Midnight Quest (21 page)

Many people responded to that, all at once, but Jewel couldn’t distinguish one from another. She didn’t need to, though. It all boiled down to the same sentiment: find some other way. Jewel lifted her head to the heavens and resisted the urge to bang a few hardheaded heads together.

The sound of two quick thuds, which reminded Jewel remarkably of someone that had just quickly climbed on top of a table, and then Clarion’s voice came out strong and clear over the muttering. “I am Clarion Hahn! You all know me as a huntsman. I have been bringing meat, furs and news to you for many years, just as my father did! I’ve been reporting signs of Daath scouts for the past two years, and we’ve all talked about what that could mean.

“But we know what it means! It means that Daath is tired of throwing themselves at Ramath and being defeated generation after generation. They want results, they want to
conquer
and they know that if they simply march further south, to Bryn, they can have that victory! We are not soldiers—we’ve never needed to be! Ramath has always guarded our northern border even when Thornock’s ministers have denied us the safety of the barrier.”

Her voice stayed loud, but now it was more pleading. “That barrier won’t even be an option soon. It’s failing. The High Priestess of Thornock is standing at my feet, and she tells me that it simply doesn’t have the energy to sustain a barrier anymore. We
need
our crystal back in place. We won’t be able to protect ourselves without it.”

“Then simply connect the crystal where it lays,” Braun argued.

“We
can’t
,” Jewel refuted, praying for patience. “It must be in directional alignment with the other crystals.”

“Merchants, let me put this to you in more mathematical terms: thirty-five feet of mature vines or the whole vineyard. Which would you rather forfeit?” In this room of heated tones and flaring tempers, Sarvell’s cool logic sliced through in a moment.

“You’re exaggerating—”

“No, little man, I wish he were.” Rialt’s deep voice rumbled to every corner of the room without any effort on his part. “I stand before you as a seasoned commander that has been battling the Daath since I was waist high. Your huntsman speaks golden truth. If you be seeing Daath scouts now, there will be troops heading your direction before spring thaws.”

Rialt’s words had more of an affect than almost anything else said. After all, the Ramath were considered to be the authority on the Daath. If a Ramathan said that invasion was imminent, then…

“Well,” the Judge said in slow, measured tones behind them. “For my part, I think I’d rather avoid fighting the Daath. Anyone in the mood to fight a losing war? No? Then I think a majority has been reached. Priestess Hahn, Priestess Jomadd, you have permission to move that crystal.”

“Judge!” Braun protested in a penetrating near-whine.

“Oh hush, man, you won’t even really feel the loss. You own half the land around here anyway. I’m not about to let
your
profit margin interfere with our lives. Now. Priestesses…what can we do to help?”

Jewel turned to smile in his general direction. “Two dozen volunteers with sharp axes would do nicely, sir.”

Chapter Fourteen

Clari joined them for dinner that night, partially to plan out how to move the crystal the next day, but in part so that Chizeld and Jewel could train her as much as possible. As no one particularly wanted to move far from their awaiting beds, they voted unanimously to simply have dinner at the inn.

The crowd in the main taproom seemed a sizeable one. In between the different wafts of divine scents carrying from the kitchen, Jewel could pick up traces of earth, metal, sweat and that distinctive smell of human from all around her. The amount of sound generated from many people moving about and conversing told her that most of the chairs had occupants.

“We’re getting a lot of curious looks,” Sarvell commented after their food had been set in front of them.

“Are we?” Jewel cocked her head, straining to hear any comments made about them. The muted din of sound was such that she couldn’t really pick out more than bits and pieces. “No one’s approaching us, though.”

“Bet that will no last the night,” Rialt grumbled under his breath.

Clari gave a soft, amused chuckle. “You can’t blame them for their curiosity. I mean, in this area, you don’t just charge in like we’ve done. It usually takes several weeks of debate before we get any kind of decision.” She paused for a moment before adding in a puzzled tone, “I’m not sure why that worked as well as it did.”

“Oh, Elahandra leaned on him,” Jewel answered casually.

“Leaned on?” Chizeld repeated, as if doubting his own ears.

“I’ve seen her do it before,” Jewel responded, a resigned smile tugging at her lips. “When something very important needs to be done quickly, she’ll step in for a moment and lean on the people involved to be more helpful. Not making decisions for them, you understand, but encouraging them to be more receptive. The Judge, I think, was getting a little divine guidance.”

Clari processed this for a moment before asking, “I don’t suppose she’ll help me re-build the Order here, then?”

“Oh, she probably will,” Jewel assured her.

“Eh, no doubt,” Rialt agreed readily. “Herself be the meddlesome sort.”

That, to Jewel’s mind, was a vast understatement.

“Priestess Hahn, when did Elahandra issue call?” Chizeld asked. His words were accompanied by a clink, as if he’d set his cup down while speaking.

“Well, it’s been seven days. For some strange reason, she woke me up in the dead of night to ask me.” Clari added this detail in a sour voice.

“Eh, lass, we ken,” Rialt consoled her with an equally sour tone. “She called us that way as well.”

“It’s because we’re the most receptive at night, while we’re sleeping,” Jewel explained calmly although she had to bite back a smile. “We’re not distracted by daily tasks then, so she has a better chance of having our undivided attention.”

“Herself be a prankster at heart, that be why, and you will no convince me otherwise.”

Jewel spread a hand, palm up, in a small shrug. “And that.”

Every man at the table grumbled. Clari just snorted. “I believe it. Anyway, why do you ask, Chizeld?”

“Keeper of Records,” he explained. “When possible, gather firsthand accounts of callings and doings of priestesses. More accurate that way.”

“Wait,” Sarvell requested, “I’m a little confused. Chizeld, I thought you were the priestess’s personal guardsman?”

“Yes, that too,” Chizeld answered steadily. “Other tasks in Order that must be done as well. Since priestess usually not in constant danger, all guardsman have two duties. The pay is well earned that way.”

“Makes sense,” Rialt allowed. “Military works the same way. Usually one job does no fill a man’s time the way it should, so we all juggled multiple duties.”

“Hmmm… I’ll keep that in mind when I start looking for men to call into the Order. Alright, how do we move that crystal tomorrow?”

Sarvell answered slowly, “Well, when we moved the crystal in Ramath, the hardest part was actually cutting it free. It had been covered in vines as well. Once it’s free, you should be able to just drag it into place.”

“Where
is
the proper place, anyway?” Chizeld asked both priestesses. “With that size, crystal couldn’t have been moved far.”

“You’d be surprised.” Jewel shook her head in renewed aggravation. “The Ramathan crystal had tumbled quite some distance away. It took several hours to drag it back up that hill. Clari, you said you found the original spot?”

“Yes, and it’s actually not that far off. Eight hundred strides up to the top of the hill, maybe.”

Jewel sank back in relief. Oh good, that wasn’t far at all. Maybe this wouldn’t be the battle she’d half-dreaded. “Is there enough room between the vineyard’s rows that we can squeeze the crystal through?”

“I don’t know,” Clari admitted frankly. “It’s hard to judge the size of that crystal because it’s so thoroughly covered in vines. Right now, I’d guess not.”

“It will no fit,” Rialt said adamantly. “If it be the same size as Ramath’s, it will no fit. We will need to carve a path for it.”

Jewel’s brows drew together as she thought about that. “I’m not sure if they are all the same size. I never had cause to move the Thornock crystal, so I never got a very good sense of how large it is. Chizeld, is there any lore that suggests all of the crystals are exactly the same size?”

There was a long, ruminative pause before Chizeld slowly responded. “No. Don’t believe there is. All lore simply said crystal was very large.”

Very large
could hardly be considered a precise measurement. “Well,” Jewel commented to the table in general, “I guess we’re just going to have to wait until that crystal is uncovered and then plan from there.”

~*~*~*~

Rumor mill must have been working overtime during the night, as a good three dozen men with sharp axes and knives showed up the next morning. Some of the earlier arrivals actually started hacking away without any direction or supervision. They were quite enthusiastic in their work, so much so that by the time Jewel and everyone else arrived on the scene, patches of the crystal were visible.

From some of the comments Jewel overheard as the men worked, she guessed that not everyone here had the purest of motives. A few of these men held obvious grudges against Mr. Braun and were taking this opportunity to get a little of their own back. Jewel frankly didn’t care what their motivations were as long as they were willing to work.

“While the men are working, why don’t I bring you up to the crystal’s proper spot?” Clari invited. “That way you’re more familiar with where we need to take it.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Jewel approved.

“Um…do you think your guard dog will mind?”

“Which one?” Jewel asked her dryly. “I have four of them, after all.”

“Ah…I meant Rialt.” There was a hum of amusement in her voice when Clari added, “He is the worst of the lot, after all.”

“No,” Jewel denied with a resigned shake of the head, “he’s not. He’s just more straightforward about it, is all.”

“That I be,” Rialt agreed from behind her. Jewel jumped slightly, as she could have sworn he was working with the men cutting the crystal free until he spoke. Just when had he arrived? “Now, where be you pretty lasses headed?”

“Up top,” Clari answered easily, as if she hadn’t been talking about the man behind his back. “I thought Jewel would like to get a better sense of where the crystal needed to be before we moved it.”

Rialt played along, his voice cheerful. “Splendid notion. Since I will be helping to guide you both, I will come along.”

He caught Jewel’s hand with one of his and guided it through to rest in the crook of his elbow. She went along with it easily, keeping her other hand solidly planted on top of Bortonor’s head. Flanked by both guard dogs, she started walking toward the top of the hill, guided by Clari’s lighter footsteps and clear voice.

The path was not a steep one (fortunately) but had a steady incline that quickly induced an ache in the calves and knees. From the way that Clari bounded forward, she was apparently used to navigating the trail as nothing about it bothered her. Jewel used the fact that she couldn’t see to buy her a little breathing room. In truth, by the time they reached the top, she felt a little winded.

“Here it is!” Clari announced. “Do you feel it?”

“Oh yes, easily,” Jewel assured her. It had that same sense of rightness that every crystal’s place did. Strangely, though, she could not detect any structure nearby. A small breeze drifted over the hill, ruffling through her loose hair. If a building were nearby, that breeze would carry the scent of wood, or paint, or perhaps stone. Here…nothing. “There’s no building?”

“How can you tell?” Rialt asked in surprise.

“I couldn’t smell it,” she answered simply.

“That’s quite the nose you’ve got,” Clari observed. She sounded surprised as well, but also a little…envious? “No, the building is long gone. They couldn’t figure out a way to get the crystal out of the building two hundred years ago, so they just burnt it to the ground before shoving the crystal over the side.”

“You’re going to have to build a new one.”

“You don’t want me building anything, trust me on that,” Clari refuted with a warm laugh. “But I’ll draft lots of help and get it done. Ready to go back down?”

“Yes.” Jewel followed them back down, her mind whirling as she thought. The positive part of the building being gone was that moving the crystal back into place would be a snap. She felt sorry for Clari, though, who was faced with the task of rebuilding it.

“Jewel, Clari!” Sarvell hailed from ahead of them. “We’ve nearly got the crystal free!”

“So I see!” Clari called back to him. “That was quick work!”

“Three dozen determined men have that kind of effect,” Sarvell responded easily. “Now what?”

Clari didn’t respond immediately but when she did, she did not sound pleased. “Rialt, it doesn’t look to me like that crystal will fit through the rows.”

“No, it will no make it.” Rialt heaved a heavy sigh. “Braun will no be pleased.”

  They reached the bottom of the hill in time for Sarvell to say in a lower tone, “It has to be as large as Ramath’s crystal or perhaps a mite larger.”

“No way crystal can be moved without carving new path,” Chizeld observed from somewhere nearby. He sounded more distant than Sarvell, so Jewel assumed he stood closer to the crystal.

“It
would
be smack in the middle of the vineyards,” Clari bemoaned. “Well, this is a fine pickle we’re in. And here I swore we wouldn’t damage more than the vines that covered the crystal.”

Jewel frowned thoughtfully. “There really is no path we can take? Are we completely surrounded?”

“On all sides,” Sarvell confirmed darkly.

Hmmm… “Clari, you know how I said that the crystal will move as long as we put a hand against it and will it to move?”

“Yes…”

“Did I tell you that I was also able to push it up so that it sat on its base?”