Dragon Choir (35 page)

Delik spat
over the side of the boat. “That bastard makes me sick. Why didn’t
you escape before we got there? You broke your chains easy
enough?”

Hurn grunted.
“Keeper dropped whip, Minni open his neck. Hurn Ga Kogh think free
is not free, slave is not slave. Broken is broke.”

Jaspa patted
Hurn on the shoulder. “You’ll never take a whip from us. You’re
free now.”

Hurn shrugged
it off, losing the rhythm of his stroke. “Chains of revenge,
stronger than iron. Chains of family, stronger still. None here are
free.”

They all kept
quiet. Hurn was right; they were all slaves to their quest. Elrin
was as bound to the rebellion as they were to him. The quest to
find his father had entangled him with the fight to end slavery.
This band of insurrectionist misfits thought he was some
prophetical Key to commanding dragons. He could no less help them
than he could his own father.

When the boat
hit the shore, they dragged it up onto a small beach of pebbles
mingled with treasure. Elrin scooped up a handful of gold and
silver coins. They were much nicer than tabs, though Elrin had
never enjoyed the fortune of holding a handful of gold tabs to
compare. Age-old kings and queens stared at him in the moonlight,
imprints from times long past or lands far from home. He let the
strangers fall back to the beach. They had no use here.

Jaspa lifted a
canvas in the boat and revealed a stash of equipment. He passed out
a backpack to each of them. Hurn’s had no hope of getting over his
wide shoulders, so he strapped it tight over his upper arm before
hooping a long coil of rope over his chest. Jaspa attached a pouch
full of shot and a sling to his belt. Delik took a sling and
ammunition too. Elrin had no idea how to use one and Hurn mocked
the flimsy looking missile weapons with a snort. There was nothing
that suited Hurn’s massive hands; they were deadly enough.

Once all were
equipped, Jaspa led them to the forest at the base of the cliff
face. It was an awkward walk up the beach of treasure. Coins, cups
and other precious paraphernalia shifted under their tread, Elrin
feared it would cut through his soles, but most of it was worn
smooth by the elements and flattened under the weight of countless
dragons. Jaspa pulled out an old folded leather square from his
pack.

“
Where did you get that old hanky?” asked Delik.

“
Found it lying about in the High Temple archives.”

Delik snorted.
“Just happened across it last time you gave thanks to the Lord,
eh?”

Elrin squinted
at the soft hide. “Is it a map to the Dragon Choir?”

Jaspa nodded.
“This is it. Are you ready? Are you all ready?”

None of them
were. How could they be? Jaspa had a map and a prophecy Delik had
no faith in. Hurn had as good an idea of what lay ahead as any of
them and he hadn’t been told much of anything. Ready or not, Elrin
hoped he could work the device when they found it. Minni believed
in him. Kleith believed in him. This was what he had to do.

Elrin touched
the hilt of his dagger. “Let’s go.”

Jaspa tucked
the map in his belt and drew his hatchet, hacking through the
underbrush. Hurn pulled vines from up high, tearing them away and
dumping great clumps of vegetation to the side. Soon they stood
before the mouth of a cave, smooth on all sides and rounded like a
great pipe. Jaspa pulled a torch out of Delik’s backpack. With
flint, steel and tinder, he had the torch alight and held it into
the cave’s dark throat.

Hurn walked
ahead, squinting and holding his hand over his eyes. “Keep torch
from Hurn Ga Kogh. See good in dark.”

“
Go on then,” said Jaspa. “Just keep your back to the light,
we’re right behind you.”

As they walked
deeper into the cave, Jaspa directed them past smaller openings
branching off either side and above their heads. Hurn stopped,
sniffing the air.

Jaspa held the
torch aloft, peering down the winding tunnel. “What do you
see?”

“
See nothing. Smell something.”

Elrin sniffed
the air too, but smelt nothing. “What is it?” He felt a deep unease
standing still in the darkness.

“
Don’t know.”

Jaspa opened
his map, examining it in the torchlight. “We just have to stay with
the biggest tunnel. Let’s take this slow. Ready your weapons; who
knows what dark creatures lurk in these caverns. If you pick up the
smell again, signal a stop.”

Hurn sniffed
the air, planting each step with a caution Elrin had never seen in
the ogre. They crept in the darkness for a long time with only the
sound of their footfalls on the smooth stone floor and the
crackling of the torch flame. The tunnel grew higher and wider,
weaving and bending like a restless river. Elrin had lost all sense
of direction and depth. They could be under the sea for all he knew
or somewhere in the great shield wall of the caldera.

The tunnel
swelled in size, their movements echoing from distant walls, the
torchlight could not reach. A breeze shuddered over Elrin’s skin,
chilling the sweat from the tunnel hike and tightening his nerves.
It carried an acrid metallic scent, like blood and bile.

The ill wind
knocked Hurn to his knees, where he cowered on the floor. The odour
itself was not alone. Fear hung over them, petrifying the air.
Delik and Jaspa tucked into Hurn, all three trembling with an
incapacitating panic.

Elrin clutched
at his dagger. The fear thickened, but it didn’t break him. It
flirted with his mind then redirected into worry for his friends.
“Don’t panic, there’s nothing here.”

No one would
respond. Hurn was the worst affected, burying his head under his
hands, face to the cold stone ground. Delik and Jaspa were
wide-eyed like spooked horses. Jaspa had dropped the torch when he
ran to Hurn. It made their shadows leap about, crazed elongated
demons clutching at Hurn, an immovable trembling boulder.

Elrin sat with
them, stroked them and tried to ease their terror with reassuring
words. In a final effort, Elrin grabbed Delik and shook him, then
slapped him across the face.

Delik snapped
back, his eyes settling on Elrin, the haze lifted. “What
happened?”

“
You’re all cursed.”

Elrin shook
and slapped Jaspa next.

Delik pushed
Elrin away. “Go easy!”

“
I did the same to you, now help me with these two. There was
a spell, some magic in the wind.”

Once roused
from the inexplicable fear, Jaspa decided they should rest. None of
them comprehended their actions, their memory marred.

“
Can’t any of you remember?” asked Elrin. “Hurn, you tucked
yourself up like a giant tortoise and you two were scampering about
like kobolds on fire.”

“
There’s no wizard come to finish us off,” chuckled Delik. “We
must have triggered a ward. Does the map have any detail about what
might be protecting the choir?”

The fallen
torch sputtered and failed, leaving them encased in pitch
black.

“
Pass me another, Delik,” called Jaspa.

There was a
ruffling from Delik’s direction. “I don’t have another.”

Jaspa huffed.
“Anyone?”

Elrin had none
in his pack. “You’ve already used the one I had.”

“
Hurn?”

“
Mine here.”

There was a
bump and the clang of a tin falling on the stone floor.

“
Ona’s arse!”

“
Don’t tell us that was the tinderbox,” said Delik.

“
Hang on,” said Jaspa. “I’ve got the steel.”

“
Let me help,” said Delik. “Feel about for the flint. That’s
what we need.”

“
Argh! That’s my finger!”

“
Well then, don’t put it under my foot!”

“
Shut up you two,” said Elrin, his eyes adjusting to the dark.
“Can you see those faint lights up ahead?”

“
Many, many stars,” said Hurn. “Still night.”

“
The flint could be anywhere,” said Elrin. “Let’s follow Hurn.
He can see better than us even if we got the torch lit.”

“
Right then, you lead Hurn. Unwind a loop of your rope and
we’ll hold on. Keep an eye out for a big hole up ahead, we must be
close.”

Hurn led them
toward the stars. The tunnel opened into a great arching cavern
roof with stalactites hanging like immense chandeliers. The points
of light were not stars; there was no moon, no constellations.

Hurn brought
them to a halt, sweeping his arms wide to stop them falling. The
cavern dropped away into a deep darkness below them, swallowing the
soft light from the multitude of glowing things on the cavern
roof.

Elrin gaped.
“This place is amazing!”

In the centre
of the cavern an enormous stalagmite rose out of the darkness and
met a stalactite from above. The column shimmered with blinking
points of light, shedding form in the darkness.

“
See where the big dripper from the top meets the rising mound
from below,” said Jaspa. “That’s where the choir must be
kept.”

“
How in the hells do we get over there?” asked
Delik.

“
That’s why I got the rope.”

“
What’s Hurn got there? Sixty yards? Where’s the
rest?”

“
There’s no scale on the map. How could I know it was so
bloody big?”

“
Oh, I don’t know. Perhaps a scout around first might have
nailed it.”

“
Kobb never availed me of much free time to roam
about.”

“
Would you two quit bickering!” Elrin peered over the edge
into the darkness. “Why don’t we test the depth of the pit
first?”

“
That’s the spirit, lad,” said Jaspa. “No point whinging about
what we don’t have, let’s use what we do.”

“
Oh, very nice,” said Delik. “Takes me back, that does. Any
other gems you want to polish on my pocket?”

Elrin had
heard enough of their pointless arguments. “Do either of you really
know what the choir is? You talk about it like it’s something you
can stuff in you backpack and toddle off with, but a choir is more
than one thing. What if the column is the choir? What if the column
is actually a magical resonance device of some sort, like a pipe
organ or something?”

Jaspa tied a
rope end around one of the used up torches. “The descriptions I
have read speak of the choir calling dragons to order and to union,
lest they forget, lost in their own importance. The beasts are vein
creatures in love with their own company, lusting after knowledge,
seeking only power and wealth. Yoni placed the choir here after he
defeated Drensel Tath, the evil king of all dragons. I thought it
to be an instrument of sorts, a magical harp or a lute. Yoni’s
always depicted with an instrument, serenading one maiden or
another. I thought finding it would tell us for sure.”

Elrin knew the
legends of Yoni and the Dragon King; every child knew the story.
Every bard sung of their epic battles. None of that had anything to
do with a choir. “Why call it a choir if somebody plays it? Choirs
aren’t played, they sing.”

“
So the wind might sing through the column and call the
dragons,” said Delik. “Maybe when the season changes. When the
trade winds shift, they might funnel through these tunnels and
sound the choir. No one needs to play anything. The choir works
naturally.”

“
That must be it,” said Elrin. “But how do I get winds to blow
through the column early?”

They were
quiet, kind in their silence, not saying what Elrin had known all
along.

“
I’m not the Key am I? Minni was wrong about me. We need to
get back and break out Amber.”

Elrin hung his
head, feeling useless again. Hurn stood with him in the strange
phosphorescent glow of the false stars. His massive hand patted
Elrin’s shoulder, the solid assurance a welcome comfort.

Delik and
Jaspa bickered about how best to break Amber out. Elrin drowned in
bleak thoughts, his eyes moist with silent bittersweet tears. He
didn’t need the burden of prophecy to help his father, so why did
he feel so low? No one depended on him now. He had his own quest,
yet he wanted to be the Key to Minni’s. If he wasn’t the Key, would
Minni still have him in her heart?

A breeze rose
up from the dark pit, cooling Elrin’s wet cheeks. Next a gust of
wind whipped up, buffeting them away from the edge of the
precipice. Jaspa and Delik ceased their argument.

From the
bottom of the wide shaft something huge was moving. It sounded like
boulders dragging across a riverbed. There was a scratching rattle,
a great thump of something very large shifting its weight. Then
came a deep taught clap of sound like a mainsail catching a solid
wind after a dull spell. Blind to what befell them, great gusts
battered the companions to the ground as though a fleet of ships
coursed overhead with a score of dwarves carving and scraping at
the stone walls. The gale howled down through the labyrinth of
passageways.

Delik, Jaspa
and Hurn were lost in the same terror that caught them before. They
crushed their heads down against the rock and tucked their arms
over their heads. Elrin was scared, but didn’t panic, transfixed by
the gargantuan shadows writhing across the walls. They crawled and
slithered, twisting around the column in the centre of the cavern,
blotting out the shallow glow from above.

A burst of
light flashed out from the centre of the column. Elrin shut his
eyes, but the light was just as intense. A warm tingle passed over
his body and the light faded to a golden haze, emanating from the
centre of the column. Delik, Hurn and Jaspa got to their feet as
the fear stripped away, mesmerised by six shining figures standing
around the column’s light.