The Companions of Tartiël (22 page)

At last, the short fellow dusted his hands off and gave them the all-clear. Glancing around the room, Wild wrinkled his nose. “It’s… dusty.”

“This is not two weeks’ worth of dust,” Kaiyr agreed, lifting his sandaled feet and inspecting the marks he was making in the thick layer of sediments covering the creaky floorboards.

“More like two centuries,” Wild commented with a snort. “Well, let’s take a look around, shall we?”

Nodding, each of them began searching the room. Kaiyr and Wild used more conventional means to do so, while Caineye trusted in Vinto to sniff out anything suspicious.

“Trapdoor leading to the basement here,” Wild announced within minutes, throwing back a small rug and coughing from the dust his motion threw into the air. “There’s an obvious trail. Someone’s been this way recently. This dust might not be real.”

Kaiyr had his ear pressed tightly against the wall opposite the front door. “I hear something behind this wall,” he said, “and the building is too long for this to be the outside wall.” With his fine-fingered hands, he felt around the wall, seeking—and finding—a latch hidden inside a knothole. A secret door swung open, revealing a new, dusty room, and all of them now heard low growls and grunts emanating from somewhere within. Specifically, they heard bestial sounds coming from another trapdoor—this one heavily chained and padlocked.

“Honestly, are these guys that uncreative? They send us here to lure us to our deaths?” Wild complained, tapping the cast-iron door with one knuckle. The door was so thick that it did not resonate when he knocked. Fitting all three of them in the back room was no easy task, and Vinto had to wait in the main room. Already, his fur was thick with dust.

Kaiyr brushed his hands off on each other. “Whatever the case may be, it would not be wise to open this door. Perhaps the other one has answers.”

“Whoops,” Wild lied as the lock clicked open noisily. Kaiyr stared down at him, expressionless, while Caineye suppressed a chuckle. “It wasn’t me, I swear. The lock
totally
opened all on its own. I have no idea how it happened.”

Pursing his lips, Kaiyr indicated the door. “Let us see, then, the fate in store for us.” Together, the three of them hauled open the door. The growling only became louder, accented with the occasional, feral bark.

“Got a light?” Wild whispered to Caineye, who nodded and pulled a pebble from a small pouch at his waist. Murmuring a prayer over it, the druid opened his palm to reveal the pebble, now glowing as bright as a torch. He tossed it in, and the three companions leaned forward, peering into the cellar. The chaotic barking paused momentarily as the shining pebble dropped into the midst of… “
More
werewolves?” Wild complained just before one of the creatures let loose a fearsome snarl and leaped for the opening.

The group fell backwards in surprise, and Kaiyr manifested the hilt of his soulblade and brought it crashing down upon the head of the creature, which let out a pained yelp before dropping back into the hole. They all hesitated for a moment, staring at the hole in the floor. Recovering first, Kaiyr leaped to his feet and began lifting the door. “Help me close this!” he told them, half-shouting and half-grunting as he struggled with the heavy door.

Jumping up, the other two helped haul the door around on its hinges to slam back down into place. Wild hurriedly wove the chains across the door and through the iron rungs next to it before finally clicking the lock back into place.

Kaiyr eyed the halfling with a mixture of chagrin and amusement. “Let us hope that lock does not ‘open on its own’ again.”

“I’ll second that,” Caineye replied, straightening. “What about that other door? Do we really want to see what’s beneath that one?”

Kaiyr considered it as they all piled out of the tiny room and back into the dust-filled kitchen area. “This one is not locked,” he mused, “nor is it made of steel, nor have we heard any motion from it.” He paused, listening. “I still do not. Perhaps we should find out what is here, what secret these people are either hiding or are waiting for us to discover.”

The other two nodded. “I’ll stay up here and keep an eye out for trouble,” Caineye offered. “We’ve made quite an amount of commotion already. Besides, Vinto can’t join us downstairs.” He enspelled another stone with light and tossed it to the blademaster, who caught it and returned a grateful look.

“Sound reasoning, Master Caineye,” Kaiyr replied, pulling open the trapdoor with his foot. “Master Wild, follow me.” Dropping the pebble, he waited for it to hit the floor ten feet below before following it with soulblade in hand.

The cellar—the real cellar—held nothing threatening. Kaiyr glanced around, taking it in. It was large, as cellars went, being almost thirty feet long and nearly that wide. It was empty except for a table on a slightly raised dais.

“Is it safe?” Wild called down.

Kaiyr did not answer immediately, staring at the table. It was surrounded by a slightly luminescent barrier of some sort; not being familiar with magic, he could not tell what it might do, were one to attempt to cross it. More importantly, resting on the table were three pieces of what the elven blademaster recognized as belonging to Ministriel’s Regalia. The Helm was not among them, but both bracers and the shield lay there. All were rustred and utterly nondescript.

“Well?” Wild asked testily.

Kaiyr turned around to find the halfling already on the stone floor behind him, fists on his hips. “My apologies, Master Wild,” he said distractedly, turning back to the altar. “I know not what I expected to find, but it was not this.”

Wild strode forward, and Kaiyr joined him. They both stopped two strides away from the glowing barrier. “What is it?” asked the shorter man.

“Do you remember the Helm of Ministriel, Master Wild? I mentioned it last evening. It and what you see before us belonged to Ministriel, an elven hero of old who defeated a great evil,” Kaiyr said solemnly. “It was so long ago that the stories were lost generations past, even to my people. But the weapons he wielded and the armor he wore survive to this day and are artifacts of incredible power.” He stepped forward, looking at but not touching the barrier. “I suspect this is here to keep us out.”

Caineye’s light-pebble flew by the blademaster’s nose and soared through the barrier, clacking against the altar and coming to a stop on the dais. Kaiyr turned back to glower at the halfling, who shrugged. “I was curious.”

Kaiyr said nothing, but Caineye’s face and voice appeared at the entrance to the cellar. “Time to go, you two. Soldiers are marching this way. We’ve got maybe a minute to clear out and find a place to hide.”

Without delay, Kaiyr picked up Wild and unceremoniously tossed the halfling back the way he’d come. Then, with a hop, the blademaster hauled himself out of the cellar. “We shall have to leave the light and hope it is not discovered,” he said, gently closing the trapdoor and tossing the throw rug back on top of it.

“Out the front,” Caineye said, cracking open the door and peering outside. Vinto sat across the street, seeming rather unconcerned. “It’s the only way to go. Now.”

Together, they all scurried over to where Vinto was hiding in the bushes. Not half a minute later, a patrol of two dozen elven soldiers swarmed into the area.

“Team one, go secure the sides and back of the house. Team two, you head inside,” ordered one who was obviously the leader. His men hurried to make sure all escape routes were blocked, and twelve others kicked open the door and filtered into the building.

Caineye whispered to Kaiyr and Wild, “That’s the constable I met yesterday.” The other two replied with barely perceptible nods.

“Looks like they’ve run into a little trouble,” said another of the soldiers, chuckling at the blasted ground around the door. Wild scowled but didn’t say anything.

As the companions watched, one of the soldiers emerged, saluted, and gave his report. “No sign of them still inside, sir. But they found both cellars. One of them used a magical pebble of light in each of them.”

“And the… purpose in directing them here?” the constable asked impatiently.

The soldier sighed and shook his head. “No signs that they crossed the barrier. It looks like only the stone was tossed across. I think they cleared out in a hurry. Maybe they heard us coming. They can’t have gone far.”

The constable waved his hand. “No matter now. We can’t force them to cross or they’ll know what we’re up to. But we can’t get to those things without them, or at least without people
like
them. Our master will be… very displeased by this.”

The soldier paled at his commander’s words. “I… see,” he said, swallowing hard. “What are your orders, sir? Should I send men after them?”

“Kaiyr,” Caineye breathed, drawing the blademaster’s attention away from the conversation in the street. “Look.”

Kaiyr followed Caineye’s gaze to a small clearing nearby, where a large wolf stood in the open, illuminated by sunlight. The creature was taller than most wolves, and it stared at them with an intense intelligence unlike any wolf any of them had ever met. Then, in an oddly human gesture, it raised a paw and swiped it in the air toward itself, beckoning to them.

“Go, Vinto,” Caineye said, and his animal companion sneaked away from the rest of the group to meet the new wolf. The newcomer sat primly, allowing Vinto to sniff him. Then, when Vinto sat down next to the other wolf, tongue lolling, Caineye looked back to the other two. “Let’s go. I’ve a feeling it’s trying to help us get out of here.”

With one last glance back at the regrouping soldiers, Kaiyr hustled quietly through the underbrush with Wild, following the druid to meet the wolf. To the surprise of all involved, the tall wolf opened its mouth and spoke. “Come with me. All of you are in great danger.”

“No need to tell me twice,” Wild said, recovering first. “Where to?”

“Follow.” Without further ado, the wolf trotted away from the “treasure hunter’s” house and toward the edge of town. Kaiyr, after a moment’s consideration, did as the creature commanded, and the others fell in alongside him.

As the wolf led them all through the streets, through a hidden tunnel dug beneath the wooden palisade, and deep into the woods, Kaiyr, in a spare moment when he did not feel immediately threatened by the townsfolk, marveled at how the other two seemed to look to him for leadership, advice, and tactical appraisal. He was not used to such a role, having been a student to his father for more than a century, but he found that the role was not one too large for him. He could only hope it would stay that way.

“We’re safe,” breathed the wolf, slightly out of breath, as it slowed to a trot about the speed a human could walk. “They won’t follow us this deep into the forest, at least, not for a while.”

Caineye caught up with them, followed hard by Wild, who struggled to keep pace. “Who won’t follow us?” the druid asked. “Why are those elves so…?”

“Hostile?” the wolf finished for him. The creature led the way into a clearing and finally stopped, glancing around. “We don’t know. But one day, a good while ago, the elves in Andorra suddenly stopped recognizing us, instead hunting us.”

Kaiyr glanced around, noting movement in the underbrush. “There are more of your kind?”

Instead of the wolf in front of him, a voice from the bushes answered, “Yes, there are, thee of the Fair Folk. We are the Terth’Kaftineya.”

Kaiyr blinked, surprised to hear such perfect and ancient Elven ring from the trees. Then, another wolf—Terth’Kaftineya—emerged from the underbrush, this one even larger, with dark gray fur and silver patterns born of great age. “Excellent work, Mateus,” said the newcomer, still in ancient Elven. Then he looked at the adventurers, holding each one’s eyes for a long moment, and the adventurers could see the wisdom and the pain behind those canine eyes. “I welcome you travelers to my domain. I am Kathir.” As Mateus retreated to join a number of other Terth’Kaftineya entering the clearing, Kathir padded up to stand before the humanoid companions.

Kaiyr bent at the waist into a deep and formal bow. “My presence is exalted,” he said, also in the ancient dialect of Elven. “I am Kaiyr, a blademaster from Ivyan.”

Kathir seemed both amused and impressed by the elf’s display of protocol. He initiated a wolfish bow, bending his forelimbs slightly. “My presence is also exalted, Blademaster Kaiyr. Be welcome in our glade.” Rising, Kathir looked at Wild next.

Wild nodded and waved. “I’m Billcock Wild. Most just call me Wild,” he said cheerfully, and Kathir returned the nod.

Finally, he looked at Caineye. The human druid seemed in awe of the creature, canine but with an intelligence to match—and quite possibly exceed—his own. “I-I am honored to meet you,” Caineye said in Elven. “You may call me Caineye. And this—”

“Is Vinto,” Kathir said with a knowing grin. “It is a pleasure to meet all of you. And, while I would like to invite all of you to join us in the hunt, there are much more pressing matters at hand. Mateus has been tracking you through Andorra since your incident at the temple—yes, we know about that,” he said with a look of approval in Wild’s direction. “You are also not the first to try and enter that house, but you are the first to survive its entrance. What those creatures—I dare not call them elves, for they do not seem to be so—desire within, I cannot fathom. But I have a feeling that allowing them to find what they seek would be a tragedy for us all.”

Kaiyr nodded. “Please, tell us of what has transpired here. As you probably know, we recently arrived by airship.”

“An experience I could have done without,” Wild muttered.

Ignoring him, Kaiyr continued. “Our aims are one and the same. If we cannot escape it, then we must fight it. Please, tell us what you know.”

Kathir ordered his lieutenants to leave and better secure the area. Then he sat down to explain what he understood of the state of affairs. “Yes, things have been like this for nearly six months, now. The elves seemed to change overnight, and it all happened the day that temple to Alduros Hol was erected. We used to be welcome in the town. But they cast us out, built a wall, and then constructed various buildings near the center of town. Most of them seem to be storehouses for equipment and provisions, almost as if they were preparing to welcome and resupply an army.” The Terth’Kaftineya shuddered. “Then there is the large building at the center of town. Some nights, a creature of pure darkness emerges. Sometimes it wanders off, to wreak havoc elsewhere. But other times, it hunts us. We have lost many to its fangs and strange, deadly breath.”