Chapter 21
After the big meal, they took me out on a sort of hovercraft over the top of the city. It bore a decided resemblance to a fairytale village with castle towers, taverns, thatched roofs and medieval type buildings. Everything was clean, pretty, and built of rose pink brick and honey colored stone. Flags flew from the tower tops, the fields around the city were emerald green, and there were parks dotting the interior streets. We flew towards the setting sun and the mountains, which gleamed purple in the distance capped, by white snow. The air smelled of pine and cinnamon and struck a chord in my soul.
"Fangmoor," I murmured, and the Colonel smiled.
"Your mother spoke of the Eternal Wood?"
"I remember a sort of lullaby. She sang of Fangmoor," I reminisced.
"Your mother came from there."
"Where are we going?"
"Out to the edge of the battlefield. So you can see the depth of the danger."
"Ahh."
He was silent the rest of the flight. The pilot set down at the edge of the forest before it opened on a plateau filled with tents, horses and men clearly from different worlds. We were met by officers and one I remembered as the captain only a few years older than I was.
"My Lord," his face lightened. "It swells my heart to see you safe and returned. I tried to follow you, but the Gate shut before I could enter."
"I'm glad you're okay, too. Where are the Druz?"
"They are still on the other side of the Gate, massing for an attack. They will not cross until they are ready."
"Where is the Gate?" I looked around, could see nothing that looked large enough for a massed army to burst forth. They pointed to the mountain. I saw a ridge halfway up its length, inaccessible to those below, but a perfect vantage point for an army to rush down to the troops on the flats.
"Let me guess, the entire Ridge is the Gate?" They nodded. I turned around and studied the terrain, saw the river meandered along the bottom of the mountain and through the valley.
"They can only come through the Gate?"
"Yes. They had no other way into this plane unless you create a new Gate."
"There is none other than this one? What about the one I opened in the… Palace?"
"It is not a Palace but the Collegium. No, that gate is…was not able to open. Unless you open it again, nor is it large enough to permit a force great enough to damage anything."
"What weapons do you control?"
"Follow me. I will take you to the armory and the weapons yard."
I received a tour of those places and watched as warriors fought with swords, bows, those round tubes that shot out bursts of light. They burned with an energy that destroyed like a cold laser. Others had bands on their arms, sending explosions in the air like sonic booms. Their winged force was just that – men on beasts with wings like flying dragons that actually did shoot fire. Temperamental beasts, they were hard to aim and fickle, would not fly in wet weather, nor liked to get their feet wet. I liked the cavalry the best, always had a thing for horses and admired the sleek equines in colors both mundane and magical.
"Do you ride, Lord Jadewyn?" The captain asked as he patted the nose of a blue gelding.
"Not as much as I would like," I sighed. "I know enough to get me into trouble."
"The lady Zyperia is an excellent horsewoman."
"Just who is she? Some kind of princess, noble lady?" I asked casually.
"She is of the Upper Courts," he returned his eyes slyly amused.
"She wash up good?" He looked at me puzzled. "Is she pretty?"
"Some have called her such." His eyes lifted. "You have only seen her in filth. Ahh. You will be pleasantly surprised, tonight."
"What's tonight?" I turned to retrace my steps to the HQ tent, was saluted as I entered the flap and found the Lord Belywyn. He told me to sit and handed me a goblet filled with what looked tasted like raspberry fizz, but with a slight kick.
"Tonight is your introduction to the King's Court, the Emperor and your family."
"I have family?"
"Of course. Did you think your mother was the only one in your line?"
"I didn't know. She died when I was two maybe three years old. Did you know my father?"
He nodded. "He was the eldest of Lord Caradwyn of Fanglock, a shire one hundred leagues over the mountain. He had younger brothers, a sister and a father still living."
"Uncles, aunt and a grandfather. My father?"
"He was killed on another plane fighting the Druz. His name was Jethlyn. Lord Jethlyn Fangmoor."
"Am I the heir to anything?"
"Lord Fangmoor is still alive and rules. He has sent a thousand warriors. Look for them under the banner of the White Mountain. Now we must return you. You need to bathe, be fitted for your suit and learn some minor protocol."
I looked at him suspiciously. This was starting to sound like some kind of ceremony and I wasn't sure if I wanted that. Not that I had much choice. "How much power do I have?" I asked suddenly and he shrugged.
"Why?"
I went back outside, opened my hand and stared at the Ridge all 3 miles long of it. Spoke the words so that the coin glowed forth in bright flares reaching across miles to the ridge and bathed it in greenish gold. I could feel the life energy of the rock and the trees, the awesome weight of the mountain. Sweat dripped from my forehead, trickled down my sides and ran into the crack of my ass. It tickled.
The air stilled. One hundred thousand warriors stopped dead in their tracks and held their breath. I heard no horses whinny, nor dragons snort. The Colonel, Captain and everyone in the tent came out to stand near me, eyes wide and wondering.
I reached into the soil and tore the mountains loose, remade the ridge into a narrow pass that only four men mounted could cross at one time. I made sheer cliffs on one side, and impassable glacier with crevasses on the other. Swamps that would suck an entire battalion into a watery grave. I tried to seal the gate, but that was beyond my use of power and strength. The glow from the coin simply stopped and became a golden coin in my hand. The air filled with common noises once more and the muted roar of thousands of voices. I felt the reverberations of what had I had done back down the strings to the Druz and shuddered at the backwash of both hate and evil. It was a promise of retribution that I couldn't shut off. "The Gate is not sealed," I said wearily. "But it is confined. Bottlenecked. The Druz cannot breach this world in force. Not without destroying themselves in the attempt."
"My Lord," the colonel led me back inside and fussed over me until I waved him away.
"Can you give me something to drink?" He brought me a goblet and this was clearly of alcoholic origin. It hit my stomach with a warm rush and made me liquid in the knees. By the time I finished it, I didn't care if the world ended. I didn't remember the ride back.