Her heart nearly stopped cold when a faint and distant voice rasped out her name in a bewildered response.
Chapter 48
When Hyden Hawk tried to mount the horse he had been provided, he fumbled, and fell into a collapsed heap. Vaegon waved off Drick’s attempt to help, and simply said, “He needs rest.”
The ranger nodded his understanding, ordered the two chagrined soldiers to stand guard, then took the reins of everyone’s mounts, and picketed them. When he was done, he sat back against a tree. He didn’t like the idea of his fallen companion just laying there, dead over a horse’s back, but what could he do? The elf, and his exhausted friend, had seemed about to fall over when they were burying the big wolf. Now, they could barely move, much less ride.
Drick could go ahead, and dig the hole for his fellow forester, but poor, dead Arnell had a wife, and a father, who might not want him buried out here in the forest, even though it would be any ranger’s obvious choice of places to be laid to rest. He didn’t like the idea of burying his friend so close to that foul, half-rotted headless corpse they had dragged into the woods. If he could talk to Arnell’s father, maybe they could find a nice, peaceful glade somewhere. Absently pondering the matter further, he noticed that one of the armored soldiers was staring at the elf, and wondered what he was thinking.
Drick had seen an elf before, but it had been from a great distance. The wild yellow of Vaegon’s good eye, kept stealing the soldier’s attention from the big white wolf that had crawled up beside Hyden.
It’s like one of those fargin old tales, he thought to himself. Demon beasts, wolf riding elves, and a Westlander with a magic sword. And right in the middle of a war no less. Ah the war!
No one in all of Highwander, least of all Drick, could understand why Valleya and Seaward were attacking them. Queen Willa probably knew the reasons, but not he.
A hawkling came swooping down through an opening in the trees, and landed beside the young mountain boy. It had been among them during the battle with the Choska demon, and had even managed to get a raking claw across one of the demon’s cherry eyes. Its presence only added to the strange, surreal mood that Drick was feeling. At this point, it wouldn’t have surprised him if a herd of tiny finger-tall deer came swarming out of the forest and started talking to the mushrooms.
These folk will fit right into Queen Willa’s strange court, mused Drick. What, with her dwarven castellan, her bearded dwarfess confidant, and her little blue fairy counselor, a one-eyed elf, and a man who looked to be now having an intelligent conversation with a Great Wolf and a bird, would complete the mummers troop that Queen Willa surrounded herself with. Drick decided that he would be glad to deliver these folks to the castle so that he could be off. He would go back to his mundane forest patrol, and never complain of boredom again.
Of his own accord, Talon had followed Mikahl, the woman, and the wolves. He had tried to force is hawkling vision into Hyden’s head, but Hyden was too dazed to make sense of it. The impact with the oak tree, and what had happened after, had taken its toll on him. Talon watched the woman, and Mikahl’s limp body, as they raced away, and followed them until he was confident that the lady intended no trickery, and that Mikahl’s body wouldn’t fall off of Huffa’s back. These visions had helped Hyden get through the burial of Grrr without breaking down.
Vaegon lay down alongside Hyden, and placed Ironspike between them. As if the wolf understood the elf’s concern, Urp curled up into a furry ball at their feet. Talon alighted on the sword’s hilt and began preening himself.
Vaegon wasn’t feeling very safe around the Highwander soldiers, so he wasn't taking any chances. It was men, just like these armored soldiers, that Hyden Hawk had seen loosing the arrow at him back at the Summer’s Day Festival. Vaegon wasn’t ready to trust them just yet.
As he drifted off to sleep, his thoughts and worries weren’t for himself though. It was Mikahl he was concerned about. Hopefully, the Xwardian healers were as good as the woman had said. They would have to be to save him.
When Hyden woke, it was nearly dark. It took him several long moments to figure out where he was, and what had happened to him. He had been dreaming, and the visions of his slumber clung to his waking mind like a bad smell.
He had dreamt of the dragon skull that lay in his village’s council chamber. In his vision, the White Goddess was calling out to him frantically from the dancing blue flames that filled the open brain cavity. Her voice had been thin, but insistent, and he was having a hard time shaking the image from his head. What was worse was that he couldn’t remember the span of time from when he was knocked into the oak tree, until they sent Mikahl off to Xwarda with that strange woman.
He sat up, and his movement caused Urp to do the same. The wolf’s white fur caught the moonlight that filtered through the trees, and was glowing the same magical blue that the flames from the dragon skull in his dreams had. Again, he heard the voice of his clan’s goddess calling out to him. This time, it sent chills up his spine. Absently, he rubbed Urp’s head, and decided that he needed to answer her call. King Aldar had spoken of the temple in Xwarda, called Whitten Loch. As soon as he saw to Mikahl’s condition, he would seek it out, and pray to her for guidance.
It was late the following evening when they arrived at the massive gates of Xwarda’s huge, white rock outer wall. All of them, even Drick, had been dazzled for the last hour or so by the way the setting sun reflected off of the western face of the mountains and the Witch Queen’s sparkling castle city. Hyden couldn’t imagine anything looking more glorious. He’d seen the city from above, but that sight hadn’t prepared him for this.
He counted seven great round towers rising up from the castle’s main structure. Several smaller towers rose up around the city as well. All of them were topped with shiny metal sheets which made them look like they had been dipped in molten gold, as they caught the rays of the sinking sun.
The wall itself was easily fifty feet tall, and half as thick. Drick told them that there was normally a great congregation of tent dwellers and hawkers, who lived just outside of the wall, but Queen Willa had ordered them inside the gates, so that the military might prepare the terrain for the Valleyan/Seaward attack. Only the trampled debris they had left behind remained, and most of that had been saturated with flammable oil.
Hyden and Vaegon marveled at the tunnel-like passage they had to go through to get into the city. Hyden asked about the slits and holes in the walls and ceiling of the entry tunnel, and Drick explained the horrific nature of them. Hot oil and burning pitch could be poured on trespassers, while archers loosed through the slits. It made Hyden shutter just thinking about it. When they finally emerged from the entry tunnel, both Hyden and Vaegon gasped at what they saw.
A great colored mosaic, of leaded stained glass spread high across the castle’s main building. It was still a good distance away, but the paneled depictions rose up over the city like a painting hung for the gods. The backlit scene was indecipherable from the distance they were at, but the ruby reds, sapphire blues, and emerald greens shone like a dragon’s hoard of jewels in a band across the castle’s front. The breathtaking majesty of it all, managed to overshadow the feelings of unease that the hundreds of Blacksword banners flitting in the breeze instilled in Hyden and Vaegon. The uncertainty and fear was still there under the surface. Neither of them could forget the amount of bloodshed that the Blacksword soldiers had started at Summer’s Day.
Inside the walls, a stench of refuse and foul body odors assaulted them, and the streets were packed with people, wagons, various farm animals and all their filth. It was crowded beyond imagining. Everywhere one looked, there were wagons piled with the belongings of the people that were huddled around them.
“People coming in from the western towns and farmsteads,” Drick explained. “They come for the protection of yon walls.”
He pointed back at them, and Hyden noticed, for the first time, that the top was crenellated. He also saw that the slots, that he had assumed were windows or vents, before Drick had explained them as arrow slits, were nowhere to be found on this side of the wall. The ranger’s distaste for the crowded city showed plainly on his face, as he nervously urged them on into the throng of chaos.
“It will be less cramped once we get past the next set of gates.”
They had no problem getting through the crowd. The people parted like a cornfield might if a bear went wandering through it. Many of them pointed and gasped at the sight of Vaegon’s elven features, but Urp’s raised
