Crystal Gorge

“You seem to have changed a bit since we left Veltan’s part of the Land of Dhrall,” Ekial noted. “We’ve been talking here for ten minutes, and you haven’t once reached for your sword.”

“I’ve got other things on my mind now, Ekial,” she said. “How well did you get to know the Trogite Narasan during that war down in Veltan’s Domain?”

Ekial shrugged. “We talked to each other a few times, but we got a bit better acquainted in Veltan’ s house before Narasan and his men—and you, of course—sailed off to the east. Judging from what I saw during that war above the waterfall, Narasan’s extremely good—for a foot-soldier, anyway. He knows exactly what has to be done, and he does it quite efficiently.”

“I got pretty much the same impression,” Trenicia agreed.

Ekial gave her a lightly puzzled look. “Was there some reason why you didn’t just turn around and go back home when you quit working for Zelana’s sister?”

“Curiosity, Ekial,” Trenicia replied. “These people don’t fight wars the way we do on the Isle of Akalla. I learned a great deal during the war in Veltan’s land, and I thought I might learn more during this war. The more we learn, the better we become. I might even decide to learn how to ride a horse—if you’ll agree to give me lessons.”

“We might want to talk about that someday,” Ekial replied with a faint smile.

Trenicia felt a certain apprehension as they followed Dahlaine on into his cave under the towering Mount Shrak. The notion of spending days and days in a hole in the ground disturbed her more than a little.

The passageways—or perhaps tunnels—that led back into the mountain were decorated, if that was the right term, with what appeared to be icicles made of solid stone, and Trenicia shuddered at the thought of something so unnatural.

The passageway they followed finally opened out into a much larger chamber, and that relieved Trenicia quite a bit.

“We’ll come back here in a while,” Dahlaine told them, “but for right now, we should probably go take a look at my map. It’s fairly accurate, and I think we should all examine it rather closely. If Lillabeth’s Dream was correct—and I’m sure that it was—we should all look at Crystal Gorge very closely.” He looked at Narasan. “Since your man Gunda is the expert on fortifications, I’ve got him down there working with Captain Sorgan’s cousin Skell putting up a solid base for the wall your men will need to hold back the creatures of the Wasteland.”

“Those two work together fairly well,” Narasan agreed, “so I’m sure they’ll have a solid foundation in place by the time my men get there. Let’s go have a look at your map, Lord Dahlaine. I think much more clearly when I’ve got a map in front of me.”

They trooped on back along another tunnel and entered a very large chamber with a balcony that went around the outer edge and closely resembled the balcony in Veltan’s house far off to the south. Trenicia and the others were able to look down at the presentation of the mountains to the south almost as if they were standing on a cloud about a mile above the most probable battleground.

Narasan smiled faintly. “Our maps seem to be getting better and better,” he said. “As I recall, my friend Hook-Beak here was terribly upset back in Lattash when he found out that Red-Beard was using gold blocks as a base for his map.”

Dahlaine shrugged. “The more our people practice, the better they get. There’s one feature that might start some arguments, though. It’s a notion that your man Keselo came up with. There’ll be Malavi horsemen stationed in your fort, and we were all beating our heads on the wall trying to come up with some sort of gate that we could open and close very fast. We wanted the Malavi to be able to ride out of the fort, of course, but we wanted a gate that we could slam shut as soon as the Malavi were clear. Keselo came up with the notion of a gate that slides up and down rather than swinging out and then back in. Keselo’s positive that his new kind of gate can open or close almost instantly.”

“That’s our Keselo for you,” Padan said with a grin. “It sounds like he’s just invented a magic gate.”

“Only if you want to accuse me of using magic,” the little smith called Rabbit said, “since I’m the one who made the silly thing. When we put it in place after your men build the fort, there’ll be a rail on each side of the break in the wall. The gate’s made of iron bars, and there are two wheels on each side of it. Those wheels are supposed to ride up and down those rails. Your people will raise the gate by pulling on ropes that’ll run up through pulleys on top of the wall on either side. When we want to close the gate again, we just tell your people to let go of the ropes. The gate will drop back so fast that nobody will be able to get through.”

“Brilliant!” Narasan exclaimed.

“Keselo and I sort of liked it,” Rabbit said modestly. “I think we’ll need quite a bit of grease, though. We don’t want that gate to get stuck when it’s only half-closed.”

“How far apart will the bars on your up-and-down gate be, Rabbit?”

“Not far enough apart to let any snake-men wriggle through,” Rabbit replied. “The gate’s going to be very heavy, so the pulley crews need to be about as strong as bulls. If it won’t break any rules, I’d suggest that Maags might work out better than Trogites, but that’s between you and Cap’n Hook-Beak, Commander Narasan. Keselo and I build things. You and the cap’n decide who’s going to use them.”

Trenicia was leaning over the balcony railing peering down at Dahlaine’s replica of Crystal Gorge. “Could you brighten the light just a bit?” she asked Dahlaine. “It’s a little shadowy down there.”

“Of course, Your Majesty,” Dahlaine replied. He made a slight gesture in the direction of the light hanging in the air over the map, and the light grew brighter and brighter. “How’s that?” he asked.

“Much better.” Then Trenicia looked a bit more closely at the light, and her eyes went very wide.

“She’s a pet,” Dahlaine explained with a slight smile. “When Ashad was just a baby, she used to hover over him all the time, and I was never able to persuade her that he didn’t feed on light the way my brother and sisters and I do. We can talk about that some other time, though. Do you see anything about Crystal Gorge that the rest of us might have missed?”