Songreaver (32 page)

"In a way," the Girl in Brown said, "The
Queen agreed to marry Brahnek, if he spared her people and her
city."

"Marry him?" Marla said.

The Girl in Brown nodded. "They say he
besieged the city for a year before she rode out to meet him in one
last, desperate battle. She realized that none of her allies would
come to her aide, and so she decided to die in battle with the
hated enemy of her people. Brahnek met her on the field,
personally, with the intent of slaying her himself, but, when he
saw her... something changed in him."

"Huh?" Garrett said.

They reached the far end of the stone arch
and entered the shadows of another subterranean vault, passing
between tall pillars of shimmering crystal that glowed faintly with
a pulsing golden light.

"Brahnek Spellbreaker, the
Songreaver
himself fell instantly and hopelessly in love with Queen Elaraenu,"
the Girl in Brown laughed softly, "Of course he wasn't the
Songreaver
then, not yet. Elaraenu was no match for him in
combat... she was no warrior, but he could not bring himself to
slay her. He begged her to yield, but she was
wyrdbound
to
defeat him. The Masters had done that... had commanded all the
elves to fight until the very last against the hated humans... no
offence, Garrett."

"Yeah," he said.

"She couldn't surrender to him, even when he
promised to spare her and her people," the Girl in Brown said, "She
was bound to his death, and could not resist the Masters'
command."

"Masters?" Garrett said.

"The elder dragons," the Girl in Brown said,
"the last of their kind who still stood against the human foe. They
ordered the Faeborn to resist and defy the humans to their last
breath. Elaraenu
had
to try to kill every human that she
met. She had no choice. Brahnek's chief magician tried to explain
this to him, and tried to convince him to put aside his folly and
slay her, but Brahnek would hear nothing of it. He had Elaraenu
chained and lifted his siege of her city while he went in search of
the magic he needed to break her wyrdbondage and free her to love
him as he loved her."

They passed from the gallery of crystal
pillars into a hall of bubbling pools of steaming mud. The rocks
beneath their feet glowed a dull red, but felt cool beneath the
soles of Garrett's boots.

"Brahnek disappeared into the wilderness for
an entire year," the Girl in Brown said, "When he returned, he was
the
Songreaver
... the
Spellbreaker
. He used whatever
power he had found to break Queen Elaraenu's wyrdbinding and free
her to... surrender. It killed her as surely as his sword would
have, but she submitted and gave her hand to the murderer of her
kin to save what few of her people remained in this land. Her
beloved city was spared, though much changed by the human
occupation. She lingered on at his side, slowly fading, until, at
last, only her promise to him kept her alive... and that only for a
while."

They passed beyond the mud room into a hall
of slate-colored stone with shining silver orbs set like stars in
the ceiling above.

"I arrived in the city shortly before she
died," the Girl in Brown said, "and I've been here ever since."

"Where are we?" Garrett asked, looking at the
faces of elven men and women carven in the gray stone of the
walls.

"We're almost there," the Girl in Brown said,
"If you want to go back... this is your last chance."

Garrett shook his head.

"Garrett, you're injured," Marla said, "We
can come back later when you're better."

The Girl in Brown watched his face intently.
"She's right," she admitted, "The Guardian... we could all die
here."

Garrett pulled away from the two girls,
stepping back from them on unsteady feet. He took a deep breath and
tested his balance. "No," he said, "I'm ready."

The Girl in Brown nodded and led them to the
end of the long hall. A deep, booming wind whistled at the mouth of
a tall, narrow stone archway, and, beyond that, a great circular
shaft of stone, five hundred feet across, stretched upward to
disappear into shadow high above, and descended into a thick,
gray-green mist far below.

A black column of glistening obsidian stood
in the center of the shaft, itself over fifty feet in diameter. It
reached up into the blackness above and down into the mist-shrouded
depths. A great spiraling staircase of interconnected platforms
ringed the column. Black spars of stone jutted out from the column,
supporting the outer ring of the stairway and providing access to
the many sealed doors in the column's walls with narrow walkways
like the strands of some great black web. A single strand of this
stone web bridged the gap between the strange staircase and the
small platform where Garrett and his friends stood.

The Girl in Brown shivered and drew closer to
Garrett's side. "I've never dared go any further than this," she
said.

"Where is the Guardian?" Marla asked.

"It's here... somewhere," the Girl in Brown
said, "It is bound to the black stone of the stair. It can't touch
us, as long as we aren't standing on the stairs, but, once we set
foot on it, it will pursue us until we escape into one to the
tombs... or it touches us. If it touches you, you die."

"What do you mean?" Garrett asked.

"The creature is an avatar of Death," the
Girl in Brown said, "Sometimes it moves fast like a sword.
Sometimes it creeps like a plague. Either way, the moment it
touches you, you die."

"So we have to outrun it?" Garrett asked.

"You can't outrun Death for long, Garrett,"
the Girl in Brown said, "You just have to try to get where you're
going before it catches up to you. If we can make it to the tomb,
we'll be safe."

Garrett leaned out into the hot wind of the
chamber, counting the black doors that marked the tombs of Wythr's
kings. "Any chance that the
Songreaver
is in the top one?"
he laughed.

The Girl in Brown shook her head. "I don't
know which one he's in," she said, "I've never been any further
than this."

"All right," Garrett said, drawing in a slow
breath, "you guys wait here. I'll run out and see if I can make it
to the first tomb before the Guardian sees me."

"I'm coming with you," Marla said.

"Me too," the Girl in Brown said.

Garrett nodded. "Let's get this over with,"
he said, and stepped out onto the obsidian staircase.

The stone beneath his foot shuddered with a
deep resonating pulse, and a low groaning sound rippled through the
mist. Garrett looked back at Marla and the Girl in Brown, but saw
only confusion in their faces as well.

He took another step, but the strange groan
had died away. He hurried across the narrow obsidian span toward
the stairs, trying not to think about what would happen if he
slipped over the edge of the walkway. A moment later, and he was on
the stairs, breathing heavily as he raced down the steps as fast as
he dared, coming at last to the first spoke that reached to the
central obsidian pillar. He ran across to reach the first tomb door
which stood open wide. He ran inside the burial chamber with the
two girls close on his heels.

"It's empty!" Garrett gasped, looking around
the wide, circular chamber that nearly matched the pillar itself in
diameter.

"Waiting for another king," the Girl in Brown
said.

"On to the next one then," Marla said.

Garrett nodded and caught his breath before
running back out onto the staircase and down toward the next tomb.
He saw that its door was sealed shut. He fumbled for the hammer and
chisel in his pack as he slowed his pace, approaching the door.

He had the chisel in hand when the Girl in
Brown said, "It's not him!"

Garrett stared up at the Gloarish runes
carved into the obsidian door, an unfamiliar name.

"Keep going," Marla said.

They ran back to the stairs and down to the
next level below, again finding the wrong king.

"I was afraid of this," the Girl in Brown
said.

"What?" Garrett asked.

"These were the last two kings," she gasped,
"It's going in reverse order... Brahnek was the
first
human
king of Wythr."

"So we hafta..."

"Go down...
way
down," she said.

Garrett put his fists on his knees, still
clutching the hammer and chisel. "At least we haven't seen any sign
of..."

A sharp, glassy clicking sound cut him off.
He looked up to glimpse something on the stairs above them. It
disappeared behind the column before he could see it clearly, but
it was man-sized, and covered with short white fur. The rhythmic
clicking grew louder as the thing descended the stairs.

"The Guardian!" the Girl in Brown cried.

"Go, Garrett!" Marla gasped.

Garrett ran back to the stairs and down
again, not stopping at the next tomb.

"Keep going," the Girl in Brown shouted.

"Marla!" Garrett cried, "You go ahead and
find the right tomb!"

Marla nodded, her face even paler than usual.
Her body blurred as she raced past him, taking the stairs faster
than seemed possible. Garrett and the Girl in Brown lagged behind,
casting glances upward at the increasingly loud
click-clack
of the Guardian on the steps above them.

When they rounded the pillar again, Garrett
saw the thing clearly for the first time. He made a sound that was
something between a laugh and a scream, for his mind could not
quite grasp the reality of the thing. It had the body of a white
goat, but it stood on its hind legs like a man. Its front legs were
withered and short, hardly the length of Garrett's forearms, and
they twitched spasmodically as it walked. Two short, curving horns
grew from the top of its caprine head, and it stared down at them
with three eyes of such unearthly blackness that they left a
triangular after-image that lingered in Garrett's vision when he
shut his eyes.

The Girl in Brown stood frozen on the stair,
unable to tear her eyes from it as it descended slowly toward them.
Garrett grabbed her arms and shook her. "Run!" he said, and she ran
with him, away from the white goat.

"Did you see it, Garrett?" she gasped, "Did
you see its eyes?"

"Yeah," he said, the image of its three
void-black eyes only now fading from his vision.

At the juncture of the next tomb spar,
Garrett had to stop to catch his breath. His side hurt too much to
keep running. He shoved the tools into his belt and doubled over,
filling his lungs with the damp tomb air. "Gimme... a minute," he
wheezed.

"Garrett, we have to keep moving!" the Girl
in Brown said, her eyes following the clattering hoofsteps of the
watcher on the stairs above.

"I know," he gasped, "Just... a minute."

He looked down over the edge of the stairs to
see a dark blur as Marla continued to run, pausing only to check
the inscription on each door she passed. He groaned to see how far
down she had already gone.

The
click-clacking
continued, growing
ever closer.

"All right," Garrett said, "let's go."

Garrett and the Girl in Brown continued to
descend, slower now than they had before. Garrett's feet and shins
began to ache, growing worse with every step on the cold volcanic
glass. He drew in enough breath to yell, "Find anything?"

"Not yet!" Marla called back. She sounded
very far away.

Garrett groaned and forced his legs to move a
little bit faster. "Why... couldn't... he have... been... the
last
... king... of Wythr?" he panted.

The Girl in Brown laughed nervously and then
gasped as she glanced back over her shoulder.

Garrett looked too, and his heart fluttered
with fear at the sight of the white goat on the same level now with
them, only a few yards behind them on the stairs. It's withered
forelimbs twitched as is hobbled toward them on black hooves.

"Go, Garrett!" the Girl in Brown shouted,
"I'll slow him down!"

Garrett blinked, realizing what she intended
to do. "No!" he shouted, and he grabbed her by the shoulder of her
brown cape. "Come on!"

Garrett ran down the black steps, ignoring
the pain in his legs and pulling the girl with him. He missed a
step and came down hard on his left foot, sending a burst of pain
through his leg and dislodging the iron chisel from his belt. The
chisel pinged off the side of the obsidian steps and spun down to
strike the edge of a walkway beneath them. Tiny shards of black
glass tumbled with the chisel as it disappeared into the green
mists below.

"Gah!" Garrett shouted, staggering forward
and struggling to regain his balance.

The Girl in Brown pulled him back from the
edge and started to speak, when the
clack-clack-clack
of the
Guardian's hooves grew louder and faster, almost upon them.

"Jump, Garrett!" the Girl in Brown shouted,
and, when he hesitated, she pushed him over the edge of the stairs
onto the walkway below.

He landed on the walkway with the wind
knocked out of him, but otherwise unharmed. He looked up to see a
brown sleeve wildly flailing over the edge of the stairway above.
The Girl in Brown screamed once and then appeared over the edge as
she jumped down after him.

Garrett dodged out of the way as she landed
beside him on the walkway. She had a grin on her face as she came
to her feet again.

"Almost had me!" she said.

Garrett laughed, and the two of them
descended the stairs again, just as the white goat rounded the
pillar and came into view once more.

"I found it!" Marla's voice called up from
below.

Garrett found new strength in the knowledge
that he was so close to his goal. He and the Girl in Brown flew
down the staircase, leaving the white goat further behind each time
they rounded the tomb pillar of Wythr's kings.