"In here!" he hissed at Bellizen, pulling her through an open door into a storage room filled with Druid cloaks and soft slippers.
The sounds of pursuit already drawing near, he shut the door quietly behind them. He slid the locking bolt into place and looked around wearily. It was just another in an endless series of rooms into which they had fled and tried to hide. This one had a connecting door that led to a second room, and after determining there was no other way out of the one they were in, he took Bellizen with him into the second and locked its door, as well.
The room was tiny, a chamber he had never seen before. It had no other door than the one they had come through. A single narrow window was set in the far wall. When he crossed to open it, he found himself peering out at the north wall and the woods beyond. They were five stories up, and the wall dropped straight down.
He looked at Bellizen, who stood waiting for his assessment. "They might not think to look here."
But they already had. He could hear them at the door of the first chamber, trying to break through.
Eventually, they would. Then they would break through the second door.
He scanned the room from wall to wall, from floor to ceiling, and then looked out through the window again to see if he had missed anything. But there was no help to be found anywhere. They were trapped.
Bellizen read it in his eyes and nodded. He walked back to her. "I won't let them take me," he said. "I know what will happen if they do."
She nodded, her pale, round face calm, her gaze clear and steady. "I won't let them take me, either."
"But they will take us," he said. "There's too many of them. We'll be overwhelmed."
She gave him a small smile. "Not if we don't wait around for that to happen."
She reached for his hands and led him over to the window. She looked out into the afternoon, and then stepped up onto the windowsill. "Come up with me, Trefen."
He did so, deliberately keeping his eyes on her face, refusing to look down. He stood with her in the opening, holding her hands, feeling the cool wind blow over him in a soothing wash.
In the room beyond, the door began to splinter and break.
"It's only a short jump," she said. "It won't take long."
"I wish we could be here when our mistress returns," he said. "I would like her to know how much she means to us."
"Someone will tell her," she replied. She glanced back at the door to their room. "Are you ready?"
"I think so," he said.
He took a deep breath. They waited quietly, listening to the sounds without, to the breaking down of the door in the far chamber and then to the thudding of booted feet as the Gnomes rushed to the door that led into their room.
"It helps that you are with me," he said softly.
Bellizen gave him a small smile.
Then a horn sounded, its wail deep and ominous, reverberating off the walls and through the rooms of the Keep. Shouts rose from below, and abruptly Paranor came alive in a new and terrible way.
Outside their door, the Gnomes turned and ran, abandoning their efforts. Trefen Morys and Bellizen stared at each other in disbelief, and then they looked out the window where the sounds of activity were loudest.
Thousands of Rock Trolls were striding out of the trees, armored giants forming up battle lines at the gates to the fortress of the Druids.
Twenty-Seven
Grianne Ohmsford took a quick step back as the dragon settled into place on the flats, its wings folding against its huge, scaly body. Steam rose off its back in clouds, and she could feel the heat of it from fifty feet away. The dragon flexed and undulated from head to tail, the spikes that ridged its back shivering like great stalks of grass blown in a wind. It coughed once and then exhaled a huge gout of fire and smoke.
An eerie silence settled over the landscape, and it felt to her in that instant as if everything living had disappeared from the earth save the dragon, the boy, and herself.
Then the head swung toward her and the maw parted to reveal rows of blackened teeth. The stench of its breath sent her backwards another few steps. Its yellow eyes narrowed and fixed on her.
Except they weren't fixed on her, she realized suddenly. They were fixed on Pen, who was standing next to her.
"It's the darkwand," he said quietly. "It's fascinated by the glowing runes."
He was right. The dragon had settled down into a comfortable crouch and was staring intently at the staff. The runes carved into its surface were pulsating with hypnotic consistency in the gray mistiness of the afternoon.
"It's been following me ever since I arrived," Pen said.
She blinked at him. "You've encountered it before?"
"Twice." He looked chagrined. "The first time was after I had walked into the passes leading down from the heights where I came into the Forbidding. I fell asleep, and it was there when I awoke, staring at me.
Or at the staff. I couldn't get rid of it at first, but finally I did. I thought I was done with it, but yesterday it reappeared here on the flats while I was trying to reach you. It came to my rescue, actually."
"Your rescue?" She couldn't hide her disbelief.
"I was trying to find somewhere to spend the night and I wandered into a nest of Harpies. They wouldn't let me out again. They were going to eat me. But the dragon reappeared and ate them, instead."
He saw the look on her face and shook his head. "It doesn't have any interest in me. It doesn't care about me one way or the other. It's the runes." He glanced over at the dragon, which was watching them contentedly. "Something about watching the glow of the runes makes it happy. Or fascinates it. I don't know, Aunt Grianne. I just know that I can't get rid of it."
"Well, you managed to do so twice now," she pointed out.
"It was the wishsong magic," he said. "It surfaced after my bonding with the darkwand, but it was the dragon's appearance that gave me a reason to test it. I didn't know if the magic would work, but I was desperate. So I tried it out. I used it to send images of the runes off into the distance, like a lure. The dragon went after them, and I escaped."
He paused for a moment, frowning. "The second time it was too busy eating the Harpies to pay much attention to me. I just slipped away. But I guess it came looking for me."
"I guess it did." She looked at the monster, at its huge bulk and great, hooked claws and muscular body.She stared into its yellowed eyes and found them glazed and unfocused. A dragon mesmerized by bits of light-she would never have believed it. "Can you get rid of it now?"
"I don't know. I can try."
He began to hum softly, connecting with the wishsong, and as he did so the runes of the darkwand danced in response, growing brighter and more active as the music increased. Soon their glow was racing across the length of the staff in ever-changing and increasingly complex patterns. She glanced at the dragon. It was staring at the staff, satisfaction and delight mirrored in its lidded eyes. It was sitting up straight, head bent forward, as still as if it had been carved from stone.
Then the runes began to cast their images into the air, a kaleidoscope of fire bits whirling this way and that. The images spun and wove together, leaving tiny trails of light in the wake of their passing. The dragon's jaws widened, and its breath came in grunts and snorts. Claws dug into the earth, and its tail coiled and uncoiled rhythmically. The images danced toward it, closing on it like tiny fireflies, then leapt away into the sky, speeding off into the horizon, a long line of them, beckoning with their comet light.
But the dragon didn't move. It sat watching them intently for a moment, then turned back to Pen and the staff once more.
Pen kept at it a few moments longer then gave up. "It's not working," he said, breaking off with a tired gasp. "I don't understand. Before, it would have flown after the images. Now it's only watching them."
Grianne studied the dragon a moment. "It's learned that flying after the images doesn't do it any good.
The images don't last. It's figured out that the source is the staff and that staying close to the staff is the best way to keep the images coming." She shook her head. "It's a brute, but it isn't stupid."
They stared at the dragon in silence. The dragon stared back. In Pen's hand, the darkwand continued to glow and its runes to dance and pulse.
"What are we going to do?" Pen asked finally.
Grianne didn't know. She could use the wishsong's magic, but she was afraid of the reaction she would trigger. If she didn't kill the dragon, it would be on them in a heartbeat. Even if she did kill it, using so much magic would draw the Straken Lord to them like a beacon of firelight in darkest night. Either result would be horrendous.
She was beginning to think she wasn't going to be given a choice in the matter when a strange, barking cough sounded from somewhere in the distance, off toward the Dragon Line. It was rough and made her think of scraping metal and of old saws cutting green wood. She flinched in spite of herself.
But the dragon sat up immediately, head swinging away from the darkwand and its glowing runes, eyes peering out toward the sound.
Several minutes passed, and no one moved. Then the sound came again, farther away this time and more to the east. The dragon's head swung toward it, lifting alertly. It huffed, and steam poured out of its nostrils. When the sound came a third time, the dragon roared with such ferocity that Grianne and Pen dropped to their knees in shock.
Seconds later, the monster was airborne, winging away in the direction of the sound, flying off without a backwards glance. "What happened?" Pen breathed in confusion.
Grianne shook her head. "I don't know, but let's not stand around talking about it." She glanced over.
"Can you do something to quiet those runes? Can you stop them from glowing? If it comes back, I don't want the staff to help it find us."
"I'll try," he said. He slipped off his cloak and wrapped it carefully about the darkwand so that the glow of the runes was hidden. "There," he said, satisfied.
They began walking again, heading toward the mountains, changing direction just enough that they were moving more north than west. More than once, Grianne peered off into the distance in the direction the dragon had taken, but there was no sign of it. No more than a mile ahead were hills that would offer them better cover. If they hurried, they would reach the hills before the dragon decided to come looking for them.
She wondered how far it was to where they could try to get back through the Forbidding. She glanced skyward. Night was approaching.
"Pen, why do the runes continue to glow even when you're not using the wishsong?"
He shrugged. "They just do. They were glowing that first morning when I woke and the dragon was sitting there. They respond to me in a way that doesn't involve me telling them what to do. I'm not even sure how much control I have over them. Not much, I think."
Odd, she thought. The magic of the wishsong did not have a history of independent response. It came only when summoned and did only what it was asked to do. Its behavior here must have something to do with Pen's bonding with the darkwand, with the melding of two magics. In some way, the wishsong had developed the ability to activate itself, to respond to the boy's needs even when the boy wasn't aware of exactly what they were.
Her magic, she thought, though far more powerful than his, had never been able to do that.
They had walked until they were almost into the hills when Weka Dart reappeared, arms flailing excitedly as he sprang out from behind a stand of heavy brush.
"Did you see? Did you see?" He jumped up and down and cackled as if gone mad. "It was completely fooled! I told you I would protect you, Straken Queen! I could see what would happen if I did not act, and so I used my brain and tricked it!"
She realized he was talking about the dragon. "What did you do, Weka Dart? What was that sound?"
He shrieked with laughter. "A mating call! What better way to get its attention than to give it something more important to think about than the two of you!"
"You know how to give a dragon mating call?"
"I was Catcher for Tael Riverine a long time! I learned how to give many kinds of calls! I would have been a poor Catcher otherwise, and I was the best that ever was! Did you like it? You had no idea what it was, did you? Did it make you wonder if maybe something was dying? That's how dragons sound when they're in love!" He danced about wildly, and then started away. "Hurry, come, come! We have to reach the Dragon Line by nightfall! We need to keep moving!" He wheeled back a moment. "It was good that I was close by and watching out for you, wasn't it? I saved you both!"
Then he was off again, racing into the distance, a small, crook-limbed blur against the haze.
Grianne stared after him and thought in despair,There must be a way.
When the battle horns sounded, Kermadec was crouched in the shadow of a half-wall atop the gatehouse where Atalan and the other Rock Trolls were hiding. He hesitated only long enough to make certain he was not mistaken about what was happening, then leapt from his place of concealment to the floor below and raced for the gatehouse door.
After leaving Trefen Morys and Bellizen, the Trolls had made it down from the parapets and found their way to the base of the north wall and the gate that Grianne had always kept open for meetings.
But the gate was closed and sealed, and Kermadec could tell at a glance that it would take too much effort and make entirely too much noise to force it. Someone had taken a good deal of time and trouble to make certain that it would not be used again. More than likely it had been discovered by Shadea and her allies after they had dispatched the Ard Rhys into the Forbidding and assumed control of the Keep.
Shadea would have been quick to recognize its significance.
So for the better part of two hours, the Trolls had hidden in the gatehouse next to it, a less-than-satisfactory location given what they were now faced with doing, but one that was unlikely to be visited anytime soon. But, with the gate of choice stoutly sealed, Kermadec and his Trolls would have to breach another gate. Since the next closest gate was some distance from where they hid, there was every possibility that they would be spotted long before they reached it.
There was nothing they could do about that. The only way the Trolls were going to take Paranor was by breaching the Druid defenses from the inside. That meant seizing and holding a gate long enough for the Trolls outside the walls to get inside.
Kermadec burst through the gatehouse door. All around him, the fortress of the Druids was erupting in a frenzy of wild shouts and charging men.
"They've arrived," he informed the other Trolls, putting his back to the door and facing them across the tiny, shadow-streaked room.
Atalan's face was a mask of excitement. "Now we'll see how strong these walls really are!" he hissed.
"Let's go!"
"Not yet." His brother blocked his way. "Give it a moment more. Let them get to the walls and settle in place. Let them all be looking at what threatens from without so they won't be looking at us. Then we'll take them."
Atalan came right up against him. "Why wait, brother? Confusion serves us better than it serves them.
Delay is for cowards and weaklings. We should take them now!" Kermadec held his ground, his gaze steady. "You are too impatient, Atalan. You rush to do everything too quickly."
Atalan spit. "If I am too impatient, you are too cautious. You delay everything too long. Move more quickly, and we might have better success. Are we here to help the Ard Rhys or not?"
"Don't push too hard on me," Kermadec said softly. "And do not question my commitment to the Ard Rhys. It is not your place to do so."
"Shhh," Barek hissed at them. He was standing at the shuttered window, keeping watch as dozens of Gnome Hunters charged past on their way to the parapets. "You'll be heard if you keep this up!"
The brothers faced each other a moment longer, then Atalan turned away with a shrug. "You are Maturen, Kermadec. You are leader. The responsibility for what happens here is yours. Who am I to question you?"
He slouched back to the far wall and slumped down, staring at nothing. Seething with anger and embarrassment, Kermadec turned back to the door and ignored him.
It was dark by the time Grianne and Pen began the climb into the Dragon Line. Shadows thrown by the skeletal trees and distant peaks draped the land. West, the light was fading from gray to black, and the twilight hush that marked the transition from day to night was retiring the creatures of one and bringing out the creatures of the other. Sounds faded as if swallowed beneath the surface of an endless sea, and the world became a place for the quick and the dead.
Grianne's eyes roamed the landscape on a ceaseless scour, alert for things that might be hunting them.
The boy walked quietly beside her. They had not seen Weka Dart since he had departed, but she felt certain he was close, watching their progress, ready to save them once more should the need arise. Or save himself, perhaps. She knew enough of the Ulk Bog to appreciate that whatever his good intentions, he would always look after himself first.
Still, it seemed petty of her to think of him that way after he had lured off the dragon. She wished she could form a better opinion of the Ulk Bog, but she was too familiar with how he managed to get through life to do so.