“It would make a difference to me.”
“Well, I’m certainly not making any wedding plans until I’m out of here.” Brianna gave him playful smile.
Tavis would not let her dodge his question. “But you would, if you thought marrying him was best for Hartsvale.”
Brianna’s smile vanished, but she did not look away. “If that’s what I thought, yes.” The queen’s voice grew stern, and she released his hand. “And Tavis, you must also do what I think is best for Hartsvale.”
The scout closed his eyes and nodded. “I know,” he said. “But it isn’t easy, my queen. I’m only a firbolg.”
3
Brianna held the lantern while Cuthbert fumbled with his tangled loop of keys. The queen and her plump earl stood before the iron-clad door to the keep’s lowest sub-basement, with the rest of their small party waiting behind them. The ceiling here was low, forcing the tall queen to stoop over the lamp. The fumes rising from its glass chimney were rancid and mordant, and she knew her hair would smell of burning lard when the time came to sleep. That was fine. As weary as she was, no odor in the land would keep her awake-her racing thoughts or sick heart, perhaps, but no mere odor.
“I hope this won’t take much longer, Earl.” Brianna glared down at Cuthbert’s stubby fingers, which continued to fumble through his rat’s nest of keys. “The idea is to catch the giants napping, and Tavis has a long swim ahead.”
Cuthbert finally found the right key. He slipped it into the lock, then gave Brianna a reassuring smile. “I promise you, the time is well spent,” he said. “Tavis will reach the shore in the Cold Hours, just as we planned.”
The earl turned the key and led the way through the low doorway. Brianna ducked under the lintel and followed, with Tavis, Avner, and Basil close behind. Arlien was sleeping in his room-at least he was supposed to be. The good prince did not seem to realize that wounded men needed rest, for he had stayed up well past midnight to help prepare the castle’s defenses. The queen certainly admired his stamina and devotion to duty, but his judgment was another matter. If he didn’t get some rest soon, even his enchanted armor would not save him.
As Brianna’s lamp cast its flickering light over the low room, Basil cried, “A library!”
The gloomy chamber seemed a jumbled contrast to Castle Hartwick’s Royal Archives, where Basil kept two thousand volumes neatly ordered by title and content. Here, the books sat on the floor in knee-high stacks, spilled from open trunks, or lay agape on rough-hewn tables. In spite of the disarray, the spines of the tomes were in good condition, no pages were dog-eared, and open volumes were never piled atop each other.
Earl Cuthbert stopped a few steps inside the room. “I must ask you to follow my steps exactly,” he said. “I don’t allow the servants down here, so things are a bit cluttered. It wouldn’t do to have you tripping over my books.”
“Not at all,” agreed Basil. “We wouldn’t want to break a spine or rip a page.”
As the earl started across the room, Brianna heard Tavis whisper to the verbeeg, “Keep your hands at your sides, my friend. I don’t want you pawing Cuthbert’s books.”
“But there are so many volumes,” the runecaster objected. “There must be titles we don’t have in the Royal Archives.”
Brianna paused, sensing the potential for catastrophe. Like most verbeegs, Basil had little respect for private property. He also had a pronounced fondness for books. The queen did not want a repeat of the first time she had lain eyes on him, when she had found him in Tavis’s barn with a cache of stolen books lying at his feet
“Basil, do as Tavis says.” Brianna glanced over her shoulder to emphasize her command. The ceiling was so low that both giant-kin had to stoop over. “If you so much as open a cover without the earl’s permission, I’ll have you thrown into the lake.”
Basil looked at the stone floor. “Yes, Milady.”
“Is there a problem back there?” called Cuthbert He was already halfway across the room.
“Nothing to worry about, Earl,” Brianna replied. “We’re coming now.”
The queen caught up to Cuthbert and followed him on a zigzag course to an arched doorway on the other side of the room. As they passed through, she was amazed to discover that the earl’s library spilled into this chamber as well, but the books here were of a strange sort. The volumes were as big as serving trays, bound by fine copper wire, and covered with thin slabs of granite. They had pages of black mica, but there did not seem to be any kind of writing on the ebony, at least not in the volumes that Brianna saw lying open.
From the back of the line, Basil gasped, “Biotite folios!”
Brianna looked back to see the verbeeg kneeling at a table, running his index finger down the glistening black page of a book. A column of glowing symbols appeared wherever he touched, changing from ruby red to emerald green and sapphire blue before the queen’s eyes. The figures were as large as a human hand, with delicate loops and scrupulously curved arches.
The queen was about to utter a sharp reprimand when Cuthbert slipped past her. The earl stopped at Basil’s side and gave him a condescending smile. “I didn’t know verbeegs read Stone Giant.”
“The written language is properly referred to as Metamorpherie, and not many verbeegs do read it” Basil did not even look up as he corrected the earl. “However, I’m one of the few who do, and quite well. I’ll be glad to teach you.”
The patronizing grin vanished from Cuthbert’s face. “I’m doing quite well on my own, thank you.” The earl slipped his hand under the folio’s front cover, then grunted with effort as he heaved the granite slab off the table. Basil barely pulled his hand away before the heavy plate slammed down, closing the book. “But we are in a hurry to see Tavis off. Shall we continue?”
Basil frowned at the earl’s rudeness, but one glance at Brianna’s stern expression squelched any objection he had been preparing to make. The runecaster rose off his knees. “Of course,” he said. “You’re the host”
“Good.”
Cuthbert spun on his heel and resumed his position at the head of the line. He led the party past the remaining folios into yet another library chamber. A huge, glass-topped desk stood in one corner, while a long case filled with rolled parchments occupied the center of the room. Maps of all scales covered the walls like tapestries, showing everything from the entire continent of Faerun to the bottom contours of Lake Cuthbert.
The earl went to the far end of the chamber and pulled a map off a wall, then spread it out on the desk in the corner. The parchment, Brianna saw, portrayed Cuthbert Fief in intricate detail. Near the center of the fief lay Lake Cuthbert, with the castle perched on a craggy island near one bank. The long bridge that connected the citadel to shore was neatly outlined in black dashes to indicate it could be collapsed in an emergency. The hundred hills that surrounded the lake were shown in great detail, with every stream, cliff, terraced slope, well, and spring drawn in a careful, clear hand. The earl had even updated the map, marking each razed village with a tongue of red flame and the date it had been destroyed.
Most importantly, the map showed the mountain range that ringed Cuthbert Fief. Every peak was drawn as it looked from the keep roof, with its name printed alongside and, sometimes, a notation describing what one could see from the summit. The snakelike road that connected the fief to the rest of Hartsvale was shown, and so were all of the treacherous tracks used by hunters, shepherds, and anyone else with business in the high country. Three of these rugged paths crossed the northern range and extended into the Icy Plains beyond, but only a single trail crossed the mountains toward the safety of the south.
“Most impressive, Earl Cuthbert,” Brianna said.
“My siege stores may be lacking, but I do know my lands,” the earl said. He glanced at Tavis, then back at Brianna. “My queen, given the speed with which the giants surrounded us after failing to capture you in High Meadow, we must assume they have anticipated that you’ll send for help.”
Cuthbert laid a pudgy finger on the summit of Cuthbert Pass, where the main road crossed into the rest of the kingdom. The drawing there depicted the pass exactly as Brianna remembered: long and winding, with high cliffs
