“I don’t hear any voices,” Gavin said between breaths. “That could be good news, or bad.”
“Better not to find out,” Kale said, turning east along the ridge. “Let’s get to the horses. Then we can rest.”
Their earlier climb up the mountain path had taken an hour. Going back down, it took only half that. Despite being sore and tired, they knew the path now, and the lack of light wasn’t as much of a hindrance as it had been before. In fact, in comparison to the dull red haze of the Firelands, the clear starry sky was relatively bright. Kale found himself noting landmarks along the path -an outcropping jutting out overhead, a juniper trunk stretching out of the cliff wall below- and was surprised that he hadn’t seen them previously.
A short while later, they arrived at the site of the original battle. They hurried past the corpses littering the area, and quickly covered the last few miles to the horses. They arrived exhausted and dripping with sweat. Kale’s breath came in short, painful gasps as he did all he could to pacify his lungs without expanding his rib cage. He climbed into the saddle and offered a hand to Erin.
“Ride with me,” he said.
She took his hand and wordlessly swung up behind him. In a flash, they were off.
The trio galloped through Ravenwood just before dawn, and made it out of the woods in time to see the morning sun cresting Dragonwall to the northeast. The ground was slick and shiny with morning dew, and the knights slowed their mounts to a trot as they navigated their way across the ancient lava flows.
As they rode, two knights broke through the tree line to the north and came galloping towards them. Gavin pointed them out, and Kale adjusted his course to meet them. As they drew near, he recognized Sir Bane and Sir Lannis. The latter, astride his green charger and wearing matching black and green armor, pulled up first. He lifted his visor as his mount came to a halt.
“Sir Kale,” he said. “I didn’t recognize you from a distance. I thought you might be the woman.”
Kale frowned. “What woman?”
Sir Bane joined them, halting his gray steed next to Lannis. “The woman from the train,” he said. “Shayla. She escaped last night. Stole one of the chargers.”
“Escaped?” Kale said. “Escaped from what? When did she become a prisoner? What the devils has been going on?”
The two knights exchanged a glance. “Much has happened since you left,” Lannis said.
“I’ve only been gone one day! Where did she go?”
“We lost her in the woods, west of here. Found the charger half-buried in the river.”
“What about Shayla?”
Lannis shrugged. “Washed downriver, perhaps. We searched the far bank, but found no footprints.”
“Not that we could be sure,” said Sir Bane. “A herd of elk passed through the area this morning. A bonecrusher could have driven through there and we’d never know.”
Kale glanced over his shoulder at the forest. Gavin leaned close and lowered his voice: “Forget it, boy,” he said. “You’ll never find her, and you have more important things to attend to.”
“Shayla is my friend,” Kale said. “She might be in danger.”
“Aye, but you are the queen’s First Knight, and commander of the militia. Your friend will be fine. I’ll send scouts after her the moment we get back.”
Kale reluctantly agreed. Gavin was right: he had no choice. As much as he cared about Shayla, Kale had greater responsibilities. For the moment, all he could do was trust her not to do anything stupid. She was smart enough to survive on her own. In fact, Shayla was better trained to do so than most of his knights. Somehow, that didn’t ease his worries. What was she doing out there alone? Why had she stolen a charger? He had too many questions to make any sense of it all.
The five of them traveled together for the rest of the ride. Within the hour, they reached Dragonwall. Gavin and the other knights rode into the tunnels to return their mounts for maintenance, but Kale paused to inquire at the front gates about Bathus. The guards there informed him that the knight was in surgery.
Kale did not take that as good news. Surgery was always a last act of desperation. The human body wasn’t designed to be cut open; to be poked and prodded and then sewn back together like a rag doll. The practice always resulted in infection, and this wasn’t the sort of infection one could simply ignore. Sometimes, it even meant reopening the wound or worse yet, amputating a limb.
But surgery usually just meant death. In Kale’s opinion, it was better just to die rather than suffer through a surgery like that for nothing. He felt a pang of regret. Bathus had been a good knight.
“The queen has been awaiting your return,” one of the guards informed him. “She requires your presence immediately.”
Kale nodded. He helped Erin slide off the charger, and dismounted after her. “You might as well come with me,” he said. “You know as much about what’s going on as I do.”
He handed off the care of his mount to the guard, and then led the way up the tunnel to the main walkway. Erin caught her breath as they entered the mountain. A worker in a giant spring-powered exoskeleton went walking by, and she froze, staring. At the same time, a small self-guided handcart went zipping around his feet and down the slope. It locked up its brakes a few yards down the road, metal wheels screeching as it skidded sideways, and then tore off into one of the tunnels.
“You haven’t been here before,” Kale said. Erin shook her head and stared at him with wide eyes. “You’ll get used to it,” he said with a laugh.
Kale put two fingers to his lips and let out a shrill whistle. He held out his hand, waving down a spring-powered wagon that was passing by. The driver, a heavyset man with a long red beard, slowed the wagon enough for them to climb aboard.
The driver looked Erin up and down as she climbed into the seat next to Kale, but didn’t say a word. He released the brakes, and they took off with a shuddering jolt. He didn’t ask where they were going, but he seemed to know anyway. He powered up the accelerator until they were rolling up the hill at thirty miles per hour. Erin latched onto the safety rail with both hands as pedestrians and workers jumped out of their path. The driver swerved around another vehicle, right up to the handrail at the edge of the road. Erin’s stomach did flip-flops as she looked over the edge and saw a three-hundred-foot drop straight into a lake of molten lava.
They pulled back into the middle of the road just as they reached the upper level. The driver locked up the brakes, and they came to a sudden, screeching stop. Erin jumped out, landing ungracefully on the cobblestones. She stood upright, her bow twisting awkwardly around her. Kale appeared next to her and clapped a hand down on her shoulder.
“That wasn’t so bad, was it?”
Erin glared at him as she fussed with her bow, trying to get it unraveled from the quiver and straightened across her back.
“Well, it’s not for everyone,” Kale said, chuckling. “You probably wouldn’t like the other way, either.”
He didn’t expand on that comment, but instead started walking across the road. Erin hurried after him. At the far side, the couple entered a dimly lit hallway decorated with tapestries, rugs, and wooden furnishings.
“Incredible!” Erin said, staring at one of the tapestries. It portrayed an image of a king and several knights fighting a big black dragon.
“You like it?” Kale said.
“It’s all so… so princely. I always wondered what royalty lived like, but I never imagined it could be like this.”
Kale raised an eyebrow. “This is just a hallway, kid. Wait ‘till you see the queen’s chamber.”
They proceeded down the hall, and shortly came to a tall wooden door. Kale lifted the knocker, gave it three loud raps, and then went ahead and opened the door. Queen Aileen appeared before them. When she saw Kale, she rushed forward to throw her arms around him.
“Thank the spirits, you’re alive!”
Kale returned her embrace and then pulled away. “Aileen, what’s going on?
What happened to Shayla?”
The queen pressed her lips together. She glanced at Erin and then back at Kale. “Erin can be trusted,” Kale said. “She saved my life last night.”
The queen sighed. “We have much to talk about…”
Aileen asked one of her servants to prepare tea, and then led the couple through the main room and out onto the veranda. Erin followed haltingly along, pausing to admire the ceramic statues, the gilded birdcage and the massive stone fireplace… she soon found herself standing alone in the middle of the room. Kale and the queen had proceeded on without her.
“Imbecile,” Erin said under her breath. “You’re acting like a witless child!” She straightened her shoulders, tossed her hair, and went marching out to join them.
“…and the next thing anyone knew, she was gone,” the queen was saying. They had settled onto cushioned wrought-iron chairs beside a beautiful matching table. Behind the queen, Erin saw the entire land stretching out before her. She could see west and south all the way to the mountains, and to the north, the infinite plains stretching to the horizon.
“And you have no clue what happened to her?” Kale was saying.
“Only that the guards say she was nude.”
Kale’s eyes widened. “What?”
“Yes, and apparently she had bruises -or what appeared to be bruises- all over her body, and blood on her face, as if she had been fighting.”
The warrior’s knuckles made cracking sounds as he squeezed his hands into fists. Aileen reached out, putting a gentle hand on his arm.
“I know what you’re thinking,” she said. “Someone did something to her… something terrible. And I know what you want to do, but I’m begging you not to do it.”
Kale locked eyes with the queen. “Someone beat her,” he said in a growling voice. “And probably raped her, too. I saw your own husband throw a man into the volcano for less!”
“I’m aware of that, and normally I wouldn’t interfere. Unfortunately, my grasp on the crown is tenuous enough already. If the people think even for a second that I’ve lost control of my command, it will be over. They will exile me, or worse.”
She leaned closer, lowering her voice as she gazed into his burning blue eyes. “I’m only asking you to be patient,” she said. “For just a little while.”
Kale closed his eyes and leaned back in the chair, putting a hand to his forehead. “Fine,” he said. “I won’t act, for now. But I will find out who did this. You need to understand that.”
“Agreed, so long as you swear not to act out until I am ready.”
Kale nodded.
“Excellent,” said the queen. “Now… tell me about what you saw in the Firelands.”
Kale’s face darkened. He glanced at Erin, and motioned for her to join them at the table. As she settled into one of the chairs, a dark cloud seemed to pass over the group. Kale began to speak in a low voice:
“We need more good fighting men in the militia and more weapons… Where is the bonecrusher?”
Chapter 15
Shayla first became aware of the scent of damp musty earth, of rich soil and moss and green growing things all around her. She heard a bubbling brook somewhere nearby, and the scent of water seemed more potent than she remembered. Her eyes fluttered open. Narrow beams of sunlight filtered down through the treetops to form scattered pools of light in the dark forest. She became aware of the cool air washing over her naked flesh, but felt a comfortable warmth against her back.
Shayla heard a snort, and she bolted upright.
As she leapt to her feet and turned, she found herself staring into the face of a massive bull elk. The creature was white as snow, with a long goatee dangling from its chin and sprawling horns that could easily span a room. Even lying on the ground, the beast could look her straight in the eyes. Shayla took a cautious step back, wary of frightening the creature into attacking her. The elk watched her with a patient, knowing stare, but didn’t move.
The cloak lay at her feet, but Shayla’s complete nudity was for the moment the least of her concerns. Shayla heard noises in the woods around her. There were others nearby: twenty or thirty scattered throughout the trees. Some were standing, others resting. There were many females, and only a handful of males. None were anywhere near the size of the albino.
As Shayla took stock of her situation, her fears began to evaporate. A sense of curiosity overcame her. This animal, this massive white elk, was unlike anything she had ever seen. The soldiers at Fort Hope had hunted elk from time to time, and she had seen some impressively large animals, but none that could compare to this noble beast. The beard was unusual, too. Perhaps it marked this elk as a different species from those with which she was familiar. And the color! Who had ever heard of a ghost-white elk? It must have been exceptionally rare.
There was something else; something about the way it looked at her, the way it smelled, that she found strangely comforting. The creature’s gaze seemed almost paternal… protective. Or was she just imagining it?
The bull gazed at her through half-lidded eyes, absently chewing its cud. Shayla summoned her courage and took a step closer. The elk took almost no notice of her. She reached out, daring to touch one of the massive horns. The velvety surface was soft and warm on her fingertips, offering almost no resistance to her touch. It seemed to pulse with life, the tiny fibers almost like living skin. The bone under the velvet was hard and smooth, like stone under a silk sheet. The sensation sent a thrill up her spine. Nothing, Shayla thought, could be this soft.
An image came into her mind: Shayla saw herself lying on the ground, warm sunlight streaming down, baking her skin. She felt the vaguely dizzy sense of sleeping, or daydreaming, and a complete absence of worries or concerns. But these thoughts were not her own… they were thoughts of someone else, of someone watching her. She frowned, trying to understand the meaning.
Rest, said a voice deep in her mind. It was low and soft, like a whisper at the edges of her consciousness. Her eyes widened. She understood. The elk was trying to tell her something. Telling her to rest, to be calm and wait for something… but for what?
Shayla’s stomach rumbled. She understood what the elk wanted her to do, but her body needed sustenance. If she didn’t find something to eat, she wouldn’t have the energy to go on.
“I’m hungry,” she said in a quiet whisper. “I need food.”
The elk stared at her, not seeming to understand. Shayla closed her eyes. She tried to picture herself eating a meal. She imagined herself sitting at a dinner table, lifting food to her mouth with a fork. She imagined the aroma washing over her, the taste of spices and seasonings on her tongue. While picturing this image, she tried to reach out in her mind to the elk; to make it understand what she was seeing.
The elk shifted, and Shayla opened her eyes. He rose, turned to the side, and headed into the woods. Shayla watched for a moment, confused as he crossed the stream and moved away from her, deeper into the forest. Light and shadow played across his brilliant hide, branches cracking under his hooves. The ferns rustled as the rest of the herd rose to follow him.
The bull paused a few yards off and looked back at Shayla. She stared for another moment, until the creature made an impatient sighing sound. This spurred her into movement. Shayla hurried after the bull, her naked legs splashing through the stream. She realized with some detachment that she seemed hardly aware of her own nudity. She felt strangely comfortable with it, as if the absence of clothing was a completely normal situation. In fact, she only really became conscious of it at that moment, and forgot it again almost immediately. She exited the far side of the stream and hurried down the path, following the white elk towards some unknown destination.
As she walked, the undergrowth slapped at Shayla’s bare legs. The branches, rocks, and pine cones bit into the soles of her feet. She felt something -something she might have once considered painful- but now only seemed like a softness; a weakness of the flesh that would soon harden.
Th
e forest gave way to an orchard, and Shayla found herself walking among perfect rows of tall, thin-trunked trees. The branches stretched out overhead, multiple strains of brightly colored fruit dangling down. Shayla scanned the area for low-hanging fruit that might be within reach, but found none. The closest branches were ten feet high.
Observing her struggle, the bull elk came to her side. It made a snorting sound and bent down, lowering its rack to the ground next to her. Shayla hesitated, and the creature snorted again. It was displaying a certain amount of impatience with her, she realized.
Shayla obediently climbed up into its antlers. As soon as she had settled, the elk raised its head, bringing her within easy reach of the branches. Shayla reached out and plucked an orange-colored, bell-shaped fruit. She put it to her lips, sinking her teeth into the soft flesh. Ripe, sweet juice exploded into her mouth, dribbling over her lips and down her chin. Shayla’s stomach rumbled greedily, and she reached for more.
She spent some time eating, until at last the bull sensed her satisfaction and lowered Shayla to the ground. She reclined back on the soft earth, gazing up at the deep blue sky. Her hands and face were sticky and sweet, and the perfume of the fruit seemed to envelop her. This mingled with the scent of the earth and the woods, and of the herd that had moved in to surround her.
Shayla’s eyelids drifted shut, and her cares of the world slipped away like the cloak that had once covered her nudity.
Chapter 16
“Ankasen, raise the bow a little higher,” River said, stepping closer to the slave boy. “Sight down the arrow.” She touched his left arm, raising it to the proper angle. “Good. Now, shoot!”
Clockwork Legion (Aboard the Great Iron Horse Book 4) Page 13
