Sovereign Stone (51 page)

Alexander knew the nether wolves would howl at sundown. Everyone needed  rest so they could move through the night. He knew it would be hard on them but he much preferred to stay ahead of the nether wolves rather than move in a tight cluster within the dubious protection of the night-wisp light.

He woke after four hours or so. Chloe was sitting cross-legged on his chest watching him sleep.

She smiled, “Did you rest well, My Love?”

Alexander was still tired and his muscles ached but the urgency he felt to get to the Reishi Keep overcame his physical discomfort. “Well enough. Thank you for watching over us, Little One. Was there any sign of the wyverns?”

“No. There were a few animals that wandered close to the camp but I scared them off.”

Alexander frowned in surprise. She was all of three inches tall and weighed maybe an ounce. “How did you do that?”

She smiled proudly and buzzed into a ball of scintillating white light for a moment before returning to her normal form. “Animals don’t like sudden bright light,” she said. “It startles them and they run away.”

Alexander nodded and sat up, smiling at her. She was beautiful and vibrant and full of life. In spite of her tiny size, she was larger than life in many ways. More than anything, he had learned the power of love without condition from her. She gave of herself freely and without limit, never thinking of what was in it for her or even entertaining the thought of love as currency in a bargain. She had sustained him since Isabel and Abigail were taken. Without her, he didn’t know if he would have had the strength to go on.

In the distance, the peace of the early evening was shattered by the otherworldly howl of nether wolves. The few Rangers who were still sleeping sat bolt upright and immediately started packing up their bedrolls. It was clear that no one wanted to face the beasts again. In the gloom of the forest under a darkening sky, they set out. Alexander and Jack tied their vials of night-wisp dust to sticks so they could use them like magical torches casting light out as far as possible. They made reasonably good time for several hours through the dense underbrush. Every now and then they could hear large creatures off in the trees but nothing tried to confront them.

An hour or so before dawn, they heard the howl of the nether wolves tear through the night. The dark beasts were close and gaining on them. The men clustered together within the confines of the night-wisp light and continued to move through the forest but more slowly and cautiously.

A Ranger called out when he saw the first gleam of a nether wolf’s faintly glowing yellow eyes in the darkness. They stopped and faced the beasts as they snarled and snapped in frustrated rage. For the rest of the night, they moved through the forest slowly in a huddled mass with the sounds of the nether wolves in the shadows. By the time dawn came, they were exhausted and the fear was so palpable that Alexander could almost smell it in the air. When the nether wolves went to ground to avoid the sunlight, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Alexander considered challenging the monsters. He knew he could kill one or two, but there were five, and he was pretty sure it would cost the lives of a few Rangers if they stood and fought. They were more of a nuisance than a hindrance to his ultimate goal, so he chose to simply avoid them. They moved on from the place where the dark auras of the nether wolves stained the forest floor and then made camp. The night and the previous day of running had taken its toll on everyone and they were badly in need of rest. After a cold breakfast, they slept until noon under the cover of the forest canopy. Lieutenant Wyatt assigned his Rangers to very brief stints at guard duty to allow everyone to get as much sleep as possible.

After a quick lunch, they moved out again. Alexander knew they had to be getting close to the Keep and he wanted to get there before nightfall. At least the Keep might afford some protection from the nether wolves and maybe even give them the opportunity to trap the creatures within it so they could avoid a fight altogether. Otherwise, they would be dealing with them all the way back to the coast.

After a couple of hours, they came to the edge of the forest and approached the wood line cautiously. The Keep was about a league away on top of a gently sloping hill. Grassland stretched away in all directions from the ominous-looking structure, providing a clear field of view for miles. The Keep itself was black and awe-inspiring with scores of towers, battlements, turrets, bridges, and buildings within.

Once, it housed tens of thousands of people, but now it was dark and foreboding. Scorch marks were etched into several towers and a few of the ancient spires were shattered, leaving nothing but ragged and broken edges reaching into the sky.

At its height, it would have been a magnificent thing to behold with gold leaf glinting from the conical roof caps atop many of the towers and brightly colored pinions flying in the wind over the enormous castle. While it had the look of a traditional keep, it was clearly not built or positioned to withstand any form of normal siege. There was no moat protecting the perimeter and there were no catapults or ballistae on the battlements, but then the Reishi Keep would have housed hundreds of wizards, so such mundane forms of weapons were unnecessary.

Even more than the Keep, the dozens of wyverns orbiting over it caught Alexander’s eye. They were clearly aware of his destination and they meant to stop him. He wondered for a moment at their motives. For centuries they had guarded this island, ensuring that no ship made landfall. Now they were out in force to prevent him from reaching the Keep.

The thought that Isabel or Abigail had been tortured to extract his destination made him sick to his stomach. He ruthlessly pushed the unspeakable horror of those thoughts aside and focused on the dilemma before him.

In the light of day, they would never make it the three miles up the gently sloping hill to the Keep, yet if they waited for the cover of night, they would have the nether wolves to deal with. They could keep the nether wolves at bay with the night-wisp dust, but that would reveal their location to the wyvern riders. Alexander motioned for the Rangers to withdraw under the thick forest canopy so they could discuss their options.

Chapter 44

The big wyvern rider unbound Isabel’s hands and shoved her roughly into a cell. She stumbled and fell to the cold floor as the door slammed shut behind her. When she removed her blindfold, she found she was locked in a small stone room just eight feet square.

One small window a foot in diameter looked out over the ocean. It was a hole cut through four feet of stone and barred with three stout steel rods. There was a pallet on the floor with a single blanket. There was also a bucket full of water and an empty bucket that looked unclean and smelled foul.

The door to the room was made of oak bound with heavy steel and had a small window with a cross grate. A metal plate in the middle looked like it could be opened from the outside to push food or water through to the prisoner within.

Isabel sat heavily on the pallet and put her head in her hands. The journey had been painful and frightening. The wyvern held her so tightly during the flight that she found it hard to breathe. A few times she felt like she was going to lose consciousness. The moment the wyvern had deposited her on the stone deck, she was seized by two big men wearing the same armor as the wyvern riders. They roughly bound her wrists behind her back and blindfolded her before half guiding, half dragging her to the cell she now found herself in.

During the terrifying journey, she had looked through Slyder’s eyes to gain as much information as possible about her abductors. The big man who rode the wyvern wore formidable-looking heavy armor and carried an array of weapons on his elaborately constructed saddle. He moved with the beating of his wyvern’s wings with practiced ease and didn’t seem too concerned that his prisoner might be dropped by his mount at any moment.

She was both heartened and afraid when she saw that the wyvern riding just behind and to the left of her had Abigail clutched tightly in its talons with her bow pressed up to her chest. She didn’t look like she was conscious during the flight and Isabel found herself worrying that her new sister was already dead. Unfortunately, Isabel had been brought in first and didn’t have a chance to see Abigail land.

Now that she was back on solid ground and her heartbeat had slowed to a normal rhythm, she started to feel how bruised and battered she was. She carefully lay down and curled up in the blanket while she thought about Alexander, hoping that he’d survived the fight.

In the brief moments before she’d been snatched up, it looked like the wyverns were trying to kill Alexander and all of the other men while they had specifically targeted the two women to be captured. She didn’t know what was coming, but she knew she would need information and all of her strength to meet it. Once she got as comfortable as she could on the little pallet, she relaxed her sore muscles while sending her mind to Slyder.

He was perched in a tree on top of the fortress island. To her surprise, the top of the island was beautiful and well cared for. It was covered with manicured gardens of all varieties. Artfully designed flower gardens, neatly laid-out vegetable gardens, and bountiful orchards covered the plateau. No part of the surface was wasted. There were no buildings except for a few gazebos here and there, and there was a railed deck around the entire outer edge. The gardens were being tended by a number of people wearing simple robes. They were repairing damage caused by the recent storm.

She had Slyder fly in a circle around the outside of the fortress island while she carefully looked at all of the openings cut into the stone. The entire plateau that jutted so abruptly from the sea was riddled with level after level of chambers. Some of the openings looked like big bays where wyverns came and went, while others looked like nothing more than windows for living quarters. There were a few balconies with comfortable chairs and small tables.

She saw a number of wyverns return after a while, looking battered and injured, hopefully from damage done by Alexander and his Rangers. Frequently she saw people within the windows, doorways, and large bays as Slyder floated around the place. Finally, she found a bank of tiny little windows that looked very much like the window to her cell.

Slyder carefully maneuvered in and made a pass by the ten windows, but he floated by too quickly for her to see inside any of them. Next, she had him land on the windowsill of each little window in turn. The first three cells were empty. She was in the fourth and Abigail was in the seventh, standing at the door and looking out into the hall. Isabel breathed a silent sigh of relief that she was alive. She had Slyder squawk gently, and Abigail whirled.

“Isabel, is that you?”

Slyder bobbed his head up and down. Abigail smiled past her bloody lip. It looked like she’d been treated more roughly than Isabel, but then she’d probably tried to get an arrow off the moment she was let loose. Isabel smiled to herself and hoped that her new sister had managed to kill at least one of the brutes who’d taken them before she was subdued.

“I’m so glad you’re alive,” Abigail said to Slyder. “Are you nearby?”

Again Isabel had Slyder bob his head up and down, then turn in her direction and peck the windowsill three times. Abigail frowned for a moment.

“You’re three cells down?” she asked.

Slyder bobbed his head again.

“Are you injured?” Abigail asked.

This time Slyder moved his head from side to side.

“I’m so sorry they took you, Isabel, but I’m also glad for your company,” Abigail said to the bird in the window. “Alexander will find us. I know he will.”

Slyder’s head bobbed up and down.

“Now that I know you’re all right, I’m going to try to get some rest,” Abigail said. “That wyvern just about squeezed the life out of me, and the men in the bay knocked me senseless when I killed one of them.” She smiled with mischief. “It was worth it though. Let me know if you learn anything.”

Slyder bobbed his head up and down and then came back to curl up on Isabel’s windowsill and watch over her while she tried to rest. It was difficult for her to fall asleep—she was too worried about Alexander. The wyvern riders knew he was on the island and they were probably hunting him in force. He was also probably distraught at losing her and Abigail.

She wanted to send him a message letting him know they were alive, but she needed to keep Slyder close. He was her only source of information and that might make all the difference. She was also worried about her abductors’ intent. So far they hadn’t said anything about their reasons for attacking the ships that approached the Reishi Isle or why they’d taken her and Abigail but they were clearly serious, whatever their reasons. Then there was the poison that was trying to kill her. The wizards thought they had a solution, but it wouldn’t do her any good unless she could get to them.

Once she finally drifted off, she slept fitfully despite her fatigue. Late in the day she woke when the bolt to her door was thrown open. A big man wearing a breastplate and armed with a short sword pulled the door open and eyed her intently as if she were the source of evil in the world.