'Yes. That's Mount Sarrazan. Beautiful isn't it? Wait here until I return. And remember, Saelin. We need the girl.' Naruq vanished before Saelin had risen from his mock bow.
Og set them down in a bramble, but he knew they had passed through the curtain. So did the elves.
From every tree above them, the silver-haired Sarrazans dropped down, some carrying bows, others armed with blow pipes and darts fletched with tiny, brilliant feathers. All of them wore shades of green and brown, blending perfectly with the summer-clad forest. In fact, Cheyne had a hard time finding them if they stood still for any length of time. He raised his hand in greeting, while Doulos and Og shook off their dizziness. Javin remained unconscious.
His bow drawn, one of the elves stepped forward, looked at Cheyne carefully, then smiled. 'The Treefather is expecting you. But where is Naruq? He was supposed to bring you in at one of the portals.' The elf s voice seemed to carry toward them on the breeze.
'Naruq is a traitor to you. I'll be happy to tell you about that after we get this man to your healer,' said Cheyne, climbing out of the thorn bushes.
The elf bent, holding his hand over}avin, but not touching him. He frowned his concern, motioned to the others, and they came forward quickly to lift Javin lightly between them.
'It's not far. Just follow. And only believe. He clings to life yet.'
Cheyne did not notice anything special about the next two or three miles. Then suddenly the trees parted before them, leaving a clear view of a gleaming wooden causeway leading up to a massive living fortress.
Cheyne caught his breath at the sight. A wide ring of trees taller than Rotapan's temple rose against the backdrop of the dawn sky. The trees all bore peculiar markings, softly limned in the clear, red light. Curious animals twirled upon themselves and grasped their tails with hooked mouths. Ribbons of intricate scrollwork wrapped around the trunks in thirty-foot-high bands, and several of the trees appeared to have words carved into them.
Words in the language of Old High Sumifan.
19
The digger had told the elves about him now, so it was only a little more difficult moving in and out of the fortress. But long in the service of the Raptor and his Ninnites, Naruq was an expert at such things and rather enjoyed the challenge, when he thought about it. He settled himself into his hiding place in the meditative cell nearest the door just as Cheyne and his party entered the Treefather's chambers through a series of connected portals, their iacy roofs covered in wild rose and berrybramble. Yob waited outside, positioning himself, as usual, by the doorway.
'Place him here before the stone,' said a warm voice, compassion seeming to carry in every word.
Cheyne looked up and around as he helped Doulos position Javin on a long table, the central feature in the large, airy room. Behind the table, a small glass container held a white gemstone suspended in water.
'That's the firebane. They keep it in the water so the power accumulates around it. When it was set in the center of the ring, the other stones did that,' said Og quietly.
Cheyne nodded and looked around. Rising to the vaulted ceiling, columns carved from whiter wood than Cheyne had seen outside braced forty or fifty intricate, curving ribs that met high overhead in an elaborate filial of stylized leaves and acoms. Pale light filtered down from a few high windows, and as his eyes adjusted, Cheyne realized that the columns were carved to look like tall, thin trees themselves. Cheyne could find no break in their grain, no beginning or end to them, and with a shock, he realized that he was standing in the hollowed interior of the biggest tree in the fortress.
In calm efficiency, the Treefather rose from his prayers and stood to greet them, going immediately to javin. 'Hello to all of you, and be welcome here in the sanctuary of our forest home. I am Luquin.'
He smiled as he worked over Javin, checking his pulse and his pupils, his breathing, the several new gashes the canistas had given him, and finally the site of the scorpion's sting. After they had passed through the curtain, Javin had begun to stir in his fever, to thrash and jerk and mutter. He seemed worse than ever now, but Cheyne held his tongue, watching the Treefather carefully.
Luquin was taller than most of the elves they had seen in and around the fortress. His face shone with an inner light, and his gray eyes crinkled at the edges only a little when he smiled, which seemed to be often. Luquin, seen anywhere other than his home, would cause almost anyone to stop and stare, to wonder about his every feature, to become mesmerized by his movements and the sound of his voice. Here, Cheyne thought, he seemed to be just another part of the transcendent beauty, the towering majesty of the forest and the fortress. Here, it was his hands that pulled Cheyne's eyes to them as though they had a power of their own. They were not the hands of a person who spent his time in soft work. Luquin's hands were rugged and knotted, their many white scars testament to far more than a life of contemplation.
As the Treefather touched the swollen area around the sting, Javin began to stiffen and contort in bone- breaking spasms, and Doulos cried out. Luquin did not seem distressed and did not stop, but called for two of his assistants to hold Javin on the table. Cheyne and Og drew Doulos away, soothing both him and themselves with low words of assurance.
At length, Luquin looked up at them and told them the truth.
'It is very bad. His spirit has already left his body. It wanders, but we will dance.' He smiled, 'Prepare the stone,' he said to his assistants, who bowed and removed themselves from the room.
Still hiding in the cell near the Treefather's chambers, Naruq frowned his impatience behind the door, waited for them all to leave, then slipped out of the narrow doorway and faded into the green depths of the fortress hedges.
Moments later, the silent call had gone forth, and in the center of the fortress common the elves had gathered from their work, many still with clay upon their clothing, some with wooden tools in their hands, and others with farm implements strapped across their backs. They stood together in a loose circle, the Treefather in the center, with Javin, still unconscious, stretched across the same finely carved table. In his gnarled hands, the Treefather held the firebane, now dry and glowing in white brilliance, its inner flames flashing rainbows.
'He'll chant for awhile in the old language, then the lightning will come. Best move back,' warned Og, but neither Cheyne nor Doulos stepped away.
'All right, then,' Og pronounced, and held his own ground, too. Yob, a little disturbed at the sight of so many elves, waited a few paces behind them.
The Treefather held the firebane high and began his prayer. His voice magnified with every syllable, until it became so loud that Cheyne could not distinguish the words any longer and thought he heard only the roar of many waters, or the sound of thunder. When it became almost unbearable, the wind bore down on them, the elves linked hands and began to stamp their feet in a quick, complicated rhythm, and the firebane flashed its light into the sky above Javin's contorting body.
Cheyne had to shield his eyes and he could feel the crackle of the power on his skin. The Treefather quickly stepped back just as the bolt of lightning struck Javin's chest, lifting him off the table and into the air several inches, then dropping him hard back onto the wooden surface. Immediately, the light disappeared, the noise ceased, and the Treefather collapsed as the two attendants moved to catch him. The elves continued their dance until he rose, holding the firebane, then stopped in unison with a quick double stamp.
Cheyne let go of the breath he had been holding.
'The work is finished,' announced Luquin shakily, and the elves broke the circle, quietly departing the common, leaving Cheyne, Og, and Doulos with Javin, who lay still now on the carved table, his face deadly pale, but the scorpion's sting completely gone.
'Is he…?' Cheyne began. The Treefather held up one hand.
'He lives,' said Luquin, then he bowed and left them alone with Javin.
All that day, Cheyne waited for Javin to wake up. Cheyne spent the time looking at the little bronze-bound book, thinking, and running his ringers across the glyphs on the totem's smooth face. When the elves brought Javin inside the Treefather's chambers at the middle hour, Cheyne sent Yob and Og to eat, but Doulos would not leave. When the Treefather entered for his afternoon prayers, Cheyne and the slave jumped to their feet, a hundred
