Night Calls the Raven (Book 2 of The Master of the Tane) (5 page)

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Time became meaningless, crawling along slowly with tiny breaks marked only by the occasional meal and candle wisp. At first Teek had kept count of the times his meals came trying to keep track of days by the number of bowls he’d licked clean. But, his idealistic thoughts of dwarfs and their fairness were snuffed out with the faded candlelight ten bowls of gruel ago. His previous feelings of eventual release had quickly dissipated leaving him with the growing pain of loss and loneliness that brought on a dreaded sense of hopelessness. Would he live out the rest of his life in this tomb, forgotten by all and given up for dead by his family? It seemed almost inevitable. He began to sink into despair. The thought of death quickly became a welcomed friend if he could only find it. Better dead then left alone in such solitude and darkness.

The latch on the door clicked and the door moved outward. Was it time for another meal? He wasn’t sure but it seemed like he’d eaten only a short time before. He was puzzled why they even bothered to feed him if his lot was to stay trapped in this solid rock prison. No matter. He’d decided to stop eating. There was no pleasure in it anyway. A slop of gruel three times a day was nothing to look forward to. He would rather just be left to his dark tomb to die. The pain of starving to death could not compare to the pain he felt for his family. They would never know what happened to him. They would always wonder why he never returned. He supposed that, in time, his mother would depart on another appeasing journey to send his soul to his ancestors. The thought of her putting herself in harms way just for him was almost too much for him to bear.

A bright light followed the open door this time forcing him to roll away and cover his eyes. It was not the tiny candle he was used to that flooded his cell. A rough voice growled, “Put this over yer eyes,” just as something landed in his lap, startling him. He felt it with his hands and discovered a small piece of oval leather with small cords tied on either side. Picking it up, he
wrapped the cords around his head and quickly tied them at the back leaving the leather as a protective shield over his eyes.

“On yer feet,” the voice growled again.

No sooner was he on his feet then rough hands grabbed him and forced his arms behind his back tightly tying his wrists. The hands then grabbed his arm and dragged him forward and out of the cell. He didn’t know whether to feel elation or dread. Was he to be set free or executed? They turned left down another corridor but then made so many twists and turns that he lost all sense of direction. They did ascend a number of stairways but such knowledge was of no use to him and only made his legs tire more quickly to the point where he had to be carried. He was surprised that the time spent cramped in his little cell had weakened him so.

Suddenly, they stopped and he could hear a door being opened. The guard carrying him stepped through and Teek felt a cool breeze wash over his body filling him with renewed life. It was like knocking down the cobwebs left from a long winter and sweeping the dust out the door. He was outside again! He could feel the warmth of the sun caress his tired limbs warming them in its embrace and sparking his heart with a newfound hope. Could it be he was finally going to be let go? The thought was almost too much to hope for. He would go straight home and take his family in his arms again and never let them go. He had had enough adventure for one lifetime. Twee had been right. The best adventures were those spent at home with his family.
Twee
.
Oh
,
no
. He still had his appeasing journey to complete. He had to complete the task, and he would. But, then it was straight home for good.

As they walked, he could make out the distant voices of others quickly growing louder until they made another turn and he found himself in an overwhelming din. With the noise came a myriad of smells that made his mush filled stomach grumble in anger. The smell of cakes and
roasting meats and frying vegetables along with many tasty scents he couldn’t put names to wafted against his nose making his mouth water. Where could they be where such a large number of people would be gathered?

A chill ran up his spine as he remembered the two men who had captured him after he released Tchee from their trap. Zel and Brak were taking him to Gildor to be sold as a slave. Is that what the dwarfs had in store for him now? But they were far from Gildor. They had to be. Even though he had never been there, he knew that it was days from where he had been captured, unless, that is, he’d been taken there while unconscious and had been held in a dungeon under the city this whole time. The sun’s warmth suddenly became cold with the thought. This adventure was nothing like he’d imagined it would be.
Where are you Twee with your promise to watch over me
?

With another unexpected turn, the noise from the crowd quickly faded away until it became a low hum in the distant background occasionally broken by a passerby. Teek thought he could feel a gentle rise as he was carried farther along into the unknown. Another door opened and then closed behind them, shutting out the sun and breeze along with his hopes of release. It was too much to try and guess what his fate would be. The ups and downs of hope and despair were wearing on him to the point of sapping away any will to live on. He suddenly felt numb. More doors opened and closed but he paid them no mind.

Finally, he was set down on his wobbly legs and rough hands jerked at the knot holding his eye covering in place. The leather that had protected his eyes from the unfamiliar light was suddenly removed leaving him naked to the brightness of the room. He kept his eyes closed, shut tightly for long moments while trying to allow them time to adjust to the light.

“Where am I?”

The question was answered with a heavy handed slap to the back of his head. “Ye be askin’ no questions here, boy. Ye just be answerin’ what’s asked when it be asked.”

Teek blinked at the brightness catching tiny glimpses of his surroundings as he tried to get a better grasp of his situation. What he really wanted to do was cry, but somehow he knew that to do so would only earn him greater wrath from his guard.

The room they were in was small and without furnishings. Three sconces holding torches were fixed to the walls on either side making it painfully bright. A large, iron-studded, wood door greeted him in the front mirroring the one they had just come through at his back. Except for the carpeted floor, he felt that he very well could have been back in his cell.

He suddenly realized the presence of a second guard standing behind and to his left, making the room feel even more cramped and confining. Both guards had powerful looking arms that looked large enough to crush stone by merely swinging the meaty hands that hung at their sides. Neither carried a visible weapon but it was obvious that either of them could snap him in half without the slightest effort. Both were dressed in black-leather that gripped tightly to their rippled bodies almost giving them the appearance of having black skin. Long red hair draped in a braid down their backs contrasted greatly against the leather giving it an almost blood hue.

The one thing that did strike Teek more than anything was that the proud beard that normally swathed the belly of most dwarfs was curiously absent. Instead, each wore a tightly trimmed goatee that extended on either side of the jaw like small pieces of rope. These, like their hair, were tightly braided. In fact, both dwarfs would have looked strikingly identical save for the patch that covered the left eye of one.

Long moments stretched on and passed and neither guard moved or said a word. Both might have been carved directly out of the stone that made up the walls if not for the occasional breath
that revealed them as living. What were they waiting for? Teek had dared not move from the spot where they dropped him but his legs were starting to weaken and cramp and he wasn’t sure how much longer he would be able to stand. Suddenly, the door opened and he yelped with surprise. This earned him another smack to the head that nearly dropped him to the floor.

Another black leather clad guard stood in the door and issued a solitary command. “Come.”

Teek felt the rough hands grab him about the arms again and half lift him forward into a cavernous room that was grander than any he had ever imagined. The room was so large that Tchee could have flown comfortably around in it and not been cramped in the least. Four gigantic pillars rose from the smooth rock floor each carved in the shape of a rock troll holding up the ceiling far above. They gave Teek the shivers. He had heard of such horrible beasts from Twee and he couldn’t help but feel that their eyes were somehow directed right at him. At first it appeared that the walls to either side were decorated with magnificent tapestries that reached from ceiling to floor but he quickly realized that the pictures were actually carved right into the walls themselves. They were beautiful and terrible at the same time with intricately designed and perfectly detailed scenes of battle and death that were truly frightening. He couldn’t help but feel that the warriors depicted in the panoramas could, at any moment, jump out of the rock and attack. Although there was no obvious source of light, the room shone brightly, reflecting off the polished rock and giving him the feeling that nothing could be hidden here.

The guard that opened the door took the lead while Teek’s original two guards flanked him on either side and dragged him forward. He got a quick glimpse of two larger and more imposing doors to his left as they turned and moved up the center of the room between the ominous troll pillars. Those doors must have been the main entrance while the small door they came through was obviously meant for prisoners.

It was then that he noticed the large dais commanding the far end of the room. It was made of three tiers of marble slabs that supported an imposing throne at the pinnacle. Each tier was twice his height making it impossible for anyone short of a giant to take the steps up to the throne from the front.

The first tier held a pair of statues on either side fashioned to depict giant wolfs with teeth bared and a paw extended in attack. The second tier was left empty while the third held the throne. It was pure gold and inlaid with large sparkling gems the size of Teek’s head. With the amount of light reflecting off the polished walls the gems created a kaleidoscope of flashing color that made his head swim. On either side of the throne there was a large battleaxe that curved in a long S-like shape with a spiked point at the top. He had the ominous feeling that these were not mere decoration. Taking in the room as a whole it was obviously meant to cower and intimidate any who was unlucky enough to require an audience. It was working.

Finally, resting his eyes on the one commanding the thrown, Teek felt the room a simple decoration compared to the chiseled dwarf sitting above him. He didn’t particularly look much different than the other dwarfs he had seen—the same long, red hair, the same piercing blue eyes, the same large nose and rough features—but there was a sense of authority about him that was almost tangible. More than any of the carvings or light or flashing gems, this dwarf was what commanded the room. There was the source of all forebodings felt within these walls. There was real power.

Teek was brought before the dais and then unceremoniously dropped. “Kneel and bow yer head before the king,” the dwarf with the eye patch boomed.

Without the tiniest thought of resistance, he did as he was commanded even going so far as to prostrate himself full out on the floor.

A soft but firm voice glided down from the throne above giving him a sudden chill. “Usually I don’t be wastin’ me time with matters like this. But, because of the nature of the crime, I
be makin’ an exception. Ye be charged with theft of a royal article, which may be punishable by death, so choose yer words carefully. How do ye plead?”

Teek looked up slowly at the piercing blue eyes glaring down at him. He immediately thought of a raptor ready to take down its prey. He stammered. “
Your M-m-majesty, I haven’t stolen anything, Highness. There must be some mistake, Your Grace.”

The king hammered his fist into the arm of the throne. “Do ye be callin’ me and me men a liar then?” he hissed.

“N-n-no, Your Greatness. I-I really don’t even know what it is I was s-s-supposed to have stolen, Exalted One.”

A dagger suddenly stuck into the stone floor in front of Teek’s face making him jerk away in surprise.
“M-m-my dagger.”

“Yer dagger?” the king’s voice boomed through the hall. “That dagger
be havin’ the mark of the royal seal of Axegrinder and belongs to me son, the high prince. So, the question be, how be it that ye have it?”

“It was a gift from my mother, Sire. She got it from a dwarf named Helgar years ago when she was on an appeasing journey for my father and twin brother. She gave it to me before I came on my appeasing journey for my friend, Twee. Please, Your Lordship, I have never stolen anything in my life; especially from dwarfs.”