Windcatcher: Book I of the Stone War Chronicles (14 page)

Lord Rictor had been furious, executing half a dozen guards and changing the way things worked, to prevent similar uprisings from happening again. Now the scrolls were shipped out immediately, in batches, under heavy guard. They were divided up over a number of locations, so they could be made ready for transport as part of the Stone King’s strategy. The stone ghol’ms were transported over different roads, no more than three at a time. Guards transporting the ghol’ms never transported any scrolls, and vice versa, to keep knowledge of the whereabouts of each to a minimum. Corza was pleased that, so far, they had not experienced any more problems.

Today, however, Corza did not come to check on the manufacturing of the standard ghol’ms; although, he was pleased to see fine progress had been made.

When he finally arrived at the bottom of the stairs, an elderly man hurried up to him. The small posture of the man was enhanced by the arching of his back. He was balding—he only had hair on the sides and the back of his head—and his skin was completely white due to the lack of sunlight. His eyes squinted from looking in the half light of the torches his whole life. His nose was large and made the man look like a burrowing troll from all the old stories. On his hip were some tools, like a hammer and chisels, but also a whip. One look at his scarred hands told any men he was probably well experienced in using it all.

“High General Setra, so good to see you again, sir! Please come, follow me, we can look at all the progress that has been made. I am sure you will be most pleased.”

“Foreman Wertel, I have no time, nor am I in the mood, for pleasantries. I trust you had no complications in the months I was away?”

Rubbing his hands together, the small man quickly answered.

“No, sir, none at all. Sure we’ve got the occasional disobedient slave that refuses to work, but the whip quickly deals with that situation. Those minor details are not worth your trouble, sir.”

“Good, we can skip the normal tour. I see things are well on their way. Do you have any problems with the transports?” Corza asked, while they walked past the first rows of ghol’ms. The rows of stone warriors looked impressive and haunting so close up.

“Well, they can’t keep up with production. More and more statues pile up here, in the main cavern. Sooner or later, we will run out of room. I can barely turn around at my desk as it is,” complained the foreman, “I have sent a request multiple times, asking if the amount of statues per transport could be increased, but it was rejected, every time.”

“Well, let me see what I can do. If the number can’t be increased because of security, I will make sure we get more manpower to increase the number of transports. Now that the main force is back from the march, this should not be a problem. Besides, most of it should be heading south soon anyway.”

“Thank you, sir, it’s much appreciated,” groveled Wertel.

They passed a miner slave as he rested his head on the side of a mine cart, for a moment. Still furious about this morning, Corza grabbed the whip from Wertel’s belt and let the whip crack across the slave’s back, without warning. The man screamed out in agony caused by the unexpected pain, as another four slashes came across his back.

“There,” said Corza, as he gave back the whip, “I feel better already.”

As they walked on, Wertel looked over his shoulder, seeing some guard drag the slave away.

“If the High General is not here on inspection, can I assume you would like to know about your special project?” he asked, with a hushed voice.

“That is precisely why I am here, and I’ve got little time. Some complications have come up, and I need to know if the project is ready to be used out there. So, stop wasting my time and fill me in on the progress you’ve made.”

Wertel quickly took the lead and led them through a number of smaller tunnels to a small wooden door. Taking out a ring of keys that could rival the set of any dungeon keeper’s, he effortlessly located the key and unlocked the door with a loud
clank
. The door opened with a loud squeak. Taking the torch that hung next to the door, he stepped into the dark room.

Corza followed him in, having to duck slightly to get through the door. The room was larger than he expected. As they entered the room, Corza noticed a large wooden desk to the side with some candles, papers and tools scattered across it. In the middle of the room were two large objects, covered by some dirty cloth. Behind the objects was a double door, used to bring anything of such size in. As he walked around the objects in the center, Wertel walked up to the desk and lit the candles to provide a little bit more light. As the darkness was pulled back by the candlelight, steel bars emerged from the edge of the shadows. Corza slowly approached the cages, noticing the two shimmering lights in each cage turning toward him. Stopping one step short of the bars, he turned his head to Wertel.

“Are the specimens still in good health? They seem a little—”

Before the High General finished his sentence, one pair of eyes made a strong leap forward. Slamming into the steel bars, a timber wolf snapped its jaws through the crack between two bars, barely missing Corza’s finger, which was closest. As the first snapped his jaws together a couple of times, trying to rip Corza to pieces, the other wolf let out a loud growl.

Wertel grabbed a steel pipe from the desk and scurried over to the cages, hitting the steel bars and the nose of the wolf, to get it to back off.

“I’d say they’re in perfect health, sir.”

“Well, be careful not to wound them, I need them as healthy as possible. How have the statues come along? And were you able to run a test successfully?”

Wertel hobbled over to the two objects in the middle of the room and pulled off the sheets.

“Please, see for yourself, sir. I believe it is one of my better works.” He even dared to sound a bit proud.

As the sheets slipped toward the ground, two large statues in the shape of timber wolves were revealed. Both statues were identical, in resting posture, lying on their bellies, front paws straight forward and tail looped back along the hind legs. Their stone heads were held high. The differences were clearly seen in the details. It was to be expected when carving something by hand. It had taken thirty days per wolf to carve them out of stone. The details were much more exquisite in comparison to the human ghol’ms.

Corza had determined during original animal testing that the transfer of the life force was easier if the statue resembled the source energy more closely. This had led to an evolution of how the ghol’ms looked, getting more detailed the later they were made. However, Corza had made sure the sculptors always left a certain general look with enough spare stone on the statues, so the ghol’m could form its own body in the final stages of the life force transfer. He just had to accept that a small bit of life force was lost during the transformation process. However, for this special project, he had hoped that by making a more detailed statue of the wolves, the wolves would be easier to control in their ghol’m form.

Both wolves paced back and forth, restlessly in their cages. They did not like the look of their stone counterparts, at all. They had witnessed what happened to the member of their wolf pack, which had been locked up here with them, and recognized the statues for the unnatural evil they represented.

The stone was the same deep black used in the palace and on other ghol’ms. This gave the stone wolves a very ominous look. Wertel had captured the long legs and pointed muzzle perfectly. With their long legs, timber wolves could easily grow bigger than the average height of a human being. It put their sharp flesh-tearing teeth right at face level, which was often very intimidating for anyone facing these beasts. Their strong legs allowed them to easily jump over small walls and other obstacles, often without slowing down their pace.

Their normal prey consisted of the larger species of deer that roamed the wilderness, but they had even been seen attacking larger-than-life bears, if the pack was hungry enough.

A wolf pack hunts together, swapping out the front positions to more rested members of the pack if one tired. Prey could be followed for days, with the wolves following their scent, showing themselves to the prey constantly. Being chased without a moment’s rest, the prey would eventually collapse from exhaustion, making it an easy kill. Corza intended to use that renowned tactic to track down the whereabouts of the dragon egg and to make sure the people responsible for stealing it were torn to shreds.

Wertel saw from Corza’s facial expression that he was pleased. He felt uncomfortable bringing bad news at this point, but it would be much worse to lie about it now and be found out later.

“I am sorry to say the tests could have gone better. The wolf that was sacrificed transferred easily enough into the third statue we made. It thrashed around some while settling into its new stone skin, so I suggest finding a spacious place to do the ritual. The person holding the scrolls was in full command, but make sure no one else comes too close, as it will not spare anyone else stupid enough to approach them carelessly.

“Furthermore, it seems the wolf was unable to track the scented trail we set up. As expected, the nose was unable to pick up any scent. I think the stone wolf still had its old memories or instincts, because it looked thoroughly confused, not knowing how to react. After some time, it seemed to accept things as they were and hunted successful. As long as the prey was in visual range, the wolf used its wits and eyes to seek out and kill the prey.”

Corza slowly walked past the black wolf statue, letting his hand slide along the stone skin.

“That’s unfortunate, but it will have to do. Anything else I should know?”

Wertel gave a wry, toothless smile.

“Don’t lose the scrolls. Their animal instincts take over and they go on a rampage, if they are not controlled by the scroll master’s thoughts, at all times. The human ghol’ms seem to retain a little bit of intelligence and they go dormant, if their scroll is lost and their last task has been completed; but these wild animals are different.”

“What a troublesome flaw.” Corza shook his head in disapproval.

Wertel shrugged.

“It is what it is, nothing we can do about it.” Wanting to quickly change the subject, he asked, “When would you like them to be ready, sir?”

“Right away, we’ll leave first thing in the morning. Take the wolves to the sacrificial chamber and get the scrolls prepared. I want you to hand deliver them to me as soon as they are done. The statues should be loaded up now and sent out on the road toward the west. The transport will have an escort of six guards, which I will personally handpick and send over, right away. They should follow the western trade route and travel throughout the night. Our group will catch up with them tomorrow, after which we will travel together from there.”

“As you wish. If you could please follow me back to the main cave, then I will get things moving along, so they are sent out as soon as possible.”

While they walked back to the main entrance, Corza felt a bit better.

With the wolves and the guards, I should have a strong enough force to break from High General Wayler’s group, if needed. But first things first, I need to find that dragon’s egg; until I do, I can’t risk anyone finding out my true intentions.

I can use Koltar and his men to track down those bastards that stole my egg, and once they have outlived their usefulness, Koltar won’t know what hit him. As for those Shadows, they will be no match for my wolves.

His mouth broke into a sly grin, which immediately triggered a jolt of pain in his bruised neck. Rubbing his neck again, Corza silently cursed the Stone King and hoped his neck would not be too stiff and unpleasant during the morning to ride.

Chapter 5

Lost

“Do you need more firewood?”

Raylan looked up with dreamy eyes and saw Harwin standing next to him with his arms full of dry wood.

“What?”

His mind had wandered while checking on the dragon egg. Ever since they retrieved it, he felt strangely drawn to the egg. Unfortunately, they had little time to actually rest, as the group wanted to stay on the move as much as possible. Tonight was an exception though, everyone needed a well-deserved break to replenish their energy.

Harwin gave a laughing grunt.

“Well, you’re miles away it seems. I said, do you need more firewood…to keep the egg heated.”

“No thanks, it’s pretty filled up already. If you have wood left over though, put it in the wagon, as our stock is running low.”

Raylan made it his task to take care of the egg and to make sure it was constantly kept at a high temperature. The egg was often the topic of conservation since they left the large clearing and the cave they found it in, little more than a week ago. At first, some of them did not want to believe it, but as others in their group had already seen it, Xi’Lao saw no point in trying to hide what it was. Everyone responded by asking lots of questions, but for some reason, Xi’Lao did not provide any detailed information on the subject.

Galen laughed at the explanation and said he would believe what it was when he saw it come out of the egg. Peadar was very curious to learn the details of the dragon’s flight. Having such a bond with birds, it was his natural reaction to make a comparison with the pigeons they had brought. He could scarcely believe such a large creature could go up in the air, but he marveled at the possibility.