“Arisha stitched pockets into my sleeves and at the top of my boots,” the wizard explained. “This way it will be highly unlikely that I will be disarmed as easily as last time. If we meet Jerrod again, then I will make certain of him.”
After lunch, Ruthven addressed the seven men whose horses showed the worst signs of illness. Among them was Simon, who cast the werewolf an angry look.
“Have my steward check their bedding and feed,” he instructed the men as they parted. “It might be that some poisonous plant has got into their food.” With that, the column continued onward.
“If it happens to our animals, then we will be left alone in the Pass of Silvarea.” Gideon Gleeman said as they rode on.
“Troll country is it?” Doric asked eagerly.
“No,” Drezel informed him sharply. “There are no trolls there, as you will see shortly.”
Theodore found himself riding alongside Lord William. The young man looked uncomfortable, and his face was pale.
Is he afraid even here?
The noble must have seen Theodore’s concerned look, for he responded with a wan smile.
“I am not used to riding for so long. Hurts the thighs,” he said, and sighed.
“Perhaps you should have gone back with the escort,” Theodore suggested. “You could be in Varrock shortly, back with Lady Caroline.”
William grinned, and when Kara rode alongside them she gave the nobleman a knowing look.
“She is a nice lady, William,” Kara said. “It will be a lucky man who wins her. And I would like to offer her my thanks, for she saved me some embarrassment at the dance by sending her maid to help me dress. Although I saw her on the day we left, on the terrace, I didn’t have time to stop.” She flashed her smile. “She looked very happy on that terrace, Lord William.”
Kara urged her horse on and rode to join Gar’rth near the front of the column. William gulped.
I have missed something there.
They rode on as William gazed elsewhere.
“So you and Lady Caroline…” Theodore said.
William lowered his face, and Theodore saw how he had gone red.
So it’s true!
“Say no more, William,” he said with a smile. “I can guess the rest.”
Up ahead, Ruthven was urging them to quicken their pace. It was afternoon, and the land had changed. The verdant green of the woods had given way to harder ground, and before them- rising like two gateposts set for giants-stood the entrance to the Mountain Pass of Silvarea. It was a daunting place, devoid of colour and life.
“Hard to think anyone would fight a war over this, isn’t it?” William said at Theodore’s side as they entered the pass. The pinnacles of the mountain tops were so high that the valley floor was near-permanently in shadow, save at midday when the sun was directly overhead, and that had passed some hours since. So they rode in a grey twilight, the cool air and the echoes of their voices upon the rock faces made Theodore think they were in an otherworldly realm.
“This is the Pass of Silvarea,” Drezel explained, his voice heard by all in the stifling quiet. “Legend tells that a battle was fought here between Morytania and Misthalin in a war that lasted a hundred years. Nothing lives here now, save one old man who scavenges bones for a living. He has been doing that since before I ever came here, the poor mad fool.”
Suddenly Doric gave a shriek. Theodore turned in his saddle to see the dwarf lean precariously to one side as a black shape vanished into the shadows. Castimir was by him in an instant, steadying him before he fell.
“What was that?” Ruthven shouted angrily.
“It was a bat!” Doric replied defensively. “A huge one. Came right for me.”
“For the love of Saradomin,” Ruthven cursed. “If you shout like that in Morytania, then the embassy will be short-lived indeed.”
“Not all creatures are what they seem,” Gar’rth warned. “Especially here, so close to the river.”
Drezel nodded.
“You are correct. And bats perhaps more so than others. Is it not true, Gar’rth, that the more powerful of the vampire race can turn themselves into a bat or a wolf?”
Gar’rth shook his head.
“I do not know. But they are powerful.”
“If they are that powerful, then how come they haven’t crossed the Salve in such a guise?” Doric asked. “Why not fly over?”
“The holy barrier that separates our world from theirs is best viewed as a sphere,” Reldo said. “The river is just one side of it, so you could imagine it towering into the sky and maybe deep beneath the earth.” The young librarian smiled sourly, and looked at Gar’rth. “I have been reading up on all things to do with Morytania. That is my job-to read histories and accounts of your land and try and see if they are true. There is much in the library in Varrock that isn’t, however. Such as that accursed prophecy,” he finished bitterly.
“Papelford believes it,” Ruthven told him. “And the Wyrd seems to, as well.”
Reldo lowered his gaze sullenly and whispered under his breath so quietly that only Theodore, nearby, heard him.
“Papelford’s a selfish old fool.”
Then Kara spoke.
“Tell us of the vampires, Gar’rth. What are they really like?”
“Time is nothing to them,” he replied. “Their plans span human lifetimes, but they become bored…”
“They have no ambitions,” Despaard added when Gar’rth hesitated. “They do not age, so if any were to study magic, for example, and possessed the will to persevere for centuries, then they would, inevitably, become as great as any sorcerer who has ever dwelt on this world. But, in truth, it must be a miserable existence, and they would likely forget all of their education after a century or two.”
“Oh, no. No, I disagree,” Albertus Black said. “Think what I could do, or what Ebenezer could do, if we had centuries to practise and perfect our science, to experiment and theorise and experiment again? Every field of discovery would be laid bare for the good of all peoples.”
“You would lose your ambition my friend,” Ruthven warned bitterly. “It is our mortality that defines us-it gives our human lives meaning and impetus. Not so if centuries become mere weeks or hours. What joy would you take in a summer afternoon or the simple blossoming of a flower? To you, these would pass by without notice. It would be but a pale shadow of your current existence, albeit a far longer one.”
Albertus made to reply, but the look on Ruthven’s face, suddenly angry, seemed to persuade him otherwise. After a moment, Theodore turned to Reldo and Lord William, and when he spoke he did so in an undertone.
“Tell me about Lord Ruthven,” he said. “He mentioned last night that his wife died in agony at the hands of Lord Drakan’s servants. Is that true?”
William nodded quickly.
“It is. The Gaunt Herald, many believe,” he said grimly.
“The Gaunt Herald?” Theodore asked.
“There is a legend,” Reldo continued, “going back centuries, of how a herald of a King of Misthalin displeased his monarch. The man was executed in an offering to Morytania. He was sent across the river to appease Drakan and his ilk. It is said that he appears to offer you your heart’s deSire, in exchange for something monstrous. In many tales that is the child of the victim, or the murder of an innocent…” He looked over his shoulder furtively. “Did you see that painting in the great hall above the fireplace? The one with the woman and child?”
Theodore nodded.
“That was his wife, before her illness, and the baby was Lord Ruthven’s daughter,” Reldo continued. “I have heard some whisper that one winter, many years gone, when Lady Ruthven lay ill, something came to visit him. People say it was the Gaunt Herald, on his horse of bones. He is supposed to be a hairless man of immense height, dressed in a black robe, his skin stretched so tightly he wears a permanent horrible lear. Others say that to see him is death-”