“Let’s hope this works,” Randall said as he fished the newly-created healing talisman from his tunic.
He placed the artifact in Eamon’s hand, and opened himself to Llandra. As the magic came to him, he pushed it down into the talisman, fighting the familiar resistance. Moments passed, and a dull red glow began to emanate from between Eamon’s fingers. Seconds later, and the young farmer’s eyelids fluttered and opened.
“Eamon, are you ok?” Randall asked anxiously.
Eamon levered himself up on one arm in the cot, his eyes darting around the small room. “Randall, is that you?”
Eamon’s eyes met Randall’s for a brief moment, and a smile began to tug at the corners of the young man’s mouth. The half-smile twisted itself into a frown as Eamon’s gaze shifted onto something just behind Randall. The farmer’s eyes widened and he scrambled backward in the bed until his back met the wall.
“An elf?” the farmer asked, terror elevating his voice into a shriek. He cast his gaze wildly around the room, as if looking for a weapon—or an escape route.
“Eamon! It’s all right,” Randall said hurriedly, acutely aware of the commotion his friend was making. “She’s a friend. She helped me rescue you. Settle down! We need to get out of here.”
“No! I won’t go...stay back!” Lacking any other weapon within easy reach, Eamon threw the only thing close at hand.
Randall flinched instinctively as the healing talisman struck him on the shoulder and clattered to the floor. Without its soothing influence, Eamon sagged back into the cot, and coughed weakly. “I won’t go,” he muttered before slipping back into unconsciousness.
Randall glanced at Nia as he bent to retrieve the artifact. There was such sadness in her eyes, tinged with guilt. “I would not blame him if he were to never trust my kind again,” she said, her voice cracking. She met Randall’s gaze for a brief moment before she wheeled and fled the room.
Randall looked back and forth between the doorway and where Eamon lay slumped on the bed, his heart torn. Several long seconds passed as he tried to figure out how to best salvage the situation.
“We must go,” Berry chittered softly in Randall’s ear.
“I know,” Randall snapped in frustration. He looked over at Eamon once more. “I’m sorry my friend. I hope we meet again.”
He found Nia far down the corridor, her face buried in the crook of her arm. She straightened up as he approached and smoothed out her clothing. There was a large, damp spot on her sleeve, and her eyes were red and puffy. She took a ragged breath and tried to regain her composure. There was an unspoken question in her eyes as they met Randall’s.
“He’s not coming,” Randall said simply. “Let’s go.”
Nia nodded, wiping her nose on the back of her sleeve. The trio traveled the hallways grimly, the silence only broken by the occasional sniffle from Nia. Randall feared that the confusion spell would wear off at any minute, but he forced himself to walk purposefully instead of running. He didn’t want to draw too much attention to the fact that the three of them were leaving the tower. He tried to tell himself that even if Kirsti shook off the spell and raised the alarm, she wouldn’t actually resort to open conflict. At least he hoped she wouldn’t. He wasn’t at all confident of their chances if it came to that.
Berry seemed to sense Randall’s tension, and chittered anxiously from his spot on the Mage’s shoulder. The donnan shifted his weight nervously, impatiently clambering from one shoulder to the other.
“You’re not helping,” Randall muttered. Berry chittered a non-committal apology, but didn’t stop his agitated fidgeting.
Randall breathed a sigh of relief once they made it to the courtyard, but they weren’t out of the tower yet. It felt like a thousand eyes were on his back as the group made their way to the outer gates. He felt like a condemned man walking toward the gallows, and the tension didn’t ease until they finally passed through the gates and into the field beyond.
Nia whistled for her cat, and the group began trotting across the meadow and away from the tower. Randall guessed if they could get a good distance away, the Field Mage wouldn’t waste the resources trying to track them down. She would have to conserve all her men on the chance that the elves attacked again.
They had gone a few dozen yards when there was a commotion from the tower. Looking over his shoulder, Randall’s heart leapt into his throat when he saw several dozen guardsmen emerge from the gates, led by Kirsti. They could try to make a run for it, but they were still well within range of the Mage’s magic.
“It looks like there’s to be a fight after all,” Nia said grimly.
“Not if I can help it,” Randall answered, opening himself to Llandra.
Gathering up as much magic as he could hold, he shouted the hiding spell. As the magic spun out of him, he grabbed hold of it with his mind, wrestling with it to cover his companions. He had never tried to push the magic so far before, and the effort brought a bead of sweat to his brow. A sharp, stabbing pain tore through Randall’s head, driving him to his knees and nearly causing him to drop his grasp of the spell.
“It worked,” Nia said excitedly. “They’re coming, but they can’t see us! How long will the spell last?”
“I don’t know. As long as I can hold it,” Randall gasped between breaths as he sucked in lungfuls of air. The pain had dimmed to a throbbing ache as he continually fed magic into the spell to keep it functioning.
“Well, then let’s go,” she cried as she hauled him up by his arm.
Every step was a like a sledgehammer’s blow between his eyes. Under other circumstances it would have been comical to walk among the guardsmen as they rushed about, but it took all Randall’s focus to put one foot in front of the other without dropping the spell. They would shuffle forward a few yards and then stop for a rest, only to start again once he had caught his breath. “Can you hold it much longer?” Nia whispered during one of their frequent breaks.
Randall nodded, panting. He didn’t even know how far they had gotten; looking up from his feet took more strength than he could muster. There was no room in his mind for Kirsti, the guardsman, or even his companions. Walk, then rest. Walk, then rest. And all the while, the pain behind his eyes grew.
He stumbled to his knees and knew he could go no further. He was dimly aware of Nia tugging on his arm, but it was no use; he lacked the strength to stand. What little strength of will he had left, he pushed into the spell. If he could just hold the spell, the soldiers would stop looking for them eventually. Then they would be safe. If only he could hold the spell a little longer. Nia’s voice came to him as if through a fog, and he labored to make sense of her words.
“Randall! We’ve made it,” she cried, a panic in her voice. “Please stop. Please,” she pleaded, the last word trailing off into a sobbing whisper.
“We made it?” he asked, tilting his head sideways to look up from the ground.
Nia’s expression was a mixture of panic and worry. They were surrounded by trees, and the sky was overcast. They must have been walking for hours. Randall sighed and let go of the spell, but rather than the relief he had been expecting, the pain exploded in his brain like a thousand pins and needles. He doubled over, clutching his head and moaning.
“What’s wrong?” Nia asked, dropping to her knees and cradling Randall in her arms.
“It hurts,” was all Randall could grind out between gritted teeth.
“Aether-blindness,” Berry chittered, though Nia couldn’t understand what he was saying. “Still not well. Pushed too hard.”
Berry clambered up into Randall’s lap, and began purring softly as Nia rocked them both back and forth. The action did nothing for the pain shooting through his temples, but he still felt comforted. He had no way of knowing how long the three of them sat together on the forest floor. Eventually, the pain eased, leaving Randall with a screaming headache.
“Berry says it’s a side-effect of the aether-blindness,” Randall said once the pain finally
subsided. “He says that I pushed myself too hard at Horsehead Tower, and that I almost burned myself out again.”
“You will need to be careful with your magic until you are better then,” Nia said sympathetically.
“No magic,” Berry chittered sternly.
“No magic at all?” Randall asked incredulously. “For how long?”
Berry tilted his head in a shrug and began picking through the forest floor looking for lunch.
“Thanks,” Randall said grumpily. “You’re a fat lot of help. Well, there’s no point hanging around here and waiting for the elves or Kirsti’s men to find us. Let’s get going.”
“That’s one good thing that came out of you pushing yourself as hard as you did,” Nia mentioned. “Any hunters spying near the tower would have missed our passage completely. It’s possible that they have no idea that we’ve even gone.”
“Well at least we have that going for us,” Randall said as he stood up and brushed the dirt off his breeches. “I notice that none of us bothered to pack a travel sack.”
“Where are we going, anyway?” Nia asked. “Do you have some kind of plan?”
Randall chewed on his lower lip for a moment before answering. “Well, the way I figure it, Rhys is going to head straight to Ninove. That’s where Aiden had his base of operations, and the best place to find the Summoning Device. He’ll have to figure out how to get across a couple of rivers, and that will slow him down, but he’s still several days ahead of us. So, I have a different idea—but I’m not sure if you’re going to like it.”
“What is it?” Nia asked dubiously.
“We’re going to cut through the Ironpike Mountains. It’s a straighter shot, and I promised Berry that we’d visit the dwarves after I came and saw your people.”
“Rock children!” Berry chittered excitedly.
“Are you crazy?” Nia asked heatedly. “Straighter shot or not, it could take us months to travel through the mountains, and we certainly don’t know how to find the dwarves.”
“If there is a path through the mountains, the dwarves will know of it. I made a promise to Berry, and I trust him,” Randall said, folding his arms. “You need to learn to trust us both.”
Nia shook her head. “Where you lead, I will follow,” she said resignedly, but Randall could tell that she wasn’t convinced.
Chapter 17
“We are never going to find our way,” Nia complained for what seemed like the hundredth time.
They had been in the foothills of the Ironpike Mountains for nearly a week, and Nia’s demeanor had grown steadily worse as the group traveled further away from forests and grasslands. Randall didn’t really blame her, though—he was beginning to believe that he had made the wrong decision coming this way.
According to Erliand’s map, Ninove was almost due east from Horsehead tower, but the group often had to double-back or change course due to impassable or difficult terrain, and every switchback or canyon seemed to take them further to the north and away from the capital.
“What about your friend? Doesn’t he know which way to go?” Nia asked peevishly. Her constant complaining was beginning to grate on his nerves like fingernails on a chalkboard.
“Well, Berry,” he asked. “Which way do we go?”
Berry tilted his head in a shrug. “Never been here before,” he chittered.
Randall suppressed an urge to groan. “He says we’re close now.”
Berry tugged on Randall’s hair angrily, and chittered loudly into his ear, chastising him for the lie. The young man fought down the urge to wince as the donnan continued to harangue him for several minutes. Everyone’s nerves were at their breaking point, and Randall was afraid that if Nia learned the truth—that not even the imp knew where they were going—it would be all the excuse she would need to turn back.
“Well, I’m taking a break,” Nia declared petulantly. “I am not used to all this climbing. My legs are sore and we haven’t had a decent meal in days.”
It was true. Randall didn’t know how to hunt game in the mountains, and it was clear that Nia didn’t either. Berry seemed to be doing just fine dining on the various bugs and flying insects that inhabited the region, but the last real meal that they had actually cooked had consisted of a large ridged lizard almost a hand-span long that Hunter had caught as it sunned itself on a rock. It had provided only a couple of bites of meat, and had tasted terrible besides.
“It’s not like I have the healing talisman to keep my strength up,” she complained as she pulled of her boots to shake the rocks out.
“Oh yeah, the talisman! I had forgotten all about it,” Randall said guiltily, fishing the artifact out from within his tunic.
He turned the square of metal over in his hands, eyeing it critically. The surface had already taken on a reddish hue and had started to flake around the edges. He might only be able to empower one or two more times before it became worthless.
“Master Erliand’s talisman might not have been as strong as mine, but his sure lasted longer,” Randall said. “But there’s no reason why I can’t make another any time I like. Why don’t I work on making one for you while you rest? You still have the bits from the blacksmith, right? I still have the stylus.”
Nia nodded, looking grateful. She dug the metal squares out from a bag at her hip, tossing them in a pile at Randall’s feet. Randall sat down cross-legged, and pulled a blank from the pile. “I’ll draw, you charge, ok?” he asked, looking over at Berry.
Berry snorted and clamped his mouth shut, jutting his jaw out and folding his arms across his diminutive chest. It was clear that he was still upset about the lie that Randall had told about him. The donnan looked back and forth from the pile of scraps to the exhausted elf, and his expression softened. Finally, he nodded and scrambled over to sit next to the pile as the Mage worked.
Randall worked until late in the afternoon. The pause was a welcome break from the trek, though it proved to be short-lived. Randall managed to produce a working talisman on his third try. He still hadn’t figured out why sometimes the runic magic worked for him easily at times, but not others. Shrugging, he passed the device to Nia. The tension in her shoulders visibly eased as she tucked the talisman into her tunic.
“I’m sorry I didn’t think of it sooner,” Randall said sheepishly.
“It’s all right,” Nia said, picking at a pebble embedded in the sole of her boot. “Thank you.”
“I guess I just got so used to taking care of myself that I didn’t think about it,” he said. “But since you and I are stuck with each other, I’ll try to do better.”
Nia didn’t reply, but Randall thought he saw the hint of a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.
“Why don’t you rest here a bit with Berry and I’ll see if I can find us something decent to eat,” he said, pushing himself to his feet.
“Don’t be gone too long,” Nia said. “I’m already beginning to feel better. We shouldn’t dally here.”
Randall nodded and began walking generally eastward. He didn’t have much hope of actually finding any kind of game animal, but he needed some time alone.
Since leaving his house in Geldorn, he had grown accustomed to being alone, doing whatever he wanted without having to think about anyone else or take their feelings into consideration. Berry was a fine traveling companion, but he tended to go along with whatever plans Randall came up with, without too much fuss or complaint.
On the other hand, Nia was strong-willed and had no trouble voicing her own opinion. Butting heads with her was frustrating, it didn’t help that she was right as often as not. More often, really, Randall was forced to admit to himself. But wrong or not, he loved his freedom, and the thought of Nia being his constant companion, second-guessing his every move, terrified him.
Randall was so distracted by his thoughts that he didn’t notice the large precipice in front of him until he nearly stepped over the edge. Just great, he thought. Another detour. Nia will be thrilled.
&nb
sp; Dropping to his belly, he inched forward and peered over. It wasn’t a cliff so much as it was a huge crater gouged out of the earth, hundreds of yards across. The cliff face dropped down a good twenty feet, but afterwards it was shaped into a distinct and regular pattern, like a staircase made for a giant. At the bottom of the crater were several square blocks of granite, ten-feet on a side, stacked neatly near the center. This was no natural formation. Judging from the extent of the work, someone had been using this site to excavate granite for a long time.
Randall whooped with excitement and hurried back to camp, ignoring the bumps and scrapes he got along the way rushing over the unsure terrain. Nia jumped up as he ran into the campsite, breathing hard. Her eyes quickly scanned over him, and then turned to the direction from which he had just come.
“What is it?” she asked, her hand moving toward the blade at her hip.
“I found them!” Randall gasped between gulps of air. “I found the dwarves.”
The worry fled Nia’s features, replaced with a broad smile. “Well, what are we waiting for, then?” she asked as she hurriedly began packing their gear.
“Give me a second,” Randal said, bent over, his hands on his knees. “I have to catch my breath. I ran all the way back.”
Moments later, they found themselves at the outskirts of the quarry, looking over the edge. Nia took in the scene thoughtfully, but appeared to be less excited about the discovery than when Randall had first burst into camp with the news.
“That’s not natural. It’s obviously been cut,” Randall pointed out, motioning toward the peculiar features of the cliff face. “It has to be a quarry.”
“Mmmhmm,” she agreed. “Let’s have a look, then,” she said. “There appear to be steps dug into the far side.”
Now that she pointed it out, Randall saw them, too. The smaller staircase was so small and roughly-hewn that he hadn’t noticed it in his haste to bring the good news to his companions. He was so excited that he wanted to rush to the other side and down the stairs as quickly as possible, but was held back by Nia’s hand on his shoulder.
Magic Astray (The Llandra Saga) Page 13
