As they returned to the others, Galain said to Arutha, ‘There is a camp athwart the road a mile above here. They are clever, for it is a difficult passage around the camp, and we would need to leave your horses here. It is that or ride through the camp.’
‘How far to the lake is it?’ asked the Prince.
‘Only a few miles. But once past the camp we rise above the tree line and there is little cover, save down among the rocks. It will be a slow passage, and better done at night. There are bound to be scouts around and many guards on the road to the bridge.’
‘What about the second entrance the gwali told of?’
‘If we understood rightly, by descending down into the Tracks of the Hopeless, you’ll find a cave or fissure that will lead through the rock up to the surface of the plateau near the lake.’
Arutha considered. ‘Let us leave our mounts here …’
Laurie said, with a faint smile, ‘Might as well tether the horses to the trees. If we die, we won’t need them.’
Roald said, ‘My old captain used to get downright short with soldiers who harped on death before a battle.’
‘Enough!’ said Arutha. He took a step away, then turned. ‘I’ve been worrying this over and over. I’ve come this far and I’ll continue, but … you may leave now if you wish, and I’ll not object.’ He looked at Laurie and Jimmy, then Baru and Roald. He was answered by silence.
Arutha looked from face to face, then nodded brusquely. ‘Very well. Tie up the horses and lighten your packs. We walk.’
The moredhel watched the trail below, well lit by large and middle moons, as little moon rose. He perched atop an outcropping of rock, nestled behind a boulder. He was positioned so he would be unobserved by any coming up the trail.
Martin and Galain took aim at the moredhel’s back as Jimmy slipped behind the rocks. They would try to win past without being seen, but if the moredhel twitched in the wrong direction, Martin and Galain meant to see him dead before he could speak. Jimmy had gone first, as he was judged the least likely to make noise. Next came Baru, and the hillman moved through the rocks with the practised ease of one mountain-born. Laurie and Roald moved very slowly, and Martin wondered if he could hold his target for the week it was taking them to pass. Then at last Arutha slipped past, the light breeze making enough noise to disguise the faint scuff of boot upon rock as he stepped down into a shallow depression. He scampered along until he joined with the others, out of sight of the sentry. Within seconds Martin, then Galain, followed, and the elf went past to take point again.
Baru signalled he would go after, and Arutha motioned agreement. In a moment Laurie and Roald followed. Just before he turned to follow, Jimmy put his face before Martin and Arutha’s and whispered, ‘When we get back, the first thing I’m going to do is scream my bloody head off.’
With a playful swat, Martin sent him along. Arutha looked at Martin and silently mouthed the words, ‘Me too.’ Then the Prince was going down the wash. Martin took a last backwards glance, then followed.
Silently they lay in a depression near the road, a small ridge of rock hiding them from the passing moredhel horsemen. Reluctant even to breathe, they remained motionless as the riders seemed to pause in their slow passage. For a long, torturous moment, Arutha and his companions feared discovery. Just as every nerve seemed to scream for action, as every muscle demanded motion, the riders continued along their patrol. With a sigh of relief close to a sob, Arutha rolled over and discovered the trail empty. With a nod to Galain, Arutha ordered a resumption of the trek. The elf was off along the defile, and the others slowly rose and followed.
The night wind blew bitter along the face of the mountains. Arutha sat back against the rocks, looking where Martin pointed. Galain hugged the opposite wall of the crevice they crouched in. They had taken a rise over a crest to the east of the trail, seeming to take them away from their destination, but a necessary detour to avoid increasing moredhel activity. Now they looked down upon a broad canyon, in the middle of which a high plateau rose upwards. In the centre of the plateau a small lake could be seen. To their left they could see the trail returning as it ran past the edge of the canyon, then disappeared over the crest of the mountains farther up, clearly shown in the light of all three moons.
Where the trail came closest to the edge of the canyon, twin towers of stone had been erected. Another pair stood opposite on the plateau. Between them a narrow suspension bridge swayed in the wind. On top of all four towers torches burned, their flames dancing madly in the wind. Movement along the bridge and atop the towers told them the entire area around the plateau was heavily guarded. Arutha leant back against the rocks. ‘Moraelin.’
Galain said, ‘Indeed. It appears they feared you might bring an army with you.’
Martin said, ‘It was a thought.’
Arutha said, ‘You were right about its comparing to the road to Sarth. This would have been almost as bad. We’d have lost a thousand men reaching this point-if we could have got this far. Across the bridge, single file …? It would have been mass slaughter.’
Martin asked, ‘Can you see that black shape across the lake?’
‘A building of some sort,’ said Galain. He looked perplexed. ‘It is unusual to see a building, that building, any building, though the Valheru were capable of anything. This is a place of power. That must be a Valheru building, though I’ve never heard of its like before.’
‘Where shall I find Silverthorn?’ asked Arutha.
Galain said, ‘Most of the stories say it needs water, so it grows on the edge of the lake. Nothing more specific.’
Martin said, ‘Now, as to gaining entrance.’
Galain signalled them away from the front end of the crevice, and they returned to where the others waited. The elf knelt and drew in the ground. ‘We are here, with the bridge here. Somewhere down at the base is a small cave or large fissure, large enough for a gwali to run through, so I’d guess it would be big enough for you to crawl through. It might be a chimney in the rock you can climb up, or it might be connecting caves. But Apalla was emphatic that he and his people had spent some time on that plateau. They didn’t stay long because of the “bad thing,” but he remembered enough to convince Tomas and Calin he wasn’t confused about being here.
‘I’ve spotted a broken facing on the other side of the canyon, so we’ll work along past the bridge entrance until we have that black building between myself and the bridge guards. You’ll find what appears to be the start of a way down there. Even if you can only get a short way down, you can lower yourself with ropes. Then I’ll pull them up and hide them.’
Jimmy said, ‘That’ll be really handy when we want to climb back up.’
Galain said, ‘At sundown tomorrow I’ll lower the ropes again. I’ll leave them down until just before sunrise. Then I’ll pull them up again. I’ll lower them again the next night. I think I can stay hidden in the crack in the broken facing. I may have to scamper into the brush, but I’ll stay free of any moredhel who are looking about.’ He didn’t sound too convinced. ‘If you need the ropes sooner than that,’ he added with a smile, ‘simply shout.’
Martin looked at Arutha. ‘As long as they don’t know we’re here, we have a chance. They still look to the south, thinking us somewhere between Elvandar and here. As long as we don’t give ourselves away …’
Arutha said, ‘It’s as good a plan as I can come up with. Let’s go.’
Quickly, for they needed to be down in the canyon before sunrise, they moved among the rocks, seeking to reach the far side of the canyon rim.
Jimmy hugged the face of the plateau, hiding in the shadow below the bridge. The rim of the canyon was some hundred and fifty feet above them, but there was still a chance of being seen. A narrow black crack in the face of the plateau presented itself. Jimmy turned his head to Laurie and whispered, ‘Of course. It has to be right under the bridge.’
‘Let’s just hope they don’t bother to look down.’
Word wa
s passed back, and Jimmy entered the fissure. It was a tight squeeze for only ten feet, then opened into a cave. Turning back towards the others, he said, ‘Pass a torch and flint through.’
As he took them, he heard a movement behind him. He hissed a warning and spun, his dirk almost flying into his hand. The faint light coming from behind was more a hindrance than a help, for it caused most of the cave to be inky black to his eyes. Jimmy closed his eyes, relying on his other senses. He backed up and towards the crack, saying a silent prayer to the god of thieves.
From ahead he heard a scrabbling sound, like claws on rock, and heard a slow, heavy breathing. Then he remembered the gwali talking of a ‘bad thing’ that ate one of his tribe.
Again came the noise, this time much closer, and Jimmy wished fervently for a light. He moved to the right as he heard Laurie speak his name in a questioning tone. The boy hissed, ‘There’s some kind of animal in here.’
Jimmy could hear Laurie say something to the others and the scramble as the singer moved back, away from the cave entrance. Faintly he could hear someone, perhaps Roald, saying, ‘Martin’s coming.’
Holding on to the knife with fierce intensity, Jimmy thought to himself, yes, if it comes to fighting animals, I’d send in Martin, too. He expected the large Duke of Crydee to leap in beside him at any moment and wondered what was taking so long.
Then there was sudden movement towards the boy and he leapt back and up, instinctively, almost climbing a rock face. Something struck his lower leg, and he could hear the snapping of jaws. Jimmy turned in midair and, using his native abilities, tucked and rolled with the fall, coming down on something that wasn’t rock. Without hesitation, Jimmy lashed out with his dirk, feeling the point dig into something. He continued to roll off the back of the creature while a reptilian hiss and snarl filled the cave. The boy twisted as he came to his feet, pulling the dirk free. The creature spun, moving quickly, almost as quickly as Jimmy, who leapt away from the creature, blindly, and struck his head against a low-hanging outcropping of rock.
Stunned, Jimmy fell hard against the wall as the creature launched itself again, again missing by only a little. Jimmy, half stunned, reached out with his left hand and found his arm wrapping around the thing’s neck. Like the legendary man riding the tiger, Jimmy couldn’t release his hold, for the creature could not reach him as long as he held fast. Jimmy sat, letting the animal drag him around the cave, while he stabbed repeatedly at the leathery hide. With little leverage, his blows were mostly ineffective. The creature thrashed about, and Jimmy was battered against the rock walls and scraped as he was dragged about the cave. Jimmy felt panic rising up inside, for the animal seemed to be gaining in fury, and his arm felt as if it would be torn from his shoulder. Tears of fear ran down the boy’s cheeks, and he hammered at the creature in terror. ‘Martin,’ he half shouted, half gulped. Where was he? Jimmy felt with sudden certainty that he was at last at the end of his vaunted luck. For the first time he could remember, he felt helpless, for there was nothing he could do to extricate himself from this situation. He felt himself go sick to his stomach and numb all over and, with dread certainty, felt fear for his life: not the exhilarating thrill of danger during a chase across the Thieves’ Highway, but a horrible numbing sleepiness as if he wished to curl up in a ball and end it all.
The creature leapt about, banging Jimmy against the wall repeatedly, and suddenly was still. Jimmy continued to stab at it for a moment, then a voice said, ‘It’s dead.’
The still-woozy thief opened his eyes and saw Martin standing over him. Baru and Roald stood behind, the mercenary with a lit torch. Next to the boy lay a lizardlike creature, seven feet in length, looking like nothing as much as an iguana with a crocodile’s jaws, Martin’s hunting knife through the back of its skull. Martin knelt before Jimmy. ‘You all right?’
Jimmy scuttled away from the thing, still showing signs of panic. When it penetrated his fear-clouded senses that he was unhurt, the boy shook his head vigorously. ‘No, I’m not all right.’ He wiped away the tearstains on his face and said, ‘No, damn it all, I’m not.’ Then, with tears again coming, he said, ‘Damn it. I thought I …’
Arutha came through the fissure last and took stock of the boy’s condition. He moved next to the boy, who leant tearfully against the rock wall. Gently placing his hand upon Jimmy’s arm, he said, ‘It’s over. You’re all right.’
His voice betraying a mixture of anger and fear, Jimmy said, ‘I thought it had me. Damn, I’ve never been so scared in my life.’
Martin said, ‘If you’re going to be scared of something at long last, Jimmy, this beastie is a good choice. Look at the jaws on it.’
Jimmy shivered. Arutha said, ‘We all get scared, Jimmy. You’ve just finally found something to be truly fearful of.’
Jimmy nodded. ‘I hope it doesn’t have a big brother about.’
Arutha said, ‘Did you sustain any wounds?’
Jimmy took a quick inventory. ‘Just bruises.’ Then he winced. ‘A lot of bruises.’
Baru said, ‘A rock serpent. Good-sized one. You did well killing it with that knife, Lord Martin.’
In the light the creature looked respectable, but nothing near the horror Jimmy had imagined in the dark. ‘That’s the “bad thing”?’
Martin said, ‘Most likely. As bad as it looked to you, imagine what it looks like to a three-foot-tall gwali.’ He held up his torch as Laurie and Arutha entered. ‘Let’s see what this place is like.’
They were in a narrow but high-ceilinged chamber, mostly limestone, from its look. The floor climbed slightly as it moved away from the fissure that led outside.
Jimmy appeared ragged, but went to the fore, taking Martin’s torch and saying, ‘I’m still the expert at climbing into places I’m not welcome.’
They moved quickly through a series of chambers, each slightly larger and located higher up than the others. The connecting chambers had an odd appearance and strange feel to them, somehow disquieting. The plateau was large enough for them to move for some time without much sense of moving upwards, until Jimmy said, ‘We move in a spiral. I’ll swear we’re now above the place where Martin killed that rock serpent.’
They continued their progress until they came to an apparent dead end. Looking about, Jimmy pointed upwards. Above their heads by three feet was an opening in the roof. ‘A chimney,’ said Jimmy. ‘You climb up by putting your back to one side and feet to the other.’
‘What if it widens too much?’ asked Laurie.
‘Then it’s usual to come back down. The rate of descent is up to you. I suggest you do it slowly.’
Martin said, ‘If the gwali can get up there, we should be able.’
Roald said, ‘Beggin’ Your Grace’s pardon, but do you think you could swing through the trees like them, too?’
Ignoring the remark, Martin said, ‘Jimmy?’
‘Yes, I’ll go first. I’ll not end my days because one of you lost his grip and fell on me. Keep clear of the opening until I call down.’
With assistance from Martin, Jimmy easily made it into the chimney. It was a good fit, with just enough room to negotiate easily. The others, especially Martin and Baru, would find it a tight fit, but they would squeeze through. Jimmy quickly made it to the top, about thirty feet from the chamber below, and found another cave. Without light he couldn’t tell its size, but faint echoes of his breathing told him it was a good size. He lowered himself down just far enough to call the come ahead, then scrambled up to the lip.
By the time the first head, Roald’s, popped into view, Jimmy had a torch lit. Quickly they all climbed up the chimney. The cave was large, easily two hundred feet across. The roof averaged a full twenty-five feet high. Stalagmites rose from the floor, some joining together with the stalactites above to form limestone pillars. The cave was a forest of stone. In the distance several other caves and passages could be seen.
Martin looked about. ‘How high do you judge we’ve climbed, Jimmy?’
&nb
sp; ‘No more than seventy feet. Not yet halfway.’
‘Now which way?’ asked Arutha.
Jimmy said, ‘Nothing for it except to try them one at a time.’
Picking one of the many exits, he marched towards it.
After hours of searching, Jimmy turned to Laurie and said, ‘The surface.’
Word was passed and Arutha squeezed up past the singer to look. Above the boy’s head was a narrow passage, little more than a crack. Arutha could see light above, almost blinding after the faintly lit passages. With a nod, Jimmy climbed up until he blocked out the brilliance above.
When he returned, he said, ‘It comes out in an outcropping of rocks. We’re about a hundred yards from the bridge side of the black building. It’s a big thing, two storeys tall.’
‘Any guards?’
‘None I could see.’
Arutha considered, then said, ‘We’ll wait until dark. Jimmy, can you hang close to the surface and listen?’
‘There’s a ledge,’ said the boy and scrambled back upwards.
Arutha sat and the others did likewise, waiting for darkness to come.
Jimmy tensed and relaxed muscles to avoid cramping. The top of the plateau was deathly silent, except for an occasional sound carried by the wind. Mostly he heard a stray word or the sounds of boots coming from the direction of the bridge. Once he thought he heard a strange, low sound coming from the black building, but he couldn’t be certain. The sun had dipped beneath the horizon, although the sky still glowed. It was certainly two hours after normal suppertime, but this high on the face of the mountains, this close to Midsummer, and this far north, the sun set long after it did in Krondor. Jimmy reminded himself that he had worked jobs before where he’d had to skip meals, but somehow that didn’t stop his stomach from demanding attention.
At last it was dark enough. Jimmy, for one, was glad, and it seemed the others shared his feelings. Something about this place brought them to the edge of outright agitation. Even Martin had several times been heard muttering curses at the need to wait. No, there was something alien about this place, and it was a subtle sort of effect they were feeling. Jimmy knew he wouldn’t feel secure again until this place was miles behind him and a dim memory.