The tide of unmaking, p.16
The Tide of Unmaking, page 16
part #3 of Berinfell Prophesies Series
There was a third body floating beside the guards…a much smaller corpse. Tommy eyed it carefully, trying to see past the fog clinging to the inside of his mask. He squinted. It was a child, holding a toy, face frozen in a blank stare. His back tingled as if an icicle dripped down his spine.
Kat saw also. “Focus!” she demanded of them all. “Focus, or we’ll be no good to anyone.”
Kat immediately called to Taeva, “There’s a dial lock. It needs a combination. Any ideas?”
Taeva looked as surprised and frustrated as Grimwarden. A combination of numbers? I…I…have no idea!
Tommy edged closer and put his hands up in a questioning gesture as if to ask what was the matter. Kat explained the appearance of the combination lock to him, then Jimmy and Goldarrow.
“Whatever we do, we better do it quick,” Kat said to everyone. “We’re nearing the threshold where we won’t have enough air to get us back topside.”
“Taeva?” asked Kat.
I’m sorry, I really have no—
“You need to try, Taeva. You’re the only one. And if there really are survivors behind this door, you have to try for them, for the remnant of your people.”
Lord Alreenia, I don’t even know who set the combination in the first place let alone what it might be. Maybe it’s on those guards.
“You know as well as I do the guards would never keep it on them. Try, Taeva. And you can call me Kat. Just Kat.”
All right. But—
“Try.”
The team pushed away as Taeva grabbed the wheel and looked at the dial. She didn’t move for at least a minute.
Kat could hear the team’s nervous thoughts…they feared they might be added to the number of this underwater tomb if they didn’t end this first dive soon. She was just about to reach for Taeva when the Princess started turning the dial.
The clicks were loud and clear underwater. She spun the dial slowly. The team watched each number pass the large arrow at the top of the collar. Suddenly Taeva stopped and started the other way, the clicks continuing their steady delineation. Back the original direction, Taeva continued halfway around the dial before finally ending on “72.”
With both hands firmly on the wheel, she tried turning it.
It didn’t budge.
“We have to go back,” Kat said. “You can taste the air getting stale, thin.”
Wait, thought Grimwarden. He placed his hands beside Taeva’s and joined with her. Suddenly the wheel broke free and started to move.
“You did it!” cried Kat, shaking Taeva’s shoulder from behind. Taeva lost her grip and slid sideways in the water. Both girls faced each other and smiled. “Well done, Taeva.”
Grimwarden finished turning the wheel and then pulled the steel door toward them. It groaned loudly, the sound shooting back up the stairways and down the corridors. The Guardmaster held his torch out in front of him to reveal a long chamber a little wider and taller than the dimensions of the door.
It’s an air lock, Kat heard Grimwarden say in his mind. Tell everyone to get inside quick. And then a thought reserved only for himself and the God he served: Ellos, help us. If this doesn’t work, we are all dead.
Kat relayed the instructions (minus Grimwarden’s concern) and everyone swam in. Jimmy pulled the door shut and worked the inner wheel back the other direction. Meanwhile Grimwarden searched for the lock mechanism: a switch, a lever, another wheel—anything.
Just as Kat sensed he was about to start panicking himself—something she’d never seen him do—a roaring, mechanical kuh-thunk-thunk-thunk began grinding beneath them.
Moments later, Taeva pointed to the ceiling. The water level was lowering. Soon they found themselves head and shoulders above water.
“Let me try the air first,” Grimwarden said from behind his round, glass mask. “Just to make sure it’s breathable.” The team nodded and Grimwarden removed his helmet. He took a deep breath, exhaled, then inhaled again. He waited a moment longer, testing his balance and vision. Satisfied he gave the go-ahead.
The team removed their helmets and congratulated each other. “This is incredible!” said Jimmy.
“I’ve never been in anything like this,” said Kat. “Just amazing.” The small corridor had a brushed metal ceiling and walls, while the floor was grated with iron slats.
“So what was the combination, Taeva?” asked Goldarrow. “I’m curious.”
“Bet it was her birthday,” said Jimmy.
“My birthday?” asked Taeva. “Why would—”
“Never mind,” Jimmy waved, forgetting many of the Allyrian races didn’t mark their birthdays with dated numbers.
“So what was it?” Tommy asked.
“Random numbers really,” she said. “I could just hear the mechanics more clearly underwater, that’s all.”
“Very clever of you,” said Goldarrow. “Clever, clever girl.”
“Now, that’s brilliant,” said Jimmy.
Grimwarden spoke up. “Lords, we need to find out who’s behind this door.”
“Right you are,” said Jimmy. “Let’s do this.”
Grimwarden offered the wheel to Taeva but she declined. “It should be you, Grimwarden. I’m not sure I can handle any more—”
The Guardmaster raised a hand. “No more needs to be said, Taeva. I understand.” Grimwarden began spinning the wheel. He thought that perhaps people would be gathered on the other side, hoping he would hear their gasps of surprise at the wheel moving on their side.
But nothing sounded. Just the groan of a poorly oiled spindle releasing pressure on the hatch.
When the door was released, Grimwarden eased it back, standing aside. He purposefully left his dagger behind, figuring even the sight of a visual threat might provoke any survivors to paranoia; plus his hands were weapons enough for anything he’d encounter down here.
“After you,” whispered Tommy.
Grimwarden moved over the threshold and into what appeared to be and smelled like a damp cave. The immediate good news was that the cave wasn’t flooded and that the air quality was still good. Grimwarden’s dremask torch cast long shadows down the rocky floor of unfinished stone. The team followed behind him, each trying to keep their breathing quiet…listening…hoping.
Kat could hear each of the team members reasoning as they walked.
No signs of life, but someone had to be down here.
If not, why were there two guards stationed in the entryway?
Why was the door locked?
Johnny held a fiery fist aloft, casting more light into the tunnel from the far rear.
Eventually the team emerged into to a large chamber, the ceiling of which was almost out of reach of their lights.
“HELLO…” announced Grimwarden, his voice bouncing off the walls and disappearing down an infinite combination of sub-tunnels.
Nothing stirred.
“Johnny,” Tommy nudged him, indicating the ceiling. Johnny aimed a blast of his liquid fire at the center. The napalm-like stream stuck, casting a warm, organic glow throughout the hall.
“Look there,” Jimmy pointed. Casks and seaweed bags were strewn about the room on a sandy floor.
“Rations,” said Taeva.
Grimwarden knelt beside them. “Someone’s been here recently,” he said. “Fresh footprints.”
“So it seems some of your people did survive after all,” said Kat. Taeva’s chest drew in a deep breath as she reached for Kat’s hand. Kat froze, unsure of how to respond to the Princess’s sudden display of affection.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” said Tommy, fingering through a barrel of moldy grain. “I’m guessing these rations weren’t as fresh as their providers might have intended.”
From a few paces ahead, Grimwarden held his dremask torch close to the sand. “Seems the majority of the tracks head down this tunnel here.” He indicated a branch where the ceiling was just about shoulder-height.
“Keep your ears and eyes peeled,” said Tommy. “Let’s move.”
The group started down the offshoot from the main chamber, their footfalls absorbed by the soft floor. The only sounds were the occasional bronze helmet bouncing off the narrowing granite walls or someone clearing a throat. The path itself was random, long straightaways followed by sudden switchbacks, and odd climbs over, under or around giant rock outcroppings. At last the passage seemed to be opening up again.
Grimwarden was just about to ask for Johnny’s flames when a knife shot out from beside him, jabbing him in the soft part of the shoulder beneath his leather armor.
He clamped the blade in the muscle, then twisted his torso, wresting the blade from his assailant. His rychesword was drawn and crossed with his dremask torch, both sweeping around to illuminate a pale-skinned woman with cat-like eyes. She made no move to defend herself further. She stood their, erect and solemn, eyes unmoved as Grimwarden’s blade rested a hair’s width from her neck’s smooth skin.
“If you have come to kill us, please be swift,” she said.
“Lena?” came Taeva’s strained exclamation.
The woman did not even try to contain her shock. She turned sideways, her eyes flashing in Johnny’s firelight. “Princess Taeva?”
Taeva pushed through and embraced the woman, the two holding each other as the Princess began weeping. “I’m…so glad…I can’t believe…it’s…”
“I’m so glad to see you too,” the woman replied. Slipping away from Taeva’s clasp in order to see her eyes, she asked, “But tell me: Why so long to come? We feared the worst had happened. We were preparing to fall asleep down here and wake in the hands of Ellos.”
Taeva opened her mouth, but no words came out. Kat heard her. She has no idea.
Finally Taeva managed three words. “It’s all gone.”
“What?” Lena stared, stunned. “What do you mean? What is gone?”
“The city. Taladair. It’s all gone, Lena.”
“Gone?”
Tommy had withdrawn the blade from Grimwarden’s shoulder and was nursing it with a strip of wet fabric. “Your world has been attacked by a being known as Asp,” Tommy said. Lena looked at him suspiciously.
“He’s Felheart, a Lord of Berinfell,” Taeva said. “I’ve solicited the Elves’ aid, and they have generously answered. This is Grimwarden, Goldarrow, that’s Alreenia, and Thorwin. And the one with the flames is Albriand.”
Tommy continued. “Asp blackmailed your King in exchange for the service of your army, but your King refused. As a result Asp unleashed a destructive force upon Taladair the likes of which no one in Allyra has ever seen before.”
Lena was clearly stunned. “But how could our entire city, our entire island be decimated? It’s not possible.”
“Asp made it possible,” said Kat, stepping forward. To Lena’s mind she added, “Please don’t try and understand it all now. We’re here to help you and get those who’ve survived to safety.”
“A thought reader,” said Lena.
“She is,” said Taeva, tears still streaming down her cheeks. “And someone you can trust.”
Kat glanced over to Taeva.
“How many of you are there?” Grimwarden asked Lena.
“We are two-hundred and twenty-nine,” said Lena. She thought again. “We were two-hundred and twenty-nine. Lost three last night. Forgive me.”
“I’m so sorry to hear that,” said Goldarrow.
“As am I,” said Lena. “But it will be made right when I exact payment for their lives on this Asp,” her voice suddenly defiant.
“A little vengeance complex, anyone?” Johnny whispered to Jimmy.
“Yu think?” Jimmy replied.
“It’s all right everyone,” Lena spoke over her shoulder. “The Princess is here. You may come out.”
Grimwarden asked Johnny for more light. All across a chamber about half the size of the previous one emerged a sea of tiny, pale faces. Children mostly. A few mothers had also made it to safety, but those caring for infants; it seemed this was a refuge for children only—no doubt by the instance of their mothers and fathers who’d perished above.
At seeing the Princess, the children moved toward her, suddenly unaware of their hunger. They swarmed her with hugs and kisses as she knelt to take each of them in an embrace.
Griwmarden moved around them to Lena. “I’m sorry about the shoulder,” she said.
“I’m not,” said Grimwarden. “Now I know who to keep beside me in battle.” Lena smiled. Pulling her aside from the bustle of the children he asked, “Tell me, did you hear or see anything just before you came down here?”
“Sir?”
“Other than the destruction?”
She shook her head. “I’m sorry, Grimwarden. All I was told was to escort the children as deep into the catacombs as I could, and to not come out for any reason until we were summoned.”
“You are brave.”
“I am alive. My people are dead. Who’s brave?”
Grimwarden was impressed with her selflessness, if not slightly troubled by the Taladrim’s fatalistic mentality. “So other than Lord Felheart telling you about Asp just now, you have no idea about the attack or where he might be heading?”
“No, I’m sorry,” said Lena. “I truly wish I could help you.”
Grimwarden thanked her and left her to the children. He stood aside watching them. Frustrated. They’d rescued these children. But he had been hoping for more. Anything more. These children were alive today, but with Asp on the loose, it didn’t assure they’d be alive tomorrow.
“Excuse me, soldier Elf?”
Grimwarden looked down. A small Taladrim child no more than three feet tall pulled on the leather plate over his thigh. “Yes, child.” Grimwarden crouched low.
“Is the bad man still outside?” The child’s eyes were wide, full of glistening fear.
“The bad man?”
“Yeah. The one that hurt all those people. The claw-man.”
Grimwarden’s heart began to quicken. “Tell me little one, did you see the bad man?” The child shrank back, looking left then right. “It’s all right,” said Grimwarden as comforting as he could manage. “Did you see the claw-man up there before you came down?”
The child nodded.
“Where were you?”
“In the palace. I snucked outside to play. Don’t tell my Mi a’ ma.”
Her mother. Grimwarden’s heart nearly cleaved in two. “I won’t,” he choked on his words. “I promise.”
“The bad man said he was leaving. To hurt more peoples.”
“Leaving? Do you remember where?”
“My Di a’ da’s best friend, Grumsken Vertic, he’s a Saer. Mi a’ ma said Di a’ da left for there a few weeks ago.”
“Your daddy’s best friend?” Grimwarden asked, trying to track with the child. “I don’t understand.”
“Do you think the bad man will hurt my Di a’ da there?”
“Your Daddy’s—” That’s it. She must have overheard Asp talking to the King; it would be just like a power-crazed lunatic to reveal too much of his hand…only to be thwarted by a mere babe. “Thank you, my child,” Grimwarden kissed the little one on the top of the head. “Your Daddy will be safe if we can get there in time.” Grimwarden stood up. “Tommy! We need to get topside!”
“What’s up?”
“We need to get the Admiral to oversee their evacuation with those moss bags.”
“Why, where are we headed?”
“To save the Saer. If it’s not to late.”
16: Principal Negotiations
“MAGISTRATE FORLARN WILL NOT BE a problem, then?” Asp inquired, his words measured and precarious, like a knife teetering on a table’s edge. The darkness of the narrow mountain corridor didn’t seem to bother him, and he kept up with his Saer guide step-for-step.
“Sssth, no. He will not oppose you,” Sardon replied. “Hisssth vote confirms that much. But he may not be convinced that your, ah, venture isssth worth the risk. Many are loyal to him.”
“Can he be bought?”
“Have you crystal?” Sardon asked. “Have you archives of wisdom?”
“An entire world full of both.”
“Then, yesssth, Forlarn can be bought. Ah, hsssth, wait.” Sardon stopped in mid stride. He slapped his huge hand into a black crevice between bulging rocks. “Yessth, I thought so,” he said.
He worked his multi-joint fingers inward, making an odd scraping sound. At last, his hand emerged. Clasped between his two long forefingers was a moon-colored, segmented worm. Sardon held the wiggling creature up for his companion to see. “A delicassthy,” he said. “Slagmite worms are rarely found here…anymore.”
One of Sardon’s jaw appendages whipped around the worm and, in a blink, curled it into his mouth. There were several wet popping sounds, and the Saer swallowed. “I am sorry,” Sardon said. “I ssshould have shared.”
“That,” Asp said, “was disgusting.”
“Sssth. Do not reproach a gift from Thynhold Cairn. The Saer capital city is not known for its hospitality.”
“You can keep your worms. We have our own.” Asp was more than a foot taller than Sardon. When he lifted his robed arm and pointed, he nearly knocked the Saer down. “Shall we continue?”
“There may, ah, be one complication,” Sardon said. “Dregory. He issth the chief underminer. More, he is a former soldier, ah, a hero to the Saer commoners. He could limit our success.”
“I know the type all too well. I will show him something that will change his mind.”
Seated on a throne of brilliant white crystal, Saer Magistrate Forlarn rapped his knuckles across the armrest and said, “Lord Asp, you arrive suddenly at Thynhold Cairn, with many thousandssth of fighting troops. Have you really come seeking aid? Or are you here to threaten?”
