Metta and Gymn did not respond to her words.
“I was a slave girl. Now I’m a servant of Paladin. That doesn’t make any difference. I’m still an ignorant o’rant girl.”
She backed into the most central cave she’d found and sat down in despair.
“Don’t give up!” Leetu Bends’ voice admonished her.
We’ve explored every tunnel going out of this cave. I’m so confused I don’t remember which branches of which tunnels we’ve already been through. Kale knew her frustration rang in her words even though they were not spoken. She struggled to control her emotions. The last thing she wanted was to give the emerlindian another chance to say “immature” in a disdainful tone.
“Then mark them.”
You mean start over? Go back through all the territory we’ve already explored?
“Sometimes you have to.”
Leetu’s patient tone irritated Kale. The o’rant girl spoke to her companion dragons instead of the emerlindian.
“How are we going to mark the tunnels as we go through them?”
Gymn jumped off her shoulder and glided to the entrance of the tunnel they had just left. He put his front foot in front of his face and spat. A fine green spray coated his paw. He stamped that foot on the wall. Metta leapt in the air, did a somersault, and let out a gleeful squeal. She zipped over to Gymn and proceeded to imitate him. She left a tiny purple paw print beside the green.
The system worked, but still it required hours of walking and crawling. Each time they rested for a few minutes, Gymn healed Kale’s new hurts. Under the influence of his healing, she could have forgotten to eat. But Metta liked mealtime and snacktime and naptime. She sang mealtime tunes every so often. The words would flit through Kale’s consciousness and remind her to eat.
Kale watched Metta catching bugs, sometimes bringing extra ones to Gymn, who sat on his friend’s lap and thrummed. The healing vibrations did much to ease Kale’s discomfort physically, but her nagging thoughts remained hurtful.
“I don’t understand why you think stopping to eat is better than eating bugs along the way,” Kale snapped at the purple dragon.
Metta dropped on her haunches and stared at Kale.
Kale looked away from the dragon’s sad eyes. “I’m sorry.”
Metta flew across to land on her favorite spot, tucking herself under Kale’s chin. She began to sing.
Kale chuckled and stroked the purple scales on the dragon’s side with one finger. “Do you know a tune for every occasion?”
After a rest, Kale again began her hunt through the maze of tunnels.
“We are so close this time.” She sat beside another dead end.
Leetu?
“I know. You can’t be more then a few feet away. Let me ask Brunstetter if he can move these boulders from this side. Perhaps we can break through.”
In a few moments, Kale heard stone scraping against stone. The wall of rocks making up the blockage trembled. With a surge of hope, she picked up smaller stones and moved them away. In a matter of minutes a slanted hole appeared, and Kale looked into Brunstetter’s smiling eyes.
“Welcome back, little stray,” he said and winked. Kale laughed.
The urohm’s huge face disappeared, and Leetu’s popped into view. She, too, smiled and laughed. “Haven’t you had a minute to wash your face, o’rant girl? You look like a thousand-year-old emerlindian.”
Librettowit showed his face next, and when Kale saw the bloody bandage on his head, she gasped.
“Here, take Gymn. He can start the healing while we make the hole bigger for me to get through.”
The librarian shook his head gingerly. “No, Kale, his power only works with you nearby, best if you can actually make the circle of healing by touching.”
“Move aside, tumanhofer.” Brunstetter ordered good-naturedly, his deep voice rumbling in a way that comforted Kale’s raw emotions.
She leaned toward the opening to see if she could spot Fenworth, Dar, and the kimens. Dar and the kimens sat around Fenworth’s still form. As Kale watched, their heads snapped up, their attention riveted by something out of Kale’s line of vision.
Dar jumped up and pulled his sword from its scabbard. Kale heard the battle cry of a bisonbeck. Brunstetter dropped the rock in his hands and ran toward the camp. Leetu raced after him.
A swarm of soldiers descended on her friends before they had a chance to defend themselves. Shimeran and Seezle jumped in the air, but a net shot over them and captured the kimens as it fell. Dar didn’t have a chance to duck into his shell. He moved slowly, and Kale knew Leetu was right, his injuries must be worse than just bruises.
What can I do? An explosion of light? Move mounds of dirt?…I don’t know how!
She watched in helpless horror as Lee Ark and Brunstetter fell under the assault of dozens of bisonbeck warriors. When the fighting stopped, each of her comrades had been captured. Chains bound Leetu, Lee Ark, Brunstetter, Dar, and Librettowit to each other at the ankle and around the neck. A net entangled the kimens so tightly that they lay in a huddled heap. Four guards stood around Wizard Fenworth as if the old man would arise and smite them all. Kale cringed at the pointed spears inches away from the ancient and vulnerable wizard.
Not one of her comrades glanced toward the small opening where Kale’s eyes peered through, watching as the bisonbecks destroyed the tents and scattered their belongings.
Leetu, what should I do?
“Stay out of sight.”
Yes, but I can do something, can’t I? To help you get free?
“Find the meech egg, o’rant girl. And get out of this mountain.”
But—
“Follow orders, Kale. And don’t play with your talents. Treat them with respect, or more disaster will fall upon your head.”
The bisonbeck commander roared. His troops fell into military formation. A soldier roughly lifted the old wizard and slung him over his shoulder. Her friends began the march out of The Cavern of Rainbows.
Kale ground her teeth. “My talents. I don’t help anyone with my talents. I cause disaster. Why? Why give a stupid o’rant slave talents?”
44
IN THE STRONGHOLD
As soon as the last soldier marched through the exiting tunnel, Kale began to claw away loose stones around the small opening. Minutes later she crammed her body into the narrow hole and pushed and wiggled and squirmed until she fell out the other side. She tumbled and slid before coming to rest against a boulder covered with black dirt. Metta and Gymn flew through the shallow slit she’d made and landed beside her.
She stood and walked around in a daze. She picked up Fenworth’s pointed wizard hat and bunched it into a wad, much the way the wizard did when he was thinking. She walked aimlessly around the destroyed campsite. Metta and Gymn followed, making sad chirruping noises to each other.
Kale stooped to pick up Dar’s flute. A dent in the side showed rough treatment by the vicious bisonbecks.
“Dar will want this,” she said to the dragons. “Maybe he can fix it.” She wiped it off with the wizard’s hat and stuck it into one of the hollows of her cape. She picked up Dar’s smashed harmonica and several other small musical instruments, all variously damaged, and quickly stowed them away.
The tumanhofer’s stack of books had been kicked over and thrown in all directions. Kale gathered them, dusted off the sooty grime, and fitted them into a hollow. Picking up a pair of Librettowit’s reading spectacles, she noted a cracked lens and put it with the other things she had collected.
Collapsing on a boulder, gray with Crim Copper’s smudge, Kale dropped her head into her hands, fighting the urge to cry.
With a shudder, she sat up. “It’s no use pretending things aren’t bad.” The dragons flew to her shoulders. “We’ve got to consider what’s best to do and then do it.”
She stared at the debris around her, absent-mindedly putting Fenworth’s hat on her head. She shook herself as if trying to wake up.
“Keeping
broken things won’t help.”
She pulled out the spectacles and intended to throw them as far as she could. Gymn hopped on her shoulder and trilled. The high-pitched warble pierced the silent room.
“What?” Kale lifted a hand to rub against her ear. Gymn’s excited squeal had been all too close to her eardrum. At his urging, she looked at the broken lens. “It’s fixed!”
Kale jumped to her feet. The dragons lost their balance, fluttered beside her for a moment, and then landed on the rocks. Kale pulled out the books and found the pages unwrinkled, untorn, the book covers pristine clean. The flute was dentless. She lifted the harmonica to her mouth and blew. A reedy chord resounded merrily in the forlorn cavern. She marveled at the undamaged instruments as she laid them in a row on the ground.
“You’d think somebody would have told me.”
She repacked the items in her cape and continued to rummage through the mess left by the bisonbecks. She picked up items belonging to each of her comrades except the kimens. Again she puzzled over the fact that she had rarely seen them carry anything.
“Do you suppose they have hollows in their light clothes?”
The dragons didn’t offer an opinion.
Kale picked up Leetu’s bow, broken into two pieces. She looked from the pieces in her hands to the dragons watching her with expectant faces. Kale could feel them urging her to try it.
She fitted the two ends of the bow together. The shaft stretched taller than she did. Kale slipped it into the hollow opening. The bow slid in easily, moving down and down until the whole bow disappeared. Kale held her breath and pulled it back out. The jagged edges where she’d put the two pieces together had mended; no sign of breakage existed, not even a seam.
“Look at that! Wait till I show Leetu.”
The emerlindian’s words echoed in her memory. “Follow orders, Kale. And don’t play with your talents. Treat them with respect, or more disaster will fall upon your head.”
Kale looked quickly at the dragons. Both had turned their heads aside and refused to look her in the eye.
“This isn’t my talent. It’s something the cape does.”
The dragons made grunty noises in their throats.
Kale growled back. “All right. Guilty,” she said, and her shoulders slumped. “When will I ever learn?”
She shoved the bow back into the hollow and gathered Leetu’s arrows into the leather quiver. When she finished, she gazed around The Cavern of Rainbows and sighed over its dulled appearance. Her eyes rested on one of the many tunnels leading out.
“Well, Gymn, Metta, we have things to do.”
Kale marched across the disheveled room exiting the cavern by the same tunnel the bisonbeck warriors had used earlier.
I’m supposed to be looking for the meech egg. It is probably kept in the center of Risto’s stronghold. The bisonbecks were probably returning to their underground fortress. It is reasonable to follow them. Now, if I just happen to come across my friends on the way as I’m looking for the meech egg, and I happen to see a way to help them escape, then that wouldn’t be disobeying orders.
She could feel the direction she needed to turn each time she came to tunnels branching off, just as she could judge the distance between herself and the last of the marching soldiers. She put the hood and veil over her head so she could see in the dimmer passageways. Following her captured friends was not difficult. However, staying out of the way of citizens of this underground community became a problem.
For a while the stone corridors were eerily empty. No druddums, no insects. Kale concentrated on the movement of the troop of soldiers surrounding her comrades. Gymn and Metta darted about, unsuccessfully looking for snacks. As they approached one bend, the two dragons bolted for Kale and dove into their pocket-dens. She got the distinct impression someone was approaching around the blind corner and flattened herself against the wall, remaining still so that her cape hid her. She heard heavy footsteps slamming against the stone floor.
Five seconds later, two soldiers, large and surly, tramped past her without one look in her direction. She soon discovered that Gymn and Metta could hear someone’s approach better than she could. As they neared the center of Risto’s stronghold, the dragons warned her repeatedly when someone was coming.
The humid air became harder to breathe. A stale, rancid odor burned her throat. The dragons coughed, objecting to the unpleasant atmosphere. The tunnels widened, and they met carts pulled by donkeys and people on horseback.
Just when Kale thought she would not make any more progress with all the stopping they did for traffic, the army marched down a wide staircase and entered a less populated region. Kale and the dragons followed, and followed again, when the prisoners were taken down another, narrower set of stone steps.
The dungeon!
Gymn, Metta, soon they’ll put our friends in cells and leave them. Maybe then we can do some good.
Once more the tunnels branched, this time in three different directions. The major part of the bisonbeck guard marched off to the left. A few took the weary prisoners down the central corridor. When Kale got to the intersection, she turned right.
She stopped and turned around, coming back to the point where the tunnels merged. To her left was the way back from where she had come. Straight ahead she could sense more bisonbecks than she had ever encountered before. To the right lay the dungeons, she was sure. Her body turned and headed back down the wrong hallway. She stopped again and tried to turn.
I don’t know! she answered the dragons’ inquiries. One foot moved forward, and Kale strained to keep the other from following. She lost the battle and took several steps before she could stop again.
She peered down the dark, rocky hall and saw nothing beyond dreary walls and a few dim lightrocks. She took a few steps forward before she even realized she was moving.
“I want to follow Dar and Leetu.” She tried to turn. “But I can’t.” She stomped her foot. “What’s down there? Is this a trap? Maybe it’s the meech dragon egg pulling at me.” She shivered as she looked at the cold stone walls of the wizard’s domain, realizing she was far away from home, friends, and anything good. “Maybe Risto has some kind of enchantment that lures trespassers into his clutches. And I’m the next victim.”
Metta and Gymn exchanged a nervous chitter. Kale understood they wanted to stop her in some way. Metta began to sing, and for an instant Kale felt a release from the pull. When it came back, it tugged so hard she ran a ways before she could slow herself down. She couldn’t stop. Ahead she could see two bisonbeck guards standing at attention beside a large archway.
Probably Risto’s hall where he receives visitors. He’s probably waiting in there to see what his enchantment has brought him this time.
Don’t go in with me, Metta, Gymn. Fly away, hide. There’s no reason for you to be caught as well.
The soldiers ahead spotted her. They lowered their spears to ready position.
“Halt!” one ordered, but she was helpless to do as he commanded.
Metta began to sing, a slow melodious tune, soothing and peaceful.
Thank you very much, Metta. But my nerves are beyond succumbing to your ministrations. I’m about to be killed, I think.
The second guard took a step forward. “Halt!”
I’m trying. Believe me, I’m trying.
Metta crooned.
Why did Paladin choose a singing dragon? A fighting dragon, a fire dragon, an invisible dragon would have been useful.
Metta flew forward and circled the heads of the guards. They did not seem to notice her but stared at Kale’s approach.
Maybe Metta is invisible.
Gymn gave an excited flip in the air and landed back on Kale’s shoulder.
Neither guard challenged her again. Kale walked up to them and studied their faces as she passed. They breathed, but they did not blink. The pupils of their eyes were mere dots. Their gazes were locked on some point down the hallway where she had been moments before.
>
They don’t see me. They don’t hear me either? Metta continued to fly slowly around them, singing her soothing syllable-song. She entranced them.
Gymn somersaulted in the air. Kale turned her head to observe the room she entered.
Who will be here to greet me? More guards? More mesmerized guards, I hope…No one?
She searched the corners of the room with her eyes while she continued to step toward a wooden cabinet. Her palms itched to open the elaborate carved doors set in the opposite wall. Her hand went up to the knob, twisted, and pulled as soon as she reached it. The door swung open noiselessly.
Inside, a huge egg sat in a velvet-lined basket. It was twice as big around as Kale and as tall as she was from her waist to the top of her head.
Gymn chirruped a note of victory.
Kale put her hand tentatively on the hard shell. The surface shimmered with a pearlescent luster. Don’t be so happy, little friend. How am I supposed to lift something this big?
45
THE VOICE OF EVIL
“Gymn, now I have to go get the others. Brunstetter could carry this, but I can’t.” Kale rubbed the cold surface of the giant meech egg with her fingertips. Colors surfaced on the glossy white shell and rippled like oil in a rain puddle.
Gymn flew into the huge cupboard and circled around the egg. His eyes glowed with admiration, and he voiced his excitement with a constant stream of trills and chirrups.
“It is beautiful,” Kale agreed. She tried to step back from the meech egg to get a better look. Her feet did not respond and her hand stuck to the shell.
“No!” She pulled again. She grasped the stuck hand with her other and yanked. The palm resting on the egg burned as if she were ripping off her skin.
Tears welled up in her eyes. “Is this a trap? Do I have to stay here until Risto comes?”
“Ah! The o’rant girl.” A deep voice filled her mind. A gloating laugh followed the words. “I suspected ten years ago that your existence was a myth. I’m actually gratified that you have come to me.”