“And a drink,” he said as he pulled the silver talon covers off.

  “Hey, do me another favor and give this to the princess when you get down there,” Tic said and handed him a bundle about the size of a human heart, except it was hard like a rock.

  “Yeah, alright. You saw that, huh? I mean you know she is here?” he asked.

  “Oh yes, I did see, quite impressive I must say,” Tic replied, truly in awe of what the aerial was capable of.

  “Yeah well, all in a day’s work,” he added before extending his wings and falling into the wind over the open cavern of Riverhouse. Tic had a liquor cabinet that was going to reward him handsomely for his services rendered today.

  47

  King’s Highway

  Tia understood why this path was only used by small parties, some places were only large enough for her to squeeze through while other areas were large square tubes of tile and brick work. On her right was a strange barrier that she couldn’t readily refer to as a wall. It was more of a stream of giant metal tubes sitting on wheels that were skewed off to the side of some type of track or rail system. It was the stuff of legend, from the time when man flew the skies and houses had wheels. She figured that this was some kind building on steel wheels that had been painted in bright erratic colored patterns.

  Some walls were covered with colorful paintings of a fallen age done in a rough, but graceful hand, consisting of what looked to be bloated letters and goofy caricatures whose meaning, if ever there was one, was lost in time. It was not painted upon the sides like a professional stamp or something within the paint but was more artfully splashed haphazardly across whatever surface was present and only high enough for a tall person to reach.

  Vandalism. Tia recognized.

  It was vandalism in the age of its creation, yet now a priceless record of a destroyed civilization. One section of the wall was covered in bright professional mosaics depicting people of all colors and sizes working and living together in harmony, it made her smile yet also made her wonder if this was a reality? Or was it meant to do something else entirely. Was this an example the propaganda machine that was mentioned in the ancient texts. Whole divisions of society imploding, practically wiping themselves out in the years leading up to the cataclysm.

  She didn’t understand the need for propaganda in any age, since it would have no effect in hers. There simply was no central government with enough control to assert such a thing.

  Tia was relieved to be past the giant steel walls, at the same time alarmed to be in areas open to the sky. There were points where Pomen froze in place and motioned for them to do the same, sometimes a group of giants would stroll by, and one time even a whole patrol of armored muridai.

  Armor? I thought they were nothing but rabble, but this is an organized, trained army. What are they riding? I have never seen beasts like that. They entered into a grove of trees through thick underbrush between tree trunks that were many feet wide and so tall that she almost fell over backwards while trying to see the expanse of the canopy.

  Pomen stopped in front of one tree and after a short amount of study dug in his fingers, one hand above the other, into the bark. His hand sunk in unnaturally deep into the side of the tree and moved like they were working a mechanism that caused a large section to pop out. He pulled and swung it open like door revealing a wide set of stairs going down.

  Pomen pulled something from his pocket that began to glow, casting a soft silver light on to the stairway ahead of them. The light seemed to glow brighter as Leldeif gave a final tug to set the door in its original, nondescript position and sealing out all light. Tia saw the passageway as it wound down within a maze of huge roots the size of homes extending for hundreds of feet down. At some points the trail was hewn through the root, appearing as no more than a worm’s hole in an apple. The trees above ground were the size of legend but underground was just as magnificent, if not more so. The staircase twisted and turned with never a landing, the only constant was down. This part was big enough for horses providing they were rider less and led but she didn’t think it was intended for mounts to be here, Gi’noo being the one exception. The mountain goat was small, low to the ground and had no issues navigating the stairs.

  They passed large steel beams or columns long collapsed and covered in rust and flaking paint. Most were twisted and bent regardless of size and a few were even broken in two or more pieces. The cross sections showing beams that were two of Tia’s combined height traveling straight out for hundreds of feet. She couldn’t imagine what type of structure this was meant to support. Could people really have built such things as what these massive blocks suggested?

  “Don’t get off the path here, lass,” Pomen cautioned. “What you see as sand is actually crushed glass. It will get under your clothes and start to work its way into your skin and cause all sorts of problems for you.”

  Tia stepped toward the middle of the path eyeing the sand warily, noting that both Leldeif and Pomen filled an empty sack with the substance. She copied their example by filling a dirty sock with the fine white crystal. They came to a massive chamber that displayed more of the massive beams all laid equally to the left side like they were knocked over by a massive wave. She saw the dirt ceiling resting on the beams showing enough of the lower portions of tree roots to tell her that the forest canopy had grown right over the top of this waste land leaving hollow pockets in what could be everywhere. This was the remnants of a forgotten age, a time before the cataclysm and all of it just under their feet.

  They stopped and she continued to scan down what must have been an ancient avenue where both sides were lined with different shops and eateries. Giant square blocks of concrete littered the area creating gargantuan shadows from the thin streams of light from above.

  “Where is that light coming from?” Leldeif asked as he too looked at the sight before him. Elf, human, and gnome were all looking at the scant remnants of what had once been their society.

  “I don’t know; I haven’t been able to find it above ground.”

  “How can we see all of this? It’s not light really, I mean, not as in sunlight. It’s more like a glow or a reflection of light,” Tia whispered, not wanting to disrupt the deathly silence. She felt as if she did too much in this eerie place, that a part of herself would be left here and she would never be quite whole again. She knew that was ridiculous, bordering on superstitions that carried no credence and belongs in some backwater village, until Pomen turned to her and leaned in to speak quietly to both of them.

  “This is not the place to speak of such things or to speak of anything. Hold your thoughts and stifle your heart and we will speak of it when we—” He froze in the middle of his sentence and listened. Both Tia and Leldeif did the same and there was a small ticking sound, distant, yet too consistent to be anything other than creature made.

  “They haven’t located us but they…” Pomen paused as he searched for the right term. “Are very sensitive. I’m sorry I didn’t warn you about them, but they are hundreds of miles south of their closest haunt. They have no eyes and only one thing that resembles an ear but it is right here,” he said and splayed his hand over the center of his chest. “Stay close, move slow, and their sonar may detect dirt or stone and pass us by. Be ready though, if they do locate us…they will attack.”

  “What are th—” Tia began but was stifled by the gnome’s hand.

  “Silence!” He barely pushed the sound from his mouth, but they could tell that he yelled, his fear evident. He motioned them close together and moved slowly, silently forward. After a few steps it was clear the tapping sound was staying with them and gradually coming closer, gaining speed as well as rhythm alterations like they could pinpoint their location with some mutant sonar. Pomen gestured with his hand that they should move faster; Tia could see his stress in his neck and shoulders.

  It was Gi’noo who broke the silence. It was a portion of the trail where they hugged close to a cliff wall to try and blend their silhouette with the concrete as the other side disappeared into the dark void of drafty unclaimed space when the path suddenly narrowed. A part of the trails shoulder had fallen away into nothing taking most of the trail with it. It wasn’t too much to jump, but coming up on it unawares caused the goat to skip jump, ungracefully kicking stones into the wall.

  Everybody froze, the tapping hesitated then stopped altogether. The silence lasting for several heart beats. Tia was suddenly aware of how loud her breathing was and her heart thumped like a drum down in these caverns. There was no way she could stay completely silent…the human body simply isn’t made that way. Her stomach wanted to growl and gas pressed to pass, but she resisted as they could be the very death of her. A hissing or rasping rush of something began as an echo that slowly grew into sound that grated across one’s spine like frozen sandpaper. Building and causing Tia to want to start scratching her scalp and rubbing her neck.

  “Run!” Pomen yelled.

  “Watch your step…much of our trail has fallen away!” he said over his shoulder as Tia followed him and Leldeif brought up the rear, his blade already in hand. Tia thought of drawing her rapier, but figured it would be safest to keep her focus on running.

  48

  Princess/Cobbler

  “What, is this some kind of joke?” Juil said to the impudent wizard when he came down from Nigel’s aerie.

  “No, it was a gift. I was just trying to help?”

  “By giving me a rock that you scratched and painted?”

  “Ah, that would be etched and bled,” Tic responded, feeling a little insulted by her attitude. The fiery elven princess stopped right in front of him blocking his path. Instead of shouting however, she just looked at him confused by what he said.

  “Here, pull it up here and I will show you,” Tic said and held out his hand for the stone he had sent to her via Nigel. She pulled out the smooth, palm sized, water smoothed oval of granite and held it up displaying the massive scribblings side up. “You see, every rune I could summon is etched within this mass of lines. Then I magically heated it and used some of my blood to fill the scribes. I have to admit that I had to spread it pretty thin as I am not willing to give up all that much blood, and cutting myself never seemed like fun anyways, but I got enough and it baked in nicely,” Tic said and was disappointed when she still looked so confused.

  “Why?”

  “Well, now you don’t have to draw runes or kill little animals. You just think of the rune you want and draw on the power through my blood.”

  Her eyes widened. “You can do that?”

  “Anyone with the power can if they know what they are doing. Yours might even be more special, especially here in Riverhouse, since it is a part of her.”

  “Her?”

  “Here, Riverhouse, she is special and…well, let’s just test it and see if it works,” Tic said and turned toward the small stream he had just crossed over. “Now, think of the rune for water.”

  She did and the power she needed was instantly at her finger tips with an energy she had never felt from magic before. It slammed into her eagerly and with such force that she almost lost her hold as her body was physically rocked by the impact.

  “Okay, now slow the flow of that stream to nothing.”

  She did. Juil had always thought that something like that would gradually become calm smooth water, but it didn’t. She had slammed a wall of glass, cutting the water off immediately and forcing it to build up behind it and up on to the banks. When she released it, it was like a dam burst, a sudden rush of water filled the emptiness she had created.

  “Interesting, not how I would have done it but effective nonetheless,” Tic said speculatively.

  “How would you have done it?” Juil asked, her gratitude for the stone evident in the show of respect for his opinion.

  “I would have simply slowed the entire thing until it stopped, your way is much quicker. Everybody is going to do things in their own special way you know.”

  “Oh, well…thank you for this. It will help me out a lot, but…why me?” she asked, not really understanding what motivated this human. First he rescues her and says nothing about it and never even implied that she should say thank you. Then he takes in Nigel and makes her a pair of boots that actually work better than just her feet, and now he gives her a rock. Tic looked at her for a long time before replying.

  “I’m not a wizard. I was, or at least I thought I was, but in truth…I am a vessel. The power comes into me from here, this place. I don’t know if it is Riverhouse itself or something much bigger, something much more…encompassing. When it comes to magic and using it, very rarely is it me making the decisions. The little stuff sure, like the energy I used to invent elven boots…you’re welcome by the way.”

  “Yeah; thanks, I love them,” Juil said as she held up one of her boots for casual inspection.

  “Yeah, they look great, the stone, however…that didn’t come from me. She feels that you need it, I am feeling prompted to tell you to practice with it for you will need it very soon.”

  “Oh, that’s not encouraging.”

  “No, it isn’t.”

  “Her who?” Juil asked.

  “You know who, you don’t want to know who…but you do.”

  “So, do you know what is going to happen here? There are a lot of foul folk out there,” Juil asked.

  “No, I do know that they won’t be coming strictly through the tunnels though. They will use the main entrance for their force, it is the only opening big enough really. Let me show you something, hold your stone up,” Tic said and pulled out the rune for stone off the surface causing a glowing copy of it to float in air. “Okay, mentally draw yourself into the rune by thinking of yourself as nothing more than a vibration and then imagine the southern entrance,” Tic said and followed her actions.

  Juil looked around herself and saw that they were actually standing in the hall inside of the southern entrance and she looked at Tic with awe.

  “For short distances outside of Riverhouse and anywhere in here you can travel that way. Keep in mind that the stone of the structure must be continuous and you may go where it exists. Now think of the water rune and float it in the air so we both may see it. Now think yourself to be a flowing mass of liquid and bring us anywhere in the house you would like to be but keep in mind that you cannot go where this river does not.”

  She thought about it and with a sly smirk they were standing off the banks of Skorsdale with the icy winds of the glacier blowing across their faces and causing her hair to snap with the force. She frowned when she saw Tic’s face fall.

  “What have you done?” he said and flowed back into the water without her, she followed not knowing what she had done wrong. Without even thinking she was able to follow his trail as if he were a glowing ball of energy before her.

  “What? What did I do?” she pleaded.

  “Nothing…I mean, it’s not your fault. I should have told you, I just never thought you would take me outside of Riverhouse.”

  “Why? What’s wrong with leaving Riverhouse?” Juil pressed, causing Tic to turn and face her.

  “I am the vessel, everything she needs done is through me, so when I was no longer here all of the wards established through me disappeared. We are now in serious trouble and I have to tell Frodeg to get everyone ready.”

  “Do you mean that you have been holding them off this whole time?”

  “Not all of them, but a couple of the key players, yes and it wasn’t him, it was her.”

  “So now what?”

  “Now we get ready to fight. I recommend that you head up to Nigel’s place for some privacy and learn how to use that stone, you’re going to need the practice. Frodeg!” Tic shouted before trotting off toward the ruddy sheriff.

  Juil closed her eyes before invoking the rune, every time seeming to be easier, quicker, smoother. She knew she was going to have to be very quick to fight who she suspected was coming.

  Suspected? Hell, I know who’s coming. She had to use this rock like it was second nature. Runes had always been a long spiritual process, something intended to honor the mother and draw on the latent energies of her ancestors. Tic and his stone stripped all of the ceremony out of the process and left a conduit to raw power instantly in her hands.

  Now I just have to figure out how to use it.

  She felt it cheapened the process, but she also felt it was necessary. She had been first caught by the multihued bitch while in the process of sketching a rune in the snow. A rough facsimile that would barely have the power to slay a couple of giants, upon the stone, however, was the perfect representation of all runes at their full capacity. She doubted that Dyanna would have been able to catch her if she had been so equipped the first time they met.

  She sat on the ledge on the aerie entrance with her eyes closed, simply feeling the energy of the structure around her and she began to believe that maybe this was more than simply a structure built by man. It had a soul of sorts, a soul created by magics performed hundreds of years before. Magics that have evolved into something…or maybe they haven’t. Maybe they were always intended to be more, meant to mature into something maternal. That was what she felt, it was like she was cradled within the embrace of a great mother and she had been given a gift. A great gift that bound her, obligated her to be whatever she was needed to be as long as it kept this maternal being safe. She had it almost right, what she didn’t realize was that the mother, for lack of a better term, was old. Old from a time before mankind and their silly short-term memories.

  She didn’t worry about practicing in the physical sense, but instead sent her thoughts deep into the stone or the being that had become Riverhouse and was overwhelmed with what she found. It was warm and dry with a gentle breeze that smelled of earth and flowing water. She was the glory of the sunrise and the dread of the impending gloom. She was the ice upon a flowing steam, the parody as well as the paradox…she was comfort and warmth on a cold day, and Juil opened herself up to her welcoming the energy into her soul. And the ethereal face began her mournful song, soothing her elven daughter from within.