Fallen Prince

by Williams, Tess

  Almost robotically, I nodded.

  I heard the breath of his smile. “Then go get one, son. What’s your hesitation? I wouldn’t mind the extra the light either.”

  With a quick twist and a smile as soon I’d turned, I went back into the last tunnel and grabbed one of the lit torches off the wall. Lox was waiting for me when I came back. We passed through the dark tunnel and then a few more like it. I started to hear strange sounds at about the same time a wave of hot, humid, air hit us.

  We came into a large cavern that wasn’t deserted but dotted with a couple dozen workers and soldiers. The men that worked wore ragged clothing, covered in dirt. They filled wagons on tracks with coal under the careful watch of the guards. The tracks spanned out of the cavern in many different directions through tunnels.

  I heard a scream, or perhaps a roar (something that only a large animal could make), but I wasn’t able to determine where it was coming from before Lox started walking into one of the tunnels that curved upwards. I followed him quickly.

  We hadn’t gone very far before I saw that the tunnel dead-ended to an opening half-way up the wall of another much larger cavern. I first saw just the ceiling of it, covered in spiky stalactites that glowed with orange light. Then as we reached the opening—which was more of a viewing platform—I was veritably blinded by the fiery light of a river of coals. It ran down the middle of the far side the cavern, off to our left. Smoke rose above it and leaked up into holes in the ceiling. The smoke was bright and full of sparks. Along the edges of the coals there were the moving figures of men that looked the size of ants from my position. I couldn’t make out what they were doing, but the large contraptions and sounds of clanking told me it involved the heating and shaping of metal—probably weapons, armor, or even bigger objects like the chains that opened the gates of Akadia.

  The rest of the cavern, though large and taking up most of it, was difficult for me to see. I knew there was something there because a deep rumbling was coming from all directions. I tried to get my eyes to focus. It looked like the entire floor of it was moving.

  When I realized it really was moving—towards the fire and then back to the other end of the tunnel in two adjacent loops—I assumed there was some sort of machine carrying materials from one end of the cavern to the other. Then I heard the first moan, or cry rather, and the shape that I had been trying to make out with great difficulty became suddenly clear.

  I saw it every night before I fell asleep, painted on the ceiling above my bed.

  It had a body close to that of a rhinoceros, only much larger—as large as a full-grown dragon. Instead of a single horn, it had three; two on the top of its head and one on its nose. They were wide horns and even in the firelight I could tell they were gold. Its hide was thick and tough, lined with deep crevices that looked almost painful. Chains were tied around its feet and connected to huge wagons of coal and metal that ran beside it. I heard a pound each time it set down a foot and I realized that of course this accounted for the rumble of the cavern—because there wasn’t just one—there were scores of them. It was them moving in the darkness, not the floor and not machines. I was looking at the granted animals of Akadia. These were the behemoths.

  “Most of the people don’t even know they’re down here,” Lox said. Another one of the creatures groaned. Lox continued unfazed. “This place is one of the greatest strengths of Akadia. It produces two-hundred weapons of war a day. Just as many suits of armor—and shields. In all the lands there is not a smith or facility that makes in a year what this one cavern does in a month. And that’s not all.” He pointed past the river of coals. “Most of the furnaces used to run Akadia are on the other side. The coal carried over by the behemoths is used to smelt metal, but it is also used to fuel the furnaces. Can you see them?”

  I nodded. They were beyond the flames, like he’d said; they glowed hot orange in the small holes at their base, then rose up in shafts beyond the cavern ceiling.

  “I thought that they might be down here,” I said, my eyes still on the sea of animals. “I just never guessed that there would be so many.”

  “We’ve taken great care to breed them well in the last decade. There was a time that they sat out on the fields around Akadia, as useless as stones. Now we’ve harnessed their true potential…”

  What he was saying made perfect sense. The city of Akadia was more luxurious and prosperous than any country I’d ever heard of. If they could use their granted animals to help accomplish this, what did it matter? They were just animals. They were given to them anyways, weren’t they?

  All these things I thought, but my chest was tight and I felt sick. I didn’t want to feel that way though.

  Lox looked at me. “I’ve shown this to very few people, Cyric. And very few men in all of Akadia are allowed to see it, at least not many that ever leave this place.”

  His tone of voice and words were enough to make me turn from the grand scene to him. The torch I still held allowed me to see him clearly.

  “Do you understand what this means?” he asked. His expression was serious. I paused a moment, glancing at the behemoths and back, and then I nodded.

  He smiled wide, like he couldn’t have been more delighted. “You may return whenever you like,” he said, waving to the cavern of behemoths. “If I have my way it won’t be long before every part of Akadia is available to you. For now I have something else to show you.” He put a hand on my shoulder and started walking us back down the tunnel. He spoke as we went. “You probably know each commander receives a share of spoil for their victories—what does not go to the king and council. In one of my battles to the west I acquired a very special breed of horse. They are absolutely unlike anything you have ever seen. Do you know how to ride?”

  I wasn’t sure where he was going with this and I was no expert. The only time I had ridden a horse it had ended in disaster—this may or may not have had something to do with the fact that it was the horse of a visiting emissary that I had not been given permission to ride. Either way I’d happily sworn off horses since then. “Yes… I mean, sure,” I said confidently.

  “Good, because they’re not easy beasts to win over.” He stopped in the cavern we’d walked through before, with the workers and soldiers and many wagons.

  “Are you saying you want me to ride one?” I asked.

  “No. I’m saying I’m going to give you one.” He frowned. “For now there’s not much I can do to show the other Akadians how highly I esteem you. You’re under Tarful’s command for one; also I don’t want the negative rumors surrounding me to affect your advancement. This gift would be a way to prove my appreciation to you. In my mind you would be bearing my mark.”

  I looked away after he’d finished, mostly because I couldn’t handle staring at him directly. I couldn’t help but notice then that the gazes of the few soldiers scattered about the cavern were on me. Their expressions held awe and perhaps a little envy; it was the way people looked at me when I was with Lox. Like I was a part of something they weren’t. And maybe I really was.

  I looked back at Lox. “If you’re sure, of course I would be honored.”

  Lox clamped a hand on my shoulder. “It’s settled then. There’s a certain reason that I think you might be fond of the creatures, but… I’ll let you discover it for yourself. We can speak of it later.”

  I nodded, finding it difficult not to grin like an idiot.

  Lox started walking—once again he waved me on to follow. I had almost caught up to him when I heard the loud cry—it was one of the only things that could have distracted me. It was the same sound I had heard when we’d walked through before.

  I had thought after seeing the behemoths, that it had been them, but now I was sure it was different. It came again, followed by loud scraping and pounding. I searched until I saw a door, a huge door, about twenty yards inside one of the tunnels. It shook with the sound of the pounding. Bits of dirt fell from the tunnel ceiling every time it scraped the door, then it w
ould cry louder.

  “Quiet you!” one of the guards shouted.

  The creature inside moaned like it might stop, but then it struck the door and screeched all the louder.

  “Are you coming, Cyric?” Lox asked.

  He had waited for me. With a final glance at the door, I turned and followed after him. My commander.

  Nothing else really mattered.

  ~ ~ ~

  CHAPTER FIVE

  ELLIA:

  *

  “You mean you don’t even know the way?” said Estrid with contempt. She filled a third bowl with porridge from her pot hanging over the fire and handed it to me.

  I set it on the floor. I was too anxious and too busy trying to convince her to take us to Yanartas to possibly stop and eat.

  “It’s on my map,” I said. “I have a compass. If we head in the direction, I’m sure I can find it.”

  “I have a compass,” Estrid said, “I’m a sailor. I know how to navigate the sea. But it’s different when you’re going somewhere you’ve never been before. There are tides, currents, hidden rocks that will break the bottom of your boat to pieces before you know what’s happened—to say nothing of sea monsters. And not to mention, it’s the summer season.” She took a bite of her own porridge. She seemed about as satisfied with the taste as Minstrel, who had only braved to take one bite of his.

  We’d been in the home of Estrid Larke (daughter of Captain Larke the elder) ever since it had started raining again—which wasn’t long after it had stopped. She’d been hospitable enough after our initial offense, and had confirmed that she remembered me from Cathum, but on the subject of taking us across the sea she was resistant to say the least.

  “The man in the tavern made it seem like it wouldn’t matter to you if it was summer season,” I replied. “We thought you were a special captain.”

  “I am a special captain,” she said. “I take my boat out into the sea almost every day no matter what season it is. It makes no difference to me. But to travel to Yanartas—not only is its location indeterminate, it’s said if you land there they’re just as likely to throw you into the ocean as let you dock.”

  “I can take care of that,” I said. “I’m not sure how long you could stay, but I can make certain you’re supplied and that your boat is in good repair.”

  “Oh?” she questioned. She held my gaze for a moment, her spoon flung off to one side, her dark eyes considering me. She turned to Minstrel and tipped her head towards me. “What makes her so sure?”

  Minstrel shook his head and started to laugh. “I’m not quite certain, but she’s not failed me yet against the giant spiders, nor the bone-eating Chupacabra, so I would gladly believe her if she tells you she can make sure we’ll land.”

  “I don’t tend to trust people that don’t even have the sense to stay on the road,” Estrid remarked. “You know with your necklaces you could have taken a carriage and been here in a day?”

  “Yes, well... I wouldn’t have met Minstrel if I’d stayed on the road,” I said.

  “And that would have meant certain death for me,” he chimed. “I was sadly unable to charm the baby arachnids.”

  Estrid grew a smile. “You two are crazy.”

  I scoffed a little, glancing at the surroundings of hanging bobbles, clothes strewn everywhere, and just as many pots, not to mention fish. “This coming from the girl who I saw take on an entire squad of guards?”

  “Those weren’t guards,” she snapped, her black eyes suddenly lighting with fire. But just as quickly as she had grown angry, she relaxed. “It’s one thing to defy your own country’s law-keepers—not that I haven’t seen my father and brothers do it enough times—but I won’t be accountable to a rabble of bullies that have decided to take up residence where they don’t belong.”

  “You’re talking about the Akadians,” I followed. “Are they really not meant to be in Karatel?”

  Estrid scoffed. “I should think not!” But then she lost some of her vigor and her sharp brows dipped. It was so subtle that I would not have noticed if her features were not so well defined. “It’s not as if I know what decisions the government of Karatel decides to make. I suppose Loone has always been right to resist them; I’m not sure they know what they’re doing.”

  “Not if they’re letting Akadians occupy their cities, no, they don’t,” I said firmly. “It’s the worst decision a country could make to trust Akadia.” I felt as much fury building in me as Estrid had yet exhibited. I hardly noticed her studying me; my vision was filled with red warriors, flames, and twisted images of Cyric.

  “You know you look like a Shaundian,” Estrid said suddenly. It cleared my thoughts and vision. She lifted her chin a fraction in consideration. “I thought it the first time I saw you. I’ve met one before. But the rumors have it that something’s gone wrong in Shaundakul. No one knows what, but it’s all the largest cities in Karatel are talking about.”

  “I didn’t hear any of this,” I said.

  “Yes, well, the people of Karatel aren’t ones to share such things with outsiders,” Estrid drawled. “Where did you say that you were from again?” she asked.

  It was only a second before I answered. “I didn’t.” I said.

  Estrid turned to Minstrel. “And you’re from Gilgatrox?”

  “Born and raised,” Minstrel answered.

  The pounding on the roof that had been sounding constantly since we’d entered, increased in loudness suddenly. Estrid cocked her ear to the ceiling, as if she’d been attuned to the sound the whole time. She stood, letting her gaze remain on Minstrel and I for a moment, then she walked to her window which was blocked with a wooden slat, opened it, and peered out at the sky.

  It was dark and gray, and in the second she opened it a flash of spiky lighting crossed the sky. Its blustering thunder was uncomfortably close and when she dropped the slat it kept on. “You might be in luck,” she told us. “It’s hard to resist take-off conditions like this.”

  I narrowed, but my skepticism wasn’t enough to deter from the hope of what I’d just heard. “Wait. Are you talking about taking us to Yanartas?” I asked. Minstrel and I spared a quick glance for each other.

  Estrid went on. “If there’s one thing I’ll heed, it’s the weather.... You’ll be giving me both those golden necklaces, you know,” she said, nodding to my bag, on which they were still tied.

  “Estrid, if you mean that you will take us to Yanartas, I’ll gladly give you everything I own.”

  “I would write a song in your honor as well,” Minstrel added.

  This drew a small smirk from Estrid. “You’ll have time in the boat. Bring the map,” she said, as she stuffed her own in a bag along with a dozen jars of food. “As soon as you’re ready, head outside. We’ll take off within the next few minutes.”

  “So soon?” I asked with surprise, but I stood up all the same.

  “Before the weather changes.”

  I didn’t want to waste the time it would take to ask why on earth an obviously furious storm would be the best time to leave.

  “Can the crew get here that quickly?” I asked.

  One of Estrid’s brows dropped low while the other remained high. I didn’t know it then, but it was an expression I was going to get very used to seeing. “Who said anything about a crew?”

  *

  CYRIC:

  *

  I didn’t know Akadia had grass—at least I hadn’t before I got to the place where the ivoronsu were kept. Ivoronsu, yeah, that’s what they were called. If they were horses I didn’t understand why they couldn’t just be called horses, or even, magic horses if they were so unusual. I still hadn’t seen the things.

  I was standing on the edge of a field about three or four miles from Akadia. It was beyond a range of small mountains, so I could no longer see the city. There was a wide and long field ahead of me and beyond it the line of a bright green forest. Since I’d arrived, no one had talked to me, except to say that the ivoronsu would be comin
g out for their afternoon run soon.

  There were plenty of other soldiers and caretakers here, but they stayed in their own groups. I had the feeling that they didn’t want me there for some reason and wondered if they were making it take so long on purpose.

  I got hot enough to take my armor off, then bored enough to climb a tree. I was hanging upside down from a branch when the ivoronsu finally came.

  They appeared from inside a cave cut into the nearby mountain. They sort of looked like… skeletons, coming out of the darkness. I cocked my head around and jumped off, landing on my feet upright. They really were skeletons, at least that’s what it looked like on their faces. Once they’d emerged from the darkness I saw that their bodies were normal enough, as far as horses were concerned. They were large, a little thinner than most horses perhaps. Every one of them was all black. Except for the silver on their faces—it was patterned into a shape reminiscent of the skull structure beneath, as if you could see the bones of the horse below its skin. Rather than brightening in the sun as silver usually did, the daylight made the bone marks show up a little less than they had in the cave, so that I thought their hair probably had a subtle glowing aspect.

  All in all, they were some of the most terrifying creatures I’d ever seen. They seemed to carry their own cloud of black mist around them.

  They barreled out of the cave at top speed. Upon reaching the field they were content to stop and graze—for about ten seconds, then they went charging around again. It didn’t take long to notice that they had an attitude problem, maybe even a full-blown anger problem. One didn’t get near to another without them both getting in a fight. If any of them happened to run beside another, it instantly turned into a race and I had never seen surface animals move so fast. I thought they could probably keep up with a dragon.