The Nature of a Curse (Volume 2 of the Year of the Red Door)
Page 35
No. He would not make those mistakes again, not with any creature with eyes to see with light. Though they could be useful, if crushed and reshaped, and he turned many to his service, through a different kind of madness, to serve him. Some, from the most ancient days, still lurked, awaiting his release from their lairs, scattered deep within the lightless bowels of the earth, or moving secretly across the lands. True, some had escaped his leashes, so powerful was their will to gnaw and bite and wound the world. It vexed him, and he punished those who were charged with holding them back. But Secundur made little effort to retrieve them; they could only do his will.
And so he let Esildre go, and seldom considered her. Other matters required his attention, for the fruition of his ancient plan was nearly at hand. Throgallus was almost ready with his baneful army.
She was irrelevant. And the black eagles served Secundur better than Esildre ever could.
So he waited for his eagle. He had no eyes to close, but from his black tower Secundur felt his teeming legions swelling their numbers within Shatuum. Throgallus and his captains ordered and trained them, rank upon rank. Soon the way would be prepared, the world in chaos, and it would be time to march.
Chapter 13
Dashing Through Memories
Day 94
151 Days Remaining
At dawn, eight Redvest horsemen tore along the path from Passdale, crossed the Weepingbrook in great splashes to the far stone-lined bank, and sped up the steep hill of the ridge. As they passed over the top and then down and out across the Line Road, they shot through the stone markers of Oldgate, and continued on. Behind them, four cloaked figures emerged from the mist-shrouded trees atop the ridge and onto the hoof-churned path and watched the riders recede toward Tulith Attis in the far distance.
"Eight," said Tyrillick to Belmira, "just as you sensed."
"Your ears saved us from capture thrice in as many days, daughter," said Lyrium.
"They are so very noisy, it is easy to do," Belmira said.
"Yet I dread to think, had it not been for you!" said Elmira, taking her sister's hand.
• • •
Indeed, it was at dawn seven days ago that they parted from their carriage and their escort, sending them back into the west. On foot, they then crossed the shallow Bentwide and quickly found an abandoned and burned-out house in which to hide for the day. The countryside, they found, teemed with Redvests, riding and marching all along the roads and byways, often herding prisoners before them, and at all hours of the day and night. Cautiously, often spending hours hiding mere yards from the enemy, Lyrium and her escorts inched through the lands at an agonizingly slow pace. For five nights they carefully worked their way north and east, moved through Boskland toward Tulith Attis, and narrowly avoided detection by the restless soldiers that occupied the land. They barely managed more than a few excruciating miles each day. For most of one night and the entire following day, they hid under a small stone bridge, stooping in waist-high water while troops of Redvests and trains of wagons full of Boskland spoils and harvest passed over their heads. Having taken a week to travel the same distance that, in peacetime, would have been a single day's hike, they had at last made it to the wooded ridge that overlooked Weepingbrook on one side and the plains before Tulith Attis on the other.
"My lady, are these woods along this ridge safe enough to abide in?" Tyrillick asked. "Or should we press on to find a place for you to See?"
"With you and my daughters standing guard, I think a more secluded spot along this ridge will do. I would prefer to have the fortress within view, if possible," Lyrium said. She threw a long gaze down the other side of the ridge, toward the large stones that leaned over the stream below. "But I must say that, now that I am once again here, so close to the terrors of my memory, I find that I feel very little. I hear their whisperings," she indicated with a nod the stones. "But they do not hear mine."
Turning around, she faced Tulith Attis, barely visible in the early morning air.
"And, truth be told, I no longer sense any greater dread of that place than if it was merely rock and rubble, but that I know it is occupied by the Redvests. Otherwise, of the past I feel...nothing. And I do not hold out much hope of Seeing anything."
"Since departing Tallinvale, your fears have but eased," said Elmira.
"Yet, you do not seem happy, you do not seem pleased," said Belmira.
"It is a strange thing, yes," Lyrium nodded. "But my anxiety was almost more than I could stand while at Tallinvale. Now, I am calm, but uncertain why that is."
"Then, my lady, let us find a suitable place for you, where you can throw your stones and bones and try to See," suggested Tyrillick.
"Yes, let's do. Lead the way, Tyrillick."
Honoring his lady's wishes, Tyrillick kept them at the top of the ridge, leading them carefully along. Soon, between its height and the warming day that dissipated the morning mist, he found a relatively flat place where the fortress summit could be seen, yet where they were still somewhat sheltered by trees.
"Yes, this will do," Lyrium said as Tyrillick raked aside leaves and loose brush with his boots. Her daughters spread a blanket over the place Tyrillick had prepared, and Lyrium removed her shoulder bag and from it took a smaller bag that was filled with her amulets and placed it on the blanket. Then she knelt, scraped up soil from around the blanket, and sprinkled it in a circle around her amulet bag.
As she worked, she often glanced toward the fortress, where a thin trail of smoke was now rising, presumably from the Redvests garrisoned there. Tyrillick, too, saw the smoke. Frowning, he crossed his arms and moved a few yards away as did her daughters, to keep watch upon their surroundings and to wait for Lyrium.
Lyrium emptied her amulet bag of small bones and stones, softly saying her prayers and the incantations she hoped would bring Sight to her. Repeating her words, she gathered up the objects and tossed them upon the blanket, watching how they fell, and examining the patterns they made. The cool autumn day drew on, passing through morning to noon, and thence from noon toward evening. A light breeze whispered through the multicolored leaves above them, and a few detached to scatter around Lyrium's blanket, but none landed on it. As insects began tuning up their instruments for the evening, Lyrium's companions waited patiently, knowing this was not a thing that could be rushed.
Sir Sun, ending his daily walk far behind them, threw a last gaze at Tulith Attis. Lyrium shook her head and stared through the trees at the fortress bathed in yellow light. She kept her gaze upon the far-off walls until the light of day was all but gone.
"Ugh! Nothing," she pronounced. "It is pointless. I See nothing."
She gathered up her stones and bones, and she put them away. Tyrillick and Belmira shook out her blanket as Elmira gave a hand to help Lyrium to her feet.
"I am sorry for bringing you this way," Lyrium said to them. "But Sight will not come to me today. And I am no closer to understanding things than before."
Elmira and Belmira nodded and began pulling off their cloaks and stuffing them into their bags. Then they rolled up the skirts of their gowns and secured them around their waists to free their legs. Lyrium did this, too, as Tyrillick cinched his shoulder bag out of the way. He put his hand up over his shoulder to grip the hilt of his sword and shifted it somewhat. Lyrium, too, slung Ethliad over her shoulder and pulled its straps tight across her chest. They did all this silently, and when they were thus prepared for the next dangerous leg of their journey, they nodded to each other.
"So," said Tyrillick to the ladies, "we know what we must do, and where we must go from here."
He looked up through the trees and saw the first stars making their appearance.
"Yes," said Lyrium. "We shall move with haste and make the bridge before Lady Moon arrives."
"Let us be as swift as an arrow," said Elmira.
"Let us be as quiet as a barrow," said Belmira.
"Let us go," said Lyrium, nodding for Tyrillick to lead them on.
Making their way down from the ridge, they came to the old Line Road, setting off at a run. They followed the road for several hundred yards, then, where it turned west to pass through the woods of Farbarley, the foursome turned east, racing along the northern edge of the plain that stretched out before Tulith Attis. As they ran, they skirted blocks of stone and leapt over ancient tumbled columns grown over with grass and vines, weaving around others and around the few saplings that struggled to grow on the battle-blighted ground. They were all alert and wary, but their sight was keen, even under the moonless sky, and none of them tripped or stumbled.
As they sped along, Lyrium and Tyrillick remembered how this plain once appeared, covered by the small city of Attis with its workshops, its houses and mansions. To them, each half-sunken block and every tumbled and shattered column was reconstructed, appearing in their minds as it once had been. They ran through parlors and courtyards, through gardens and playrooms, shops and kitchens, and their nostrils remembered even the aroma of those places. They heard again the sounds of lively families, music and laughter, and the noise of busy trade and commerce. Tyrillick's heart suddenly pounded all the harder, and he felt in his legs a desire to slow, for now they passed through a small bit of ground that had once been his own home. He did not slow. It was all gone. All destroyed by the Dragonkind that assaulted this place over five centuries ago. He and the ladies fast on his heels also noticed, jutting from the ground here and there, thick bars of iron, rusted and corroded by time, the remains of some abandoned engines of war.
• • •
At Tulith Attis, Redvest Captain Pargolis had arrived that morning with several of his lieutenants. He was to see to the condition of the twenty men stationed there, and return the following morning with his report to General Vidican in Passdale, leaving six men behind and taking six back with him. Away from the watchful eye of his general, Pargolis had spent most of the day sleeping. Late that afternoon, he roused himself to an early supper. Afterwards, having also imbibed a quantity of Barley beer, he and the sergeant in charge of the garrison took a turn around the walls of the fortress.
"We do all as ordered, sir," said the sergeant, "and in the proper fashion."
They stood at the northwestern corner of the fortress, overlooking the place where the old road passed by toward the bridge. As they watched, men went about lighting bright lamps and braziers along the roadway, working their way toward the bridge, and continuing to light more lamps across it, too.
"As you can see, sir, they're spaced so that their ain't no shadows between one and the next," continued the sergeant, "though it is a prodigious amount of oil and good fuel used up every night. I worry at our supply."
"It will be worth it to catch any more loose Barley folk who might try to get away along here," answered Pargolis. "The Saerdulin is too swift to swim, and the north road around the lake is blocked, so this bridge is the only way for them to go. I imagine we'll have them all rounded up in another day or so, anyway."
"Are there all that many still loose, sir?"
"Vidican does not believe that so many could have made it away to Janhaven. We have a good tally from our man in Glareth who looked at the census from past years. So, if Vidican is right, there should be several hundred still about. There is urgent need of labor to the south, and we still need to keep enough of them as our own workers. We rounded up thirty yesterday, down at the south end of the county. Including a very feisty Boskland girl. Had to give her a private lesson, if you take my meaning."
Pargolis absently put his hand to a few scratches on his chin. The sergeant glanced at Pargolis, knowing what kind of man he was, and nodded but did not smile.
"She'll need some further instruction, I imagine," Pargolis chuckled. By now the men along the road had completed their task and were returning to their post at the bridge.
• • •
Tyrillick suddenly stopped and crouched. The ladies did likewise next to him. They were two hundred yards from the fortress, and they could see the road at its base being illuminated. Torches were also being lit along the northern top of the battlements, and they could clearly see two men standing at the northwest corner.
"Let's go," said Lyrium.
• • •
Just as Pargolis was turning away, the sergeant shot out his hand to clutch his arm.
"There! Moving quickly!"
There was a shout from another man along the wall, who was also pointing.
"Four," said Pargolis. He hurried down the stair. "Mount up!" he cried. "There are four along the road trying to escape!"
By the time he and his riders were out of the southern gate and galloping around the base of the fortress, Lyrium and those with her had reached the portion of the road directly beneath the looming northern wall. They did not slow, ignoring the shouts from above as they made the paved approach to the bridge. Ahead at the bridge, soldiers scrambled from around their log barricade to face them.
"Halt!" cried one of the soldiers. "Halt and surrender yourselves!"
In the torchlight, the soldiers saw the flash of steel.
"They are armed!" cried the soldier as his comrades brought up their bows and leveled their lances. "Shoot them!"
Tyrillick twisted as an arrow shot past, and another arrow whistled between Belmira and her sister.
"Do not stop!" cried Lyrium as she whirled into the lances, swinging Ethliad. It hummed cleanly through the shafts and dismembered the arm of one soldier. Tyrillick parried another lance and dispatched its wielder as the sisters ran past and around the barricade. Lyrium and Tyrillick were right behind them running across the bridge, the remaining soldiers giving chase as the pounding of horse hooves mixed with the sound of the pouring river. The foursome reached the far side and continued on into the Boggy Wood. But the riders were closing fast. Tyrillick halted and turned to face them.
"Go!" he cried out to the ladies.
But Lyrium stopped also, and she saw the Redvests coming off the bridge a mere sixty yards away, bearing down upon Tyrillick. Quickly looking up and around at the trees, she ran to a tall poplar nearby and with one blow sent Ethliad clean through its trunk at a sharp angle. The tree slid from its stump, teetered, and fell.
"Tyrillick!" she cried. He saw the falling tree and ran to her. The horsemen did not see it in time. Pargolis pulled his reins and his horse reared as the crown of the old tree crashed upon him. Cracking branches and the screams of men and horses filled the night for a long moment, then all was quiet but the gush of the River Saerdulin. Lyrium and her companions fled through the Boggy Wood, turning from the path the Redvests had made from the south to strike off on a northeast course. They did not slow their pace, plunging through wicked briars and miry bogs until, hours later, they entered the higher ground of Forest Mistwarren.
• • •
It took two hours with axes and ropes for the Redvests to hack their way to the stricken men. When they finally extricated Pargolis, they found him bruised and dazed but otherwise miraculously unhurt. The other riders along with all of the horses were killed by the falling tree. Pargolis stumbled away from the wreckage some distance before he regained his balance. The sergeant handed him a flask of liquor which Pargolis drank greedily.
"Well, damn!" he said. "Damn and blast if I know how that happened."
He took another long drink, shoved the flask at the sergeant and lumbered away and back across the bridge with the sergeant trailing.
"How many men did we lose?" Pargolis asked.
"With your riders, ten. Six wounded."
Pargolis fumed, knowing this would be difficult to explain to his general. He did not care about the loss of the men, nor the escapees. The loss of face would set him back. And Pargolis suspected that General Vidican already harbored a dislike for him. He was determined not to let this incident hamper his advancement.
Abruptly, Pargolis turned around and faced the bridge, gazing across it at the woods beyond.
&n
bsp; "Three women and a man!" he muttered, saying aloud what he knew Vidican would say.
"It was clearly three dozen who fought their way through," he stated to the sergeant.
"Sir?"
"And they had help from some of their people already in the woods."
"But, Captain—"
"You heard me, Sergeant. Let the men know. At least three dozen well-armed men. Several of them were killed on the bridge and fell over the side. Your men fought bravely, but were clearly taken by surprise by a greater force in a well-planned escape."
"Yes, Captain Pargolis. I'll let the men know."
"Clear the bridge of the dead. And put your men to work on a new barricade. One that does not have a pass-through."
"Yes, sir. Right away, sir."
Frowning, the sergeant watched Pargolis walk off, then turned to join his men who were still chopping away at the fallen tree.
Entr'acte
Bailorg's Mistake
They made their last stand in and around the Treasury Room. In this small space was stored the wealth of Tulith Attis, the tiaras, jewelry, fine silverwares, and gem-speckled heirlooms of not only Heneil's household, but also belonging to people from the surrounding settlements who had come to this place for refuge against the invading Dragonkind. In later years, some might think it odd that two of the defenders within this vault were Men, fierce and short-lived Newcomers, as the immortal Elifaen called them, who had little connection to the treasure they now defended. They fought well and hard, but they and their comrades were driven back when the enemy poured through the opened gate. They knew their fate was sealed. The thousands of defenders within the fortress, the last holdouts, fought on. Every woman had a sword, and every child a knife, every Man and Elifaen who still drew breath stood bravely. But they were like autumn leaves before the wind, their bodies trampled where they fell. Finally, a few managed to retreat within the chambers of the interior, exacting as many lives of the attackers as they could, with tears of anger and sorrow. And a few made their way into the Treasury Room, shut the heavy door, threw the slide bolts, dropped the cross bar and backed away.