Return To Sky Raven (Book 2) (10 page)

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Alex

The First Day festival looked like some other planet. There were lights all over the place, some mundane and some magical, row after row of fancy cloth-covered tables, booths selling all manners of things from candy to perfumes to puppets. Just from where I was standing, I could see five stages for performers. Jugglers, fire eaters, knife throwers, tightrope walkers, and a mind-reading act were already attracting large crowds, as were the dozens of food stands, all expertly positioned to make a sort of trail through the outbuildings of Xarparion and the heavy delicious scent of popped corn wafted on a warm evening breeze. I couldn’t believe I walked across this same field on a daily basis, and to see it transformed into a spectacle of this magnitude was numbing. Judging from the crowd, almost everyone in Xarparion must have been here. The evening was going so well, Maya was warming to me and she really liked the sword I crafted for her. Now, for a perfect ending to the evening, time to pull her out on the dance floor. An hour later, we were really starting to enjoy the music and the dancing was heavenly; Maya’s natural athleticism and sword dancing abilities made her a natural on the dance floor. In fact, I’m pretty sure we both surpassed Rosa’s training earlier and were now on to our own experiences. The song we were on was rolling to a stop and I released her from the tight clinch of the slow dance. I stopped to gaze into those deep green eyes that I could get lost in forever. Our bodies were warm, and still just inches away, Maya’s image shimmered, and grew! Suddenly, I was holding a tall redhead with a military style bowl-cut hairstyle, wearing the same slender silver silk dress that Maya had been wearing. Her features were probably a bit too coarse to ever put her in the beautiful category, but she had a wide, generous mouth and a genuine smile. Her gray eyes widened hungrily and she dragged me closer, wrapping her much-brawnier-than-Maya’s arms around my neck and trapping me into a delving sensual kiss. A kiss that caused the dancers around us to stop and gape in awe. I was pretty powerless to stop the situation, not that it was at all bad, but Maya was who I desired! Finally, slowly, with a sheepish look, the woman released me and stood back a little, but still kept a firm hold on my arms.

“Alex! I’m so sorry but I just had to get that out of my system! It’s frustrating in the afterlife…so much time to think of all the things you should have done.” She grinned guiltily. “I guess I can cross that one off my list.”

“Who are you?” I gasped, finally getting my breath back. I looked around as the crowd was now dispersing and getting ready for the next dance, giving us a few seconds of relative privacy. “Where’s Maya?” She smiled at me affectionately, rubbing a warm, calloused hand across my chest, and then she looked at the hand in delight.

“Oh, how I’ve missed the touch of another person!” She stared back up into my confused face. “Don’t worry, we should be rejoining Maya in a few seconds. In the meantime, could I have this next dance? It would mean a lot to me, Alex.”

I don’t know why, perhaps it was that she seemed so familiar to me for some reason, or that she just seemed so honestly happy to be here, but I took her hand and placed my arm around her as the music started. “One dance, and then we find Maya and have a talk.” She smiled and nodded eagerly. With a purring sound, she eased into my embrace and we swept out onto the dance floor.

The dance was interesting; I got the impression that she was far less experienced at it than I was, but we muddled through and her enthusiasm was infectious. She sighed blissfully and rested her head on my shoulder, her eyes closed, but still clutching me firmly. About halfway into the final chorus, I finally made the connection and was about to say her name, when I felt her stiffen and draw back. She began to shake her head sadly and I saw the image in front of me fade to black and then felt the sharp sensation of tight ropes cutting into my freezing cold wrists and ankles.

Regaining zombie-free consciousness, I looked around and saw my dark elf standing over the body of a creature with Winya hilt-deep through its skull. It appeared to be a cross between a medusa and a bipedal crab. The ugly red human-like face was twisted into a frightful grimace, with six-inch tentacle-like appendages forming what would normally be hair coming out of the top of its head. Of course, the sword neatly bisecting its face ruined most of what would have been bloodshot eyes and a beak nose. Her (its?) body was covered in natural armor with odd bumps and prongs all over it, similar to what you would expect to find on a sea creature. The smell wafting off of it was also marine-like, mostly rotting marine-like.

Maya yanked Winya out of the thing’s skull with a screeching metal-on-chitin sound. She wiped the blade off on the body, still watching it carefully for any signs of resurgence of life, but I’m pretty sure the Portia creature was down for good. Turning, Maya let out a squeal and raced over to me in the span of a few heartbeats…very fast heartbeats! I was covered in kisses from an amazing dark elf warrior princess who was laughing and sobbing at the same time. Using Winya, she carefully cut my bonds and dragged me to my feet so she could wrap her arms around me fully. Her body heat felt good as I suddenly realized I was freezing out here in the woods in my underwear, but I didn’t care, we were alive and together.

“Um, Alex…what do you say we keep the details of the dance our little secret?”
Winya said warmly in my mind. I squeezed my dark elf a little harder and agreed…all’s well that ends well.

Maya finally asked a question, “What happened? The last thing Portia said was that she was sending us somewhere for a last dance together, but I didn’t go anywhere. Portia seemed really surprised when I ran her through.”

“Well, when she was about to grab your and Alex’s consciousness, I stepped in front of you in your mind and she took me instead, leaving you still here to fight,”
Winya explained shyly.

“So you ended up at this dance with Alex?” Maya questioned, her eyes narrowing. “Anything happen I should know about?”

“No, not really. It all happened so fast, it seemed like we were only there a moment, but then we spirits lose track of time so easily.”

“Hmmm…”

Mostly naked, bloodied, and really, really cold, Maya and I supported each other as we made our way back to camp. Maya explained that I really had reached Winya when I had called out to her. The two of them woke Rosa and it was her efforts that broke the spell, while my dark elf followed my tracks through the dank forest. The dawn of the new day was just starting to lighten the sky as we entered camp, this time challenged by bewildered guardsmen.

Chapter 5

“We are getting close now, you will be able to see her after you crest this ridge,”
Winya broadcast to Maya and me, her mental voice conveying excitement and some sadness from long-forgotten memories.

Not long after leaving camp this morning, we broke out of the dark forest that we had been travelling through, and the terrain transformed into rolling hills of sparse grasses and rocky points where piers of lichen-covered boulders erupted out of the ground. The air was growing appreciatively colder as we continued to gain elevation, and a number of the wizards and servants had taken to wearing their sleeping blankets to supplement their clothes. So it was a pretty ragtag lot of refugees and certainly not a well-ordered military column that followed us over the ridgeline. On the backs of our warhorses, Maya and I were the first to catch a glimpse of the fortress and the sight brought us up short and had us staring ahead into the distance. People behind us started filling in alongside us to gawk as well, and soon we had a long line spread along the ridge.

“That wasn’t built by humans or dwarfs or even giants, and it sure as hell wasn’t built to defend against them, either!” Darroth muttered, squeezing in beside our horses to get an unobstructed view. I had no frame of reference for such a sight so I couldn’t do anything but nod mutely.

The first thing you noticed was the waterfall that cascaded violently down the center of the 200-foot, pure white cliff face; or more accurately, a white granite wall, a massive structure in itself that formed a half-circle across the front of the fortress. The waterfall looked to be a hundred feet or more in width, and the water streamed forth a huge amount of spray and fog as it descended, giving the overall impression of a huge-mawed dragon breathing magical mist down the wall and into the ground below. In reality, when the water crashed into the rocks at the base of the wall, it was artfully channeled away from the walls and split into two flows, one to the right and one to the left, creating two fast-flowing rivers that ran away from each other only to plunge again down cliffs on either side of the compound, effectively creating a protective moat. On top of the great white wall, which had no visible seams from this distance, I could see conventional stone structures like siege engine pads, guard towers and crenellations.

The entire fortress seemed to be built on the peak of a mountain. There was another curtain wall lined with towers and parapets visible higher and beyond the primary wall, and even higher above that, rose a ornate keep. To call it ornate was doing it a great disservice; rising well above the mists that shrouded the lower wall, the keep was like a beacon above the clouds. Six square crenellated white marble towers dominated the view, which about three quarters of the way to the top, turned into round structures with huge arched windows that looked out over the surrounding countryside like the eyes of titanic guardians. Lining the sides of these towers near the windows were balconies that looked big enough to hold dozens of people. The towers’ enormous windows were of either cut crystal or stained glass in a blue primary with golden accents.  Nestled protectively within the arms of the great tower was a much squatter, but no less impressive, white marble great hall with more, but smaller, stained glass windows and accents. From this angle, it was impossible to see the lower half, but assumedly, there were magnificent doors below to match.

“This looks like a lot more than a simple fortress,” Maya said it first, shaking the wonder out of her voice.

“
That’s what I said when the Queen first brought me here. In truth, it is much more than that. We just didn’t know what else to call it. Just the walls, themselves, are a complete marvel. I know you can’t see it from here, but the wall actually slants outward a bit so it’s almost impossible to climb, even with scaffolding or ladders. It is also much thicker than any other wall in history as well as being made of one solid block. Legend has it that they just carved the wall right there and built the fortress out of the leftovers. The curtain wall, as well as the rear of the keep and buildings, were made by normal means.”

Maya and I looked at each other in wide-eyed awe.

“Impressive, isn’t it?”
Winya gushed happily. “
It affected me the same way when I first saw it , and every time thereafter as well. I have to say, 400 years hasn’t dulled her shine much, if any!”

The crowds on each side were murmuring excitedly by this time, each of them pointing out to their neighbor features that delighted them or were particularly beautiful. The wizards loved it because it almost perfectly fit their ideal of what a magical retreat should look like. The servants and staff were in awe because they had never seen the like and could scarcely believe this was to be their new home for a while. And finally the guards, who took a more pragmatic view, were weighing the good and the bad of being either the defenders or attackers of such a structure. The overwhelming consensus was that no one wanted to be a foot soldier having to cross that water or attack those walls while under fire from those defenses!

“Sir Alex, would you like us to fly ahead and scout the fortress?” the twins asked as one from behind us. I got the impression they were really, really eager to see what was inside, as evidenced by the fact that they were both practically jumping up and down in excitement, and unlike all the other refugees, the colder it got, the better they liked it. Their energetic display had managed to garner some appreciative admiration from the guard segment, and I grinned ruefully as I considered the idea of letting them fly ahead.

“Alex, I would strongly advise against that,”
Winya quickly broadcast.
“There were some pretty strong defenses built into the citadel and I’m not sure if they are still active or not. It could be very dangerous for them.”

“Thank you, Winya,” I said out loud as I turned back to look at the dragon girls. “Sorry, ladies, Winya says that it wouldn’t be a good idea for you to try and fly over the walls just yet. I’m afraid you will have to hoof it, like everyone else.” They nodded in disappointment and then blended back into the crowd that was still admiring the citadel.

Finally, the ever-creeping cold began to seep into everyone as we had been standing quietly for a while, and people began to form back up into their lines eager to proceed. In fact, our horses were nickering impatiently and reaching their massive heads around to gently nudge the other’s rider. Once we gave them their heads, they galloped well out ahead of the party. We passed through a wide expanse of former hayfields, which had obviously been used in better times to supply forage for the castle. Most of the alfalfa had died out and been replaced by native grasses, but here and there were still some patches. At some point, we picked up the remnants of a road, noticeable only by the fact that we were travelling over more gravel than grass, but the closer we got, the better the road became. We could see it loop to one side ahead of us and square up on a bridge structure crossing the river that roared across the right side of the compound.

“How did the Queen afford all this? And why was so much put into defense?” Maya questioned Winya.

“The queen was plagued by dreams as well, Maya. Not like yours, but she always said she had a deep feeling of foreboding about the end of her reign. That was part of the reason she was so protective of her daughter and accounts for the all-female guard force. Without it, I probably wouldn’t have been hired. She was able to put so much into security because she didn’t have to pay for the construction of the fortress.”