The Rose and the Skull Read online

  "This way is no good," Meredith shouted. She and Jessica pressed their bodies against another door. It shook under a storm of blows.

  There was a third exit from the kitchen, but in their urgency to hold the first two against the draconians, no one had yet had the opportunity to investigate it. In any case, it seemed their mission was near failure. They'd already lost Lady Gabrielle in the initial encounter, and now Lady Michelle was dying as well. With draconians attacking from two quarters, they could not hold out for long.

  It all came from trusting a gully dwarf. They'd wandered in the dark for hours, it seemed, taking one wrong route after another in the endless caverns that honeycombed the mountain. They'd not seen one door or stair indicating habitation of any sort, and they would have doubted the existence of the castle entirely had they not seen it with their own eyes, perched atop the mountain two thousand feet above the sea. Occasionally they stumbled across the bones of a long-dead fish or the bleached white shell of a crab, in some of the darker, wetter caverns, where the air was stale as though it had indeed been there since the Cataclysm. Strands of glowing algae still clung to the walls, giving off a weird phosphorescence. Once, they stumbled into a rank and fetid pool of sea water, though by their best guess they were by then many hundreds of feet above the sea. The pool stretched away into echoing darkness, bespeaking great size and depth, and the Knights shuddered to think what ancient monsters of the sea might still be lurking in its depths.

  Despite Glabella's misdirections, they nonetheless climbed steadily upward. The sounds of the crashing sea had steadily diminished, and at the far end of one cavern, they came upon narrow stairs delved into the wall. The stairs followed a fault in the stone, past narrow outcroppings of rock that forced the Knights to squeeze by. At one of these places, Valian found a bronze-colored draconian scale wedged in a crack in the wall. He showed it to the others, proof-positive that they were on the right track.

  The stair eventually led to an iron door. The Knights had climbed to it, exhausted and out of breath, finding it curiously unguarded. Lady Meredith called a rest, while Sir Valian cautiously opened the door and peered inside. He reported an empty torchlit corridor beyond.

  Glabella, now confident of where she was, led them through a maze of dark and twisting corridors. They passed doors and passages all along the way, but she strode forward with such assurance, they'd trusted they were being guided to the dungeons where Uhoh was sure to be kept, if he was still alive.

  At last, she brought them to another iron door, lit by only a single smoky torch. It looked exactly like the entrance to a dungeon should look, huge and forbidding, with its ironwork rusted and hanging with dank growths of moss. Upon opening it, they found themselves thrust into the middle of a draconian barracks, with several dozen of the evil creatures caught by surprise, staring back at them. From then on, it was a fighting retreat, and with each moment that slipped by, the hope of rescuing Uhoh dwindled. They began to doubt their own chances for survival.

  Valian had been stabbed, causing him to drop his weapon, and Lady Gabrielle sacrificed herself to pull him to safety. She was cut down from behind by draconian swords. As they reached the kitchen, the draconians brought up archers. The Knights had managed to shut the doors, but not quickly enough to save Lady Michelle.

  Meredith shouted to Glabella, "We need a way out! Check out that other door."

  The gully dwarf was paralyzed with fear. She cowered on the floor under a table, unable to move.

  "I can't abide the thought that I am going to die here, for nothing," Ellinghad shouted. "This was a fool's mission."

  "Look out!" Valian shouted as the third door swung open. Jessica prepared for the worst, while Glabella screamed.

  A gully dwarf wearing a tall white hat entered the room carrying a pottery bowl nearly as big as himself, white gruel caked in his beard. At sight of the Knights spinning round with swords drawn, faces set to meet their death, the gully dwarf dropped the bowl of porridge, turned, and fled the way he'd come.

  "Follow him!" Meredith shouted triumphantly. "Go, all of you. Run. I'll hold this door. The rest of you go. Jessica, don't forget Glabella."

  "I'll not leave you," Ellinghad said. Valian sprinted through the open door. Jessica followed him, the gully dwarf tucked under her arm.

  "You will," Meredith answered. "I'll hold them at this door for a moment, then follow you."

  With a final look of mute protest, Ellinghad Beauseant, Knight of the Sword, dashed after his companions.

  Meredith stepped away from the door, drawing her sword. In moments, the wooden planks cracked. The door burst inward, and draconians poured into the room. Lady Meredith backed into the door. The draconians licked their swords and advanced.

  A shout from the corridor brought them up short. They backed away angrily, making way for the entrance of a huge silver draconian. He was heavily armored and stood a good foot taller than his fellows. He strode into the kitchen, a long, wickedly curved blade in his clawed fist. Seeing only Lady Meredith before him, he laughed.

  "The Lord High Clerist!" he said with apparent delight. "My name is Zen. I wanted you to know that before you die."

  She answered him with the Knight's salute to an enemy. Then, with a battle cry surprising for her small stature, she charged, her sword lancing the air before her, her red hair flying.

  Valian slipped for perhaps the thirtieth time in the refuse and offal that littered the halls. It seemed more like the dark and dirty alleys of some ancient city than the halls of a castle only a few years old, but he was, after all, in the gully dwarf quarter.

  He'd chased the surprised cook for a few hundred yards before losing both the gully dwarf and himself in the maze of twisting passages. The halls of this castle followed no recognizable pattern, and their strangeness and nightmarish quality reminded him of something. The memory fled whenever he tried to grasp it. He tried to backtrack to the kitchen, but the way only seemed to lead him deeper into the heart of a stinking nightmare.

  Hoots and howls echoed through the corridors, and gibberish like the ravings of madmen. The walls narrowed and became more uneven in their spacing, until above him they meshed together, overarching the way like the branches of trees. Occasionally, some warm wet hole opened to the right or left, but as Valian stopped and looked into these, trying to decide his way, he felt eyes staring back at him from the darkness, eyes hungry and at the same time frightened. As his elven eyes grew adjusted to the darkness, he saw the warm, red outlines of their bodies, sitting in huddled groups, shifting nervously.

  With a shock of horror, Valian remembered. Those days and nights and weeks of terror in the twisted and ancient depths of Silvanesti, years ago now. He'd fought his way through, avoiding legions of dragonarmies and patrols of elves, to a place where he knew no one ever ventured anymore. He'd hoped to find some lost or forgotten enclave of elves, some memory of the beauty he'd once belonged to, if only to stand at their fringes unseen, or to die there.

  At last, he'd found them. Hope lifted Valian's heart at the sight of the village through the trees. The war didn't seem to have reached this place. Here no one was preparing for battle or escape. He'd approached slowly, warily, for despite everything, he still bore the stigma of being cast from the light. If seen, these elves still had the right to kill him.

  Some tickling of danger warned him as he'd neared the village, but he'd ignored it, so anxious was he to find contact with his race. As he drew closer, he saw that the elves of the village walked with hunched shoulders and bent backs, and their arms seemed unusually long. No elvish voice was raised in song, only brutish grunts and snarls sounded from their throats. When one turned, as though sensing Valian's presence in the trees, Valian nearly cried out in horror at the sight of the twisted, malformed elf. Long fangs thrust up from his bottom jaw like the tusks of a boar, and his almond-shaped eyes glowed red with hate. His hair, once smooth and silken, bristled like fur.

  Valian was so stricken with anguish that day
, he'd been unable to move, unable to resist, as they gathered round him, grunting, snarling, drooling and touching him with their horrid claws. They grabbed him and lifted him and carried him triumphantly into the village. They brought him to an altar, where wood was piled, wood soaked with tar and oil, and they tied him to the altar, all the while dancing around his prone body. Valian had felt himself outside his own body, as though looking down on the scene from some point high above. He watched them bring torches and light the wood of his pyre, and he watched the flames lick around his body, consume his hair, caress his limbs, sear his flesh.

  He hadn't died. Valian awoke on the forest floor, with the ancient and crumbling stone buildings of his dream village all around him. The village had long been abandoned and forgotten, and the forest had reclaimed it, and Valian awoke with a vision of things to come. As he stood and his hair fell about his face, it was white as ash, burned by the fires of his nightmare.

  Now, apish hands reached out to touch his body, caress his flesh. Small creatures crowded around him, grunting, snarling like ghouls over a fresh grave. Terror awakened in him, but he was able to move, able to respond. Valian lashed out, and the apes leaped screaming back to their dark lairs. Valian fled; he knew not where.

  30

  "Where is Dalian?" Ellinghad shouted as he skidded to a stop beside Jessica. Behind them, Lady Meredith's war cry echoed down the hall. The ring and crash of steel upon steel followed.

  "I don't know," Jessica answered. "By the time I got here, he was gone."

  "He's betrayed us," Ellinghad snarled. "Either that or he's run off to save his own miserable hide, the coward."

  "I can't believe either," Jessica said. "We've just lost him. He'll be back."

  Jessica bent down beside the gully dwarf. Glabella's eye were as round and white as goose eggs. "Which way to the dungeons?" Jessica asked her. "Which way to Uhoh?"

  Glabella's mouth worked, but no sound came out. "Think, Glabella, think!" Jessica shouted.

  The gully dwarf only closed tight her eyes and shook her head.

  Suddenly, the battle at the end of the hall grew quiet. Then footsteps pounded, running. Ellinghad poised, his blade ready. Meredith appeared, bleeding from a dozen wounds. She staggered into them and collapsed, almost falling on Glabella.

  "Lady Meredith!" Jessica exclaimed.

  "What happened?" Ellinghad asked.

  "I managed to close the door. There was a key. It won't hold them for long," she gasped. As though to confirm this, a thundering boom echoed from the direction of the kitchen as the draconians began to hammer down the door.

  "Which way now?" Meredith asked as Jessica bound the more severe of her wounds. "Which way did the elf go?"

  "We don't know. I think he's abandoned us," Ellinghad said.

  "Damn him," Meredith cursed. "We should have known better than to trust an elf."

  Jessica looked at the leader of the Sword Knights in surprise. Never before had Lady Meredith shown racial prejudices. Perhaps it was the stress of her wounds and the imminent danger.

  "What about the gully dwarf? Does she know the way?" Meredith asked. Jessica helped her to her feet.

  "I don't think so," Ellinghad said.

  Meredith roughly grabbed Glabella by the collar of her dress. "Which way?" she snarled. "Tell us now. No more games."

  Glabella only stared in wide mouthed terror. Suddenly, she lashed out, sinking her teeth into the thumb of the Knight. With a scream of pain, Meredith dropped the gully dwarf.

  As soon as she hit the floor, Glabella raced away, screaming, "Slagd! Slagd!"

  "Glabella!" Jessica shouted as she started after her.

  "Wait. Let her go. She's no use to us," Meredith said.

  "Let's just pick a direction and go."

  Without waiting for the others, she stalked away, choosing the opposite way in which the gully dwarf had headed.

  "We came here to rescue one gully dwarf." Jessica muttered. "Shall we leave another behind?"

  Behind them, the kitchen door crashed open, and draconians poured into the hall. Ellinghad ducked as a draconian arrow whistled past his head.

  Jessica and Ellinghad hurried after their designated leader.

  Lady Meredith chose a path which seemed to always take them around a corner just before the draconian archers loosed their arrows. A half-dozen times or more, scores of arrows buzzed angrily though space they had just vacated, or shattered against a wall where they had been standing only moments before. The Knights ran, even though fleeing the enemy was against everything they believed in. All those rules seemed silly now. The only thing to do was to save themselves long enough to save Uhoh.

  After making yet another hair's breadth escape, they found themselves in a hall which ended in a door. There was no other outlet. Meredith tried the door and breathed a sigh of relief when it swung open on oiled hinges.

  "Through here!" she shouted, as draconians appeared once more at the end of the hall.

  Jessica and Ellinghad ducked through the door, and Meredith slammed it shut just as the draconians released their missiles. Meredith threw home a heavy iron bolt. Arrows hammered against the door like hailstones on a slate roof.

  "That ought to hold them for a while," Meredith said with a laugh.

  "For all the good it will do us," Ellinghad said in response.

  They found themselves in a wide, circular chamber whose ceiling was lost in shadows above. In the center of the room stood a low stone slab draped with chains. Opposite the door and dozens of feet above the floor, a narrow balcony jutted from the wall. Heavy curtains concealed the back of the balcony, but torches set in sconces to either side illuminated a short figure draped in dark robes. As the Knights stared up, the figure began to clap, slowly, in mockery of applause.

  "Well done," the figure laughed. "Is this the best the Knights could send?"

  "Alya!" Ellinghad shouted. "Come down here and find out for yourself."

  She threw back the cowl of her robe and shook out her dark hair. "Now I ask you, would that be an honorable fight, Sir Knight? Two against one?" she said.

  "Three against one," Jessica said.

  "Yes," Alya laughed, "but I think the true odds are more like two against two, isn't that right, General Zen?"

  "That's right, Lady Alya," Meredith answered in a deep voice.

  Ellinghad and Jessica spun round and watched in horror as their leader threw back the bolt on the door and swung it open. Draconians poured into the chamber, snarling in anticipation.

  "Lady Meredith!" Jessica cried.

  "At these odds," Alya continued, "I think you might prefer to surrender."

  Ellinghad laughed. "I'll never surrender," he said. "Death first."

  "Lady Jessica?" Alya asked, a note of concern creeping into her voice.

  Jessica swallowed the dry lump in her throat. "Death," she croaked.

  "Well, we can't always have our own way," Alya said. "Grand Master Iulus wants you alive, and so alive you must be taken." She clapped her hands.

  The draconians nearest the door parted, making way for a figure robed in black. He strode into the room and looked up at the balcony as though awaiting an order. Ellinghad and Jessica turned to face this newcomer.

  "Shaeder, I believe you have an opportunity to redeem yourself/' Alya said.

  The figure walked toward the Knights.

  "Get behind me," Ellinghad whispered to Jessica. "When he casts his spell, you come round and attack him before he can recover."

  As the bozak mage lifted his voice in chant, Ellinghad gave the Knight's salute to an enemy, then started his war cry. Before he could do anything, however, his mouth filled with some sticky substance, which also clung to his eyes and covered his limbs. Magical webs engulfed both Knights, binding them completely.

  Valian started from a sleep, with something clutching his leg like a shackle. He lay in a pile of ash, and as he kicked himself free, he realized that the "shackle" was Glabella. The gully dwarf moaned in her sleep
and tightened her grip on his ankle.

  "Wake up," he hissed. "Glabella, wake up!"

  Her eyes flew open, and for a moment she seemed not to realize where she was. She sank her teeth into the calf of his leg. He cried out in pain. With one mighty kick, he sent her sliding through the muck.

  They lay in some side hall. A door some distance down the hall stood ajar, allowing a little light to spill out. Valian rose, staggering, feeling the bump on his head for the first time. His right shoulder and side were also sore. Obviously, in his fear-crazed flight, he'd slammed into a wall and knocked himself out. As he swayed to his feet, groaning in pain, Glabella came crawling back to him.

  "I sorry," she whimpered.

  "Don't worry about it," he said. "How did you find me?"

  "I ask other Aghar. They see where you go," she answered.

  "And the others? The other Knights? What about them?" he asked.

  "I no like other Knights now. I like you best. We stay here," she said as she cuddled up to his leg.

  Gently, he pried her loose. "Glabella, listen to me. We have to find them. We have to find Uhoh and get out of here. What happened to them?"

  "Red hair lady is slagd now," Glabella answered.

  "Lady Meredith?"

  Glabella nodded. "She not Knight anymore, she slagd."

  "A sivak," Valian murmured in horror.

  "They go with her," Glabella said. "Aghar say they caught. But not Glabella. I find pretty Knight. We live here forever." Again she wrapped her arms around his thigh.

  Again, he worked himself free, managing to keep her at arm's length. "We have to find them. Do you know where they have been taken?"

  "No," she said stubbornly.

  At a sound from behind them, Valian spun. An armored figure stood there, peering into the darkness.

  "Valian?" the figure called. "Is that you?"