Iron Elf - A Race Reborn (Book 2) (33 page)

Olympia sighed. “We will rebuild, you know. We will go on with our mission. There are always other ways. There—” Her voice broke.

Finally she whispered, “The order is given.”

I walked to one corner and stamped twice, hard. I skipped to another corner and did a little dance. Then, still dancing, I shuffled back to the centre and finished with a hop.

They stared.

“It’s nice, dear,” Olympia said. “But when will you get started?”

“Aren’t you going to knock something down?” Father pointed at the most ornate pillar. “This thing, maybe?”

“No, that was it. Bringing down the pillars wouldn’t have done anything—they don’t even reach the ceiling.”

He walked up to a wall, walked up the wall, and crouched on the ceiling. He brushed aside his beard and frowned. “Why, so they don’t.”

“Please don’t do that,” Olympia said. “It makes me dizzy.”

“It’s a useful skill. Nobody ever looks up. The urge to drool on people…”

“The architect was paranoid,” I said. “Didn’t trust non-elves, or elves who didn’t share his branch of magic.”

“Her branch of magic,” Olympia said. Father almost fell of the ceiling. “A female wizard?” he said. “I’ve never heard of such a thing!”

She laughed. “Says the man who taught magic to his daughter. Why do you think we’re an order of nuns?”

“I never thought about it. I always believed nunneries were for ug—I mean I never thought about it.”

“Ugly, eh? Why don’t you say that to my face? Meerwen, are you sure it worked?”

There was a rumble. The floor dropped six inches. My father fell from the ceiling. “Oof!” he said as Olympia caught him. “My hero.”

Sand began pouring from holes in the walls. I’d never noticed them before. “Time to go,” I said.

“Indeed, time to go,” Father said. “Thataway!”

Olympia dropped him.

The dominoes were falling. The temple was shaking. Sand was getting into everything. Deep below caverns crumbled and lakes drained of their contents. Water mixed with molten rock to make steam and pressure. The air was thick with the stink of rotten eggs. The stench was like a punch in the nose. Outside, I knew, the moat was dry.

The ground cracked. The cracks grew. The ground dropped two feet and shattered, sending dust into the air. But the temple’s gray walls stood firm, and would do so a moment longer. The earth shuddered and jerked, and from the highest tower rolled the thunder of bells. The bells. They rang themselves. They called no-one to prayer—the temple was near-deserted and any nearby humans had long since fled. The bells tolled for nothing and for no one. It was the end.

Statues broke from their bases. Abbesses gone before, they caught upon the prayer banners and pulled them down. Yellow silk tore. Marble smashed. And the bells, the bells, the bells clangoured out of tune. Czeleborn met us on the way. We ran for the portal, which would serve one last time.

I glanced at a stained-glass window. It depicted a knight with a shield and it was a masterpiece. I was probably the last person to appreciate it. Olympia grabbed a rock and hurled it through the window. “I always wanted to do that!”

“Come on!” Czeleborn said. “Time time time!”

We made it to the portal. The bells. The brazen bells. They kept on swinging, kept on banging and battering. I was half out of my mind. “Is everyone here?” I asked. “Good. We have two minutes!”

“We’re staying!” Conrad said. “Our minds are made up.”

“Then go!” Olympia said. “Up the stairs. Out the front gate!”

The room shook again. Earth piled in the corners. A huge slab of door fell slowly across the entrance.

“I’m going with them,” Sandy said. “I know the nearest safe house.”

“Then go! Go!” Olympia was crying.

Borlog looked back. “I’ll keep them safe.”

And they were gone. It was five of us now. I glanced from Mina to Czeleborn, from Father to Olympia. She was saying “They’ll make it, they’ll make it.”

“Now would be a bad time for the portal to fail,” I said.

The ground dropped from under us. There was a moment of disorientation as the air pressure, the gravity, even the planet’s magnetic field changed. We found ourselves at the bottom of Snow Mountain and the silence was loud.

Mina screamed. “Heyyeyaa! We made it! We’re home!”

CHAPTER 27: ANGROD

When I woke up, Vitus, Grahothy, and my sparring partners were cutting me out of my armour..

“Oh, hai,” I said. “Hawar yewww?”

“This looks bad. The way he landed on his head, how can he continue?”

“Hey, hey.” Vitus snapped his fingers. “You all right? How many fingers am I holding up?”

“Wow. Much fingers. Very hand.”

“He’s fine.”

They got me back to my tent, sat me on a stool, and removed my badly-dented armour. They started with the next harness, the final one. This was real armour, the kind that worked as well on foot as on horseback. It was only a third as heavy as jousting armour and much more flexible.

“Such shiny.”

Vitus frowned. “Gotta say, elf, were this a normal judicial duel Hafgan would’ve won his case already. I don’t know if you can take any more. You want me to drape a white flag over your shield?” He meant Arawn’s coat of arms.

“Nnno,” I said. “Can’t surrender. Promised.”

“No promise is worth your life.”

I shook my head. “This is. Understand?”

He nodded. “Much yes.”

The sorceress-queens sat in the stands. They watched as Angrod was half-carried to his horse and manhandled into the saddle.

“What is this?” Morgawse said. “He can barely hold himself upright.”

“Hafgan is as fresh as ever,” Nivian observed.

Cerdwen snorted. “How can the elf hope to win? He has no chance—isn’t that right, field marshal?”

“Indeed,” Bedvir said. “My man has every advantage. This Angrod Veneanar has none.”

“Well, I put my momeny on him!”

“Sophia!” Morgawse said. “You’ve been gambling?”

“I’m a grown woman, so I am! You can’t stop me. And my friend has been helping.” She pointed at the woman beside her.

The older sisters looked at the woman, who wore a veil over her face. Even her horns were covered. “And who might you be?” Cerdwen asked.

“I am the Lady Nessa,” Dagonet said. “I know gambling—I grew up with casinos.”

“How are you?” Morgawse asked. “I had heard you suffered an accident on the way here.”

“A… accident, yes. Got better.”

“Hmm. Well, what do you think of this impertinent elf? The nerve of him, to think he can stand before our finest warrior. And him in that condition.”

“Is it true, Ladynessa?” Sophia was wide-eyed. “Am I gonna lose my momeny?”

“I can’t say for sure.” But then Angrod spurred his horse.

“What’s he doing?” Cerdwen said. “What’s he doing? He’s insane!”

“No. He’s going the distance.” Dagonet smiled. “He’s beginning to believe.”