The giant said nothing as the Bolg king approached, but Achmed could see, even at a distance, the quiet despair in his eyes. When he finally reached the catafalque on which the Child lay, he could see the shadowy outline of where she had lain the last time they had been in this dark place, her body smaller within it.
“The withering continues,” he said aloud. He spoke the words just to give voice to them; before that they were hanging painfully in the air, heavy above his head.
Grunthor merely nodded and laced the caliper case shut.
Achmed brushed his gloved hand delicately over the Earthchild’s hair, parched golden brown now as the dry wheat chaff on the steppes beyond the mountains. Then he followed Grunthor back up the passageway to the Cauldron again.
Krinsel was waiting in the Great Hall, as he had commanded. She appeared slightly haggard, her dusky face grim but expressionless, having passed most of the night on her feet at attention, awaiting his return. In her hands she bore the list of casualties, the victims of the Sickness that still lingered in their torment, their conditions detailed in notes carefully documented by the midwives and their aides who had been tending to them.
“Any new deaths?” Achmed asked as he came to a halt before her.
The head midwife shook her head.
The Bolg king nodded. “I believe we’ve come to the end of the main wave of casualties,” he said, nodding his readiness to leave to Grunthor. “Those that survived the picric exposure and are still alive will probably make it. Gurgus has been scoured of all traces of it, as have the hillsides on which the dust from the explosion fell. All that is left now is to try and make those who are recovering comfortable, and to attempt to return to normal as quickly as possible. Do you agree?” The midwife nodded again. “Good. Then I will be on my way. I will be traveling a route parallel to the guarded caravan, so if you need to reach me, have Trug send out a hawk.”
“Tell ’Er Ladyship Oi said hullo,” Grunthor said dryly as Achmed made his way to the doorway that would lead him through the exit tunnels of the Cauldron, out through the breastworks and onto the open steppes beyond. “An’ don’t forget my sugared almonds. If we’re gonna put the kingdom at risk, we might as well ’ave somethin’ nice to eat. On second thought, bring back any Lirin ya might see at the carnival. Especially the dark-’aired variety; they ’ave the best flavor.”
“I’ll be back in a fortnight,” the Bolg king said. “And when I return, nothing had better have exploded, imploded, or shattered—unless it’s the head of that ambassador from the Nain.”
Traveling through the earth was a mixed blessing, the dragon found.
There was a power around her now that had been missing in the frozen wasteland of her lair, a warmth and vibrancy she could feel in the strata of the crust of the world. The earth welcomed her, though it was a somewhat cold welcome still. The return of her name had brought back only fragments of memories; still lost were the ones that tied her to the element from which her mother’s line had sprung.
Below the ground, the song that had echoed her call was harder to hear, muffled, though still ringing somewhere in the distance. The dragon was never completely certain of its bearings, and in her singlemindedness she often found herself doubling back, confused by the echo of it. Her mind, once as brilliantly honed as a gleaming blade, was still thick, confused easily, and frequently she found, to her dismay bordering on rage, that she had circled back, or lost the path, or taken a route through the darkness that had misdirected her.
Still, the wail in the distance remained, guiding her southward, returning her to the path when she lost her way.
It may take time to get there, she thought after one particularly disappointing diversion. But when I do, what I find will be worth it.
The bloodlust within her heart burned brighter in the darkness of the earth.
18
At midnight that night Talquist pounded on Lasarys’s door.
It took the sexton of Terreanfor a few minutes to answer, hurrying to the door of the manse set in a rocky grotto outside Night Mountain, halfdressed, opening it in between outbreaks of violent knocking. As soon as the latch was lifted and the door open a crack, the Emperor Presumptive pushed his way inside.
“My—m’lord,” Lasarys gasped, clutching at his nightshirt, the candle in his elderly hand trembling so that wax dripped onto his forearm, “what—what’s wrong?”
“Is it done?” Talquist demanded, shutting the manse door quickly. “The soldier—is it felled?”
The sexton hung his head and sighed. “Yes,” he said dispiritedly. “And wrapped in linen soaked in holy water. But it has not been transported to the altar yet.”
“Good—belay that and bring it instead to the square of Jierna’sid.”
“Now?” The sexton looked horrified.
“Yes, now. Summon your acolytes; wake them.”
“They—they are exhausted, m’lord. It was a very emotional and difficult day.”
The Emperor Presumptive’s face hardened in the candlelight. “It will be a difficult night as well, but then they can rest. Go get them, Lasarys.”
“Yes, m’lord.” The sexton disappeared into the darkness of the manse.
It took every acolyte in the temple’s monastery to drag the dray sled containing the giant statue of Living Stone to the square in front of the palace of Jierna Tal.
Talquist had ordered his guard, the mountain regiment dedicated to protecting Jierna Tal, and thereby the emperor, to ring the pathway between Night Mountain and the square where the Scales stood, to keep the peasantry away. They had maintained the evening’s peace with little difficulty; no one lived in the square around the Scales except the occupant of the palace, and so it was possible to have a large wagon pull into the square in the middle of the night without notice.
Lasarys, who had been silent and pale throughout the journey, watched in trepidation as the acolytes slowly unloaded the wagon, carefully bearing the wrapped figure between a score of them by bracing it with heavy timbers and carrying them, two men to a beam, slowly up the steps to the weighing platform on which the Scales stood. As the priests placed the huge statue onto the easternmost of the two weighing plates he finally turned to Talquist, anguish in his voice.
“What are you doing, m’lord?” he whispered desperately. “Please tell me that this desecration has some meaning, some higher reason. I feel as if I have perpetuated an atrocity for which the Earth Mother will never forgive me.”
Talquist turned and watched the suffering priest with eyes that a moment before had been shining with excitement, now dimmed into the soft light of compassion.
“Lasarys, take heart. What we do here is not destruction, or desecration—it’s a rebirth.” He patted the sexton’s arm comfortingly. “Do you remember, all those years ago when I was your acolyte, how you would tell me the tales of the formation of Terreanfor? How it was believed that the ancient peoples planted seeds of the flowers and leaves from the trees, and that the Living Stone, still alive and full of the power of creation, grew those glorious statues that still grace the basilica? That the animals and birds were carved in the same way, by the earth itself, from some piece of those selfsame animals?” Lasarys nodded distantly. “Then, Lasarys, if that be the case, where do you think those statues of soldiers came from?”
The sexton blanched. “I—I have no idea,” he stammered.
“Is it possible, Lasarys, that they are, in fact, buried heroes from early days, interred in the warmth of the living earth, grown into statues to honor them as great warriors?”
“Yes, it is possible, m’lord, but whatever—whatever is given into the Earth Mother’s arms should be left there,” said Lasarys haltingly. “It is folly to try and take it back, to raise the dead. It is against nature.”