Yemi stood alone on a cold wet hill. She’d spent almost half the morning in the cave with Klar, and here was more cheer in the underlands than there was in that cave. Klar scarcely spoke, and Runa and Zukuz droned on and on about all the woes of the people, while Urum tried over and over to reassure people. Yemi wanted to believe all the hopeful things he said, but she found it hard with all the frowning faces surrounding her. If these older people don’t believe him…
She left the cave when she felt so sad she wanted to just die. She thought of climbing the steps up Mount Enead and visiting with the Starmancers, but that just made her miss Audun, and she remembered Urum Brann weeping over the deaths of Orenti and the other Starmancers at Magni. They didn’t fear the enemy, and insisted on continuing their work. Orenti was too excited over some discovery they were about to make. Now no one would ever know what it was. Maybe when Audun came back they could go back to Aurvandil together, and see if the Starmancers of Cloud Hammer made the same discovery.
For now, she sat on her hill, far enough away for no one to see if she cried. She couldn’t stop herself from thinking of Uncle Balvor. Lobuhl was probably fine, and her parents were strong enough to handle any torture those weak bodied drow could think up. But Balvor was dead. He didn’t even get to say good bye to Idana, from what little Klar told her. And she was beyond worrying over her brothers. They were surrounded by strong fighters, and they had Audun with them. If they had enough sense to listen to Audun, they’d be back in no time with more armies than they’d know what to do with. If they listened to him…
She kept seeing Balvor’s face smiling through his big auburn beard. He was always smiling, even when he was angry or sad. Her first clear memories were of his big, smiling face. He used to plant the biggest, slobberiest kisses on her cheeks, and he’d bury his hairy face in her neck and blow the biggest raspberries. But he was also the first person to treat her like a lady, while everyone else treated her like a child. Even Ror, as kind as he was, still called her baby names like ‘Fustilugs’. Balvor called her his princess, and while other people told her things, he would ask her things.
A tear rolled down her cheek, and a faint, quivering sniffle was heard. It wasn’t her, though. The sniffle came from somewhere else. She looked about, and saw a tangle of curly brown hair poking over the top of a boulder, just a little ways further from the camp. She crept quietly down, trying not to disturb the poor person, whoever they were. Too many of us are sad. She managed to sneak halfway around the rock before being noticed. It was a young boy, not much older than her. She stood up straight when he saw her, and tried to curtsey as Gislain tried to show her. It didn’t work.
“What’s that?” the boy asked between sobs. It seemed his confusion lessened his sadness, or at least distracted him from it a little.
“I tried to curtsey,” Yemi said. “It’s what human princesses do.”
“Why would you act like a human? They’re traitors! They sold us to the goblins and got my pa… my Papa killed.”
He doesn’t know who I am, Yemi thought. He might have known the faces of his princesses, but she did not look herself, with her hair in tangles instead of the beautiful braids he mother taught her, and the smudges of dirt on her face. Klar had bathed with her in a glacier pool a few times, then took to simply commanding her to bathe, then ridiculing her when she stopped, then she took to not even noticing if Yemi were there at all. It had been a lonely week. Ror would call me Fusty, and now he’d be right. I smell like a surt.
“They aren’t all traitors,” she replied softly, thinking of Gislain and Cara, and poor Idana, who might be dead.
The boy looked as if he were going to argue with her, then his face melted into tears. Yemi sat down beside him and put her arm over his shoulder. It wasn’t easy, as he was a bit taller than her, and at the age where dwarf boys become broad and strong. Mum always said Ror was twice as strong as the other boys, even the ones twice as old as him. She remembered Halfur when he was so sick she thought he would die, and how he stood to thank the gnolls, even though he’d lost so much blood, and their monster was standing close to them. Halfur’s strong too, in a different way than Ror. She missed them, and she missed Audun, and she missed her parents and her uncles.
“I hate them,” cried the boy.
Yemi patted his shoulder. “What was your Papa’s name?”
He sobbed for a bit, then went quiet for a moment. It seemed to Yemi like he was trying to think, or maybe remember. “Biri. His name was Biri.”
Yemi thought hard, but didn’t know any Biri. “I know a Buri. But no Biri. Did you live in Ormazum?”
Again the boy was quiet for a moment, then nodded silently. She let him cry for a bit before speaking again. “Where’s your mum?”
Again with the moment of thought. “Crying, and losing her wits,” he stared at the ground for a long moment, “and I can’t take it any more. My brothers died too, and she lost herself, but my sister is with her, and my grandmum. She’ll be all right, soon.”
“You need some time to yourself then,” Yemi understood. She rose to leave, but the boy clutched the side of her dress.
“Please don’t go,” he said. “I’m lonely.”
And I’m Yemi, she wanted to say, to lift his mood with some humor, but she wondered if realizing she was his princess might frighten him, so she just sat back down. I might be able to help this boy. She’d lost someone she loved too, and was beginning to understand a pain she’d never before felt. As much as it hurt, and as dearly as she wanted her uncle back, she was determined to use the sadness she felt to help her people. After all, she was suffering with them.
The death of someone she loved was so different and worse than any sadness she’d known before. It was a dark thing, a sense of wrongness, so unnatural it seemed a dream. She would often ask her father about his father, and he would tell her stories of the fearsome Thaddum, Narvi come again, he’d say, and then he’d look sad. She felt that sadness now. She was learning to understand real hurt, as she would never see or be raspberried by her big, happy, hairy faced uncle again, and it was cutting through her like she’d swallowed a dagger. I might be able to help Audun better as well. She saw her mother’s face, alive and bright, patient and kind, strong and beautiful. No. He suffers in a way I never will.
“Tell me about them,” she said to the boy.
The boy sniffed, then thought, then shook his head. “I can’t. I just…”
“It’s all right. Want to see something to take your thoughts away from sad things?”
The boy shook his head, then nodded. Snot was dripping from his nose into his beard, so Yemi took him to a stream first where he could wash up a little, then led him to the stair to Aurvandil. He complained about the steps being hard to climb, and the trek was arduous. Yemi wanted to shout at him, and even thought of leaving him behind, but she imagined him sitting on those difficult stairs all alone and sobbing, and she couldn’t bring herself to do anything but wait and urge him on.
He sobbed at the top of the steps. That was when Yemi saw that his right ankle was raw and bleeding through his trouser leg. “Can I look at your leg?”
“It’s fine,” he said. “What are we going to see? I’m hungry.”
Why didn’t he eat before going to hide and cry? “We can eat when we get back down. Come on.” This time she didn’t wait for him, but ran to the lift and punched the wall by the lift. A few dwarves she hadn’t seen before came out of a small chamber dug into the mountain. One of them bowed while the other three looked them over cautiously.
“Hello,” said the man who bowed. He had a stern face, but a peaceful smile. “How are the children of Obrus faring today?”
“We’re very sad,” Yemi said, forgetting her courtesies. She was annoyed at the pointlessness of the question. “I’d hoped to take my friend here to Aurvandil. His father and brothers were all killed in the invasion, and he needs something to distract him for a bit.”
One of the other dwarves growled. “That’s what you think Aurvandil is? A distraction? Magni was wasted on you people.”
Yemi’s anger flared, and she ran forward and kicked at the man’s shin. He dodged her kick deftly and put his hand on her head.
One of the other dwarves, a man much younger than the others, pointed his finger at Yemi and was close to shouting. “We open our haven to your people and this is how you repay us? You trespass on our steps, insult our treasure, and attack our elders?”
“Where’s Yul?!” Yemi shouted, kicking in vain at the old man holding onto her head. “I demand to see Yul!”
“How do you know that name?” asked the man with the peaceful smile.
“Because he took me and my other friend to see Autumn’s Relief in one of the telescopes. Now you let me go!” She ducked under the man’s hand and landed a savage kick on his shin, drawing and angered yelp from him, then darted back. She was panting heavily and baring her teeth, and her fists were balled and ready to swing.
“I’m Yul of this yugas,” said the man with the peaceful smile. “Did you meet the last Yul? We made our pass just recently.”
Yemi was confused, but she didn’t really care about their Yul’s and which Yugas it was. She wanted the respect she deserved as a princess, and for this poor boy to have something to think about besides his dead family. She thought hard, trying to find a way to get past these irritating old people. She didn’t want the boy to know she was his princess just yet. He needed to feel relaxed so he could grieve, not pressured to behave himself in front of royalty.
“Hemahd,” she said. “Hemahd was there when the other Yul brought me up. Ask Hemahd.”
The new Yul smiled a little more broadly. “This is a special place to us, young maiden. We don’t allow just anyone up to our observatories. You must be a worthy person for Hemahd and another Yul to allow you. Come, brothers, these children will do no harm. Thrond has paid overmuch for its ancient folly. We accomplish nothing by snubbing them now.”
“We may make an impression on these young ones,” said another man.
“This one has spirit, at least,” said the mean man Yemi kicked. He was leaning down and rubbing his leg, which made her happy.
The new Yul drove his fist into the wall and beckoned them to follow. “What are your names?” he asked while they ascended.
Yemi blurted her name without thinking. “After the princess,” she said hurriedly.
“Ah,” said New Yul. “How are Grar’s daughters faring? It’s such a tragedy, what happened to their uncle Balvor.”
Yemi thought for a moment before answering, as the boy had when she questioned him. “I hear they’re well,” she said, “and yes, Prince Balvor will be missed dearly.”
New Yul nodded, then looked to the boy. “And you, young man? What shall I call you?”
He sniffed and was quiet, likely thinking. “Nes,” he said.
His voice sounded differently than before. Yemi wanted to learn more about him, who his family was, how he hurt his ankle, why he was so hungry and had such a difficult time with the steps. New Yul may learn more from him. He’s an unusual man. They all are unusual here. They seem more like warriors than Starmancers. Aurvandil was almost empty when they came to the top. They walked undisturbed through the Lords of Night, all the way across to a telescope aimed towards the country east of Obrus. There war rocky hills and the land was spotted with groves of trees, and a glacial river cut through into a steep valley. Rocks sprouted like teeth all around the landscape, with dark holes dotting them like a labyrinth of cave mouths.
Nes seemed hesitant to look through. “I’d hoped to show him the star,” Yemi said, “or whatever it is.”
“We’ve moved that lens,” said New Yul. “I think you’ll find a more imminent source of hope looking downward, for now.”
Nes seemed extremely reluctant to look, so Yemi went first. What she was beautiful. The ground was rocky, but very green, and the far bank of the river was rich with bushes and tall grass. The river looked cold and fresh, and she thought she could see fish leaping out of it. The rocks were many and tall, like small towers of some underground city poking through the ground. There were hundreds of caves, and some looked deep. People could live safe and hidden for some time there. Yemi was beginning to wonder if any of their people might be hiding there still. The thought of Idana and the missing citadel children quickened her heart. She came out of the dome and looked to New Yul. “Our missing people could be there?”
New Yul nodded. “We’ve been watching closely for any signs.”
“Nes, come look!”.
He shook his head.
Yemi wrinkled her nose, then went back in and looked through the lens again. The river was flowing quickly, wending about like a crackling bolt of lightning through the steep valley. There seemed to be a stiff wind blowing the grass near the bank, but none of the nearby trees were moving. Yemi looked back at the grass, to see if there were any animals moving through it, when she saw the smiling face of a goblin. Soon there were dozens more, sniffing along the ground and peering into caves.
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Yemi felt cold deep in her bones when she came from the dome again. “There’s goblins, everywhere.”
“Yes,” said New Yul. “We’ve seen them searching through the woods and caves along the river. I take it as a sign of hope that they haven’t given up there search. Whatever they’re searching for, they’ve yet to find it.”
“Have you seen any one else?”
“None of your people, I’m afraid.”
“I meant any of the enemy. Have you seen drow? Or…”
“The wraiths? Your prince Ror spoke to us of them. No, they have not shown themselves. I doubt they will, at least above ground.”
“Do you know what they are? I thought Ror might have imagined them, but lots of other people saw them too.”
New Yul looked at her fora long moment, then waved for her to follow him. They walked across the terrace throughout the Lords of Night, and he led them into a stairway dug into the ground. They went downward into a large and cavernous orrery. There were large windows cut into the north and eastern walls, and in the center, a vast table underneath the metal sculptures of the stars that whirled about the ceiling. An astrolabe dominated the western side. On the vast table were dozens of books, each opened to different pages. New Yul pulled one book to the edge of the table and showed Yemi and Nes a painting of the Lords of Night battling the Warcloud, an ancient beast that once threatened the sky.
“Have you seen this painting?” New Yul asked.
Yemi nodded.
New Yul pointed to the lower right corner. There was Sybella, the Sea Foam Mare, with a half dozen children crammed onto her saddle. Several other children were running into the distance, while she galloped away from the battle.
“We’ve often wondered at the meaning of this painting,” New Yul said. “We have no convincing speculations, but we believe it to be a painting of a true event, and likely one yet to come.”
“These are just stories,” Nes said bluntly. “Only history is true.”
“A popular opinion. It’s far easier to look at a thing not easy to understand and dismiss it as a legend, than to look closely at it and find its hidden truth.”
“Only lies are hidden,” Nes said impatiently.
“Might we have some food?” Yemi asked. “We’re hungry.”
New Yul smiled. “We have a pantry below the orrery. I’ll be only a moment.”
“This place is stupid,” said Nes, after New Yul was gone. “The Lords of Night aren’t actual lords, they’re just stars.”
“The new star looks like something else. I saw it when we first arrived.”
“How did you get them to let you up?”
Yemi thought for a second. “My friend serves the queen.” Yemi missed Audun awfully. He would have looked at this painting and known things the New Yul didn’t, and they’d be talking till late at night. This stupid little boy knew nothing, but thought he knew everything. And why? Why would anyone look at such a beautiful painting and choose not to see that it had meaning. As if someone would take time to paint it for nothing, and then preserve it without any purpose.
“Why don’t you believe in stories?” Yemi asked Nes.
“Because,” he said, “that’s all they are.”
“Do you believe that Narvi, Boldur and Halhaad discovered the motherdark, and hid Heart of the World in the Catacombs? And that he built Thrond to protect the Heart of the Word?”
Nes scrunched his face. “Of course I don’t believe that! Do you?”
Yemi balled her fists. “Well what if I told you Prince Halfur and Princess Yemi escaped from High Alden and were chased by murderers who had a giant wolf, then saved by wolf people who had a giant monster that was even bigger than the giant wolf?”
“I never believe stories like that. I only believe in real things. Why would anyone believe in whimsical tales?There’s no such thing as wolf people with pet monsters.”
“Well, what about the way our kingdom was beaten? How kins that we’d never seen before and don’t know where they come from attacked us all at once?”
“But that happened! We were there. We saw the trolls and the wraiths.”
Yemi shook her head. “And so for you it’s a memory. But if you tell someone who wasn’t there, then for them it’s a story. Does that mean it wasn’t real? And if you make a painting of it, how would you show the whole story? You’d have to paint different parts of it all at once, so you’d have to use your imagination. See? This was a real battle, like the one we just fought. Just because we weren’t there, doesn’t mean the story isn’t true.”
New Yul came back then. He carried a tray full of fruit and roots. Nes ate greedily. “Thank you,” Yemi said.
Yul smiled. “You’re a very wise young girl. Your mother and father must spend a lot of time teaching you.”
All Yemi could do was nod.
“Did they survive the attack on your realm?”
Yemi nodded again, then sighed. “They aren’t here, though.”
“Mayhaps they’re dwelling in the caves we saw,” said Yul.
“I’m going to tell everyone about those caves,” she replied. “Urum will send people to search them, I’m sure.”
Nes dropped his apple. “Sorry,” he said.
“I see it now,” said Yul. “A daughter of Grar would have Chieftain Brann’s ear. Why did you not proclaim yourself on the stair, Dread Highness?”
Nes was wide-eyed. “Princess?”
Yemi sighed. “I didn’t want to scare you.”
Nes backed away towards the door to the orrery, slowly turned, then ran. Yemi sighed and ran after him. She caught up to him at the lift. He was banging on the wall next to it, but it wasn’t moving. A pair of younger Starmancers were looking on with worry.
“What’s wrong with you?” Yemi shouted.
Nes was wild with fear. “I’m sorry!” he kept saying. As Yemi approached him he sank to his rump and buried his face in his hands. “I had no choice!”
It was coming together for her now, the wound on his leg, his hunger, where she found him, why he wouldn’t look at the caves through the telescope. She sat down next to him and patted him on the back. “It’s all right. No one can blame you for leaving them. I’m just happy you made it back to us. Is your mother really losing her wits outside?”
He shook his head and sobbed. “I don’t know where she is. I just came back when you found me.”
“Did your father and brothers die in the battle?”
He nodded.
She looked at his clothes. They were worn and dirty, but fine enough for a prince. “You’re from the citadel, aren’t you?”
He nodded again.
“Were you with Idana?”
“They betrayed us. The humans did. Why would I trust her? She was taking us to them.”
“No she wasn’t.” Yemi spoke softly, doing her best to sound reassuring, but Nes was becoming more and more upset.
“You weren’t there! She took us down the wrong tunnel. We all knew the way to get out, but she made us turn around and go deeper. Then goblins came after us, from the way we were going, and we followed her and she took us too deep, and we saw one of them.”
“One of the wraiths?”
Nes shuddered and nodded.
“I wasn’t there. Halfur and I were escaping High Alden. But I saw gnolls, and one of their monsters. A centaur.”
Nes looked up. His beard was again a mess of tears and snot. “You weren’t making that up?”
Yemi smiled. “It’s a true story. I wish it was made up, though. The centaur was horrible. And I was so frightened by the murderers and the dreadwolf. But the wraiths sound scarier than anything I saw.”
“They were everywhere in the citadel. They whispered, and screamed, and this one…” he shuddered violently. Yemi hugged him tightly. He choked down his sobs and took a deep breath. “You’re a good princess.”
She smiled widely. The Starmancers muttered something to each other. When she looked their way they were quiet, and looked on with approving smiles. I want to be a good princess. I want to be the best princess I can be. That means I need to be everything my people have lost. “You were brave to survive the battle. And you’re brave to tell me all these awful things right now.”
“I ran away. How could I be brave?”
“You made it to Cloud Hammer, all by yourself.”
Fresh tears streamed down his cheeks. “I wasn’t far behind. I followed everyone for a while, but I was too ashamed to sad. I looked for my mum but couldn’t find her. And I was afraid I’d be in trouble for running from the others and leaving them.”
“You won’t be in trouble. I promise you. And I’ll help you look for your mum. I’m sure she’ll be happy to see you.”
“I left my little brother with the others. She’ll want to kill me for abandoning him.”
“I’ll kill her first!” Yemi said angrily. Nes looked at her in shock. Audun’s bruised cheek and his sneering old hag of a mother flashed in Yemi’s mind. It’s not her. She calmed herself. “I’m sorry. You must have a good mum. She’ll be glad one of her boys is alive, and if you tell us everything, then we can go back and look for everyone else, and maybe find him. When did you leave the others?”
“In the mountain, when the Fog spoke.”
“It spoke?”
He nodded, then buried his face in his hands again.
“What did it say?” asked Yul. He’d approached them quietly, and was now sitting in front of them.
“Go on,” said Yemi. “No one can hurt you now.”
“I c-couldn’t hear it at first,” Nes was shivering. “It l-looked like a skeleton, but made of fog, and then it g-grew a mouth and h-hair, and h-hands. It sounded like, like, w-w-wind and, a h-horn. I can’t explain. I was so scared. It kept reaching with its hands…”
He began shuddering again. Yemi tightened her arm around him and lay her head against its shoulder. She wished his mother were here right now, so he could have all the comfort he needed. I have to be what my people have lost.
New Yul placed a hand on Nes’s wrist. “We may be able to save us all, child. The answer is here, to all these things, but we must know all we can. Please, what did this creature say.”
“It touched the human lady, and said 'hunger'.”
Yemi leaned back and gasped. “It ate her?!”
“No,” said Nes. “She pushed us all down the hallway and we ran. I, I fell, and I lay there and hid. I was too frightened to move. She turned around and called to me. One of the older girls was holding my brother. He looked at me and cried, but I was too frightened. Then, all I could see was fog, and I heard the door closing.
“Then you didn’t leave them at all!” Yemi was confused.
“I did,” he stammered, “I stayed down. I fell and stayed down. Always get back up, Nes. That’s what my father told me, every day of my life. But I stayed down…”
He couldn’t speak any more. Yemi held him tight with both arms and rocked him back and forth till he stopped crying.
“If I may trouble you only once more,” said New Yul, “where did the creature touch Princess Idana? Please, it’s important. Did it touch her heart?”
Nes was quiet and still. His tears had run dry, but he wouldn’t speak. At length he reached in his trouser pocket, then pulled out something that glittered in the sun. He gave it to Yemi without opening his eyes. It was a necklace, made of gleaming silver with Araadani gems set in a pendant of the Autumn Triske, crest of House Gace.
“The mannarim necklace,” said New Yul. “Balvor’s Folly.”
“No,” Yemi said, holding it up in the light. “It’s a fake, made of silver. My father had it made, and had my brother Halfur switch it with hers. But hers was fake too.”
“I don’t understand, Dread Highness.” Yul leaned close and looked at the necklace.
“King Salimod kept the one my uncle sent her, to examine.” She had been so caught up with the shock of everything that happened to them, Yemi had not thought to ask the most important question. But her mind was putting the answer together now. She remembered the puzzle that she, Halfur, Cara, Gislain and Istan put together on Cavanal Hill, only the pieces weren’t of an old man about to cross a river, they were of a furtive and scheming king, giving Thrond’s greatest treasure to a hidden enemy in exchange for his life. Only he was dead now, brought to justice be her own brother, the Crownless King. “He gave it to our enemies, and that’s why they attacked us. They were afraid we’d be too strong with mannarim, so they all banded together to stop us while they still could.”
Yul nodded. “I think you have the sense of it. Which means the true necklace, the one made of the Heavenly Ore, is in the hands of your enemies, in Primus of Drow.”
Ror would get it back, or Halfur, or both of them. They would come back with all the Doomed, and the Knights Vanguard of Eruhal, and they’d get help from her father’s friend, Queen Nandi, and they would take back Thrond. But it would not end there. If she knew her mother, she would urge her father to strike back, and he would not need much urging. Thrond would bring down the hammer on its enemies. People said that Obrus was a dragon, and that the dwarves of Thrond were its teeth and claws. They would prove this true, and those who pulled that dragon’s tail would regret it. Yemi’s heart burned, and she gripped the fake necklace in her hand so tightly the pendant bent. Her little voice quaked with fury. “Not for long.”