A Hero's throne

“No. No, you shouldn’t. Um. . I think there is a copse south of here, next to a river. .”

“Just start walking south,” Daniel said. “I’ll meet you somewhere along the way.”

“Yes, yes. Of course.”

Daniel dissolved into the air and left the tent. He found his bearings and started heading south.

CHAPTER TWELVE

The Warchief’s Lament

I

“I have decided. I shall lead you to where the Carnyx is.”

Freya shook her head, wondering if she’d heard her right. Modwyn was sitting up on the edge of the bed. She looked at Vivienne, standing in the corner.

“Where is it? Is it far?”

“No, it is very close. We were cunning in our action. We knew that the enemy would go to the ends of the earth to find it and so we kept it here.”

“Okay. .” Freya said. “Really? So where is it?”

“It is in the Beacon,” Modwyn said. “The great building that once illumined all the land. It fell when the yfelgopes besieged our walls, but there is a hidden passage.”

“But this place was so secure-you killed anyone who came into it-why not just keep it here?”

“We feared that the enemy would make a grand assault here, and so it would be safest where it was thought less secure-like keeping your coin underneath a chest instead of locked inside it.” Freya frowned. That only half made sense. “But in eight years, have Gad or Kelm made any serious attempts to get into the Langtorr?”

“They have not.”

“And don’t you find that suspicious?”

“They wish only destruction and ruin-they have that. Chaos is both method and aim. To have one is to have both.”

“So they just sat around here, happy not to finish the job?”

“I do not pretend to understand the wishes of a dark-hearted people.”

“Freya, although I hesitate to say ‘it couldn’t hurt,’ I believe it prudent to follow up on this,” Vivienne said.

“Yes, you’re right,” said Freya. Was Vivienne deferring to her, or is that just how she wanted to make it seem? “Let’s go after Godmund and the Carnyx.”

They filed out of the room and began down the stairway. Frithfroth, as usual, walked before them, escorting the three women.

“Why hasn’t Godmund used the Carnyx?” Vivienne asked.

“It is not the hour of direst need. Only when this island’s enemies surround us shall the horn be blown. Then shall we rise and chase them all into the sea.”

“But the inscription on the horn reads ‘the next army,’” Vivienne persisted. “Doesn’t that mean something different from the army already asleep?”

Modwyn paused. “Why do you ask?”

“I am just trying to understand exactly. The reason we sent Ecgbryt and Alex all over the country to raise these knights is that we were uncertain exactly what the horn would do, if it could even be found. What would happen if we blow it and the knights are already awake?”

“I do not know. The horn is more than just enchanted. It uses a powerful magic-it will summon what help it can, and the help will come quickly, when it comes.”

“Vivienne,” Freya said. “What do you think the horn does?”

“I have theories, but I don’t think anyone really has the slightest idea of what will happen when the Carnyx is blown. It never has been before, and I doubt that it came with instructions. There are no legends for the Carnyx itself, but when legends do speak of such things, they talk of awakening ancient heroes, but also of summoning heroes from other worlds-or of angels.”

“Angels? Seriously?”

“Let me put a question to the two of you,” Modwyn said. “What do you wish to happen when you blow the horn?”

Freya sighed. “Honestly, Modwyn-I don’t understand any of this. I just want it to end. And once it has ended, I want to start my life over again. Move somewhere different, meet new people, work in a completely boring job, and come back home and do nothing. And I want to do that same boring routine over and over again, until all of this. .” She shook her head. “Fades like a bad dream.

“My life has been a literal hell for the past eight years and I believe that I’m fortunate enough to be in a position to rid the entire world of this godforsaken, wretched, dark, dank, underground world, and if that is at all possible, then I want to do it. I want to wipe it all out, Modwyn, and I’m telling you this because I think, deep down, that’s what you want too. It’s what you all were put here to do-to fight this fight. Well, good for you. I’m going to give you what you want. I’m going to do what the Carnyx was apparently designed to do. I’m going to bring you war.”

“What you want is not so different from what we want. We wish every dark day for deliverance, that our presence and purpose underground were not necessary, that war was not our constant reality. But this is the world we chose to enter-what else should we do?”

“It’s a world that you also dragged others into-innocents like Daniel and Freya, and all the children before them. My family-generation upon generation of my family over hundreds of years, down to Alex, the youngest generation-we’re all wrapped up in it as well. What reason do you have for involving us?” Vivienne asked.

Modwyn spread her hands. “This is the world we are in. The lengths we went to, the measures we took, were reasonable.”

“And my brother Alex-who now styles himself Gad Gristgrennar. He looked too much into this world and became warped by it. Do you take responsibility for him?”

“We are not responsible for all the wickedness that men do.”

“And yet you claim to be their salvation?”

“I make no such claim. All must do as much as they may in this world to cast a light into the darkness. And fail or succeed, Ni?ergeard has striven to be the brightest light.”

They continued the rest of the walk in silence until they reached the ground floor of the Langtorr. Frithfroth led them across the hall and through the door beneath the tapestry.

Vivienne and Freya braced themselves for the stinging stench that was about to hit them and followed the two Ni?ergearders through.

“Okay, Modwyn,” Freya said. “Where is it?”

“Underneath the stairs, on the far side, where they join the wall.”

Freya followed Modwyn across the room, through the biers of dead knights. A few times Freya saw Modwyn’s skirts catch and the regal woman awkwardly free herself. Good, Freya thought.

“Vivienne, I suppose you’ve already been to the Beacon?”

“No, I swear, I know nothing of this.”

There was a stairway underneath the one that circled around the Sl?pereshus, which meant that they had to walk around the entire room to get to it; none were eager to walk straight through. Even in the low light Freya could see that Modwyn’s eyes were streaming with tears. She wondered if it was due to the acrid air or sorrow over the lost knights.

The second stairway descended a few flights and then became a snaking tunnel with no slope. Within a few minutes, they came across a gruesome barrier. The corpses of about thirty yfelgopes were lying in a mangled heap,