Worldbinder r-6

by David Farland

  Madoc glared. “Is it important?”

  “I have news that you should hear,” Alun suggested, “before you see the king.”

  Madoc considered a moment, as if nothing that Alun could say would be more urgent than his own report to the king. Then he grabbed Alun by the sleeve and ushered him from the hall into the first living chamber that they reached. It had been a stately room for some merchant who did not want to travel far to get into the city. It was spacious and elegantly appointed. Now it was empty, the valuables hastily removed, the merchant having fled to higher-and presumably safer-quarters.

  “What is so important?” Madoc demanded as he closed the door.

  “High King Urstone tried to exchange Princess Kan-hazur for his son, and the wyrmlings cheated him. They took the princess, and gave nothing in return.”

  “The king was a fool,” Madoc said. “Still, we can take comfort in one thing-the princess will not live out the week.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Madoc smiled. “My men have been poisoning her food with shavings of red-wort root for years. It will not harm her until she stops eating it.”

  Alun considered. He wasn’t sure that his people could survive the night. But if they did, what would happen once Emperor Zul-torac discovered this act of treachery?

  He’ll hunt us down to the very last woman and child, Alun thought. Between Urstone’s folly and Madoc’s treachery, we are doomed.

  What had Daylan said? Hadn’t he said that there was but a hair’s difference between the wyrmlings and mankind? Madoc seemed little better than Zul-torac at that moment.

  So much evil in the world comes upon us from poor leaders, Alun thought. Why was it my fate to be caught between these two?

  We suffer them, he realized. We, the people, suffer them. We forgive their stupidity and their small-mindedness. We follow them into battles that should not be. We accept their flattery and petty bribes-when we would be better off to sweep them away, like flies from our dinner table.

  “So,” Madoc said. “What do the people think of this debacle?”

  Alun tried to think fast. He wasn’t sure that he wanted to support Warlord Madoc anymore. But Alun had the habit of telling the truth, and it came easiest to his lips. “There are many who blame him for this attack, saying that he sold his kingdom for a dream. There are those who believe he should be removed from the throne!”

  The words of treason came to his tongue, yet his heart was not in it. He almost felt as if he stood outside himself, listening to someone else speak.

  “Are any of his own warriors saying it?” Madoc asked.

  “Some,” Alun admitted. “Still, the king has strong supporters, and there are those that love him. It would be foolish to come out openly against him.

  “There is something more,” Alun said. “The king has shown favor to Fallion Orden, the wizard who merged our two worlds. He plans to do it again, binding many worlds into one. If he does, many people, folks like me who had no shadow self upon the other world, will simply die.”

  Madoc seemed to consider this for a long moment.

  “Our young wizard must also be stopped,” Madoc said. Madoc looked thoughtful. Alun could see plans of murder circling in his skull. He looked hopefully at Alun, as if wondering if Alun could be trusted to do the wizard, but then thought better of it. He smiled at Alun, a reassuring smile, the smile of a killer who meant to do his business.

  “You have done well, my friend. When my kingdom comes, you will have a high place among my counselors.”

  At the sudden blare of trumpets, Madoc whirled and left the room.

  Alun felt sure that he didn’t want to see Madoc reign. The people needed someone of greater wisdom and compassion. But Alun could use the man. He could make Madoc a tool, use him to get rid of Fallion Orden.

  But it wasn’t Fallion that Alun was worried about at the moment. It wasn’t even Warlord Madoc or King Urstone. No, there was a far more pressing danger. Outside, distant cries and the crashing of weapons against shields announced the advance of the wyrmling horde.

  THE BATTLE FOR THE OUTER WALL

  A warrior’s life depends upon his ability to read the enemy, to know what he will do before he even tries.

  — Sir Borenson

  Fallion suspected that it was only two hours before dawn as he and Jaz winged back to Caer Luciare. The air felt chill and heavy, as it does in the hours before dawn.

  Fallion studied the castle’s defenses from the air.

  Luciare climbed the mountain in steps, houses built on terraces that bordered a winding road. Two walls protected the city-a lower wall that surrounded the market, and an upper wall to defend the warrens. Both walls had moats filled with water that cascaded down from the mountain’s heights.

  The lower walls were well defended. It looked as if every able-bodied man and woman in the city had turned out.

  Fallion spotted Rhianna above the upper wall, standing on the broad terrace, looking about as if unsure what to do.

  Fallion swooped and landed beside her, found himself hitting ground so fast he tripped and fell headlong.

  Jaz whooped with laughter and touched down beside him, managing to be only slightly less graceless.

  Rhianna studied the wings, tried to hide a twinge of jealousy. Then turned and peered down over the hills. The wyrmlings were coming through the trees, banging weapons and singing.

  “Have you seen Talon?” Fallion asked.

  Rhianna shook her head no. “She’s been gone all night. I think she might be down on the lower wall. Where do you want to fight?”

  “The closer we get, the better the view,” Fallion said. “But with an unfamiliar enemy, that might be dangerous.”

  “You’ve been training with weapons all of your life,” Rhianna said. “I doubt they have any tricks they can teach you.”

  “Yes,” Jaz teased. “He’s been training all of his short life.”

  Fallion felt nervous. He could feel the electric thrill in the air that comes before battle. Yes, he’d trained all of his life, but not to fight against giants that outweighed him by three hundred pounds. “All right, I’d like a front-row seat, if it’s okay with you.”

  “I’ve always wanted to get front-row seats to something,” Rhianna teased uneasily. “I’m just not sure if this is the best time start demanding them.”

  Jaz asked, “So, how long do you think it will take before the wyrmlings bow to our superior skills?”

  “Oh,” Fallion said, “they look like slow learners. I bet it will take them hours.”

  “Good,” Jaz said. “We should all have quite a pile of dead at our feet before they catch on.”

  “Let us hope,” Rhianna said, as they strode down the winding road to the lower levels.

  Thousands of human warriors crowded atop the lower wall as the wyrmlings marched on the castle. But breaching the wall would not be easy. Luciare was no minor fortress. The lower wall rose eighty feet. Moreover, it was carved from living rock and thus had no seams, save the cracks made by frozen water over the eons. Even a kezziard could not climb it.

  Fallion raced down the city streets to the outer wall, and stood upon the precipice, peering down. Clouds had wandered in overnight, sealing the skies, releasing a cool rain in some places, a slight mist that had abated only moments ago. A wayward breeze blew down the mountainside, mussing Fallion’s hair, buffeting his wings.

  Out in the darkness, under the cover of trees, he could make out wyrmlings stirring in the shadows. But none dared the road, and he could not see what they were up to.

  Young boys stood upon the walls, torch-bearers.

  Fallion drew light from the nearest torches, sent it snaking down the hill under the woods, where it lingered among the fallen leaves beneath the trees.

  Suddenly the outlines of the wyrmlings appeared.

  The wyrmlings had brought enormous drums unlike anything that Fallion had ever seen-black drums, made from hollowed baobab trees. Each drum was at
least forty feet long and was lugged by dozens of wyrmlings. One end of each log was covered in some dark hide, while the other end opened with a narrow hole.

  The wyrmlings stayed afar off, about a quarter of a mile, and wrestled the drums, aiming the holes toward the city wall.

  Upon the wall, the human defenders hunched low and braced themselves. There were cries of awe, and Fallion saw defenders counting in their own crude tongue. He estimated fifty drums in the woods, and the defenders seemed dismayed.

  What are our people so afraid of? Fallion wondered.

  Then huge wyrmlings with enormous clubs began to pound.

  The first drum snarled and boomed, as if to hurl a curse. The drum exuded a percussive force like a physical blow that lifted Fallion from his feet, and set his very bones to aching.

  “Ah!” Jaz cried. Fallion looked up to see him wiping blood from his nose.

  The wall beneath them cracked. Stone shattered and rained down from the ledge.

  “What makes them so powerful?” Fallion wondered aloud, for he had never seen such terrors. His very skin seemed to ache with the roll of the thunder drum.

  “Spells,” Rhianna guessed. “Some type of rune of the air?”

  Fallion wished that Talon were here so that he could ask her of the lore, but he had not seen her all night.

  A second drum called out in a tone higher than the first, and did far less damage. The wyrmlings struggled with it, loosening the lid of the drum, and then a third called out, slightly deeper than the first.

  “They’re looking for just the right pitch,” Rhianna guessed, “to break this stone.”

  “Or my bones,” Jaz proclaimed.

  Four or five more drums rang out experimentally, until the wyrmlings found the pitch they wanted.

  Suddenly dozens of drums opened up. A wall of sound hit, blasting and thrumming, causing the mountain to shake as if it would collapse. Fallion had heard terrible thunderstorms in the summers back in Landesfallen, the thunder echoing from mountain to mountain. But this was fifty time worse. The air filled with snarls and booms, and the mountain shook mercilessly.

  The wall beneath them cracked. Rubble began falling as the lip of the wall crumbled away. With each blast, the wyrmlings shifted their drums, taking aim at an unblemished portion of the wall.

  Fallion had thought that the wyrmlings would take hours to breach this wall, but suddenly he realized that the lip was dropping at a rate of inches every moment. He could not have imagined the damage done with each blast. It was like striking soft stone with a mallet. The outer wall was crumbling, and with each crack, each indentation, it left an invitation for the kezziards’ claws.

  In mere moments, the walls eroded as if a millennium’s worth of wind and ice had wrought upon them.

  Fallion had imagined that it would be a long siege and that the humans might hold the outer wall all night. But the wall looked as if it might be breached in moments.

  In dismay he realized that it had never been Luciare’s strong walls that had protected the city. Nor was it the power of its fighting men. Only a single hostage had stood between mankind and destruction.

  The emperor must prize her more than we ever guessed, Fallion thought.

  Fallion felt for sources of heat, wondering if he might set the woods ablaze. There were torches at his back all along the wall. But a light rain had fallen earlier, little more than a mist.

  At this distance, it was enough to foil even his strongest spells.

  A few men upon the walls fired huge bows or hurled the massive iron war darts that seemed to be favored here. They did little damage. The wyrmlings in the wood were shielded by leaf and limb.

  Fallion drew heat from the torches into himself, savoring it. He exhaled, and smoke issued from his nostrils. He knew that if anyone looked at him, his eyes would be shining. He felt powerful, dangerous, even as the fortress walls shattered beneath him.

  Then a huge shout erupted from the woods, and trees began to tremble as kezziards rumbled past them. The ground beneath the woods suddenly filled with white-the white of helms and armor whittled from bone, the white of the wyrmlings’ pale skin, and the white of their eyes shining like crystals.

  Suddenly something huge lumbered up over the woods, giant graaks on heavy wings. A dozen of them came at once, wingtip to wingtip, forming a living wall. Scores of wyrmlings rode their backs.

  Shouts of warning erupted as human warriors recognized the danger. The wyrmlings wouldn’t need kezziards to breach the walls. They could drop troops from the sky.

  Upon the stone archway above the great gate to the city, the Wizard Sisel stood. Flowers and vines hung from the arch like a living curtain, and he stood there surrounded by greenery, as if in a forest. Down below, the wyrmlings troops rushed forward, roaring, and the giant graaks came winging well above the trees, the rush of wind from their wings rising like a storm.

  The human defenders braced themselves, terror plain upon their faces, and Sisel raised his staff.

  And there, from the grass along the castle wall, a million fireflies suddenly rose, arcing into the air like bright green sparks, filling the fields with light.

  “Now,” King Urstone called at the wizard’s back. “By life and light, now is the time to strike!”

  The humans charged to the crumbling lip of the wall, risking their lives to hurl war darts.

  Wyrmlings cried in despair, as if to greet the Dark Lady herself in death.

  The kezziards clambered forward, crushing wounded and fallen wyrmlings in their path, terrifying in their masks of woven chain. The lizards themselves were the color of fire, with enormous eyes that shone gold. Their tongues snapped and flickered as they scented the battlefield, yet despite the dying all around them, they trudged stupidly on.

  Fallion saw dozens of kezziard riders die, iron darts splitting their faces.

  Giant graaks neared the city.

  Fallion stood, his wings nervously adjusting, preparing for flight.

  High up on Mount Luciare, where clouds collided with stone, a pair of Knights Eternal clung to the wall, gripping it with dead fingers and the tiny claws at the joints of their wings.

  There at the edge of the coming battle, in the sputtering light of the torches, they spotted the nervous unfolding wings.

  The knights looked at each other.

  “Fools,” one of them whispered. “They almost beg for death.”

  The two winged human warriors hadn’t had time to adapt to a life of flight, and so they squatted along with the rest of their kind. Their attention was riveted on the enemy in front of them, when they should have been scanning the sky above.

  With a kick, the Knights Eternal soundlessly broke away from the mountain wall, unfolded their wings, and swooped into a dive.

  Like hawks they stooped, wings almost folded, using all of their strength to focus on the wingtips, keeping them rigid against the driving wind, gently tilting, making corrections, as they guided themselves toward their targets.

  They gained speed as they fell, and soon were rushing toward ground. With just a tilt of the wingtips, they began to break, and went shooting just feet above the ground.

  Thunder drums continued to boom, cracking walls and shattering stone. The wyrmlings wailed and snarled in death as the humans hurled their iron darts, and everywhere men were shouting battle cries. Fallion’s nerves jangled, and for a moment it seemed that all went silent as he tried to block out the sound.

  From the castle wall above Fallion, he heard a roar of warning and imagined that from their higher vantage point the lookouts must have spotted some new threat.

  Jaz leapt forward, taking aim with his great bow and loosing a black arrow into the throat of a wyrmling kezziard rider. He grabbed a second arrow in a blur, and took aim at a kezziard’s eye.

  A war dart came hurtling up from a wyrmling below, and Jaz dodged aside even as he drew a new arrow.

  A tall warrior stepped in front of Fallion, blocking his view; quickly Fallion d
ucked to his left to get a glimpse of the battlefield.

  He heard a heavy chunk, crack, chunk.

  The warrior that had blocked Fallion’s view suddenly grunted. Fallion glanced at him, and saw that a black dart now sprouted from his back.

  The warrior staggered forward a pace and moaned as he toppled over the wall.

  That dart barely missed me! Fallion realized. He wondered where it had come from. Obviously, there was an enemy behind him.

  At that instant Jaz cried out, falling to his knees.

  Fallion heard the muffled flapping of wings, a sound an owl might make as it takes a mouse. A Knight Eternal, he realized.

  He ducked. At the same instant something enormous swooped above his head.

  Then Fallion spotted a huge black iron war dart protruding from Jaz’s back.

  For an instant, time froze. Fallion saw the panic in Rhianna’s eyes, saw her swing her staff wildly as a pair of Knights Eternal blurred above her. But as quickly as they had come, the enemy was gone, winging off into the shadows.

  Fallion thought to follow, but knew that it would be too dangerous. He could no longer see them, and their flying skills far outmatched his own.

  Jaz knelt on his hands and knees, gasping for breath. He coughed, and gobs of blood spattered to the ground.

  He began to laugh just a bit as Fallion drew near.

  “What?” Rhianna asked, grabbing for his shoulder, trying to pull him up. Jaz shook his head no, refusing her help.

  Jaz looked up at Fallion, smiling broadly, while blood poured freely from his mouth. Tears glistened in his eyes.

  “Do you hurt?” Rhianna asked, trying to comfort him.

  “The poison…is cold.”

  Jaz collapsed, his face banging onto the stone.

  “Jaz!” Fallion cried, and reached down to grab him. He listened for Jaz to breathe, but only heard the air escape his brother’s throat.

  Rhianna’s face was blank with shock.

  All of the roaring, all of the snarl and bass of the thunder drums, all seemed but a small and distant noise. In that instant, Fallion knelt with his brother, utterly alone.