DragonCrown Saga - The Grand Crusade Part 28

The ease of victory brought with it a worry that he would have to address later. When they faced whatever army Chytrine sent against him, he couldn't have his men a.s.suming it would be as easy as this.

The Aurolani they were chasing from hills and hollows had no opportunity to show discipline and training.

In fact, it could have very easily been half-trained troops who were sent south to scout out his army. The Aurolani leader likely had other, more experienced, troops out there as well, watching and reporting back. Just fighting against the green troops slowed Erlestoke and gave the enemy his measure, while the enemy was able to ama.s.s reinforcements and build a force that could overwhelm him.

He dreaded the idea that he would be facing Nefrai-kesh. Others in his command didn't because Nefrai-kesh had lost Okrannel to Markus Adrogans. While Erlestoke liked hearing that he was the equal of the Aurolani leader, he knew better than to believe it. Not to take anything from Adrogans, it did seem rather apparent that Okrannel had been ceded to the south in an attempt to split the alliance, so its loss in no way represented a lack of competence on Nefrai-kesh's part.

Even more importantly, Nefrai-kesh, when he was Lord Kenwick Norrington, had been from Oriosa and knew this area of the country well. Every mile further north brought Erlestoke into an area where the enemy knew it intimately, and through which the prince had ventured but once in the last five years-and that was in haste to return to Fortress Draconis. So while locals could give him information about the land, they weren't going to see it through a tactician's eyes, putting him at a severe disadvantage.

To make matters even worse, Erlestoke found himself in a curious position. His very presence was polarizing Oriosan society. Loyalists supported his father, pointing out that Scrainwood had managed to keep Oriosa safe from invasion and war for over a generation. The Aurolani had taken Sebcia and Muroso and had even struck into Alcida and Saporicia, but never Oriosa. The loyalists saw the prince as a usurper who had returned to take Oriosa because his previous realm, Fortress Draconis, had fallen. As they told it, he was really just a foreign invader who had no more love for Oriosa than Chytrine, and his fight with her would be conducted on Oriosan soil, killing Oriosans because they meant nothing to him.

The patriots, on the other hand, were united in their opposition to Chytrine, but Erlestoke recognized that this was not exactly the same as being united in support of his effort. Like Count Wightman, they would be with him as long as his crusade seemed to be in their best interests. If they could get fame and territory out of it, they would back him completely. If at any point it seemed that his effort would fail, their backing would evaporate. Erlestoke would again be reduced to an interloper using foreign troops to oust the king, and they-the true patriots-would fight him for the good of the nation.

Erlestoke would have liked to sidestep all of that by making a pledge that after Chytrine had been defeated he would just return to Fortress Draconis and never again set foot in Oriosa. He had been prepared to do that a month ago when he crossed the border, but in that time his mind had slowly changed. As he traveled through the country, he recognized places from his youth, and they brought smiles. An affection for his nation was rekindled, though that could have just been billed as nostalgia.

No, it was the people who changed his mind. The transformation started with Nay, Rounce, and especially Borell. It had begun back in Narriz. Borell had faced asullancirito save his father, but he had done so with the courage and confidence that were the hallmarks of Oriosan warriors. He reminded Erlestoke of the Oriosans who had refused to evacuate Fortress Draconis, despite being given leave to do so and knowing they were facing certain death. They'd just packed their life masks off with their loved ones and prepared to die defending a pile of rock hundreds of miles from their homes.

The Hawkriders, Count Wightman notwithstanding, had continued to change his mind. Part of the reason they wanted to parade back to their home province before heading north was to show those left behind that they were part of something greater than one of Wightman's plots. They were joining the prince to rid Oriosa of a scourge that had taken root there a generation before. They weren't concerned with political ploys and maneuvering, but with making their nation safe for their children. They were willing to put their lives on the line to do that, and Erlestoke began to feel responsible for making sure the nation would be safe after Chytrine was vanquished.

He could not abandon his homeland the way he had intended. He had to walk a slender line, allowing the fractious lords to underestimate his political ac.u.men, while at the same time cultivating their personal loyalty. Even as he tried to read flows of power and a.s.sess the character of those who supported and opposed him, he wished he was back at Fortress Draconis.At least there I knew the enemy easily, what they could do, what they were likely to do, and plan accordingly. Here, I just don't know.

High in the hills, trumpets began to blare. The first of the Aurolani refugees had reached the infantry and the battle was joined. With the trumpets all the troops would begin to move down, trapping the enemy and exterminating them. Within the hour, well before dusk, the vale would be free of Aurolani.

Preyknosery landed in front of Erlestoke. His blades dripped blood and a fair amount of it had spattered his breast and wings. "There are some Aurolani moving north, but only a small group of gibberers. A handful, no more. I have highfliers watching them."

"Good, thank you." The prince nodded. "Some of the locals have suggested another nest up by the lake at Two Rocks. It will take us two days to get up there."

"We'll have it scouted." The Gyrkyme pointed back to the south. "There is a large dust cloud twenty miles back, not yet in the Midlands. It is what you would call a regiment, mixed horse and foot. More are joining them daily. They're not in a hurry."

"I'll send scouts to watch them. I doubt my father is fielding troops against us, but I don't like having a shadow back there. I'll wait and see how they react to the nest we got at Oak Grove. That will tell us a lot."

"I agree." The winged warrior smiled. "You're doing very well, Highness. Your troops are learning. By the time we face the big battle, they will be ready."

"I hope so." Erlestoke smiled. "Thank you for saving me."

"My pleasure."

"I wish there was a way I could reward you."

"There is." Preyknosery pointed at the quadnel. "I have mastered many weapons, and would like to learn how to use this one."

"I'll teach you myself."

"You honor me, Prince Erlestoke." Preyknosery bowed his head. "I once served another prince. I saved his daughter, but was not there to save him. I shan't let harm befall you as I did him."

"Well, I hope I won't give you too many other opportunities to need to protect me." The prince sighed.

"Unfortunately, given what we will face-and despite my best intentions-you will be overworked in that regard."

fT error lent Kerrigan's feet wings and was the only thing that kept him going. Once Resolute had made the decision to head north to rescue both - DragonCrown fragments, rest and respite became fond memories. He and the princess got the weak and wounded hustled away south. Pretty much everyone knew the courier mission was nothing but a blind, and those who were selected to leave weren't wholly reluctant to depart.

As the Gyrkyme flew, a hundred and twenty-five miles stood between them and the north coast of Loquellyn. The fragments remained roughly in line with their goal, but were hidden away in an area Trawyn referred to as "the Splinters." In some long-distant time a glacier from the north had stabbed down into that area, gouging up all manner of rocks. And while plants gradually recolonized the area, Oracle said it was also known in Elvish as "Stone Forest."

As they hurried north, Trawyn explained why the fragments' location should give them heart. "The Splinters are sparingly populated. Someone who knows the area can remain hidden for months and even years. There are a few buildings-hunting lodges and retreats for poets-but more than enough caves.

Were Loquellyn a human nation, that region would be filthy with outlaws."

While that did seem a good sign, at least in terms of the fragments remaining out of Aurolani hands, it meant their being able to effect a rescue would be very difficult. Kerrigan took the problem a step further.

Whoever had the Vorquellyn fragment had been in its possession for over a century, and no one and nothing had been aware he had it. Kerrigan found it very easy to imagine someone like Resolute h.o.a.rding the fragment. Trying to get it away from Resolute would have been difficult, and he figured it would be no less so with its current guardian.

Kerrigan wasn't certain why, but he did know the thief was male. He also got the impression that he was an elf, but the youth almost dismissed that deduction as being far too easy. He tried to limit himself to whatever impressions he could sort out from his search spell, and each evening when he cast it anew, he tinkered with it to try to get more of an impression of the person protecting the fragments.

But Kerrigan's ability to modify his spell was minimal because of the pace they set. Resolute drove them all hard. They kept moving for as much as ten hours at a time. On one day, moving through a river valley, they actually managed to make it thirty miles, if the elven waystones could be believed. Other days they didn't move any less swiftly, but didn't get as far because Aurolani activity in the area forced them to wait. They didn't want to fight as that would draw attention to their group. Once danger pa.s.sed, however, they were up and off again.

In six days they covered the distance that should have taken them a week and a half. That pace brought them to the southern edge of the Splinters. While the name Stone Forest conjured up images-and the translation in Elvish,Taltentil, made Kerrigan smile-the Splinters really did apply. Most of the rocks had been piled up by a glacier, but hills and hollows had ma.s.sive stone spikes upthrust through the earth as if they had grown there.

Kerrigan patted a ma.s.sive boulder with his left hand. "Bok, looking at this, I'd almost figure there was an urZrethi mountain stronghold that was crushed. What do you think?"

The urZrethi scratched at his head. "There were many ruins after the dragons made war on us. It's possible the ice mountain smashed one. Equally possible, however, is that the glacier gouged the bottom of the Crescent Sea and sc.r.a.ped up the home of thesenyressanu. Could be what you are touching was once their capital."

Kerrigan shivered despite never having seen one of the creatures. Trawyn's description of them had been enough to give him fits, especially when Resolute had urged everyone to be careful as they crossed swamps. "It's probably best there are things I don't know about."

Bok smiled. "Ignorance isn't something to be sought, but a temporary state to be corrected as soon as possible."

"Well, if I ever find myself at the bottom of the sea, in conversation with Tagothcha, I'll ask him."

That first night in the Splinters Kerrigan cast the search spell and got his results even more quickly than he expected. The fragments were still north, but seemed to have moved closer. Kerrigan sought Resolute and informed him of his impression.

The Vorquelf's face closed up. "There have been signs of activity in the area. Lots of gibberers, with a fewturekadineto lead them. This is good in that it means our opposition is smaller. It's not good in that the heaviest troops are now headed off to fight in the east."

Resolute looked to the north. "If the courier is heading in this direction, it may be because the Aurolani landed more troops on the coast and has them moving south. Can you change your spell to give me troop dispositions?"

"I could, but if they are moving, I'd have to be casting constantly to keep track of them. I could pick up gibberers, vylaens, and frostclaws easily enough. Probably theturekadine, too, but the batrachians and slurrikiwould get past me."

Oracle came over to the two of them, helped by Trawyn. "Resolute, you have to go now. You have to find him. He is very close, but so are they. We all have to hurry."

Without question, Resolute stood and whistled sharply. "We're moving north,now"He shrugged off his pack and stuffed it behind a bush and beneath a rock. "If it is not one of us and it is moving out there, kill it. You know what we are looking for. You've never done anything but steal your whole lives, so steal this one from Chytrine."

The Grey Misters and Trawyn's companions likewise divested themselves of their packs, then drew their weapons and began to move north. Kerrigan struggled out of his pack and found Resolute helping him. "Listen to me carefully, Kerrigan."

"Yes, Resolute?"

"You and Bok are the most important people here tonight. You can find our quarry, so you must go for him and direct others to any opposition in your way. Qwc will stay with you and carry messages. Unless you're forced to, you cast no combat spells, just keep getting closer to the fragments, got it?"

He nodded.

"Good. The second thing is that you're also responsible for Oracle and Trawyn. You're in command of the search; the rest of us will handle the rescue. Once you find our target and free him, you all head north.

The rest of us will come as fast as we can, but you know our mission. You wait for no one; just go."

Kerrigan's throat tightened. "But what if... ?"

Resolute laughed. "Something happens to me?" The Vorquelf came around in front of him and rested his hands on the mage's shoulders. "Do you honestly think I won't be there? I'm taking it as a personal affront that Chytrine didn't send herturekadineafter me the second they were sp.a.w.ned. I intend she know that even they are not enough to stop me."

Kerrigan smiled, his heart beating a bit faster. "I won't wait for anyone."

"Good." Resolute's eyes narrowed for a moment. "You remember when Orla said to stay with Crow and me?"

The image of his mentor, as she lay dying in the cabin of a ship, came back. So did the lump in his throat.

He nodded.

"She did that so you'd learn enough for today. If it comes down to you leading the force north alone, I know you can do it. Furthermore, I thinkyouknow you can do it."

Kerrigan hesitated, then closed his eyes and thought for a moment. When he first left Vilwan he couldn't have done any of what had been accomplished since before Bok had kidnapped him and begun to instruct him in the true paths of power. Even the long hard marches they had made in the past six days would have been beyond him, not only physically, but mentally and emotionally. J^ewould have been one of the first sent back.

Now, however, Resolute's words found purchase in his heart. He still felt afraid, but he also had a need to push on.Back when I left Vilwan, I was the center of my own world. My world was limited by what I could do and what I thought I could do. Now the world is much bigger. It challenges me and I rise to that challenge.

Kerrigan slapped the Vorquelf on the shoulder. "North to Vorquellyn, get Will, north again, and get the Nor'witch. If you get lost, we'll leave signs of our pa.s.sing."

Resolute smiled, and Kerrigan didn't find it as frightening a thing as he had in the past. "Good. Let's go kill some Aurolani and, while we're at it, push the world a little further from destruction."

Moving through the Splinters in darkness would have been impossible for him, so, despite Resolute's admonition about the use of magick, Kerrigan did resort to a spell that amplified the visible light. He could have used a stronger spell that would have rendered night as day, but that was far more easy to detect than the one he chose, and much easier to dispel. By his choosing something slightly less efficient and more complicated, a magicker would have to work to destroy the spell, and Kerrigan would have a chance to rid himself of his tormentor.

His spell showed him a world of grey and yellow. He brushed past trees and scrambled over rocks, pausing to help Oracle or Trawyn along. Bok, who had lengthened his legs and sharpened his arms, became an odd yellow stick figure striding through the night. He again bore on his back the chest in which Rym resided, but it slowed him down not at all.

From all around them came the sounds of combat, but not those of a raging battle. People did scream, but mostly there were m.u.f.fled groans, or the sharp crack of a neck snapping. More than one gibberer lay on the ground, his throat slit or a hole over his heart. Part of Kerrigan wanted to cast diagnostic spells to see what had killed them, for the information would have been invaluable, but the mission kept him focused.

Haifa mile into the forest, Resolute intercepted them after Qwc made a quick flyby. Wordlessly he beckoned for Kerrigan to come with him. As the mage moved through the night, he saw a number of gibberer bodies on the ground and could smell the stink of singed fur. Resolute brought him to a place between two standing stones where two gibberers and one of the Grey Misters lay dead.

The flesh had been burned from the elf's face. A few other elves stood around, but Resolute quickly deployed them to watch, then sent Qwc to bring the rest of the group in. Resolute moved toward the stones, and extended his lefta rm toward the s.p.a.ce between them, but he didn't stick it in there. As his skin grew close, a couple of the tattoos on his forearm began to glow faintly.

Kerrigan nodded and cast a quick spell. In his sight, the stones lit up as if theyW ere mirrors reflecting the noonday sun. "Wards, very powerful wards that were worked a long time ago, but not activated until now. I can feel them linked to other setups." He glanced back in the direction whence they had come.

"There's more out there. We're trapped inside two rings."

They heard a couple more screams from a position about ninety degrees away from them on the inner ring, then a harsh horn. A grim expression settled over Resolute's face. "They've figured out what we've figured out. They'll attribute their dead to the ring and its maker, so they don't know we're here at the moment. Can you get through the wards?"

Kerrigan nodded. "I think so. They're elven, but complicated. Could be, however, if I get through,allthe wards stop working. If they're closer to the hiding place, they get there first."

"I'll take care of them. Predator, get your people ready. We're going around to the east and we're hitting them hard."

The Grey Mister nodded and started gathering his charges.

Resolute smiled. "Fast, Kerrigan. Get in there but be careful."

"I will."

"Go, then." The Vorquelf shot him a little salute, then vanished in the night. Like a feral fog, the Grey Misters drifted in his wake.

As Bok brought Trawyn and Oracle up, Kerrigan pondered the wards. He cast another diagnostic spell, carefully looking for any traps or any telltale signs of modifications to the spells. Wards usually were fairly simple. They linked two or more points and had a lot of magickal energy flowing between them. When someone tried to cross between those points, the spell evaluated them as a target. If they didn't have a talisman, or the right bloodline or any of thousands of other traits that would make them harmless from the spell's point of view, they suffered the consequences.

Kerrigan could have easily gotten lost in a search for a key to the ward. Finding the right key, then crafting a spell that would make it appear as if he had the key would take a lot of time. That was the standard way of getting through a ward. It wasn't easy, and took not only a very good magick-user to do so, but also a lot of time.

Instead he picked up on a trickle of a diagnostic spell coming through the wards and smiled. It was clearly Aurolani magick. Kerrigan smiled and punched a spell back along that line that reported to the Aurolani magicker that there was a key, and that it was to appear to be an elf.

A triumphant blast on the Aurolani horn was followed by a hideous scream. Kerrigan got no sense of the magicker's death through the ward, though he did get something else. Seconds later more screams sounded, along with war cries as Resolute's raid on the Aurolani began. The clash of steel on steel rang through the darkness.

Bok tapped him on the shoulder. "Moving quickly would be good."

"Yes, and I think I can now." He shook his head and set his shoulders. What he'd caught when the Aurolani magicker died was a momentary flicker in the wards' intensity. The mage who had created the wards had used several spells to create his trap, which made it almost impossible to dispel quickly. Most importantly, to avoid its detection and the slaying of things for no reason at all, he made the spell that channeled energy into the wards as something that required conscious control and recasting.

"Just as the dragonbone armor causes me trouble with spell casting, this ought to work for you."

Kerrigan quickly recalled the impressions of theturekadine, vylaens, and gib-berers, then shaped each one into the equivalent of a disguise spell and cast it at the ward. The defensive spell looked at all aspects of the spell, evaluated it as a disguise, then pulsed power back to kill whatever it was hiding. Faster and faster Kerrigan sent these little spells. Bok picked up on what he was doing and began to cast as well.

The wardmaster's reaction time faded. It took him longer and longer to get the power flowing back into the spells and then, all at once, the wards collapsed. Kerrigan cast one more disguise to see if it was a ruse, then followed with his search spell. The response came so quickly that his head snapped around and he began to run. Behind him, Bok scooped the princess and Oracle up in his arms and streaked after him.

To his right, out of the darkness, aturekadineburst from the brush. It snarled loudly and brandished a curved longknife. Before it could advance, however, a bladestar whirred through the air and caught it in the ribs. The creature had enough time to look down, then the poison on the throwing star's point took effect.

Kerrigan leaped over the thrashing beast and plunged on into a dark cavern. He ducked his head and raised his hands, saving him a nasty knock on the skull. He quickly dropped to his hands and knees and crawled along a twisting pa.s.sage that had been reshaped by magick. The tunnel wove back on itself once, then opened into a grotto.

A cadaverous figure hung in the middle of it, ensnared in long pale roots from above-roots that had been woven into a web. Kerrigan had a hard time telling where the elf's hair ended and the roots began, for his fine hair hung to his waist and spread behind him as if a cape. The elf's head lolled to the side. A thin rope of saliva and another of snot slowly dripped down. Most curious of all, his pale skin had a lavender cast to it.

Two large pouches, one on each hip, hung from his belt. Kerrigan a.s.sumed they contained the DragonCrown fragments, but it wasn't an a.s.sumption he anted to test. The elf's skill at wards and Kerrigan's own experience enchanting afragment kept him back Trawyn entered the cave next and hissed. "Stay away from him, Kerrigan. Cast no spell"

"What's the matter?

She pointed at the figure. "His purple flesh. He is an eater of dreamwing."

"You've mentioned it before. What is it?"

She exhaled slowly. "It is a narcotic plant, which can be addictive. It soothes great pain, emotional pain, at least temporarily, and can help one cast powerful niagicks. Use begets use, however. When one is as far gone as he is, he cannot tell dream fantasy from reality. He may lash out without warning, and he would hurt you badly."

"Who is he?"

Trawyn shook her head, but Oracle appeared behind her. "He would be the last adult Vorquelf in the world. He is our key to thecoruesciin Saslynnae."

Trawyn looked at her as if she were insane. "A dreamwing eater can't enter acoruesci. He hasn't the presence of mind to open the way."

The Vorquelven soothsayer shrugged. "We will have to make him recover before we need him on Vorquellyn."

Kerrigan smiled. "Resolute will sober him up."

"Oh, I wish that were true, Kerrigan. The Aurolani have been scattered. The others will be coming in."

Oracle shook her head slowly. "Unfortunately, Resolute will not be in their number."