Worldbinder Part 34

The Death Lord peered upward. A layer of clouds sealed the heavens, blocking even the starlight. Upon the mount, just four miles away, Luciare shone with intense brightness, lit by lesser spirits.

The Death Lord had far more than he needed in the way of armaments, men, and spells to take the castle. There would never be a better time for a bloodbath.

40.

A MEETING OF THE MINDS.

A mastiff is bred for battle. The spinner dog is bred to turn a wheel. The beagle is bred to hunt rabbits and foxes. But what was I bred for?Reason tells me that I have no purpose in life-that I am only the byproduct of my father's l.u.s.t and my mother's want for affection.But my heart whispers that I am free to choose my own purpose and to create my own destiny.

-Alun Horns blared throughout Luciare, clear horns as piercing as the cold of a mid-winter's night, horns that told a tale of wyrmlings toiling up the slopes of the mountain.

Alun raced down the hallways to the lower levels. As he did, he heard shouts. "Warlord Madoc has returned! He stopped the wyrmlings at Cantular!"

Alun could hardly believe the good news.

The city was shut. Huge slabs of rock had been brought to seal every portico, every window. Through the hard work of thousands, the city's defenses had been repaired in only a day. From outside, the stones fit so cleanly that it would be hard even to tell where the openings had been.

Inside the castle, light and life were everywhere. Children had been put to work lighting extra thumb-lanterns and placing them in the lower corridors where the wyrmlings would first enter. The stark white walls reflected the light, making the halls almost as light as day.

Flowers were strewn upon the floor, fresh leaves of rose and lavender and pennyroyal, so that a sweet scent filled the city. With each step, Alun perfumed the halls, and seeds were strewn beside the flowers-poppy and bean, wheat and rye.

It made the footing all that more treacherous.

Alun gained the lowest levels and had to fight his way past warriors in order to reach the portal.

Outside Warlord Madoc and his sons could be seen marching up the city streets now, capes flapping behind them, faces grim, only moments ahead of the wyrmling hordes. Crowds of warriors cheered them as triumphant heroes. Alun could see the wyrmlings racing up the mountain road, just moments behind, but Madoc was safely within the city walls.

Last of all among the returning heroes, came the Emir of Dalharristan, head lowered in humility. There were so few troops returning, Alun saw, that this could not really be celebrated as a victory.

"Ten thousand wyrmlings they slew!" someone shouted. "They died on the bridge of Cantular."

Madoc trudged up to the main gate and made to pa.s.s Alun. "Milord," Alun begged, "if I may have a moment?"

Madoc glared. "Is it important?"

"I have news that you should hear," Alun suggested, "before you see the king."

Madoc considered a moment, as if nothing that Alun could say would be more urgent than his own report to the king. Then he grabbed Alun by the sleeve and ushered him from the hall into the first living chamber that they reached. It had been a stately room for some merchant who did not want to travel far to get into the city. It was s.p.a.cious and elegantly appointed. Now it was empty, the valuables hastily removed, the merchant having fled to higher-and presumably safer-quarters.

"What is so important?" Madoc demanded as he closed the door.

"High King Urstone tried to exchange Princess Kan-hazur for his son, and the wyrmlings cheated him. They took the princess, and gave nothing in return."

"The king was a fool," Madoc said. "Still, we can take comfort in one thing-the princess will not live out the week."

"What do you mean?"

Madoc smiled. "My men have been poisoning her food with shavings of red-wort root for years. It will not harm her until she stops eating it."

Alun considered. He wasn't sure that his people could survive the night. But if they did, what would happen once Emperor Zul-torac discovered this act of treachery?

He'll hunt us down to the very last woman and child, Alun thought. Between Urstone's folly and Madoc's treachery, we are doomed.

What had Daylan said? Hadn't he said that there was but a hair's difference between the wyrmlings and mankind? Madoc seemed little better than Zul-torac at that moment.

So much evil in the world comes upon us from poor leaders, Alun thought. Why was it my fate to be caught between these two?

We suffer them, he realized. We, the people, suffer them. We forgive their stupidity and their small-mindedness. We follow them into battles that should not be. We accept their flattery and petty bribes-when we would be better off to sweep them away, like flies from our dinner table.

"So," Madoc said. "What do the people think of this debacle?"

Alun tried to think fast. He wasn't sure that he wanted to support Warlord Madoc anymore. But Alun had the habit of telling the truth, and it came easiest to his lips. "There are many who blame him for this attack, saying that he sold his kingdom for a dream. There are those who believe he should be removed from the throne!"

The words of treason came to his tongue, yet his heart was not in it. He almost felt as if he stood outside himself, listening to someone else speak.

"Are any of his own warriors saying it?" Madoc asked.

"Some," Alun admitted. "Still, the king has strong supporters, and there are those that love him. It would be foolish to come out openly against him.

"There is something more," Alun said. "The king has shown favor to Fallion Orden, the wizard who merged our two worlds. He plans to do it again, binding many worlds into one. If he does, many people, folks like me who had no shadow self upon the other world, will simply die."

Madoc seemed to consider this for a long moment.

"Our young wizard must also be stopped," Madoc said. Madoc looked thoughtful. Alun could see plans of murder circling in his skull. He looked hopefully at Alun, as if wondering if Alun could be trusted to do the wizard, but then thought better of it. He smiled at Alun, a rea.s.suring smile, the smile of a killer who meant to do his business.

"You have done well, my friend. When my kingdom comes, you will have a high place among my counselors."

At the sudden blare of trumpets, Madoc whirled and left the room.

Alun felt sure that he didn't want to see Madoc reign. The people needed someone of greater wisdom and compa.s.sion. But Alun could use the man. He could make Madoc a tool, use him to get rid of Fallion Orden.

But it wasn't Fallion that Alun was worried about at the moment. It wasn't even Warlord Madoc or King Urstone. No, there was a far more pressing danger. Outside, distant cries and the crashing of weapons against shields announced the advance of the wyrmling horde.

41.

THE BATTLE FOR THE OUTER WALL.

A warrior's life depends upon his ability to read the enemy, to know what he will do before he even tries.

-Sir Borenson Fallion suspected that it was only two hours before dawn as he and Jaz winged back to Caer Luciare. The air felt chill and heavy, as it does in the hours before dawn.

Fallion studied the castle's defenses from the air.

Luciare climbed the mountain in steps, houses built on terraces that bordered a winding road. Two walls protected the city-a lower wall that surrounded the market, and an upper wall to defend the warrens. Both walls had moats filled with water that cascaded down from the mountain's heights.

The lower walls were well defended. It looked as if every able-bodied man and woman in the city had turned out.

Fallion spotted Rhianna above the upper wall, standing on the broad terrace, looking about as if unsure what to do.

Fallion swooped and landed beside her, found himself hitting ground so fast he tripped and fell headlong.

Jaz whooped with laughter and touched down beside him, managing to be only slightly less graceless.

Rhianna studied the wings, tried to hide a twinge of jealousy. Then turned and peered down over the hills. The wyrmlings were coming through the trees, banging weapons and singing.

"Have you seen Talon?" Fallion asked.

Rhianna shook her head no. "She's been gone all night. I think she might be down on the lower wall. Where do you want to fight?"

"The closer we get, the better the view," Fallion said. "But with an unfamiliar enemy, that might be dangerous."

"You've been training with weapons all of your life," Rhianna said. "I doubt they have any tricks they can teach you."

"Yes," Jaz teased. "He's been training all of his short short life." life."

Fallion felt nervous. He could feel the electric thrill in the air that comes before battle. Yes, he'd trained all of his life, but not to fight against giants that outweighed him by three hundred pounds. "All right, I'd like a front-row seat, if it's okay with you."

"I've always wanted to get front-row seats to something," Rhianna teased uneasily. "I'm just not sure if this is the best time start demanding them."

Jaz asked, "So, how long do you think it will take before the wyrmlings bow to our superior skills?"

"Oh," Fallion said, "they look like slow learners. I bet it will take them hours."

"Good," Jaz said. "We should all have quite a pile of dead at our feet before they catch on."

"Let us hope," Rhianna said, as they strode down the winding road to the lower levels.

Thousands of human warriors crowded atop the lower wall as the wyrmlings marched on the castle. But breaching the wall would not be easy. Luciare was no minor fortress. The lower wall rose eighty feet. Moreover, it was carved from living rock and thus had no seams, save the cracks made by frozen water over the eons. Even a kezziard could not climb it.

Fallion raced down the city streets to the outer wall, and stood upon the precipice, peering down. Clouds had wandered in overnight, sealing the skies, releasing a cool rain in some places, a slight mist that had abated only moments ago. A wayward breeze blew down the mountainside, mussing Fallion's hair, buffeting his wings.

Out in the darkness, under the cover of trees, he could make out wyrmlings stirring in the shadows. But none dared the road, and he could not see what they were up to.

Young boys stood upon the walls, torch-bearers.

Fallion drew light from the nearest torches, sent it snaking down the hill under the woods, where it lingered among the fallen leaves beneath the trees.

Suddenly the outlines of the wyrmlings appeared.

The wyrmlings had brought enormous drums unlike anything that Fallion had ever seen-black drums, made from hollowed baobab trees. Each drum was at least forty feet long and was lugged by dozens of wyrmlings. One end of each log was covered in some dark hide, while the other end opened with a narrow hole.

The wyrmlings stayed afar off, about a quarter of a mile, and wrestled the drums, aiming the holes toward the city wall.

Upon the wall, the human defenders hunched low and braced themselves. There were cries of awe, and Fallion saw defenders counting in their own crude tongue. He estimated fifty drums in the woods, and the defenders seemed dismayed.

What are our people so afraid of? Fallion wondered.

Then huge wyrmlings with enormous clubs began to pound.

The first drum snarled and boomed, as if to hurl a curse. The drum exuded a percussive force like a physical blow that lifted Fallion from his feet, and set his very bones to aching.

"Ah!" Jaz cried. Fallion looked up to see him wiping blood from his nose.

The wall beneath them cracked. Stone shattered and rained down from the ledge.

"What makes them so powerful?" Fallion wondered aloud, for he had never seen such terrors. His very skin seemed to ache with the roll of the thunder drum.

"Spells," Rhianna guessed. "Some type of rune of the air?"

Fallion wished that Talon were here so that he could ask her of the lore, but he had not seen her all night.

A second drum called out in a tone higher than the first, and did far less damage. The wyrmlings struggled with it, loosening the lid of the drum, and then a third called out, slightly deeper than the first.

"They're looking for just the right pitch," Rhianna guessed, "to break this stone."

"Or my bones," Jaz proclaimed.

Four or five more drums rang out experimentally, until the wyrmlings found the pitch they wanted.

Suddenly dozens of drums opened up. A wall of sound hit, blasting and thrumming, causing the mountain to shake as if it would collapse. Fallion had heard terrible thunderstorms in the summers back in Landesfallen, the thunder echoing from mountain to mountain. But this was fifty time worse. The air filled with snarls and booms, and the mountain shook mercilessly.

The wall beneath them cracked. Rubble began falling as the lip of the wall crumbled away. With each blast, the wyrmlings shifted their drums, taking aim at an unblemished portion of the wall.

Fallion had thought that the wyrmlings would take hours to breach this wall, but suddenly he realized that the lip was dropping at a rate of inches every moment. He could not have imagined the damage done with each blast. It was like striking soft stone with a mallet. The outer wall was crumbling, and with each crack, each indentation, it left an invitation for the kezziards' claws.

In mere moments, the walls eroded as if a millennium's worth of wind and ice had wrought upon them.

Fallion had imagined that it would be a long siege and that the humans might hold the outer wall all night. But the wall looked as if it might be breached in moments.

In dismay he realized that it had never been Luciare's strong walls that had protected the city. Nor was it the power of its fighting men. Only a single hostage had stood between mankind and destruction.

The emperor must prize her more than we ever guessed, Fallion thought.

Fallion felt for sources of heat, wondering if he might set the woods ablaze. There were torches at his back all along the wall. But a light rain had fallen earlier, little more than a mist.

At this distance, it was enough to foil even his strongest spells.