by Jenna Grey
“It must be the magic what protects the place, cos certain as eggs is eggs, they’d be in there like a shot otherwise.”
“It must be powerful protection indeed, if it can keep out Djinn that can take physical form in broad daylight,” Conner said, turning away.
They stood for some time in the shelter of the trees, just watching the spectacle before them, perhaps ten thousand troops, sure overkill when the army in the Citadel numbered no more than a few hundred, and even those were soft troops that had never seen battle, the elite guard of the king.
“Be on your guard, there are sure to be bands of scouts all over the area. My fey ears should hear them long before they reach us, but stay alert,” Connor cautioned.
From the valley below, there was a sudden thundering beat of drums, that made the mountains around them ring. The great booming of their beat seemed to pound in time with Lily’s own pounding heart. A dreadful grunting chant, like the sound of a Maori war cry, came drifting up to them.
“Are they going to attack?” Lily asked.
Connor shook his head.
“No, it’s just psychological warfare, just to remind the people in the city that they’re there, and intimidate them. They’re just trying to scare people.”
“I’m intimidated,” Lily said, pinching in her face so hard it made her teeth hurt.
The drum beats continued, a great pounding that made the air around them shiver, and Lily could feel every beat right through her chest, making her heart tremble. There was so much fear. “What in the name of all that’s holy do we do now?”
Connor turned away, took a few steps towards the trees, then he turned again and began to pace.
Lily looked across. Nob was grinning at Connor’s back, flashing cabbage green stumps of teeth. He scratched his nose and the grin widened.
“Yes, like I said, aint no-one ever got up to the citadel lest they went in through the front door.”
Connor turned on him, his face angry.
“Thanks for stating the obvious, Nob.”
“’Cept of course, us hobs,” Nob said, breaking into giggles.
Connor and Lily just gawped at him.
“You know a way in?”
Nob was laughing now.
“Course we do. I mean we don’t let every Tom, Dick or Norbert know about the tunnel, but all of old Grendel’s boys, may the gods rest his soul, knew how to get in. Did a lot of under the counter deals, if you get my meanin’. Illicit goods, yer know? Little bit of this, little bit of that.”
Lily grabbed a hold of Nob’s diminutive form in a stranglehold and gave him a massive hug, Almost throttling the life out of him.
“I’m gwad yaw ’appy,” he said, his voice muffled, his face pressed hard against Lily’s chest.
Lily let him go, her face beaming.
“Well, lead the way, the sooner we get to see Elidor the better.”
Nob turned on his heels and began scampering down the hill, beckoning him to follow him.
“It’s a bit of a journey round ter the other side of the Citadel, but we should do it in a couple of hours. We’ll get there before dark.”
Lily was desperately cold and beyond exhausted now, her legs nothing more than leaden weights from trudging through the snow, but she knew they didn’t dare stop ‒ with every second that passed one more precious life could be lost. She was certain that a great deal of her tiredness was caused by that terrible dark magic that still clung to her like a shroud. But there was a spark of hope in her now that they could do this, that there was still a chance for them. Connor’s smile fanned that spark until she found herself smiling back, that tiny flicker of hope now brightening into a warm glow inside her chest.
They travelled for what seemed more like a month to Lily, rather than two hours, and it was growing dark now. Nob led them towards a small outcrop of rocks almost buried under the snow.
“Are you sure that the enemy don’t know about these tunnels?” Connor asked. “I mean, we still have no idea how they broke through into Tunneltown. It could well be that there were traitors in your midst. How else did they get inside undetected?”
Nob rubbed his whiskery chin thoughtfully.
“Well, so many people came and went into Tunneltown, anyone could have got up to dirty dealings and let the enemy in through the back way. Happens there will be some sorts waitin’ in the tunnel, but look at it this way… the enemy are gonna be expectin’ people ter be tryin’ to get out, not tryin’ to get in.”
“If we bump into any of the enemy along the way, we’re going to be in big trouble without our magic,” Lily said.
“I’ll take care of yer,” Cumudgeon grunted, with a lopsided grin, putting his tree trunk arm around Lily’s shoulders and giving it a squeeze that almost dislocated it.
“Like I said, the most danger is gonna be in the first bit of the tunnel,” Nob said. “If there’s any dirty deeds to be done that’s where they’ll do it.”
“I better go first,” Cumudgeon said. “If they try anythin’ I’ll sit on ’em and squash ’em.”
“Once we get through the tunnel inter the chasm, then I reckon we’ll be safe as a gnoock in a nut tree,” Nob continued. “They say the place is haunted, haunted by all the spirits of the princes that tried to climb the mountain and fell to ruin. Never bothered us hobs none, back and forwards we go, a tramplin’ over the bones, but you might find it a bit of a sight and no mistake, so you better be ready for it. Us hobs are always ready for anythin,’” he said, as he suddenly disappeared beneath a snow drift, and Cumudgeon hoisted him out by one leg and shook the snow off him. Once on his feet again, staggering a little and vaguely bug-eyed, he said:
“Come on, chillies, no time ter waste.”
Lily cast a glance across at Connor. He looked dreadful, even though it was hard to see his face clearly in the failing light. He was wrapped up well in his thick cloak and fur lined hood, but he was shivering badly, his face a death mask.
‘Are we totally sure we can trust them?’ Lily thought to him, watching Nob scampering towards the cluster of rocks and beckoning them forwards just a little too eagerly. ‘I keep getting flashes of Gollum leading Frodo into Shelob’s lair. He was all smiles and dimples as well. There could be anything waiting for us in that tunnel.’
‘What choice do we have?’
He was right, of course. They had no choice but to follow him and hope for the best.
Connor suddenly staggered a little and Lily caught his arm.
“I feel so weak,” he said. “As if all the life’s been drained out of me.”
“You’ll get better, as soon as you’ve had some rest. You’ll be fine,” she said, but her lies were wasted on Connor. He knew exactly how worried she was, how desperately afraid.
“We better just pray that we don’t meet any resistance on the way,” he said. “But you’re right, I’ll be better after a good night’s sleep.”
They made their way along a rocky crag, the path narrowing between two sheer cliff faces, until they found themselves in a very narrow crevice, it looked as if there was no way through, just another sheer rock face in front of them, but Nob led them over to one side, to what looked like a pile of collapsed rock, a mound of stone that had crumbled from the rock face and not really worth any note.
“Best all be quiet now. Keep yer voices down, just in case we got company,” Nob cautioned. Cumudgeon made his way across to the large pile of rocks, and closing his massive hands over the largest boulder, pulled it away to reveal a small, very dark tunnel.
“Cumby’s been doing this run for years, him Mawgum and his old dad and his granda, way back for as far as we can remember. Always came big in Cumby’s family, there aint another one that could lift that rock, ’cept Mawgum. Cumby reckons there must have been some troll blood somewhere back in the old family line.”
Lily, thought he must be right, both Sauergum and Mawgum were far larger than most hobs by a very long stretch.
“What are we going
to do for light? I can’t use magic,” Connor said.
Lily lifted her hand and looked down at it, thoughtful.
“I think that I might have just enough for that. Whatever power you called drained your magic, but I didn’t get the full force of it. I think I might still have a little left.”
She raised her hand higher and willed the magic to come to her, and within a heartbeat, there in the palm of her hand was a small ball of bright white light. She wasn’t sure she could manage much more than that, but right at that moment she was grateful for small mercies. She tossed it into the air and it hovered just a little way in front of them, guiding their way.
“Well, there’s a nifty little trick,” Nob said, keeping his voice to a whisper. “If you hadn’t done that we would have had ter use the torches.” He tipped a nod towards the large tar torches, set in sconce along the length of the tunnel. Lily rolled her eyes, but said nothing. Cumudgeon took one of the large torches down and Lily lit it from the flame that she’d conjured. It burnt with a steady honey light that did no more than brighten the passage to a dim glow, and then only for a few yards ahead.
They moved into the claustrophobic darkness, Connor holding tight to Lily’s hand. Where she could usually feel a ripple of power running between them there was nothing, and it made her very afraid.
Cumudgeon moved ahead in front of them, his axe braced, ready for any attacker that might be lurking around the next bend. He struggled here and there to get his huge bulk through the narrow rough hewn tunnel, but managed to get through with a lot of huffing and puffing and an impressive number of hobbish swear words. On either side were remnants of former journeys, bits and pieces of old equipment, broken swords, cracked water jars, old bits of rag. Lily wondered how many hobs had passed this way, carrying illicit goods in and out of the Citadel. She would have liked to have asked Nob more, but they travelled in total silence, ever alert for the first sign of danger. There was nothing but blessed silence and an eerie emptiness about the place.
“I think we’re okay gang,” Nob said, “quiet as a tomb.”
“I wish you’d picked a different metaphor,” Lily said, raising an eyebrow.
“Ah, well, Your Royalness, right through that arch there, are enough dead to fill a thousand tombs.”
And then he disappeared out into the rapidly darkening twilight.
Cumudgeon had a serious job squeezing through the gap, forcing his gargantuan belly through the narrow opening. Eventually he stripped off all of his outer clothing to reveal a pink sweater with a rainbow worked onto the front of it. This too came off, and naked to the waist he managed to force his huge form through the gap. Connor went next and Lily followed hard on his heels, clutching his hand the whole way. The icy air hit her full in the face as she stepped out into the darkness, and she drew in a sharp breath. Now that night had fallen the temperature had dropped by tens of degrees.
She looked around to see where Nob had led them. The little light she had conjured flickered and died as her power failed her, and now all they had to light their way was the torch that Cumudgeon held. They were in a narrow chasm, the walls so high that she could barely see the top of the cliff. Above, a full moon shone bright in the purple velvet sky, casting a thin strip of light down the centre of the ravine. The snow lay deep on the ground, a flat plain of white, glowing where the moonlight hit it, strangely eerie. Here and there were mounds that looked as if someone had been trying to build a snowman and not got very far.
“Are there really the bones of hundreds of men under here?” Lily asked, watching carefully where she stepped. She was whispering, although she had no idea why, there was no-one around to hear her. She put her foot down and heard the crunch of bones, stepping off quickly only to step on the remains of another long dead warrior.
“More than hundreds…” Nob replied. “Lost count of how many have tried to get up them cliffs. Just up at the top there is where they come unstuck. Too fur fer a man ter jump and warded against all the ropes and tackles and wotnots anyone can come up with.”
“You would have thought that after the first few they would have realised,” Lily said. “How dumb were they?”
“Not so much dumb as power hungry,” Connor said. “They wanted to be King of the North and the only way to do that was to challenge the mountain. The prophecy says that anyone who can scale the Glass Mountain, becomes King by right. There’s strong magic there to back it up. That’s why there are so many enchantments on the place to stop people getting in.”
“But you hobs have been getting in for centuries...” Lily said.
Nob just grinned at her.
“A hob could never be King,” Nob said, and Lily couldn’t help but detect just a little pith in his voice. “The enchantments don’t work on us, see ‒ don’t work on anythin’ but you High She and the rest of the big wigs, not us peasants.” His voice had become quite sour by the time he’d finished his sentence to match his face, which had pinched into an unpleasant grimace. He saw Lily’s dismay and his expression softened almost instantly.
“But what about us, Nob? We’re fey. How do you know that when we try to go into it by a back way, something dreadful won’t happen to us?”
Nob suddenly paled.
“I didn’t think of that. Oh, bugger me boots. Cumby, what do you say to that?”
“Big time balls up, Boss,” Cumudgeon replied. “We aint never bought no fey through these tunnels before.”
That was actually the most words they’d ever got out of Cumudgeon and as it was said with some feeling, Lily didn’t have much choice but to be worried.
Connor gave a long and weary sigh and said:
“Well, whatever, we have to go on and pray that we stay safe. Too much is depending on us getting to see Elidor, especially now. For all we know he could have sent out messengers to rally an army and they could be heading towards the Citadel, even as we speak. They’ll be massacred. The King has no idea how much power Ahriman has.”
Lily tried to bite her tongue, but Connor had already read her mind. She hadn’t even realised that she was thinking anything specific, but she picked up the feedback from his thoughts and he’d obviously got the message.
‘With no power to back our claim… he’s going to kill us and remove one very serious threat from his life.’
“I don’t believe he’ll kill, us,” Connor said. “If he knows the prophecy, he’ll know that we’re the only ones that can save his kingdom and his crown from Ahriman. If we die he loses everything. I’m sure he would much rather retain his power and save his life, even if it means paying us token homage now and again.”
Lily gave him a less than friendly look.
“I have a feeling that Adeline will have something to say about that. I don’t think she’s going to like being second best to anyone, especially not me.”
Connor pulled her to a halt and turned her to face him, tipping up her chin and staring her straight in the eyes.
“We have to remember that we have the Powers That Be on our side. No-one can stand against them,” Connor said.
“I’d just feel so much better if we had our power back. It will come back, won’t it?” Lily asked, as if Connor knew any better than she did.
He pulled her into his arms and gave her a chilly hug.
“Of course it will, otherwise how could we defeat the Shadow King?”
Then the sound of those terrible drums stopped and they heard something else, something far, far worse. Lily screwed up her face, puzzled. The sound was a strange one, something being hammered or banged perhaps, as if someone was building something, mallets striking metal? A whole army of blacksmiths at work. There was the sound of barked orders, a commotion across the other side of the narrow mountain ridge.
“What is that noise?” Lily asked, frowning.
They all stood, listening, puzzling.
Much to everyone’s surprise, it was Cumudgeon who came up with the answer.
“They’s climbin’ the mount’
in.”
And the instant he said it, Lily knew he was right. They were driving metal spikes into the ice to form a footpath up the mountain. She’d seen the mountaineers doing it on TV… driving spikes into sheer rock faces where there was no foothold, so they could scale even the most fearsome of cliff faces.
“Best keep walking, it’s not going to affect what we’re doing. Let them do their worst. If they fall then there will be a few less of the enemy to fight when the final battle comes,” Connor said.
They kept travelling through the terrible chasm and here and there Lily could see the remains of those that had fallen protruding through the snow: a shin bone here, a skeletal arm there, and in some places spears and armour poked through. Nob had been right, there must have been a countless number buried under the snow. If any place deserved to be haunted, this was it.
“Do they stand a chance of reaching the top?” Connor asked.
“Course they do. They might be big and fat, but if they got big enough spikes and the gumption, then they’ll make it to the top all right. That’s what most of the old time princes did… got up ter the top usin’ spikes, but it didn’t do them no good. They all fell when they got to the chasm,” Nob said, sagely.
“So, once they reach the top they’re going to...” Lily said.
And even before the last word had left her lips, Connor gave a yell of warning and pushed Lily flat on her face in the snow, throwing himself on top of her. There was a tremendous crash behind as the screaming goblin hit the ground with a terrible crunch, sending snow and shards of ancient bone flying in every direction. Lily looked up and saw another dark shape silhouetted against the darkening sky plummeting towards them, shrieking out his terror as he plunged downwards.
“Against the wall!” Connor ordered, and they hurtled for the comparative safety of the rock face. Another larger goblin hit the ground, this time with incredible force, smashing every bone, and twisting his body at an impossible angle. There was a hideous scream from above and a spread-eagled goblin landed just a few feet from his comrade, twisting into a grotesque heap, like a tangle of wire coat hangers.
