The Revenge of the Elves (27 page)

The two guards consulted for a moment. “Where did you come from?”

“Mandalor. We were there for two weeks, though we hail from Warton.”

“I’ve haven’t heard of Warton. Why’d you leave it and why are you here?”

“I told you, Sir, we need to refresh our supplies. We left Mandalor because the situation had grown dangerous for us. We are not fighters, my friend,” Premoran appealed, pointing to his mangey companions. “The Master was recruiting for a new campaign and we thought it prudent to leave.”

“Where will you go from here?” the other guard chimed in.

“To Talamar,” Premoran looked up at him.

“Talamar? You’ve not heard?” he asked.

“Heard what, sir?” Premoran responded, eyes wide.

“The city’s no more and its leader is dead,” he said, emotionless.

“Dead?” Premoran looked aghast. “We heard no such tidings.”

“Well, it’s true nonetheless!” the guard responded, unconcerned. “One day and one night. No more. We’ve enough to handle with our own these days.”

The mechanism controlling the gates churned and the big doors opened inward. Premoran led the way and as soon as the tail of Teetoo’s horse passed inside, the gates shut.

“Doesn’t anyone live here?” Giles asked as they made their way down the deserted street. Not a person was in sight and all the windows and doors were sealed.

“Do you see the mark on the door?” Teetoo asked, pointing to a crooked white cross on a doorway to their right.

“A number of the buildings on the main road had them as well,” Alemar replied.

“They’re not ornamental. They mean something far more sinister, I fear,” Premoran said.

“What do you think they stand for?” Giles asked.

“These people are governed by fear and intimidation. Their homes have been chosen for a reason.” There seemed no pattern to them, random as they were.

“Why don’t they resist?” Giles asked.

“Think of our own people,” Alemar reminded him. “They were convinced for so long that remaining isolated was the right path to take.”

“But they never allied themselves with the Dark One!” Giles replied.

“No? Whose side did they serve then?” Alemar asked. The bitter feelings remained.

“Here they know very well who’s in control, yet they accept it. There is a difference,” Premoran said.

“But it’s easy to deceive oneself,” Alemar persisted.

“Hush now!” Premoran dropped his head. “I hear people ahead.”

The sounds of a conversation grew louder as they made their way around a curve in the road.

“She said we need three more! How will we choose another three?” one of the voices asked.

“Either we find them or she’ll take us!” another replied.

“I can’t do it here. I grew up on this street. I know these families. Can’t we go to the other side of town at least?” a third asked.

“So you can pick from my neighborhood?” the first countered.

“That’s why she picked us, you fool! The harder it is for us, the happier she gets.”

When they reached the men, they could not pass easily by, the road was not wide enough. They stopped and waited, shoulders slumped and heads down.

“Hey you!” one of the men shouted at them. “No loitering about here! Go on! Go back the way you came.” He waved them off.

One of the guards spotted Alemar, ugly as she was. He walked over and raised the tip of his sword to her ear, pushing back her hood. The blood rose in Giles’ face.

Premoran slid between them and let the sword rest on his chest. “My sister is deaf. She can’t be of any interest to you. Let us pass, please. We don’t wish to cause any trouble.”

He blanched at Alemar’s ugly face, and then turned to talk to his friends. They argued for a moment and one came forward.

“Where are you going?” he asked.

“We need fresh supplies. The soldiers at the gates accepted our entry and allowed us to proceed. What is it you want with us?” Premoran pleaded.

The soldier looked to his friends again. “Fine. We’ll let three of you pass. You can come get the other when you’re ready to leave.”

“But why? All we want…”

“Don’t question me, old man. The gatekeepers do their job and we do ours. We’re responsible for order in the streets. We don’t tell them who to let in and they don’t tell us how to keep the peace!” he snarled.

“I can take out two of them before they know what happened and you could dispatch the third,” Giles whispered to Premoran.

“Yes, and then we will have the entire town upon us! We can’t lose ourselves in the crowds,” he said, gesturing at the empty street. “We must accede for the moment until I figure out what’s best.”

“You’re not serious?” Giles said.

“No one will be left behind,” Premoran reassured him. “Not for long.” Premoran turned to the soldiers and spread his arm toward Giles. “We’ll do as you request, naturally. He’ll stay with you and we will come back for him within the hour. Shall we find you here still?” he asked.

“Yes, here’s good,” the bolder of the soldiers replied. “But no more than an hour, you hear?”

Premoran shook his head in compliance. “May we pass now?”

“Go ahead,” the guard replied. He couldn’t conceal his smile.

After disappearing behind the first bend in the road, Premoran spun around on his horse. “I fear these soldiers have stumbled upon the alternative to marking another townsman they sought as we arrived. We’ll never see Giles again if we leave him.”

“What’s the plan?” Alemar asked. She knew they weren’t going to abandon him like that.

“Leave it to me,” Premoran said. “Stay here a moment. I’ll be right back.”

Premoran handed the reins of his horse to Teetoo and returned to where the soldiers stood with Giles, brandishing a small pouch in front of him. A few moments later he returned, leading Giles’ horse by the nose.

“What magic did you threaten them with?” Alemar asked when they had regained their side.

“Very powerful stuff indeed!” Premoran replied mischievously.

“They will say nothing, I can assure you of that!” Giles replied.

“Not unless they wish to be shunned by the entire town and driven out into the wilds,” Premoran replied.

“I’m stricken,” he coughed. “Deathly ill. Without my medicine I wouldn’t last more than a few hours!”

“‘Tis sad but true. An awful condition, highly contagious. We’ve been able to control it by giving him these herbs every half hour or so, but without them…” Premoran feigned a tragic expression, but his eyes quickly turned grim. “We’ve been spared for now. Let’s make haste so we don’t find ourselves embroiled in another situation, less easy to extricate ourselves from.”

They walked on, leading their horses down the street. The houses grew shoddier and less substantial, and the sign of the crooked white cross more prevalent.

“They’re hiding from something,” Giles said of the absence of people. Everyone’s mind was on the same subject.

“Many are marked already. Remaining inside won’t help them,” Teetoo said.

“Marked for what?” Alemar asked.

“The soldiers mentioned it was a woman who ordered them to place these symbols on the houses,” Premoran reminded them. “I suspect one of the Possessed.”

Alemar’s heart skipped. Her last encounter with the red-caped women was almost fatal for her. They killed Kalon instead.

“Their eyes belong to my brother.” Premoran’s voice was guarded.

Alemar turned. She heard the noise first but it was too late! A dozen armed soldiers rounded the corner behind them and pressed them forward with their shouts and heckling. Another group charged down the street from the front, trapping them in the middle. Swords drawn, they herded them together.

“Easy,” Premoran whispered. “Don’t provoke them.”

“Drop your weapons!” The largest of the men walked to Premoran and pointed his sword at his nose. “No tricks,” he warned. “Come with us and you won’t get hurt,” he demanded.

Alemar calmed Giles with a look as she pulled her dagger out from her belt and tossed it on the ground.

“That’s a good girl,” he smirked. “Now the rest of you. Strangers aren’t common here, and they’re not welcome!” he stated bluntly.

“I have nothing to surrender,” Teetoo said.

“Neither do I. Unless you want to strip an old man of his only source of support,” Premoran said, leaning heavily upon his staff.

Giles removed his bow from his shoulder and dropped it in front of him along with the quiver and arrows. He drew his sword from its sheath and tossed it to the ground, followed by a slim dagger from his cuff and another he drew from the middle of his back.

“Check him,” the leader ordered the soldier beside him who patted Giles down to the sound of his snarls.

“The roads are dangerous these days,” Premoran explained. “We’d be fools to travel unarmed.”

“If you’re lying to me, you’ll regret it. I’ll slit your throats sooner than throw you in jail,” he grumbled. “Follow us. And don’t try anything funny!”

Chapter Thirty-five

Caroline’s eyes were filled with sand. She could scarcely see anything and when she tried to rub them, they burned and teared. She felt Dalloway next to her, and it soothed her despite her fear.

“Be careful Daly,” she said, blinking out the grains. She pulled a handkerchief from inside of her tunic and dabbed his eyes while he straightened his arms and tested his muscles. “We fell a long way.” She looked backwards. “The sand cushioned our fall. That arch has to be a hundred feet above us now.” The exposed stonework loomed dangerously.

“What about the people you sensed?” The fall hadn’t made him forget for long. “Where are they now?” They struggled to their feet, stumbling on the loose surface.

“It was an animal, not a person. I don’t feel it anymore.” She closed her eyes. “We’re too far. The beast suffered… badly,” her voice wavered. “If I could have spoken to it, maybe I’d know more. The images were awful,” she shuddered. “It was a horse. Its experiences were horrible. Its rider was cruel and the things it witnessed…” she shuddered. “Animals see things differently than we do. They don’t judge. When I speak with them or see what they’ve seen, I know their masters too.” Her voice was hushed, cautious.

“Don’t try again,” he warned her. “I almost lost you, Caroline.”

“I couldn’t help it. But I’m learning. I’m stronger,” she held her chin up, undaunted. “This one’s master was wicked.” She ground one palm against the other, remembering.

Dalloway separated her hands. “If the horse is here, its rider’s probably not far behind. Let’s get moving. We know we’re not alone anymore.” The stakes had changed. They were too exposed here.

“I don’t think whoever was riding that animal felt my presence. I would have known. I would have seen him. But what would bring one of Colton’s hunters here if not for the map?” she asked.

Dalloway pulled on her arm. “Come on,” he replied, sand falling from their garments as they walked. “If this is one of the western gates, we’re headed in the right direction.”
I know we’re headed in the right direction. I’m sure of it.

“Look there!” She pointed to a sea of weathered slate roofs. “Isn’t that the water the sun’s shining on?” Off to the west was an endless expanse of gray. “I’ve never seen the sea, Dalloway.” Her mouth hung open. “Is it always so dark?”

“It looks like it,” he said, following her eyes. It is the sea. It is. “When I went to Merala da for the first time, I had the same reaction. From a distance, it looked as if you could walk on it, and then when you got closer, you could see how unstable it really was.” It was darker than he remembered. “When we get closer, maybe the color will change.”

“It’s everywhere,” Caroline said, awestruck at the vastness of it.

“Deadly too,” his mood changed.
So deadly.

“We don’t need to travel on it. We only need to find the well,” she reminded him.

“Elfin legend has it that we’ll sail the sea when the world comes to an end. I’ve never wanted to go on a ship,” he said. “My brothers made fun of me. I was afraid when we climbed aboard. I thought I’d never again step foot upon the earth,” he admitted.

“The world’s not ending so soon, Daly,” she replied, but her own words made her skin chill. She rubbed her arms with her hands. “Let’s go before they find us.” The novelty passed and reality returned. “We should walk to the shoreline beyond those buildings. Can you see where the land meets the sea?”

Dalloway stared out over the outskirts of the city. “The buildings extend almost to the water. I can see the docks jutting out into the waves,” he described.
Why am I so sure?
“I see something like a bridge running from one of them, but it’s being washed over by the water. It might be broken or ruined, I can’t tell. I see it and then it disappears with the waves.”
It’s a bridge. I know it’s a bridge.

“So let’s go there then.”

He took her hand. “There’s a path over this mound. It looks like it leads to the docks.”
To the docks. The sea.

They climbed up the pile of sand and jogged down the other side of it. When they reached the bottom, they could see the path set with broad stones he saw from above. It was covered in spots, but it wound through the low buildings that lay ahead, and was clear enough for them to follow.

“Come on,” he hurried her along. “These were warehouses. Odelot was a trading city. The ships came in from everywhere and left their cargo here for distribution,” Dalloway explained. How do I know this?

“They’re enormous! This whole city is huge. All these people living together,” she couldn’t imagine it. “And now they’re gone.”

They reached the edge of the first structure they saw from above, and the path continued on beside it into the shadows of the flanking buildings.

“Odelot was one of the biggest, busiest cities one day, and the next it was deserted. No one knows what happened. There were no bodies and no conqueror. Whoever was here at the time died or disappeared along with the city.”
Why is this so familiar? I don’t remember learning so much about Odelot.

“Amazing,” Caroline said, moved by it all. “It feels so strange. Everything’s dead. I sense nothing now, nothing. What about all the ships? If the harbor was such a busy one, wouldn’t there have been ships coming and going all the time?”

“There should have been, but none remained and none ever arrived at other ports with any information. The entire city could have sailed away and not come back,” Dalloway replied.
Someone must have told this to me, but I can’t remember when. Or who.
“The city just died one day, and this is what remained.” And everyone’s gone. His eyes flashed to the water.
Almost everyone.

“It’s inconceivable, isn’t it?” she asked. They walked through the empty marketplace and deserted storage buildings, keeping to the shadows… but not too close to the walls. “All of the people gone.”

“I don’t understand it either. There aren’t any signs of war, or fighting. The city’s untouched, but the people are gone, and the animals. Everything alive is gone!”
Not everything
, he said to himself and he recoiled at his own thoughts.
Where are these ideas coming from? I’ve seen this before. But how is this possible?
He kept his thoughts to himself.

The city was unusual enough when they first entered it, but this area was even stranger. Most of it was still exposed, and though the black sand was everywhere, it was more ephemeral and less substantial here than in the city proper, finer, more powdery. It wafted over everything and coated the surfaces with an iridescent shadow, but it didn’t bury the structures as thoroughly as it did before. They kept moving toward the sea.

This path. I’ve walked this path. No! I couldn’t. I couldn’t.
He looked away from Caroline. His eyes would betray him.

Wooden crates and storage bins were piled up wherever they looked. Empty wagons, harnesses hanging limp in the vacant spaces in front of them, stood motionless on the streets up and down the docks. Doors swung open and shut noiselessly, revealing glimpses of the insides of the buildings, covered in blankets of shimmering black particles. A breeze stirred the sand and the sand spiraled in the air.

They reached the sea wall. The hulks of a hundred ships, crumbled upon themselves and sunk into the shallow waters where they had been anchored, framed the horizon. The beams and masts poked the sky in all directions, like the skeletons of dead and broken animals. Disintegrating ropes hung from thick posts on the shore and dangled in the lapping water.

“If we step on any of those docks…” Dalloway pointed to a wooden frame that jutted out into the sea, “…they’d turn to dust at the first touch.”
And fall into the sea. What’s in the sea?
he wondered.
Who’s in the sea?
He couldn’t stop the images.

“They would,” Caroline agreed. She looked toward the center of the city.

“What is it?” Dalloway caught her glance. “Is someone there?”

“I don’t know,” she replied, uncomfortable. “I don’t think so.” Her eyes lingered on the hill behind them. “Didn’t you say you saw something before that looked like it was solid?” She turned away and stepped forward again.

“I thought I did,” he replied.
It’s there. It’s there under the water. I know it.
“But I don’t see it anymore. Maybe the tide’s coming in and covering it over.”
I’ve seen this tide come in. A killing tide.

“No, it’s going out. Look at the beach.” They could see the drying sand as the water flowed out. “Where did you see it? To the left or to the right?” Caroline asked, worried, but he didn’t answer. “Daly? Are you okay?” She reached out to him.

“To the right. Over there,” he pointed.
Can’t let her know.
He stood up straighter.
What’s going on? This is like a dream.
“You don’t sense anything, do you?” he asked, forcing the words.

“No. And you don’t see anything, do you?” her hand trembled and she pressed it against her side.

“No. If something moves, we’d spot it easily, unless it moved with the same rhythm as the sand blows. But we’d better keep our wits about us.”
My wits! I’d better keep my wits. What’s happening to me?

Caroline looked out at the water and her face soured. “It’s so sad.”

The motion of the waves coming and going so steadily, taking with them more and more of the city, more and more of the past, was depressing. He could see her reacting to it. Could see it in her face. The water prevailed. It pounded the shore, relentless, cruel and unfeeling.

“I think it was the sea that swept over the city and took everything away with it,” she said dreamlike.

“How could the water take only the living and leave all the other things behind? It has no mind of its own.”
But it does. I feel it. She’s right… she’s right. Must guard my feelings.

“Maybe something possessed it, took control of it. Maybe it did have a mind and a will for that one moment.”

“Nothing’s strong enough to do that.”
Nothing?
He made himself speak calmly. He wouldn’t frighten her more now. “No wizard can command the seas.”
Was there someone? Who did this? What did this?

Caroline’s hand shielded her eyes. “Why would the earth turn against this place? What did they do to deserve this?”

“I wish I had an answer, Caroline, but I don’t. Maybe they all wanted to leave.”
No. They didn’t. They didn’t want to die. None of them wanted to die.
He heard the screaming in his head.

“Could the well have something to do with it? Has anyone visited it since Odelot… since this happened?” she asked.

“No,” he replied without thinking. He knew no one had come back. He knew. “There would have been no reason to. People avoid this city.”

“What’s so special about this well then? Why do we have to throw the map down it? We never asked that. Where does it lead to? Is there something terrible down there? In the water?” she asked. She dropped his hand and her arms hung at her side as she stared into the sea.

“The water won’t hurt us.”
It won’t. Not us. Not…
“Let’s just find the well. We’ll know what to do then. I’m sure we will,” he replied. “I saw the jetty over there. Come on, walk faster. The path will take us right to it,” he urged. Right to it.

They jogged down the road until they reached the dock. Dalloway stared out at the water. “There it is! I see it. It’s mostly underwater. When the tide goes out we’ll be able to walk on it.”
I walked on it. I waited for the tide, and then I walked on it.
He remembered. He saw the rocks. He was here before.
But I couldn’t have. It wasn’t me. These aren’t my memories. They belong to someone else. To… to…. Sidra? Sidra?
The truth hit him. She’d been here . His heart beat fast, hard.

“Where does it lead? What if it strands us out in the water? Can you see anything, Daly? Tell me.” She tugged on his arm.

“I think so,” he replied, squinting his eyes. “There’s a building at the end, a domed building out in the water.”
It’s the well. She saw it. Sidra saw it.

“That must be it!” she said, excited. “That must be the well.”

“The tide’s going out. We have to wait.” He was certain now.
Like she waited. The tide went out and the well rose up. And then the tide came back in…
“Duck behind here. If anyone’s here, they won’t be able to see us,” he said and reached for her hand. He sat against one of the posts the ships tied themselves to when the city was still alive. Their bodies disappeared behind it. He pulled his knees up to his chest. Caroline sat down in front of him and leaned against his legs. He wrapped his arms around her.

It won’t be long.
He knew.