His protest was ended prematurely as a massive concussion followed by a rumbling roar suddenly thundered through the tunnel. Dust swirled up from the floor and fragments fell from the roof.
Instinctively everyone reached out to the solid rock walls for support, but they too were shaking, and when after a few seconds the rumbling faded away, one or two of the group were looking decidedly unwell.
‘What was that?’ Hawklan said breathlessly, looking at Isloman.
Before Isloman could reply, a warm acrid blast of air blew along the tunnel, carrying with it more dust and fragments.
Hawklan turned again to Isloman when the strange wind had passed.
‘We must be near a working face,’ Isloman said. ‘That was a quarrying explosion, but… I’d have expected to hear people working.’ He shook his head. ‘And it was so powerful… ’
More concussions interrupted his conjecture, though they were less severe than the first.
‘Never mind what it is,’ Tirke said. ‘Let’s get out of here.’ It was a sentiment shared by everyone, but Andawyr pointed in the direction the disturbance had come from. ‘That’s the way we have to go,’ he said.
With mixed feelings they set off again. From time to time, further concussions and blasts of warm air struck them, though none were as severe as the first.
‘Whatever it is, that’s not rock-winning that’s going on,’ Isloman said after a while. ‘Something bad is happening.’
As he spoke, they came to the end of the tunnel and found themselves in an open space. The torchlight revealed that it was rectangular and, quite obviously, hand excavated. Several neatly circular tunnels entered it. The air was thick with newly disturbed dust, and the torches carved strange solid shadows through it.
Andawyr walked round pensively as he had at pre-vious junctions. As he did so, two further small concussions shook the chamber, but they echoed so that it was not possible to determine which of the tunnels they emanated from.
‘Come on!’ Tirke said urgently, though half to him-self. ‘This place is beginning to crush the life out of me.’
‘Shut up!’ Andawyr said angrily. ‘I’m trying to… ’
Hawklan stepped forward suddenly, raising his hand for silence. ‘Listen,’ he said. ‘Footsteps. Running.’
Scarcely were the words out of his mouth than a figure emerged from one of the tunnels at the far side of the chamber.
It was a Mandroc. Behind it, other figures were emerging into the dusty torchlight.
Chapter 27
‘Armed column approaching, fast!’
The shouted message chiming with his own alarmed thoughts, Loman turned towards the look-out.
‘Confirm!’ he signalled.
The look-out signalled back. ‘Confirmed. Armed column approaching from the east.’ A single finger directed upwards indicated that the message had originated from the Watch Hall high above.
Loman breathed out. Whoever was coming must at least be some distance away. It was no ambush.
From the east, he mused. It must be Dan-Tor return-ing after his encounter with the Muster. He cursed himself again for his caution in travelling so slowly along the valley. What damage had that monster done?
He dashed the thought aside. Whatever Dan-Tor might have done to the Muster, he would find that he had no base to return to and a warm reception waiting for him.
He gazed down into the valley below. Hreldar was riding with some of his High Guard. Loman put his fingers in his mouth and blew a penetrating whistle.
The Lord looked up immediately.
‘Get your duty companies along the valley at the double,’ Loman signalled. ‘Prepare a pike wall and archers to meet approaching column. Reinforcements to follow.’
Hreldar acknowledged the signal and began issuing orders to his Guards. Loman nodded, well satisfied. Hreldar’s High Guard were not the most loved of the regiments in the allied army, but fired by their Lord’s peculiarly special loathing for Dan-Tor, they were fierce and angry fighters.
He turned and saw that the look-out was receiving further news from another signaller. He intercepted it. The column had moved out of sight of the observers in the Watch Hall. He swore under his breath. Until the seeing stones there could be repaired, those laid out in the adjacent mountains would be ineffective and only straight line-of-sight observation would be possible.
He signalled to the look-out to find such companies as were ready to hand and have them sent along the valley to join Hreldar. ‘And some of the Cadwanwr!’ he added as an almost frantic afterthought. Then he scrambled down the rocks, commandeered a horse from a bewildered trooper and rode off himself.
It did not take him long to reach Hreldar and his men at a narrow defile some way down the valley. The Lord was disposing his men in defensive order.
‘What’s happening?’ he asked.
Loman told him. ‘I don’t know whether it’s all or part of his army,’ he said. ‘Or what state they’re in. And they’re out of sight now. So we’ll have to assume the worst. Is this the only way into the valley from this end?’
Hreldar nodded. ‘As I remember,’ he said. ‘But I’m putting look-outs up on the top to make sure we aren’t flanked.’
Loman glanced up approvingly. ‘There’ll be rein-forcements here shortly,’ he said.
Hreldar frowned slightly. ‘It makes no sense,’ he said. ‘They must surely have seen the tower lit up, they’ll know we’re here and with a superior force to theirs. They must have realized that we’ll be waiting for them.’
Loman shrugged. ‘I’m not even going to try and reason this out, Hreldar, there isn’t time. With the confusion back there, a company of cadets could cause havoc. We’ll just have to wait and see. There’s not much we can do wrong if we keep a strong defensive position.’
Hreldar nodded then rode off to supervise the con-tinuing disposition of his men across the valley. As Loman waited, Atelon came galloping up. ‘Ryath and some of the others are behind me,’ he said breathlessly. ‘Do you think this is Dan-Tor returning?’
Loman was about to repeat the answer he had given to Hreldar when there was an urgent whistle from above.
and Elewart… ’ He paused and became thoughtful again. ‘The sound seems to seep into your very being. Even now when I lie down to sleep, I can hear it. I don’t think I’ll ever be truly free of it. And every now and then, there’s this sudden silence and you know that one of the Sighs of Gwelayne is coming. It’s an indescribable sound… ’ His eyes widened. ‘Such pain. Such remorse. Such longing. It’s a bad place.’
‘Bad?’ Gulda said, as if prompting him.
Gulda smiled strangely but her reply was simple. ‘Oh yes,’ she said. ‘I know the tale of your first king, Urthryn. I know it very well. I know many old tales. I am a teacher.’
‘… wandered the bleak and blasted valley where she had pledged her troth to Elewart and, hearing ever the voices of her true love and her fiery desire disputing through the barren peaks, she pined and died. And Sphaeera, in pity, took her sighs and gave them to the mountains, that they might have some brief respite from the eternal Discourse of Sumeral and Elewart.’ Urthryn’s musical Riddin accent finished Gulda’s tale.
Gulda nodded, and all the listeners smiled and ap-plauded softly.
Then Gulda lifted a gently admonishing finger. ‘And Gwelayne wandered… And her fate is not known,’ she said slowly, finishing her own telling.
Urthryn bowed extravagantly. ‘I wouldn’t dispute with such a fine teller of tales, teacher. But I’m a romantic and I prefer the romantic ending to the mysterious one.’
Gulda smiled and looked round the room. ‘But this isn’t planning our campaign, is it?’ she said. ‘If all we encounter between here and Derras Ustramel is a sighing wind, then we can consider ourselves more than fortunate. Tell us of your journey across Narsindal, Ffyrst.’
Urthryn shrugged. ‘There’s little to tell,’ he said. ‘It was less disturbing than our journey along the Pass. Yengar and Olvric guided us. Oslang twitched his nose in search of demons.’ He winked at the Cadwanwr. ‘That’s when he wasn’t slithering out of his saddle. The weather was cold and unpleasant. The horses were unhappy, and the place felt bad. Except for our last little gallop, we travelled slowly, partly in deference to our guests and partly because fear of ambush kept us in defensive order. But we met no one, nor even saw anyone, let alone faced any attack.’ He laughed again. ‘Except, of course, at the end.’