The Lord Son's Travels (63 page)

She
nodded, satisfied by the improvement in his mood.
 
“I’m glad I am too.”
 
They returned to camp, where their guide had waited nervously in fear
she had deeply offended the royal couple.
 
They assured her that her continued apologies were not needed.
 
Finally they were able to rest easy for
the night, and rise again early the next day.
 

Chapter 59

They
had no more adventures until they reached the border of Skranteen’s lands.
 
The land began to rise in a steadily
increasing slope as they approached the foothills of the mountains.
 
Paradoxically, as they grew closer to
the evil they knew lay ahead, the land itself grew greener and more
picturesque.
 
High summer was approaching;
the leaves on the trees were thick and vigorous in their growth.
 
The volcanic ash had enlivened the
soil, allowing for a wide variety of plant life to flourish.
 
Animal life had returned to the land as
well; the guide pointed out several species of wildcat and deer from the road.
The slopes of the mountains ahead were bare of vegetation, darkly tinted and
sharp against the rich blue of the sky.
 
A few peaks were dotted by grey and cream streaks of ice and snow, but
not as many as would be expected by their heights.
 
One peak in particular caught Elenna’s fancy.
 
She stopped her mount dead in its
tracks in her astonishment.
 
Adrien
asked her what caught her attention.
 
She gestured with her left hand.

“There's
smoke rising from that peak.
 
I
think that's an active volcano.”
 
He remembered what she had explained earlier about burning mountains.
 
He asked her with some alarm about the
possibility of it exploding again.

"That
peak releases smoke quite often," Serra answered calmly.
 
"We're in no danger."

"I
would love a close up view," Elenna admitted.
 
"Well, not too close.
 
But that is quite a sight." Throughout their long
stretches of monotonous riding, she watched the volcano with avid academic
interest, often pointing out new bursts of ash and dust to her companions with
gleeful amusement.

After
another week of riding, Serra pulled up her reins and halted abruptly in the
middle of the road.
 
She motioned
for her followers to dismount after assurances that she hadn't seen anything
dangerous.
 
She remained on her
feet and waited for her charges to stretch sore legs and take seats in a grassy
spot with a good view to the West.
 
Since the previous afternoon she had grown steadily more nervous, more
cautious as they drew closer to the border.
 
The night before she had not let them light a fire to heat
their meal or themselves in the coolness of the high altitude air.
 
Her attitude was a direct contrast to
the loveliness of the summer scene through which they traveled.
 
The trees, the woods, the number of
small meandering creeks they crossed and crossed again were admired with real
feeling; they appreciated the bubbling and gurgling of the swift waters as they
would an outstanding Bard’s work.
 
Even the insects sounded merry and cheerful as they called back and
forth to each other from beneath the fallen leaves or clutching to the rough
barked branches of the forest.
 
Serra ignored all of the pleasantness, and instead always kept one
anxious eye on the road ahead.
 
Something she observed had made her pause and call this meeting.

“This
is where I will leave you to go forth on your own,” she stated.
 
Her voice was low and fearful; very
different from the brash, fearless guide they had come to know in their
journey.

Adrien
began to protest that she had been assigned to stay with them to the border of
Skranteen’s land.

“It
is here,” she whispered back.
 
Her
eyes stayed on the warm, pastoral scene that had suddenly risen up before
them.
 
He urged her to
explain.
 
“This is the land of the
White Army!” she declared.
 
“The
troops are housed yonder.”
 
They
followed her pointing finger with their eyes, and only saw where the forest
gave way to pleasant grasslands.
 
“Under the ground!” she insisted angrily.
 
“His people do not like living in the light.
 
They have dug out tunnels under the
land and built their cities in the darkness.
 
They hold all of the lands you can see from here.
 
They guard the Keep for their Master.”

 
Silence followed.
 
Adrien abruptly rose to his feet and
left their circle.
 
He hiked ahead
cautiously to the very end of the woods, keeping to the shadows along the road
to avoid detection.
 
Elenna stayed
with the guide, her mind wrestling with the image of thousands of hidden
monsters nearby as she helped Sara prepare their final meal together.
 
When Adrien returned they ate with
shared dim spirits.

Breaking
the quiet he asked,
 
“Where is the
Keep?
 
In the mountains?”

Their
guide shook her head.
 
“No, that is
the Old Keep from the days of the First Battle.
 
He has moved his settlement to a new Keep above the center
of their underground city.
 
They
have lookouts throughout their land; any humans that approach are found and…
dispatched.”

“How
do we cross these lands to reach the Keep?” Elenna wondered out loud the
central concern in all of their minds.

“Not
in the light,” she was answered firmly.
 
“No army in the Eastlands could take that Keep by force, and there is no
way to cross without attracting the interest of at least one of the guards.” A
pause, then, “Your only way is using a disguise to travel underground.”

“We
enter the tunnels, and what, pretend to be monsters?” Elenna demanded incredulously.

Serra
nodded.
 
“With your hoods up and
heads down, if you make your way quietly there is a good chance no one will
notice you,” Serra’s voice was encouraging, though her expression was not.
 
“Some of the monsters are more
humanlike than others.
 
But you
must not attract attention; they will kill you where you stand if they see you
are fully human.”

Elenna
turned to her husband to seek his opinion.
 
He was thoughtful.
 
“Can we reach the Keep from the monster’s warren?
 
How long would it take?”

Their
guide shrugged.
 
“I have never
entered the tunnels.
 
I’ve only
heard tales of a few that have and escaped.”

They
asked for and heard the few stories Serra could share of the maze of tunnels
underneath the fair lands ahead.
 
Most of his warriors, they agreed, were now stationed outside the
settlement of Trees Men, but those remaining were a formidable force against
the two of them.

It
was time for Serra to leave if she wished to make any great distance before
nightfall.
 
Adrien helped her sort
out their packages, allowing her enough supplies to reach her home again in
comfort.
 
Elenna remained in her
seat, a thoughtful expression announcing her intention to stay just as she was
for some time.
 
As they worked,
Serra chatted, feeding Adrien as much information as she could about the land
they were about to enter.
 
She
mentioned the strange liquid the inhabitants used for fuel.
 
This caught Elenna’s attention.
 
She asked the guide to elaborate.
 
Serra’s people, who had always used the
force of their waterfalls to generate their electricity, had investigated the
thick black liquid recently acquired by their hostile neighbor.
 
They had never learned where or how it
was produced, but its usefulness was evident by the large number of wagons
loaded down with barrels of it riding into the country from the North road
everyday.
 

Elenna
bit her lip, and nodded throughout the guide's explanation.
 
Adrien waited for her to voice her
thoughts, but instead she rose to her feet and muttered something about their
disguises.
 
Serra took this
opportunity to take her leave and start for home.
 
She wished them the best of luck and retreated at a much
faster pace than her resigned trudging that morning.

 
When she was gone, Adrien declared, “We
should rest now, and plan to obtain entrance to the tunnels in the morning,
while the majority are asleep.
 
We
will keep watch this evening to find someone opening a tunnel entrance.
 
The talismans cloths are too badly
burned to be effective disguises, but if we keep covered by our traveling
cloaks we should pass well enough.”

“I agree.
 
And we should be able to get reach any location in the
system we want before nightfall.” she replied.
 

He
turned to her.
 
“You have a plan,”
he accused.

 
She shrugged.
 
“Not yet.
 
But I
want to head towards the North road.”

He
agreed readily.
 
“But we will
finish the journey at the Keep.”

Before
the sun set, they set up an observation station nestled in the camouflage of
the last stand of trees.
 
Within an
hour of the rise of the moon, they were rewarded by the emergence of a full
platoon of guards from a entrance only a hundred yards away.
 
The entrances were cunningly concealed;
they would not have noticed the doorway from more than a foot away.
 
Elenna thought briefly of the trapdoor
spiders she had seen on nature shows on TV.
 
About an hour after their appearance, another group ventured
out, each member carrying a poorly woven basket in hand.
 
The monsters aimed directly for the
edge of the woods.
 
Elenna and
Adrien hastily evacuated back from their nest to avoid detection.
 
The group of monsters fanned out in
pairs, each with a basket to collect berries, nuts, and other edibles they
could find.
 
Unlike the guards, who
were heavily armed with human weapons, these were dressed in normal
clothing.
 
A few were smaller in
size, and raced playfully through the fields as the others worked.
 
They remained several hours diligently
gathering until their baskets were full, then reentered the tunnels.
 
Later in the night yet another group
came out to hunt for firewood.
 
Finally as morning approached, a last set of inhabitants entered the
woods.
 
They returned carrying a
bundle of rabbit and other small animals; to the discomfort of the human
observers, none of them carried any traps or other hunting weapons besides their
own claws and sharp teeth.
 
Before
the sun had fully risen, when the morning changing of the guard was expected as
a diversion, Elenna and Adrien covered themselves and their bags the best they
could with their cloaks and followed a few feet behind the hunters to the
tunnel entry.

All
the hunters had to do was lift up the trapdoor by gripping a bit of rope hidden
within the grass, and the door swung up easily.
 
Adrien followed their example, forcing himself to maintain a
relaxed unhurried approach.
 
The hatch
below the door was pitch black; all he could make out was the first rung of a
rough wooden ladder leading down into the darkness.
 
He descended first, hearing more than seeing Elenna
following a few steps behind him.
 
He mentally kept count on his way down, reaching fourteen steps down he
reached solid ground.
 
He moved a
few feet into the gloom, giving her space to step off the rickety ladder onto
solid ground.
 

The
tunnel in which they stood was huge.
 
They could feel the openness above and about them, a slight breeze
offering scant relief from the stench permeating the air.
 
After their eyes adjusted, a few
flickers of fire far down the tunnel to the right gave just enough light to
make out the outlines of objects.
 
There was little shuffles of movement as well.
 
Adrien gripped her elbow and guided Elenna towards that
direction.
 
North, he surmised, if
he had maintained his orientation correctly during his climb down.
 
Elenna slipped something cold and metal
in his hands.
 
It was the talisman
that always pointed to the north.
 
He nodded in relief and gratitude that she had remembered it.
 

Their
eyes adjusted fully to their new environment.
 
Now they could see well enough to understand the layout of
the tunnels.
 
Away from the foot
traffic of the center of the tunnel on both sides were small niches, which were
the residences of the troops and their families.
 
Some niches were larger than others, nearly caves in some
cases.
 
Many were unoccupied; no
doubt their owners were now camped outside of Trees Man.
 
Those now taken were tableaus of
domestication; the small lights they had spotted from the ladder were cooking
fires over which meals were being prepared.
 
Several had children racing around with boundless energy;
others had more solemn gatherings of adults.
 
Neither Adrien or Elenna could recognize their language, but
the essence of their discussions were not difficult to understand.
 
These scenes were no really different
than in any of the villages they had visited during their travels.
 
Any empathy for the monsters in their
hearts, though, was dashed by the understanding that they would be slashed to
death in minutes if their nature as full human was noticed by any.
 
They kept their heads down and hustled at
as fast a pace as would remain unremarkable by the residents.