Buureg had twenty warriors at his back as they ran up the path to the tower. The last band of attacking ravens had fled, and they’d seen no wolves, though their howls were all around. Still, his warrior’s instinct was screaming in the back of his mind, fearing he was already too late. His one hope was that Maaqua had defeated the girl once already. Surely she could do it again.
The stairwell wound around the tower, leading to a door on every level. Hweilan had dealt with two guards in the first stairwell and another two in the first room. But she’d struck too high on the last hobgoblin’s midriff and heard bones shatter. She left him alive but struggling to breathe.
The next two stairwells and floors were empty. The second had a large window, open to the east, and as Hweilan stepped in, the moon broke over the far peaks, flooding the room with light.
“Razor Heart!”
A single cry came from outside, followed by the bellow of dozens of voices. Far more than the first band of guards that had pursued the wolves. Seemed they had found friends.
She shut the door behind her, latched it, and wedged the spear she had taken from the guard against the wood. It wouldn’t stop a determined troop, but it might slow them long enough for her to finish this.
She considered going out the window and climbing up the final level of the tower, but whatever spells wrapped this place still concerned her. Best to make a quick entrance, then.
She bounded up the final flight of stairs, threw back the latch on the door, and kicked it open.
Her skull mask let her take in the entire scene in a fleeting glimpse: Nine hobgoblins, three of them hulking warriors, blades in each hand, the nearest with a spear. Others were smaller, and made smaller still because they were kneeling. They wore an assortment of robes, skins, and bone jewelry.
By the time they’d turned to the door, Hweilan was already on them.
The nearest of the guards turned his spear to her, but he was too slow. Hweilan grabbed the shaft. Using the force of his swing against him, she pushed him all the way around to face the nearest guard. Trying to resist her and turn back around, he was already off balance, so when she rammed her left foot in the small of his back, he tumbled forward and barely escaped being impaled on his companion’s sword.
The third guard roared and charged. Hweilan stepped back into a defensive crouch.
“Stop this!”
The hobgoblin halted his charge, and both he and Hweilan looked to the speaker. One of the robed ones had stood, and purple energy was sparkling around her upraised fist.
Hweilan looked again at the center of the room. The hobgoblins weren’t kneeling in any ritual but around another form, crumpled on the floor. Her eyes were wide and unseeing, her jaw slack, a line of spittle running down her cheek.
“Maaqua?” said Hweilan.
The warrior took a step toward Hweilan, and the robed hobgoblin pointed at him with the hand holding the sparking energy. “I said, ‘Stop!’ ”
The other two guards regained their feet, the spearman with some difficulty.
“You,” the robed hobgoblin pointed at Hweilan with her free hand. “You are the one they call the Hand of the Hunter?”
Hweilan looked back and forth between the warriors and what she took for Maaqua’s disciples. “I am,” she said.
The hobgoblin pointed at Maaqua. “Then help her. Help her or you’ll never leave this tower alive.”
From the room below, Hweilan heard heavy feet kicking at the door she’d wedged shut. She lowered her knife, just slightly, though she didn’t loosen her grip. This was not how things were supposed to go. She’d come here to kill Maaqua. It would make her an eternal enemy of the Razor Heart. But she knew hobgoblins. They’d spend the first two days squabbling over who would be king or queen. Warriors might be sent after Hweilan, but there would be no strategy. And no heart. Every warrior would be wondering who would lead the clan and then determining his own loyalties. She’d have to be careful, but she could make it to Highwatch and do what needed to be done. After that, either Jagun Ghen would be destroyed, or she would be. And if she lived, she could always head east and spend the rest of her life ignoring the Razor Heart. But killing someone like this, when she lay completely helpless …
The old crone was trembling, her fingers hooked into claws. And through Ashiin’s eyes, she could see a foul miasma lurking just under the queen’s skin. It stank of Jagun Ghen.
Hweilan looked at the disciple who had spoken to her. “Tell me what happened.”
A look of relief passed over the disciple’s face. “You three,” she said, pointing at the warriors. “Meet whoever is coming up. Tell them what has happened.”
None of them moved. They looked from the disciple to Hweilan and flexed their hands around their weapons.
“Go!” The energy crackling around the hobgoblin woman’s fist flared and lit in her eyes. “Go or I’ll boil the blood in you where you stand. You think I can’t handle this whelp?”
The three warriors obeyed. They’d scarcely left when the sound of heated conversation came from the stairwell. Buureg himself emerged a moment later, a half-dozen warriors right behind him. The warchief gave Hweilan a hard look, then focused all his attention on Maaqua.
“It’s true, then?” he said. “Elret, this is true?”
“Buureg,” said the disciple, the one whom he’d called Elret. “You and any two you choose may stay. Send the rest away. Quickly!”
Buureg motioned sharply to two of his warriors and the rest filed back through the door.
“Shut the door,” said one of the other disciples.
The last warrior on the stairs looked to Buureg, who nodded. The door closed, but Hweilan noticed the latch didn’t slide home.
“You three stay where you are,” said Hweilan. She still had her knife in hand.
“The queen was using a ritual to spy on our enemy in Highwatch,” said Elret. “It was working at first. All of us could feel it. But then … something went wrong.”
“What?” said Hweilan.
The disciple cradling Maaqua’s head in her lap looked up. “She encountered something and …”
“It caught her,” said Elret.
“Caught her?” said Buureg. “What—?”
“If we need something sliced or stabbed, I will call for you,” said Elret. “Until then, hold your jaw. If half of what this girl said is true, she knows our enemy better than anyone. She may be Maaqua’s only chance.”
Hweilan looked down at Maaqua. The old crone had seemed ancient the first time Hweilan had seen her, but now she appeared absolutely frail. Her skin had the look of wet parchment. She spared Buureg a glance, then put her full attention on Elret. “I can’t help your queen,” she said. “But I know someone who can.”
Elret’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”
“Is there a portal here in the fortress?”
Palpable tension ran through the group, and Hweilan did not miss the warning glance Elret cast the others.
“Do you want your queen to live or not?”
As soon as the words left her mouth, Hweilan realized the danger. Hobgoblins generally attained positions of high status by defeating their predecessor. If Maaqua were to die …
“Yes, there’s a portal,” said Buureg.
Elret cast the warchief a murderous glance, but the magic swirling around her fist dimmed. “I’ll have your head for this, warchief.”
“If Maaqua dies,” said Buureg, “I’ll eat your heart.”
Hweilan looked at Elret. “Well …?”
“Below the temple,” said Elret. “In the queen’s private chambers. Few know of it.”
“If you want your queen to see the dawn, you have to take us there. Now. But I have a few demands of my own.”
“You dare?” Buureg roared. “I’ll kill you where you stand!”
“And your queen will die!” said Hweilan.
Buureg looked down at Maaqua, and Hweilan wondered what the story was there. Surely not lo
ve. Maaqua was at least twice the warchief’s age. Perhaps more. But there was no mistaking the loyalty in his gaze that bordered on zealotry.
“What are your demands?” said Buureg.
“First,” said Hweilan, “I want your oath that no harm will come to Mandan until we return. And I want those three idiots brought out of their hole, set beside a warm fire, and given a good meal.”
“The one you call Mandan is not mine to protect,” said Buureg. “His life belongs to Ruuket and her children. The rest shall be done.”
“Mandan lives or your queen dies.”
“His life is not mine to give!”
Hweilan pointed at Maaqua with her dagger. “Her life is mine to save. Or not.”
Buureg growled. “I will send warriors to speak to Ruuket and explain to her what is happening. I will have them beg her in my name to do your friend no harm until you can speak to her. This is the best I can do.”
Hweilan thought on it for a bit, then nodded. “Done. Now let’s move.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
BY THE TIME THEY LEFT THE TOWER, THE ONLY remaining ravens were dead, and the wolves gave no more resistance, fleeing back the way they had come. All but one.
As Hweilan walked out the tower door, Uncle padded out of the darkness. Blood dripped from his muzzle.
The hobgoblin warriors cried out, and the archers among them raised their bows.
“Stop!” said Hweilan.
“Do as she says,” said Buureg as he walked out behind her. He looked to Hweilan. “Your wolf will do us no harm?”
“Not unless you try to harm him. Or me.”
Four warriors bore Maaqua on a litter deep into the heart of the fortress. One could have easily carried the frail old hobgoblin, but Elret insisted that the queen be treated as gently as the finest crystal. It occurred to Hweilan that any gods watching her this night must be laughing. She had decided to forsake her friends to kill Jagun Ghen, and here she was risking her life to save the one person within a thousand leagues that she would love to see dead.
Buureg and two warriors led the way, Hweilan and Uncle just behind them, and Maaqua’s other acolytes following. Green and blue witchlights lit their way, flying soundlessly around them as they walked.
As someone who had grown up in a land where most of the moisture fell as snow, Hweilan was truly awed by the size of the hobgoblins’ cistern deep under the mountain. The cavern ceiling hung low over the water. Some of the stone columns actually descended into the water itself. And the glow of the witchlights could not reach to the far side. One could have easily drowned an entire herd of swiftstags in the lake and left not so much as a ripple on the shore.
Once they passed the lake and went into the underground caverns, Elret stepped forward so that she could “set the wards to sleep,” as she put it. Still wearing her bone mask, Hweilan occasionally caught glimpses of the auras, but she had no idea what they were. It was like reading a book written in a language she couldn’t speak, much less read.
They crossed passages of absolute darkness that caused the witchlights to dim. And the smell emanating from them made Hweilan’s gorge rise. In one she distinctly heard something moving.
They crossed a chamber more than twice the size of the temple sanctuary in Highwatch and stopped before a set of double doors. To Hweilan they looked like plain wooden doors, but she could feel the magic radiating off them like heat from an open oven.
Elret turned to them. “Buureg, your warriors can come no farther. We will take the queen from here.”
Buureg nodded to his warriors, and they carefully handed the litter over to the acolytes.
“Wait here until we return,” Buureg told the warriors.
“And if you don’t return?”
“Don’t be foolish!” said Elret. She turned to the only acolyte not holding a corner of the litter. “Stay here and see that they do nothing stupid.”
The acolyte bowed.
Elret turned to the door, threw her head back, and spread both her arms. Hweilan knew the Goblin tongue well, but she could not understand a word of Elret’s chant. When she stopped, everyone was so still that the only sound was Maaqua’s labored breathing. Elret clapped her hands suddenly and the hobgoblin warriors jumped. Then she spoke a final incantation and traced an intricate pattern on the door. Hweilan saw an after-image behind her finger’s trail, an angry red light that faded slowly, and with it the aura of power emanating from the door.
Elret turned and fixed her gaze on Hweilan. “If you ever speak outside these walls of what you see beyond this door, your life is forfeit.”
Hweilan kept the anger from her voice. “Lead on.”
Beyond the door they walked a short while in darkness, for the witchlights did not follow. Hweilan could feel the closeness of the air, and the sounds of their footfalls came back to her ears sharp and fast. They were in a tunnel. Hweilan counted just under fifty steps before they emerged into light again.
It was another chamber, even larger than the last. At first, Hweilan thought it was open to the sky, but no, the ceiling was simply far, far overhead, and hundreds of thousands of lights sparkled there, all swimming in a miasma of sickly purple. A wide stone stairway wound up the wall and ended at a cave over halfway to the ceiling. More cave entrances pierced the wall in a dozen places—some with no paths so that only bats could have reached them.
“Follow closely,” Elret told Buureg and Hweilan. “Do not trust your eyes.”
She walked off to the left. The acolytes bearing Maaqua followed, with Hweilan, Uncle, and Buureg coming behind. Hweilan noticed that, despite the light overhead, none of them cast a shadow on the floor.
Elret took a step and her foot disappeared into the floor. Another two and she had seemingly sunk to her knees in the stone.
“An illusion,” she said. “After the first step, you will see your way.”
Soon she was gone altogether. The acolytes continued, and Hweilan made note of where they stepped, then followed.
Elret spoke truly. Hweilan’s right foot disappeared. But as soon as it came down on solid stone, the illusion dissipated before her eyes, and she saw that they were descending a wide staircase made from smooth, green stone. It descended a long way, then turned to the left. It did this again and again. Hweilan stopped counting steps somewhere in the high three hundreds. Even though she could see no discernible light source, a soft green glow lit their way.
A final turn and the company found themselves standing in what may have been the most perfectly round chamber Hweilan had ever seen. Even the walls bent upward into a perfect, smooth dome. In the center of the room was a perfect half-circle arch. It was twisted and braided like metal in the hands of a master craftsman, but its texture had the look of stone. Under the arch, the air shimmered, much like Hweilan had seen in Vaasa, when the heat made the distance blur and waver. But the thing that struck Hweilan the most was the utter lack of smell. Up until now she had been surrounded by the scent of stone and damp and the otherworldly fragrance of the spells that hid just beyond sight. But after crossing the threshold into the room, Hweilan could not even smell the hobgoblins, which in itself was a relief.
Elret turned a wary eye on Hweilan. “This portal leads to only three places that we know of—one in the far west, one to another portal in the mountains, and the other to a realm where the very air burns. You are certain you know how to use this?”
“No,” said Hweilan. “But I have no better idea. All I can do is try, yes?”
“Know this,” said Elret. “If you intend some treachery, if Maaqua dies, or any one of us does not return, your friends will be disemboweled, then healed, then have a fresh limb chopped off every day. They will—”
“I understand,” said Hweilan.
“I have shown you one of the Razor Heart’s most guarded secrets,” said Elret. “Now tell me where you’re taking us.”
“To the one person I think might be able to help your queen.” Hweilan reached into the largest of the
pouches riding her belt. “Everyone should stand back,” she said.
She removed the sacred drum from her pouch. It was only three finger widths thick and had a skin only along one side. The back was a web of taut cords, both binding the skin and serving as a handle. Symbols had been burned all around the wooden rim and painted on the skin itself. Hweilan saw Elret studying them carefully.
“And who is this person?”
“If this works,” said Hweilan, stepping forward, “you’ll meet him soon enough. If not …”
And she honestly had no idea if this would work. She knew that the portals scattered across Faerûn were different from kingdom to kingdom. They had never been entirely reliable, and after the Spellplague, many had become outright dangerous. She had only tried this before on two portals, and both times a master had been watching. And the ways between Faerûn and the Feywild were not set. She knew if she didn’t get the rhythm exactly right, they might well return to find that a hundred years had passed during the day they spent in the Feywild.
Hweilan held the web of the drum in her right hand and curled her left into a fist with her thumb and smallest finger extended to strike the drumskin. She beat a steady rhythm, first in time with her own heart, then varying as she remembered the ebb and flow of the portal to which she called. The tempo tumbled like water over rocks. She matched her breathing to the rhythm and forced her mind to recall the places she sought—every sound, every smell—the dampness of the air, the smell of mud and rock and living things. Once she had the rhythm and held the vision, she began the chant.
The shimmering air under the arch darkened, and tiny red sparks appeared in its depths. Light shot out from spark to spark, like hundreds of cracks forming on thin ice, each flaring to the rhythm of the drum. Green light joined the red, replaced it, faded to a fireheart blue, then melted together to a silver, like bright sunlight on unquiet water.
“Stay close,” said Hweilan, then looked over her shoulder. “And you should cover the queen’s face.”
“Why?” said Elret.
But Hweilan ignored her and stepped through the portal. She stepped quickly—not so much out of fear of the waterfall soaking as wanting to be out of the way, for she was sure that—
Cry of the Ghost Wolf Page 14
