The Chaos Curse (19 page)

It was soon over, several wolves lying dead on the ground, the others gone from sight. The tree was just a tree again.

“Your magic bought us some time and some space,” Shayleigh congratulated Cadderly. The young priest nodded, but then looked to Pikel, the green-bearded “doo-dad” smiling ear to ear. Cadderly didn’t know how much of this animation had been his doing, and how much Pikel’s, but now wasn’t the time to explore the mystery.

“If they come back, use the flask,” Belago offered, moving to Cadderly’s side.

Cadderly considered the wiry man for a moment and realized that Belago was unarmed. He handed back the flask. “You use it,” he explained, “but only if we absolutely need it. We’ve got a darker road still to travel, my friend, and I suspect we shall need every weapon we can muster.”

Belago bobbed his head in agreement, though he did not know, could not know, the depth of the darkness of which Cadderly spoke.

As it turned out, they did not need Belago’s flask that night, or anything else. Shayleigh put them on the move immediately, back to the west, to a grove of thick pines, and there they spent the rest of the dark hours, the five friends, and Percival, too, keeping a watchful eye from the highest boughs.

Cadderly could only assume they had hurt Rufo badly, for the vampire did not find them. That was a good thing, on the surface, but the young priest could not get it out of his mind that if Kierkan Rufo was not with him, the vampire might be with Danica.

Cadderly did not fall asleep until the night was almost at its end, until exhaustion overwhelmed him.

The young priest did know, however, that he had dreamt of Danica, and he was unnerved at that thought. For while he was out here, in the morning light, his dear Danica was in there, in the library, in Rufp’s evil hands. The library.

Cadderly could hardly stand to think about the place. It had been his home for most of his young life, but now that time seemed so very long ago. If all the windows and doors of the Edificant Library were thrown wide now, the structure would remain a place of shadows, a place of nightmares.

Cadderly was shaken from his private thoughts by the sound of Ivan’s rough voice, the dwarf taking command while sitting on a thick tangle of branches below the young priest.

“We got the weapons,” Ivan was saying. “Belago there’s got his bottle.”

“Boom,” Pikel remarked, throwing his hands up high. The force of the sudden movement nearly sent Ivan tumbling from the branch.

Ivan caught himself and started to nod, then stopped and slapped Pikel on the back of the head. “Me brother’s got his club,” the dwarf went on.

“Sha-lah-lah!” Pikel whooped in delight, interrupting again in an equally expressive manner. This time Ivan didn’t react fast enough, and by the time he realized what had happened, he was sitting on the ground, picking clumps of sod out of his teeth.

“Uh-oh,” Pikel moaned, figuring that last move would cost him another slap, as his brother began the steady climb back up to his branch.

He was right, and he accepted the punishment with a shrug. Ivan turned back to Shayleigh.

“Sha-lah-lah,” Pikel said again, quietly this time, and without the expressive movement.

“Yeah,” Ivan agreed, too exasperated to argue further. “And ye got yer silver arrows,” he said to Shayleigh, though he was still eyeing his impetuous brother, expecting still another remark.

“My sword will prove effective as well,” Shayleigh explained, holding up her fine, slender elver, blade, its silver inlays gleaming bright in the morning light.

Ivan continued to scrutinize Pikel, who by this point had taken to whistling a cheery spring morning tune.

“Even better,” the yellow-bearded dwarf said to Shayleigh. “And I got me axe, though it’s not for hurting them vampire things. But it’ll take a stiff-legged zombie in half!”

“Cadderly has his walking stick,” Shayleigh offered, noticing the young priest stirring, looking for an easy route down to their level. “And more weapons than that, I would assume.”

Cadderly nodded and fell heavily onto the branch tangle, sending it dipping. “I am ready for Rufo,” he said groggily when the branch stopped bouncing.

“Te should’ve slept more,” Ivan grumbled at him.

Cadderly nodded in agreement, not wanting to get into an argument now, but in his heart he was glad he had not slept much. He would be wide awake when the trouble started, pumped full of adrenaline. His only enemy now was despair, and if he had dreamt longer of his missing love…

Cadderly shook his head, shook away the counter-productive thought.

“How far are we from the library?” he asked, looking to the west, where he thought the library should be.

Shayleigh motioned for him to look the other way. “Three miles,” she explained, “to the east.”

Cadderly didn’t argue. The run through the trails had been confusing at best, especially to one not blessed with elven night vision. Shayleigh knew where they were.

“Then let us be on our way,” the young priest offered. “Before we lose any more daylight.” He started down from the branch, but had to pause for Belago. The alchemist winked Cadderly’s way and opened his weatherworn cloak, producing the volatile flask.

“Boom!” Pikel shouted from the branch above.

Ivan growled, Pikel quickly jumped to the next lowest branch, and Ivan’s ensuing slap hit nothing but air, causing the dwarf to overbalance and tumble from his perch. He managed to grab Pikel’s green hair during his descent, taking his brother with him.

They hit the ground together, side by side, Ivan’s deer-antlered helm and Pikel’s cooking pot flying away. Up they bounced to face each other squarely.

Cadderly looked to Shayleigh, who was trying to subdue a laugh and merely shook her head in disbelief.

“At least you didn’t have to walk all the way back with them,” the young priest offered. Belago let him pass, and Cadderly hopped down to break up the fight. In a way, the young priest was glad for the distraction. With the dangerous task and the grim possibilities staring them in the face, they could all use a bit of mirth. But Cadderly did not appreciate the dwarves’ antics, and he let both the brothers know it in no uncertain terms when he finally pried them apart.

“His fault,” Ivan huffed, but Cadderly, and Cadderly’s accusing finger, was in his face, warning him to say no more.

“Oooo,” Pikel muttered. When Belago came down a moment later, the dwarf leaned over and whispered “Boom,” into his ear.

Cadderly and Ivan spun about, but Pikel was only whistling again, that cheery, innocent morning tune.

Shayleigh led them quickly, surely, and without hesitation along the myriad forks and turns in the confusing trails. The sun had barely begun its climb in the eastern sky when the Edificant Library, dark and cold, came into view, its square walls seeming to deny the warmth of the day.

They moved along the path five abreast, Ivan and Pikel on one end, Shayleigh and Cadderly anchoring the other, and poor, trembling Belago in the middle. It was only as they made the final approach, the broken doors in sight, that Cadderly took any real notice of their newest companion, the wiry man who was not a fighter. The young priest stopped the march with an upraised hand.

“You have no business going in there,” he said to Belago. “Go instead to Carradoon. Warn the townsfolk of Kierkan Rufo and his creatures of the night.”

Vicero Belago looked up at the young priest as though Cadderly had just slapped him across the face. “I’m not much for fighting,” he admitted. “And I’m not thrilled at the prospect of seeing Kierkan Rufo, vampire or not! But Lady Danica is in there-you said it yourself.”

Cadderly looked to Shayleigh, who nodded solemnly. “Determination is the only true weapon against one of Rufo’s ilk,” the elf put in.

Cadderly dropped a hand on Belago’s shoulder, and could feel that the alchemist had drawn strength from his own words. As they resumed the march and neared the doors, though, the man trembled visibly once more.

This time it was Ivan who stopped them. “We should have our path marked out afore we go in,” the dwarf reasoned.

Cadderly looked skeptical.

“We have no idea where Danica might be,” Shayleigh said, “or where we might find Rufo and his most powerful allies.”

“If we go wrong, we’ll fight everything in the place afore we ever find Danica,” Ivan argued, but then, as if he suddenly realized what he had just said, especially the part about fighting everything in the place, the fiery dwarf shrugged as if it no longer mattered and turned back to the door.

Cadderly took out his light tube and popped open its back compartment. He slid out the enchanted disk; even in the bright sunlight its glow was powerful. Then he took off his hat and set the glowing disk behind his mounted holy symbol.

The young priest looked back to the doors and sighed. At least now they would not be walking in dark places. Still, Cadderly wasn’t thrilled with the prospect of wandering through the massive structure, with so many enemies to face, and with a limited amount of time. How many rooms could they search in one day? Certainly not half the number in the Edificant Library.

“We’ll begin in the lower levels,” Cadderly said. “The kitchen, the main chapel, even the wine cellar. Rufo probably took Danica and Dorigen to a place of darkness.”

“You are assuming he has them,” Shayleigh remarked, her tone reminding Cadderly that both the monk and the wizard were resourceful and cunning. “Let us keep in our thoughts that Danica might not even be in there.”

Cadderly knew better. In his heart, he knew without doubt that Danica was in the library and in trouble. He started to answer the elf s doubts, but Percival answered for him, the squirrel doing a sudden, wild dance across the branches just above their heads.

“Hey, ye little rat!” Ivan bellowed, shielding his head with his burly arm.

Pikel seemed equally excited, but unlike his brother, the green-bearded dwarf wasn’t protesting in the least. He pointed a stubby finger at the white squirrel and hopped up and down.

“What is it?” Cadderly and Shayleigh asked together.

Percival ran along the branch and, with a great leap, caught the edge of the library’s roof, dancing along the gutter, turning a somersault and chattering excitedly.

Cadderly looked to Pikel. “Percival has found them,” he stated more than asked.

“Oo oi!” the perceptive (at least where nature was concerned) dwarf agreed.

Cadderly turned back to his rodent friend. “Danica?” he asked.

Percival leaped high in the air, turning completely about.

Ivan roared in protest. “The rat found them?” he bellowed incredulously.

Pikel slapped him on the back of the head.

“We have nothing better,” Shayleigh reminded the volatile Ivan, trying to stay yet another fight between the brothers.

Cadderly wasn’t even listening. He had been with Percival for three years and knew the squirrel was not a stupid thing. Far from it. Cadderly did not doubt Percival understood they were looking for Danica.

He followed Percival, and his friends followed him, around to the south wing of the library. Much of the wing showed damage from the fire, but the wall and windows near the back of the building did not. Percival moved gracefully along the gutters, then picked his way carefully down the rough and cracked stone. With a final leap, he landed on the sill of a small second-floor window.

Cadderly was nodding before the squirrel ever stopped.

“Danica’s in there?” Ivan asked doubtfully.

“The private room of Dean Thobicus,” Cadderly explained, and it all made sense to him. If Rufo had Danica, a woman he had long desired, he would likely show her the most comfortable and lavish room in the library, and none was better suited than the dean’s private chamber.

With Cadderly’s confidence came a moment of sheer dread. If his logic was on track, and Percival was right, then Rufo did indeed have Danica!

“What’s the quickest route through the building to that room?” Ivan asked, deciding not to continue his useless arguing.

“The quickest route is straight up,” Cadderly remarked, drawing all their eyes skyward. Ivan grumbled for a bit, trying to figure some way to get them all up there. Finally he just shook his head, and when he looked back to the young priest to denounce the plan, the dwarf jumped in surprise. In place of his regular arms and legs, Cadderly now had the limbs of a squirrel, a white-furred squirrel!

Shayleigh, not so surprised, gave Cadderly the end of a fine cord, and up he went, easily scaling the wall to sit on the narrow ledge beside Percival.

The window was only a few inches wide, barely a squared crack in the wall. Cadderly peered in, the light from the disk on his hat casting a glow into the room. He couldn’t see much of the chamber, though, for the window was more than a foot deep. He did see the bottom edge of the bed, though, and on it, under a satiny sheet, the outline of a woman’s legs.

“Danica,” he whispered harshly, straining to get a better angle.

“What do ye see?” Ivan called from below.

It was Danica. Cadderly knew it was Danica. He shifted back, willed his arms and legs to return to normal, and fell into the song of Deneir. He was too close now; he would not be stopped by simple stone.

“What do ye see?” Ivan demanded again, but Cadderly, lost in the song, the magic of his god, did not register the call.

He focused on the stone surrounding the window, saw it for what it was, saw its very essence. Calling to his god, he pulled his waterskin around from his back and squirted it in strategic locations, then placed his hands on the suddenly malleable stone and began to shape the material.

The window’s thick glass fell out, past entranced Cadderly’s working hands, and nearly clobbered Ivan as he stood, hands on hips, on the ground below.

“Hey!” the dwarf yelled, and Cadderly, even in the throes of the song, heard him. He considered his handiwork and remembered his friends, and worked a spur in the stone, that he could loop Shayleigh’s cord securely about it.

Then it was done, and the window was wide, and Cadderly crawled into the room. Deneir went away from him when he entered the unholy place; he would have recognized that fact clearly if he had concentrated. Even the glow of the lighted disk, fixed on the front of his wide-brimmed hat, seemed to dim.

This, too, Cadderly did not notice. His eyes, and his thoughts, were squarely on the bed, on the figure of Danica, lying too still and too serene.

Shayleigh practically ran up the rope, rushing into the room beside Cadderly. Ivan, and then Pikel, powerful dwarven arms pumping, came up fast behind, with Pikel pausing long enough at the sill to haul poor Belago up the fifteen feet to the window.