Stones Unbound (The Magestone Chronicles Book 1) (16 page)

Celia turned from the window, “Flown?” she asked with a
curious expression.  “On what?”

Everyone in the room, except Thandria, turned to face
captain Keyth with curious expressions.

“Well, as it happens, we have a small magestone powered sky
skiff docked on the west side of the citadel.  However, that would be obviously
seen by Goralonian spies and reported to the king.  So you will be taking a
different method.”  He smiled.

---o---

They were standing in the dimly-lit courtyard, flickering
light from a widely spaced circle of torches the only illumination.  They were
all against one wall near the entrance to the keep.  Once pressed, the captain
had bid them to follow, and he led them back down from the tower and out into
the courtyard.  He was obviously prepared for the question, as was apparent
from the way soldiers scurried around the courtyard completing various tasks. 
Tasks for what, Hoyle could not guess.

Finally, all the activity petered out, and the soldiers all
took positions around the ring of torches, standing just inside the light.  He
noticed several with ropes attached to belts of some kind, two with small step
ladders, and several with buckets of something that smelled of freshly
slaughtered meat.  He could smell it from here.

One soldier with a different insignia on his shoulder
stepped slightly forward and raised something to his lips.  Hoyle heard a
piercing whistle, high enough to be just on the edge of hearing.  All the
soldiers looked up, watching the sky.  He did too, not knowing what to look
for.  Finally he saw a dark shape blot out the appearing stars, moving quickly across
the night.  He thought he heard the sound of sails flapping in the wind.

Suddenly, a large winged creature dropped out of the night
towards the ring of torches startling Hoyle.  He sensed the others start as
well.  A large serpentine head rested on a long snake-like neck.  Powerful
wings with claws came to rest on the ground, wingtips up in the air.  The body
was the size of a large horse, and had a long tapering tail that must have been
five spans long behind it.  As the soldier began to move toward the creature,
Hoyle noticed the rider on its back.

“You have a dragon?!” Hoyle asked disbelievingly.  “I
thought they were only a myth?”

“It’s a drake,” captain Keyth and Celia responded
simultaneously.  They looked at each other briefly as the captain continued,
“And we have more than one.”  He gestured to the sky, where several more dark
shapes were circling.

Celia had stepped into the circle of torches, careful to
stay out of the soldiers’ way as one looped the belt with rope over the drake’s
snout, back far enough that the second soldier could toss chunks of raw meat
into its maw.  The third soldier brought over the step ladder and helped the
rider down.  Celia stepped closer as the soldier by the beast’s snout tightened
the belt, and began to lead the creature away by its tether.  Hoyle now noted a
large building, with large doors at the other end of the courtyard.  It looked
to be newer construction than the original citadel.  The stone was cleaner, and
the cuts looked fresher.

Hoyle watched the first rider leave the circle while
removing their gloves, and then their hood.  Long hair flowed as the hood came
off to reveal a woman.  He watched as she walked up to Keyth, saluted, and then
proceeded across the courtyard to another gate leading to a different section
of the citadel.  “I thought the Emperor frowned on female soldiers?” he asked the
captain as another beast landed at the signal of another whistle.

“They’re lighter, and the drakes take to them better than us
males,” Keyth offered.  “That way, they can take on a passenger, when needed,”
he added looking pointedly at Hoyle.

Hoyle gulped slightly. 
They were going to ride on
those?!
  He paled slightly, eliciting a small grin from the captain.

Celia had returned to the group and approached Captain Keyth. 
“Do you mind if I study them?” she asked, nodding her head in the direction the
third drake was being led.  “I have never had a chance to see one up close.”

“Not at all.” The captain called to one of the guards
nearby, who approached quickly.  “Please escort this lady to the drake pens,
and make sure she doesn’t get hurt.  Or lost.”  The last was said while looking
Celia directly in the eye.  She nodded in understanding.

The pair of them disappeared in the direction of the drake stables,
Celia moving quickly enough with her long legs that the guard had to trot to
keep up.  They disappeared through the gate and were gone.

After the fourth drake had landed from out of the night sky,
the captain took his leave to address other business.  He indicated that Thandria
would escort them to their rooms for the night before he left.  Shortly
thereafter she made the motions, and the guards rounded up Hoyle, Salrissa,
Robart and the healer and escorted them through a separate gate and across a
small courtyard to a building that looked to be barracks, with its three
storeys of evenly spaced small windows.

They were led to the second floor and given a room on either
side of the hallway; one for the women, one for the men.  Thandria gestured to
each end of the hall, “There will be guards posted at each end of the hall.  As
you are on a mission for the Emperor, you will be given a small measure of
privacy; however, our orders were very clear on access.  You will be escorted
everywhere, and there are chamber pots so you won't need the privy.”  Her voice
was like ice, cold and hard.  She turned and left them standing in the hallway.

Robart looked at Hoyle and grunted, then turned and walked
into the barracks room that Thandria had indicated.  The healer looked at him
and Salrissa then also turned and went into the room across the hall.

Salrissa stepped closer to him and looked down the hallway
in each direction.  She gave him a small kiss on the cheek and whispered, “Be
careful, but I’m not sure how far you should trust this Robart character.”  She
paused to let the statement sink in, and then continued.  “Thandria is a
Sister.  Just thought you should know.  When Celia returns we will join you in
your room for a strategy session and see what we can learn from the other two.”

Hoyle nodded in agreement, kissed Salrissa back, but on the
lips gently, and went into his shared room with his former jailer.

Celia followed her escort to her room on the second floor of
a barracks building in a daze.  She was still marvelling at the beauty and
elegance of the drakes, at least in her eye.  In the air she assumed they were
graceful, gliding with wings outspread and banking and climbing on the
currents.  On the ground, their wing claws made them clumsy walkers, awkward
and ungainly.  But up close, they were magnificent.  She was even allowed to
touch one, though the soldier holding its lead was standing close by to make
sure it didn’t try and nip at her.  She had even managed to take out her
notebook and scratch out a few basic sketches of the creature’s form, focusing
on the skeletal frame; at least as much as she could see in the flickering
torchlight.

Finally her escort grunted about the time, and she
reluctantly packed up her charcoal and sketch pad and replaced them in her backpack. 
He led her to the barracks, her mind in a daze thinking about the drakes.  Then
her stomach dropped as she reached the hall her room was in, and she had to put
a hand on the wall to steady herself. 
I am going to have to ride one of
those tomorrow!

The soldier put a steadying hand on her elbow.  “Are you
okay miss?” his deep voice rumbled.

“I’m fine.  Just a momentary dizzy spell, thank you.”  She
managed to make it to her room down the hall without another incident.  She was
both excited and extremely nervous about the prospect of riding one of the
creatures.  She opened the door indicated before he returned to the guards at
the end of the hall, to find Salrissa and the healer in quiet conversation. 
She realized at that point that she did not even know the healer’s name.

She looked around the room, which housed six bunk beds
constructed of thick oak posts and boards holding straw mattresses.  On the
wall opposite the door, there were two small dark windows at either end of two
beds lined end-to-end.  A small desk and chair sat on the end wall to the left
of the door.  A chamber pot sat on the floor in the corner beside it.

Salrissa stood from the bottom bunk she was sitting on and
approached Celia as she stepped into the room and closed the door.  The air
smelled of dry wood and musty straw, with a hint of oil or something metallic. 
Salrissa guided her to a corner, keeping the healer in sight.  The healer
seemed content to let them talk alone, though she did watch them with interest.

“She seems nice enough, but I’m not sure I can trust her yet,”
Salrissa stated.  “She has been very forthright, assuming she is telling the
truth, but I don’t know why she would lie about what they did to Hoyle.”

“So, by telling me this much, it implies that you trust me,”
Celia stated with an arched eyebrow at the other woman.

Salrissa paused for a long breath.  “Yes, I guess I do,
though I’m not sure why," she admitted.  "And stop it with the
eyebrow thing; you’re getting way too good at it.”  She smiled slightly to take
any sting from her words.

Celia felt a lot better.  This whole “mission for the
Emperor” to prove their innocence seemed to Celia to be suicidal, and an easy
way for the Emperor or the First Chancellor to make the problem go away.  If
they succeeded in their task, they would prove their innocence and solve a
problem for the Emperor.  If they failed, it meant they were dead and it would
not matter.  It felt good to know Salrissa trusted her, if even only a little. 
It meant that Celia could trust her too.

“So what
did
they do to Hoyle?” Celia inquired, “Or
do I really want to know?”  She was watching the small woman watch them.  The
Daughter of Saveesha smiled at her, then turned away and began to rummage
through her small pack.

“You probably don’t want the specifics, but let’s just say
that she was there to make sure he didn’t die from his injuries.  She watched
him try and break Hoyle down for six days, and healed him when he passed out
from his injuries.  She also did the same for the other man – the Goralonian
brute I fought in the hallway.”  Salrissa shuddered at the first part, which
turned to a scowl at the mention of the large soldier from the tower.

“You said him.  Who is him?” Celia asked, turning and
looking at her reflection on the inside of the dark window.  She could see
Salrissa’s expression in the reflection as well.  She looked over at the healer,
her thoughts far away.

“Huh?” Salrissa grunted.

Celia turned back to face her companion.  “You said ‘She
watched
him
try and break Hoyle down for six days.’  Who is him?”  Celia
again arched her eyebrow, which Salrissa mimicked. 

“Robart.”  She said it simply, and with surprisingly little
emotion. 

Celia would have thought that Salrissa would have stormed
across the hallway and gutted Robart as soon as she learned that little bit of
information.  Maybe she was waiting until he was asleep so it would be easier. 

“And he is still alive?”  It didn’t appear like Salrissa had
fought anyone in the bell or so that she had been off examining the drakes.  “Why
aren’t you bouncing off the wall with anger?”

“Because Valena explained some events to me, and her theory
behind this ‘mission’.  Besides, that’s not my only emotion.”  Salrissa tried
to look indignant.

“Only one I’ve seen.”  She sent another arched eyebrow in
the other woman’s direction. 
I am getting good at it.

“Regardless,” Salrissa continued, ignoring the eyebrow “I
will let Valena fill you in while I go talk to the guards about some food.” 
She turned and left the room, leaving the door open a handspan behind her.

Celia approached the healer, a Daughter of Saveesha, and sat
on the bunk across from her, careful not to lean back too far and bang her head
on the upper bed frame.  The other woman noticed Celia, and put her pack beside
herself on the straw mattress.

“So you’re Valena?  I’m Celia.”  She stuck out her hand in
greeting.

The other woman took it carefully and shook it firmly. 
“Yes, I am.”

“Salrissa told me that you wanted to share some details and
theories of yours.”

“More opinions than theories, but yes I can do so.”  Valena
gave a brief, very sketchy description of Hoyle’s time in the dungeon, or more
accurately, his time with Robart in the torture room.  She told her what
Salrissa already had, that she healed him so he wouldn’t die, so they could
continue the torture.  She then went on to explain how the veklian had found
her the day the Goralonian prisoner escaped and led her back to a gravely
wounded Robart.  She had barely managed to save his life, and had his wounds
not been bound by Hoyle, he would have been dead by the time that Valena had
arrived.

“So you’re saying that Hoyle saved Robart’s life, even
though he had spent six days torturing him?”  Celia was beyond belief.

“Yes.  And I think Robart hates that fact, the fact that he
owes someone else his life, and wants to even the score, so he can go back to
his world of inflicting pain without regret.  Your friend has confused the
Emperor’s torturer, has confused him by being kind.  That is my opinion as to
why he volunteered for this task.”  Valena stared into Celia’s eyes as
understanding dawned.

“He volunteered?” Celia asked more to herself than the other
woman.  Valena seemed to understand the rhetorical nature of the question and
so did not respond.  Celia ran the thoughts through her head for a minute or
two, and then asked, “So, why did
you
volunteer?”

“Yes, that is the question, isn’t it?” Valena answered
cryptically.  Just at that moment Salrissa re-entered the room.

“The guards are having food sent up from the kitchen.  I
told the men earlier that we would join them to discuss our strategy once you
returned.  We should probably go over.”  She left the room, and Celia heard her
knock on the door across the hall, and then open it.

“I guess we should go then,” Celia said to Valena.  She
gestured for her to go first, and followed immediately behind.  They crossed
the hallway and entered the men’s barracks room.  You could cut the tension
with a knife.  To that fact, Salrissa had a knife in hand and was twirling it
through her fingers about three paces into the room.  She was looking at each
of the men in turn and shaking her head.

The room was laid out as a mirror image to theirs, with the
same six bunk beds, desk, chair and chamber pot.  Robart was down at the other
end of the room, greatsword in his lap, running his stone along the blade edge
with a long grating sound.  Hoyle was lying on the top bunk near the door,
tossing his stiletto end-over-end and catching it by the handle over and over. 
He was looking at Robart, not at his blade.

Salrissa looked back at the two women and shook her head. 
“Men!” she exclaimed loudly.  All that did was have both men turn their heads
slowly in her direction while continuing to do what they were doing.

“Salrissa had the guards call for food, so we can eat while
we plan.” the small healer ventured into the awkward silence.  She moved into
the room and sat on a lower bunk between the two men.  Celia sat across from
her, ignoring the two men.  Salrissa waited by the door, still twirling her
knife.

Finally, after several more minutes of silence, Hoyle caught
his stiletto, sheathed it deftly, and sat up, legs dangling from the upper
bunk.  “So what is the plan?  Or do we even have one?” he asked, pointedly
looking at Robart.

“There’s a plan” the large man offered after a few more slow
swipes of the stone along his sword.

“Well?” Hoyle demanded, “What is it?”

Robart stopped sharpening his sword and tested the blade
with his thumb.  He then put the oil and sharpening stone back into their small
pouch methodically, which he then tucked into a small pocket on the side of his
backpack.  Finally he sheathed his greatsword and leaned it against the
bedpost.

“As Captain Keyth indicated, the plan was to fly us briefly
west, then north through the mountains, then finally east to the untamed lands
north and east of Goralon.  They would try and get us as close to the border
along the River Tordell, so that it would be a matter of a few bells to walk
into Goralon, and only a few days walking, faster if we can gain a ride, to
reach the capital.”  Robart faced the other four, waiting for questions he knew
must be coming.

The healer sat quietly, hands folded in her lap and Hoyle
jumped off the upper bunk and went to one of the dark windows.  Celia was about
to speak up when there was a knock on the door.  Salrissa, who had not moved,
answered it, and allowed two guards in with wooden trays of food.  They set
these on the small desk and left the room, closing the door behind them.

“So our plan requires us to fly drakes through mountains
known to have tribes of craglings and worse stalking the passes, not to mention
the deadly varghul, the natural enemy of drakes, but then land in a region of
barbarian tribes that have always been at war with Goralon?” Celia looked at
the large man incredulously.  “Should we try and find a dragon in its lair and
poke it with a stick on the way?!”

“Dragons are mythical, besides he did say ‘was’,” Salrissa
observed dryly.

“You caught that too?” Hoyle added.

“Pardon me?” Celia asked, not understanding immediately.

“He said the plan ‘was to fly west’...” Hoyle provided in
explanation.

“That means he has thought of a different plan,” Salrissa
offered.  “I’m assuming a more direct approach.  Robart doesn’t seem like the
subtle type.”  She looked at Hoyle out of the corner of her eye.

Celia noted a small smile on Robart’s face, along with a
gleam in his eye.  “That is true, isn’t it thief?” he asked looking at Hoyle.

“No, not subtle at all.”  Hoyle was still looking at his
reflection in the window.  With the amount of light in the room, and the
darkness outside, it was like a mirror.

Celia realized that she was hungry, her stomach betraying
her with a loud rumble; she went to the tray and got a slice of bread.  As she
stood and buttered it, she asked, “So what is your ‘direct approach’ plan as
these two call it?”  She gestured at Salrissa and Hoyle with her bread after
taking a large bite.

“I have two, each with their own merits and problems,”
Robart started, his smile that of the cat-that-ate-the-canary.  “The first is
to fly east to the Goralon garrison down the pass, tell them who we are and
challenge the warlock.”

Both Celia and Salrissa raised a single eyebrow at the same
time, one the mirror of the other.  They both noticed the other and shared a
small smile.  They turned their expressions on Robart.  Hoyle was chuckling at
the window, having obviously seen them in the reflection.

“Okay, it isn’t necessarily the smartest plan, I grant you,
but it is the simplest.  And it could succeed.” Robart offered.  Celia was now
watching Valena, who was trying very hard to stay neutral and out of the
conversation, but she was starting to think that these plans were not Robart’s
at all.

“What is the second plan, if I may ask?” Celia intentionally
looked at Valena, who noticed out of the corner of her eye, and shrunk down a
little on the bunk.

“Stage a little show, pretend to be fleeing the citadel on
the drakes, pretending to hold the drake riders hostage.  Once we arrive at the
garrison, we claim we are defecting and have important information for the
warlock.  More work, a little more danger, but a better chance they take us
seriously when we get there.”  The torturer looked smug as he leaned back
against the wall, his hands behind his head.

“Certainly would be faster than the original plan.  How long
would it take us to fly up through the mountains?” Salrissa asked.  Celia could
see Hoyle thinking quietly, still staring at his reflection in the window.

“Not sure.  Maybe a week.” Robart answered.  “Not that
familiar with the drakes.”