The Bones of the Earth (The Dark Age) (54 page)

Tiana decided to take a great risk. “King Ingolf, the dagger that Stuhach holds was the property of our friend. The dragon took it from him in Constantinople. Obviously, Stuhach wrested it away after that point.”

“
Tiana!” Austinus exclaimed.

“
There is no use hiding these truths anymore, my dear. We must make clear to King Ingolf the danger of their alliance with the underworld.”

Ingolf came down from the dais. “So, you are Javor from the northern mountains. You’re a big, strapping young lad—it’s too bad we did not meet earlier. I could have used more like you in my army.”

“
I would
never
join you!”

“
Why not?”

“
You’re allied with—
things
like that,” he nodded toward Stuhach. “Like the
chort
that killed my parents!”

Ingolf nodded. “Yes. Some necessary alliances are regrettable. But fighting Rome without them was futile. And when it comes to incursions into our hereditary territory by Avars, well, they are quite useful, wouldn’t you agree?”

Javor sputtered. “
You
sent Ghastog? You murdered my parents!”

Ingolf shrugged. “If they were stupid enough to get between an ogre and its quarry, it’s their own fault.”

Javor head-butted the King in the face. Ingolf went down with a grunt and his men charged forward. One knocked Javor to the ground and held a sword point to his face. Two other guards helped the King to his feet until he shook them off angrily.

“
Shall I kill him, my King?” the guard asked.

“
Not yet,” Ingolf said, rubbing his head. “I want to find out more about this dragon.”

“
I think you will want to kill him when I tell you he claims to be Ingund’s lover!” said Miro.

Ingund gasped and Ingolf stiffened, eyes wide. He turned toward his daughter, but before he could say a word, he was interrupted again, this time by a distant gong.

Chapter 34:
The goddess’ cave

“
The Queen summons!” called the herald. Ingolf, his son, daughter and the herald marched to the back of the hall. The black-clad soldiers herded the others after the King.

At the back of the hall, a stream fell in a tinkling spray into a carved pool. In the centre of the pool, guarded by four white pillars, was a white marble statue of the goddess of love and beauty. A stream flowed out of the pool into a wide cave that opened in the mountainside that formed the back wall of the hall. The herald led the way along a broad path beside the stream.

Inside the cave there was almost no light, save for a few torches carried by the herald and some of the soldiers. Their light, far inferior to the Kobolds’ glowing globes, reflected greenly in the water of the stream, and footsteps echoed eerily. To Javor’s amazement, the tunnel was high enough for the monster Stuhach to walk unstooped.

The herald halted at the edge of a huge underground lake and raised his arm. A long, empty boat with a high prow and stern glided silently closer without a visible means of propulsion. It stopped against a sort of natural stone jetty, and the herald led the others aboard.

Javor worried that Stuhach would capsize the vessel, but though it tipped when the monster stepped aboard, it righted itself and then, without warning or sound, started back across the water.

The shore quickly disappeared into the dark. Soon, he could see the far side: a strange light, a sort of garden (
But how do things grow underground, away from the sun?
), and what appeared to be benches.

And in the middle, raised on a small platform, a woman reclined on a comfortable couch, stroking a huge black cat with bright yellow eyes. As the people, Kobolds and monster disembarked, the woman stood.

She was very tall, with long blonde hair. She wore a long and nearly transparent white robe, and gold rings on each finger. There were gold bangles around her wrists and a necklace of gold and amber across her chest. Her hair was bound by a wide band of gold that held a large amber sphere in the middle of her forehead.
This is Kriemhild
, Javor knew.
Who else could it be?

“
Mother!” Ingund cried. “Mother, I succeeded in my mission! I am pregnant!”

The Queen gazed at her visitors. Her eyes widened when they landed on Tiana, but then the young boy ran up to her and hugged her. She smiled a little and patted his head. She kissed Ingund on the cheek. “Well done, daughter. The plan has come together,” she said in a voice deep and earthy, yet musical. “We now have the required elements for the ceremony. Two of the Companions are here. Your child will be the key to our power over the whole world.

“
I am glad that you have fulfilled your mission, as well, Stuhach,” Kriemhild continued. “Now give me the Second Companion.”

“
The blade?” the monster said in its awful, scraping voice. “No. I will keep it.”

The Queen just looked at the monster. She raised her right hand to the big amber ball on her forehead and held her left hand out. She looked into the monster’s eyes, and the monster stared back at her.

No one else could speak or even move. Tiana felt like she was choking. Then Stuhach began to stoop. Its eyes never left the Queen, but its back bent and its head went lower and lower. It put its free claw on the marble floor and it began to tremble. Finally, it reached out a shaking claw and placed the dagger in Kriemhild’s hand. Then it crawled backward to the stone wall.

Kriemhild lifted the dagger high and laughed wildly. “Yes! The Fang is mine! My final victory is at hand!”

She turned and walked up to Tiana. “And you are the last ornament in my triumph, Te-ma-arun-Vd-a, priestess of my sister Tabita. It is good to have a Solar witness.”

“
My name is Tiana,” she said, shaking. 

“
We all know it is not.”

“
And who are you?” Austinus demanded, stepping between the two women.

“
Have respect, man,” Ingolf warned, but the Queen held up her hand and the King closed his mouth.

“
I am Ildico, Queen of the Ostrogoths,” she said. “I have also been called Kriemhild and Gudrun, and I am the Goddess of the Alps.”

“
Ildico?” Austinus asked. “Your husband claims to be 60 years old and one of Totila’s generals—are you saying that you married Atilla the Hun over 100 years ago?”

She smiled a little. “And you are Austinus, the wise Gnostic magician—really, though, just another worshipper of the sky gods. Like your wife, here.”

The Queen turned to Javor. “And this is the young fool that bore the Fang. I am disappointed, daughter, that you were unable to persuade him to give it to you.”

“
Don’t let your head get too close to his,” Ingolf warned.

“
How do you know about us?” Austinus demanded.

Kriemhild pointed at the bauble on her head. “I have the Eye of Knowledge, Brath, once the most prized possession of the Yonn-Sakathe. I can see all in the world and know what is in the hearts of men. I am now a goddess who possesses complete knowledge.”

“
Knowledge, perhaps, but not wisdom,” Austinus said.

Kriemhild’s eyes and nostrils flared. “Wisdom! And how wise are you, Roman? How wise is the mighty Roman Empire, which conquered Egypt only because it had so degraded its own farmlands that it could no longer feed its population? Which cut down entire forests for its war machines, until Africa became a desert? No, Gnostic—do not presume to banter with a goddess!”

“
You’re not a goddess!” Javor could not believe he had said that. “You’re just a woman who doesn’t want to admit how old she really is! You don’t know anything about gods and goddesses!” he continued. “None of you do, not you Christians, you Gnostics or least of all you, Kriemhild or whoever you are!”

Tiana goggled at Javor; Austinus’ mouth hung open. Malleus looked slightly amused.

Kriemhild’s face was red. Javor thought she would slap him, but instead she stroked his face gently. “You are a beautiful fool. Ingund, I can see the attraction, but I truly hope you did not lie with him. Tell me, fool, how would you know of the nature of the gods?”

“
The dragon showed me.”

Kriemhild could not disguise her shock. “A dragon
showed
you?”

“
And it showed me what ‘bones of the earth’ means.”

Kriemhild flushed again and Javor once more thought she would hit him.

Goldemar interrupted. “Queen Kriemhild, the People of Knowledge have fulfilled our contract with you. We have allowed you to live in our former entry chamber and use our oldest watercraft. We have delivered your daughter and the dagger through your servant, Stuhach. Now it is time that you uphold your side of the contract and return to us the
Buill Brath,
the Eye of Knowledge.”

Kriemhild answered, “I thank you for your part in carrying out my plan, but I will not give you the Eye. Instead, I will increase your wealth and your holdings beyond your imagination, Goldemar.”

“
Nothing that we desire is within your power to give, Gudrun. Our arrangement was the return of the Eye that has been in our keeping for millenia in exchange for the Fang. You better than anyone here should know the consequences of breaking an oath made to the Yonn-Sakathe!”

“
With the power of the Eye alone, I have already brought Mother Earth’s deep power to the surface of the world! I have unleashed the plague that killed the Emperor Justinian! With the Eye and the Fang together, I can reshape the world as it should be, Goldemar! I will destroy our enemies. Rome and Persia will cease to be. I can cause the sea to swallow Constantinople, the Tigris to drown Ctesiphon! No longer will the Yonn-Sakathe have to hide!”

“
Without the Eye of Knowledge,” Goldemar answered, “no possessions mean anything to us. Return it to us or face the consequences.”

The Queen turned her back to Goldemar. The soldiers in black formed a line to protect her. “It is time to begin the ceremony!”

The herald gave her a large golden goblet. “Bless you, child and mother to be,” Kriemhild said. “Drink this to ensure your child becomes the embodiment, the fulfillment of our destiny.” Ingund took the cup in both hands and sipped. She grimaced. “Drink it all down, child,” her mother urged gently, but there was no gentleness in her eyes. Ingund closed her eyes, wrinkled her nose and gulped the whole contents down, then coughed twice.

Kriemhild smiled horribly, lifted her hands and cried out in a strange language—like the Kobolds’, but they did not understand her, either. A commotion interrupted. She turned to see Ingolf’s honour guard fighting desperately against the Kobolds. Even though the Kobolds had no weapons, the black-clad men had no chance. Krum Chimmek picked up a tall Goth in his hands and hurled him into the water.

“
Kriemhild! We Kobolds have upheld our side of the bargain! Now we want the gem back!”

“
Do not dare to argue with a goddess!”

More Gothic warriors fell, stunned, and Javor watched one of the smallest Kobolds pummel a tall Goth into unconsciousness. Miro’s group drew their swords but seemed unable to decide what to do next. The point was moot as the last of Ingolf’s men fell.

Krum Chimmek stepped toward the Queen. She raised her hands and barked a command in a language no one could understand—none but Stuhach. The monster jumped forward, slashing its terrible claws at the Kobold.

Krum dodged, lunged under the monster’s reach and punched it in the belly. Stuhach staggered back, but slashed again at Krum Chimmek. He jumped up and brought his two clenched fists down on the monster’s snout. When he hit the ground, he picked up the monster’s foot in two hands and tipped it over.

Stuhach crashed to the floor, shaking the whole cavern, but managed to grab the Kobold in its claw. Javor tried to jump to help the small man, but his wrists were bound and he tumbled to the floor, helpless.

Krum Chimmek pushed with all his might on the claws, but the monster squeezed and the Kobold’s face turned red. Stuhach was about to pop the Kobold like a gourd when Malleus sprang forward with a sword he had taken from one of the senseless guards and thrust the point into Stuhach’s eye.

The monster’s scream terrified everyone in the room. Even the Queen shrank behind her husband. Ingund hid behind the couch.

Malleus pushed the blade into the monster’s head, but it swept its free arm around and sent the warrior sprawling. Then it picked up Krum Chimmek and smashed him into the ground again and again until all that was left was a mass of bloody flesh.

Miro sprang forward then, aiming his sword at Stuhach’s remaining eye. At the same time, Austinus jumped toward the Queen and tried to pull the dagger from her grasp.

The monster backhanded Miro across the cavern. He hit the rock wall and lay still.

Kriemhild called for Stuhach. With one taloned hand over its destroyed eye, the monster bit the gnostic’s head off. Tiana screamed as her husband’s headless body fell.

“
Goths! Push the Kobolds back to their boat!” Ingolf ordered, his voice ringing off the cave walls. Reluctantly, Miro’s men advanced toward the little people, who drew back toward the lake. But as one Kobold passed Javor, he brushed a single finger over the chain between Javor’s wrists. He felt a tiny click more than he heard it, and realized that his hands were free.

“
Begone!” Kriemhild shrieked. “You forfeit any reward or recompense for our contract! Go and never return to my sight!” Goldemar led the remaining Kobolds onto the boat, and it departed as silently as it came, bearing the little people back to the entrance to the mountain hall.

Last chance!
Javor jumped to his feet. Three steps, four, five ... behind him, Kriemhild screamed. He jumped as one of Miro’s men grabbed at his arm. He hit the water and was gone.