Chapter 22. Meeting the Ognods
Solvienne and Amndo walked along the causeway. Walking in these lands did not prove to be pleasant. Even with their cloaks pulled tightly about them, with hoods pulled up over their heads, nothing seemed to keep the damp, cold air from penetrating there clothing and making this journey even more miserable than it was already. The continual cold seemed to seep into their very souls; their bones seemed to ache with the wetness and clamminess that surrounded them.
They had to look down as they walked for fear of tripping. The slabs that made up the causeway were domed, perhaps they were actually small round boulders set halfway into the soil, but however this road was built, the two travellers found the dips between the stones made for a very unpleasant surface on which to walk. However much they tried they always found that one of their feet was always placed on the domed top of a stone, followed by the other foot going down into a dip between the stones. The resulting effort made the soles of their feet and their calf muscles ache badly. Solvienne resorted to trying to hop from the top of one stone to the next, but even though this gave momentary respite from the uncomfortable way they were forced to walk, she was soon forced to stop because this method used up twice as much energy. It was a most difficult journey, even if they deliberately changed their feet over so that the opposite foot fell upon the dome and down into the dip, it was a short respite for the muscles in their legs. Amndo commented that the stones were obviously laid in such a way to be walked upon by larger folk who had at least half again the length of their stride, for then each foot could be comfortably placed on each domed stone. He presumed the dome shape to be deliberate for if it was raining then the water would run between the stones and the travellers feet would be kept dry. Solvienne had tried to walk on the green grass by the side of the road only to sink up to her knees in wet moss and decaying vegetation. When she tried to pull one foot out the other sank further into the soft loamy mud beneath. Amndo had to lift her out with a squelching, sucking noise.
After a while Solvienne stopped and called for a rest, her left calf muscle had given way under her for the third time and she sat down upon the causeway trying to rub her muscle back out of its current painful cramp whilst nursing a sore knee where she had fallen upon it heavily. Amndo had walked around behind her giving her time to recover. Suddenly a large flat piece of shining metal was thrust beneath her chin and slowly raised, forcing her to lift her head. She looked up and up and then found herself looking along the length of a long, curved sword at a very large gloved hand; then up a thick muscled arm covered in a mix of leather and metal armour. Finally her gaze reached two large grey but bright eyes set beneath the rim of a metal helmet with two large leather side flaps. A smile upon the great open mouth showed two abnormally long canine teeth slanting upwards from the bottom jaw. The wrist moved and the sword was raised higher, she was forced to stand as the sharp blade persuaded her to rise in order to ensure that she kept her head upon her shoulders.
She heard Amndo’s voice over her shoulder saying, “we mean you know harm, we seek an audience with your elders, we ask only that you take us to your clan so that we may speak with them.”
The ognod warrior that had her immobilised raised his eyes slowly over her head at some point beyond her vision and he said something in a low guttural language she did not understand. At this the warrior withdrew his sword and she found herself breathing once more, she felt a little dizzy and swayed on unsteady legs. Next she knew, the ognod had bent down and reaching one arm round the back of her thighs, she was rather unceremoniously lifted up and now hung backwards over his shoulder. The Ognod turned and with great strides started to walk on down the causeway going in the same direction as Nar’Allia and Amndo had been travelling but minutes before on their own. She managed a look behind by lifting her head, but the bobbing movement of the striding ognod made this position painful to hold for any length of time, she saw that another Ognod strode behind them with Amndo also hoisted over his shoulder. Behind him four more ognod’s followed with shouldered weapons, these were pointing and laughing, no doubt at Solvienne’s and Amndo’s expense. The other thing Solvienne noticed was the overpoweringly bad smell of the ognod’s body odour, mixed with the smell of damp leather. She wrinkled her nose. She felt the ognod’s shoulder beneath her rise and fall in quick succession, he was laughing!
After a while Solvienne found herself in a most uncomfortable position, she was having trouble breathing as the continual pressure of her own body weight pressed down upon her diaphragm. She started to gasp in rasping sounds. The ognod lifted her down from his shoulder and held her sitting in the crook of his arm. She was relieved that the pressure was off her midriff, but when she opened her eyes she was staring into that sharp-toothed grin. Now up close the ognod’s smile held a second menacing feature, the smell of his breath took her own breath away. She was appalled to view those teeth up close, ivory coloured for the most part but also yellowed at the tips, their bases where they met with the gums were dark brown almost black in places with small pieces of his last meal stuck between the teeth. Solvienne shuddered, the ognod laughed subjecting her to further rank smells, hot moist air from his lungs and a couple of slimy gobs of spittle thrown in for good measure.
Another ognod strode up beside them. He was also smiling, a mischievous grin. He held a jar of some sort, he unscrewed the lid and offering this up, the ognod that carried Solvienne shifted his hands down her back until her bottom sat neatly in the palm of one hand, she squirmed. He extended the palm of his other hand, something from the jar was tipped into his outstretched palm and then his fist was closed tightly around whatever he now held. Then the Ognod that carried her raised his clenched fist slowly as he opened his lips wide and something was thrown into his mouth. Solvienne was thankful; for he closed his lips hiding those teeth and rank odour. She watched his lips as they parted once more and he smiled again. She looked in abstract horror as a couple of dark-red coloured beetle like insects, about the same size as the palm of her hand crawled in and around his gums, they stopped when they found bits of food and digging out these morsels with their mandibles they ate whatever it was they found between the ognod’s teeth. The beetles made a sort of chattering noise as they searched around inside the ognod’s mouth. They even fought one another for a particularly tasty morsel. She tried closing her eyes, but some fascinated horror kept her looking. But then the ognod closed his mouth and she saw movement under his lips, possibly his tongue moving around inside his mouth, he then began to chew slowly, muffled crunching noises came from within and he finally swallowed. Once more he opened his mouth in a smile, she moved her head back as far as possible, her hands upon his chest, she looked horrified as neither of the insects could be seen, neither could the odd pieces of food. The ognod laughed a guttural slow chuckling sound. She felt she was about to faint, when she was lifted across onto his other arm and slung over his other shoulder once more.
Despite the discomfort she must have fallen asleep for the last thing she remembered was the sound of the creaking leather amour on which her cheek lay.
“Solvienne, Solvienne,” she heard a voice, her head ached, it was being rocked from one side to the other. She awoke startled. Amndo’s features stared into hers his hand gently rocked her shoulder. “Ah thank the Maker you are with me.”
She was relieved to find she was no longer tossed across the shoulder of the ognod. The sun was shining brightly, an orange-red colour, it was low in the sky; she screwed up her eyes against the bright glow. “Where are we?”
“Inside the ognod city, look.” Amndo looked to her right and indicated with a nod of his head.
She looked around. They appeared to be seated against the wall of some kind of dome shaped building, but at least they were not bound in any way. The walls were rounded to either side and the roof could not be seen beyond the curve of the shape of the building. In front of them there lay a wide area of compacted earth, many ognod’s wandered about, including the ognod that
had unceremoniously carried her here, he was across the other side of the area talking to another ognod in a brown rough cloth robe. Beyond were many wooden buildings. Most had skilfully carved shapes and depictions of animals and other things on the thick wooden pillars at each corner, large pillars that obviously held up the roof. There was a fair amount of wood smoke around the place, possibly from cooking fires or even fires to heat the buildings, for it was now late in the day. As she watched the sun finally went down beyond the mountains that could now be seen clearly in the distance and all of a sudden there was felt a definite chill upon the air. Solvienne pulled her cloak around her tightly, not against any cloying mist this time, but against the air temperature that seemed to be dropping with every passing second. She watched the two ognod’s talking. Then the one she didn’t recognise, the one sporting the course robe nodded. He looked their way and after listening to the other for a further minute or two he nodded once more and then strode over to where she and Amndo sat.
In a low bass voice thick with an accent he said in the common tongue, “The causeway guards tell me you wish to see the elders as you call them.
“Amndo said, yes, I’m sorry if my terminology is wrong, but we would like to talk with whoever is in leadership here, we have important matters to discuss.”
“Then say what you will, for I am leader here in the lower arena.”
Before Amndo could say anything Solvienne spoke before she could stop herself, “we are friends of your leader, Retta. It is her we seek, my mother knew her well, we seek an audience with Retta on business concerning my mother Minervar, please inform Retta we are here.”
The ognod looked at Solvienne with a completely expressionless face. But he eventually gave a wide grin and said, “then to come on such high and mighty mission we should show you every courtesy we can.”
He bowed low, but Solvienne couldn’t help but think that this gesture did not have a sincere meaning behind it, more of a mockery aimed at her.
He continued to grin and continued speaking, “we must show you to the waiting room.” He then turned and shouted something in his own language. A large ognod, stripped to the waist appeared from one of the buildings opposite, he was carrying a long ladder. The most striking thing about him were the many long scars that covered his torso, he looked although he had been savaged by a wild animal, perhaps more than once, or even by more than one animal. A scar cut vertically across his left eye, the eye itself was missing, the eyelid had been sawn shut when the scar was also sawn up. His left ear was missing, but that was not all he had obviously lost part of his skull at the same time for a large metal plate covered the area where his ear and the side of his head should have been. The ognod in the robe walked to Amndo’s side and opened a small door in the wall of the domed building against which they sat, a small door by ognod standards at least. A rather earthy smell with a hint of decay caught their nostrils. The scarred ognod with the ladder strode over and lowered the ladder through the doorway. He then stood back and grasping Amndo by the collar, lifted him through the doorway; Amndo found himself hanging above some kind of pit the bottom of which he could not see. The ognod in the course robe shouted something at the scarred ognod who nodded with a look of disappointment on his face but he proceeded to carefully place Amndo onto the top rung of the ladder. He then pushed on Amndo’s shoulders forcing him down the ladder. Once satisfied he then reached for Solvienne, she stood and held her hands palm up in front of her in submission. The ognod nodded and stood upright, he backed away allowing her to pass him and she made her way to the doorway and stepping through backwards felt her foot alight upon the top rung of the ladder. She glanced once at the faces of the ognod’s watching then proceeded to climb down the ladder into the darkness below. She looked down, the ladder disappeared into the gloom, Amndo could not be seen, so she started to climb down. As she climbed down she shouted, “Amndo are you alright?”
“Yes, my lady,” was the reply, “I stand on the bottom. Be careful of your footing when you step from the ladder, there are many things on the floor that make it uneven and treacherous to step out upon.”
Solvienne proceeded to climb down carefully for she could only just make out the ladder in front of her face, the only light that flowed into this place was through the still open doorway above and that was fading fast. Then suddenly she lowered a foot but instead of finding a further rung on the ladder, it stepped upon something that shifted suddenly beneath it. She moved her foot to one side of whatever it was and felt it drop a further distance to what must be the floor proper. She could feel things rubbing close against her ankles and calf. She placed her other foot beside her first and then decided that it would be better to slide her foot across the floor between whatever it was that lay upon the floor. She lifted the hem of her dress but could not see what lay there in the darkness of the windowless room. After she had let go of the ladder it was immediately lifted up and out of the doorway through which they had come. She looked up in time to see the last few rungs disappear from view. Then the door was closed with a thud and the only light that did shine into the chamber was cut off.
She heard Amndo’s voice in the darkness, “over here my lady.”
Solvienne made her way carefully over to where she could here Amndo’s voice. She held her hand in front of her; the other still raised the hem of her skirts. She trod carefully over the shifting layer of whatever lay upon the floor, two times she stumbled but was able to regain her balance without having to out her hand down. A few times she had to lift her feet high because it had snagged beneath something unmoving. She then felt contact with Amndo, and felt his hands grasp her elbow. She stood by his side relieved and breathing quite hard.
“Let us risk a little light eh?”
Solvienne nodded even though Amndo could not see the gesture. All of a sudden a warm glow flooded the chamber. Amndo had made his staff emit a low level of light, but Solvienne was thankful for even the smallest glow. He increased the light steadily. They could see they stood at the bottom of a circular chamber; smooth, vertical earthen walls surrounded them. High above them they could see many curved rafters forming the dome they saw from the outside. The wooden rafters supported a form of thatched roof. Many spider webs hung thickly down, hundreds of generations of spiders must have lived out their existence in this place. She then felt alarm as Amndo took a step back, a crunching noise was heard and he almost fell. Solvienne looked down. She could not see her feet, but, she gasped and covered her mouth to stifle a scream, for there almost up to the level of her knees she saw many bones and some skulls all bleached white. These were Ognod sized bones and skulls. She again stifled a scream. Amndo drew her closer towards him and tried to lift her above the level of the floor, she found she involuntarily lifted her feet up, she shivered and moaned uncontrollably.
As if in response to her scream a low reverberating growl could be heard coming from somewhere in the gloom, Amndo shone his staff around the room quickly to and fro trying and see where this horrid noise was coming from. But all they could see in the base of the wall opposite was another wooden door. This one was thick and sturdy, having many metal straps bolted to it, it was twice the size of the door that they had been pushed through to stand upon the top of the ladder. There was a wooden latch mechanism on the door, a rope attached to the latch ran vertically up the wall through many metal rings and seemed to disappear through the wall of the building high above. This door had deep gashes running down and across it as if some clawed hand had continuously racked across its surface. Solvienne was reminded of the many scars that the ognod who lowered the ladder had across his chest. They heard the low growl once again; it came from just the other side of this door. Something heavy struck the door from the other side, Solvienne jumped back in fright. Something started pushing on the door, the thick wood creaked and the whole thing rattled upon thick metal hinges as time and time again the door was struck from the other side. The latch mechanism rattled, but it held in the metal clasp
that was fixed into the doorframe. Towards the top of the door was a small square hole or window, into this aperture thick metal bars were set vertically, just as you would see in the door of a prison cell perhaps. As they watched two long clawed fingers poked out from between the metal bars, the claws dug into the wood as the door creaked once more under the applied pressure from the other side. Solvienne’s eyes widened as she looked at the claws and the nobly jointed fingers on which they were mounted. She saw scaly skin, diamond shaped scales. A terrifying roar sounded from the other side.
This time Solvienne did scream, loudly and long.