At Kamarie’s voice, Rhynellewhyn calmed down visibly. “Shalintess was Rhendak’s mate.”
“And how do you know she was killed?” Kamarie asked.
“She was cut with a sword, although what sword could do that, no one knows.”
“And there are some who are blaming us for this?” Kamarie questioned.
Rhynellewhyn nodded. “Rhendak suspects that this was done by a Dark Warrior, and many Elders believe you led him down here. Oh, not on purpose,” Rhynellewhyn added hastily, seeing the looks of outrage on their faces. “But you spoke of Dark Warriors attacking Aom-igh, so naturally some concluded that they may have followed you.”
“They did not follow us,” Brant said firmly. “We came through the Pearl Cove, and to follow us was simply not possible. If it was a Dark Warrior, he found his own way.”
“I don’t think that you are the reason there was a Dark Warrior down here,” Rhynellewhyn said quickly. “I think they would have found Krayghentaliss eventually anyway. But the others…” she trailed off, shaking her head.
“Thank you for your warning, Rhynellewhyn,” Oraeyn offered. “Shouldn’t we get going?”
“Wait, before you go, I wanted to see if...” Rhynellewhyn stopped, looking embarrassed.
“To see if?” Kamarie urged.
“To see if I might travel with you,” Rhynellewhyn said, then added, “Please! I can be of so much help, and it has been so long since I was above-realm.”
Brant looked hard at the pegasus. “No.”
Rhynellewhyn looked hurt. “But I want to help.”
Brant was unmoved. “No, you cannot travel with us.”
“But why?” Kamarie exploded. “Why can’t she come with us?”
Brant did not answer, and Dylanna looked at him sharply. “Why not, Brant?”
Brant frowned. “Have I not yet earned your trust? I have to explain every single thing before you realize that I am right,” he shook his head and sighed.
Rhynellewhyn started backing away slowly, a cautious look in her blue eyes. Brant watched her with an unreadable expression on his face. Rhynellewhyn looked away, unable to meet his piercing gaze.
After a long moment, Brant spoke again, “Liars are not welcome companions.”
“What?” Kamarie cried. “You think she is making up this story about Rhendak’s mate being killed by a Dark Warrior?”
“I cannot say anything about Shalintess, but I know for certain this pegasus is lying to us about who....”
Before he could finish his statement, Rhynellewhyn reared up and her blue eyes flashed gold. She neighed a challenge and her voice deepened into a roar. Brant was instantly on guard. He stood in a fighter’s crouch with his sword drawn and ready. Oraeyn put his hand on the hilt of his sword, but he did not draw it.
Kamarie stared at the normally gentle Pegasus in confusion, “Rhyn…” she began.
Brant cut her off, finishing his comment with quiet calm. “The reason we cannot take Rhynellewhyn along is because that is not Rhynellewhyn.”
As Brant spoke, Rhynellewhyn's edges seemed to blur; then, suddenly before them stood a great, red dragon with gold wings. The creature took up most of the tunnel and blocked their path. Kamarie gasped and drew her own sword, but the gesture was more of a reaction than a motion with any intent behind it.
“Iarrdek, what’s going on?” Yole asked, turning towards the gryphon, then he yelped in fear.
They all spun around to find that the gryphon was gone, replaced by a smaller, gold-colored dragon. A short spurt of flame appeared from its mouth as it bared its teeth.
“You are tresspasserss here,” the red dragon said fiercely, “you have brought arguments and trouble among usss.”
“Tread warily, I warn you,” Dylanna said. “We have the protection of your king upon us.”
“Rhendak iss a fool!” the gold dragon spat.
“He is still your king!”
“Ssilence!” the red dragon roared in anger. “Rhendak made the decision to give you the pipes without our consssssent, the vote was not unanimousss. We are here to make sure that you do not leave with the pipes, our voicesss will be heard!”
“You killed Shalintess,” Brant stated.
The smaller, gold dragon barked out a laugh. “Yess,” he hissed.
“Sssilence!” The red dragon thundered. “Do not tell them everything!”
The gold dragon spat flame in defiance. “They will ssoon be too dead to repeat anything that they hhhear.”
Kamarie felt a shudder of fear thrill through her. She looked at the huge, powerful creatures and knew that they could never escape.
The red dragon smiled, a very disconcerting sight; all his teeth showed. “True,” he said, “very true.”
The gold dragon shifted, looking a little uncomfortable now. “Do you really think that we ought to…?”
The red dragon cut him off, “Yess! Do not back out on me now! We have come too far to turn back.” Then he fixed the travelers with a gold-eyed glare, “Thisss will be fun.”
Suddenly, the red dragon lunged, making a swipe at Brant with his huge right claw. At the same instant, Brant sprang, twisting, into the air, causing the dragon’s maneuver to pass harmlessly beneath him. As he jumped, he brought his sword down in an arcing counterattack. The blade hit the scales of the dragon’s arm and made a loud, screeching sound, throwing off sparks, but the blade bounced off the scales without causing any damage. The great red beast let out a roar of laughter.
“Your flimsy blade of steel cannot touch me!” he boasted.
Dylanna grabbed Kamarie and Yole and pulled them out of the tunnel and into a side passage. She pushed them behind her and wove a pattern in the air with her hands, creating a shield across the mouth of the passage. The gold dragon remained still, uncertain about what he should do. He looked at the red dragon, the obvious leader of this endeavor. Seeing that he would get no help or direction from there, he turned and began blasting flames at Dylanna’s shield. Kamarie felt that she had never been so terrified in her life as the gold flames leaped towards her only to hover a few feet in front of her face.
“Can he get through?” she asked.
Dylanna’s face was tight. “Only if his strength outlasts my own.”
The red dragon lashed his tail around at Brant from the right, but this time Brant was ready. He dropped backwards until he was nearly sitting down. The end of the deadly tail whipped by him, then Brant suddenly changed directions. He lunged forward and twisted the blade of his sword so that it slid in sideways between the dragon’s scales. The dragon roared in pain and jerked back violently, throwing Brant off balance as he struggled to maintain his grip on the hilt of his sword.
With almost lightning fast reflexes, the dragon swiped with his left claw. Since Brant was already falling, he made a split-second decision and allowed himself to continue in that direction. He landed on his stomach and rolled out of the way as the dragon’s claw passed over him inches above where his head had been. This time, however, the attack was not harmless, the dragon’s swipe caught Oraeyn, who had leaped towards Brant as the older warrior fell, slicing into his right shoulder.
Oraeyn gasped in pain as blood spurted from the shallow cut. He stumbled back and pressed his left hand to the wound in order to staunch the flow. Then, gritting his teeth, he drew his sword, ignoring the pain that shot up and down his arm as he did so.
The Fang Blade, as Rhendak had called it, seemed to almost spring out of its sheath and into Oraeyn’s hand. This time, as the dragon struck out, it was Oraeyn’s sword that went singing through the air. The sword hit its mark as he swung it up to block the blow. But instead of bouncing harmlessly off of the armored scales as Oraeyn expected it to, the sword cleaved almost completely through the arm. The red dragon howled and lashed out again with his tail. This time Oraeyn put all the force of his arm into the swing and sliced through the end of the beast’s tail.
The dragon
roared again in hurt and fury, but now he backed away slowly, looking wary. Brant was up again, and the two now stood back to back, facing the two dragons. Oraeyn noticed that Kamarie, Dylanna, and Yole had slipped away to safety and that the gold dragon was clawing and throwing flames at some sort of invisible shield that kept him from reaching his prey.
“Mystak,” the red dragon roared, “they have the Fang Blade, we cannot stand against them. Let us leave now while we still can!”
“NO!” Mystak screamed between flame bursts. “They know too much! We cannot allow them to escape with their lives!”
The red dragon responded, “They will never find their way out without a guide, they will wander around lost in Krayghentaliss until they run out of food and die of ssstarvation! Let usss leave!”
The gold dragon hesitated for a moment, then gave a short nod and retreated. He threw an angry look at the wizardess, and then he and the red dragon, who was holding his right claw close to his body, turned and fled down the tunnels the way they had come. As they disappeared into the darkness of the tunnels Dylanna let down her shield and she, Kamarie, and Yole cautiously stepped out into the main tunnel.
Kamarie noticed Oraeyn’s cut and frowned in instant concern at the blood seeping through Oraeyn’s fingers.
“Are you all right?” she asked. “Does it hurt?”
Oraeyn grimaced a bit, and rotated his arm, then he flinched and covered it with his left hand again as the blood, that had nearly been staunched, began to flow once more. He took the opportunity to show off a little.
“It’s not deep, but it stings like anything,” he said lightly, shrugging to show that he did not care about the pain, even though it was taking all his resolve to stand without swaying.
“Sit down and let me see to that,” Kamarie ordered.
She pulled a clean strip of cloth out of the small pouch on her belt and tied it around Oraeyn’s arm. He winced a little as she tightened the knot, but did not say anything.
“I’ll be all right,” he said. Then he stretched the truth again, “It doesn’t even hurt anymore.”
Kamarie smiled at him. Dylanna gave Brant a look that was somewhere between a smile of gratitude and a glare. He ignored her, and her scowl deepened.
“How did you know?” she demanded, when she found that her glare would get no response.
Brant shrugged and said nothing. Dylanna’s brown eyes flashed and she clenched her fists in irritation.
“I did not know that those two were dragons, their magic is stronger than mine. I want to know how you knew!”
Brant fixed her with his dark-eyed gaze. For a moment, they matched glares. Dylanna’s eyes were flashing with unchecked anger, and Brant’s eyes were dark and expressionless. Suddenly, just as it seemed like the two were going to come to blows, Yole spoke up.
“What does it matter how he knew?” the boy asked. “Brant saved our lives! I’m glad he knew.”
Dylanna dropped her eyes and nodded at Yole. “True,” she said quietly, “very true.”
Kamarie changed the subject abruptly, “So, what do we do now?” she asked. “We don’t know where we are, or how to get out. We don’t know where Pearl Cove is from here, and we do not know how to get there. The dragons were, in all likelihood, correct: we will have to wander around down here until we either find our way out by chance or die of starvation.”
The corners of Brant’s mouth twitched in a smile at Kamarie’s gloomy words. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”
“What do you mean?” Oraeyn asked.
“Traitors to Rhendak they were, and the one disguised as Iarrdek was not leading us towards Pearl Cove. I had my suspicions before the other one arrived, but I did not listen to them because he was leading us on a path that goes very near to Pearl Cove. If we continue down that path,” Brant pointed at a tunnel that branched to the left, “we will come to the exit we want. I’d say we are about a half hour’s journey to daylight.”
“You can read the maps?” Dylanna asked in disbelief.
Brant nodded, once.
“So that’s how…” Dylanna began, then she stopped. “Forgive me,” she said, “it is my nature to be suspicious of things that do not make sense to me. As a wizardess, I do not come across much that I do not understand. I thought you had somehow detected an illusion that I could not. I was wrong, and I am sorry for questioning you.”
Brant said nothing, but Kamarie noticed his lips twitching as though he was trying not to laugh. That was impossible, of course; Brant rarely even smiled. However, she got the feeling that he was not telling them everything.
❖ ❖ ❖
Rhendak roared out into the tunnels and fire sprayed from his mouth in huge bursts, so hot that the ember stones went dark. Shalintess, his one true love, was gone. But he was a king, so he was not allowed the luxury of grief; he was not allowed to lose his head and go on a killing rampage, as he would have liked to. As king, he must demonstrate calm and clear-headed logic, even in such a painful situation.
There had been evidence of human handiwork in the murder, and yet there was something un-human about it too. Rhendak saw the sword lying next to her, and he noted that she had numerous stab wounds. What did not add up was the fact that very few blades were any real match for a dragon’s armor, except of course, for the Fang Blade. But he also knew that the holder of the Fang Blade had not been anywhere near the scene of Shalintess’ death, and he also believed that the holder was unaware of what he carried at his side.
Much as he hated to do so, Rhendak called a council of the Elders. He noted that Nnyendell and Mystak were not present, but that did not raise any concern. Those two were hardly ever present at Elder meetings, a tendency that he would eventually have to address.
“Shalintess has been killed,” he said in a voice heavy with sorrow.
Immediately, whispers filled the air, but he silenced them with a raised claw. “I want to…” he stopped as he heard a noise coming from one of the tunnels.
The Elders waited, thinking that he was going to say something. They were astonished when Rhendak got up and walked out. He was gone for a few minutes, and they waited in silence, a little bit perturbed at this irregularity. Then Rhendak strode back in to the Great Cavern, he had something hanging from his jaws. He walked up to the Council and set it down. They were all a little surprised to see that it was a young gryphon. What was even more disturbing was that the gryphon was tied up.
With a quick motion, Rhendak sliced through the bonds that had been holding the gryphon captive. The gryphon looked up gratefully.
“Thank you, Your Majesty,” he said.
Rhendak reared back a little in surprise. “Iarrdek! What happened? I thought that I sent you with the humans, to guide them back to Pearl Cove.”
“You did,” Iarrdek said. “I asked them which exit they wanted to go to, and then we began. I told them to stop and rest for the night, and I must have dozed off myself, because the next thing I knew, I was being dragged somewhere. I tried to struggle or cry out for help, but found that I was tied up and had been gagged. I was not, however, blindfolded. My captor was Mystak, the gold dragon of Suden-Krayghentaliss.”
The Council members started muttering to each other at this. Many of them did not seem at all surprised.
Iarrdek continued, “He was muttering to himself, not knowing that I had woken up. He seemed scared, talking about following someone else’s orders or something like that. Apparently he was terrified of getting caught, because of something he had done. Something that he thought you would be upset about, Your Majesty.”
Rhendak’s eyes turned molten and steam began to curl out of his nose. “We have traitors among us!” he roared, and his roar was filled with anger and grief as he pieced together the events of the past day. “Nnyendell and Mystak were the two Elders who opposed helping the humans. Now they have taken their revenge on our decision by killing Shalintess and making it appear as if the humans did it.
They are right now probably posing as guides for the humans, aiming to bring them to destruction.”
An Elder spoke up, “Say the word, Highness, and we will be after them in a second.”
Rhendak’s eyes held gratitude as he looked at the black dragon who had spoken; the two had been friends for a long time. He motioned to the sentries at the entrance. “Bring them to me,” he ordered. “They shall not escape my wrath or our justice.”
The sentries exchanged a glance; then one of them spoke, “I am afraid we cannot do that. I’m sorry, Your Majesty.”
chapter
TEN
“We are no longer safe here,” Wessel told the other inhabitants of Pearl Cove. The darkness was broken only by the soft glow of the Toreth and the flickering light from the torches.
Wessel had sounded the great horn, calling all of Pearl Cove to gather at the Crest, a large, tabular-shaped rock formation, overlooking the sea. Matters of impact were presented and discussed at the Crest, and tonight’s meeting would impact them all.
“The Lady is leaving us,” Wessel said quietly.
The gasps and outcries of the people and animals pierced the air. There was a mournful quality in each voice, a lament that echoed on and on across the white sand and down to the sea where it was lost in the great swells.
Wessel raised his hand. “She is leaving, and enemies are approaching even now. Calyssia has warned of a strong and deadly force at our borders. She does not know their purpose, but she does know the result. Her departure means the end of Pearl Cove.”
An older woman stood up, and Wessel nodded.
“What are we to do?” she asked. “Will we flee?”
A young man jumped to his feet and shouted, “No! We must defend the Cove! This is our home! Surely we will defend our home.”
An older man stood up slowly and shook his head. “When the Keeper leaves, the Cove will die, and those of us who remain will die as well.”
Wessel raised his hand again for silence. “Whatever we do, we must do it together. If we all go off in different directions, we scorn what the Lady Calyssia has taught us.”
King's Warrior (The Minstrel's Song Book 1) Page 19
