Return To Sky Raven (Book 2) Page 9

  I looked around trying to imagine what an army of 11,000 troops would have looked like setting up to attack on the very ground that we passed over.

  Maya interrupted my quiet reverie. “I’m shocked the bridge is still here.”

  The bridge we approached was a heavy wooden plank affair that spanned three stone piers permanently set into the raging torrent. To my eye, it looked kind of crudely made and not really that old.

  “This isn’t the same bridge; we destroyed ours during the attack. I’m puzzled as well; perhaps this place isn’t as abandoned as it looks. I would advise extreme caution.”

  Approaching the bridge apron, I paused to consider the weight and decided it would be best for Maya and me to cross separately. The roar of the waterfall was very unnerving, and the angry nature of the river before us made everyone hesitate. Nia, being impatient, snorted and flew ahead, returning a few minutes later with a report.

  “Mister Alex, it looks sturdy, at least to a pixie.”

  “Yeah, well, you can sit on a dandelion head and not bend it too.”

  I went ahead first, leading the stallion. I had the most armor; if there was something lurking under cover or behind the murder holes, I wanted to be the one to take the hit. The dry timbers creaked ominously, but everything held together. Maya followed me instantly and, seeing no hint of trouble, we waved the rest of the group over.

  Surprisingly, there were no issues crossing the bridge other than slow travel as people stopped to inspect certain features and gaze in fascination at the clear rushing waters below. Oddly, it appeared there was steam mixed in with the mist that formed from the crashing of the water at the base of the waterfall, and it seemed to stick with the runoff in the river also. Never ones to pass up an opportunity to play on mist, Dawn and Dusk ignored the bridge and ran lightly over the waters, spinning and dancing like children on spring schooling recess. They were having a fantastic time until Dawn reached down and stuck her hand into the rushing water and recoiled with a shriek!

  “This water is warm!”

  Odd, as cold as it was outside, you would think the water would be bone-bruising cold, especially after descending 200 feet through the air and crashing into boulders. We all looked at each other and shrugged - another mystery of this place!

  Finally the wall stood before us, or rather we were humbly dwarfed by it, and as Winya reported, the walls really did cant outward. Standing at the base gave us no view of what was above other than some dangerous-looking murder holes far overhead that were scattered here and there. Up close, the wall was even more interesting than from afar. It appeared to be flawless white granite with little pebbles of clear bluish rocks woven into it, and it was so smooth it looked like it had been polished by a master jeweler the day before. I dismounted and, after removing my gauntlets and stuffing them into one of my saddlebags, walked up to it. Maya and some of the others fanned out along the wall for their own explorations. Maya, of course, headed for the main gate and the only apparent entrance into the citadel.

  “For a place that has been hammered by siege engines, this wall is still pristine. Why, there isn’t a scratch to be seen anywhere,” I marveled to Nia who had returned to her normal station on my shoulder.

  “Too bad we can’t say that for the grounds here,” Nia quipped. And she was right; there were huge piles of rounded boulders everywhere as if a giant had been playing marbles up against the white wall.

  “Yup, all fired from siege engines that the Duke brought up to try and take the fortress. As you can see, it made for interesting times, but the old girl never faltered. There isn’t a crack anywhere in this wall,” Winya explained proudly.

  “If it’s not too painful, Winya, can I ask why you didn’t just stay buttoned up in this place, thumb your nose at the Duke, and just wait for him to lose patience and leave?” I asked, still looking in awe at the sheer volume of projectiles.

  “Even as good as this place is, Alex, I was still losing girls. The few ballistae teams I still had were prime targets. It got to the point where there wasn’t enough of us to keep the siege engines at bay any longer. The Duke’s men were advancing their bigger trebuchets and their shielding walls a hundred feet a day. Once the trebuchet missiles started clearing the main wall, I knew we couldn’t protect our Queen any longer. Soon no place within the fortress would have been safe, except possibly the catacombs below. We believed that the escape tunnels were the Queen’s the only choice, a decision that will haunt me forever.”

  I reached out my hand and caressed the smooth stone of the wall, enjoying the workmanship. Stone was really Rosa’s specialty, but even I could appreciate the perfection. It felt warm to my touch, and the small hairs on the back of my hand stood up as if a mild electrical charge was present, but the charge seemed to ebb and flow like the breaths of a living organism, like a great sleeping giant. Without warning, the translucent pebbles ingrained in the wall pulsed with an vivid electric blue surge and we all felt a violent tremor beneath our feet that nearly knocked over some of the unsuspecting wizards and staff. Ignoring the jolt completely, the warhorses continued to stamp their monster hoofs impatiently and look bored. Maya came trotting back and looked down at me comically.

  “Ok ,what did you do now?”

  “I don’t know, but I think it came from inside.” I placed my hand on the stonework again. Instantly, I felt the sleeping giant presence the same as before, but this time, it was fully awake and seemed…happy. My thoughts were interrupted by a shout from the vicinity of the gate. Grabbing the reins of the stallion, I followed on foot behind Maya, still in the saddle. We found a group of wizards and guards arranged in a semicircle around something on the ground. My girl dismounted gracefully, and the two of us walked up to take a look.

  Laying on the moss-covered dirt was a skeleton, and not just any skeleton, either. This one had long extended fangs and was wearing an outfit much like the vampire that attacked Maya back in Xarparion. Thankfully, he was dead, and not the kind of dead where you get up again. Maya pointed to something on the wall. In what looked like blood, ‘The Nova have returned’ was written in a shaky scrawl. The monster must have written it with his own blood before he died - again.

  “What does it mean? Who are the Nova?” Maya growled, clearly angered by this evidence of undead this close to our chosen sanctuary.

  “I don’t know,” I said.

  Alera and Hons made their way over to us, both wrapped up in heavy wool blankets to ward off the chill. Alera stopped dead in her tracks and stopped breathing when she read the words in blood. Her beautiful face displayed a fast-moving range of emotions from terrified to expectantly ecstatic. When she did finally remember to breathe, she had a broad smile on her face. Hons knelt and examined the body with distaste.

  “I’ve never seen one of these before up close, they pretty much go against everything we earth wizards stand for, ashes to ashes and all that,” he said, and then glanced at Maya and me. “Neither of you seemed to be very shocked to see one though.”

  Maya shrugged disdainfully. “A skeleton is a skeleton, and there were plenty of them in the battle. Just used to them by now, I guess.”

  “Ahuh,” he said thoughtfully and added, “by the way, that tremor we felt wasn’t even remotely natural. I can’t even begin to imagine what caused it; perhaps Julia can ask Reginaldo later.” Then looking at Alera, he shifted topics again, “Any idea how long the corpse has been here?”

  She knelt down next to the skeleton and did a quick examination. Standing back up she shook her blonde head and replied cautiously, “Based on the condition of the bones, I would say about two to three weeks.”

  Hons snorted, “That’s it? He’s already a skeleton! A whole body couldn’t possibly have decayed in that time as cold as it is.”

  “You forget what happens to a vampire in the sun? This man looks to have been about 170 years old, give or take a few. That would put him at quested rank, provided he wasn’t a complete idiot. It would also explain why he
was here.”

  “How so?” asked Maya.

  “Well, the questers are the eyes and ears of the vampire conclaves; scouts and spies, if you will. I’m guessing that he was sent here to find something, but something found him instead,” Alera grinned.

  “We best get back over to the others and find a way to open that gate; and from the looks of things, that won’t be easy,” Hons chuckled. And he was right, this trip was for nothing if we couldn’t get inside.

  We followed Hons over to the rest of the wizards and servants who had congregated around the main gate. Rosa, Nia, Darroth, Captain Jarsin and Captain Higs, as well as the druid girls and the dragons, were gathered in front of it staring up at the massive door. The door was made of stone, easily thirty feet tall, with a large amount of now-tarnished metal banding it in place. In the center was a large and very intricately carved crest that seemed to be made entirely out of the translucent blue rock that was present in the walls. The crest itself depicted a galaxy of stars and planets in a bas relief, with an inscription in bold letters etched into an arch shape above the star field.

  “Any idea what it says?” Captain Jarsin muttered in frustration at the delay. He was obviously anxious to get everyone inside, and from a military prospective, that was a priority. Outside these walls and trapped against an immovable barrier, our party was a sitting duck.

  I looked up at the gate crest again.“It says, ‘Gateway of Creation, Guardian of the Nova.’”

  Everyone stared at me in silence, all except Alera. “You can read that?” she asked incredulously, grabbing my arm.

  “Well yeah, it’s in rather basic writing, anyone could read it.”

  She shook her head, as did pretty much everyone who was listening. “Alex, that is written in the language of the nebulia. No one else here has a clue what that inscription says!”

  I was confused now. “Do you?”

  She shook her head breathlessly. “I can speak it and I’ve seen bits and pieces here and there, but I’ve never had a chance to get my hands on any of the actual writings with translation before now. What gave it away are the symbols in the crest. That is the crest of the Nova, leaders of the nebulia!”

  Captain Jarsin didn’t seem to care about the writing, no matter how rare or important. “That’s great, you can read it all you want later. But in case you haven’t noticed, we’re still stuck on the wrong side of a very large and, most likely, impenetrable stone door. So unless that writing has a secret password in it, then I suggest we get to work.”

  Alera smiled at the captain. “What if I told you it did?”

  “It does?”

  “In a sense. All locked doors have a key; this one just so happens to have two.”

  He threw his arms in the air. “Great now we need to find keys! What do we have to do, look under every rock for them?”

  “Relax, Captain, we already have them.” Alera smiled broadly, as she ran her hands reverently over the door crest.

  “We do?” everyone replied in a confused chorus.

  Still beaming, Alera turned away from the door and gently grabbed both Maya’s and my arms, drawing us closer together. “These two are the keys.”

  Hons stepped closer to the center of the group. “Wow, hold on here. How can Alex and Maya be the keys? Last time I checked, a key is made of metal and is small, not a person.”

  “They are the keys because my protector and I believe this is their fortress,” Alera said confidently.

  The rest of them were staring at us blankly. Maya and I both sort of had a feeling that this fortress was connected to us somehow, especially since my parents spent so much effort to see that we ended up here somehow.

  We smiled sheepishly, hoping that the conversation would move on to something else. Seeing no sign that it was going to resolve itself any time soon, I took Maya’s hand and led her over to the massive gate.

  “So do you know what to do, Magic Boy?” she asked me coyly under her breath, giving my hand a squeeze.

  “I have an idea…wait,” I stammered, suddenly having trouble concentrating after looking into her challenging eyes and pondering her words. Momentarily flustered and confused, I tried to continue, “I’m relatively sure that this place responds to our touch. I’m thinking if we both place our hands on the door at the same time, something will happen.

  “And where did you get this notion?”

  I smiled, “The tremor occurred right after I touched the walls. I think I woke something up because now when I touch it, I can almost feel something within the fortress, something happy.”

  Maya grinned wickedly as if reading my mind. “Well, the whole touch thing certainly works for me.” She continued after placing her hand next to mine on the wall, “I think you’re right, I think I can feel something.”

  For a second nothing happened, and I continued to stare into her deep green eyes trying to figure out what was going on inside that pretty head. Suddenly her focus shifted and she leaned her ear against the wall.

  “What is it?”

  She shushed me with a long-suffering look that still managed to convey affection. “Gears, very large gears, I think.”

  Winya joined in, her voice in my head carrying a trace of humor at our exchange, “If I may interrupt…You would be correct. The mechanism to open the gate is very large and takes up a large amount of room underground. I would stand back, the gate should be opening soon.”

  Cautiously, we did as Winya suggested and took several steps back. Finally, the gate shook violently like it was just dealt a massive blow, sending dust falling from the wall above. Slowly, and surprisingly quietly, the gate parted down the middle, revealing a short tunnel with several portcullises in the raised position.

  “Wow, ten-foot thick gate and there are still three more. I would have to say ‘our’ fortress is pretty safe, at least from the outside,” Maya smirked.

  We both looked back at the stunned faces behind us. Maya hooked her arm in mine and started leading me down the passageway. “They will get over it eventually. Now, come in, Magic Boy, I have a feeling something important is waiting for us.”

  We walked through the heavily fortified gatehouse and past a few small stone buildings that had the look of armories into a large open courtyard with an ornate red paver brick floor, which had roads branching out in three directions. The courtyard was more than large enough to accommodate our entire group, including the donkey carts. Scattered haphazardly about was the first evidence of a bombardment of any kind. Large boulders had left deep craters in the cobblestone roads, and there were a number of collapsed roofs, down either from war action or just the ravages of time.

  “This is the principia, or central courtyard, if you prefer. The road ahead of you leads past the curtain wall and into the keep’s courtyard. The roads to your left and right lead to the outbuildings such as barracks, dining halls and blacksmiths, as well as a surprisingly large number of civilian shops and housing.”

  “You had civilians here during the attack?” asked Maya.

  “Yes, they helped out where they could - bucket brigades, helping in the infirmary, arrow recovery and such. After the battle, most of them were still alive, but decided to leave and start their lives over again someplace without all the bad memories.”

  Slowly, the other members of the party entered the courtyard behind us. Once everyone was safely inside, Maya, with Winya’s guidance, ducked into a small guardroom off the main gatehouse. A few moments later, the heavy main gates slammed shut with a dull boom. On this side of the wall, the sound of the waterfall outside was muted to the point where, after a few minutes, you really didn’t hear it anymore.

  Both captains approached Maya as she came out the guardroom, dusting off her hands with a satisfied grin. Snapping into formal salutes, they requested the orders of the day. I felt my chest swell with pride as my amazing dark elf was more than up to the challenge, and in fact, seemed to relish it. In just the few days since the Portia incident, her self-confidence ha
d grown immensely; I suppose always having the nagging suspicion that you were borderline insane would have kept you second guessing yourself. But now it seemed that those ghosts of self-doubt were forever banished and it showed. Instead of just issuing orders to the captains, she jumped up on the nearest large boulder sticking halfway out of the courtyard, and addressed the entire group.

  “Listen up, people, I’m only going to go over this once. It’s been a long, arduous trip from the portal; and frankly, I couldn’t be more proud of any of you. I know you are cold, tired, and hungry, but we still have some work to do. To start with, Captain Higs, I need guards and sentries up on these walls as soon as possible; preferably in sets of twos until we find out if we are really alone in this place. Then I need well-armed patrols sent into all the remaining buildings for the same reason - we don’t need to be surprised by unwanted guests. My source tells me that there is a very large underground network below the citadel that will need to be checked as soon as possible as well.

  Higs saluted her with a smile. “Yes, ma’am, right away!” Then he raced off and started barking orders to the troopers who were lounging around the perimeter of the crowd.

  Maya returned the salute with a flourish and turned back to the crowd. “Next, I need the earth wizards to start clearing away the rubble and fixing what structural damage to the buildings they can. No one wants to be sleeping in a wet bed at night.”

  Hons stepped forward and performed a clumsy imitation of the salute, after which he smiled apologetically. “You’ve got it, we’ll have this place fixed up in short order, ma’am.” Just like the guards, the green-robed folks broke off into their own groups and started organizing themselves into work teams. I reflected that perhaps being forced to march many miles across the wilderness and encounter obstacles to be overcome had really been a boon to many of the assembled wizards. It taught them how to function as a unit rather than individuals, as well as giving them a sense of purpose, all of which I’m pretty sure would become increasingly valuable in the coming days.