Within the caverns of the Troll redoubt, Pen was sleeping soundly when a rough hand shook his shoulder and an equally rough voice said, “Wake up! You’re leaving!”
He jerked upright, groggy and lethargic, trying to figure out where he was. When he caught sight of Atalan moving over to Tagwen to wake the Dwarf, he remembered. He had no idea how long he had slept, but it didn’t feel as if it had been more than a few minutes. He rubbed his eyes and climbed to his feet. Khyber and Cinnaminson were standing by the cavern entry, staring out into the corridor. Heavy booming shook the chamber, as if a giant were striking the cliff face with a huge hammer. From somewhere not too far away, shouts and cries rose, the sounds of a battle being joined.
Pen moved over to the girls. “What’s going on? What’s happened?”
“The Druids and their Gnome Hunters are attacking the Trolls,” Khyber answered. “Hear that pounding? They’re using catapults to launch huge boulders into the cliff walls to break down the Troll fortifications. Gnome Hunters are scaling the cliffs on ladders and ropes, trying to breach the redoubt.”
“Which they will do, sooner than later,” Kermadec declared, appearing out of the corridor shadows. “They’re determined about this, it seems. We have to get you out now, before we lose the chance. All awake and ready to go?” He swung around. “Atalan! Gather up their things. Distribute them among the others. Hurry!”
Atalan hesitated. “Am I to go with you?”
“You are. Now join the others. Go!”
Black eyes glittering eagerly, Kermadec’s brother snatched up everything in sight belonging to the four companions and bolted from the room. It was clear that he had taken on a new attitude.
Pen was less happy about the pending flight. “Kermadec,” he said, drawing the big Troll’s attention. “I’m sorry about this. I shouldn’t have let Tagwen talk me into coming. Look what I’ve done.”
To his surprise, Kermadec laughed. “Well, you can make that argument, Penderrin. You can say that this is all your fault. But the fact remains that we need to bring back the Ard Rhys from where Shadea and those others have sent her. Besides, what’s happening now would have happened sooner or later. There’s no peace for the Trolls of Taupo Rough while your aunt is lost to us. So don’t blame yourself for this. Blame her, if you want to blame anyone, for not listening to me or Bristle Beard when we warned her to be more careful.”
He beckoned Tagwen over and gathered all four around him. “Now, listen. We haven’t much time. Evacuation of the women and children is already under way. All will be spirited away through tunnels that open onto the other side. The men will follow as soon as they are out. Then a march will be undertaken to reach a new safehold. We’ve done this before, and we are practiced at it. Everyone will just disappear. There won’t even be a trail left. The Druids and the Gnomes will never know what happened.
“But first, we have to get you out. I’ve selected a dozen Trolls to provide escort. That includes Atalan and myself. You’ll be as well looked after as possible. But we have to move quickly in the beginning, because as soon as it is discovered we are gone, Traunt Rowan is going to realize what we have done and bring his warships over the peaks and down the other side to search for us. He’ll have the advantage from the air because we must cross the Klu Mountains to reach the Inkrim. That’s a journey of perhaps a week on foot. A long time to be out in the open, but we haven’t any choice.”
He looked at each of them in turn, measuring. “Are you up to it? Are you ready to try?”
All nodded, but the Troll shook his head. His blunt features were tight. “Don’t be too quick to sign on. If any of you wants to stay behind, now is the time to tell me. It won’t be held against you. Not by me or by any of those who go with me.” He paused. “Cinnaminson?”
She stiffened. “Why do you choose to start with me? Is it because I am blind?”
Kermadec reached out with his huge hand and placed it gently on her shoulder. “No, girl. I start with you because you have less of a stake in all this than the others do. It would be easiest for you to walk away.”
“Once, that was so.” She shook her head slowly. “Not anymore. My decision is made. I am going.”
Kermadec looked at the other three. “Pen, you haven’t any choice, so there’s no reason to ask you. And Tagwen will go because he doesn’t trust me to get the job done alone. What of you, Khyber Elessedil?”
She gave him a fierce look. “I will go because my uncle would have gone if he had lived. I stand now in his shoes.”
Kermadec nodded his approval. “Then we’re a company.” He wheeled away. “Come with me.”
He led them back down the corridor they had come through earlier, toward the shouting of fighters and the thunder of siege weapons. Pen felt his temperature rise and his hands begin to sweat as the sounds of battle reverberated through the mountain catacombs. He remembered how it had felt to be chased through the streets of the village, dodging arrows and sling stones, trying to stay safe. He did not care to experience that again, and yet it seemed as if that was exactly what was going to happen. He wished they had an airship and could simply fly away. He wanted to be back in the skies, where he felt safe.
The main chamber of the redoubt was filled with Trolls charging in all directions. The men stood at the walls where the cliffs opened to the village below, crouching behind their fortifications as boulders smashed into the rock and arrows whizzed past their heads. The women and children were making their way in small groups toward the back part of the cavern, then filing down a series of tunnels into the torchlit dark. The women, distinctive by their smoother skin and slender bodies, herded the tiny children like puppies, urging them along, carrying those too small to walk. They seemed calm on the face of things, moving deliberately and with purpose, evidencing none of the panic that Pen felt. Their self-control impressed the boy, and he tightened his own resolve.
With Kermadec leading the way, they hurried after the women and children. Dust was falling from the cavern ceiling as the pounding of the catapult missiles against the rock walls grew more insistent, the resulting reverberations deep and threatening. It felt as if the mountain might come down about them, broken in two by the constant hammering. Pen ducked his head instinctively and reached over to take Cinnaminson’s hand. He did so as much for himself as for her, and was grateful when she squeezed his fingers reassuringly.
They were mingling with the women and children now, the latter staring up at him with curious, anxious eyes. He tried not to read accusation in those stares; the children wouldn’t know that their upheaval was his fault. He smiled at them as he hurried past. He didn’t know how else to tell them that he wanted them to think better of him than he thought of himself.
“Stay together!” Kermadec called back.
Silt rained down on Pen in a sudden shower, and he tripped over one of the children. Releasing Cinnaminson’s hand, he paused to pick the child up, brushing off its tiny head, handing it back to the closest of the women. The woman took the child and smiled at him, her strange black eyes and smooth features drawing him in. Something in the look she gave him reminded him of his mother, and suddenly he missed her so that it made him ache. The shock was like a physical blow, and it left him stunned and momentarily disoriented. His world compressed to a tightness about his heart, where the things he needed most felt the farthest away.
Still struggling with his feelings, he hurried after the others.
SIXTEEN
They fled through the tunnels, away from Taupo Rough and deep into the mountain rock. At first they followed the women and children, a part of their steady flow down the boltholes, and then they broke away to follow a different set of tunnels and did not see them again. Pen and the rest of their small group moved swiftly and purposefully, sliding through the darkness with torches to light the way and a sense of urgency to keep them focused. The din of the battle they had escaped was audible for a time, then dimmed and faded, and they were left with the soft scrape and
rustle of their own movements in the ensuing silence.
No one spoke. All of their efforts were concentrated on moving through the tunnels, on getting clear of the pursuit that was sure to follow. It might be that the Druids and their Gnome Hunters couldn’t track them through the rock corridors, but Pen knew that Kermadec and his Trolls would not rely on that. He held Cinnaminson’s hand as they went, drawing on the strength he found there, reassuring himself that she was with him. He didn’t even try to tell himself that the contact was for her; he knew that she was better able to navigate the dark than he was. It was to keep his despair and loneliness at bay, for he was afraid that otherwise, without the feel of her, he would give way to the dark emotions that threatened to overwhelm his failing sense of purpose and leave him drained of strength.
The eyes of those women and children haunted him, burned into his memory, became ghosts in his mind. That wouldn’t have happened had he felt less guilt over their fate. But he could not absolve himself of the responsibility he felt, no matter what Kermadec might say. Too much of what had transpired already on the journey was directly attributable to him. Fortunes altered, plans shattered, and lives given up—that was pretty much the story for everyone with whom he had come in contact since leaving Patch Run. It might not be his fault and his involvement might not matter anyway in the long run, but he could only see what was, not what might be. His presence was the catalyst for everything that had happened. So much depended on him, and the weight of it was terrifying.
“Keep right,” Kermadec called over his shoulder, motioning toward Pen and his companions. “Don’t look down.”
They entered a cavern that dropped away on the left into a black hole so vast that it looked as if it could swallow whole villages. The trail became a narrow ledge that hugged the wall of the cavern, and the company pressed close to that wall as they edged forward. They were strung out in single file, torches spaced along the ledge. Pen could see for the first time the other Trolls who had joined them somewhere along the way, a line of burly, dark shadows in the flicker of the firelight. They wore no armor, only leather tunics and pants, closed-toe sandals, and heavy cloaks. All carried weapons strapped across their backs, along with packs of supplies. They moved ponderously, but with no visible effort or strain. They had the look of massive rocks into which faces had been carved.
On the far side of the cavern, a tunnel opened into the rock wall, and soon they were burrowing downward once more. They had been descending steadily since they had set out, and if Pen was judging right, they were below the level of the village of Taupo Rough by several hundred feet. He wanted to know where they were going, wanted to reach a place where he could ask, and wanted most of all to get out in the open air again, where he could breathe. The mountain and its darkness pressed down against him with suffocating force. He was a flier, born to the air, and he hated being closed away.
But the tunnels wound on, deep and dark passageways thick with stale air and tar smoke, dead feeling and tomblike. Pen closed his mind to them after a while, a defense against his distaste and the hint of fear that lay behind it. He whispered now and again to Cinnaminson, just so that he could hear her voice. Each time, she squeezed his hand, as if sensing his need to make contact.
When they finally emerged from the tunnels, it was late afternoon and the sun had disappeared behind the peaks west, the light gone gray and misty. A narrow wedge of sky was visible overhead, distant and thick with clouds. They were deep in a valley where the shadows were so heavily layered that the trees carpeting the slopes surrounding them seemed already given over to night. Mountains rose all about them in sheer cliffs and jagged edges. Pen stood with the others, breathing the fresh, cold air and thinking that he had somehow tunneled down to the bottom of the world and must now climb back out again before he lost his way forever.
Kermadec was speaking in his deep, calm voice with one of the Trolls at the front of the line, but the conversation was being conducted in his own tongue so that Pen could not understand it. When they were finished, the other Troll disappeared into the trees, and Kermadec walked over to the boy and his companions.
“Barek will scout ahead to make sure the way is safe. We will follow in a few minutes.” He gestured toward the dense line of peaks that lay east. “These are the Klu. Part of the Charnals, but their own range, as well. To the extent that it’s possible to do so, we’ll travel at night from here on.” He paused. “Is everyone all right?”
They nodded, all of them, but with nothing that approached enthusiasm. Pen was somewhat relieved to find that his companions had seemingly fared no better than he had within the tunnels and the dark.
Kermadec nodded. “We’ll go on in a few minutes. We have to cross the valley floor before nightfall to be certain we’re safe enough to get some sleep. Drink plenty of water. The air is dry here. You won’t notice it until you pass out.”
Pen and his friends did as the big Troll instructed, casting uneasy glances back at the opening to the tunnels from which they had emerged, then at the sky overhead where searching airships might appear at any second.
“It will take them a day or two just to discover we’re gone,” Tagwen announced confidently.
“Only if they are exceedingly stupid,” Atalan shot back, overhearing as he walked past. He gave a dismissive shrug. “The fortifications will have been abandoned by now and our people moved on. We’re being hunted already, little man.”
Tagwen scowled deeply, not at all happy with being addressed in such familiar terms by the young Troll. After Atalan had moved away, Pen said quietly to the Dwarf, “His name is Atalan. He claims he’s Kermadec’s brother.”
Tagwen shook his head. “Kermadec never spoke of a brother. He never spoke about his family at all. Whoever this fellow is, he’s in need of some manners.”
“I don’t think he’s overly fond of Kermadec, from what he said earlier. I think he resents Kermadec’s position as Maturen.”
The Dwarf snorted. “Kermadec is a force to be reckoned with, make no mistake. If we’re to complete this journey in one piece, he is the one who will make it possible. His brother, if that’s what he is, ought to know as much.”
At Kermadec’s command, they began walking east through the trees. Because they were already on the valley floor, travel was smooth and steady. The Trolls set the pace and chose the way, finding paths where there didn’t seem to be any, moving everyone along, keeping watch on all sides. Pen felt much better out in the open again, and his earlier discomfort subsided and eventually disappeared. Things didn’t seem so impossible when he didn’t have an entire mountain pressing down on him. He gazed skyward and thought wistfully that if they could find an airship to convey them the rest of the way, things would be perfect.
But there would be no airships, of course. Kermadec had made it clear that airships were at risk in those mountains, and that travel afoot was much safer if their intent was to remain safely concealed from would-be pursuers. It was a choice that Pen might not have made, but they were in Kermadec’s country, and the Rock Troll would know the best way to get to where they were going. Whatever else happened, Pen did not care to experience another encounter with the Druids who hunted him.
Ahead, the trees thinned as the valley floor opened up before them, and they crossed the central flats under a cover of clouds and mist and growing darkness. Diffuse and silvery, light from moon and stars began to filter through the haze, lending just enough brightness to enable the company to pick its way ahead without groping. Judging from the pace that Kermadec was setting, the Trolls knew the country well; there was no suggestion of hesitation as they progressed.
When they stopped to rest, just inside a thick stand of fir midway across the valley, Tagwen sat down next to Pen and leaned close.
“This is what you need to know about Kermadec, young Penderrin. It isn’t the only story about him, but it is the one that I think says the most. Some years ago, when he was still a boy, he was taken on an outing with two dozen
other young Trolls who were in the training stages of their wilderness survival education. All young Rock Trolls are given this instruction, boys and girls alike. Because they are a migratory people, it is presumed that at some point each of them will become separated from the tribe and be forced to find the way back alone, perhaps through dangerous country. Young Trolls are taken out twice a year beginning at the age of six or seven in order to learn what they need to know about doing so. The group in which Kermadec was included consisted of all ages and both sexes. For some, the littlest, it was the first time. It was autumn, and the green of summer was just changing to the bolder colors in the broad leaves. There was a bite to the night air.”
His head lowered into shadow, Tagwen rubbed his beard. “Three handlers managed the two dozen, about average for a class of that size. They were hiking through the Razor Mountains across the valley from one of the villages several miles below the Lazareen. A two-week outing, give or take a few days—that was the intended duration. The country was familiar to them, mostly uninhabited, forested low mountains, some small lakes, streams, typical for the middle Northland and safely above the Skull Kingdom. Nothing too dangerous.
“Except that the unexpected happened. A band of renegade Forest Trolls, traditional enemies of the Rock Trolls and dangerous in their own right, stumbled across the group while it was descending a steep slope and recognized it for what it was. They began tracking it, deciding they would wait until their quarry was sleeping, kill the handlers, steal their supplies and weapons, and take the smallest children as slaves to sell to those who use children in that way. It wasn’t much of a reason for such slaughter, but renegades don’t usually need much of a reason to justify what they do.”
He paused as Atalan stalked past, ignoring them as he had ignored them all day. Without a word of greeting, he moved over to talk with Kermadec. Tagwen glared at him balefully, then sighed. “I wish I could think better of him. I wish he would give me a reason.”