The Binding Stone (The Dragon Below, Book 1) (9 page)

D
andra felt Singe slam into her as he dove for cover behind the same fallen stone as her. She heard the rattle of crossbow bolts as they bounced off the stones. Adolan and Geth were somewhere close by, also under cover. She was aware of everything, but only peripherally, like a sound half-heard or a shadow half-glimpsed.

Tetkashtai's wailing filled her head.
They've caught us! Light of il-Yannah, we're captured. I won't go back there. I won't!

The strength of her presence raged inside Dandra, clenching at her guts like the hands of a drowning swimmer. Tetkashtai's terror was contagious and so powerful that it was almost physical. She gasped for breath.

Tetkashtai!
she shouted back in her mind.
Tetkashtai! Calm down! We have to--

The presence lashed out at her, a vicious swipe of light that burned through Dandra's mind.
This is your fault! If you'd been faster, if you'd fled this place when I told you to, we'd be safe. This is your fault, you dahr!

An image formed in Tetkashtai's light. Eyes. Wise, piercing eyes, full of secrets. Terrible, devouring secrets. In the presence's yellow-green light, the color of those eyes was distorted, but Dandra could picture them as well as Tetkashtai. They were bright, acid green. Like those of the black heron that Breek had
brought down. When Adolan's eagle had first brought down the strange bird, the sight of those unnaturally bright eyes had stirred emotions in her. Fascination. Fear. Horror.

Tetkashtai's wails struck a fever pitch. She clawed at Dandra's mind as if she could rake the image and the memories away.
No!
No! No!

Dandra's head slammed back against the rock as her body stiffened. Bright sparks of pain popped in her vision.
Tetkashtai, be quiet!
she shouted, thrusting back against the terrified presence. Keening incoherently, Tetkashtai withdrew into the crystal, leaving Dandra gasping and clutching her temples.

"Twelve moons!" cursed Singe. He hauled himself up beside her, leaning his back against the stone and gulping air. He glanced at her, his face blotched red and white from their flight. "Dandra, are you all right?"

She nodded weakly. His hand scrambled for his rapier. The light that the blade shed seemed cold and feeble, as if the shadows of the stones were sucking it up.

"Rest," said Adolan. The druid was crouched behind a leaning stone to their left.

"Are you insane?" Singe's voice broke. "As soon as they're finished--"

The rain of crossbow bolts stopped. Singe tensed. "Here they come!"

"No," said Adolan.

Singe stared at the druid with astonished disbelief, but a moment later--when no attack had come--he stood up and peered over the top of the stone. Dandra heard breath hiss between his teeth. On their right, Geth moved as well. The metal of the strange armored sleeve that he wore scraped against rock as he moved, bending his neck to look out into the clearing. "They've stopped, Adolan," he reported.

"Twelve moons," Singe whispered. "What are those things?"

"Dolgrims," Adolan answered. There was a raw tension in the druid's voice. He was crouched behind a leaning stone to their left. "Aberrations, a blight on Eberron."

Dandra saw Singe's throat work as he swallowed hard.
"Those
are dolgrims?" he asked. "I've read about them. They're ... not what I expected."

Dandra forced her limbs to move. Slowly and carefully, she leaned over and peered past the side of the stone. Perhaps halfway between the stones and the edge of the clearing, the dolgrims milled about in confusion. Moans and growls of frustration sputtered out of their double mouths. A few tried to move closer to the stones. They looked almost like they were attempting to walk into a strong wind. Behind them, the Bonetree hunters squatted down on the ground with an unsettling patience.

One of the dolgrims squealed and seemed to point directly at her. Half a dozen of the creatures swung around sharply, raising one or a pair of arms to fire off a new volley of crossbow bolts. Dandra, Singe, and Geth ducked back under cover. Even Tetkashtai seemed to take notice, gibbering out another wail of terror.

"What's holding them back?" asked Singe. "What is this place--?"

His question was drowned out by another of the rolling bellows, this one so loud that Dandra pressed her hands to her ears. She glimpsed movement as Adolan reached up and pressed his palm against the stone above him. His mouth moved in an invocation and the deafening roar ended. Out in the clearing, a frightened babble broke out among the dolgrims.

"We're safe here for the time being," said Adolan. "You can relax. They can't get any closer."

"Why not?" Singe asked.

Adolan settled back. "The Bull Hole is sacred to my sect. Our lore holds that our traditions began thousands of years ago as a defense against an invasion from a realm of madness. The leaders of that invasion were powerful creatures called daelkyr. They brought lesser creatures with them from their realm--and created others from the beings they found on Eberron. All of them are anathema to nature. The war that followed took place in the Shadow Marches, spilling over into the lands surrounding the Marches." He gestured around them. "Like the Eldeen Reaches. The Daelkyr War ended when the paths to the realm of madness were sealed. My sect, the Gatekeepers,
is the oldest of the druid traditions and the one that sealed those paths and bound the greater aberrations left behind on Eberron into the depths of Khyber." He touched the stone again. "Ancient druids created the Bull Hole and places like it to warn and guard against such creatures as the dolgrims. Its power keeps them back."

Dandra watched as Singe stared at the druid, then squeezed his eyes shut, raked fingers through thick blond hair, and finally opened his eyes again. "That's ludicrous!" he sputtered. "There weren't even any humans in this part of the world that long ago. Historians have shown that the only cultures here were scattered orc barbarians and the hobgoblin empire of Dhakaan--and it fell almost six millennia ago!"

Adolan raised an eyebrow. "Historians?"

"Singe studied at Wynarn University," growled Geth. "He knows
everything."

Dandra caught the dark glance that Singe shot toward the shifter. Adolan's eyes, however, never wavered from the wizard.

"What do your historians say," he asked, "caused the Dhakaani Empire to fall?"

Singe's jaw tensed. "There's evidence of a war."

"With who?" Adolan spread his hands. "Scattered orc barbarians?"

Singe opened his mouth, then closed it again. Geth turned his back on him and looked out into the clearing. "The Bonetree hunters are all just sitting back but the dolgrims are still milling around. It looks like a few have tried to go around the back of the circle."

"They won't get in there either," said Adolan. He glanced back at Singe. "Well?"

The wizard glowered at him. "You're telling me this circle was built by hobgoblins?"

"Of course not." Adolan rose to his feet, careful to stay in the shadow of his stone. "The first druids were orcs."

"Ores?"
Singe's eyes bulged in disbelief. "Orcs couldn't create something like this!"

"Not now, maybe," Adolan agreed. "But you believe that the
hobgoblins who spend most of their time fighting among themselves in Darguun today are the same race that once built an empire spanning half a continent, don't you?"

Singe's mouth closed with a snap. Adolan turned to look at Dandra. "At the cabin," he said, "you were desperate to escape."

Dandra bit her lip. "I'm sorry that I turned on you, but I had to--"

Adolan raised his hand, stopping her. "They're after you, aren't they? You're the reason they've come to Bull Hollow."

She felt blood rush to her face. With the eyes of all three men on her, she nodded.

"Why?" asked Adolan.

Her belly knotted at the question.
Tetkashtai
, she thought,
what should I tell them?
The cowering presence's only response, however, was a thin, mad gibbering. Dandra took a deep breath and looked back at Adolan.

"They were holding me captive," she said, trying to keep her story as simple as possible. "They kidnapped me from Zarash'ak and took me to their camp in the marshes. I managed to escape, but they've been pursuing me ever since." She paused, then added. "I've been running for almost a month, just trying to stay ahead of them. Until you found me, I didn't even really know where I was."