" Jacy," she said slowly. " You said there wasn' t a mage in your ranks."
" True. We not only scorn them; we fear them for all they' ve done to our people."
" How do you keep Iron Tongue at bay? Why doesn' t he simply overrun you using a spell and capture the entire of Bron?"
The man turned and sullenly stared at the impenetrable wall of magic. For a moment Inyx worried she hadn' t phrased the question properly and had again violated Noratumi' s cultural mores. But he was only thinking, not sulking.
" We are fighters. He cannot kill all of us, no matter how good his magic. He knows if he provokes us enough we will launch an attack to the death. Every one of us may die, but so would Wurnna. Not even his golden words can catch us all in one place."
" So you snipe at one another, Iron Tongue taking a few captives, you killing a few Wurnnans."
Noratumi shrugged. Inyx knew that such an arrangement benefited only the leaders. It provided a convenient rallying point in case of internal dissension; who dared oppose a leader in the midst of a bitter war? That the war never reached fierce proportions gave even greater strength to Noratumi' s position. She guessed Iron Tongue had much the same hold over his people.
" No mages, so we can' t break the spell. Using physical means to smash through is not likely. What worries me about even trying is that the effort might attract Claybore' s attention," Inyx commented.
" This is Iron Tongue' s doing," insisted Noratumi.
" It is Claybore' s," countered Inyx. " His imprint is all over it. No magic, no physical means of ingress possible. Can we fly over it?" She glanced up in time to see a gerfalcon' s wing brush along the surface of the barrier. The bird emitted a shrill shriek of pain, fluttered about, sending down a cascade of feathers, and only managed to swoop away at the last instant before striking the ground.
" Going over does not look promising," said Noratumi grimly.
" So we dig."
" Dig? A tunnel?"
Inyx smiled. It was her turn not to respond. She reined her horse about and headed on a course parallel to the barrier, looking for the proper soil. Digging through rock presented problems she didn' t want to face. Loam didn' t give a good tunnel. Clay might present the best of all terrains to consider.
" Inyx," came the man' s words from behind. She pulled to a halt and waited for him. " Seek not a likely spot."
" Oh?"
Jacy' s shoulders slumped and he looked down at the ground, a small boy caught filching candies.
" A way already exists."
" So what are we waiting for? Lead on, Jacy. And do tell me why it is disconcerting to tell me about it." Inyx had visions of deep, dire secrets being revealed. The answer disappointed her.
" I am the leader of all Bron, and first of all time we are miners, workers in stone. This is such an obvious idea it ought to have occurred to me. You are an outsider without:" He cut off the sentence abruptly.
" Without what?" she prodded. This was one time she wouldn' t let him get away with answering.
" Without proper breeding." He looked up, his amber eyes glowing. " You are the most beautiful woman ever I have seen, but your manners! The way you ask questions shows no sense of decency or rank."
" Ignoring all that, why not just take us to the tunnel so we can get into Bron?"
He heaved a deep sigh, as if saying that this was exactly what he meant about her lack of breeding. Instead, Noratumi motioned for his small group to form up behind Inyx. He vaulted into his saddle and pointed straight ahead. The woman followed the line of his arm and saw only thick undergrowth on a low hill. Jacy trotted past her and let his horse paw at the dirt on the hillside. In a very few minutes the vegetation and a light covering of dirt had been pushed away to reveal a bronze door.
" It leads into the dungeons of Bron. Seldom has it been used. Our founders decided an escape path was required should an attacking army lay siege."
" Now it' s providing entrance." Inyx wasn' t sure she believed Noratumi' s explanation, but it hardly mattered. Several of his men worked to open the massive door. A shaft large enough to ride a horse in gaped open when they had finished.
" Close the door after us," commanded Noratumi.
" What of the concealing vegetation and dirt? Don' t you think someone should stay outside to camouflage the entrance?"
Noratumi answered the questions in a roundabout fashion, saying, " The door securely bars from the inside. Since all remaining citizens of Bron are within the protecting walls, there can be no harm in locking it from the inside."
Even as he spoke, an arrow whizzed by to bury its broadhead in a time- dried wooden beam.
" The door! Get it closed!" cried Inyx. She turned in the saddle and stared out the opening. From downhill came a thin line of grey moving out of the forest. Claybore' s soldiers had received reinforcements- or not all had been drowned. Where they came from hardly mattered now. That they fired so accurately did. Three of Noratumi' s number had fallen under the unexpected onslaught.
The huge bronze door moved with ponderous slowness. Inyx dodged another arrow, jerking away as the fletching grazed her cheek. The door slammed shut with a deafening boom. She heard the echoes travel far down the tunnel.
" I hope this isn' t a dead end," she muttered to herself. The warrior woman assured herself the locking assembly on the inside of the door was sufficient to hold back any but the most fervent of attacks, then rode deeper into the hill, following Jacy Noratumi.
The sound of fists pounding impotently against the bronze door trailed her all the way into Bron.
" Now that you have had a chance to relax, would you care for a tour of my lovely Bron?"
Inyx shook her head. They had arrived in the palace dungeons. Getting their mounts up the stone stairs had been a trial, but after that, all had been exactly as Noratumi had promised. Their reception by the remaining citizens within the walls had been little less than tumultuous. Inyx had little taste for such adulation and had pleaded tiredness, and was shown to a sumptuous room in a tower overlooking both the inner city and the valley beyond the walls.
She had taken the opportunity not to sleep but to use an eyepiece obtained for her by the chamberlain to study the movement of the greyclad troops without. What she had seen didn' t please her. More and more gathered around the bronze door in the hillside. Sheer numbers would soon spring open even that sturdy lock. She had no desire to be trapped within the city by the magical barrier and to find Claybore' s soldiers boiling up out of the ground like ants.
" You realize that the tunnel will have to be destroyed?" she asked bluntly.
Again came the polite dancing around the issue. Noratumi gazed out the same window she had and said, " When enough of the grey- clads get into the tunnel, it will be flooded."
Inyx nodded, then brushed back a strand of her black hair. That was a wise decision, she knew. Don' t just destroy the tunnel. Destroy it in such a way that Claybore had to pay dearly for it.
Not that the mage cared one whit for his men. To him they were little more than insects doing his bidding. They were expendable in his drive to conquer all the worlds along the Cenotaph Road.
Even as they stood, Inyx felt a rumbling rising up from the very foundations of the city. Noratumi nodded solemnly. The tunnel had been flooded. She closed her eyes and tried not to think of the watery coffin that shaft had become. Somehow, trying not to think of it made it all the more vivid for her. Stone walls. Water rising. Claustrophobia. Horses rearing and throwing riders. Fear. Cries of panic. Water to the waist, the neck, over the head. Bubbles. Lungs exploding. Death.
Cold, lightless, watery death.
" I would see Bron," she said suddenly, wanting to get her mind off the slaughter under the city. " It appears to be a fair city."