The Giant Among Us (33 page)

“I saw him speaking with the frost giant chieftain,” Tavis replied. “Now you must tell me-has he returned to the castle?”

Brianna looked away, and in a distant voice she said, “You must… be mistaken.”

Tavis squinted at her, trying to clear his vision. He could not see well enough to judge her expression, but he guessed her eyes would seem vacant or glassy. Her voice certainly sounded unsure and stilted, almost as though the words were spilling from her mouth on their own.

“I’m not mistaken.” The scout waved his hand over his singed body. “Arlien’s the one who did this to me.”

Brianna rose. “You… why are you lying?”

“Listen to yourself, Brianna.” Although he had to speak loudly to make himself heard over the battle din outside, Tavis kept his voice calm and reasonable. “I’m a firbolg-you’d hear it if I were lying.”

The queen backed away, trembling and staring at the floor, shaking her head and mumbling to herself.

“It’s Arlien. His magic is confusing you.” The scout motioned for her to come over to him. “I can help you.”

“N-No. I need no … I don’t need your help.” Brianna turned toward the door. “I have to go.”

“To where? Arlien?”

As he spoke, Tavis swung his legs around and stood. He took three steps, then he realized he was trying to run on mushy lumps of flesh. He glanced down and saw black, swollen masses of toes and insteps where his feet should have been. Two searing waves of agony shot up his legs.

“Forgive my rudeness, Majesty.”

Tavis threw himself forward, clasping Brianna’s shoulder with one hand and grabbing the ice diamonds with the other. His fingers instantly blanched to a pallid, frozen white, and searing coldness shot up his arm. The scout did not care. He forced himself to clench the gems more tightly, then yanked the necklace off the queen’s throat Brianna whirled around, pulling free of Tavis’s grasp. The mushy-footed scout fell to the floor.

“How dare you!” the queen hissed. Her violet eyes had gone almost black with anger. “What are you doing with my ice diamonds?”

“They’re enchanted,” Tavis explained. He continued to hold the necklace, and the coldness became an icy, stinging numbness. The feeling was similar to the one he had experienced when Bodvar had deadened the pain in his injured toe, save that it was a dozen times more chilling. “Say my name.”

Brianna looked confused. “Your name?” she asked. The anger was fading from her eyes, but any sparkle of wit had yet to creep back into them. “Whatever for?”

“You loved me once,” Tavis said. “Try to remember.”

“Loved you?” she scoffed. “You’re my bodyguard! Now I know where Avner gets his crazy ideas.”

It did not matter to Tavis that Brianna’s forgetfulness had been caused by Arlien’s magic, her words made him feel tired and weak and defeated. If she could not remember the emotions they had shared, then she remained under Arlien’s spell.

The scout shook his head. “It’s just as well that you’ve forgotten,” he said. “Love between us could never be.”

“Now you’re coming to your senses.” Brianna pointed at her ice diamonds. “So you will return my jewelry.”

She reached for the necklace, but Tavis pulled it away. Even if the diamonds were not the source of the queen’s enchantment, the fact that she was wearing them now suggested that the necklace supplemented Arlien’s hold on her mind. The queen was hardly the type of woman to wear such gaudy jewelry into battle.

“I’m sorry, I can’t return your necklace,” Tavis said. The hand holding the ice diamonds had gone so numb that he doubted he could release his hold if he wanted to. “That would be a violation of my duty to you.”

“I’m your queen!” Brianna spat “I name your duty!”

“When your mind is clear, yes,” he replied. “But not when your thoughts are chained by a spy’s magic.”

A dull flash appeared somewhere deep behind Brianna’s eyes, then the anger slowly faded from her face. She gaped at Tavis with an expression that seemed as lost as it did suspicious. The scout locked gazes with her. They stared at each other for a long time, until a set of heavy footsteps came pounding up the corridor. Someone rapped on the door, and the queen looked away from Tavis.

“Enter,” she called.

The door swung open. In the corridor outside stood a squat soldier with a curly red beard. His tabard was so besmirched by soot that Tavis could barely make out the White Wolf badge of his company.

“Majesty! What are you doing here?” In his excitement, the soldier forgot to bow. “The frost giants have frozen the channel, and even now they’re coming across with a battering ram. The main gate will fall soon. Now is the time for your special plan-“

“Special plan?” Brianna interrupted. “What special plan?”

“The plan that Avner said-” The soldier stopped as soon as he spoke the youth’s name. He closed his eyes in exasperation, then shook his head violently. “Damn that boy! Why would he lie about such a thing?”

“Tell us what he said,” Tavis commanded.

The soldier glanced down at the scout, but if he was surprised to see the queen’s bodyguard sitting helpless on the floor, his face did not show it. “The swine told us that Queen Brianna had a special plan to turn the giants back,” the man explained. “He sent me to Prince Arlien-“

“Then Arlien’s here?” Tavis demanded. He braced his hands on a chair seat and pulled himself to his feet. “Arlien is in the castle?”

The man nodded. “He’s with Earl Cuthbert, on the windward wall-at least until it collapses,” he confirmed. “That’s where Avner said to send…”

The soldier let his sentence trail off, for Brianna’s face had gone pale. She was slowly backing across the room, her gaze fixed on the empty air.

“Milady?” Tavis asked. He started to stumble toward her, but stopped when her expression changed to one of fear. “What is it?”

Brianna shook her head, freeing herself of whatever it was that had gripped her mind. “It’s the prince,” she admitted. “There’s something about him.”

Tavis nodded. “There is indeed,” he said. “But I’ll protect you. That’s my duty.”

The queen blinked several times, then ran a doubtful gaze over Tavis’s battered body. “You’re hardly in condition to perform that duty-or any other.”

“But I can-if you’ll lend me your ice diamonds,” Tavis said, tightly gripping the necklace. “They’ll numb my pain.”

“But they were a gift-“

“From a man you fear,” Tavis said. When Brianna frowned and started to object, the scout quickly interrupted. “Don’t deny it. I can see in your eyes that he frightens you. How can you value any gift of his?”

A confused expression came over Brianna’s face. She looked away and forced herself to shake her head. “I suppose I shouldn’t,” she said. “You may borrow the diamonds.”

“Thank you, Majesty,” Tavis sighed. “Now we can defeat the prince.”

The scout sat in a chair and rubbed the cold stones over his anguished feet. As the icy numbness began to replace the searing agony in his feet, he motioned the red-bearded soldier over.

“I want you to take a message to Captain Selwyn.”

*****

Basil painted the last line of his rune, then raised the silver chalice to admire his work. “A true work of art, if I say so myself,” he said. “My thanks for providing such excellent material, Avner.”

The youth gave a casual shrug. “I used to find stuff like that all the time.”

They were in the small chamber where Basil had originally been confined. Avner sat in the windowsill, keeping an eye on the battle outside. Although he could not see over the inner curtain, the youth could tell by the number of refugees streaming through the inner gate that the giants had broken through the outer curtain.

“I don’t understand why you needed a cup,” Avner said, continuing to watch the inner gate. “What are you going to do, crush the ice diamonds and make Brianna drink them?”

“Oh, dear me, no!” the verbeeg replied. “Where’d you get an idea like that?”

“You said you were going to reverse the love magic,” Avner said. “And the magic’s in her necklace.”

Basil shook his head. “That’s what you’re supposed to think.”

“Supposed to think?” Avner asked. “Says who?”

“Says the Twilight Spirit,” Basil explained. “His real name is Lanaxis, by the way.”

A deafening boom sounded in the front bailey, then Avner saw the head of a frost giant’s axe rise briefly above the inner curtain.

“What are you talking about, Basil?” the youth demanded. “Who’s this Lanaxis?”

“I wish I had the proper folio-but I’m sure the earl has returned it to his library by now,” Basil said. “I’d read it to you. You might find it quite interesting.”

“I’ll settle for the short version.”

Basil nodded. “I thought you might.” The verbeeg cast an annoyed glance toward the battle outside, then raised his voice like an orator speaking over the din of a storm. “It seems that many millennia ago, before the first human kingdoms arose, this part of the world was ruled by an empire of giants known as Ostoria. The kings of this realm were the firstborn of each race of giants, immortal sons born directly of Annam the All Father and Othea the Mother Queen.

“Unfortunately for these kings, a marital dispute between their parents resulted in the creation of the Endless Ice Sea, which promptly began to swallow their lands. Needless to say, this upset the giant kings, so they decided to destroy the glacier. But their mother, Othea, heard about the plan and forbade her sons from carrying it out.

“So Lanaxis, the first titan, and Julien and Arno, the first ettin, poisoned her. Unfortunately, they inadvertently poisoned most of their brothers as well.”

“Most?” Avner asked. Somewhere outside, a chorus of screams announced the destruction of a catapult crew.

“All except one, and he’s of no consequence to us,” Basil clarified. “What is of import is this: before Othea died, she sentenced Lanaxis and the ettin to live in the twilight of her shadow for as long as they wished to remain immortal-and so they have.”

“That’s where the Twilight Vale is,” Avner surmised.

Basil nodded. “But now, the ettin has sacrificed his immortality to kidnap Brianna.”

Avner frowned. “What about Tavis?” he demanded. “Doesn’t he know about the golden arrow-?”

“The ettin knows,” Basil interrupted. “That’s why he isolated us in this remote castle, where only a great scout stood any chance of summoning help. Then, once Tavis was out of the way, the ettin made his attempt.” The verbeeg smiled very proudly at this point. “I stopped him.”

“Good for you,” Avner said. At another time, he might have asked Basil to elaborate. “I still don’t see what that has to do with the ice diamonds.”

“You’ve never played Wyverns and Wyrms, have you, my boy?” Before Avner could answer, the runecaster continued, “You see, to win, you must guess the opponent’s plans. So a good player, knowing that the other player will try to figure out his plans, always plants false clues.”

“And that’s what Arlien did to us.”

“Exactly,” Basil said. “Lanaxis has had a very long time to learn the game of Wyverns and Wyrms-thousands and thousands of years. The ice diamonds were a decoy. The necklace seems to have a certain deadening effect on Brianna’s emotions, but the real magic is in the potion that Arlien’s been feeding her. We were lucky to find him out when we did.”

Avner nodded. “Fine,” he said. “But I still don’t get what they want with Brianna. Giving up your immortality is an awfully high price to pay for a woman-even a queen.”

“But not for someone who can bear a king that will restore your lost empire,” Basil said.

“The giants think Brianna can do that?” Avner gasped. He was still watching the inner gate.

Basil nodded. “And they may be right. You see, when Othea died, she was still carrying Annam’s last unborn son….”

Avner did not hear the rest of the explanation, for his attention had been captured by a pair of armored figures climbing through the mandoor of the inner gate. One of them was wearing a distinctive horned helm.

“We’re out of time,” the youth reported. “Arlien’s coming, and Cuthbert’s with him!”

As the youth spoke, an extremely long wooden arrow arced away from the keep, apparently fired from a window one floor below. The shaft hissed across the ward in the blink of an eye, then bounced off Arlien’s magical armor without causing any harm.

“Tavis is awake!” Avner yelled.

Basil rose to his knees and stuck his massive head into the window, nearly crushing the youth against the sill. Another wooden arrow hissed away from the keep, but the prince and everyone around him were already scrambling for cover. The shaft missed its target cleanly and lodged itself in the gate.

“But Brianna couldn’t possibly heal him until her mind is clear!” Basil objected. “He can’t be in any condition to fight!”

“As long as he can crawl, Tavis can fight,” Avner replied. “I just don’t know if he can win.”

A third arrow arced across the ward, this time glancing off one of Arlien’s pauldrons. The prince watched the shaft clatter to the cobblestones, then rushed through the entrance to the nearest gate tower and disappeared from sight. Through the tower, Prince Arlien would have access to the ramparts of the inner curtain and, eventually, to the keep itself.

Earl Cuthbert reacted more slowly, simply bracing himself against the wall of the gate tower and staring toward the keep as if he couldn’t quite comprehend what was happening. When no more arrows came arcing across the ward, he finally seemed to recover from his shock. He waved a dozen soldiers over and tried to follow Arlien into the gate tower, but the door did not open. The earl spun around, leading his small company across the ward toward the dungeon tower.

“Basil, there’s a secret tunnel in that tower.” Avner pointed toward the earl’s destination. “I think it leads to the keep. Arlien and Cuthbert will trap Tavis between them!”

Basil furrowed his brow. “We can’t know what Cuthbert intends, but I suppose we must assume the worst.”

The verbeeg pulled his massive head back into the chamber, then thrust the silver chalice into Avner’s hand. “Take this to Arlien’s room. Somewhere, you’ll find a vial or flagon filled with a magic potion. Pour that into this goblet and have Brianna drink it. Then tell her to await Tavis in the temple.”