Cities of the Gods, page 14
It took a few moments for Tanelith to figure out how to pull all the way back from the city, to see the part of the world that they floated above.
She didn’t recognize anything below her. The area was obviously wild, with no towns nearby. She felt the sun striking her left flank, so she must be facing the south, idling along in that direction.
How to turn the city around? She wanted to be back in the north, back where her people were.
She gently touched Leon in his sleep, following the magic that rose from him. It didn’t surprise her that it went directly up to city hall. There were rooms in the back of the building similar to where she was lying. Elders controlled Vallethlar from there, the progress of the city through the sky.
Slowly, carefully, Tanelith stripped control from the three elders there.
They sat up from their couches, looking at each other, shocked. Then they raced from the room.
Seemed that Elder Enwere’s morning meal was about to be disturbed.
Tanelith opened her eyes. Mironor waited anxiously beside her.
“The other travelers have been freed from their sleep.” Tanelith said. “Let them into the city. Let them be live there until the end.”
Mironor looked over his shoulder to another guard, who nodded and went to go do her bidding.
“Elder Enwere is on his way here. Or will be, soon,” Tanelith said. Her voice sounded dreamy to her ears, not crisp or clear. “Let him in when he arrives.”
Then Tanelith sank back down into the depths of the city, turning the cloud slowly, oh so slowly around, so that they might go back to where the rest of the Egarlorsar waited.
When Tanelith opened her eyes again, Elder Enwere was there. He wore his arrogance like a great cape across his shoulders. “You’re still here,” he said, surprised. His robes were all pale gray that day, as if he had covered himself in clouds.
“I am,” Tanelith said. “And I have taken control of the city.”
Elder Enwere pressed his lips together, glaring at her. “Not for long,” he warned.
“For as long as I choose,” Tanelith told him. She spoke the truth, whether he wanted to believe it or not. “I have spoken to Leon. Visited him in his dreams.”
“Who?” Elder Enwere said, perplexed.
“Leonaxidaius,” Tanelith said slowly. “The dragon who lives at the heart of the city.”
Elder Enwere gasped. “No. That’s merely a myth.” He shook his head in denial.
“I have looked into his amethyst eyes,” Tanelith murmured. “Felt his flames. Seen his cracked silver-and-white scales. He is old.”
“If the myths are true, he is ancient,” Elder Enwere breathed out. “As old as Vallethlar, which has flown above Ithlond for many centuries.”
“He is dying,” Tanelith said. “The power you desire will never come.”
Tanelith could tell that the elder wanted to argue with her, wanted to somehow force words other than the truth from her lips.
She wouldn’t lie to him, though. Leonaxidaius was dying. Vallethlar would be dead soon as well.
“I have turned the city around, so that it will land near the rest of the Egarlorsar,” Tanelith continued. “Better there than all alone in the wilderness someplace.”
Elder Enwere looked away for a moment, then returned his gaze to her. “We believed, once, that maybe there were other cities, that might have survived. There were eleven once,” he continued in a lecturing tone. “You probably know of the four that fell to Ithlond near the rest of our people: the Blasted Plains, the Broken Mountains, the one that fell and formed the Wastelands, and a fourth that is shattered across the peaks of Nyramukz. Where are the other six?”
“I don’t know,” Tanelith said, breathless. Maybe there were other cities, still floating? Or if they’d landed well, other places for her people to live or to visit? “Did you not find them?”
He shook his head. “Just more ruins. No one else survived. Only Vallethlar remains.”
Tanelith nodded. And she’d just told him that his city was dying as well.
“Please,” Tanelith said. “You will not be able to stay up here for much longer. Please help those down below.”
“And if I don’t?” Elder Enwere asked conversationally, his head cocked to one side.
“I tell Leon to crash Vallethlar into a mountainside,” Tanelith said. “Or sail you out above the endless ocean, eventually dying under the waves.”
“You wouldn’t kill your own people,” Elder Enwere said smugly.
“Are they my people?” Tanelith asked. “If they won’t help the rest of the Egarlorsar?”
Tanelith felt the elders gathering in the chambers of city hall. They were determined to wrestle control back from her. She was inclined to give it to them, with the knowledge that she could take it away again at any time.
“You would have me bankrupt myself, just to help strangers,” Elder Enwere said, disgust tinging his words.
“You already have so much,” Tanelith said, trying to be reasonable, though she felt as if she were fighting in a slippery river. “You don’t need to give everything away. Not now. You will lose it all in the end, though. Why not control how that process goes?”
Elder Enwere gave a heart-felt sigh. “I don’t like this,” he said. “And I doubt anyone else on the council is going to like it either. But, when faced with an absolute doom, people do things that are unexpected.” He grimaced. “We won’t stop trying to heal this Leonaxidaius. Now that we have a clue, maybe we can extend the life of the city, and his life. But we will also give you what you need, in order to get control of the city back.”
Tanelith nodded and released her grip on the reins. The elders in the control center were abruptly overwhelmed with power.
One of them might have even died of the shock of magic that abruptly poured over him.
There wasn’t anything Tanelith could do about that. This was war. People, even her people, were going to die.
That was as much of a truth as any other that she’d shared that day.
Chapter
Thirty-One
Tanelith walked slowly up the stairs, leading a group of about twenty guardians. Their ranks had swollen with at least twice as many people from the city, elders who were joining them, or others who’d learned about what was going on and had decided to go down to Ithlond.
Before the city fell.
Tanelith had touched Leon’s dreams again before she left. He wouldn’t waken this time, as she wasn’t trying to join him in his chamber. She still tried to leave him with warmer dreams, to make his last days more pleasant.
Elder Finatiel stood at the top of the stairs. She held two necklaces, one in either hand. They were made out of an iridescent glowing material. While the color appeared to be something an Egarlorsar would wear, the necklaces themselves looked clunky, with awkward pieces of stone strung together on a thick white rope. Each rock was the size of a baby’s fist.
“According to legend, these are supposed to be transporters,” Finatiel said. “By wearing one, you don’t need to return to something like the stairs to reach Vallethlar. The necklace will give you the power to return here. Each necklace can only be used a few times, then it must be recharged, which takes several months.”
“Thank you,” Tanelith said, accepting the necklace that Elder Finatiel put over her head. It felt heavy and weighed down her chest. A slight buzzing sound came from the rocks when they touched her armor. When she looked down, it appeared as though the stones and the necklace had embedded itself into her armor. Instead of a separate necklace that she wore on top of the armor, there were now a set of glowing, iridescent stones around her neck.
She had the sense that she would only be able to regain Vallethlar when she had the armor called to her, that the necklace would vanish much as the armor did.
Elder Finatiel put the second necklace over the head of Mironor, her son. Tanelith would have given it to Galote, and still might if she had the chance.
“Where do we go now?” Elder Finatiel asked Tanelith. All of the people spread out in the narrow hallway, listening.
“If we are to stop the Gilukkhaz and the Ilburh from enslaving the Egarlorsar, we need to deal with two things,” Tanelith said, raising her voice so that everyone could hear. “One is the mines beneath the Nyramukz mountain, where they make the blood metal. We destroyed a much smaller, secondary mine. But we also need to destroy the primary mine. We also need to march into Ilburh territory, to free all the slaves who the Ilburh had taken. The Ilburh will fight us. So will the Gilukkhaz.” Tanelith took a deep breath, then turned to Galote. “Which target do we attack first?”
“The Gilukkhaz supply the blood metal, as well as the slaves, correct?” Galote said. “The Ilburh just have need for them.”
“True,” Tanelith said. “And they are still getting adjusted to having slaves. They aren’t common, at least they weren’t in Faburh, when I was there.”
“Then we should cut off the supply, first,” Galote said, “before dealing with the demand.”
Tanelith nodded. “Aye. That was what I was thinking. So we need to travel from here to the mountain of Nyramukz. How many days will that take, after we arrive at the base of the Stairs?”
“We may not have to travel all that long,” Galote said with a smile. She turned and beckoned a young male to come forward. He had a large satchel over one shoulder. Several tubes were rolled up, sticking out of the top of it.
He drew out one and then unrolled it, holding the edges of it, so that Tanelith and Galote could see that it was a map of the Kharakin mountain range, that ended with Nyramukz. The range was all along one side of the scroll, with several other areas marked, such as the mine and nearby valleys, including a round red spot to the south and east.
Galote pointed to the red spot. “This is an area like the Stairs. It was partially destroyed after the War of Betrayal. We will be able to travel directly to here from the city, but we cannot leave from this area and get to the city. The mechanism is broken, and only those who bear necklaces like yours could return.”
“How far away is that from the mine?” Tanelith asked, drawing a line from one to the other.
“Three days’ march,” Galote said. She paused, and looked at the group gathered around them. “Maybe four.”
“All right. That is the area we go to next,” Tanelith said with a nod. She turned to Mironor. “Are there any people left at the Stairs, who might wish to accompany us?”
Mironor nodded. “Aye. After this group travels to the mountains, I’ll coordinate bringing people up from the Stairs to the city, then sending them your way. Along with supplies.”
Tanelith blinked, surprised. Yes, they would need supplies. It wasn’t just her and Vyncis traveling, stopping to hunt when they could. This was a much larger group.
This was the start of her army.
“Thank you,” she said, nodding to him, unsure of the logistics of it all, but certain that with help, they would figure it all out.
Everyone looked at Tanelith for what to do next. She held her head high. “All right. Let’s go to the mountains.”
No one cheered. Instead, everyone seemed grimly determined.
This was war.
Chapter
Thirty-Two
One more surprise waited for Tanelith when she stepped back into the portal room.
Vyncis stood there, his eyes wide, marveling at the small room he stood in. He looked well, more solidly fed than the last time she’d seen him, his face clean and smiling.
Tanelith ran over, happy to see him. They clasped arms like warriors, instead of the hug Tanelith wanted to give him. But she was in armor, and she wouldn’t have been able to feel it anyway.
“I’m so glad you were able to come up here, at least for a while,” Tanelith said.
“Yer boyfriend didn’t want to bring me, but I made him,” Vyncis said with a grin.
“My what?” Tanelith asked. All right, so she may have shrieked a little.
“Him,” Vyncis said, pointing over her shoulder with his chin.
Mironor stood there talking to someone else, probably dealing with supplies. He looked up when Tanelith turned to look at him, raising his eyebrows in question.
She shook her head and looked back at Vyncis, who gave her an unrepentant grin. “He had to be reminded that it’s really hard to tell if the snake that’s winding its way through yer blankets is real or an illusion.”
Tanelith snorted, but didn’t comment. “I’m really glad you’re here. We’re off to the mines of Nyramukz.”
“I heard,” Vyncis said, growing serious. “Did ye want me there? Or did ye want to send me off to Gishem Woods?”
Tanelith thought for a moment, then her eyes grew wide as she understood the question. “Oh. Oh! To gather more Meerimec. For the war.”
He nodded.
“Adas gave me a handkerchief, just before we left,” Tanelith said slowly. “He said that if I burned it, he would feel the destruction. It would be a way to contact him.”
Vyncis nodded. “Ye should do it just afore you sleep. Then, he might talk with ye in your dreams.” He straightened himself up. “Or mine.”
“Will that be enough?” Tanelith said. It would really help if they could have the power of illusion from a large group of Meerimec.
“I don’t know,” Vyncis said. “I think we should try, though.”
“All right,” Tanelith said. “Tonight, back on Ithlond.”
“Tonight,” Vyncis said, possibly a touch louder.
Mironor was glaring at her when Vyncis stepped away.
Tanelith rolled her eyes at him. Really? Did he honestly consider her his girlfriend or something equally ridiculous? Was he jealous of Vyncis? Not that she would ever have any sort of relationship beyond friendship with the Meerimec. Couldn’t Mironor understand that?
It didn’t matter. Not right now.
Galote cleared everyone out of the portal room, though she allowed Tanelith and Mironor to stay in the doorway, looking in.
With a wave of her hand, the lights in the room dimmed. Tanelith took a short breath, just shy of a gasp, when she realized that the golden stars weren’t merely painted on the ceiling, but continued down all the walls as well. The bright light had hidden them, but in the dimmer light, they glowed against the green walls that were now much darker as well.
While most of the stars were smaller, some of the stars were bigger than Galote’s outstretched hand. She walked slowly, from one to the other, placing her palm in the center of half a dozen of them. There appeared to be a specific order, though not a logical one, as the stars that Galote chose seemed random.
When Galote finished, she came and stood next to the door.
The walls of the alcove the portal was contained in started to melt away, while the base of the alcove jutted forward. A white and black marble covering hid the beautiful red, blue, green, and white mosaic of the floor. The fresh lavender scent of the room changed, growing sweeter and tinged with pine. Cooler air flushed the space.
Instead of there being a portal room, with an alcove at the back of it, now, most of the room appeared to be a portal platform.
Galote brought the lights back up to full. “Now, you can send a fifteen people down at a time,” she said. “It’s also handy for sending supplies, not just a single backpack.”
“I never knew this was possible,” Mironor said softly.
Galote gave a one-shoulder shrug. “You weren’t supposed to know. No one except the head of the guardians knows. I learned about it on my predecessor’s deathbed. As she had learned of its existence herself. But you need to know,” Galote said, directing her hard gaze at Tanelith. “So that this knowledge doesn’t die with me.” She handed Mironor a drawing that had the stars and the order they were to be touched.
“Thank you for trusting me, us,” Tanelith said, bowing her head as Mironor slid the folded paper away.
“All right,” Galote said briskly. “Let’s get some guardians on Ithlond, make sure it’s safe, then we’ll bring you down,” she said, indicating Tanelith. Then she turned her gaze to Mironor. “You’re staying up here to coordinate, right?”
“Yes,” Mironor said. “It shouldn’t take me long to bring up all those who remain at the stairs and to send them your way. Elder Finatiel has already started organizing supplies.”
“Good,” Galote said. She called out half a dozen names. Warriors stepped into the portal room, looking around with awe. They all encased themselves in armor before stepping from the mosaic onto the changed floor.
“Secure the portal area,” Galote instructed. “Be prepared for anything. The next group will follow you down immediately.”
They nodded and took their positions, all of them facing outward, their swords and weapons at hand, their backs to one another. Tanelith told herself to remember how they looked, so she could tell Adas for him to include them in whatever myths he told of the coming battle.
Galote brought up both of her hands, then made a circling motion with them.
A brilliant light sprang up from the floor, bright enough to make Tanelith glance down at the floor.
When the light started to fade, Tanelith looked up.
All the guardians had disappeared.
Galote gave her a grim smile. “That seemed to work,” she said, nodding. She called out more names, then sent the next half dozen guardians down to Ithlond.
After the glare died down again, Galote shook her head. “I really want to know what’s going on down there,” she said. “Did I just send them into the center of a Gilukkhaz camp? Are they fighting? Dead? Or is it a balmy day and there’s nothing for them to do?”
She sounded more frustrated than worried or scared.
“All right,” Galote said after a few more moments. “I’m sending Tanelith down next. The four guardians I’m sending with you are some of the best trained I have. They will ensure that you survive,” she said.
Tanelith gulped and nodded. She stepped forward, into the center of the portal area. Four guardians surrounded her, each with their back to her. They were encased in armor and all had their weapons out, poised and ready, as did Tanelith.
