by Serena Chase
Our lips parted too soon, but Julien rested his forehead against mine for several breaths.
“I have long dreamed of kissing you,” he said at last. “I had hoped that our first would be sweet.”
I swallowed, and sudden shyness turned my words to whispers. “And was it?”
“Can fire be sweet?” His smile said it could. “Before today, I would have said no.”
“And now?”
“And now I know that it is.”
He dipped his head and touched his lips briefly to mine once more before taking my hand and leading me out of the mountain.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
We were standing just beyond the cave, my hand clasped in Julien’s, when Taef arrived. In truth, he looked no worse for the journey, but considering his normal appearance, that wasn’t saying much. Taef’s eyes roved the group, but when they found me, he dropped the reins of our horses, ran, and fell upon me, sobbing my name.
I patted his back, but when I thought I saw something crawling in his hair, I quickly disengaged from his embrace.
In an instant, his tears turned to song, a silly sort of tune that seemed it might have been birthed in a child’s nursery. “Cobeld’s in his cage,” he sang, dancing around and among us. “The Ryn Naia is victorious! The pit for the pit. The pit for the pit! Cobeld’s in his cage.”
The pit for the pit? I had no idea what that meant, but . . . he seemed happy, so I didn’t give it too much thought.
The horses were without injury, Kinley proclaimed after inspecting each one, and the morning sun—of whatever day it was by now—made my skin rejoice.
Just when it seemed that Taef’s refrain might never come to an end, he collapsed into a cross-legged position from which he seemed content to gaze adoringly in my direction.
Julien held my hand. From our lofty vantage point we could look down at the surrounding foothills and valleys.
“What requests does the Reigning Lady have for me?” Taef asked suddenly. “Your equine companion is a great secret keeper. Though he was tempted by the fine oats I provided, he has remained ever true to you, Reigning Lady.”
“Stanza is indeed known for his loyal silence,” I said. Kinley met my eyes for just a second and then coughed and turned away. “I appreciate your service, Taef, and I trust you as a most worthy diplomat and friend.”
“Stanza?” The strange man tilted his head like a dog who had just heard a high-pitched whistle. “It is not the black shooting star of which I speak. Though he is loyal and is well-acquainted with speed, he knows little of secrets.” He nodded and smiled in Stanza’s direction and then turned back to me. “It is the mighty silver whose whispers make him truly yours. Besides, what is his belongs to you.”
“You are mistaken, Taef,” I corrected the odd man. “Salvador is Sir Julien’s horse. He is a fine animal, and though I do care for the horse with more than a passing affection, he does not belong to me.”
“Yours he shall be and already is in his heart,” Taef said resolutely. “For what is his shall be yours and what is yours shall belong to him.”
I blinked. Taef was no longer speaking of horses. I looked at Julien and met his smile.
“I have fulfilled my diplomatic duties,” Taef announced, “and I am yours to command, Ryn Naia.”
“Thank you, Taef.” I turned to Dyfnel. “You are willing to accompany this man back to Tirandov?” I asked.
“And speedily so.” Dyfnel nodded. “It will give me great pleasure to deliver the Remedy to your mother.” Dyfnel removed his pack from his back and attached it to his horse’s saddle.
He was just about to put his foot in the stirrup, when Erielle’s shout stopped him.
“Wait!” she cried. “We must break the loaf and retrieve the stone!”
Dyfnel’s face blanched and I think my heart might have ceased beating for a moment. We had nearly forgotten an integral part of the prophecy.
“Thank Rynloeft our princess insisted you come, Lady Erielle,” Dyfnel said with a shake of his head. “The Queen does not require the entire amount. Nor would she be pleased if I had brought it to her when so many others are suffering here on the mainland.”
I thought of Risson. Of the son his family had lost to the Cobelds. Of the family we’d come upon in the south. Of the farmers and villagers who didn’t make it out of Glenhume before the Cobelds attacked. Of Erielle’s friend Nella, whose death, while not the direct result of a Cobeld’s curse, was a tragedy, just the same. It was too late to help them. But many still survived, still lived in pain and anguish. It had to stop.
Dyfnel removed his pack and the Remedy from within it. He set it on the ground and we stood unmoving in a circle about it.
“What do we do now?” Kinley rubbed his beard.
Taef stood and joined our circle. Nodding at the stone, he said, “The pit for the pit.” And then, confident as if he had done it a thousand times before, he walked from the circle, retrieved two smaller rocks, and holding the point of one at the center of the Remedy, he raised the other and hit it with a resounding crack!
The stone split into two perfect halves. Fallen between them, like a peach pit, was a perfectly circular stone, clear as a woodland spring on a summer day.
Or as an invisible floor above a chasm. I shuddered. Perhaps the stone and Cobeld’s transparent floor were formed of the same substance.
I scooped up the pit. It fit easily in the palm of my hand, and as I gazed at it, the crystal absorbed a ray of sunshine and seemed to catch on fire. I gasped, even though it was not hot in the least, and would have dropped it if not for Julien’s quick hand steadying mine.
“It’s surprisingly cool,” I said, handing it off to Julien.
The fire was alive, moving like a campfire in the breeze, but round, mimicking the shape of the outer stone. The globe passed from hand to hand, until Erielle gave it to Taef, who passed it immediately back into my hands.
“The pit for the pit,” he said. “Follow the mountain’s scar and you will find where she keeps the puss of her wound.”
I wrinkled my nose at his description of the poisoned reservoir.
“Truly, Taef,” Erielle said, “your words are most picturesque.”
Taef bowed.
Trying not to grimace, I put my free hand on Taef’s shoulder. “Might I ask a favor of you?”
“You may ask anything of me, Ryn Naia, and I will most readily follow you unto death, or even, Rynloeft forbid it, to comfort.”
He would . . . what?
Kinley snorted.
I tilted my head and then shook it slightly. There was no hope that I could possibly learn to speak “Taef” in such a short span of time as we had been given.
“Very well,” I said finally. “I need you to take charge of this worthy beast.” I indicated Sir Risson’s horse. “See that he is returned to Sir Risson’s family in Canyn, before accompanying Dyfnel to Tirandov Isle. There you will be asked to suffer many comforts. I trust you will bear these duties well.”
Dyfnel met my eyes and gave a slow nod. If there is help for his malady of the mind, Your Highness, I will see that he receives it.
Thank you, my friend.
A moment of trepidation passed over Taef’s face. “As you command, Ryn Naia. And may I live a thousand years and never graze another meadow should I fail to find joy in your service.”
When Kinley snorted again it took everything within me not to laugh, but I kept my eyes on our trusty thief’s somber face.
“In addition,” I said, “I ask that you join the Queen’s escort home. When you reach Castle Rynwyk I will, once again, depend upon you to suffer many comforts while we discuss the manner by which I will provide the oats of recompense for your loyal service.”
“Oh, most worthy future Queen!” he exclaimed. “I would suffer the pain of all the comforts of the world to prove to you my fealty!” He fell to his knees and grabbed my hand, covering it with wet, stubbly kisses. “I am beyond grief in my pleasure that you wou
ld remember the request of your humble mage!”
I could only imagine the horror that must have filled my face as Taef’s kisses continued with no end in sight.
I looked up. Erielle alone did not sport a grin. Instead she looked as if she might be ill at Taef’s slobbery display. Julien, who I thought would be offended by Taef’s show of affection, was barely controlling his laughter. At my glare, however, and after giving a pointed nod toward my hand, now slick with Taef’s kisses, Julien cleared his throat.
“Arise, worthy servant of the Ryn,” he said, “and be on your way. The Queen awaits the Remedy.”
Taef stood, releasing my hand, which I surreptitiously tucked behind my back and rubbed against my tunic to dry the remaining saliva from it. I refused to make eye contact with anyone but my horse.
I retrieved my cloak from my saddlebags, put it on, and dropped the glowing “pit” into its deep pocket while Dyfnel packed half of the Remedy in his saddlebag and Edru put the remaining half in his. The fiery stone would remain with me until the time came to drop it into the well.
I embraced Dyfnel. “Be patient, my wise friend,” I whispered. “There is truth within our trusty thief, even if it is hidden far beneath layers of insanity.”
Dyfnel laughed, and with a quick nod to Taef he mounted his horse. The hapless would-be mage mounted Risson’s horse and trotted ahead of Dyfnel, in the opposite direction from that which he’d advised us to take.
“‘Withdraw the Healer and the Cur,’” Erielle quoted with a sigh. As she watched them go, a small smile played at her cheeks.
“It was kind of you to send Risson’s horse back to his family,” Julien said softly.
“They deserve to know the truth and Dyfnel will tell them. Besides, I didn’t think Dyfnel would be too thrilled to have to share his saddle with the likes of Taef. At least this way, they will only need to share from Risson’s home to Port Dyn. Gerrias can continue to ride Stanza.”
“I take it that you plan to ride your other horse?” He patted Salvador’s flank. “But where does that leave me?”
“You will not be a burden to my overgrown lamb.” I parried his words from the long ago night on which I’d first met his beautiful horse. “You may ride with me.”
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
Gerrias stared down the mountain face, rubbing his beard with his thumb and forefinger. As we came up beside him, he pointed to a pathway. “I can only surmise that this is the mountain’s scar,” he said. “That must be the same road that the Cobelds used to ambush us.”
We followed the path of his finger.
“There appears to be a clearing of sorts in that valley.”
“Looks less than an hour’s ride,” Kinley said. “Is it a Cobeld camp, do you think?”
Gerrias nodded. “We’ll need to use extreme caution. Their camps are plentiful in these northern foothills. And they might have a Dwonsil guard, perhaps even a full company of warriors at the ready.”
“Indeed.” Kinley nodded. “We can only hope the King has drawn enough of them off that we might reach it unmolested.”
“Speaking of the King,” Edru turned to me. “Perhaps you should inform him of our progress?”
I nodded. “I will as we ride.”
Julien took my pack from me and affixed it with his own to Salvador’s saddle before helping me up.
Climbing on behind me, he whispered in my ear. “You could have kept Risson’s horse for Gerrias and ridden your own, but selfishly, I’m glad you chose otherwise.”
I shivered at his breath on my neck. “You are?”
“Without a doubt. This arrangement gives me the perfect excuse to hold you close.”
We rode down the pathway’s twists and turns, reaching the bottom of the mountain by the time the sun had risen to the noon mark. I closed my eyes and tried to contact my father, but he was riding hard, and battle was soon to come. Other than relaying our location, I didn’t distract him with details.
“The army is only a few miles farther to the other side of the clearing than we are this side of it.”
Julien shouted the news to everyone else and we gathered speed, hoping that, as Taef claimed, this path would lead us to the poisoned reservoir—and that we would have time to fulfill the rest of the prophecy before the battle reached us.
We entered the clearing in less time than Kinley and Gerrias had predicted. It seemed deserted, but at Julien’s request, Edru and I used our gifts to discern life, but found little other than rodents.
The camp was larger than a village, but more primitive. By sheer size it could have been considered a small town.
“Look how squat the huts are built!” Erielle exclaimed. “I might be the only one of us who could pass through the door. And even I might bump my head!”
The smaller scale of the poorly constructed shelters left no argument against the fact that this was indeed a Cobeld settlement.
We held our weapons at the ready riding through the camp, expecting attack at any moment. A prickle creased my shoulders.
“What is it?” Julien’s arm tightened about my waist.
“They’re getting closer,” I said at the same time Kinley shouted, “Look there!”
He set his horse to a canter and we followed.
At the center of the camp, a huge mound of earth was surrounded by rough-hewn wooden scaffolding. The scaffolding leveled off midway up the steep slope, but the mound continued up, even more steeply, until it ended with a ring of piled stones atop its crest. Above the stones, a wooden arch was built with a bar hanging beneath it, supporting some small objects that I couldn’t identify from my position so far below.
At the bottom of the mound, piles of . . . something . . . were neatly arranged as if for decoration. Kinley slid off his horse and walked toward the mound. When he reached the bottom he bent forward to touch one of the offerings, but stopped short.
He stood and faced us. “Bones,” he said.
“Bones?” I blinked. “Animal bones?”
“Maybe.” He glanced just behind me, where Julien sat. The look they exchanged said it all.
Not animal.
His gaze darted to me and back to Julien. He gave a quick nod and sighed as he knelt beside one of the piles. “They’re small,” he said. “And the sculls look fairly . . . human.”
I gasped. “Children?” Oh, please. Not that.
“If I had to guess, I’d say Cobeld.” He looked up. “Wait here. I’ll climb up and see what’s there.”
Kinley reached for a handhold and swung up onto the scaffolding. After he reached the landing, a good twenty feet above our heads, he just kept climbing, digging his hands into the earthen mound as he crawled up the side.
“I’m going to keep looking for the reservoir, or well, or whatever it is,” Erielle said.
Gerrias spoke up, “I’ll come with you.”
“Hold.” Julien dismounted, his eyes riveted on the piles of bones. He walked up to them, and then stepped back, rubbing his beard with his thumb and forefinger. His lips moved, and I wondered which lines from the scrolls he was reciting. He turned.
“It’s a shrine,” he said. “‘Cobeld’s minions of one mind must feed their beard from cursed shrine.’ This is it. This is the reservoir. The well.”
“That’s ridiculous.” Erielle made a face. “Wells are dug down into the ground, not built up from it.”
Holding my hand up to shield my eyes from the sun, I watched Kinley’s progress. When he reached the apex, I was surprised to see there was enough flat area for him to stand.
Kinley leaned over the circular rocks and turned to the side, as if there was something in the center of them he was trying to listen to.
“What is he doing?” I wondered aloud.
He stood like that for a few moments more, then abruptly straightened and climbed back down the slope to the landing.
“It’s a well!” he said. “Come on!”
“Surely you jest?” Erielle slid from her horse, shieldin
g her eyes as she looked up toward him.
“No.” Kinley shook his head. “I dropped a pebble and heard it hit water.”
Edru, Gerrias, and I slid from our horses.
Julien stood just to Salvador’s side and made a few hand motions. “Go,” he said softly, pointing to the tree line near the edge of the Cobeld camp we had entered. “Stay.”
Salvador whinnied at the other horses and trotted off toward the trees. I stared, open-mouthed, as the other horses followed.
“He’ll keep the horses out of sight until I call for him,” Julien said. When he saw the disbelief on my face he gave me a lopsided grin. “Truly. He’s never failed me yet.”
Of course he hadn’t. Salvador was no ordinary horse.
“Come then,” Julien said, giving me a wink that made my insides quiver. “I’ll give you a hand up.”
He cupped his hands and I set a boot in. He hoisted me up to the first level of scaffolding as if I were as small as Erielle, who, without any help at all, had reached the landing before I even started to climb.
When we reached the level where Kinley waited, we followed his gaze out to where we could see above the trees. The wind came from the south, carrying the sound away, but the battle was nearly to the northern edge of the camp.
“They’re almost here!” I cried. “What do we do now? What’s next?”
We were so close to finishing what we had come here to do. But we’d not yet solved the final riddles.
“We need more time!”
Why I had expected to have more time to figure out the last bits of the poetry, I didn’t know. Nothing else had come upon us with much warning. Why should it now?
I closed my eyes and concentrated on the poetry. Around me, the words swirled through everyone else’s thoughts as well. I opened my eyes, looking about for clues to the riddles we had yet to solve. All nine marks had been met. The Remedy had been retrieved.
