“Aye,” he agreed, “I will think upon it.”
Over the next several weeks they slowly wended eastward, the land about them changing from an open wold unto rolling hills, thickets and grassland slowly becoming forests and glens. Two small hamlets did they encounter, and an occasional woodsman’s cote or crofter’s farm. And when they came upon these places, Elyn found as long as she wore the silveron nugget, no one perceived her or Thork. She would slip off the amulet long enough to gain permission to sleep in a loft, or to replenish their supplies, or to take a room within an inn of comfort and dwell a while, always wearing the stone in private. And all who saw them upon the way deemed it strange that a Dwarf and a female Human were companions of the road, though few voiced these thoughts. Stranger still was the fact that the Woman girded herself about with weaponry, and that the Dwarf bore a covered shield with no device. Armed and armored like warriors were these two. Yet those they encountered questioned not, for the copper coins they received from this pair purchased privacy from prying as well as food and shelter and grain and other such. And always the twain sought information as to the direction of the Black Mountain, said to be the Wizards’ holt. And ever was the answer a vague wave eastward: “. . somewhere in the mountains to the Sun, I hear.”
And all who saw them noted that the two seemed engrossed in deep discussions, now and again appearing to disagree in anger, though quietly. In the first village that they came to, a woodcutter sat near their table, and when asked by the innkeeper, the cutter told that he had overheard some of their discussion, though it didn’t seem to make much sense. “Speakin’ o’ Dwarf enemies, he wos. Said that he whot makes a enemy o’ a Dwarf has a enemy e’erlastin’. Said that Dwarves’ll seek revenge fore’er, ’tis their nature. And that sommun whot wos named Sleeth wos still their foe, he wos, and would ha’e been till the stars theirselves died ded.”
“Ar, now there be a bit o’ news,” responded the innkeeper, his eyes going round with wonder. “Sleeth be a Dragon, I hear. Well now, did he say anathin’ elsewise, or did she say anathin’ back?”
“Coo, after a bit she said somethin’ about a land whot lay fallow for a thousan’ five hunnert years wos abandoned, by her reckonin’. E’en so, she could see that if Dwarves’d seek vengeance fore’er, then perhaps they wosna finished with this here Sleeth.
“Then he says that if Men thought that a thousan’ five hunnert years wos a long time, wellanow he could see where they got their misnotions about diligence. That fifteen hunnert years wos but four, mayhap five, Châk lifetimes, but those same fifteen hunnert years wos twenty spans o’ Man; it wos fifteen generations o’ Dwarves, but sixty or seventy o’ Man. Hoo now, doesna that make your head spin right ’round?
“Then she says somethin’ softlike whot I didna hear, and that’s when he grabbed her wrist fiercelike and hissed, ‘Black Kalgalath! Black Kalgalath’s got it?’
“Har, she just jerked her arm outta his grip and nodded, lookin’ about ter see if any had seen. I acted like I wos deep in my stew, but that wos when they got up and went outside, and I didna hear no more.”
“Sleeth and Black Kalgalath, too.” The innkeeper let out a low whistle. “Now doesna that beat all. Two Dragons. Two! Hoy, whot would a Dwarf and a warrior Woman want with even one Dragon, much less two?”
“Somethin’ strange, though,” whispered the cutter, looking about guardedly. “I got up ter follow, ter see whot they wos up to anow, but they wosna out there! It wos like they disappeart inter thin air, it wos!”
With these words, both the cutter and innkeeper scribed warding signs in the air.
Thus were the whispered tales that followed Elyn and Thork. And wherever they encountered other living souls, they left behind looks of puzzlement over this oddly mismatched pair of warriors that sought the Mountain of the Mages, and spoke of Dragons and vengeance and Death, and seemed to come and go unobserved.
No foe attacked them on this long journey, for the token borne by Elyn seemed to ward them as the Wolfmage had said it would.
And the farther east they went, the stranger became the tongues of the natives, the more peculiar the accents and the harder time they had in making themselves understood and in understanding words spoken to them, even though the locals were uttering a brand of the Common Tongue. Too, the skin color of the inhabitants slowly shifted, shading to a dark tan and then tending toward a yellowish hue. Finally the two came to a region where they could not speak the language at all, and had to communicate by sign. Even so, with pen and ink and parchment, Thork sketched a picture of a dark mountain, blackening it until it was ebon. And by pointing to the figure and then gesturing, palms upward in puzzlement, they still received vague hand motions to the east.
Mid-fall passed, and late fall stepped into the world, and still eastward fared the two, living on the game brought down by Elyn’s sling, or her bow, or on Thork’s skill with his crossbow, supplemented with supplies purchased from woodsmen, crofters, the rare innkeeper, and the even rarer village store. What concerned them most was grain for the steeds, yet they managed to supplement the grass of the earth with oats, millet, or barley obtained from the scattered inhabitants living in the land. And as they had fared eastward, the nights had become frigid, and the pair wrapped themselves about in the winter dress they had borne all along. Wind and Digger, too, prepared for the coming cold, for their hair had gradually transformed into thick coats of winter shag.
Slowly the wold had given way to forested hills, and now these too began to alter, rising ever upward and becoming barren of most trees. At last one day as they topped a desolate hill, low in the distance before them they could see a jagged range of white-tipped dark mountains clawing up into the sky, the reach before them ramping upward toward the remote somber peaks.
All that day they travelled, and the next as well, the mountains seeming as distant as ever. Yet Thork assured Elyn that they were indeed drawing closer.
And on the second day, while Elyn waited below, sheltered from a raw north wind ablowing, Thork climbed atop a large boulder on the crest of one of the hills and looked for the four close-set peaks spoken of by the Wolfmage-like fingers on a hand, the Magus had said. And suddenly he saw them, and southward of the southernmost finger there was the thumb as well. Calling down to Elyn, he pointed leftward, guiding their route northeasterly, aiming for the col between thumb and first finger.
Of a sudden, it seemed, on the third day they found themselves passing upward among grey stone looming left and right, perpendicular slabs soaring up, immense somber massifs, towering dark giants, overlooking their progress, furiously brawling creeks dashing down slopes and hurling outward into space, free at last from the fettering rock, the crystalline plume plunging hundreds of feet only to smash into dusky stone below and hurtle frantically onward, seeking to escape once more.
Up through this hard land of dark unyielding rock and plummeting flumes plodded horse and pony, led by Elyn and Thork afoot, the air thin about them. And as they came through the col, in the distance before them they could see peak upon peak without number marching beyond an unseen horizon.
Yet, to the north and east stood one crest above the others, ebon as the night.
CHAPTER 27
Early Summer, 3E1602,
[This Year]
A full tenday had passed since the army of Jord had ridden away from the keep, and Elyn and Mala had filled each of those days with frantic activity, arranging for supplies to be transported to the Host, planning for the defense of Jord should another foe fall upon them, conducting the business of State. At times Elyn was called upon to sit in judgement over some dispute, and she detested this role of governance. Yet amazingly, Mala proved to be an invaluable counsellor in these instances, for at last, it seemed, something of worth was asked of her. Over the past month Elyn had observed Mala’s sour disposition giving way to one that in manner was softer, for although her temperament yet remained somewhat austere, a sense of fair play now was evident. Not to say that Mala was not firm, but rather to say that now she was more thoughtful. And more than once when Elyn had consulted her, Mala had balanced the alternatives against one another, asking if there was aught else that bore upon the problem ere rendering her assessment; and when she had garnered all the information available, step by step Mala would logically and forthrightly come to a conclusion, an appraisal based upon fact rather than upon preconceived notions, an evaluation that Elyn found herself in agreement with at nearly every turn. Aye, without warning, Mala had been thrust into a role of great responsibility, and she grandly rose to meet the challenge, breaking through the shell of her past narrowness as she did so.