“Bolt,” she whispered as she looked away, and Antoinette thought she struggled mightily to master her emotions. When Queen Illaria looked back, it was clear that she had lost the battle. Her face was drawn and her eyes were weary and without focus.
“I am stricken!” she cried. “Stricken!! Bolt has fallen? Alas, that Yewland should lose one so noble and I . . . one so beloved.”
Nock’s eyes widened.
“Yes, Nock,” the Queen continued softly. “You knew he was my friend, even from our youth. But there was something more . . . a kindred spirit between us. And I thought—I hoped—ere he departed for Alleble that he might ask my hand. Hard was that parting on us both. Many sunlit days were dimmed as I sat upon my throne wondering if he would return. It is some comfort, Nock, to look upon you—his very likeness. I am sorry. Sorry for us both.”
Once again, the room filled with murmurs.
She looked about and regained her composure. Her expression seemed to harden then, and her eyes narrowed. “Silence!” the Queen commanded, though her voice faltered. “There will be time for grief, but we must keep clear our minds if we are to decide rightly in this matter. You say that Paragor’s forces were responsible—that Paragory is now at open war with Alleble?”
Sir Gabriel answered, “Your Majesty, Paragory is at open war with all in The Realm who will not surrender to their rule!”
“But they have sent emissaries here,” she said. “And they have brought us much commerce and token gifts of friendship! Just recently, we allowed four legions of Paragor’s forces to travel the Forest Road on the way to Baen-Edge! I believe there is even yet a rank of Paragor soldiers in the Kismet purchasing supplies.”
“It is this force that delayed our arrival here,” said Nock. “We diverted through the Blackwood to try to get here ahead of them. I at least feared that they would attempt to conquer Yewland!”
“Conquer us?” the Queen exclaimed. “Four legions are not nearly enough to defeat us in the wood.”
“That may be so,” said Nock. “But Paragor’s armies are much more powerful now than in the past. And they grow bolder and more wanton in their arrogance. I reveal now with great regret Paragor’s crime against Yewland! As we traveled through the Blackwood, we followed the trail of a rank of soldiers to the Arch of Reverence . . .” Nock’s voice failed. He cleared his throat and continued. “We entered and alas, found Sil Arnoth, the Ancient One, has been laid low! He has been cut down and his trunk charred. I read his rings myself . . . Paragor was his murderer!”
“Outrage!” cried Baldergrim. The other Yewland Braves tore at their garments. Walking unsteadily, the Queen came down from her throne. She stood before the twelve and looked from Glimpse to Glimpse.
“Bolt was a noble knight. His death at the hands of Paragor is enough to turn me against Paragory forever,” said Queen Illaria, her chest heaving as she spoke. “But with this greatest crime against the Ancient One, it is enough to turn all of Yewland against Paragor.”
“I am afraid we must prepare for the worst. Baldergrim, send fifty of your band. Go into the Blackwood and search for clues. Return to me with word at all speed. And, Baldergrim, do not allow any of Paragor’s legions into Yewland.”
“Aye, my Queen!” he replied. Baldergrim put his hand briefly on Nock’s shoulder and then was gone.
“Your Majesty,” Kaliam said, “if there are soldiers from Paragory still within Yewland’s borders . . .”
The Queen’s eyes narrowed and she nodded. “King Eliam chose you well, Sentinel! Yes, something must be done about that. Boldoak!” she cried out, and suddenly, a Yewland Brave was at her side. He held a long Blackwood bow in a death grip and had a scar on his cheek.
“They will not leave Yewland alive,” he said in a coarse, deep voice.
“By your leave,” said Kaliam, “may I take some from my team to assist Boldoak? We have some experience in battling the Knights of Paragor.”
“You may indeed,” she replied. “Boldoak, see to it that Kaliam’s warriors are equipped with anything they need. And give Nock enough Blackwood shafts to litter the streets of Kismet with the enemy. Be swift!”
Kaliam bowed to the Queen, then said, “Sir Gabriel, Lady Merewen, and Sir Tobias, remain with the Queen until Baldergrim returns.”
29
TREETOP HOPPING
Minutes later, Boldoak and nine Knights of Alleble exited the sky carriage and raced across a long suspended bridge to a cluster of barracks nested in a vast elm. Boldoak loosed a blast on his war horn. In moments, they were surrounded by a host of archers.
“My braves!” Boldoak cried. “The Paragor Knights have outlived their welcome here!” The braves cheered. “We have the Queen’s orders to capture any Paragor Knight who lingers, but we should begin with those in Kismet. And if they will not surrender . . . then we will do what must be done! Quickly, prepare yourselves and break out the glides! We need all speed!”
The braves scattered to the barracks and returned with supplies, weapons, and strange-looking devices. To each of the Knights of Alleble they gave one of the devices. Antoinette stared at the contraption in her hands. It was a large slotted wheel threaded onto an axle. There were handles on either end of the axle.
The archers raced off across a bridge to another platform on a neighboring elm tree. Kaliam and the others raced after them. At the end of the next platform a single cable of rope was fastened to an elm branch about head high. The rope gradually descended to another flat in the trees several hundred yards away. Boldoak slung his glide over the cable so that it fit in the slot of the wheel. He grabbed the other handle with his free hand, checked to make sure the wheel rolled atop the rope, and then he was gone, hurtling down the rope. One after another, the braves whooshed away. At last, the brave who had handed Antoinette her glide came over to her. “Get a tight fit, wheel to rope,” he said. “Step off of the platform, and hold on tight!”
Then he too sped down the rope. Nock jumped on next, followed by Kaliam, Farix, and Tal. Antoinette turned to Aelic. “This is like a Zip Line!” she said.
“A Zip Line?” he echoed. But Antoinette didn’t answer. She lobbed her glide over the cable, grabbed the handles, and stepped off the platform. She lifted her legs so that her body was in an “L” shape and flew down the rope. The angle of the cable became shallower at the bottom. Antoinette’s momentum slowed, and she cruised to a soft stop on the platform below.
“That was fun!” she said to Aelic and Mallik when they arrived seconds later.
“Agreed,” said Aelic. Mallik said nothing, but his pale face seemed rather green.
Nearby, a Yewland Brave was speaking to Boldoak and Kaliam. “Yes, surprised to see him, I was,” he said. “The Queen’s personal guards do not usually come ’ere themselves. They send squires, most times.”
“How far ahead of us was he?” asked Boldoak.
“Perhaps five minutes,” the brave replied. “No more ’n that.”
Boldoak turned to the others. “That is disconcerting news,” he said, absently rubbing the scar on his cheek. “One of Queen Illaria’s personal guards arrived here moments ago. He was headed in the direction of Kismet.”
“A spy of the enemy?” Kaliam asked.
“If he is, he will no doubt warn the Paragor Knights who remain in Kismet! Make haste!” Boldoak yelled to his braves. “There is something wicked afoot! I will lead us, braves! And to those from Alleble: Watch your step. It is a long way down!”
“How far is Kismet from here?” Antoinette asked Nock.
“About a league and a half,” he replied. Then they were off. The journey to Kismet was the most complicated and harrowing venture Antoinette had experienced thus far. The nine from Alleble followed the Yewland Braves from platform to platform, from tree to tree. They climbed and descended stairs, glided across gaping chasms between skyscraping trees, and marched across dozens of bridges—all at top speed. At last they came to a wide-turreted platform, high in a wide oak that grew on
the edge of a grassy cliff.
Boldoak led them to the eastern edge of the platform and pointed down. Carriages ran along the cables from the platform to the small town far below. “That is Kismet,” he said. “The spy—if that is what he is—has already passed over the Allure.” He pointed to a railed walkway that was attached to the side of the platform. It zigzagged between platforms until finally ending at a castle tower in Kismet.
“Hurry, now!” Boldoak said, and he cast his glide to the ground and sprinted to the walkway. “Follow me on the Allure! Be swift!”
“But wait!” Antoinette called. Boldoak and most of the others were already gone, but Aelic was with her, and a few of the Yewland Braves turned around. “Why do you delay?” one asked.
“That way,” she said, pointing to the Allure. “That’ll take too long! The Paragor Knights will get away!” She looked over to the cables running steeply down from the platform. “What if we use the glides on those?”
“Are you mad?” one of the braves asked, staring at Antoinette. “Those cables are for the heavy wheels of the carriages. And the angle is far too steep. You would smack into a carriage or crash at the bottom! Come on! We must go!”
The braves ran off, leaving Antoinette and Aelic on the platform. “They’ll never get there in time,” she said to Aelic.
“You are not thinking of—”
“I’m going!”
“But, m’lady! You heard what they said!”
Antoinette swung her glide over the cable, winked at Aelic, and plunged over the edge.
“I am going to regret this,” Aelic said, and he followed her.
The glide worked well on the cable. Too well. She raced down the cable faster than she ever dreamed possible. The distant ground sped by beneath her in a blur, the wind blasted her face, and her arms strained to hold on to the handles of the glide. She stole a glance back over her shoulder and saw a dark blur that she took to be Aelic.
When Antoinette turned back, a carriage loomed on the cable ahead. It seemed to be flying toward her. She had to act fast or she would smash into the carriage at seventy miles an hour! She looked down, but the ground was still too far to simply let go. Then, as she sped toward the carriage, she had a thought. “Aelic!!” she yelled, hoping he could hear her. “Watch me!!”
There was no response. Antoinette dropped her legs out of the L position and let the air blow her now-vertical body backward so that she swung up toward the cable. Then she bent back into the L and pumped herself forward. Not enough!
The carriage zoomed closer. She repeated the swinging motion, pumping herself as fast as she could. The wind fought to still her speed. She swung back and then forward again—a little higher this time. Maybe! Again, she swung back and forth. I need to get higher! King Eliam! She swung back one more time and heaved herself forward with all of her might, all the while thinking it would not be enough. But she had no choice! The carriage sped toward her.
Antoinette swung forward and just as the momentum carried her body up, she let go of the glide with one hand. She felt the whoosh of the carriage go beneath her, and she started to fall. The cable rose up suddenly beside her. She grappled awkwardly and twisted the glide on to the cable and then barely managed to grab the other handle with her free hand. The wheel did not seat correctly at first on the cable, and Antoinette tugged and twisted it. And then, a strange thing happened.
As she twisted the glide, it created friction. The rubbing of the wheel’s edges slowed her descent considerably and WHAMMM!!
Aelic slammed into her from behind. The impact knocked the wind out of both of them. Antoinette lost hold of her glide and started to fall. She grasped frantically. Her glide fell, smacked against her thigh, and disappeared. Aelic let go of one of his glide’s handles and grabbed Antoinette’s collar.
“Get the handle!” he yelled as he felt his glide begin to tilt to the side of the cable. Antoinette reached up, and with Aelic’s boosting, grabbed the free handle of Aelic’s glide.
Each holding on to one handle of the glide for dear life, they sailed down the cable the last three hundred yards. The platform at the bottom was coming up fast. Too fast.
“Twist the glide!” Antoinette yelled. “It’ll slow us down!”
Antoinette and Aelic began swinging in opposite directions to twist the glide. They managed to turn it so that its rails burned against the cable. They slowed considerably, but not enough. Then, fifty yards from the platform, they heard the sharp sound of cracking wood. A quick glance up confirmed their fears: the glide’s wooden wheel had split. As pieces of the wheel flew into the air, Antoinette and Aelic plummeted downward.
30
TO HONOR
OLD ALLIANCES
SPLASH!!! Antoinette and Aelic plunged into the large pond at the base of the Kismet platform. Antoinette surfaced first with a splutter. “Aelic! Aelic, where are you!”
“Right behind you!” he said. “And the next time you have a splendid idea like that one, remind me not to follow you!”
Antoinette laughed and swam to the shore. “Deal,” she said. “Those glides weren’t made from blackwood, were they?”
“No, unfortunately, they were not.”
Emerging from the water, Aelic drew Fury from its sheath. “Let us see if your shortcut was worth the risk! Stay behind me, and keep your head down. We do not wish to draw any attention to your darker skin.”
Antoinette and Aelic sloshed up the hill and found themselves behind a blacksmithy. A very large Glimpse with enormous forearms hammered away at a blade he had just pulled from his wood-burning furnace. He looked up, his bushy black eyebrows raised. “’Ere now, what are you doin’ back ’ere?”
“We are sorry to intrude, sir,” said Aelic. “But Her Majesty Queen Illaria sent us. Do you know if the Paragor Knights are still here in Kismet?”
“What, the red-eyes?” He snorted. “Yeah, they are here, unfortunately. Last I saw they were over at the Guild haggling over Blackwood bows.” He pointed beyond his shop at a little path between two cottages. “Say, you interested in a shield? I have some fine bucklers here at a very reasonable price!”
“Maybe another time!” Aelic called over his shoulder and ran up the path. With Antoinette close behind, Aelic darted between the two cottages. He turned the corner and smacked right into the back of a tall knight in black armor.
“Watch where you are going!” the knight growled, turning around. He squinted at Aelic and Antoinette through long, oily locks of dark hair, and his eyes glinted red. Antoinette looked left and right. They had run right into the middle of the knights from Paragory—only there were a lot more of them than Antoinette had expected would be there. At least a hundred warriors in dark armor were gathered there in the square before the Guild. Some were mounted upon black horses. Some were still loading their packs. There was no sign of the Yewland Braves or the Knights of Alleble.
Okay, Antoinette thought. Bad idea.
“Here now,” said the soldier they had slammed into. “Where might you be going in such a hurry?” Then his eyes narrowed. “You two are not Yewlanders. From Alleble by the design of your armor.”
“See, Master Scaliant, I told you!” whined a high-pitched voice. A Glimpse wearing the green-and-brown livery of Yewland’s Braves stepped out of the crowd. “I told you they was coming. She was with them. They both were! Please, let us depart for Baen-Edge!”
The tall warrior, the one called Scaliant, drew his sword and called, “Hoy, Lord Kearn, come take a look at what washed up on shore! A couple of wet rats—from Alleble, no less!”
A knight near the edge of the square leaped down from his horse and strode slowly toward them. Even from a distance, there was something much more menacing about this knight than any of the others. As he walked, only his flashing red eyes were visible from under the dark hood.
“Old Toby here says these are from Queen Illaria!” Scaliant said, laughing so that his armor rattled. “He says they were in Queen Illaria’s court! Ma
ybe these two have come to get us. What do you think of that, eh, m’lord?”
“That is not to be taken lightly, fool!” Kearn’s voice had a strange quietness that resonated like a tuning fork. “Do you not know our peril here?”
“I just did not think these two could be—”
“Shut your mouth,” said Kearn even more quietly, “or I will shut it for you so that it will not open again.” It sounded almost like a hiss. He turned to Antoinette and lowered his hood. She gasped. He had long blond hair that fell savagely about his shoulders and penetrating green eyes. They flashed red, and Kearn drew a long double-wide–bladed sword.
“How many are coming?” Kearn asked.
“Drop your weapons and surrender!” Aelic shouted. “You are no longer guests in Yewland!”
And this time Kearn did laugh, but it was distant and cold, as if he knew a dangerous secret but would not tell. “Tell me how many are coming, or I will gut you like a stag!”
Antoinette stood very still. Her sword slowly lowered until the tip of the blade stabbed the turf. Aelic jumped in front of her brandishing Fury. “Let fly one stroke,” said Aelic, “and it will be your last.”
Kearn stared for a moment at Fury, and then his eyes bored into Aelic’s. “Fool,” he seethed. “Do you not know who I am? I am Lord Kearn, left hand of the Master! I have the power to take you beyond the gates from whence none return!”
“Your master is not here,” Aelic said. He glanced back at Antoinette. She still did not move. “And Queen Illaria knows what Paragor did in the Blackwood. Your lives have been forfeited!”
“Liar,” Kearn said. “Scaliant, get the last of the blackwood loaded. Make haste, for we shall soon have other visitors.”
“What about these two?” Scaliant asked.
“See to the wood,” Kearn whispered. And suddenly he slashed forward, wide blade humming in the air. Aelic had just enough time to block, but the force of the blow knocked him backward into Antoinette.