Bone War (19 page)

Vesha set Danr down. “And Torth tells me you brought friends from the orcs. Hail, good Kin.”

Kalessa dipped her head. “Hail, Queen of Trolls.”

“Extraordinary,” Vesha murmured. “If I hadn't heard of it already from Torth, I'd be shocked. An orc with the power of the shape! The old stories are coming true again.”

“And trolls are allying with humans in Skyford and the city of Balsia, I see,” Aisa said. “I never thought to see that day.”

“Isn't it wonderful?” Vesha said. “The new earl in Skyford gets along with the Stane very well, and so does young Prince Karsten. Trolls like to dig, you know. We're nearly done with the new tunnels.”

“Tunnels?” Danr said.

“We're working on connecting Glumenhame and Balsia. Soon, trolls and dwarfs and perhaps even giants will be able to travel freely to Balsia and back without ever worrying about the sun. It's a wonder. The dwarfs have been gloating about the engineering for months.”

“And Prince Karsten approves of this?” Aisa said.

“It was his idea,” Vesha replied. “Bringing the Stane and the Kin together, and everyone profits. Once you get past his mother, you find an extraordinary young man. He'll be a great king one day.”

“Hmm,” said Kalessa. “All we need now is someone to bring in the Fae and we'll have world peace.”

“As if that would happen,” Vesha snorted. “How is your friend Talfi, by the way?”

“Talfi? Still alive and kicking,” Danr said.

“And will be for some years to come,” Aisa added.

Vesha scratched her ear. “Good to hear, good to hear. Did he come with you?”

“He had to stay in Balsia,” Danr said, a little puzzled at this turn in the conversation. As far as Danr knew, Vesha hadn't said more than two words to Talfi. “Listen, I should say that what we've come for is a little delicate, Aunt, and we're pressed for time.”

“Of course, of course,” Vesha said, then added without thinking, “What's it all about?”

There was a pause, and Aisa had time to say, “Oh dear,” before the direct question forced Danr to speak.

“The Garden that grows in the shade of Ashkame is rotting because Queen Gwylph of the Fae has imprisoned one of the Gardeners, and Gwylph is stealing her power, kind of like the way you stole the power of the
draugr
and corrupted yourself—sorry—and the only way to get her out is with the
Bone Sword, so you have to give it to us right now—sorry—otherwise everything and everyone in the world will die and we're hoping you're not that stupid—sorry.”

Torth sucked in his breath at this, and the silence returned. Danr gritted his teeth and looked away. Vesha worked her tongue around the inside of her mouth for a long time.

“After living with Bund,” she said at last, “I should know better than to ask a direct question of a truth-teller. No apologies are necessary. It was my fault for asking.”

Danr breathed a sigh, and Kalessa hissed faintly behind him. “Thank you, Aunt,” he said.

“But I can't give you the Bone Sword,” Vesha finished.

The silence returned a third time. Finally, Aisa said, “You know we will ask the obvious question.”

“Come with me,” Vesha replied, “and I'll explain.”

Danr was about to comply, then spread his feet and folded his arms. “Aunt, I think you should explain now.”

Torth took in his breath and Vesha the queen drew herself up. “What do you mean,
nephew
?”

Her emphasis on the last word was meant to point out his lower status, but Danr had had enough. “We're trying to save the world. Again. Last time I looked, the world included the Stane. Death herself said we need that sword to do it, and I intend to take it, no matter what you say. I didn't kill my best friend before the Battle of the Twist and die myself during the Blood Storm just so you could stall me over some petty problem.” Danr tapped his left eye. “If you don't tell me, I'll look for myself. And I'll tell.
Aunt.
”

“And if the Sword is the only thing that can prevent my death?” Vesha countered.

Danr set his mouth. He'd had a feeling it had something to do with that. “Your life won't mean much if the world ends. Tell us. Please.”

Vesha hesitated, then nodded. “At least walk while we talk.”

She took them deeper into the caverns, down spiraling stairs and sloping ramps. The decorations faded away, until they were tromping through bare, living rock. They passed other trolls, all of whom leaped aside, startled at seeing the queen herself, let alone the queen accompanied by a human and a pair of wyrms. Vesha ignored them, and Danr took his cue from her.

“The moment I set foot aboveground, Death will come for me,” Vesha said as they went. “I thought Death might do something like that to me when we first bound her. It was a necessary sacrifice, and I thought I was willing to accept it.” She sighed. “I wasn't. All my life I've wanted nothing more than to walk under the moonlight and feel open air around me. Now it turns out I'm the only Stane who can't.”

“Where does the Bone Sword come into this?” Kalessa asked.

“I carved it from living bone, with help from the dwarfs,” Vesha said. “The sword is alive, which makes it the only weapon that can ward off Death.”

A chill ran down Danr's spine. “You want to fight Death herself?”

“The moment I cross that threshold,” Vesha said with a firm nod, “I will challenge her to personal combat. When I win, I will walk the world above as I please.”

“You cannot mean to kill Death,” Aisa protested.

“Of course not!” Vesha said. “I will vanquish her and force her to lift the curse.”

“Then why haven't you done it already?” Danr asked shakily as they came to the bottom of another staircase.

“Truth?” Vesha said. “Because I am . . . cowardly. I am working up the courage. I will only have one chance, and if I lose, Death will drag me through her door. It frightens me.”

“Then let us have the sword,” Kalessa said, “and when we are finished with it, we will return it so you may continue working up your courage.”

“I don't think I can do that,” Vesha said. “You might not return it, and I would lose my chance forever.”

Aisa narrowed her eyes. “Whose bone is it?”

The earth moved. It rumbled beneath Danr's bare toes. A faintly sick feeling stole over him, and he had to swallow hard to keep his gorge down. Dust sifted down from the ceiling. Then the movement stopped. Aisa and Kalessa exchanged confused looks. Vesha paled.

“The Nine!” Danr swore, trying to keep his stomach down. “What was that?”

“So you felt it, too,” Vesha said.

“Of course we felt it,” Aisa said. “It was an earthquake.”

“No,” Vesha said. “It was more than that. It felt like someone ran a dirty hand over my soul.” She withdrew a ridiculously small key from her belt and handed it to Torth. “Run ahead and check the vault. Tell the guards we're coming.”

Torth dashed off. Danr leaned against the cave wall and breathed deeply of the cool air. His nausea faded. “Cave-ins?”

Vesha closed her eyes, and Danr could almost see her reaching out with her mind. “No,” she replied. “It was minor here. Farther south it was much more powerful, but here it's fine.”

“Good news, then,” Aisa said. “Whose bone was it?”

Still Vesha didn't answer.

Danr closed his right eye. The world flickered and he saw . . . truth. Vesha was walking through a stone tunnel illuminated by quiet mushrooms, but she was also standing over her sister Bund's body while a Twist slammed shut before them both. Also lying on the cavern floor was . . .

“Talfi,” Danr said in a hushed voice.

Everyone stopped, including Vesha. She turned to stare at him with eyes as hard and unblinking as brown granite. “The truth-teller knows,” she said.

“When the Twist cut off Talfi's leg, you kept it.” Cold horror slid all around Danr's body like chilled dog vomit.
“You took it to the dwarfs, and you stripped the meat off it and you forged a sword out of the bones. That's why the Bone Sword can fight Death. Not because it's made from a living thing, but because it's made from a living thing that can't die.”

“Yes,” Vesha said simply. “My sister was dead, and the leg was there, and I sensed its magic. I kept it. My sister was dead, but your Talfi was still alive. Keeping his leg seemed fitting somehow. And then when Death cursed me, I knew exactly how to use it.”

Danr shook his head hard. This explained Death's reaction to the Bone Sword and Vesha's asking after Talfi. Vik! She had Talfi's leg bone down here—and Death wanted him to use it. What kind of world had the Nine created?

Kalessa looked agitated, and Aisa seemed ready to fight, but Danr stepped ahead of them. “Let's just get the Sword, all right? We'll talk about ethics later.”

“I still haven't decided if I'm lending it to you,” Vesha said with deceptive mildness. “You saved us all, but you also killed my sister.”

That still hurt. At one time Danr would have backed down, but that time was past. “Grandmother Bund let herself die because she loved me and because she loved you,” he said. “She chose to sacrifice herself just like you did, and I know sacrifice, yes, I do.”

Vesha's face was made of iron. Was it going to crack? Before Danr could find out, Torth rushed up to them, eyes wild.

“The vault!” he panted. “Fairies have gotten into the vault!”

All of them bolted forward. They clattered down one more staircase and came to a plain stone door. When Danr got closer, he realized the door hadn't been carved so much as forged. It was solidified lava, polished smooth. A tiny keyhole was in the middle, and the door itself hung open. Without further words, they shoved their way inside.

Beyond the door was a great vault the size of a small castle. Ledges and nooks lined the walls, and huge shelves hung on chains from the ceiling. Bound chests and metal boxes and knotted sacks bulged on every surface, and great piles of gold and silver coins gleamed on the floor.

In the center of the room, a short pillar twisted up from the floor. It wasn't made of stone or wood, but of solid darkness, an ebony that sucked in all light around it. The pillar moved and squirmed like a living thing. Cradled atop the pillar was a simple glass case, narrow and sleek, and inside the case was a long white sword that stood out against the black pillar like the finger of a ghost floating in a dark room. Actually, the sword wasn't quite white. It was more translucent, like a bone that had been stretched thinner than a leaf, and looked as though it might slice through a heart, or a soul. A bloodred ruby was set into the pommel, and the cross-guard was heavy ivory, carved in thousands of runes. More runes curled up and down the blade. The sword looked both delicate and deadly.

Unfortunately, also in the room were hundreds of fairies, the small, earthy Fae. Fairy chitter-chatter filled the air like autumn leaves. Each creature was no more than waist-high on a human, with nut-brown skin, knobby joints, a bald head, a wizened face, large eyes, and sail-like ears. A group of them had formed a pyramid that reached the top of the twisted pillar, and the fairy at the top was cutting through the glass with a strange blade of a kind Danr had never seen before.

A few steps away from the pillar, the air rippled and distorted, as if a small heat wave had been trapped there, and the distortion had a night black border. An open Twist.

“They are stealing the Bone Sword!” Kalessa shouted. She shot forward with Slynd beside her. The fairies, however, had seen them the moment they entered, and every one of them vanished. Kalessa and Slynd snapped at empty air.

“An invisibility glamour!” Vesha shouted. “Watch yourselves!”

Aisa pulled Kalessa's blade from her belt and flicked it into a great iron sickle that she swept back and forth in front of her. There was a screech, and a fairy popped back into view, clutching its bleeding arm and howling in pain. It skittered up a wall. “You can't stop us!” it shouted.

“I would tell you to leave now or die,” Aisa shot back, “but I think no one wants to let you live!”

Kalessa whipped about. She lashed treasures off their shelves. Coins scattered in a golden rain. A number of thumps and screams said she made contact, but the fairies remained invisible. Slynd snapped at empty air again and made swallowing motions. A small bulge went down his throat.

Vesha raised her arms. Darkness flooded from her sleeves and flowed over the room, effectively extinguishing most of the light from the mushrooms. Danr's trollish eyes, however, were unaffected.

“We can't see you,” Vesha barked, “but now you can't see anything!” She strode into the vault, lashing about with her massive arms.

“Aisa!” Danr called. “Hit that Twist with your iron weapon!”

“How?” Aisa yelled back. “I cannot see it!”

Danr closed his right eye. Every fairy in the room snapped into view. The one at the top of the pyramid had finished cutting the glass and was already reaching into the case. Its hand closed over the hilt of the Bone Sword, still hidden by the glamour.

“They've got it!” Danr bellowed. He bolted forward and bowled straight into the pile of fairies. The impact crashed his teeth together. He went down. Fairies flew in all directions. The fairy with the Bone Sword lost its grip and went flying. It whirled through the air, sheared through a metal box, and clattered across the floor. A thousand gold teeth
spilled from the broken box. The Sword's ruby pommel stone gleamed like red anger, even in the darkness.

“I see it!” Torth dashed over to snatch it up, but almost immediately cried out in pain. Two fairies had latched onto his arm and sunk their sharp teeth into his hand. He howled and dropped the Sword. A third fairy snatched it up and fled straight toward the open Twist. Torth wrenched his arms around. One of the fairies slammed against the wall. There was a
crunch
, and the fairy went limp. The second fairy kept a death grip on Torth's hand, however, and the fairy with the Sword was only a few steps away from the Twist, which was right behind Aisa. But Aisa couldn't see it.