Chapter 23
The entrance was not an easy thing for me. I had to climb hand and knees to make it back up to a ledge that nothing short of a mountain goat would attempt. How she climbed down it with me in an unconscious state was nothing short of a miracle. It took me the better part of the entire day to reach the lip of a small cave in a sheer wall of bluestone that lay in the Sombry Hills which I knew was south of Declan, a city close to the port of Orleans and one of the Emperor’s port of entries. He kept total control of that city unlike Albans where the Governor controlled the Oldland’s imports and Newland’s exports. My mind was suddenly full of knowledge that I had lost when I’d fallen into the crevasse. I wasn’t sure if any of it would save me.
Once back above ground, I searched for a stream, not finding one until I descended to the base of the hill where a slope evened out to a sparsely grassed plain. There were a few trees in the draw and far off in the distance but for the most part, it was bare land like windswept moors. Deceptively flat until you walked it finding the gullies and ravines. That was where one would find springs and water, not on the hillsides. The land could be boggy and at one time, it was said this whole area had been a tidal basin and lower than the sea. Now, the sea was a good four days journey from the city, which was settled on an inland bay.
It was easy walking once I left the rocks. There were many paths open and the one I chose to follow was made by the sharp cloven feet of sheep. One such pathway led to a byre on the hillside and I stumbled towards it in grateful anticipation of a well-needed rest.
Built of native bluestone, it had been half-dug into the hillside and roofed with grass and thatch. The inside was one room divided in half – one side for the sheep with manger and haymow, the other for the shepherd with a stone fireplace, bunk, table and chairs. A cold pit that I checked for victuals and a smoke hole. Both were empty. From the state of the bedding, it looked as if the mice had more use of it than the owners had. It had been some time since anyone had been here. I listened and didn’t hear the tiny skittering of their bodies in the walls or under the floor.
I shook out the blankets and laid carefully down on the cot with my feet pointed to the door so I could watch. Not that I expected anyone to show up on the hillside unless they were shepherds. My spine stretched in painful pleasure and I drifted slowly off to sleep trusting in the remoteness of the place and my own sense to warn me of anyone or anything approaching.
I heard them sneaking up just as the blast of magic blew the door open. I was being assaulted from two different directions as I threw myself off the bed and scrambled for the sheep side of the byre, praying that there was a back entrance to the shed. I found a loose backboard half-rotted and squeezed my way through on my belly. I got to my feet and started to run. As I looked up at the roof, I saw men standing on it tossing a net.
I dodged yet it wrapped around me, tightening, and knocked me to the ground where I couldn’t do anything. They stood over me and before too long, I saw the hem of the richly woven robes of a man standing near my face. An elegantly toed boot rolled me over and I stared up into the face of the Black wizard, Blackfin. He was dressed not as a woman but as a soldier, complete with sword and knife at his waist. He kicked me in the ribs and drew a grunt out of me. I felt a rib break and he laughed.
“Where have you been this last half year, Tobias? I see you’ve attracted the attention of a slaver. High-class by the color of your cuffs or –?” He paused and his eyes widened in total shock. “They knew what you are. Who found you and bound you so?”
“Elder Connacher.” The words were forced out of me as his geas overrode the Elassai wizard. The collar heated and I screamed in agony. To my disbelief, Blackfin spoke a spell that turned the burning to an icy numbness. I sagged in relief.
“Did you accept him as your master, Tobias?” He demanded, gesturing to his men. Two of them stood me on my feet facing the wizard.
“Yes,” I was ashamed and he seized on it, making my predicament even more daunting.
“Oh poor little baronet,” he mocked. “You are truly torn in two. Where is the lady Arianell?”
“I left her on the Ffordd colli ac anghofiedig.” I couldn’t lie to him. More soldiers came around from both sides of the byre leading horses and one of them was a tracker, an Eldritch tracker capable of hunting down magic users. As rare as the Emperor’s compassion, I was surprised to see one in the Newlands. The Emperor did not use them lightly and he never let them out of the Capital.
“That’s how we found you, yes. He tasted your blood on the arrow we found by your dead sylph and you led us right to the doors of the Ice City.”
“But you couldn’t get in.”
“No,” he admitted. “We could not breach their gates. We need you to show us the way in.”
“The gate is the way in,” I returned.
“You did not come through the Gates and yet, here you are,” he pointed out. He opened his hand and held a scrying ball that glimmered in the daylight sending off sparks that blistered as they hit me. I watched them eat holes in my clothing. We watched a face form in the crystal globe and Blackfin spoke Valesch to it.
The image’s mouth in the ball spoke words that were clear to all of us as he addressed the wizard. “Who are you that calls through the scrying ball? What wizard seeks me out?”
Blackfin became all female in that instant. “I am the witch of the Emperor, Blackfin. I have your yfed gwaed; he was under thrall to me before you bound him. May we make accommodations together for we seek the same conclusion to the Lyr?”
Connacher was tentative. “You hold his original geas?”
“Not the original,” he returned gleefully. “He is cursed by Lyr Averon himself. I tied him with the Net of Knots and used force.”
“It is a wonder he is still sane,” Connacher replied.
“Yes, it is. A shame to lose so powerful a weapon,” Blackfin mocked. “May we meet?”
“Upon the steps of Elassen,” the Elassai wizard agreed. “At a time of your own choosing.” He stared at me. “Good luck with feeding him.”
The ball turned clear and he was gone. Blackfin took my chin in his hand and stared into my eyes. “Have you fed?”
“No. I cannot eat except with his permission.”
“We shall see.” He ordered them to tie me on a horse and we rode back towards the ruined city.