The Dragonstone

CHAPTER 30

Hist," cautioned Perin, cocking his head to one side.

"What?" Biren stopped filling the canteens and looked at his brother.

"Hush," admonished Perin. "Listen."

They stood in the twilight silence of the Silverwood and from the north and west there came a faint tapping, nearly rhythmic, as of a hammer on stone.

" 'Tis no bird, my brother," said Biren after a while.

"Nor an animal," added Perin.

"Delving?" asked Biren.

Perin frowned and listened as the gloaming deepened. "If so, 'tis far off."

They finished filling the canteens, then stepped back to the campsite and told the others of the sound, and Arin looked at Aiko and asked, "What says thy tiger?"

Aiko shook her head. "She is silent, my Lady."

"Come," said Rissa, "I would hear this tapping."

They walked away from the sounds of shifting horses and ponies, following the twins back to the nearby snow-melt pool, where they stood quietly and listened, but all they heard was the soft purl of a distant stream.

"Hmm," mused Perin. "It is gone."

"Vanished," added Biren.

"Mayhap it was but sliding rock on the slopes," said Melor, glancing up at the embracing Grimwall. "The spring melt bringing it down."

"It seemed too measured," protested Perin, "purposeful."

"As of a hand at work," agreed Biren.

Silverleaf turned to Rissa. "Is there Drimmenholt nigh, chier?”

Rissa shrugged. "None that I know, Vanidar, yet it is long since last I was here."

"It could be Spaunen," growled Ruar. "They teem in the Grimwalls."

Again all eyes turned to Aiko, but she shrugged and said, "My tiger warns of no peril. If the Kitanai Kazoku are in these mountains, they are not at hand."

"Nevertheless," said Silverleaf, "I think we should build no fire this night… and our watch should be extra vigilant."

Melor turned to Aiko. "Does thy tiger sleep?"

Aiko shook her head.

"Good."

There was no moon in the darktide, not even a hair-thin crescent near dusk, and without a fire only the stars lighted the camp. But then the night turned chill and an overcast from the north drew entirely across the sky and not even starlight shone down. And so, even the Elves with their vaunted eyesight could see little in the resulting dark, and all the warders had to depend on their hearing as they each stood watch… all but Aiko, who on her turn listened to her tiger instead. Yet the night passed uneventfully, and no danger came through the blackness to threaten the camp.

Dawn found the Elves and Aiko breaking fast beneath lowering skies, the dark grey stretching from horizon to horizon. They ate in gloomy silence, none saying aught, but as they took their utensils down to the pool, again came the faint tapping from the distant northwest.

After listening awhile, "I deem it is delving," said Vanidar Silverleaf, "yet whether Drimm or Rupt, I cannot say."

"Shall we go see?" asked Perin.

"Whatever for?" queried Biren.

Perin shrugged. "Mayhap it is important."

"And mayhap not," replied Biren.

Rissa glanced at Silverleaf. "I ween our separate missions are more urgent than discovering some Drimm delver or aught else hacking away at stone. And though I would rather accompany Dara Arin on her mission, to do so risks failure of all. Hence, I say we have come to the parting of the ways: we to ride south and bear the words of Arin's vision to Coron and DelfLord and King; she and the cat who fell from grace to ride north-and beyond-to discover the one-eye in dark water and all the others entangled in her words… and to find the Jaded Soul."

Ruar growled deep in his throat and glanced across to Arin. "Would that I could ride with thee, Dara, yet to do so indeed risks all. I must agree with Dara Rissa-we have come to the parting of the ways."

Arin looked into the eyes of each of her companions, and one by one they nodded. And so, ignoring the tapping, they washed their utensils and returned to the campsite, where they saddled the horses and tied on their gear. They evenly shared out the remainder of the supplies and laded them on the ponies, two of which were given over to Arin and Aiko.

Rissa turned to Arin. "Thou hast the map, neh?"

Arin patted the breast of her leather jacket "Aye, Rissa, it is yet here."

Silverleaf glanced to the north and west whence came the delving sounds. "Take care, Arin, for Ruar is right: Spaunen teem in the Grimwall, and thou and Aiko are about to pass through."

Arin nodded and touched her sword and gestured at the bow tethered behind her saddle, and she waved a hand at Aiko's weaponry, too. "Fear not, for we are prepared."

One by one the Elves embraced Arin, and embraced Aiko as well, the Ryodoan's eyes flying wide at this show of affection, though she embraced them back. Then, as a cold draught blew down from the heights above, all mounted up and with hails of "Fare ye well" and of "Go with Adon" they rode their separate ways-Arin and Aiko into the teeth of the chill wind, up the trail and north, the others south and down, the cold at their backs.

As they entered the pass, Aiko looked up at the steeps to the left and right and at the strait ahead. "I like this not, Lady Arin," she growled. "It is a place of ambush."

"What does thy tiger say?"

"Nothing… yet."

On they rode and upward, beneath the leaden skies, the horses and trailing ponies maintaining a good pace. The pass itself was some twenty-one miles through, half up-slope, half down, and they planned to cross in a single day, for even at this time of year the nights were frigid and the days chill and sudden snowstorms could still rage at these heights.

On they fared, up and up, toward the dismal sky. The way was narrow and stone-strewn, the walls sheer and high, with dark crannies looming left and right; Aiko's gaze ever searched the gloomy depths, her weapons never far from hand. And still they went onward, at times riding, at times walking, at other times resting the steeds, or feeding them some grain, or watering them at pools of melt after breaking through a thin crust of ice. Yet always they stopped but briefly and soon took up the journey again, pressing ahead.

Now they came into an encloaking mist, where the clouds rode low as they drifted across the Grimwall, grey fog enveloping all. Vision was shortened, ten strides at best, and boulders lying in the slot ahead loomed dark and menacing. Steps were muffled on the mist-wet rock; iron-shod hooves seemed deadened though they trod on stone.

And onward pressed the pair.

Another mile they rode, and of a sudden, "Dara Arin," hissed Aiko, riding behind, "my tiger whispers of danger."

"Where away?"

"I cannot say," replied Aiko. "Only that peril draws near."

Arin stopped her horse-Aiko, too-the Dylvana stringing her bow and nocking an arrow. Then she took a deep breath and concentrated, and looked through the fog in her special way… and although the mist yet hampered her sight, she now seemed able to see perhaps twice as far.

Up the slot she looked, as well as behind and down, scanning the walls above as she searched. "I see nought," she whispered.

Aiko, her swords in hand, remained silent.

Still they stood long moments more.

At last Arin asked, "Does it draw nearer?"

"No, Dara."

"Then let us proceed… but at a walk."

Slowly they began moving ahead and up, nearing the crest. Aiko spurred her horse forward to ride alongside Arin.

"The peril grows," said the Ryodoan.

"Then the danger must lie to the fore," muttered Arin, concentrating on her sight.

They came to the crest and started down, still trapped between crevice-raddled vertical walls rising fifty feet or more. And grey vapor swirled about.

Now the horses and ponies began to skit and shy, as if they, too, sensed an unseen menace. And a faint stench came through the dampening mist. They rode forward a few tens of yards, and the reek grew stronger, foul to the point of gagging.

"It is at hand," hissed Aiko, but Arin still could not sight any hazard.

A pony squealed, and from behind there came a loud scrape. Arin whirled her horse 'round in time to see a monstrous form-Ruchlike but hulking and tall-lunge out from a great hole and hammer a massive fist into the neck of one of the small steeds, snapping its spine as if it were but a twig, while the other pony bleated and fled, only to be jerked up short by the rope tied to Arin's saddle.

"Troll!" shouted Arin, as something spun upward through the mist to strike the huge Ogru in the eye.

"RRRAAAAWWW!" roared the Troll in agony, and Arin's horse shied back and down, almost as if struck by a blow. And just as Aiko hurled another shiruken at the twelve-foot-high monster, her horse whirled and bolted and the bladed star merely clanged off the great Ogru's stonelike hide. Caught off balance by the sudden move, Aiko was thrown, and she struck the ground hard but managed to roll to her feet, coming up with her swords in hand. And her horse, squealing in panic, tried to escape, but the dead pony roped to the saddle acted as a massive drag and the horse could not run.

Still the Troll howled in anguish, clutching at its pierced eye and trying to pluck the weapon out. Yowling and thrashing, it lurched between Aiko and Arin.

Arin knew that Aiko's blades, keen as they were, would not cut through the creature's hide, and without a second thought, the Dylvana leapt from her own skitting horse and moved in below the towering monster and took a fixed aim. And as the Troll bellowed in agony, Arin loosed an arrow upward, the shaft to flash into the brute's gaping, yowling maw, punching through the soft inner flesh and driving up into the Ogru's brain.

"GHAAAA…!" howled the monster, and then toppled backward to land with a thunderous crash, the nearly invincible creature dead, slain by nought but a five-bladed star and a steel-tipped wooden shaft.

Her heart yet hammering, Arin nocked another arrow and surveyed the surroundings with battle-wide eyes as Aiko cautiously edged a step at a time toward the monster, her swords at the ready, the warrior moving in to make certain the creature was dead. Finally she reached the Ogru's side. After a moment, her swords yet at the ready, her flared gaze now surveying the field, she hissed, "It is dead."

"I think there are no more," declared Arin in a voice tight with tension. Even so, she did not lower her bow.

They listened long, their eyes wide and scanning, their air coming in short gasps. No other peril hove into view and all they heard was the sound of Aiko's yet frightened horse clattering at the end of the rope tied to the slain pony. Of Arin's horse and pony there was no sign, both having fled on down the pass, away from the hideous Troll.

"My tiger is silent," hissed Aiko.

Arin took a deep breath and slowly let it out and then lowered her bow. After a moment Aiko sheathed her swords and stepped to the side and picked up the wicked-bladed throwing star, the one that had bounced off the Ogru's stony hide. She turned to the Dylvana. "You should have fled, my Lady," said the yellow warrior. "We both should have fled." She gestured at the fallen Troll. "Such a Hitokui-oni cannot be defeated with ordinary weapons."

Arin glanced at the dead Ogru and then back at Aiko.

"Mayhap thou shouldst tell that to the Troll." Then Arin broke into gales of laughter as the battle tension shattered at last, Aiko joining in, covering her own giggles with both hands.

Taking a deep breath and holding it, the Ryodoan stepped to the dead Troll and bent down to retrieve the shiruken embedded in the creature's left eye.

"Take care, Aiko," warned Arin. "Troll's blood is scathing and will burn unprotected flesh."

As Aiko straightened and pulled on a pair of leather gloves, Arin fetched a canteen and handed it to the Ryodoan. "Here, wash any blood away."

Again the yellow warrior bent over the Troll and reached for the embedded shiruken. As Aiko did so, Arin's gaze widened. "Oh, Aiko, I've just had a thought: here we stand in a gloomy mist, and thou dost pluck a blinding thorn from a monster's eye. Could this be the one-eye in dark water? Have we slain our hope?"

With a thuk! the shiruken came free and Aiko, yet holding her breath against the Troll stench, straightened up, her dark eyes wide with Arin's question. Then she shook her head and turned up her hands and said, "I do not know." She looked about. "Perhaps the mist does serve as dark water, and the monster as a one-eye; yet whether or no this fits your vision, I cannot say." She washed the star blade free of grume and dried it, then slipped it back into her belt next to the other. She glanced at Arin and then turned toward the Troll. "Should I cut out the eye of the kaibutsu so that we may take it with us?"

Take these with thee, no more… Arin scrunched her face into a squint of disgust, but turned up a hand and said, "If we find a one-eyed person in Morkfjord, we can always cast this one away. -'Ware the blood."

Aiko nodded and drew her dagger and bent down, but then straightened up and said, "Which eye should we take-the pierced one or the other?"

"Oh," said Arin. She pondered a moment. "The pierced one, I deem, for it is the one which makes him a one-eye."

"But then, Dara, does not the damaged orb make the other one the true one-eye?"

"Aye, it does at that. Yet redes are things of twists and turns, and oft depend on the unusual."

Aiko nodded. "And a pierced Troll's eye is unusual?"

"Indeed," replied Arin. "For had the Ogru but blinked, thy star would not have cloven through and we would now be the ones lying dead instead of the monstrous Troll. But this one lies slain, all because of a damaged eye, and that is what makes this Ogru different from others of its Kind."

And so, Aiko began hacking out the pierced orb, and where Troll's blood struck stone, it sizzled and popped, and threads of dark smoke rose up. Meanwhile Arin retrieved the goods from the slain pony and stripped it of salvageable tack, and laded all on Aiko's still skittish horse. They washed the blood from the damaged eye and wrapped it in the cloth of an empty grain sack and tied it up in another, then slung it with the other goods. Aiko washed and dried her dagger and sheathed it back in its scabbard. And then walking and leading the horse, they started down the mountain pass, going after Arin's runaway steed and the pony tethered after.

Down they went and down, leaving a dead horseling and a one-eyed slain Troll behind.