Dragonvein (Book Two) (15 page)

Chapter Thirteen

A
fter half an
hour of rowing, the fog lifted. Ethan strained his eyes, but could see nothing apart from the rhythmic rise and fall of the swells and a few sea birds darting in and out of the water.

“Are we in the right place?” he asked Ganix.

The king smiled, his eyes twinkling with excitement. “We’re almost there. You’ll see.”

A few minutes later, the light in front of them began to ripple and distort. Everyone but Ganix began to scramble to the rear of the boat.

“There is nothing to fear,” he chuckled. “See?”

A moment later the air cleared and an island appeared in the near distance ahead. The rocky shore spanned approximately a mile across, with lush trees scattered over a tall hill that was situated in the exact center. As they drew closer, Ethan spotted several colorful birds flitting from branch to branch in search of food. The haunting cry of some hidden animal carried on the waves.

Ganix could see Ethan’s unease. “It’s just a tree
manlilu
,” he said. “They’re big and loud, but quite harmless.”

“How did you manage to hide this place?” asked Jonas.

“The fog and cloak were already here when we found it,” Ganix explained. “Left by my ancestors long ago. I’m not sure how it works, but it keeps us hidden and safe.”

“It’s astounding,” remarked Lylinora. “And without magic?”

Ganix shrugged. “Not exactly. There’s magic involved. Of sorts.”

He directed Markus to row to the eastern shore where the rocks gave way to fine yellow sand. Ethan jumped out the moment he felt the boat scrape bottom and began heaving the craft onto the beach. Markus and Jonas moved quickly to help him. While securing the boat to a protruding rock, Ethan spotted something sitting in the trees.

It looked like a monkey he had seen when his father took him to the Bronx Zoo. It had snow white fur, pink eyes, and an almost human face, though flatter and with pitch black skin. It gripped a long branch in one hand, and its furry tail was wrapped around another. Ethan guessed it would be about two feet tall, though considerably thinner than a man.

“Is that a tree
manlilu
?” he asked.

Ganix glanced up and nodded. “A baby. The adults are shy and keep mostly out of sight, though you might see one if we’re here long enough.”

“Where are your people?” asked Markus.

“They’ll be along,” he replied. “Once they confirm that I’m with you, then they’ll reveal themselves.”

As soon as the boat was unloaded, Markus and Ethan gathered some wood from the edge of the tree line and built a small fire. Once that was burning nicely, Kat curled up against Ethan and covered herself with a blanket from her pack.

“What about the cabin boy?” asked Jonas.

The youngster was still unconscious, though beginning to stir.

“I’ll keep him asleep for the time being,” replied Lylinora.

“It’s getting cold,” Kat complained. “I’ve always hated being this far north.”

Markus nodded. “I’ve never enjoyed it much either.”

“You two complain like spoiled children,” Lylinora sniffed. “I love the cold. My father and I would hike for miles through the snow every winter.”

“An easy thing to do when you can stay warm with magic,” scoffed Markus.

“We never used it,” she replied proudly. “My father didn’t believe in employing magic for every little task. We built our own fire and made shelters from blocks of snow.”

“Doesn’t sound like much fun to me,” remarked Kat.

“How would you know? Did you even know your father?”

“I’ll have you know that I’m a princess,” Kat snapped.

Lylinora laughed. “Yes. I’m sure.”

“Actually, she is,” Ethan chipped in.

“I’m sure that’s what she told you. But do you have any proof?”

Kat folded her arms and huffed. “I don’t care what you think. At least I don’t have to trick someone…” A stern warning look from Lylinora stopped her short. After a brief pause, she said instead: “You still believe me, don’t you, Ethan?”

“Of course I do,” he replied.

Satisfied, she stuck her tongue out at Lylinora and cuddled closer to him.

It wasn’t until the sun was hanging low in the sky that they heard the rustle of footfalls approaching through the trees. Markus instinctively reached for his sword, but Ganix grabbed him and stayed his hand. A moment later, a lone dwarf appeared.

He was wearing a white one piece jumpsuit under a hard leather apron. His salt and pepper hair was close cropped and neatly tended. But what struck Ethan most about him was, even though obviously an adult, he had grown no beard.

The dwarf bowed low. “I am Fralgar, my king. And I am pleased to receive you.” He cast a suspicious eye over the rest of the group. “But we did not expect visitors.”

Ganix bowed in return and introduced the others.

On hearing the name Dragonvein, Fralgar raised an eyebrow. “Truly, Your Highness? A child of the Dragonvein family? Here, in Lumnia? I thought they had been wiped out.”

“I’m the last,” Ethan told him.

Fralgar nodded and shifted his gaze to the unconscious boy. “Is he injured?”

“No,” replied the king. “But he will be staying here from now on.”

Fralgar did not bother trying to hide his displeasure. “That would not be wise, Your Highness.”

“Until we can trust him not to reveal the location of this island, he stays,” Ganix stated firmly. “I’ll explain once we are inside.”

Fralgar bowed once again. “Of course, Your Highness. Please forgive my manners. We are quite isolated here…as you well know.”

Ganix smiled warmly. “No need to apologize. Lead on.”

After dousing the fire, Markus threw the boy over his shoulder. Together with the others, he followed Fralgar through the tree line onto a well-worn trail that twisted and turned its way deep into the forest and up the massive hill.

Roughly halfway to the top, Fralgar gestured for everyone to stay where they were while he continued on alone for another fifty yards. Here, he reached down and lifted a small lid buried in the ground. Ethan thought he could hear him talking to someone, but couldn’t be sure. A few seconds later, the dwarf beckoned them all to come.

Just as they drew near, the ground immediately ahead of them suddenly opened up. Ethan took a startled leap as two doors slid back, screeching and groaning in protest until a broad staircase leading deep into the island’s interior was revealed. There was a familiar ringing sound as their boots struck the metal stairs. Together with the steel handrail on either side, it reminded him of the ship that had carried him to England.

The stairs ended at a long and bare hallway that was lit by strips of luminescent crystals along the ceiling. They walked for more than ten minutes before coming to a fork, where they took the right hand path. This passage had metal doors on either side at regular intervals. After a while they encountered more dwarves, all of them wearing similar one-piece garments. They eyed the passing group of strangers with no small measure of surprise. Like their guide, all of the men were clean shaven.

“I must warn you, Your Highness,” Fralgar said. “Rakaal is in a foul mood today.”

Ganix snorted. “When is he not?”

“Not often,” he laughed. “But today is a particularly bad day. We thought we had the
suldaat
problem worked out. But it was a dead end.”

Ganix heaved a sigh. “Wonderful.”

After several more turns, they halted in front of a door where two thickly muscled dwarves were standing. This pair, like nearly all the adult male dwarfs Ethan had encountered in Elyfoss, did wear beards, along with hand axes on their belts.

“Guard the human child,” Fralgar instructed them. “If he wakes, keep him here until you receive word from the king.” He unlocked the door and pointed for Markus to enter.

Inside was a small wooden desk, a cabinet and a bed. Markus laid the boy down on the latter.

“Try not to frighten him,” Ganix told the two guards before departing. “When he wakes up, he won’t know where he is.”

For the next five minutes, Fralgar led them down another series of hallways. By this point Ethan was completely lost. Each passage looked identical and seemed to go on indefinitely.

Finally, they came to a double door, outside of which Fralgar halted. “He’s in there, Your Highness,” he said.

Ganix took a moment before moving on. “Here we go,” he muttered to himself.

His demeanor put Ethan’s nerves on edge. He wondered who could rattle the king so much. As the door swung wide he could see a large room with six long tables on either side and a single one in the center that very nearly spanned the entire fifty feet to the rear wall. Bits of strangely shaped metal were scattered everywhere, along with unfamiliar tools and various implements. On the walls were charts and chalkboards covered in odd drawings and what looked to be calculations. A workshop, he thought.

Several dwarves were standing by the tables going about their work. Some seemed to be merely tinkering, while others were writing furiously on parchment or the chalkboards.

“Everyone out!” bellowed a deep gruff voice that came from the far end of the center table.

Everyone immediately stopped what they were doing and hurried from the room. Once they were all gone, a thin dwarf with stringy grey hair that fell down over his shoulders came stalking toward them. He was old. How old Ethan couldn’t accurately tell, but older than King Ganix for sure, even though he moved quite nimbly. His blue eyes were focused intently on the king, and the deep lines on his wrinkled face were twisted into a fearsome scowl.

“Five years!” he bellowed. “Five bloody years since you’ve been here. And when you do show up, you bring a pack of bloody humans with you. What happened? Were there no other dwarves willing to suffer your intolerable company? Or perhaps they feared that you’d bore them to death.”

“Mind your tongue, Rakaal.” Ganix’s tone was equally forceful, though not quite as loud. “I’m still your king, and you
will
show me due respect.”

Rakaal halted a few feet away from Ganix and planted his hands on his hips. “King? Ha! If you were a proper king like Halvar, and ruled a proper city, I wouldn’t be in the state I’m in.”

“Then perhaps you should leave here and join him,” suggested Ganix. “Halvar is widely known to tolerate fools and braggarts. I’m sure you’d fit right in.” He took a step forward.

Not to be outdone, Rakaal moved in a pace as well. “Leave here? Are you insane? You must be. Or have you been at the whiskey again.” He glanced over to Ethan and the others. “He drinks too much, you know. He doesn’t want to admit it, but he does.”

“Only when I’m forced to share your insufferable company,” Ganix shot back.

“Did he tell you about the ships that travel amongst the stars?” he mocked. “He loves that one. Or is that little bit of history still a secret? No! What am I saying? You aren’t dwarves. He wouldn’t mind telling you.”

“You know perfectly well why that’s not spoken of amongst our people,” Ganix said. “And I’ll remind you to watch what you say in front of strangers.”

“Strangers? Is that what they are? I see no dwarf escort. You expect me to believe that you travel with strangers?”

Ganix glared. “Truly, you are still the same arrogant bastard you always were.”

“And you are still the same self-righteous, pompous ass. Just with a crown on your fool head.”

By now the two dwarves were nose-to-nose. For a long tense moment they locked eyes, fists clenched. Ethan could hear a low growl coming from each of them. Then, slowly, the growls turned into chuckles. Seconds later the two dwarves threw their arms around one another and began laughing boisterously. Instantly, all tension subsided.

“Where the hell have you been you old trickster?” Rakaal asked. “I was beginning to think you’d forgotten all about me.”

Ganix released Rakaal, stepped back a pace, and smiled. “Forget
you
? How could I? You’re my cousin.”

“Only a
distant
cousin, thank the ancestors,” said Rakaal, grinning. “But it
has
been too long.” He turned and started back toward the rear of the room. “Come. You and your companions can sit and tell me the reason for your visit.”

He settled into a chair at the far end of the table and gestured for the others to do the same. Once everyone was seated, Ganix made the introductions.

“So that’s why you’re here,” Rakaal said, frowning. “Two mages have appeared, and one of them a Dragonvein.”

“There’s more to it than that,” Ganix told him. “Much more.”

Rakaal let out a high pitched whistle that brought a young girl scurrying in. “Bring us food and wine,” he ordered. “Then prepare a room for our guests.”

The girl bowed and hurried away. Rakaal shoved aside various pieces of metal and papers until there was space for everyone to eat. A few minutes later, three dwarf men entered bearing wine, together with fruit and nuts. One tray even had some fish on it.

Ganix’s top lip curled as he looked at the fish. “When did you start eating this bile?”

Rakaal shrugged. “It’s not that bad, really. Supplies have been scarce of late. We’ve had to make do with what’s available.”

“I’m sorry,” Ganix said, suddenly contrite. “It’s been difficult to get you what you need. I’ve tried, I swear.”

Rakaal waved a hand. “I know you have. And I know Shinzan doesn’t make it easy.”

Once the wine was poured, Ganix told him what had so far transpired, and of his group’s intentions. Rakaal listened patiently for close to an hour without any outward sign of emotion. When the king was finished, Rakaal stood and turned his back.

“Hearing about the death of Birger grieves me deeply,” he said. “I knew his father. But I am grateful he saved you.”

“Can you help us?” Ganix asked.

“The ship is in working order, so there should not be a problem,” Rakaal replied. “It can carry your friends to the Dragon Wastes if they wish it. But I would ask that
you
stay here with me.”

Ganix rose and placed a fond hand on his shoulder. “I cannot stay. But I will not be going to the Dragon Wastes either.”