Trillium - Sky Trillium Part 21

"The scheme is a desperate one," she admitted, "but I believe it is well worth trying." And she explained.

Incredulous at first, Orogastus realized that there was no practical alternative. "Very well," he said at last. "If you are willing to risk your throne in this lunatic ploy, I will not stop you. But remember that the army will have to leave the staging area no later than an hour after sunset tomorrow in order to be in position before the fireworks start."

"My old comrade Tazor and I can do it," she said, her face shining. "I will bring you Queen Anigel, and he will make certain that the other hostages remain secure here in the lodge until after Brandoba falls."

The sorcerer smiled at the Star Woman. "I can see more clearly now why your people deem you fit to be Empress." He took her hand. "May the Dark Powers support you."

"And you," she said, bowing her head so he would not see the fervid emotion that suffused her features. Then she clapped on her rayed helm and dashed off to find Tazor.

Chapter Twenty-Two.

THE Archd.u.c.h.ess Naelore studied the two tall flightless birds, tethered by neck-straps to trees outside the imperial hunting lodge, and scowled to conceal the fear rising within her. "My friend, if this mission were not so crucial to our fortunes, nothing would compel me to touch these hideous brutes of yours."

The feathered carnivores stood over two ells high at the shoulder, and their plumage gleamed steel-blue in the sunlight. The birds had been temporarily paralyzed by enchantment while Tazor worked on them, but their fierce red eyes glowered at the two sorcerers, evidence that while the nyars' bodies might be under constraint of magic, their spirits were not.

"So long as we wear our Stars and command the creatures with unwavering confidence," Tazor said, "they will obey us and harm neither ourselves nor any human prey we pursue." He was putting bridles on the birds while Naelore watched, both repelled and fascinated. Orogastus and the other Guildsmen had ridden off after the army an hour earlier. It had taken Tazor that long to summon the nyars from the depths of the forest, even with the aid of his Star.

"You are absolutely certain that the monsters will not turn on us?" Naelore said.

"No, Imperial Highness. There is still some risk. But one well worth taking, as I told the Star Master." He slipped a bridle cautiously over a terrible toothed beak.

"Nyars! Only a crazy man such as you would make pets of such horrible predators, much less train them for riding. What possessed you to undertake such a bizarre project?"

"I looked upon the task as a challenge to my Star," he admitted, patting one bird's neck. It was as thick as one of the logs making up the walls of the building. "This mated pair frequented the vicinity of the lodge because I often fed them salt-chuck. When their ferocity diminished I conceived the notion of taming them, and I confess that I was surprised that the sorcery eventually worked and rendered the nyars docile. It was a way of pa.s.sing the time while I languished in this forsaken spot six moons ago, deprived of the glory of your imperial presence during my tour of duty as warden of supply for the castle."

"Tchah!" said Naelore, dismissing the flattery. But she smiled at him, for they were very old friends indeed. Before the coming of Orogastus had changed their lives forever, Tazor had been chief steward of the Archd.u.c.h.ess's villa just outside Brandoba. Now they were fellow Guildsmen and theoretically equals; but both of them knew better.

"Should the Dark Powers smile upon us," Tazor said, "the birds will enable us to undo the damage done by those negligent fools at the castle. Nyars are as fleet as the winter monsoon. Not even a polled racing fronial can compare with them. We should reach the hostages within three hours."

"If I miss the battle of Brandoba because of this mission," Naelore said through lips drawn tight, "I shall roast the liver of whichever hostage engineered their escape!"

"I think both of us know who it must have been: the only one the Master could never descry with his magic, because she is protected by her trillium-amber."

"d.a.m.n that witch-queen! I knew we should have taken the pendant away from her somehow... or else kept her senseless until she was no longer needed and it was safe to kill her. But Orogastus would not listen to me. Now we can only conjecture that Anigel accompanies the other hostages."

"Where else would she go? We'll find her, Imperial Highness. Don't fret. You won't miss the battle, nor will you be deprived of your triumph over Denombo."

"Ah, what a long way we have come in two short years, my old friend! Who would ever have thought, when you opened my villa door to a peremptory midnight knock, that you would admit a sorcerer? And one who would turn our disorganized little band of political outcasts into a cohort capable of toppling an empire."

"I knew Orogastus was a dangerous man as soon as I clapped eyes on him," Tazor said dryly. "And so did you."

"That was the princ.i.p.al reason I decided to trust him."

"And is that also why you have fallen in love with him?"

"Insolent b.a.s.t.a.r.d," she said, laughing again. But her eyes had lost their good humor, and he fell silent and hastened to buckle on the second bird's saddle.

Tazor was a well-built man, even taller than the statuesque Archd.u.c.h.ess and possessed of considerable physical strength. His knowing eyes were close-set above a broad nose. Like so many other members of the Star Guild-with the notable exception of flame-tressed Naelore herself-he had hair turned prematurely white from the rigors of his initiation into the magic of the Dark Powers.

"Tazor." She spoke in a tone unusually hesitant. "Do you really think Orogastus will fulfill his promises to me?"

"I believe that he will make you Empress of Sobrania," the former steward said. "I am much less sanguine about his grandiose plans to conquer the world by means of sorcery and set you up as his coadjutor. The Star is a wondrous thing, but the world is a very large place... and recent events have reminded us that other magicians exist in it besides Orogastus and our Star Guild."

"I admit that I was deeply troubled when the Master told us that the young Prince had given up one of the talismans to the swamp-witch Kadiya. But by permitting both the boy and the enchantress to pa.s.s through the viaduct into Sobrania, Orogastus has cleverly brought both pieces of the Sceptre within easy reach."

"Easy?" Tazor shook his head. "No more than unseating Denombo will be easy."

"Just let me get him within reach of a sword cut!... At any rate, we can speed both eventualities by recapturing Queen Anigel and the others. Let us be off."

They mounted the wingless birds, which stood like statues in the forecourt of the lodge. Naelore lifted her Star medallion and touched it to the neck of her feathered steed. The nyar's toothed beak opened wide and it gave a thunderous roar. When she spoke a command it sped off like a meteor down the trail leading to the Great Viaduct, leaving her comrade coughing in a cloud of dust.

Cursing, Tazor followed after.

It was only by great good fortune that the Eternal Prince Widd caught the Eternal Princess as she began to slip from the saddle during the fording of the muddy river. "Help!" he cried desperately. "Something is wrong with Raviya!"

President Hakit Botal whirled his fronial about, reentered the water, and took hold of the elderly Princess in his strong left arm. She was listless as a bundle of rags. Her senses had left her, and her lined features were gray. Together with Prince Widd, the President brought the elderly woman safe to the river's opposite bank, where the others except Gyorgibo immediately dismounted and gathered about. Queen Anigel and Queen Jiri of Galanar gently lay the aged woman onto the ground.

"Triune pity her!" Widd began to weep. "Oh, my poor Raviya. The rigors of the escape have been too much for her."

"She breathes," said Jiri, after loosening Raviya's bodice, "and her heartbeat seems regular. Doubtless she is only overcome with exhaustion and stress."

Duumvir Ga-Bondies snorted. "As we all are! It's madness to ride farther. Our fronials are still spent from their overexertion and breathing of the noxious vapors yesterday. They will certainly founder if we do not let them rest-and so will I. Every bone in my body screams with pain and I am dying from hunger."

"Then die silently," said the King of the Pirates heartlessly. The st.u.r.dy hunchbacked monarch took off his own cape and covered Princess Raviya. Her eyelids fluttered and she moaned.

Prince Widd sighed. "If she could only have a morsel to eat and some truly restful sleep."

The small amount of food and drink they had managed to take from the stablehands at the castle had been consumed the previous night, when they had rested precariously, nearly frightened out of their wits by the appalling sounds made by the Lirda Forest creatures around them. Since then they had had only water and a few insipid wild fruits that Gyorgibo had a.s.sured them were wholesome.

"It would be dangerous to stop and rest now," the Archduke said. "There is small risk from fierce beasts and birds during daylight, but if the Star Men have learned of our escape, they might come looking for us."

"I almost wish they would," Ga-Bondies growled.

"We are moving steadily westward, out of the highlands," Gyorgibo continued. "Before long, we will surely come upon landmarks that I am familiar with and we can leave this trail. There are shortcuts to Brandoba in the Lirda's lower reaches that we can use to elude pursuit."

"Not if Orogastus uses magic to hunt us," Prigo pointed out.

Hakit Botal spoke in testy resignation. "If the Star Men come, there is no way we can defend ourselves against them. But I suspect that the sorcerer and his force have other business to occupy them. They may already be in the capital city, storming Denombo's palace."

"Why should we continue this killing pace?" Prigo demanded. "It is manifestly impossible for us to give warning to the Emperor. We must consider our own needs... as well as the needs of our respective countries, thrown into confusion by our abduction. What matter our having escaped the sorcerer, if we perish miserably in this howling wilderness?"

Last night, after crossing the basin of flaming geysers, they had ridden another two hours before reaching the place where the Great Viaduct was, clearly identifiable because of the peculiar appearance of the trampled ground around it. Anigel spoke the magic spell, and their pa.s.sage through the black gateway was without incident. They spent an uneasy night in the clearing adjacent to the viaduct's exit, then pressed on slowly at first light.

The wide trail was easy to follow-too easy. The Archduke and King Ledavardis, the best riders in the group, had taken turns scouting ahead, making sure that they did not inadvertently overtake the sorcerer's force. The others had plodded painfully along, lulled by the singing of countless birds. From time to time they were roused from their stupor by the bellow of some unseen beast, but otherwise they had dozed in the saddle until Raviya's misfortune.

The Eternal Princess now roused herself and spoke in a weak voice. "I'm quite all right. Just put me back on the fronial. I can ride well enough."

"No, dear," Anigel said emphatically. "You cannot. Prigo is right. We've gone far enough and we must rest."

Ledavardis said, "If this forest is an imperial preserve, there should be some sort of shelters. How about it, Gyor?"

The Sobranian Archduke lifted his hands in a helpless gesture. "There is indeed a great lodge beside the River Dob, as well as huts and comfortable hunting blinds and permanent campsites galore. Unfortunately, nothing along this particular trail looks familiar. The Star Men must have cut it to serve traffic to the Great Viaduct. This river-it might be the upper Dob, but its waters are so thick with white mud that I doubt it. The Dob flows crystal clear from the Collum Range and is the main water source for Brandoba. It has never been muddy, not even during the heaviest rains."

"Perhaps," Anigel said, "my trillium-amber will point the way for us." She took hold of the pendant and studied it with eyes strained by fatigue. "Holy Flower, in which direction may we find a safe refuge?"

The amber continued to glow, but no magical directing spark appeared within it. "It's not working. Perhaps my life is not sufficiently endangered."

"Or perhaps," Jiri said softly, "there is no safe place for us hereabouts. Ask your amulet if we should stop or continue on."

Anigel did so, only to cry out in dismay when the amulet flared to a blinding brightness, then as suddenly went dull. "There's something wrong-" All around them, the singing of the forest birds became a discordant screech. Gyorgibo, the only one still in the saddle, rose in his stirrups with a rusty sword drawn, peering anxiously down the trail that bordered the river. But the attack, when it came, was from a different direction. A cloud of innumerable tiny feathered creatures, bright blue and green and yellow, exploded out of the thick undergrowth and began to whirl crazily about the heads of the shocked rulers, darting into their faces and battering their bodies with buzzing wings. Raviya gave a thin scream and several of the men howled curses. The terrified fronials reared and slashed the air with their hooves. Then those without riders fled back across the river while Gyorgibo used all his strength to keep from being thrown. Everyone tried to shield exposed flesh from the sharp beaks, pulling cloaks over heads and waving arms in a futile attempt to drive the small birds off.

"Enough!" a stentorian voice commanded.

The storm of flyers disappeared as quickly as it had come.

Anigel peered out from beneath her cloak and saw two ghastly apparitions a scant stone's throw away down the trail. They were enormous long-necked birds with ma.s.sive scaled legs, bigger than any voors she had ever seen. Their bodies were dark blue, their toothed beaks gaped wide, and their eyes blazed like hot coals. Seated on their backs were sorcerers attired in silver-and-black Star Guild regalia, steel cuira.s.ses, and impressive helmets with starry diadems.

One of the riders came forward, drawing from a scabbard a weapon of the Vanished Ones. "Gyorgibo of Nambit! Dismount and yield to me!"

Anigel recognized the voice, and also the red hair streaming from beneath the sorceress's helm. It was Naelore.

The Archduke's grimy features contorted with hatred. Instead of surrendering to the Star Woman he spurred his fronial and charged her at a gallop, sword poised to strike. She lifted her weapon and there was a sudden golden flash and a peculiar loud chirping sound. Gyorgibo's mount screamed and crashed onto the trail, legs sprawling and antlers broken, and lay there keening piteously. He himself was flung from the saddle, rolling head over heels and fetching up in an unconscious heap at the base of a great nest-tree.

"Would anyone else care to fight?" Tazor brought his nyar up to Naelore's and pointed his own strange weapon at the wounded fronial. A scarlet beam shone forth, striking the animal between the eyes and killing it instantly.

"We submit!" President Hakit Botal cried, raising his hands. "Spare us!"

Ga-Bondies fell to his knees, whimpering, also with hands up. Prigo stood wide-eyed, still partially shrouded in his cape. Prince Widd, King Ledavardis, and Queen Jiri, who had tried to protect the Eternal Princess from the onslaught of the frenzied little birds, crouched beside Raviya's supine form and glared at the sorcerers. Anigel ignored the nyars and their formidable riders, went to Gyorgibo, and bent over his body in concern.

"Leave him!" Naelore commanded. She swung down from her bird's back, leaving it motionless, and strode toward the Queen.

"Your brother has struck his head," Anigel said calmly, "but he seems to be recovering his wits. Let me-"

"Silence! Come here."

Anigel rose with dignity and approached the Star Woman, who pointed the ancient weapon at her.

"That's far enough," Naelore commanded. "Remove your amber amulet and

place it on the ground between us."

"No," said Anigel. "Though you slay me where I stand, I shall not take off my Black Trillium."

"Then prepare to die, stupid s.l.u.t!"

"Imperial Highness!" Tazor dismounted and approached. His nyar also stood

frozen in place. "I have a suggestion."

"Speak," the sorceress said.

"We hold two Duumviri of Imlit in our power, but only one hostage is needed to

insure that nation's compliance." Tazor hoisted his weapon and took hold of Ga- Bondies by the collar. "Perhaps if I slice an arm from the elderly one-"

"No!" shrieked the cowering Duumvir. "Have mercy!"

"-Queen Anigel would reconsider her disobedience."

"Do it," said Naelore.

Ga-Bondies burst into hysterical tears. Anigel immediately lifted the amber on its chain from around her neck and laid it in the mud of the riverbank. The Star

Woman now wore a smile of poisonous satisfaction. She aimed her weapon at the amber, and there was a blaze of yellow light; but the amulet remained unharmed.

Naelore spat out a curse of vexation. "Tazor! See if you can destroy this thing."

His deadly scarlet beam was no more effective than the golden blast had been. "Highness, the Black Trillium's magic renders it invulnerable. But I have another idea." He took the old sword that Gyorgibo had dropped and used it to pick up the amulet by its chain. Although the sword at once grew hot, he was able to fling the amber overhand into the dense woods. Tazor dropped the smoking sword and grinned. "Let the wild beasts puzzle over the magical amulet on dark nights."

Naelore threw back her head and laughed. She seized Anigel painfully by her shoulder and pushed her toward a nyar. "Tazor, help her up onto my bird. She will ride pillion as I hasten to the staging area, while you deal with these worthies."

"The foul sorcerer will kill us all!" Ga-Bondies wailed.

Naelore regarded the stout Duumvir with distaste. "We have other plans for you, quiver-guts. Only this witch-queen is needed by the Star Master, to insure that her son surrenders his talisman."

Anigel stiffened in the arms of the former steward. Her breath caught in her throat. "My son? Which son are you talking about?"