The Callindra Chronicles Book One - First Quest (27 page)

“
Help her you thrice cursed
cowards!”  Cronos shouted at their retreating backs.  The
others seemed too shocked to do  more than hide behind their
shields.

Vilhylm took one of the heavy beds and hurled
it at the only creature still standing.  The frame cracked
from the impact and the monster was crushed beneath it.
 Callindra shrieked in pain as the one remaining enemy raked
her leg with sharp claws.  With a sharp double swing of
Brightfang she severed both its arms (Dragonfly Lands on the
Pond).

“
This is what you were
hiding?”  She demanded, “You had infected here the whole
time?”
“I didn’t know.”  One of the soldiers said faintly, “They
never told us…”

“
Well you certainly could
have guessed!”  Cronos shouted, “Or perhaps you could have god
rotting CHECKED!”

“
They said it was
contagious, that only those with special protections against the
illness could hope to enter.”  The soldier said, “How were we
to know?”

“
My brother was exposed to
this.”  Cronos said, his voice dark with anger, “If it truly
is contagious and he’s infected it will be a very bad day for
you.”

Vilhylm had removed his mask and returned to
a more normal size and demeanor, but his anger was also apparent.
 “This was a grave mistake.  I will speak to the Mayor
about it.”

The measured tramp of feet came from outside.
 The last creature that Callindra had hacked into pieces was
still writhing on the floor but she left it there.  Let them
see what evil Mayor Iason had been hiding.  The soldiers
stopped outside the door.

“
I’m afraid I must ask you
to leave.”  Captain Luca said, his voice flat and emotionless.
 “We shall give you provisions and horses for your assistance,
but you must leave now.”

“
You’re all mad if you stay
here.”  Callindra said, looking at the ranks of soldiers
behind him, “You’ll all die.  There’s something here that’s
spreading THAT!”  She pointed at the figure that still moved
on the floor in spite of not having a head or hands.

“
This never happened to
people before you came!”  One of the soldiers in the back
shouted, “Get gone and be thankful we’re giving you
anything!”

“
We aren’t thieves.”
 Luca said, “We have brought your belongings to the front
gate, along with provisions and horses.  Your priest tried his
level best and we appreciate that, however he only made things
worse.  His presence seems to aggravate the
condition.”

“
You may not be thieves.”
 Tryst’s tired voice said from behind the ranks of armed men,
“But you are fools if you think you can hide from this behind
walls.  I do not know what this sickness is, but if it ravages
the world there is no wall that can possibly keep it
out.”

Callindra looked in Luca’s eyes as she moved
to join Tryst, and she could see the despair in them.  He knew
they were right and that he had no way of keeping his people safe
and he knew it, but he didn’t know what else to do.

“
Good luck.”  Callindra
said quietly to him as she passed, “You are going to need
it.”

Chapter 22

They had been making much better time now
that they were mounted again, after three days the forest began to
thin and give way to rolling hills.  Vilhylm began to get more
and more tense the further they traveled.  He began to ride
ahead when they approached taller hills in order to get the lay of
the land before allowing the others to continue.  After a day
of this, Cronos finally lost his patience.

“
What in the hells are you
doing?”  He demanded when Vil had returned from one of his
forays, “It’s going to take us forever to get to the High Forest at
this rate.”

“
The lack of any human
presence is disturbing me.”  Vilhylm said, “We should have at
least come across a patrol by this point, but we haven’t seen
anyone.”

“
What city are we
approaching?”  Callindra asked, wondering why there would be
patrols this far out in the wilderness.

“
We are only about a day or
two from Dagger’s Falls.”  Vilhylm replied, “That smoke is
also worrisome.”

“
Smoke?”  Tryst said,
“What smoke?”

They all scanned the horizon and Vilhylm
pointed to what they had all thought was a thunderstorm.  Now
that they looked, they could see the black and gray smoke rising
from a fire of unimaginable proportions.

“
What could possibly cause
that large of a blaze?”  Callindra whispered, “There’s just…
no way….”

“
I’m afraid it’s the city.”
 Vilhylm said.

“
That’s impossible.”
 Said Cronos, “There are over a million people in that city,
the guards alone number in the hundreds of thousands.  Nothing
could destroy a city that large.  No army in the known lands
could possibly lay siege to it.”

“
True enough.”  Tryst
said, his voice grim. “Unless that sickness or whatever it is has
spread.”

The idea stopped all of them cold.  It
was almost too much to contemplate.

“
You don’t think that’s
possible do you?”  Callindra asked, “I mean, wouldn’t we have
seen… something?”

“
Exactly my point.” Said
Vilhylm.  The rest of them fell silent.

“
All right.  So we
continue cautiously until we can see the city.”  Callindra
said, “If I recall what I’ve seen of the maps, it’s on the coast
right?  We should have the high ground, it ought to be easy
enough for us to see what’s happening there.”

“
Yes, but until we get there
we must be careful.  If the city is truly besieged the odds of
us running into hostile forces are high.”  Vilhylm said, “We
do not number nearly enough to survive such an encounter, so I am
being careful.”

“
If the city is under
attack, how will we cross the river?”  Callindra asked, “I
thought the only bridge of the Morodava River this far south was at
Dagger’s Falls.”

“
We might be able to find a
ford.”  Cronos said doubtfully, “I don’t remember this part of
the world very well though.”

“
No, the Morodava River is
far too swift and generally runs through deep ravines that it has
carved out of the landscape.”  Callindra said, “If we can’t
cross at Dagger’s Falls then we will be forced to backtrack for
days, or maybe even weeks before we find a safe
crossing.”

“
Well, we will just have to
cross that bridge when we come to it.”  Tryst said without a
trace of amusement.  After a moment, he added, “Or not I
suppose.”  He was so deadpan that Callindra broke out laughing
in spite of herself.  Cronos’s laugh was surprisingly mellow,
reminding her that he was younger than she was, even if not by
much.  Even Vilhylm smiled, the first time she had seen him do
more than quirk up a corner of his mouth.

“
We’ll get past it one way
or another.”  Tryst said, smiling. “It can’t be as bad as all
that, else we would have heard of it.”

-

“
I don’t believe it.”
 Vilhylm muttered for the tenth time as he stared through a
spyglass at the city far below them.  The rest of them were
too speechless to utter a single word.  

The city of Dagger’s Falls was burning.
 All of the farms outside the walls were nothing but charred
stubble and beyond the Third Circle wall there wasn’t a single
house standing.  Fighting raged between the wall of the Second
Circle and the First Circle walls, but the entire First Circle was
covered in a huge translucent dome crafted of pure arcane energy.
 None of that compared to what was above.

An immense winged shape, black as midnight
glided above the dome of the First Circle.  As they watched,
it breathed a jet of liquid obsidian streaked with flickering
emerald fire that splattered thickly against the dome, evaporating
into a sickly fog that burned as it touched down in the Second
Circle.  They were too far away, but Callindra imagined she
could hear the screams of the dying.

They moved back from the edge of the hill,
crawling on hands and knees so as to avoid notice.  None of
them wanted to attract the attention of that monster, no matter how
unlikely it might be.

“
There’s no way we can cross
here.”  Tryst said grimly, “We shouldn’t even be this close,
an army that size probably has outriders for miles.”

“
I didn’t see any outriders.
 I didn’t see any supply wagons or the usual trappings an army
has.”  Vilhylm said, stowing his spyglass.  “Something’s
definitely not right there.”

“
Let’s get out of here first
and chew gristle about what’s not right about the city being
destroyed by an army following a god rotting dragon later!”
 Callindra hissed.  

Cronos nodded his agreement, his face as pale
as hers.  “I don’t like this.  Not this place, not that
fight.”  He looked at Tryst apologetically, “Not this mission
either.”

“
But we don’t have a
choice.”  Tryst protested, “We must cross, we must complete
our mission!”

“
Nobody is saying we won’t
go.”  Callindra said quickly, “Just that it’s suddenly more
difficult than it was in the beginning.  Especially now that
we can’t cross the river here.”

They made their way back to where their
horses were tethered in a small meadow.  Callindra looked
mistrustfully at the foul tempered dun mare she’d been given.
 She didn’t blame the creature for being cranky, that small
keep had been full of mistrustful angry people and little fodder.
 To her surprise, the animal bumped her playfully with its
head and whickered a welcome.

“
Good to see you too.”
 She said scratching it behind the ears before mounting
up.

They cantered upstream, following the steep
riverbank and looking about for any way that they might be able to
cross.  It was a fruitless effort though.  The river had
cut through soft stone to form deep ravines, the only places that
were not cliffs were where the stone was harder but waterfalls had
formed there and those were certainly not passable either.

After riding for the rest of day, they made
camp in a copse of trees.  

-

The night was blessedly uneventful and the
next morning while Vilhylm busied himself preparing breakfast, the
rest of them sat around the fire.  

“
How in the hells are we
gonna get across the river?”  Callindra said, “We can’t
possibly travel all the way up the next bridge, it’d take at least
a month.”

“
Our mission is far too
important to wait that long.”  Tryst said, “We absolutely must
communicate with the Druids in the High Forest before the situation
becomes more desperate than it already is.”

“
Perhaps I could be of some
small assistance?”  The voice was coming from Cronos’s mouth
but it wasn’t his.  This was the dry, emotionless voice
Callindra had heard before when the boy had been killed by Dergeras
in Tyreen’s tree.

“
No!”  Cronos
struggled, trying to get up from where he sat.  “Master, I
don’t want-”

“
What you want is immaterial
apprentice.”  The voice interrupted, cutting him off.
 “This mission is nearly as critical to the world as the young
priest believes it to be.”

“
Really?”  Tryst’s face
shone with religious fervor, “I mean, I knew it was important
but.”

“
I said nearly as critical.”
 The voice said, “You have a vastly inflated opinion of
yourself youngling.  Something that seems to run in your
family.”

“
But how can you help us?”
 Callindra asked, “What are you going to do, fly us over to
the other side?  I thought Cronos said you were
dead.”

“
Ha!  You have a mouth
on you girl.”  He laughed, “I like that in a whelp.
 Shows your grit, and Gods know you’re going to need every
single shred of strength you can muster to survive what’s coming.
 I’ll let you all eat your breakfast, then we’ll take care of
your little river problem.”

Cronos looked at them with a haunted
expression on his face and Callindra folded her arms.

“
Talk.”  She said, her
voice flat, “Before I was willing to just let it go and watch you
to see if you went crazy on us again, but now I want answers and by
the Absent Gods I’m going to get them.

He took a deep breath and blew it out.
 Callindra reached into her belt pouch and took out her pipe,
stuffing the bowl with tac and lighting it with a splinter from the
fire.  She puffed it alight and leaned back against her saddle
with the air of someone who had all the time in the world.
 When Vilhylm brought over toasted bread and cheese Cronos
finally started talking.

“
My Master was working on
some kind of experiment.  I don’t know what it was and he
won’t tell me… but it was important.  It had something to do
with a power of old and some war long since passed, but he had done
things like it many times before so I just assumed it was more of
the same.

“
Something went wrong.
 I don’t know what it was, but I believe something … felt him
probing.  It saw him from the other side of… time?
 Whatever it was saw him and with a flicker of power more vast
than worlds destroyed him.  Being the God rotting bastard that
he is, he had LINKED our minds and bodies.  

“
So when he died, a part of
him and part of his power attached to me.  At times he is able
to use it, or to force me to use it or…”  He ran his fingers
through his hair, bowing his head for a moment.  “I don’t know
how it works.  Even though he has apparently used it to save
my life I’d almost rather he’d let me die.  Nobody should be
forced to live with another person in their head.”