out the distant voices of others quickly growing louder until they made another turn and he found himself in an overwhelming din. With the noise came a myriad of smells that made his mush filled stomach grumble in anger. The smell of cakes and roasting meats and frying vegetables along with many tasty scents he couldn’t put names to wafted against his nose making his mouth water. Where could they be where such a large number of people would be gathered?
A chill ran up his spine as he remembered the two men who had captured him after he released Tchee from their trap. Zel and Brak were taking him to Gildor to be sold as a slave. Is that what the dwarfs had in store for him now? But they were far from Gildor. They had to be. Even though he had never been there, he knew that it was days from where he had been captured, unless, that is, he’d been taken there while unconscious and had been held in a dungeon under the city this whole time. The sun’s warmth suddenly became cold with the thought. This adventure was nothing like he’d imagined it would be. Where are you Twee with your promise to watch over me?
With another unexpected turn, the noise from the crowd quickly faded away until it became a low hum in the distant background occasionally broken by a passerby. Teek thought he could feel a gentle rise as he was carried farther along into the unknown. Another door opened and then closed behind them, shutting out the sun and breeze along with his hopes of release. It was too much to try and guess what his fate would be. The ups and downs of hope and despair were wearing on him to the point of sapping away any will to live on. He suddenly felt numb. More doors opened and closed but he paid them no mind.
Finally, he was set down on his wobbly legs and rough hands jerked at the knot holding his eye covering in place. The leather that had protected his eyes from the unfamiliar light was suddenly removed leaving him naked to the brightness of the room. He kept his eyes closed, shut tightly for long moments while trying to allow them time to adjust to the light.
“Where am I?”
The question was answered with a heavy handed slap to the back of his head. “Ye be askin’ no questions here, boy. Ye just be answerin’ what’s asked when it be asked.”
Teek blinked at the brightness catching tiny glimpses of his surroundings as he tried to get a better grasp of his situation. What he really wanted to do was cry, but somehow he knew that to do so would only earn him greater wrath from his guard.
The room they were in was small and without furnishings. Three sconces holding torches were fixed to the walls on either side making it painfully bright. A large, iron-studded, wood door greeted him in the front mirroring the one they had just come through at his back. Except for the carpeted floor, he felt that he very well could have been back in his cell.
He suddenly realized the presence of a second guard standing behind and to his left, making the room feel even more cramped and confining. Both guards had powerful looking arms that looked large enough to crush stone by merely swinging the meaty han
ds that hung at their sides. Neither carried a visible weapon but it was obvious that either of them could snap him in half without the slightest effort. Both were dressed in black-leather that gripped tightly to their rippled bodies almost giving them the appearance of having black skin. Long red hair draped in a braid down their backs contrasted greatly against the leather giving it an almost blood hue.
The one thing that did strike Teek more than anything was that the proud beard that normally swathed the belly of most dwarfs was curiously absent. Instead, each wore a tightly trimmed goatee that extended on either side of the jaw like small pieces of rope. These, like their hair, were tightly braided. In fact, both dwarfs would have looked strikingly identical save for the patch that covered the left eye of one.
Long moments stretched on and passed and neither guard moved or said a word. Both might have been carved directly out of the stone that made up the walls if not for the occasional breath that revealed them as living. What were they waiting for? Teek had dared not move from the spot where they dropped him but his legs were starting to weaken and cramp and he wasn’t sure how much longer he would be able to stand. Suddenly, the door opened and he yelped with surprise. This earned him another smack to the head that nearly dropped him to the floor.
Another black leather clad guard stood in the door and issued a solitary command. “Come.”
Teek felt the rough hands grab him about the arms again and half lift him forward into a cavernous room that was grander than any he had ever imagined. The room was so large that Tchee could have flown comfortably around in it and not been cramped in the least. Four gigantic pillars rose from the smooth rock floor each carved in the shape of a rock troll holding up the ceiling far above. They gave Teek the shivers. He had heard of such horrible beasts from Twee and he couldn’t help but feel that their eyes were somehow directed right at him. At first it appeared that the walls to either side were decorated with magnificent tapestries that reached from ceiling to floor but he quickly realized that the pictures were actually carved right into the walls themselves. They were beautiful and terrible at the same time with intricately designed and perfectly detailed scenes of battle and death that were truly frightening. He couldn’t help but feel that the warriors depicted in the panoramas could, at any moment, jump out of the rock and attack. Although there was no obvious source of light, the room shone brightly, reflecting off the polished rock and giving him the feeling that nothing could be hidden here.
