Bearers Of The Black Staff Part 15

Another quick exchange among the Trolls followed. "Taureq says to tell him if you are a nation of Men only or of others, too."

"We are a nation of mixed Races. Men, Elves, Trolls"-he was quick to remember that the word Lizards was not to be used-"and Spiders."

Another exchange followed this translation. "How many?"

"Hundreds of thousands," Panterra lied.

There was a pause after his answer was given, then a flurry of words from the Maturen. "Taureq never heard of you. Why not, if your people are so many? Why live in the mountains and not in the gra.s.slands south?"

Again, Panterra answered, embellishing the truth where it was needed. They had not come out of the mountains until now because they did not know if it was safe to do so or if the rest of the world had been destroyed. They were happy isolating themselves. They had found a home that could sustain them and that they could protect. He went on from there. He made it sound as if they were self-sufficient and well fortified against intruders, a united community of friends and neighbors deeply entrenched inside mountain pa.s.ses only they knew how to navigate. He had no idea if he was saying the right thing; he only knew he needed to give the impression that an intrusion or attack of any sort would be a mistake.

Then, abruptly, the questions stopped. Taureq Siq stood quietly, looking at Panterra. He seemed to be considering. Pan waited, keeping his face expressionless, trying to convey a sense of calm. But as the seconds pa.s.sed, he sensed in the s.p.a.ces between their soft, slow fading that he had made a mistake.

As if in response to his fears, Taureq Siq made a quick, dismissive comment, and Arik Sarn turned to Pan and said, "He says you are lying. He wants to know why."

Panterra felt his throat tighten as he struggled to find the right response. "I don't lie. But I am worried that he intends to use his army to invade us and want to make clear that we are a poor choice for an attack."

A further exchange between Trolls followed. "He says no harm will come to your people, but you should not lie to him because if you do he will take his army into the mountains and find your people and kill them, but first he will kill you and the girl."

Sarn's words died away into silence. So he means us no harm, but he's willing to kill us all if he decides he's being lied to? Pan gave a mental shake of his head. He could trust nothing of what this man was saying, which was pretty much what Sarn had suggested in advising him to reveal nothing he did not wish repeated. Grosha was smiling, standing next to his father, hands clasped almost gleefully. He sensed he was about to have his way with them, that they would soon be entertainment for his Skaith Hounds.

"I have answered truthfully," Pan said, trying to deflect both Taureq Siq's threat and his own fear. "I don't know what more I can do. What else do you want to know?"

Beside him, he felt Prue inch closer.

Another long pause as Taureq Siq considered. Beside him, Grosha was growing more agitated, restless enough that he was trying to push forward again. His father, almost absently, shoved him back, and then spoke anew to Arik Sarn.

"He says you must take him to meet your leaders," the latter advised Pan. "Tomorrow."

Pan hesitated. Now what am I supposed to do? His mind raced, searching for an answer that wouldn't come. "I'm not allowed to do that," he said finally. "I don't have permission to take anyone into the mountains. But I could bring our leaders somewhere close to where your son captured us. I could arrange a meeting. I just need a little time."

He said all this without having the faintest idea if he could arrange a meeting or even with whom he might try to do so. Those in the valley didn't have any unity of the sort he had described, and there was no one who could speak for all of the various peoples. But it didn't matter. He would tell the Maturen anything to keep him at bay. Whatever happened, he must not take these Trolls into the pa.s.ses or he would forfeit whatever measure of security those living in the valley might still enjoy now that the protective barriers were down.

He watched Taureq Siq's face as Sarn translated his words, but could read nothing in the Troll's impa.s.sive expression. The Maturen said something in reply, and then the two went back and forth for a few minutes in what appeared to be either an argument or an attempt to clarify. Whichever it was, Pan didn't like the feel of it.

Arik Sarn turned back to him. "Taureq Siq will think on your suggestion and give you his answer before the day ends. He says you must think some more on the answers you have given him. Maybe you will want to change some of them. He orders me to stay with you until you do."

Pan exhaled softly. "Tell him I am grateful," he said, not knowing exactly why he was grateful for anything that was happening, but thinking he needed to say something encouraging. "I will do as he says."

The Maturen gave him a short nod, one that managed to convey both approval and menace, and then he beckoned the others after him and departed the way he had come without a glance back. Grosha, however, gave Panterra a long, hard look that promised that as far as he was concerned, nothing was settled.

Panterra felt Prue clasp his arm. "Maybe he'll let us go," she whispered. "Maybe he'll agree to your suggestion."

Pan didn't think so. He didn't know what would happen, but it wasn't that. He suspected that Taureq Siq had already made up his mind about what he was going to do, but had decided to wait to let Panterra's imagination take hold.

He started to say as much to Arik Sarn, but the Troll held up his hand in warning. They stood in silence for a long time, listening. Then Sarn walked to the tent flap and peered out.

"Spies stay behind sometimes. Hide and listen and then tell him things. Maybe not this time because they don't speak your language. Talk freely, but softly. Be quick. He will come back soon."

"You think he has decided, don't you?" Pan pressed.

"Yes."

"He won't let us go, will he?"

"No." The Troll glanced back over his shoulder, and then moved away from the tent flap to stand close. "He won't let you go until he has the answers he wants. Maybe not then, either. He wants to know how to get into your valley so he can decide for himself if he will occupy it. This is what he is not telling you. He moves the Drouj from its traditional homelands, which have sickened. The Drouj avoided this for a long time after the Great Wars, but no longer. Things have changed. Taureq looks for a new homeland; that is what he is doing out here."

"But where are the women and children?" Prue interrupted. "Have they left them behind?"

"Doesn't matter what he's done with his women and children. Do you understand what I am telling you? Do you see the purpose of Taureq's questions? He seeks your home in the mountains. If he likes it, he will take it from you."

"And you don't approve?" Pan asked.

"It doesn't matter if I approve."

Panterra shook his head. "But I don't understand. Why are you telling us all this? Why are you helping us at all? Aren't you putting yourself in danger by doing so? If the Drouj find out what you are doing, won't they be angry?"

Arik Sarn nodded. "Very angry. Taureq Siq would kill me instantly, forget any agreement with my father and their shared blood. He would do it even if it meant sacrificing his eldest, in turn."

"Then I'll ask it again. Why are you helping us? With so much risk, so much at stake, why?"

The Troll's smile formed a small break in his impa.s.sive features. "It is complicated."

"Yes," Prue said at once. "But explain it anyway."

The Troll shrugged. "We have only a little time, so I have to hurry." He paused. "Wait."

He walked back over to the flap entry and peered out once more. "I thought I heard something," he said. "Maybe. Maybe not." He shook his head, walked back to them, and motioned for them to sit. "I think we are family," he said very softly. "Your people and ours."

"Family?" Panterra repeated in disbelief. "How?"

The other leaned close, and his words were barely audible. "Once," he said, "hundreds of years ago, at the finish of the Great Wars, our ancestors both were seeking a place to survive what would come after. Two of mine were street children led by a boy named Hawk. He gave to his family-to those children who followed him-a name. It was the same name my ancestors gave their own tribe when they formed it later."

He paused, and then leaned closer still. "In Troll, the name is Karriak. But in the old language, the language of Men, the name he gave them was Ghosts."

EIGHTEEN.

GHOSTS.

It was the name the old stories said the Hawk gave to the street children who followed him. A name out of their own history, repeated from generation to generation by those who had followed the boy leader into their valley home. Panterra and Prue both knew the name well; both had heard it many times.

Ghosts.

And so, closeted away in the shadowy, concealing confines of the tent, the activities of the Troll camp a distant rumble beyond the hide walls, they listened with rapt attention as Arik Sarn told them the strange story of his own people's history.

"Some Ghost children were killed along the way. Some got safely to the place that became their home then and is yours now. We know this. But one who lived did not go with the others, did not want to come into the valley, did not want to be confined by walls. Better out in the open, no matter the risk. This one was named Panther. He met a girl with mutation sickness that turned humans into what used to be Lizards, and they went north where the fallout from the wars and poisons did not reach. Panther was still human, but the girl was changing. The old stories do not tell why they bonded. Perhaps love, as the legends say. Perhaps for convenience and sharing. But a partnership was made, and in the north Panther and the girl found others like themselves and formed a tribe, the Karriak. It was the first of the great Troll tribes, and Panther and the girl become its leaders."

"I've heard the story of Panther and the girl from my mother," Prue interrupted. "The girl was called Cat. They turned north, just as you've said, right before they reached the valley, and they were never seen again. The Hawk brought the others into the valley where we live, and the mists closed everyone away and kept us in and everything else out. So no one ever knew what happened."

Sarn nodded. "Our stories are silent about those who went with Hawk except to say they found a place in the mountains that Panther and the girl left behind. So, we have different parts of the same story. But the Karriak tribe survived and grew strong in a place that sickness and firestorms pa.s.sed by. The legends say that Panther became a Troll, the first after the girl, and named them so, said they are like Elves-like Faerie creatures of old in books-creatures that have strength and pride and stand upright and do not crawl like insects. Panther fathered children with Cat, and became the first Maturen of his tribe. His children followed him and their children after."

He paused, considering. "All centuries back, a long time ago. The Karriak grew too large and split to form other tribes. The Drouj is one. In the beginning it was a lesser tribe, but it became the most powerful. Leadership changed in both tribes, new families took power. The Trolls number in the millions and hold the whole of the North Country from the Blue Divide to the Storm Seas. The other Races are still small, not so many members, Men, Spiders, and Elves-though hard to say about the Elves, who hid again after the wars. We don't see them anymore. Most settled on the western coasts and out on the islands, far away." He shrugged. "So they say. Other peoples survived, too-others than Elves and Spiders and Men. But mostly there are Trolls."

He paused. He was struggling with his words now. "My family's bloodlines are Panther's, come down to me through generations. Others gave up caring about their ancestry. It is enough for them that they are Trolls. Not my family. Not me. I know the truth. I know that to be related is a difference. It is not meant for people to be apart and not care. The world is not a place where no one should care for anyone. It is a place where all are part of one family, all are related, all belong to what remains of what is long past, of what was lost to the wars."

He looked at them in turn, measuring them. "It is my belief, but maybe not yours. But I think so." He paused. "You say you know the story of Panther and the girl. Tell me if I am right. Were your ancestors called Ghosts at one time?"

Panterra and Prue exchanged a long look. It was hard to know what to do here, hard to be certain what should be revealed. Pan wanted to trust this Troll who had done so much to help them-or so it seemed, anyway-but was afraid that anything he gave away might come back to haunt him. In the end, he went with his heart.

"There is talk within our families, a claim made by those who feel most strongly about it, that both of us can trace our ancestries back to those who were called Ghosts," Panterra ventured, choosing his words carefully. "Prue's own claim is the stronger. She has the sight, the ability to sense danger when it cannot be seen. One of those children who traveled with the Hawk also possessed that sense. But there are no written records. No one can do more than make the claim. No one knows for sure."

"Still, whether we are direct descendants or not doesn't matter," Prue added quickly, indicating the three of them. "You are right, Arik Sarn. We are still family. We come from the blood of the same small group of travelers. We are here because of them. We share a common history, a common story. Perhaps that is enough in a world where everyone is starting over."

"Not for everyone," the Troll said quietly. "Not for Taureq Siq. Or for his tribe. A year's time among the Drouj taught me this. It is not the same with my people or the other Troll tribes. The Drouj think they are a people of destiny, meant to dominate the rest of us. Taureq's private ambitions are these; I hear him speak of it many times. I listen, understand, say nothing. But there is no mistaking. His army will do to your people what it has already does to other Troll tribes. His conviction is that he must rule, and he follows that path."

Panterra grimaced. "Where have we heard that before? That was the fate of the old world, the fuel that fed the fires of the Great Wars. Has no one learned anything? Those who ignore the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them in the future, but no one believes it."

Sarn glanced over his shoulder as if to make sure they were still alone. "I choose to help you because the Drouj are wrong. My people are not strong; they give way to him. Maybe all the tribes together are not strong enough to stop him. But your people should not be destroyed. Maybe they can flee, maybe hide. They should be given the chance."

"If we can get out of here and warn them, they will," Panterra promised, wondering at the same time just exactly what they would do.

"We should start by finding Sider," Prue started to say, stopping as she heard the sound of voices approaching from without.

The tent flap was thrown back, and Grosha stood in the opening. Arik Sarn was already on his feet and had a.s.sumed a position of dominance over the prisoners, as if he were in the act of questioning them. A fierce exchange took place between the cousins, the meaning of which the boy and the girl could not understand, but the tone of which was unmistakable.

"Stay here until I return," Sarn advised them abruptly. "Do what you are told."

He went out through the open flap without saying more, close on the heels of his cousin. Panterra and Prue felt their frail hopes of freedom go with him.

MORE THAN A MILE AWAY, safely removed from the sprawling Lizard encampment, Phryne Amarantyne crouched in the concealing shelter of a cl.u.s.ter of rocks atop a ridgeline that allowed her a perfect view of the camp below. The barren depression in which the Lizards had settled themselves was flat and wide and empty of any sort of cover. It told the brothers Orullian, who were familiar with this sort of thing, several important facts about the Lizards. First and foremost was that they considered themselves safe in an unprotected position, so they believed either that no enemy force large enough to challenge them was anywhere close, or that no such force even existed. Second, but of equal importance, this was an army on the move; even if something unexpected did threaten, the Lizards felt they were equipped to deal with it.

So any attempt at getting closer would be foolhardy, especially in daylight, which it now was and had been for the better part of six hours. A clear view of what was happening-of comings and goings that might involve their friends, in particular-was as much as they could hope for until it got dark.

Even then, Tasha allowed, it would be difficult to do much to help. Panterra and Prue were somewhere in the middle of thousands of armed soldiers, concealed in a sea of tents, and finding them under any circ.u.mstances was highly unlikely. The best they could hope for was that at some point the Lizards would attempt to move them again, and then a rescue of some sort might be mounted.

Or maybe flying sheep would swoop down and spirit the boy and the girl away and they would all go home happy, Tenerife added brightly.

But Phryne was not as pessimistic as her cousins, confident that an opportunity would present itself. They had gotten this far in spite of everything, tracking the caravan without difficulty through the night, reaching the encampment in time to see approximately where Pan and Prue were being taken. She was almost certain she knew the exact tent, although with time's pa.s.sage she had grown somewhat less sure about this. But whatever the case, she was determined to find a way to get their friends back. If not today, then tomorrow. Or the following day, or at some point soon, because she had meant it when she said she was not going back to Arborlon without them.

Restless and keyed up, she let the brothers sleep while she kept watch, eyes fixed on the encampment and its surroundings, waiting for the chance she was sure would come. Her experience at search-and-rescue missions was nonexistent, so her thinking was not hampered by practical considerations. Even so, she had enough of an understanding of how life worked to know that whatever they attempted would be extremely dangerous and could easily fail.

She continued to blame herself for what had happened to Panterra and Prue, unable to absolve herself of her guilt for pressing them to go when they clearly hadn't wanted to. She hated herself for thinking that way because she wanted to believe what she had done was the right thing under the circ.u.mstances. That was why she needed to get them back, of course, because otherwise she would go on condemning herself over this business for the rest of her life.

She just wished something would happen. The hours dragged by, the day wore on, and they were no closer to rescuing the boy and the girl than before. Tasha had cautioned her that patience was necessary, that haste was what had landed them in the current mess. Her haste, he might just as well have said.

Which was true, so it was difficult to fault him for reminding her.

After a while, she found her eyes were growing heavy. She knew she should wake her cousins, but she hated asking them for anything and didn't want to appear to need help of any sort. She dug her foot into the rocks and twisted until it hurt, bringing tears to her eyes but sharpening her senses anew. She thought about Pan, about how she was drawn to him, about how much she liked him even without knowing him any better than she did. It was extremely rare for Elven royalty to bond with a commoner-forbidden when the commoner was a human-but she liked the idea of doing something shocking. It was attractive to her; it sent a small tingle up her spine just thinking about it.

Anyway, she didn't like doing what other people told her she had to do. Oh, it was one thing if it was her father, of course. He was the King. But not other people, and not when what they were telling her was tied to some outdated code of conduct that should have been cast out years ago. Not marry a commoner! What nonsense! She wasn't even thinking about marriage. She was only thinking about spending time with him, about getting to know him better. He was interesting in his withdrawn, taciturn sort of way. She liked how he seemed so fl.u.s.tered when she talked boldly to him. She liked how it made her feel.

She looked off into the distance at the Lizard camp. Nothing. She dug at the rocky earth with her boot for something to do, but grew quickly bored. Her eyes were still heavy. She could close them just for a minute, couldn't she? Why not? It wasn't as if anything was happening or even likely to happen in the next few minutes. That was all she needed-just a few minutes.

The sun was hazy and the land barren as she peered first skyward and then out across the horizon. Everything was so bleak. It looked as if nothing lived there, even given the presence of the Lizards. It was an ugly, barren stretch, and she was sorry she had ever thought about going outside the valley. When this was over, they should all go back and stay there. This was no fit land for humans or Elves or anyone else.

She shifted to a more comfortable position and let her eyes close.

When she felt the hand on her shoulder, she realized she had been sleeping.

But it was too late to do anything about it by then.

DEEP INSIDE THE MAZE of Troll encampment tents, Panterra and Prue sat waiting for Arik Sarn's return. They had no way of knowing how much time had pa.s.sed, but to Pan it felt like hours. Little conversation pa.s.sed between them as the minutes dragged on, most of it truncated and forced, a way to provide each other with some small measure of rea.s.surance that whatever happened they were still together. They could hear the sounds of movement and voices from outside their enclosure, a rough-edged jumble unrecognizable as anything specific. It suggested things best not thought about too hard or long, and they did what they could to ignore it. Pan was less successful with thoughts of freedom; he could not stop having those, even knowing that escape was virtually impossible.

More mundane wishes intruded, as well.

He wished he could have a bath and a change of clothes.

He wished he could see the sun again.

He wished he had stayed inside his valley home.

He was wishing for a few other things when a stirring from outside their chamber brought his head up. His eyes fixed expectantly on Arik Sarn as the Troll reappeared. He came over to them without a backward glance at the tent flap-which was quickly closed by someone standing without-knelt where they sat, and bent close.

"Taureq Siq has decided. Your suggestion is accepted. You will go back to your people, back home." But there was something wrong with the way he said it, something troubling. "You will be released, Panterra Qu, to speak to your leaders, to tell them of the meeting. Taureq will come to them at midday on the first day of the next full moon, to the place where we found you, and they will talk."

Panterra grinned broadly, glancing over at Prue as he did so. He couldn't believe it! They were going let them go! "You see," he said quickly, working hard at keeping his voice low. "I told you that ..."

But Prue had caught what he had missed. She shook her head. "You don't understand. Only you are being set free. Not me. Am I right?" she asked, her eyes shifting to the Troll.

Arik Sarn nodded in agreement. "Only you, Panterra. Your friend will be held hostage to make sure you come back."

The smile dropped from Pan's face. "No," he said at once. "We both go. Both of us. If not, I don't go, either. Tell him that!"

But the Troll was already shaking his head. "Then you will both die. Taureq has decided. No argument is allowed. You will go, the girl stays." He hesitated. "I will be going with you. To make sure you keep your word. Taureq says I must."

Pan shook his head in disbelief. He didn't mind if Sarn came along, but to leave Prue was unthinkable. "She's only fifteen," he hissed at the Troll. "She can't be left here-"

"Pan!" she interrupted quickly, grabbing his arm. "Stop. Don't demean me by arguing that I am a child. I am not. I haven't been since I became a Tracker. I am as grown-up as you are and in some ways more so. There's no point in arguing about this. Taureq has decided. You heard. I would have decided it the same way. He would be a fool to let us both go."

Arik Sarn was nodding. "Listen. She knows."