Blue Diamonds (Book One of The Blue Diamonds Saga) (18 page)

"Wake those two and pack our belongings," ordered Baymar, not wanting to hear any of Pall's report of the how the night went.

“Are ye joking wizard? I won’t budge until I’ve had me a good breakfast. I just spent me night being a nurse, and now ye think me the butler?” Pall grumbled.

“It won’t matter how hungry you are," said Baymar. "Because at noon Aga’s leg is going to fade away, and I don’t think he'll be too happy about it.”

“What?” Shomnath and Pall said together.

“Look, I couldn't heal Aga," Baymar said.

"What do you mean?" said Shomnath. "We all saw you do it."

"His body is made of stone, and possessed by energies the likes I've never experimented with. It’s not like any creature I know, and if I had attempted to repair him and failed… well I couldn’t imagine the outcome. So, I conjured an illusion to act as his leg, but it’s very temporary.”

“A fake leg? Are ye flipping mad?" blasted Pall. "What’ll happen when the monster sees his leg evaporate?”

“Lower your voice! You do not need to speed up the process,” Baymar scolded, sneaking a look over his shoulder and towards the hill on the beach. “I had to improvise.”

“Ye call lying improvising?”

“At the time it seemed a better idea than running away,” answered Baymar.

“Oh ho, but we're running now,” Shomnath cut in. “And we don’t know where we’re running.”

Baymar thought on this for a moment.

“Yes we do. Or at least I can find out.” The cleric paused, looking off into the distance. “Ambrosia, we need to know where you sent those diamonds.”

“Who’s he talking to?” asked Rolo, who was groggily rising up from his sleeping sack.

“Ambrosia's stuck in his head,” answered Shomnath.

“Well, it’s either that or he’s a couple sunrises past crazy,” said Pall.

Hmm, let me see,
said Ambrosia.
A wizard who botches spells, and fakes the spells he claims, while traveling with a human, a little giant, a dwarf, and an elf. Why would I tell you where I sent my diamonds? You and your ragtag group could be nothing but a bunch of thieves.

"We are not a ragtag group!" argued Baymar, to his friends seemingly to himself. Now Kala was also up and watching the show as she rolled her sleeping sack.

Where is your army? Where are the knights of Somerlund?
Ambrosia said.

For a moment Baymar was silent in concentration. Shomnath stared at the old man, trying to read his expressions as his eyes darted back and forth. It was visibly becoming a strain on Baymar to keep up with the extra dialogue. Finally, Baymar spoke, but his tone had turned to pleading.

“The knights of Somerlund aren’t doing anything, because they haven’t been on a crusade for twenty years, nor have any reason to. The man you see standing before you is Prince Shomnath of Somerlund, a direct descendent of the king you served. He personally put this band together in order to stop a murderer from getting your diamonds, which I might add is days ahead of us. We have no army because Shomnath’s father, the king, can't believe in anything he doesn’t see with his own eyes."

The friends all watched, slightly amused, slightly worried for the old man.

"So please Ambrosia," said Baymar. "For the sake of all that is good, tell us the location of your diamonds!”

I sent them to four different places,
she finally said.
And all well hidden places I might add. I doubt anyone would find them.

“With all due respect Ambrosia, you have been dead for about two hundred years. People make new discoveries every day,” Baymar said.

“Twenty gold says he’s lost his marbles.” Pall whispered to Rolo, and Kala slapped the back of their heads in reprimand.

“Oh. That’s bad,” stated Baymar, breaking up their fun.

“What did she say?” said Shomnath.

The cleric took a moment to choose his words carefully.

“Ambrosia kept several secret meditation rooms for her private research, and in the heat of battle teleported the stones to the ones she thought the most difficult to reach.”

“And did she tell you where we can find those four rooms?” Shomnath was becoming more impatient by the minute, constantly glancing out to the hill on the beach.

“Yes. She sent one to the Astral Plane, a dimension where only magical creatures live. The second diamond was sent into the abysmal depths of the ocean. Another went to the hottest place in the world, the fire desert far to the east.”

“Fer a powerful witch, she sure picks terrible vacation homes,” joked Pall, getting a scornful stare from everyone except Baymar, who directed his next words straight at the dwarf.

“As for the last diamond, she sent that one to the place she frequented more than the rest, because it was nearest to the city. The fourth one is in a room at the top of Loyola.”

Baymar ended at that, seeing that everyone understood. He figured that the diamonds in the desert and the ocean weren't such a concern for now, because men inhabited neither place, and no one adventured into the magical dimension known as the avatar realm, making it as safe as can be. But as for the last one, Loyola was not only the closest to civilization, but Pall’s kin were building upon the mountain as they spoke. The gravity of the situation fell on the dwarf like a sack of rocks.

“Oh Pall…” Kala placed a hand on his shoulder.

Pall’s face went pale, but he even laughed for a second, shaking his head as the news took a few moments to sink in. The enemy was probably headed to his home this very moment, and all he’d focused on was leaving the Fort, just to avoid having to work like the rest of his family.

“You couldn’t have guessed,” started Shomnath, seeing distress in his friend’s eyes. Pall lifted his palms up to halt the prince from finishing.

“Don’t ye start getting sympathetic on me, cause then yer implying something’s already gone sour,” said Pall.

“Agreed.” Was all Shomnath could say. He always did respect Pall for his iron, even when he knew the dwarf was faking it. He was sure that in the last two minutes they all, including Pall, had seen the worst scenario unfold many times in their minds.

“What now?” Baymar asked.

“Well, even if we wanted to cross back over the boiling sea to fetch reinforcements, we couldn’t,” said Shomnath. The prince glanced at Aga, still a sleeping, lonely hill on the beach, then back at the cleric with a smirk.

"Noon is minutes away, and I don't want to be in the middle of the lake when Aga's spell wears off," Shomnath continued.

"We could go south and around the mountain range, then back to the city," said Kala.

"We can't waste our time going back to the city when my father isn’t even willing to listen," Shomnath said.

"Then what?" said Kala.

"Then we go straight to Loyola," said Shomnath, "And we warn Pall’s family ourselves. We can cut south through the Evernight, then cross the plains to the southern mountain range, straight to Loyola.”

"Shouldn't ye at least tell yer dad?" said Pall.

"No time," said the prince. "We can get to the city after we get to your family. We'll just ride hard." Shomnath looked to Rolo and Kala. He was concerned whether they were ready to travel.

“You don’t even have to ask, boss,” grinned the giant, “I’m good to go.”

“And if we weren’t, you know we wouldn’t tell you,” chimed Kala, with an angelic smile. Lastly, Shomnath looked to Pall, as did everyone else.

“Are ye really going to ask? Let's get going!” he said, and then Pall whipped his amulet from under his shirt and his bison came together in a whirl of sparkling mist. The rest of the company followed, and the five took to their bison in route for the south.

Just after the five friends rode into the dense Evernight, noon struck, and Baymar’s spell of illusion wore off. Aga’s leg, which was still extended out from it like a beached whale, slowly fizzled away into a plume of grey smoke.

The hill twitched slightly, and then began to tremor, as two yellow globes beamed open once again. Aga woke once more, but this time, by the time Aga extended his head from his shell, the ancient elemental's eyes had shifted from yellow to magma red.

When the elemental looked to its side, it saw that the leg the human healed was completely gone, leaving him with the same broken shell and missing leg as before. The ancient one let out a howl so loud, that a thin blanket of sand hopped up into the air from the beach, and the breaking waves of the boiling sea was reversed. In a hundred thousand years, Aga had never been made a fool of. The behemoth rose onto his three legs with purpose, ready to crush the tricky human who took advantage of him.

He swung his neck side to side, but the wizard and his companions were nowhere to be seen. Only a smoky campfire was left of their presence. Yet that was all the keen old elemental needed, for an earth elemental was one with ground he stood upon. Aga was the most ancient of the elementals, and in fact king of the ground he stood upon. It was nothing for him to call on the very earth to ask which way the humans had gone. Stone, sand and pebble all rose up in song to their master, informing him in which direction his enemies fled.

Then, like a dog hooked on a scent, Aga stampeded after the wizard and his friends. The elemental charged into the Evernight, a thundering colossus with death on his mind. He would not give up this chase if it took a hundred thousand more years of his life.

Tucked away in the lush forest to the south of the city was a small town named Berwyn, and the small settlement was a joyous sight for Scuttle. Not only did the human village mean that he was less than a day from Fort Hammerheart, but also that he was amongst friends.

The friendly people of Berwyn were a simple lot. They weren’t easily impressed by wealth, nor were they possessed by greed like most humans seemed to be. Those are traits that true, hard-working farm folk don't have the luxury to develop. The town was primarily made of four families, although over the years there had been dozens of migrants, looking for simpler living than what they ran from.

Much like the Hammerhearts, the Berwyn group also left Somerlund to find their own place in the world. Although unlike the dwarves, they had no intentions of ever dealing with the city folk again. Instead, they prided in an ideology of living off what nature provided, and nothing more.

This lifestyle eliminated the need for money, so instead of wealth they focused on more important things in life, like being compassionate to each other, and tending to the elderly. No one ever went hungry in Berwyn. Everyone labored together and reaped equal share, whether it was in harvest or hunt. In many ways they were more akin to elf-kind than they were to humanity.

Scuttle felt his burdens lighten considerably, and he was glad to know that he was walking into good company. He took a deep breath and decided that it was going to be a good day after all. He slowed his pace a bit, and then tried to enjoy the cool breeze that licked at his face and sifted through his shirt. The caress of air under his shirt tickled his skin, except for his stomach, which was covered by the package stuffed in his pants.

The sensation swiftly reminded him of his purpose and that he still needed to keep alert. As he strolled into the village gate Dora immediately greeted him. She was a twelve-year-old girl who never ran out of mischievous things to do. She had taught Scuttle most of them, as they became friends over the last few months. Being a young dwarf at a build site was just as boring as being a young lady on a farm, so it was a good match.

“Hey Scuttle! Where you coming from? You look tired. Are you alone?” she cheered.

To Scuttle, Dora sounded like a small bell. A small, rapidly ringing bell. As she approached, his eyes locked on to the scene over her shoulder. He never saw the town so still at noon. Normally, at this time of day crowds of people would have been streaming in from the fields for lunch, and more than a few would be sitting in front of their homes having a smoke.

“None of yer business Dora,” he teased. “Where is everyone?”

“There’s a village meeting today. Only grownups are allowed. All the children were sent inside. I snuck out though. You want to play a game? I've thought up some new games. You still like games, right?” Scuttle quickly shook his head. Whenever they started with her games, the possibilities were endless and sometimes never-ending.

Village meetings at midday were rare, and worry overtook Scuttle as images of cloaked spies permeated his thoughts once again. Could they have known he would pass through Berwyn and have an ambush waiting? Scuttle had to act fast. He grabbed Dora by the hand and forced her to follow him into a nearby alley.

“Hey! What’s wrong Scuttle? Where're we going? Is this a new game I don’t know about?” laughed Dora.

“Shhhhh. Let’s pretend to be sneaky elves and listen to the meeting," said Scuttle, "but you’ll have to stop talking.”

"Alright," said Dora, who immediately loved the idea of the game. Being sneaky was one of her favorite pastimes, after talking.

Then they whisked through the village like little shadows, straight to the Rockford house, taking care to remain under the cover of house and shadow all the while. Town meetings always took place at the Rockford house, because theirs was the largest of the four families.

Jeb Rockford, head of the Rockford family, is also Dora's father, so she knew all of the best hiding places on the property. She led them to the back of the farmhouse where they went into a low crawl, sloshing upon their elbows and knees through a muddy pigsty. Once they were close enough to hear Jeb speaking they went totally still. The meeting was just on the other side of the sty fence under a great canopy, so they only had a view of boots and legs. The tone sounded very serious and the air was thick with quiet tension. Nothing could have prepared Scuttle for what he heard.

“Calm down everyone. Now Arthur, are you sure of what you saw?” Scuttle could recognize Dora's father's voice right away. It was deep and loud, yet caring and compassionate at the same time.

Jeb was speaking to Arthur Cornbott, the head of the smallest of the four families. Their farm sat on the southeast corner of town. Scuttle had his face pressed hard against a section of ground under the belly of a huge hog, and wished that he could snake all the way into the crowd. Dora snuggled up next to him with a muddy smirk on her face, barely containing the urge to burst into laughter.

“I’m telling you Jeb. It happened late last night, when my boys and I was out hunting boar. As I’m looking you straight in the face, I saw a giant fire monster roll down Loyola and into the dwarves fort!”

Scuttle's eyes nearly fell out of their sockets, and the crowd erupted into bouts of chatter. He swooned with dizziness and suddenly felt weak, as his mind was lost in the whirlwind of gossip. Some people laughed. Some questioned why he hunted so far from town. A few people called Arthur a drunk, and a few people defended him. It took a couple of minutes before the noise settled back down.

“Alright everyone, that’s enough. Let Arthur speak," urged Jeb. "Please, continue Arthur,” he added, and Arthur eyed the crowd until he had the floor once again.

“Well," Arthur continued. "After I saw what I saw, we set camp for the night. Then, at the spark of dawn we hiked up to get a closer look.” The remainder of the whispering faded, as everyone hung on Arthur’s words.

“What did you see Arthur?” an unknown female's voice broke the silence, and Scuttle held his breathe.

“Not a single thing," he said. "Signs of burning here and there, but besides that, not a single thing was going on.”

The crowd gasped. To a stranger,
nothing going on
may sound good, but for anyone who knew Jevon Hammerheart and his clan this was ultimately shocking news. From the first day of construction the Hammerheart dwarves had toiled furiously, and they even split the workforce into three shifts just to keep the work going all day and night. Whatever put a stop to the Hammerheart clan was serious business. Dora’s face quickly mirrored Scuttle’s torn expression, and tears began to well in her eyes.

“First thing’s first,” announced Jeb.

“We organize two parties. One will come with me to the mountain to see if the dwarves are well. The second will go to the city and inform the King. The rest of you are to gather your families, and remain close to your respective households until I return.” For a few moments the world stopped for the little town of Berwyn.

“Then what, Jeb?” asked a man.

“I can’t answer that yet," said Jeb. "You'll just have to wait for now. But please, try not to panic!”

Jeb was then swarmed with questions, and Scuttle and Dora used to time to crawl out of the pigsty. They then headed back into the forest to avoid the rush of people as the meeting dispersed. It took quite a while, as most of the people stuck around to hound Arthur for more details. Scuttle didn't utter a word until after the group that was headed for Somerlund took to horseback, solidifying the reality he tried so hard to deny.

By then, Scuttle had nearly forgotten all about the books he was carrying. He felt like he was dreaming as he watched Dora’s father gallop away for Fort Hammerheart, flanked by two other villagers. He almost called out to them to ask for a ride home, but felt it wiser not to. His mission was his alone. Pall had told him so.

“I can’t go back,” he muttered. The fear of seeing his family dead far outweighed his fear of some fire demon.

“Well you don’t have to. Not yet at least. I’m sure they're okay Scuttle. Uncle Art could have been wrong. Just wait until my dad gets back,” said Dora, gently holding his elbow. “You can stay at our house until then.”

It was like a fog cleared before his eyes when she offered him the sliver of hope. Maybe nothing happened. Maybe Arthur imagined the whole thing. He was known for having a few too many mugs of mead on a few too many nights, and he could’ve seen a falling star for all that Scuttle knew. Although that didn’t explain why the dwarves would stop working. Aside from that, Arthur's sons weren't old enough to be drinking. Scuttle knew them both. They were sharp boys, both fast at the hunt and good-natured.

As bleak as the situation seemed, it was much easier to postpone the nightmare than to go face what really might be waiting at home. He smiled and put her hand in his.

“I'll wait for ye pa, but not in yer house," Scuttle said. "I feel safer out here, and would appreciate it if ye don’t tell anyone about me.” He had a feeling that staying out of sight would be wise, or at least until all the facts were revealed.

“All right Scuttle Hammerheart, but don't worry about food, because I’ll sneak you some dinner tonight,” she said.

Dora then kissed him on the cheek, before skipping back to the farmhouse. He smiled as the woman, obviously searching for the troublemaking girl frantically walked around the house, appearing quite worried. After Dora dodged the woman's scolds and disappeared into the house, Scuttle turned to find a good place to sit tight until her father returned. He chose a spot to wait for Dora's father just beyond the town's limits, in the shade of a tall, old maple tree. He sat down and relaxed against the tree, and then sent a small prayer to the gods. He prayed for Arthur and his boys to be wrong.

Unfortunately, when Arthur and his boys scouted Fort Hammerheart that morning, they failed to notice the lone figure standing in the shadow of the charred entrance. It was Baylor, who coincidentally happened to be staring out from just within the gate's hammer statues. He was relishing in his conquest of Fort Hammerheart, resting, and planning his strike on Somerlund.

Controlling the dragon had been many, many times more difficult than Baylor imagined it would be. In fact at moments it was downright overpowering, but once he reined in the dragon's attention Baylor was amazed at how fast the demon executed his wishes. It required an immense amount of concentration just to hold the dragon steady long enough to give an order, but once commanded it quickly obliged.

A phantom born of fire, and fueled by a bottomless well of anger, it incinerated everything it touched or breathed upon. Snow vaporized and stone blackened as it flew down along Loyola’s jagged cliffs, drawing a black stripe down the center of the mountain.

The dwarves working on the entrance of the fort died as quickly as the red cloud came over them. The dwarves just within the entrance suffocated, and then baked to death moments afterward, with the lucky ones perishing before waking from their sleep. The dragon then wriggled its snakelike body into the hammer-gate, trying to force its way into the fort and heat the tunnel system like an oven. The heat intensified, until the walls just within the gate morphed into a waterfall of molten rock.

For many minutes, flames spew from the gate like an angry volcano, lighting up the night and belching crackling flames so loud that any screams were drowned out. In mere minutes, Fort Hammerheart had fallen.

Once Baylor was confident that his murderous mission was complete he called for the beast to halt, and then glided down the mountain to inspect his work. At the bottom, he found his fiery pet sitting at the base of one of the hammer statues. It watched him closely, with its red and yellow eyes.

When Baylor began the task of forcing the demon back into the diamond, it proved to be even more of a challenge than the pathetic defeat of the dwarves had. The abysmal rage of the dragon was so intense, that it nearly severed the psychic link that granted Baylor control over the demon. It took Baylor the better part of the morning to harness it, only having success merely minutes before Arthur and his boys arrived.

Baylor wouldn't have seen them coming, if they hadn't foolishly strolled up the main road, which was built devoid of any foliage for the very purpose of observing incomers. With adrenaline from the dragon’s rage still pumping in his veins, his first instinct was to summon the monster back out immediately and order it to kill Arthur and his boys where they stood. Instead, Baylor just smiled at his new blood lust, a byproduct of the dragon’s powerful will still lingering within.

“No, me pet. Not yet,” Baylor whispered. “Why come out to play with these three, when we can sack their whole town?”

The dwarf's eyes widened from the epiphany, and his lips curled into a smile. He then stood there for many minutes after Arthur had disappeared back into the forest, and waited, gently rubbing his precious diamond. He couldn't see past his own pride to realize that the dragon was already taking control of him.

Baylor waited a few hours, and then casually walked down the same lane from which they left and followed the path, setting a leisurely pace. He looked up to the cloudless sky and grinned.

“Today’s weather forecast?" he said aloud, to no one in particular.

"Looks like there’s going to be smoke,” he answered himself with a chuckle. “Lots and lots of smoke.”