The Staff of the Winds (The Wizard of South Corner Book 1) (30 page)

Interest did not develop in this corner of the then extensive holdings of the Baraduhne, however, until a long forgotten soldier, resenting the fact that he had been stationed at this remote and dangerous outpost and bored with the long winter months of inactivity, had discovered a large vein of crystalline quartz while expanding one of the tunnels carved out of the mountain.  Layered next to the quartz gleamed a wide ribbon of purest gold.  The Guard Captain at the time, a fat little mean fellow whose name is long forgotten and who was much disliked by his subordinates, attempted as Post Commander to lay sole claim to the find.  His actions were supported by his lady who, as skinny as he was fat, was more than his match in meanness of spirit.  She saw this as their opportunity to become wealthy and to buy their way out of this forsaken hinterland and back into polite society.

As the size of the truly impressive gold strike became more apparent, a large and bloody mutiny developed that by spring left the outpost too weakened to resist the resurgent tide of barbarians that came streaming through the pass. The outpost was overrun, with considerable loss of life, and remained in barbarian hands for several years thereafter. Gold, quartz, and later copper and tin streamed back through the mountains to the steppes to the east, and the outpost, valued by its new inhabitants as it had never been by the Baraduhne, became a stronghold of invasion pricking annoyingly at the side of that vast kingdom.

Several half-hearted expeditions were mounted by the Baraduhne over the years to reclaim and seal the pass, but none were successful until reports of the impressive wealth being stolen out from under their very noses reached the ears of the Lord High Sorcerer of the time, Barrach al Wazeere (Barrach the Impotent).  The lands of the Baraduhne had been shrinking for years under the leadership of this powerful but inept sorcerer as the appetites of neighboring kingdoms grew, and Barrach saw in the nomads of the steppes a foe that he could possibly master.  On his third attempt, he assembled such overwhelming force that the eastern barbarians were finally routed and driven back through the mountains.

Upon reclaiming the guard town in the entrance to the pass, Barrach’s armies were astounded at the sight of the excavations there.  The recent inhabitants, barbarians by many measures, had an eye for beauty, and in their quest for wealth from the mountain they had nonetheless carefully opened up caverns and carved out halls of breathtaking splendor.  A sorcerer of high standing was appointed by Barrach to rebuild this outpost and to oversee the mining of gold and other metals from its mountain, and this man, wiser than most, appreciated the works that had been done and assayed to fashion himself a palace from the living rock.

Over the centuries the fame and beauty of this mountain fortress continued to spread, as the power of Baraduhne itself dwindled and its lands continued to fall to its rapacious neighbors to the north and west.

As the pressures from the bordering kingdoms grew, the Baraduhne expanded through the Outlet into the pleasant river valley on the other side, and up into the low hills as far as the deep river gorge that they named the Akuaanguis.

To the east, the nomads were gradually supplanted by a sturdy and valiant people who built the castle of Carraghlaoch on an outcropping of granite overlooking the gorge of the Akuaanguis, the river they called the Blackrock, at its narrowest point.  Along this natural barrier the expansion of the Baraduhne was halted, and they found themselves with a new foe contesting against them for the lands between the river gorge and the mountain pass.

An order of wizards arose among the eastern men to oppose the sorcerers of the Baraduhne, and countless raids and many major campaigns were conducted by the opposing forces of fighting men of the east and the west. And in this way, the struggle continued for centuries that saw the rise and fall of many forgotten heroes on both sides until the great wizard Gilladhe brought down a mountain to create the vast pool that sealed the eastern entrance to the pass and invested the deep waters with a trigitch from another age.

While this unprecedented feat of magic ultimately lead to the passing of the glory of Carraghlaoch, so that in time it became little more than a legend, the glory and importance of the Grand Palace of the Baraduhne was not diminished. 

It was Laman al Laman who as Lord High Sorcerer moved the Imperial Seat of the Baraduhne to the Outlet palace, renaming it Laman’s Grand Palace of the Baraduhne.  He took personal interest and control of the workings there, and began the fashioning of the Great Hall with its highly vaulted ceilings and twenty-six gilded columns.  He it was who personally fashioned the silver rune of warding in the marble floor of that hall.  It was not until later, during less trusting times, that the hidden alcoves and back passages were added to accommodate the secret comings and goings of the Watchers.

Laman is also credited with beginning the tunneling of the deep shafts into the hot heart of the mountain, which, completed by his successors decades later, brought geothermal heat and natural gas for cooking and lighting up from the depths, and turned the grand but perpetually cold halls into comfortably lavish living spaces.

Sarah knew none of this remarkable history, of course, when she and Emily halted in awe after turning the final bend of the tight, twisting pass and beheld the high city walls that rose thirty feet into the air and spanned from north to south across the narrow mouth of the Outlet.  As with Carraghlaoch, armies had broken themselves against those smooth stone walls, and since the reign of Barrach al Wazeere, no barbarian horde or wizard led army from the east had passed beyond them.

Sarah, Emily and Stangar had been met at the completion of their perilous traverse of the stone arch by four soldiers of the Baraduhne.

“The assassin witch of the Lord Kadeen said that you would be coming today with these two pretties in tow,” their sergeant said to Stangar.

“Maston, get them covered up so that we can be on our way out of here. Orders are to spend as little time in the open as possible. Kadeen wants these two to arrive unnoticed.”

Sarah and Emily were given long hooded cloaks of coarse brown wool and leather sandals for their feet, making them look from a distance like acolytes of the Paths of Truth, an obscure sect of wandering priests and nuns who survived on the generosity of their fellow believers. They were then hurried the short distance up toward the mouth of the mountain pass. The soldiers kept a disorganized looking grouping around the two women, so that they were prevented from trying to escape, while still appearing to be walking with them rather than guarding them.

The women were already tired from their harrowing struggle over the arch—Sarah was just plain tired of constantly being afraid—but they were given no time to rest as they were hurried along.  Complaints were met with a stern: “Silence” and a bruising jab with a cudgel, so the journey was made in silence.  Silence other than Stangar’s muttered complaints about the unfairness of having to rush along on an empty stomach, and the command delivered by the guard sergeant to report immediately to Kadeen without even a chance to stop briefly at a tavern along the way to wash some of the acrid tasting dust and grit of burned rock out of his mouth.

There was a low wall at the entrance to the pass that was only lightly and occasionally guarded. This day, Kadeen had made sure that men loyal to him had this duty, and they had been severely warned that they would see no strangers, and certainly no young women, passing through their gates, despite what their eyes might tell them.

The pass itself was a narrow defile between tall peaks that broadened out somewhat from place to place along its length, but was mostly closely constricted by steeply rising granite walls on either side. Occasionally along the steadily climbing path, exploratory holes and a few active mines could be seen boring into the mountain walls, where men had sought, and sometimes found deposits of precious, though more often merely useful, metals and other minerals. Formed over the eons by wind and water, the pass seemed more like a pressure relief portal for the lands confined beyond the high mountain barrier.

As they approached the large gates in the high city walls, Sarah observed that they not only stood wide open, but there was no sign that they had ever been closed, at least not in recent times. Since the creation of the Wizards Moat, she guessed this made perfect sense. There was no threat of invasion from this direction after all, and occasional wagon traffic to and from the mines in the pass would have made the opening and closing of such massive gates a needless burden.

Two obviously bored guards with leather armor and short swords at their hips lounged at the opening, completely uninterested in their small party.  These men had no purpose from a security perspective, but rather were responsible for ensuring that the tax men were called when loads of ore were brought in from the mines.  The current real threat and struggle was along the northern border with Maragong. Soldiers who drew duty at this back gate were usually drawn from those broken men who were convalescing from the physical and psychological trauma suffered there. Knowledge that these men were deemed on the road to recovery, and therefore soon to be on their way back to the north, could often be seen in their eyes, either as a haunted, hunted look, or as in the case of these two, a hopeless indifference.

Passing through the broad gates, Sarah realized that the city behind this wall had spread to completely fill the area from side to side of the pass, which widened out considerably at this point. Both Sarah and Emily were tempted to stop and stare at the sight, but with low throated admonishments of “keep moving” and “keep your heads down” the guards crowded closer to their captives and ushered them into the city.

From what she could see from under her deep cowl, Sarah was amazed at this, her first look at a real, living city. It was like Carraghlaoch with its use of stone building materials and narrow cobbled streets, but so unlike that fortress in three major respects: it was much larger; the architecture made greater use of arches and domed rooftops, and it was filled to bursting, in Sarah’s opinion, with people.

Wealthy looking merchants and professionals of unknown classification strode purposefully down the streets, or were carried along in colorful palanquins born by bulky, partially clothed men who reminded Sarah of gorn with their broad shoulders and powerful arms, but without the long body hair.  Mixed with them were a larger number of men and women of less apparent importance and wealth, as well as an occasional dirty and ragged individual begging charity from any who came within reach.  These most often openly displayed some injury or deformity as an apparent sign of their calling.  Around and thru this traffic ran barking dogs and yelling children, most of the latter appearing both dirty and ragged to Sarah.

The overall impression upon Sarah and Emily, whose total experience until recent times had been limited to life in South Corner and its neighboring farms, was that of utter chaos and clamor. A crowd, in their experience, was twenty to thirty people, and that was limited to market days and feast days. Begging was unknown to them. South Corner had its town drunk, and a few others of a lazy or disreputable sort, but occupation could always be found for them, along with a decent meal and a clean place to sleep. And no mother in the village would even consider allowing their child to be seen as dirty and ill kept as these—the shame and gossip that that would have engendered would have been too humiliating to imagine.

The group kept to side streets where possible, but worked their way steadily toward the uphill northern side of the city. The streets they used were mostly narrow and wound around the contours of the land, allowing very little view except that of the low stone homes and small shops that lined them. Occasionally, however, a twisting avenue would allow a temporary view of the mountain cliff face about which this city seemed to be built. Sarah gave this looming apparition little thought at first, but as they drew closer she could see that what she mistook for the natural rock of a steeply rising cliff was, in part, made of closely fitted stone.

The guards continued to steer Sarah and Emily through the city, heading more and more towards the mountain face. They seemed to be sticking to the poorer sections of the city, but conditions did improve somewhat as they climbed steadily up to higher ground. Ultimately, the women found themselves at the base of a steep stone cliff, where a small opening had been carved and fitted with a heavy wooden door.

The sergeant stepped up to the door and pounded heavily on it with the side of his closed fist.  They could hear a heavy beam being lifted, then the door opened outward.  Sarah and Emily were pushed quickly into a dark and narrow corridor, and the door was pulled shut behind them, leaving them momentarily blind in the dark until their eyes began to adjust from the bright sunshine outside to the dimly lit stone tunnel.

Sarah, Emily and Stangar were led through a series of tunnels and what appeared to be storage spaces all cut out of the solid rock long ago.  Being kept to the servants’ corridors and the dusty, lesser used passages into the mountain, the girls saw none of the true grandeur of the palace until exiting a doorway into the main hall near Kadeen’s rooms.