The Unwilling Ambassador (Book 3) (10 page)

"Don't dawdle," Ned scolded him.

Fred hurried forward and their path ended in front of a gate five feet high that was surrounded on both sides by six-foot rock walls topped with sharp and pointy dead trees salvaged from the marshland. The walls on either side of the gate wound around the city to create a circular protective area. Ned dismounted and Fred followed suit, and the two walked up to the short gate.

A bright ball of light with thin wings like those of dragonflies popped up over the arch above the gate and spoke in a squeaky, high-pitched voice. "Who are you?" it demanded to know.

"I am Ned, and this is my apprentice Fred," Ned introduced them. "We come in peace to seek advice from your leader."

The Star scoffed. "You two are the ones who attacked our walls, aren't you?"

Ned was aghast. "An attack on your lovely city? We could never do such a thing!" The Star guard hovered over the wall and didn't reply. Ned shrugged. "Well, perhaps we did conjure up a wave or two to find the city, but we meant it no harm."

"We?" Fred muttered. He couldn't recall helping make that magic.

"You scared away all the animals," the Star countered.

"Animals?" Fred repeated. He couldn't recall seeing anything living except the plants.

"Is your apprentice only able to repeat words?" the Star asked Ned. It turned so the brightest spot on its body pointed at him. Fred assumed that was the face. "Do you see how I float above the ground? Why would we need a gate like the one below me except to let in things that couldn't float, like animals?"

Ned stepped in front of Fred and smiled apologetically at the Star. "He's a little slow, but what about our request to enter?" he persisted.

"Enter? We're allowing no one but the marsh animals to enter, now go away," the Star ordered. He zipped toward them, but bounced off the barriers over their heads. "Go on, shoo before I really get mad."

Ned and Fred glanced at each other, and without a hint of concern they both looped the reins of their steeds around nearby sturdy trees. Ned raised his staff and the gate opened. They ducked under the archway and past the sputtering Star. "W-wait a minute!" it shrieked at them. The two humans stood in a small, narrow courtyard separated from the rest of the city by a newly built wall as tall as the one through which they'd passed. The Star zoomed past them and blocked their path. "You're not allowed in here, now go home!"

Ned traipsed past him and tapped his staff on the wall. There wasn't a gate to this wall. "I don't recall this wall the last time I visited, and it shuts out your animal friends from the rest of the city. Why was it built?"

"None of your business, now leave before I call in reinforcements!" the Star threatened them. Ned kept tapping on the wall as though looking for a weak spot, and the Star vibrated with anger. He let off a high-pitched, shrill whistle noise, and a dozen more wisps flew over the new wall and surrounded the humans.

One of the lights had a bluish tint to them, and it jerked back before it floated over to Ned. "Edwin?" it guessed.

Ned smiled. "Hello, old Star," he teased the creature.

The old star let out a holler and whipped around Ned's head in glee. "Edwin, what are you doing here? We haven't seen you for several birthing cycles!"

"Oh, you know, here and there saving the world," Ned laughed. "But what sort of a welcome is this, Hywel?" Fred assumed that was the Star's name. "Are not even castors allowed in the city now?"

"I'm afraid some recent changes in our feud with the dwarves have made it necessary," the old Star replied. "But this wall shouldn't bother you. Drop on over the side and come to the Tower. The Leader will explain everything there."

"What!" exclaimed the guard Star. "These two are intruders! They need to be dealt with according to-"

The old Star bopped the younger one on the head. "Edwin's an old friend of ours, you dolt. Brush up on the allowed list and get back to guarding the front."

"Y-yes, sir," the younger Star glumly obeyed.

The old Star turned to Ned. "Come on, let's go see the Leader."

CHAPTER 11

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Ned asked Hywel. The old castor rapped his stick against the wall. "We need some help with this."

"Not a problem," Hywel reassured him. The guard Stars swarmed around Ned, and before Fred's wide eyes the Stars lifted Ned off the ground and over the wall. They quickly swarmed back to his side, and Hywel and the others floated toward him.

Fred backed up away from the wall and the Stars. "Can't I just use magic?" he pleaded.

"The stench in the city is too great for any magic use more complicated than the barrier around your head," Hywel replied. "Now don't squirm."

The Stars zipped around him and caught Fred by his sleeves. He was yanked from the ground, and glanced between his feet to watch the Stars float him high above the ground and over the wall. The young man clawed at the air and the Stars zipped out of the way of his flailing arms. Their break in formation caused him to fall a foot before they balanced him. "Let me down!" Fred pleaded.

"You heard his request," Hywel told his fellow Stars.

They dropped him over the side of the wall and Fred crashed into Ned.

Hywel floated down to them and laughed at the tangle of castors on the ground. Fred scrambled off Ned, and the old castor stood and brushed himself off. "Well, quite an adventure we're having, isn't it?"

Fred rubbed his sore head and scowled at him. "I don't think that word means what you think it means..." he grumbled.

Ned patted the young man on the back and turned Fred toward the city. "If you can't enjoy the adventure, at least enjoy the view."

Spread out before them was the City of the Stars. The circular city spanned the size of a football field, and enclosed within its walls were tall, spiral towers. They were shaped like cones, and had white, fluffy exteriors. Small, circular holes dotted the walls of the towers, and Stars flitted in and out of them. Those inside the towers lit them up like festive lights, and in the center of the city was the greatest light of them all. That was the Tower Hywel spoke about and which housed the leader of the Stars. The Tower was forty feet tall, and instead of cone-shaped the structure was square. The walls leaned inward so the top tapered off to a small square about one foot by one foot square. Stars floated at the base and at five foot intervals up the height of the Tower, but they stopped ten feet short of the top.

"So much security," Ned mused.

"Yes, quite troublesome when we would rather be caring for the beasts in the swamp, but Leader will explain everything," Hywel promised.

Hywel led the pair through the forest of cones and beneath an archway at the base of the Tower. The Tower was a single room, and at the back on the floor was a small, ancient stump. The center was rotted out, and from the hole arose a rock platform. Atop the platform floated a large Star who glowed a bright golden color. Ned guided Fred up to the throne and knelt on one knee while he bowed his head; Fred did likewise. Along the walls floated a large guard of Stars who Fred felt watched them.

"Good day, Edwin," the Star greeted them.

"It's Ned now, dear Leader Cadwaladr," Ned corrected him.

"What brings your new reincarnation here?" Cadwaladr asked him.

"We come in search of a treasure perhaps told to your kind by the ancient castors," Ned told Cadwaladr. "It works with a stone that appeared in Dirth."

Cadwaladr's light darkened to a red color and he trembled. "Do not speak that name here! We have nothing to say about those filthy dwarves!"

"My apologies, Leader," Ned apologized with a bow of his head. "But as important as your feud is with the dwarves, we are in a bit of a hurry and need any information you can give."

"Feud? War is a little more than a feud," Cadwaladr countered. "War is what's happening between us, and it won't be stopped until they give in and plead mercy."

"Still, we are in need of any legends you may have about a treasure," Ned insisted. "If we find it quickly it will avert a disaster in Dirth."

Cadwaladr froze, and the other Stars in the room perked up at Ned's words. Leader floated down off his rock-stump and close to Ned's face. "Disaster in Dirth?" he slowly repeated. "How would such a disaster come about?"

Fred glanced nervously around the room, and Ned frowned. "The stone is possessed by the evil of Canavar," Ned explained. "If the power is unleashed then the only way to stop the flood of evil is to destroy the stone with the item."

"Very interesting..." Cadwaladr murmured. He floated back up to his perch and faced everyone in the throne room. His voice boomed over the tall room. "Guards, send word to the city's messengers. No one is to help these two find the treasure."

Several of the guards shot out of the throne room while Ned scurried to his feet. "Don't be a fool, Cadwaladr. That stone is as much a danger to you as it is to the dwarves."

"I have to thank you for your information, Ned," Cadwaladr replied. "Now all we need to do is pull back our troops and wait for some stupid dwarf to awaken the stone."

"You don't understand. The power of the stone will cover this entire area until it's destroyed every living creature," Ned protested. Fred stepped back and saw the Star guards creep in closer toward them. "Are you willing to sacrifice your animals? They will all be killed by Canavar's evil."

"There are hardly any animals left around the city, and those that are there will be evacuated," Cadwaladr countered.

Ned shook his head. "That will not-"

"Silence! We will hear no more of your words!" Cadwaladr thundered and the Tower shook with his anger. Leader breathed out and his red color faded back to gold. "For your kindness to us in the past we won't eject you from the city, but don't tempt any of our people to help you or you will be forever banished from us."

Ned forlornly nodded. "I understand, Leader Cadwaladr." He bowed and Fred clumsily followed suit. "May your stench be strong, and your color bright."

"And to you, Ned," Cadwaladr respectfully replied.

Ned clamped his hand down on Fred's shoulder and led them from the throne room. Hywel followed close behind, and when they were outside Ned clasped both hands on his staff and scowled. "What a nuisance," he muttered.

"I'm sorry for that, Ned," Hywel apologized. "I've never seen him so consumed by fighting the dwarves as he is now."

Ned shook his head. "It seems the stone has affected Cadwaladr beyond reason. It's a pity your legends are not passed down by the written word."

"Yes, it is a pity," Hywel agreed. "But why don't you two take a walk with me? I'm off duty now, and the fresh air will do you good."

Fred glanced around. Green mist floated all around them, and outside the walls he could hear the swamp burp more of its gas. Ned shook his head. "I thank you, but we must find that treasure."

"That's why a walk would do you good," Hywel insisted.

Ned glanced at his old friend with a raised eyebrow. "Will it? Well then, I suppose we had better get started. Lead the way, faithful guide."

Hywel guided them through the maze of towers and to the rear of the city. Fred noticed Stars zoomed out in front of them and zipped into the towers. They were the messengers of the leader, and their message transformed the friendly attitude of the Stars to one of cautiousness. Their cheerful whipping about was changed to a mad dash to keep out of the way of the human visitors.

Fred was glad when they left the towers behind and came to the back wall of the city. This was a park of sorts with a small drain pipe that drained swamp water into a circular pool. Weeping willows grew up from the stone streets and shaded the pool. Much to his horror, he saw several very large Dirth bugs, the creatures Ned had used in the halls of Galaron castle to knock out the guards. They crawled over the trees and lounged in the shallow pool. Now he understood how they were so noxiously disgusting, and was glad for his barrier mask.

Ned took a seat on a long, hollowed-out fallen log beneath one of the willows and looked to Hywel. "Are you sure you want to disobey Cadwaladr?" Ned asked their guide. "You could be banished with us."

"If the stone is as great a threat as you say it is, and I believe you, then I won't lose sleep over helping my people," he countered.

"Then you know where the treasure lays?" Ned wondered.

Hywel floated up and down to signify a nod. "Yes, you were standing underneath it in the throne room."

"We were?" Fred spoke up.

"Of course!" Ned exclaimed. He jumped up from the log and paced in front of the pond. "What better location to protect a treasure than the center of the city under the watch of the leader!"

"So what's this thing look like?" Fred asked him. He hadn't seen anything strange about the top of the Tower.

"Only Cadwaladr knows. No Stars are allowed at the top because of the treasure that is up there," Hywel told him.

Fred was ecstatic that the item would be so easy to retrieve. That meant they could leave the swamp with their noses intact. The only problem now was getting at the treasure that was forty feet above the ground, and without using magic. "Can you fly one of us up there?" Fred asked Hywel.