The Sartious Mage (The Rhythm of Rivalry) (5 page)

Someone pounded on the door. The King’s voice came through and pushed the air out of me like a punch to the stomach. “Lisanda? Are you in there? Everyone’s waiting! Did Micah Vail come by?”

“No time,” Micah told me with fury in his eyes.

With the King on the other side, I was going out through the tunnel anyway. I figured taking Lisanda would be better than nothing. I bent down to scoop her up, but Micah grabbed my shoulder.

“Once you leave the tunnel, you’ll find Goreng,” he whispered. The King was shouting something now, but I was too intent on listening to Micah to hear it. “Tell him, ‘The washboard is rigid.’ Now hit me.” He pointed to his cheek.

I could hear the King clearly now. “Will one of you idiots get the key to this door?” The pounding became louder.

“Hit me!” Micah repeated through a furious whisper. “Hard!” he demanded.

I’d never hit anyone before. I curled my fist and struck him on the corner of his cheek. It hurt. I shook my hand and winced. By his determined face, it seemed to be more painful for me than for him.

“Good. Now the dream dust, hurry.”

I handed the pouch to him with the remaining white dust.

He pushed it back to me and gave his eyes a quick roll. “No, blow it in my face. Keep the rest. I’ll tell the King you forced it from me when I drew it to use on you. Make sure to shut the secret door behind you and hurry through the tunnel. You should have a day before every guard in The Nest knows to look for you. Try to get out of the city before then.”

I nodded, faced him, and drew a quick breath with a clump of dream dust waiting in my hand.

“Wait,” he stopped me. “Don’t drink the tea. Trust me on that more than anything.” He pointed intently at my face. “Don’t drink the tea.”

The King was shouting, “Get me the key to this door. I hear voices inside!”

I blew the dust into his face and held my breath as I bent and then hoisted Lisanda over my shoulder. I heard the sounds of a key being wiggled into its slot.

“Wrong one!” the King shouted.

I couldn’t get through the small space between the wardrobe and the wall that Lisanda had squeezed through earlier. She was far thinner than me. I pulled hard on the wardrobe. The damn thing was heavy! I could barely move it, yet this little Princess draped over my shoulder had gotten it open on her own. I definitely wasn’t looking forward to her waking up.

I squeezed through on my second try and pulled it shut after me. I heard a latching sound that must’ve been related to the lever Jessend had pulled earlier within the wardrobe.

The tunnel was made of stone and was blacker than the deepest well. Luckily, using Bastial Energy for light was a minimal effort. I pushed it through my wand to create a yellow glow and hurried down the only path in front of me.

I realized I’d better have the Princess bound before she awoke, though I had no idea how long that would be. However long it was, I was sure it wasn’t long enough.

Chapter 5: Goreng and Giant

I truly hoped there would be some sign she was waking up before she was fully conscious and ready to rebel. I checked on her a few times as I carried her, but she never moved nor made a sound.

As light as Lisanda was, she was still far heavier than Harwin. By the time I got to the end of the long tunnel, my back was burning. I had her over my shoulder at first, but I couldn’t move quickly that way.

When she almost slipped off at one point, I transferred her limp body to my front so I could carry her with both arms, one under her knees and the other under her back. I realized how silly it must’ve looked, a dirty farm boy carrying the Princess like a bride while she was clad in a wedding dress, but I was in too serious of a mood to find any humor in it.

There was a metal wheel on the door that I couldn’t turn with Lisanda strewn across my arms, so I set her down on the stone floor and gave it another attempt. The door popped open with such a creak it seemed as if it had been years since it had moved.

I peeked out to find a patch of grass that led to a cliff overlooking the city. To my left was the palace wall and tall rocks, which meant there was only one way to go—to the right.

I took Lisanda in my arms again and stepped onto the grass. I knew she couldn’t have gotten heavier, but it definitely felt that way. I needed a horse if this was going to work.

I kicked the door shut, but it just bounced back open. I tried again. The same result.

I gave a discouraging sigh and set Lisanda down on the grass. I shut the door a third time, twisting the identical metal wheel I found on its outside to keep it shut.

When it was nice and tight, I turned back…and Lisanda was gone—what the Bastial stars?

My first thought was that she’d been faking, waiting for her chance to escape. I ran after her, only to find she hadn’t moved herself but had been taken by a giant of a man. He was jogging away from me.

I wasn’t even sure he saw me. He had the Princess wrapped between his arms and chest. Her sleeping head hung over his shoulder, bouncing back and forth with each long stride. The way he carried her was awkward, like how a small boy would try to transport a dog half his size.

“Hey!” I shouted after him.

Who are you? Where are you taking her? What are you going to do with her? Did you even see I was here? Those were the questions I wanted to ask, but only that one word came out before he was too far to hear more. He didn’t turn around.

Half the questions were answered when I saw the canopy he was jogging toward. A little man with arms folded was waiting for him. And by little, I mean very little. He couldn’t have stood taller than my chest.

“Giant, does she belong to you?” the little man asked with a scolding tone.

“
Erg,
” Giant replied in a deep voice that seemed devoid of intelligence.

“No,” the little man answered for him. “Put her down on the bed. Gently!”

I caught up as Giant laid her down on a wide mattress sitting directly on the grass. The canopy gave shade to it along with the rest of the small camp, which had a fire pit and a table with two chairs blackened from bad weather.

“Is one of you Goreng?” I asked, hoping it was the little man, not the one two heads taller than me who seemed difficult to understand.

“Yes.” Thankfully it was the smaller of the two who answered. “Do you have a pass code, young man?”

“ ‘The washboard is rigid,’ Micah Vail told me to say.”

“Yes, yes—I’d like to think so, tumbling into our home so suddenly. And is that Lisanda Takary unconscious in a wedding dress? Never mind.” He shook his hands at me. “I don’t want to know. The less I know, the better.”

“You have a horse?” I asked, walking over to Lisanda. Giant stood in front of me.

When I got close, he picked me up by my armpits and swung me around as if I were a child.

“Put me down!” I yelled.

“Giant, you know better than that,” Goreng chided him with the same tone as before.

Giant set me down by the fire pit where a tea kettle hung on a bar over an open flame. He put me a little too close to the surrounding rocks, forcing me to jump the other way from the heat.

“You have a horse?” I asked again, cautiously walking back toward the mattress with an eye on Giant. “I’m being pursued, so I’m in a hurry.”

“Yes, yes—I was getting to that.” The first “yes” was a bit slow, like he was still considering what to say next as he uttered it. The second one was quick, stuck to the word after it.

“Please leave the girl for now,” Goreng continued. “Do us all a favor and get that lever?” He pointed to the long palace wall that had extended down the path with me. There was a rusty lever poking out from a small slit.

I hurried over and tried to move it, but it wouldn’t budge.

Goreng spoke to Giant as I struggled. “The young man needs help.”

Giddy with excitement, Giant ran toward me with a clap of his hands for every step he took.

“It seems to be stuck,” I tried to explain. But he may have not even heard me. He threw me out of the way with a quick brush of his arm and pulled the lever just as easily as he’d lifted me earlier. I heard the sound of shifting stone with it.

“Now that same tunnel will lead them north instead of south,” Goreng said with a wide smile. “That’ll give us much more time,”

“Us? Are you and Giant coming with me?” The idea wasn’t bad, especially given that Giant could carry Lisanda far easier than I could.

“No, no—my brother and I are staying here. I just meant it’ll give us more time before you have to leave.”

His brother? I looked back and forth at them. Besides their blond hair, there wasn’t one other similarity. Even their hair only shared a color. Goreng’s was short and flat. Giant’s was wild and wavy, some falling over his face, the rest sticking out.

“Yes, yes—we’re brothers. I know it’s hard to believe. He got size and strength. I got, well, everything else, including all the responsibility.” A thought seemed to strike him. “Oh, I almost forgot to offer you tea! It’s been a while since we’ve had a visitor. Yes, yes—this will be very exciting. Please, you must sit and have some tea.”

Don’t drink the tea,
Micah Vail had warned me. “I’m in a hurry,” I tried to tell Goreng. I gave Lisanda a glance. She hadn’t moved.

“They always are. But before I lend you my horse, you must entertain me—just a few questions! Please sit. It’ll only be a moment.” He hopped over to the tea kettle.

I looked around for the horse but couldn’t find it. The area behind his camp had a well and a cluster of trees. I figured the horse was somewhere behind them, but the chances of running off with Lisanda to steal the horse were slim. He did say it would be only a few questions.

I sat on the side of the table that let me keep an eye on the Princess.

While Goreng placed the cups on the table and sprinkled some ground-up plant into them, Giant danced around him like a dog seeing his food delivered.

“Careful, Giant!” Goreng exclaimed. “This kettle is very hot.”

Giant stopped moving and resorted to clapping with a deep giggle.

When Goreng finished pouring, he looked at me with a wry grin. “Giant and I love tea. We drink it every day.”

I was thirsty, and it smelled wonderful, but I felt it was wise to trust Micah. The way the brothers looked at their steaming cups—if eyes could drool—made me a bit nervous about what kind of tea it was.

Goreng blew on Giant’s full cup for him, testing it with his finger every so often. “It’s ready,” Goreng announced. He and Giant held their cups in the air. Goreng motioned for me to do so as well.

Giant held his cup still and giggled as Goreng’s and my cup clinked into his. I set it down without a taste while the brothers took a long sip. They leaned back to howl, slapping their legs and clenching their teeth in perfect unison. I gave another glance to Lisanda, still sleeping, thankfully. At least it certainly seemed that way. I was ready to jump from my chair if I noticed the slightest movement.

“Now,” Goreng said, “two questions each, two honest answers, then you can borrow Bam, our lovely horse. You start. Ask me a question.”

Giant had left the table with his cup of tea, dancing—make that stumbling—around us as he hummed an unrecognizable tune.

My first question came easy. “Why is Micah Vail helping me?”

“He’s probably helping more than just you,” Goreng answered without a moment of thought. “If Lisanda is involved, he probably has a plan for her, too. He has a plan for everyone. My turn! Oh, let me think.”

He took another sip of tea, squeezing his eyes shut while he swallowed. He leaned back to howl, slapping his leg when he was done. His eyes wandered frantically, stopping on Lisanda.

“What is one thing you like about Lisanda and one thing you don’t?”

“I don’t even know her.”

“That makes it more fun,” he said with a mellow voice, winking at me. I had no idea what he was implying, if anything.

I tried to think of something to say, ignoring that he had given me two questions. “I like her…her hair.”

“Yes, yes—it’s lovely, so dark and sleek.”

“And I don’t like her…name.”

“Her name?” He seemed confused. “Lisanda Takary? Why not?”

The truth was I didn’t mind her name, just as I didn’t think much of her hair. What I really wanted to know more about was the horse.

“It’s too long,” I lied.

He squinted his eyes at me. “You’re making this up. Now, you have to re-answer the question, and there will be three questions instead of two.”

I sighed and took more time to think as I stared at her body. “I like that she’s short and thin. That has helped greatly so far and will continue to do so in the future.”

Giant interrupted my thoughts by rushing over and pounding on the table with a deep giggle. Some of my tea jumped from the cup.

“Careful!” Goreng warned him, but Giant was gone as quick as he’d come, stumbling over to one of the wooden legs of the canopy. He stopped to have what looked like a conversation with it.