The Fifth Magic (Book 1) (5 page)

"I am not to be summoned," Trinda said before the man carrying her came to a stop before Martik.

"You asked for word should I have any progress, and I believe we've made significant progress today."

"I'm told you haven't actually done anything yet, as evidenced by
this,
" she said, gesturing toward Martik's men, who were still working."

"I did not want to deprive you of the chance to see the wheel turn for the first time," Martik said, suddenly wishing he had no tongue. Now either the wheel turned, or he'd be a failure who had summoned the child queen to witness his disgrace.

"Yet you had no trouble depriving my guard of any of the details."

"I--"

"You deprived me of the information I needed. Don't do that again."

The words were said in a pleasant enough tone, but a chill enveloped Martik; he didn't want to "fall into the river."

The men proved why he considered them his best crew. The stone shafts were neatly lined up on the stone at the wheel's base. Feeling like a fool, Martik flushed and moved to the long, cylindrical stones. "These shafts are cut from a different type of stone; and they fit almost perfectly."

Trinda looked unimpressed.

Sliding the lowest shaft halfway in, Martik began re-creating the ladder, and even his men looked at him strangely, but then one sucked in a deep breath, the realization finally hitting him. With his crew handing him black stone cylinders, Martik reached the last hole, and this was the first shaft he pushed past the halfway point. He put his hands in the air and let everyone see the shaft get sucked in the rest of the way. There was an audible
thunk
when the stone was seated. Now those in attendance watched with a bit more anticipation. Martik's spirit soared but he did not want to get overconfident.

Stepping back down a rung, he pushed in the shaft he'd just been standing on, and so he backed down the ladder, collapsing it as he went. With each shaft drawn into place, as if by magic, Martik's crew and perhaps even the guards came to believe. Every shaft brought them closer to solving a great mystery, and Martik couldn't help but smile. Then, though, he came to the last shaft, one he'd already tested. He knew it would work. It just had to work. When he tried sliding the stone into place, it resisted for an instant, and Martik swallowed, but after adjusting the angle, it slid in without resistance until being pulled from his grasp with a firm, almost greedy
thunk.
It was quiet and no one moved.

Nothing happened.

Someone coughed and Martik stood from where he'd been kneeling, his prayer unanswered.

Trinda glared down at him. "Do not summon me again."

* * *

"What were you thinking?" Strom asked Martik, his voice louder than he may have intended.

"I can't help it when something suddenly makes sense to me," Martik said.

"Quit pouting," Osbourne said.

"Trinda's guard has been watching me," Martik said. "Closer than I thought. He's not just watching me; he's
reading
me. And he knew the moment I figured it out; only I guess I really didn't figure it out."

"Stop whining," Osbourne said.

"I think they're going to try to stop us when we leave. I think they know," Martik said in a rush.

"They do," Strom said. "But they don't know when, and I'm betting they won't expect tonight."

"That's insane," Osbourne said.

"You're really not being helpful, you know," Martik said.

"Moving the conversation along . . ." Osbourne said. "You really think tonight, right after Martik's utter disgrace and humiliation in front of all those people, is the best time to make our escape?"

Martik stuck his tongue out at Osbourne.

"Our man is working the barges tonight," Strom said. "We just have to time it right. We still have time before the change of guard, and we know the day guard has had quite a day. I say we go."

Martik swallowed. It hadn't been real to him before, but now they were talking about actually trying to escape Dragonhold. Given how his day had gone, his confidence wasn't high, and he thought he might be sick. Osbourne didn't look a great deal better, no matter how much sarcasm he poured on it. Strom appeared determined but there was the slightest hint at the corner of his eyes: fear.

"How long do you need?" Strom asked, his voice low.

"I'm ready," Martik breathed. Nothing he owned was worth the risk.

"I'm ready too," Osbourne said.

Supplies already waited in the Upper Chinawpa valley. Beyond what they were wearing, they would be leaving their entire lives behind. In a way, their lives had been taken from them long before, and perhaps they would now take them back.

"I'll go first," Strom said. "Wait half a turn of the sand clock, and one of you follow. Then the other another half turn after that. Get to the docks, and we should be free. Deep breaths. Relax."

With that, Strom strode out as if nothing were amiss. Martik wasn't certain he could match the feat, and he had serious doubts about Osbourne.

"You go next," Osbourne said. "I'll be right behind you."

"You're not giving up already, are you?" Martik asked.

Osbourne laughed. "No. But I know I might give myself away. I'm not very good at hiding things. Strom has gotten better at it over the years."

"It helps to have arms like dragon jaws," Martik said, and Osbourne couldn't argue. Strom wasn't a man to be tangled with.

Half the sand had passed through the sand clock, and Martik let it run. With a nod, he walked into the hall, still unsure if Osbourne would follow. Shadows cast by the torchlight danced and taunted Martik as he walked. Gone were the days of herald globes lighting the halls. Those had been hoarded and stashed somewhere perhaps only Trinda herself knew. It was another puzzle. Did the girl hoard them to keep others from using them or so she could use them herself? Her alliance with Allette indicated she might be amassing a deadly arsenal for her own military purposes.

Martik realized he was mumbling to himself as he passed people in the halls, and he wondered what he might have been saying when people passed by. He would have to pay more attention. It was his nature to fixate on problems and ignore everything else, especially, as in this case, when his subconscious was handling the walking. Passing through the great hall made him feel as if everyone were watching him. They could easily see he was on his way to escape from Dragonhold, and surely he would be intercepted at any time. Every step caused his heart to beat faster, and sweat was running down his cheek by the time he reached the archway leading to the God's Eye. This would be the easiest place to stop him, and a man was moving in his direction. With every step, he wanted to go faster, to run, but he could not. That would ruin everything. He had to remain calm. The man was not someone he recognized, but when their eyes met, Martik quickly looked away, something he instantly regretted.

The man passed by the archway and moved back toward the kitchens. With a deep breath, Martik entered the hall, unable to appreciate the architecture as he usually did. He prayed with every step. When Strom saw him, he let out an audible sigh then looked embarrassed for having done so.

"Sound carries over water," Martik said softly.

Strom flushed and nodded.

Waiting for Osbourne was torture. Strom had turned over a sand clock when Martik arrived, and he frequently checked it. When half the sand had run out, Osbourne was not there, and a barge appeared. They would get but one chance at this, and Martik looked at Strom.

"I can't leave him."

Martik nodded. Either all of them went or none of them went. A moment after having that thought, Martik let out an audible sigh of relief. Strom gave him a look that said,
Really?

The barge landed as Osbourne walked up, and they boarded without his ever stopping.

"Go," Strom said to the bargeman, whom Martik didn't recognize.

The man responded by pushing them into deep water. Every instant of the journey was etched in Martik's mind; he'd never been so frightened and exhilarated at the same time. They were so close to their goal, he could barely contain himself.

Strom grabbed his arm and leaned in. "Easy."

Martik hadn't even realized he'd been stepping forward and back as if about to make a running jump. Taking deep breaths, he did what he could to release them slowly. After what felt like ages, they reached the pocked stone shoreline. The bargeman said nothing as the three men disembarked. He simply poled back into deep water.

A single pair of guards was all that stood between them and the Chinawpa Valley and their freedom. Strom led the way, and it was clear he intended to fight if necessary. Martik followed with a bit less conviction, and Osbourne nearly outpaced him. They were at the checkered hall, which was what they now called the hall where Kyrien had entered and exited the hold with his dragon ore saddle on. The stones had left crisscrossing gouges in the otherwise smooth stone. It was a poignant reminder.

The guards' silhouettes came into view, and Martik could hear nothing over the pounding in his ears. Strom approached the man on the left and nodded in greeting. The man nodded back, and Strom walked into the valley beyond. Osbourne took another tentative step on his way outside, and nothing barred his path. Martik nearly sighed with relief again, but instead a hand closed over his mouth.

"You disappoint me, Martik Tillerman," Trinda said from within the cavern; the light of many herald globes her guards held hurting his eyes. It was an exaggerated show of force. A single overcharged herald globe would have been plenty. "First you failed to impress after you summoned me and now this. What am I going to do with you?"

Strong hands marshaled Martik back to where Trinda stood, and she spoke over his shoulder. "As for the two of you," she said. "You may never return."

Chapter 5

Words can cut as deep as a blade.

--Morif, soldier

* * *

The mighty wheel mocked Martik. He'd been so certain only days ago the shafts were the keys, and he was starting to realize they were perhaps one of the keys. The presence of a vacuum, that inrushing breeze, made him envision moving water. A river ran through this mountain, and it could be the suction's source. Those thoughts would have continued if not for heavy debris being cleared from atop the wheel. This irregularly shaped rock had not been created by the keep's crumbling. All the stone around it was smooth once the debris was cleared. This debris had been placed there to intentionally jam the mechanism, Martik knew. Someone had worked hard to make certain this wheel would stay as it was.

"Clear below!" Bradley shouted from above.

Martik moved to a safer place. The debris had to be thrown, or in this case pushed, from high above, and there was no guarantee it would fall where they intended. The wrong bounce on the way down could send it toward those gathered at the mighty wheel's base.

"Clear," Martik called back once he was satisfied his people were as safe as they could be.

Jagged rock appeared, only the tip at first, and it moved slowly before toppling over all at once and racing down the wheel's face, never touching the smooth stone. Hitting bottom with terrible force, it sent stone shards flying in every direction, some screaming as they went.

"Help!" someone shouted. "Man down!"

Martik cursed himself for not moving people farther back and pushed through the crowd.

"Stung me good," a man named Adger said. "But I'm all right. I think we should use that rock to make a wall we can take shelter behind."

Martik laughed. Leave it to someone from the Godfist to use the very problem itself as the solution. "Adger's right," he said. "Do as he says."

The man gave Martik a grateful nod but said nothing. Instead he just started moving rock. The others followed suit and placed their loads where he pointed. It proved something Martik's father had once told him. "Men of few words speak through their work."

With the shelter erected, Martik sent more men to the wheel's top to work the jam free. These men climbed on wooden rungs inserted in the boreholes. Martik had insisted the rock shafts be kept safe behind the new shelter. Leaving Adger in charge at the base, Martik climbed to join the workers above. Clearing the debris had not revealed much about the mechanism. Martik knew the wheel could possibly come free with devastating effect, and he wanted to keep his eyes on the situation. Though he thought the stone shafts were a key to starting this monumental machine, he couldn't be certain, and he did not want to risk lives unnecessarily.

Clearing the debris caused the rest to crack, move, and be generally unstable, making the process even more difficult. If only the loose sediment packed around the larger rocks hadn't set up like liquid stone. Not for the first time, he cursed whomever had done this. No matter what their reasons, they had now endangered his workers. Shouts rang out as debris suddenly broke free. The sound was like dragons fighting, and Martik truly wished he didn't know what that sounded like. It still haunted his dreams. It was among a small number of reasons he'd been happy to have been caught. Dragons could not fly through stone, so at least he was safe from the ferals. Curiosity about this wheel and the opportunity to redeem himself helped make the incarceration and humiliation bearable. He leaned heavily on those things whenever his thoughts turned to Strom and Osbourne. The two should be past the plateau where Catrin had released the floodwaters onto the Zjhon army. It had always struck him as an excellent demonstration water's power.

Water.

The debris was fused together, and doing that would take water, lots of water. Walking along the top of the wheel, Martik ignored everything, searching for what he knew must be there.

"Careful, sir," Bradley said, despite the fact that Martik had been telling him to stop calling him "sir" every day for more than a year. "Don't go too far in that direction; it gets steep and slippery."

"Walk with me," Martik said. "Where would you say the halfway point is between the sides of the wheel?" It was a point of contention, since the debris prevented them from seeing just how far back the wheel continued. Most of the wheel was enclosed in the mountain itself, leaving only the strip along the edge where the debris had been cleared visible.

"I think it's as wide as it is tall," Bradley said.

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, sir, when you cut a tree, you cut it down into manageable pieces, and those tend to be about as tall as they are big around. I know that must sound silly, but it just makes sense to me."

"It actually doesn't sound silly at all," Martik said. "You have an intuitive sense, and I think you are correct. No matter how skilled the people who made this, they would have had to move it, and the size you suggest would be less likely to crack in transport. And the ancients loved symmetry, which means if they wanted to place another key shaft up here, then it would be right about there." He pointed to a place above them lost in shadow.

Bradley turned back to the crew he managed. "We need some help over here," he said. "We need to get Martik up there so he can see."

Martik smiled at Bradley's crew's competence. They had worked under him for some time and had grown into the most capable crew he'd ever worked with. They were among the things keeping him from despair. Quickly they used the materials they had at hand to erect a structure Martik could easily scale. A torch was passed to Bradley, and he handed it to Martik.

"I hope I'm right about this," Martik said under his breath.

"Even if you're wrong," Bradley said, "you'll be the most brilliant fool I've ever known."

Martik had to smile. The climb was awkward but not unsafe, and the scaffolding was surprisingly stable given its haphazard construction. His heart jumped a bit when he saw a familiar-looking circular opening a short distance from where he and Bradley had estimated.

"There's an opening there," Martik said, and though happy for him, no one expressed surprise; that alone soothed Martik's bruised ego. "We need to move this scaffold to here." He was about to apologize, but the men didn't hesitate for an instant. Bradley jumped in and helped. Martik grabbed a young man among the most muscular on the crew. "Bring me one of those shafts, but be careful with it. We don't have the tools or knowledge to make a replacement. Understood?"

"Yes, sir," the young man said.

Watching him go, his step a little too anxious, Martik hoped the boy calmed himself before coming back up with the shaft, but then his attention was drawn back to the orifice itself. His crew had reassembled the structure, and he second-guessed himself, hoping he'd not had them rebuild it in the wrong place. Despite all his accomplishments, Martik still worried he would make another mistake. It was just part of who he was, he supposed.

After climbing atop the structure, though, Martik was rewarded with excellent access to the perfectly round shaft. This one was still clean and smooth inside, and all he needed was the stone key. It was soon handed up to him.

He hesitated. There was no way to be certain this orifice would do what he thought it would. He couldn't risk anyone but himself in the event he was wrong. If he evacuated the entire work site, as his gut told him to do, he would look like a dolt and might lose what faith he had remaining in his abilities.

Either way there was risk, but only by evacuating could he take all the risk on himself. "I thank you all for getting us to this point. What I'm about to do might be dangerous, or it might have no effect at all." People laughed. "I can't risk any of you based on my feelings and hunches, so I am going to ask you all to move back to the top of the ramp." This was less enthusiastically received. It meant shutting down the entire operation for the day.

"I know," Martik said. "I'm sorry. If this does what I expect, I'll be able to get down safely. More than one of us coming down at once could mean big trouble. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong."

The crew didn't debate or grumble, they just cleaned up their work areas, gathered their tools, and made an orderly retreat.

Bradley stood beside Martik after everyone else had gone over the edge and down the ladder. "What do you think it's going to do?"

"Go on down, and I'll show you," Martik said with a grin.

"The crew and I agreed. I'm staying and protecting your back," Bradley said. When Martik opened his mouth to respond, he said, "They wouldn't take no for an answer. Surely two of us can escape whatever doom you face as easily as one?"

Knowing no discussion had taken place after his evacuation order, Martik shook his head and handed Bradley the torch. "Don't burn me this time," he said.

Bradley smiled. He hadn't burned Martik with a torch in a long time, but Martik would never let him forget it.

Once everyone else gained the safety of the upper slope, they climbed together. Martik could feel the crew's eyes upon him as he and Bradley climbed. The thought of sending for Trinda was quickly banished, though he thought he saw guards running from the chamber. That was fine with him. If
they
summoned Trinda, then she couldn't possibly blame him. Thinking back through their history, Martik knew she might still find a way, but at least he would make it more difficult.

At the top, Bradley held the torch overhead and to one side. Martik wasted no time and lifted the heavy stone over his head and tried to get it into the orifice. Bradley offered his other hand to steady the shaft and Martik smiled. It really was a two-man job. He'd have been hard pressed to do this alone, and he had to admit his ego was at times his worst enemy. The shaft slid upward as they guided it. Afraid to take his hands away, Martik glanced at Bradley, who was also ready to keep the shaft from sliding out and shattering atop the mighty stone wheel. Both were proven wrong when the shaft was sucked rapidly upward and seated itself with a resounding
thump.
The two men looked at each other, unsure how to react.

Nothing happened at first, and Martik was prepared for another humiliation. Then the stone around them began to thrum.

Thump . . . thump . . . thump . . . thud.

The last felt like a dragon had shoulder blocked the mountain.

"Run!" Martik said and Bradley was already leaping down their temporary structure.

"Come on!" Bradley said when he beat Martik to the bottom. "We've got to go now."

The two men had just made it to the ladder when the water began rushing over the wheel, soaking the debris and sending waterfalls down the wheel where the mechanism was still blocked.

As they climbed the slope to where a crowd of people cheered, Bradley turned to Martik, "Was that what you thought was going to happen?"

"I'll never tell," Martik said with a grin.

* * *

"Now how are we going to turn the water off?" Bradley asked.

It was a good question and one Martik hadn't quite puzzled out yet. The water rushing over the mighty wheel was less forceful than a flash flood, and strong climbers made it to the top despite concerns about the wood being slippery and the rungs themselves coming loose.

"I'm not certain yet," Martik said. "The water will surely have helped loosen up the debris blocking the mechanism, though."

Bradley nodded his agreement. "What about two ladders tied together at the top, so they lean on each other and can stand on their own. We can have someone holding each corner of the ladders in place against the current."

"There's a chance the debris will shift once we get up there, and that could put all of us at risk," Martik said.

"Yes, sir. We're going to have to be careful."

"Pick your best team. No more than we need but no less. I want to inspect the ladders before we do anything."

"Yes, sir," Bradley said, a twinkle in his eye. Martik knew he would do everything in his power to make him proud. It was a good feeling, but worry for Strom and Osbourne overshadowed it.

Even Chase had asked him if there was any news, despite Catrin's cousin being far better connected. Martik had trouble understanding why Chase was still within Dragonhold, but he admitted having his own reasons to stay. It certainly wasn't all bad. Trinda's leadership was mostly unobtrusive, and the people had flourished under her rule. Food was plentiful, people were productive, and they lived and loved much as they had always done. However, the guards watching him colored the illusion.

In less time than Martik would've thought possible, Bradley returned with his team: four men and two ladders. As promised, the ladders had been lashed together at one end to his satisfaction. It was good they hadn't been longer, since the water spilling over giant wheel's edge was filling the valley. The water was getting deeper, and the crew worked hard to lift the ladders up the slippery stair. With the rushing water fighting them the entire way, it proved more difficult than Martik had initially expected, and he hadn't thought it to be easy.

When they finally reached the top, the last man over the edge lost his footing and nearly fell, but he kept his grip on the ladder, which was held firmly at the other end. Martik and Bradley followed, helping each other manage the slippery climb. Twice Martik wobbled and both times Bradley was there.