City of Jade Read online

  City of Jade

  Dennis Mckiernan

  Dennis McKiernan

  City of Jade

  Background

  EVENTS IN THE LAST YEARS OF THE FIFTH ERA

  In the year 5E1009, in the Boskydells, three Warrows dreamt the very same dream-or was it a ghostly visitation? Regardless, they beheld the specter of Aurion Redeye, who told them that he was redeeming a pledge made long past. Redeye called for the Warrow Company of the King to be reassembled, formed as it was in the Winter War, for a great storm was coming from the east, and the Gjeenian penny would soon be seen on the borders of that small land, summoning the company to the side of the High King.

  And so, the word went out, and Warrows flocked to the cause. Among those who volunteered were two buccen-Binkton Windrow and Pipper Willowbank, who slipped away from their uncle Arley, and went to the village of Rood to see the local Thornwalker captain to join the ranks. The captain turned them down and sent them packing, for Pipper Willowbank was but thirteen summers old and Binkton Windrow just three moons older. Fuming in disappointment, they went back into the care of their uncle, who was training them in their professions yet to come.

  And as to this uncle Arley, his own past was shrouded in mystery; it was something he spoke little of, though the skills he taught to his nephews would be most useful in many ways.

  Regardless, Pipper Willowbank and Binkton Windrow resolved to run away and join the Company of the King, once it was on the march.

  In that same year of 5E1009, as foretold by Redeye’s apparition, a dreadful threat to the High King’s realm came from the east: it was Kutsen Yong, the Dragonking, and he would destroy all, he and his Golden Horde. He would be joined in this endeavor by the ancient enemies of the High King-the Lakh of Hyree, the Chabbains, the Rovers of Kistan, and the Fists of Rakka-Southerlings all. But the most terrible foes the High King’s Host would face were not the Southerlings nor the Golden Horde, but the Dragons under the sway of the Dragonking, for nought could withstand the might of Drakes. . none but the gods, that is, for other forces were at work, other powers in motion.

  The Gjeenian penny arrived at the Thornwall, and the Warrow Company of the King set out to join the Host on the banks of the Argon. Binkton and Pipper then made preparations to follow after. Yet they were thwarted by a great blizzard that enveloped the Boskydells, and by the time the thaw came in the spring of 5E1010, the Dragonstone War was over.

  Even so, the end of the war was not the end of things to be done, for an Impossible Child-Bair by name-was yet to challenge those very same gods to stop their meddling in the fates of Man and Elf and Dwarf and Mage and all other beings as well.

  Caught up in this aftermath precipitated by Bair were Aravan and Aylis and others, later to include Binkton Windrow and Pipper Willowbank.

  This is their story.

  1

  Cold Anger

  DARK DESIGNS

  LATE AUTUMN, 5E1010

  [THE FINAL YEAR OF THE FIFTH ERA]

  In a tall tower hidden deep in the Grimwalls, that long and ill-omened mountain chain slashing across much of Mithgar, a being of dark Magekind sat in his dire sanctum and brooded about retribution. In the time since the end of the Dragonstone War, the Ban had been rescinded and the ways between the Planes had been restored, though most of those crossings were now warded by Elves and Humans and even Magekind to prevent the passage of Foul Folk from Neddra into the High and Middle Worlds. But none of these things were what occupied the seething thoughts of Nunde. Instead, his rage was directed at the vile Dolh-vile Elf-who had slain the Black Mage’s god, to the ruin of all Nunde’s plans.

  Well he remembered that day, when Gyphon’s silent scream of the dying had sounded across the Planes; it had driven Nunde and all of Black Magekind to their knees in agony, the unbearable pain affecting all Drik and Ghok and Oghi and Vulpen, along with other fell beings, all the creations of the Dark God.

  How to take vengeance, how to gain redress, occupied all of Nunde’s thoughts.Aravan must die, that is certain, but the method of it is the question; for he is surrounded by staunch and powerful allies, and slaying him will be no easy task. Oh, there are ways the Dolh can be killed outright, but that isn’t the point at issue; instead agony and grief and unbearable despair must overwhelm Aravan before he suffers a dreadful death. Hence, strippinghim of all he values comes first, and doing so in a fitting-some would say unspeakable-manner must precede the Dolh’s own demise.

  How to do it, how to accomplish what most certainly had to be done, that was the question, that was the issue, and that was what the Necromancer pondered throughout the long tides of night.

  Indeed, I could bring an army from Neddra to Mithgar, but where would be the pleasure in that? No subtlety, no iron taste of cold revenge? Pah! With the ways between the Planes now open, it isn’t like that time I slew ten thousand on Neddra to gain enough ‹fire› to bring a rout of Chun and others through the temple in Drearwood despite the Sundering. Ah, what surprise upon the faces of those who sought to purge the ’Wood of Gyphon’s minions. They did not know that a small measure of Mithgarian blood flows in my veins along with the blood of Neddra, as well as that of Vadaria. Nor did any know that I could capture the rout in my ‹fire›, my aura greatly expanded by those I had slain. And we fell upon those Humans and Elves in a great killing; had it not been for Aravan’s crystal-bladed spear and Riatha’s cursed Darksilver sword, we would have slaughtered all ere Silverleaf and the others arrived, and we would have butchered them as well. But with the Guk and their steeds and the Vulpen all brought down by Aravan and Riatha, the remainder of my Chun were no match for them, and I had to flee. Even so, Riatha’s blade nearly was my undoing. Nunde’s fist smashed down upon the arm of his dark chair. This is another reason to render vengeance upon Aravan and all of those he cherishes.

  As dawn broke in the eastern sky, Nunde rose from his seat at the slit of a window, preparing to descend to his quarters. It was not as if he had to flee from the light of day, for, thanks to that fool of a boy Bair, the cursed Rider of the Planes, not only were the in-between ways now open, but Adon’s Ban had been lifted as well, and no longer did the Black Mage and his ilk suffer the withering death.

  No, instead Nunde, by force of ingrained habit-a habit many millennia long-was a creature of darkness, as were his minions, all beings of Neddra.

  Down the stone steps of the shadowy stairwell Nunde descended to his torchlit quarters below, and there he fell into a restless sleep, his mind still churning with thoughts of revenge, as it had done for weeks on end, ever since word had come that it was Aravan, wielding a Silver Sword, who had put Gyphon to death.

  But as the sun came up on this day, Nunde would set aside his scheming and rest, for in the dusktime morrow night he would begin the long journey to the crossing to Neddra to meet with a small conclave of Black Magekind, where, if his immediate ruse came to fruition, the conclave would be under his heel. After all, he had plans to wrench their power from them.

  Aravan could wait.

  2

  Training

  BOSKYDELLS

  LATE AUTUMN, 5E1010

  [THE FINAL YEAR OF THE FIFTH ERA]

  It was a blustery day in the Boskydells, with the wind swaying the lofty pines to and fro and the tall grass in the adjoining field rolling in undulant golden waves. An eld buccan stood back from the edge of the woods, his cloak whipping in the air. Behind him sat a stripling in chains, his wrists shackled, his legs in irons. But the elder paid no heed to the youngster on the ground; nor did the chain-wrapped stripling seem concerned over his own fate. Instead both Warrows looked up high at a rope spanning the gap between two of the swinging pines, the line alternately looping slack and then snapping taut.

 
Between clenched teeth, the black-haired youngster gritted, “Come on, Pip, come on. You can do it.” Yet the worried look on his face said otherwise.

  The eld buccan stood stock-still and muttered under his breath, “Wait for it, bucco. Wait for it.”

  And the trees swayed upright, the rope drawing tight, and in that moment, from the pine on the right, a fair-haired stripling ran out on the line. Across the space he dashed, but just ere reaching the far end, a misplaced foot gave him pause, and he teetered precariously, and in that same moment a gust caught the Warrow and the trees. Even as the buccan fell, the rope drooped and swung away. Wildly he grabbed for the line, but missed. And he plummeted down and down, to land in the net far below.

  “Rats!” spat the chain-wrapped Warrow. He sighed and, with a lock pick, began probing the innards of his left-foot shackle.

  The oldster trudged across the space and to the net, to find the fair-haired buccan lying on his back and looking at the swaying rope above.

  “Well, lad?”

  “I would have made it, Uncle Arley, but for a stupid wrong step.”

  “You would have, at that.”

  The youngster turned over and made his way to the brink of the net, where he grabbed the edge and somersaulted over to land on his feet on the ground.

  “It’s no easy task, Pipper,” said the eld buccan. “But it’s one to be mastered, for there might come a day when you’ll have no net whatsoever.”

  Pipper nodded and sighed and said, “I’ll give it another go.”

  Uncle Arley grunted his assent.

  “How’s Bink doing?” asked Pipper.

  “I dunno,” said Arley, looking back toward the chain-wrapped stripling. “He hadn’t even started until after you fell.-Binkton worries about you, you know.”

  “I know. But it’s Bink I worry about. I mean, that thing with the chains and the knives and the breaking links. . well, it just gives me the blue willies.”

  Arley smiled, and then turned and started toward Binkton, as Pipper trotted to the right-hand pine and began climbing.

  With the smile yet on his face, Uncle Arley slowly walked toward where Binkton sat. Though they had much left to learn, the lads-Pipper, now at fourteen summers, and Binkton, three moons older-were making good strides toward the professions Arley would have them master. Not that he hoped they would follow in his own footsteps; oh, no, that would be too perilous. Yet they were deft, and skill would come, for both had quick hands, especially Binkton, and they were very agile, especially Pipper. And they were exceptionally good with sling and bow and arrow. Why, just last year they had tried to join the Company of the King, and perhaps would have run away to do so, but for the blizzard.

  As Arley came upon Binkton, that stripling had managed to get his feet freed, and now he was working on the shackle at his left wrist. Perhaps within a year or two, Binkton would be quit of all locks and chains in but a heartbeat or three; even so, and at this time, he was quite skilled for one of his young years.

  Arley nodded at the dark-haired buccan, then turned and looked toward the tall swaying pines again, with the rope strung between.

  3

  Opening of the Ways

  ARDEN VALE

  MID SUMMER TO MID AUTUMN, 5E1010

  [THE FINAL YEAR OF THE FIFTH ERA]

  Three months after the end of the Dragonstone War, and four days after returning to the Elvenholt of Arden Vale, a young giant of a man-a tall, gangly youth, some six-feet-ten in height-took it upon himself to confront yet another god. The young man’s name was Bair, son of an Elf and a Baeran-Riatha and Urus their names. Bair was no ordinary being, for he was the Impossible Child, the Dawn Rider, the Rider of the Planes. And just like his father, Bair was a shapeshifter, but into a Draega-a Silver Wolf-rather than into a Bear.

  Though he was yet a youth, the lad had a storied past, for he and the Elf named Aravan had recovered the long-missing, legendary Silver Sword from the bowels of the Black Fortress at the Nexus on Neddra. Together they had used the weapon to save not only Mithgar, but all of creation as well; to do so they had slain the god Gyphon with that very same sword.

  Bair arose from bed in the middle of the night and made ready to go on the mission he had set for himself, and as he stepped from his chamber the aroma of freshly brewed tea was on the air, and from the shadows Riatha said, “Wouldst thou have a cup with me?” She brushed her golden hair from eyes such a pale grey they seemed almost silver, and looked up at her son. At a slender five-feet-six she was tiny by comparison.

  Bair nodded and sat, and she poured. As the lad took up the earthenware mug, Riatha said, “Thou art dressed as if to hie on a journey, and I deem I have seen in thine eyes a lingering from the war.”

  Bair nodded. “Ythir, the mission I took up with Aravan is not yet fulfilled. There is still that which must be done, perhaps as important-or even more so-than that which we have done so far.”

  Riatha raised an eyebrow, and Bair plunged on. “I need to speak with Adon Himself.”

  Now Riatha’s silver eyes flew wide. “Speak with-”

  “Adon, Ythir. Adon.”

  Riatha took a deep breath and then slowly exhaled, and she calmly asked, “About. .?”

  “About Durlok’s staff and Krystallopyr and the Dragonstone. About prophecies and auguries and redes. About a stone ring and an amulet of warding and a falcon crystal. About tokens of power fashioned long past with destinies set to come to fruition in these days. About a debate long ago concerning free choice versus control. And about what Redclaw said to Dalavar concerning Adon, the Drake naming Him Adon Plane-Sunderer, Adon Meddler, Adon Falsetongue. For all those things I have named and more do I need to speak to Him.”

  Riatha turned up both hands. “But why?”

  “To take Him to task.”

  Riatha leapt to her feet. “What?”

  “To take Him to task,” repeated Bair. “Oh, don’t you see, Ythir? Redclaw was right, but only partly so.” Bair threw out a hand to forestall Riatha’s objections. “Hear me out, Ythir: no matter Adon’s intentions, the full of the tale is, we have all-all Elves, Hidden Ones, Warrows, Baeron, Dwarves, Humans, Dragons, Mages, Utruni, and even the Foul Folk-we have all been used as mere pieces in a vast tokko game played by those we name gods. And it’s time it stopped.”

  “But, Bair, surely thou canst not believe-”

  “But I do, Ythir. I do. Look, if Adon and Gyphon had settled this between themselves long past-by combat to the death, if necessary-then we wouldn’t have been mere pawns in that long-played game.”

  Now Riatha did frown and sit again, her look thoughtful. She sipped her tea and then said, “What thou dost say is in part true, but let me ask thee this: if it had come to combat to the death, and if Adon had lost, then what would the world be like under the heel of Gyphon?”

  Bair’s eyes widened, for clearly he hadn’t thought of such. And from a doorway to the side, Urus said, “Mayhap, lad, mayhap all the things you name, the things which you and Aravan and we and many others did, in this time and in the past, mayhap that was Adon’s and Gyphon’s combat to the death, and only by Adon using us could Gyphon be defeated.”

  Bair turned to his sire. Like all Baeron, Urus was a large man, some six-feet-eight and well muscled and weighing in at twenty-two stone, and much like the creature he at times became he had brown hair, grizzled at the tips, and amber eyes.

  As Riatha poured a third cup of tea and set it before Urus, Bair fell into deep thought. But at last he said, “Nevertheless, Da, I need to speak to Adon still, for I am the only one who can do so and return.”

  “But what is it that you would say to Him?” asked Urus.

  “Just this: things have been done which now need undoing, the Sundering of the Planes for one.”

  Riatha gasped, and then said, “Oh, Bair, if the ways between the Planes were opened, then we could. . we could all once again. .” Her eyes filled with tears.

  Urus reached out and took her hand and stroked it, a
nd then said to Bair, “I deem she would have you do so.”

  Bair nodded and then said, “I will ask Aravan to go with me, for as I say, this is but a continuation of the same mission we took on times past, he much longer than I.”

  Bair and Aravan were gone from Mithgar for nearly three months, elar and kelan travelling to the Ring of Oaks in the Weiunwood to cross the in-between, Aravan in the shape of a black falcon and borne across by Bair. And when they returned, a host of Elves came, too-Daor and Rein among them, Riatha’s dam and sire-for the ways between the Planes had been made whole again. .

  “What?” Riatha looked at Bair in puzzlement.

  “I said, Ythir, that the ways to and from Neddra have been made whole as well, and the Ban has been rescinded.”

  “But why?”

  “Oh, don’t you see, Ythir? Any interference subverts free choice, free will, not only for us but for all.”

  Bair looked toward the black-haired Elf who lounged against the wall. Like all Lian, he was slender, but at six feet he was a bit taller than most of his kind. “Help me out, kelan,” said Bair.

  “His argument was quite eloquent,” said Aravan, fixing Riatha with his sapphire-blue gaze, “and in the end he not only persuaded Adon, he persuaded all who attended: Lian, Dylvana, and the gods.”

  Riatha turned to Urus. “But to free the Foul Folk to work their will. .?”

  “Mayhap without Gyphon and His agents driving them,” said Urus, “they will be less inclined to do their ill.”

  “For that, Bair has a plan,” said Aravan, grinning. “One with which I am in hearty accord.”

  “What?” asked Faeril-the damman Warrow-who had served as a loving aunt to Bair from the very day he had been born. “What is it?”