The two of them walked through the city to the south side, where Theus found a massive wall had been constructed, and an elaborate gate had been built to provide entrance from the road into the city. Theus said farewell to his friend, and then began to travel along the road, taking small steps of a few miles at a time as he tried to stay directly on the path of the thoroughfare in the mountains. He walked across impressive bridges that reminded him of the very bridge where he had fallen from his caravan, and he passed through tunnels that were long and dim with light that entered from either end.
By the approach of mid-afternoon, Theus reached the end of the reconstructed road, and he was greeted by dozens of granitines who swarmed around him when he arrived.
“Lord Prometheus,” Crystal pressed her way to the front of throng and addressed him. “What great honor brings you to visit us?”
“Hello Crystal,” he greeted the granitine who had first met him, and offered shelter from a mountain blizzard. “I have travelers on the way to Limber,” he replied. “I need to know when your road is going to connect to the river road, and where.”
“We are working diligently,” Crystal replied. “We can reach the river road in three days. Will that be soon enough?” she asked.
“It will,” Theus concluded, “Depending on where the two roads will meet.”
“We are approaching a valley, just on the other side of this mountain,” she leaned toward the massive monolith in front of them. “We will tunnel through the mountain, and then follow the valley to the road.”
“How can you inform me of the location of the road?” Theus asked.
“I could show you. If you want, you and I can travel to the point where the valley meets your present road, and then you will know,” Crystal offered. And so the two left the other granitines behind and followed meandering paths around the mountain and along a gentle-walled, small valley that carried a stream all the way to the road beside the river. The stream passed beneath the road through a large stone culvert, and then dropped down to fall into the waters of the Landwide.
“This is the spot,” Crystal said. “When you arrive here, the new road will join with this road, and Limber will be accessible to the world once again.”
Theus looked at the western sky, where the sun was starting to set. He needed to make his way back towards the caravan, so that he could spend the night with them and travel with them through the rest of the journey.
“I thank you for your assistance,” Theus told his friend. He patted her on top of the head. “I will return to my people now and guide them here; we should arrive in just a few days.”
“We will greet you in Limber,” Crystal said earnestly. “Bring as many as you can and we will have the city ready for all of them!”
Theus reached out and gathered in the sunlight. There was less energy available from the setting sun, especially as Theus began the trip in the shadows of the mountain. He took one step, and knew that it was a shortened length, then took a second, and found himself back in the flatter lands of the prairie. He tried to match his journey to the road, so that he could stay as close to it as possible with each step, able to see and look for his companions in the caravan he had left that morning.
His steps along the road grew shorter and shorter, and he resorted to using his own energy to supplement the quickly dropping levels of energy from the fading sun. His last step into the east drained him of power as it brought him to within a half mile of the camp site of the caravan, and he slowly walked in towards the ruddy light of the campfires, where he was welcomed back among his crew.
For the next week, he and the others traveled steadily along the road, experiencing rain for a day and a half, but not suffering any other problems.
Theus traveled with his mother as often as possible, telling her some stories about the things he had seen in the world, trying to distract her from memory of her husband’s death. She listened to most of his stories with few comments, and he shielded some stories from her, telling her little about Coriae, except his descriptions of her as Forgon’s sister.
“She’s the one you were in love with?” his mother asked.
“I cared for her, a lot,” Theus fumbled to answer.
“What did you like about her?” his mother asked.
“She’s lively; she has good spirits, and a good heart. She understands what’s going on, and she’s passionate,” his memories fell back to the last time they had seen each other, when she had concluded that he was only courting her for access to her family’s wealth.
“And she’s pretty?” his mother asked.
“The prettiest girl I ever saw,” he agreed. “And she is strong; she can handle a sword or a staff as well as almost anyone in this caravan.”
“So why aren’t you two still a couple? It sounds like you still love her,” his mother asked gently.
And that’s when the band of robbers struck the caravan.
Theus heard shouts from the front of the string of wagons, while he rode with his mother in a wagon near the rear.
“I’ve got to go,” he excused himself urgently, then hopped down and started running forward. He reached out to collect the sunlight that filtered down through the clouds overhead, and then became invisible as he hurried to observe the situation.
A score of men on horses were lined on both sides of the leading wagons, and the men were armed with knives and swords and bows and arrows. Vanline was astride his horse, speaking to the leaders of the robbery gang.
Theus edged closer to listen. He didn’t see an obvious way to battle so many thieves at once, and hoped that Vanline could negotiate a reasonable price to pay for the free passage of the caravan.
“What do you think will happen?” he heard one of the thieves ask another in a low voice as they sat astride their animals on the periphery of the action.
Theus slowed down to listen to the response.
“We’ll collect a reasonable amount of toll from them, then ride away. Tonight we’ll come back while they’re asleep and we’ll kill the men, and sell the women as slaves,’’ the other answered matter-of-factly.
Theus felt his heart start to pound faster and faster at the thought of the planned attack upon the harmless caravan. He ran up to listen to Vanline’s negotiations.
“That sounds like an acceptable price,” he heard the caravan leader tell the leader of the thieves. “I’ll have the money for you in five minutes.” He turned his horse and headed back to his wagon, Theus trotting behind him, unseen.
When they reached the wagon, Theus spoke up.
“Vanline,” he called hoarsely.
“What? Who?” the caravan leader’s head rose from his bent conversation with Eiren.
“It’s me, Theus. I’m invisible. I overheard some of the robbers talk. They plan to take our money now, then come and strike tonight to kill us and plunder us,” Theus informed the pair of leaders.
“That’s dirty,” Eiren gasped.
“How many fighters could we put together?” Vanline asked Theus softly.
“Perhaps a dozen and a half,” Theus launched a wild guess, as he thought about the Jewel Hills people he knew in the group.
“Do we have enough to set up an ambush for their ambush?” Vanline asked Theus.
“What’s the hold up?” the robbers’ leader called.
Theus’s unseen head nodded yes, and then he spoke. “Yes, we could do it. I’ll follow them out of here to see where they go, and then we can pick a spot to cut them off before they come back to the caravan.”
Vanline lifted the two bags of coins that he and Eiren had assembled during the conversation.
“I’ll pay them off; you follow them. Eiren will start collecting warriors,” he said, then turned his horse and rode back towards the men blocking the road.
“Be careful Theus,” Eiren called to the unseen presence, then turned and started walking back along the line of wagons to recruit fighters for their mission.
Theus moved past t
he robbers and started down the western road to get ahead of the gang while the payment was settled. He felt his anger growing as he considered the double dishonesty of the men.
He was reasonably far down the road when he heard the sound of the horses’ hooves trotting towards him, as they left the caravan after successfully extracting the payment. Theus edged to the side of the road as the animals clipped by him, but he kept them in his sight, and when they started to pull too far ahead he took small magical steps to close the gap.
Half an hour later the men turned off the road and rode up a path that led into the steep foothills of the mountains. Theus saw an opportunity to act, to begin to extract revenge, and to weaken the group before they even began their attack.
He moved to the upper path ahead of the riders, and when they began to pass him, he swung his invisible staff with all his might, striking at the head of a rider, and knocking the man out of his saddle, his skull crushed by the heavy weapon.
There was a burst of shouts and confusion as the robbers tried to explain the inexplicable death of their partner. At last, they bundled his body in the saddle of his horse, and resumed climbing the hillside.
They reached a large glen in the hill, where a few crude buildings and a corral were constructed. Theus struck another man as he climbed down from his saddle, and then Theus brained another man who had walked over to the latrine.
“What is happening to our men?” one of the survivors shouted, as all the men started to grow nervous.
“Maybe there’s a curse on us,” one said.
“Maybe that caravan put a curse on us,” another clarified.
The sunlight began to fade, and Theus realized he needed to return to his companions to set up the ambush that was planned for the double-cross.
He took a magical step down to the eastern road, then walked further east until he reached the caravan’s campsite for the night. The wagons were parked unusually close to one another, he noted, in a defensive posture.
“We worried you might not come back,” Vanline commented.
“Do we have ten men?” Theus asked, and they proceeded to put together the squad that began to trot up the road to protect the caravan.
They stopped at Theus’s recommended narrow stretch of road and strung ropes across the darkening road at chest height to unsaddle the attackers, then took positions in the forest trees along and above the roadway.
Within an hour of the establishment of the ambush, the sound of horses approached from the west. Theus waited in the road, and after all the horses were passed him, he swung his staff at the rumps of two of the animals, making them scream and shoot forward. The unexpected movement caused a brief stampede, so that the horses were running at high speed when they passed beneath the taunt ropes that knocked the riders loose.
Men from the caravan descended on those who fell and finished them off quickly. One or two managed to get past without losing their seats, and one or two managed to halt their horses before striking the rope, but soon all were dead, and all the horses were rounded up for use by the caravan.
The next day, Vanline sent an early morning crew to the battle scene to clear away the dead robbers’ bodies before the caravan came riding by. The caravan stopped when they reached the trail up to the hideout, and Theus led Eiren and Thera and several others up to salvage goods and riches from the cabins of the former robbers.
And later that day, they reached the intersection where the new road to Limber stood wide and smooth and ready to be trod by humans for the first time.
Chapter 25
The appearance of the roadway was another feather in the cap that helped cement the reality of Theus’s claims that the caravan was going to the lost city of Limber. The wagon drivers who had ridden to the east on previous trips swore that the road had never existed before.
The road was an improvement upon the traditional riverside road. The granitines had built a smooth, even pavement of fitted stone blocks, with long, gradual slopes that were easy to navigate. It vastly overshadowed the dirt and gravel of the long-used trading road that stretched from Greenfalls to the Jewel Hills.
Theus was eager for his recruits to see the restored city of Limber, to see their splendid new home. Already, he felt a strong kinship with the city, a feeling of loyalty that he couldn’t explain. And he longed to see the reaction of the new residents when they met the granitines. The strange, stony race of caretakers would startle, then delight the people who were moving into Limber. They would play the roles of hosts, as they showed the humans around their city, providing direction to where markets could be established, fields where crops could be grown and livestock maintained, housing and parks.
He rode easily atop one of the horses that had been confiscated from the vanquished bandits, as did many others. The caravan passed through the marvelous tunnels and across the wide bridges, and at the middle of their second day on the road they rounded a curve and came into view of the city of Limber, sitting on a plateau beneath the tallest mountain in the Wallchicks.
“It’s beautiful, Theus,” Thera breathlessly praised the appearance of the city as the caravan momentarily stopped to appreciate the view.
“I didn’t completely believe it existed until now,” Vanline sheepishly admitted. “It feels like I’m seeing something from a fairy tale, except it feels more special than that; it’s like a promise fulfilled.”
The caravan picked up speed as it rode towards the open gateway in the massive wall, and the string of wagons and riders and walkers entered the city in profound silence as the people grappled with the notion of truly stepping into an empty city that they had believed only existed as a fairy tale.
“Come directly to the temple; bring your followers with you, and ask them to worship Limber,” the Voice spoke with profound clarity as its words rang in Theus’s mind. He obediently led them straight along the main boulevard, as the people began to point at architectural features of the buildings and spaces along the way. The quiet procession gave way to an increasing volume of whispers and conversations among the arrivals.
Theus rode in the front of the caravan, leading the way to the temple, then halting and dismounting upon arrival in front of the temple plaza.
He walked across the plaza and up the steps of the front of the temple, unsure of what to expect. He expected the granitines to appear; they had been strangely absent since the arrival in the city, much to Theus’s surprise.
The other members of the caravan halted their advancement, and stepped into the plaza, walking towards Theus and forming a semicircular audience that faced him.
He was at a loss. He had brought the caravan members to the temple as directed.
“This is the temple of Limber, the god of the mountains, who is the god of this city,” Theus spoke. He was biding his time, waiting for some event to occur, because he was at a loss as to what to do upon arrival in the city.
“Let us all give him thanks for providing this great city,” Theus proposed.
“Lead the prayer to Limber, Theus,” his sister called from the front of the audience.
“Great Limber,” Theus began. He saw the heads of all the watchers bow down respectfully.
“We thank you for this city, this new home for all of us. We ask for your guidance and comfort and protection as we seek to start a new life here in your domain,” he fumbled to try to express what he felt.
“For all this we thank you and pray to you, amen Lord Limber,” he clumsily closed his prayer. The words were far from elegant, but they were heart-felt.
“Amen, Lord Limber,” his followers responded.
And then there was a loud creaking noise behind Theus. He turned to see that the large doors in the front of the temple – doors far larger than any human – had swung open.
A transparent figure stood in the center of the opening, arms wide spread from having opened the doors. The figure was a man, a man three times as tall as Theus.
The figure began to walk towards Theus.
“Bow down to me,” the Voice spoke in Theus’s mind.
Theus turned his body to fully face towards the advancing entity, then bowed, and as he did, he heard the crowd in the plaza bowing as well, the swishing of their clothes and the gasps of breath telling him what was taking place behind him.
As the gathering bowed, the transparent figure strode forward. And it gained substance, transforming from a cloudy figure to a solid one, a man whose strength and wisdom were evident in his appearance.
“I am the god Limber, restored to strength in our world by the giving of your worship and thanks,” the voice spoke in strong notes. It was the Voice that had spoken so often to Theus.
“Yes,” the god seemed to know Theus’s thoughts, and his shock of recognition. “I have been with you throughout your journey, as best I was able to be.”
“Let me welcome you all to Limber. Your new lives here are the beginning of a new golden age for the city, and for you, and for the triumph of goodness over evil,” the god’s voice boomed as he spoke to the full crowd. “You are the first of the many who we hope will return to live in our fabled city, and bring health and strength to our quest to defeat evil.
“To help you, I wish to introduce my special race of children, the granitines, who will help you by maintaining and grooming the city and the landscape around. Come forth, my children, and be welcome to meet your neighbors,” Limber pronounced.
The god came to stand just a few steps away from Theus, who looked up at massive figure with a sense of overwhelming awe. And then the human-scaled doors of the temple opened, and a flood of granitines came scurrying out, flowing like a flood of water as they rushed across the front of the temple and scattered in all directions. Some went directly towards the people who still knelt in the plaza; the granitines wove among the surprised humans. Other granitines went left or right, and four of them headed directly towards Theus, and formed two pairs on either side of him, facing towards Limber as they leaned towards Theus.
Unpredictable Fortunes (The Memory Stone Series Book 3) Page 22
