23. Under the mountain
It was all Angelica could do to hold her poise, nod, and reply "He will be greatly missed. Carry on." She let her breath escape slowly as Antrayon retreated back to the solace of his friends. Angelica savoured the feeling of the warm airs passage, rueing the cruel threads of fate that had woven this desolation about them. Would any of them still breathe when dawn came?
"My Lady" Liva asked formally, interrupting Angelica's dark reverie. "Shall we press on, or look to defend here for the night?"
"We go on" Angelica said without hesitation "I'll lead out, as planned."
Liva moved to salute, then stilled her motions, dipping her head gently instead. Angelica caught her meaning and saluted Liva, then after permitting Caterham one last long drink, turned towards the towering mountains once more.
Alzuule rapidly had their captives fill their water skins as well, then hustled them along after Angelica, with Liva riding as rear guard using her elevation on Maii to see further behind them all.
Angelica looked back at her straggling band, the forgettable spot of such sudden and brutal carnage. I didn't even ask who it was that we killed. She looked ahead, picking the faded remnants of the path Victoria had described.
There will likely shortly be too many for me to ever possibly remember she pondered darkly as Caterham loped easily along.
The raven dropped in a long glide, and she watched it land on the abandoned ridgeline. At least one of us will dine well tonight.
@>-/----
The path meandered along past various heaps of stone and rubble that perhaps long ago was a beautiful town. Rusty remnants of an elegant dome now adorned a stunted tree, struggling to survive in defiance of the climate.
Angelica paused, listening intently for trouble, but heard only the sigh of the rising wind over the forlorn stone. Caterham picked his way about the slowly rusting parts of a spire in what was once a street, and in the weeds she could see bright colours. Leaning down in the saddle she used her sword to push the tawny grass blades aside, revealing part of a stained glass window. Pieces of deep blue glass as thick as her hand were joined by lines of lead, black with age unknown, to deep red panes. The overall pattern was lost forever but ... I've seen that style of window before. But where?
Caterham let out a quiet squeal that blended into a low nicker, and Angelica took his hint. Onwards towards the mountains, her eyes and ears hunting for the watchers they were all quite certain would be waiting. She settled back into the saddle, shield up ready and sword drawn.
She paused at the edge of a wide plaza, waiting for the others to come up. Both Alzuule and Roelof had changed to strung bows, and went left and right respectively into the rubble ready to draw. Antaryon herded their 'guests' with his sword casually behind them as Liva came up to Angelica.
"I can't hear anyone." Angelica said simply "It's an obvious place for an ambush, yet it seems they don't wish to do that today."
"There is plenty of day left yet" Liva said dryly. "Shall we?"
Angelica walked Caterham forward, his hooves clacking on the cracked old stone slabs and crunching ruined mosaic tiles. Still no arrows. Unsettling even.
Across the plaza the ruins stood a cathedral, well, what was left of a cathedral. Whether its towering walls had succumbed to time, fire, or stones hurled by catapult mattered not; the broken walls still stood higher than Angelica upon Caterham and would serve well as cover. The once ornate doors lay shattered in huge chunks strewn about the place, joined by heavy sheets of metal that once might have been on the roof. Someone had cleared a humble path through the rubble, leading up chipped stairs and into the dusty mess.
"Hold" a male voice rang out firmly from the left, as Angelica reached the centre of the open space. She glanced to the voice but could not see the speaker and kept moving towards the cathedral at a steady clop clop.
"You have attacked and killed six of ours, I demand satisfaction!" the Mann yelled "Face me with honour, or die where you sit!" his anger bubbled beneath the polite words.
Eyes down! If they recognise me, we’re done for. Angelica wished she had a full faced greathelm such as the Old Duke preferred, but they had none on the ship. I should have worn a veil, Karcion take it! Too late to fix that mistake now, eyes ahead!
"No!" a new voice rasped out from Angelica's right. "This is not the time!"
The sounds of heavy boots on stone, chain links shifting, and hiss of swords being drawn to her right lingered in Angelica's ears. But she ignored them and kept plodding forward. This could get messy. Very messy. Control. Thank the Qin my shield is on the other side, I ought to have put a cover on that, too. Amateur!
The mutterings of urgent council wafted up from her left, but the wind hid the words from Angelica. The click of a horseshoe on stone gave that away though, as did the creak of a bow and the urgent hiss of someone trying too late to prevent another from the noise. Nearly there.
Angelica could hear the click of a horse behind her, and hustled footsteps. Liva and the others were following her across the plaza. Smart; to stay in the ruins with their number would see them hopelessly outflanked and outnumbered, better to chance it.
"Release our men back to us!" the voice to Angelica's left demanded boldly.
"Go" Liva said without hesitation, followed by the sound of running feet.
Angelica focused her attention ahead, not wanting Caterham to trip or cut himself on the ragged remnants of the door piece that she was passing. Her people were running fast behind her. Liva had ridden to the centre, Maii's hooves quiet now as she stood, holding the attention of all as her ducklings darted from reeds to reeds across the scarily open pond.
"Who are you?!" the voice to their left demanded angrily.
"Indeed, who are you?!" the voice to their right retorted quizzically.
"Interesting question" Liva replied. "You seem to have the advantage?"
"Invaders first!" the voice on her right added without any hesitation, a raspy laugh coming up from the stomping battle line being formed.
"I am Maulvorn!" the commander of the cavalry to her left called back defiantly. "And we are here to cleanse this land of the foul darkness that is you!"
"Without darkness, light has no meaning." the voice to the right retorted with a chuckle. "You can never defeat us. Run boy, run while you can. Get on your ships and sail home." The sound of heavy infantry locking shields into formation was ominous, and unmistakable. As was their mocking laughter. "Oh. And Boy? Leave your horses. I'm tired of walking. This is my bargain, take it or die."
"For the light!" the commander yelled in certain refusal, the roar of his Menn taken up without hesitation, their horses noisy from the excitement.
"Light be with you, may you all get back to the ships safely." Liva whispered quietly as they went.
The old wooden planks by their feet slid aside easily, revealing stairs spiraling down cut into the dias. With one last glance at the sky, Angelica raised her shield and advanced into the gloom.
Behind them, the sound of heavy cavalry moving at the walk, withdrawing in good order despite the jeers from the waiting infantry.
"Smart" Antaryon said softly "good for them. There is no advantage to the cavalry fighting here, why risk it when they can fight on their own terms on better ground."
"Good leader" Liva agreed, as she helped to pull the planks back into place above them, their world suddenly plunged into darkness as the last one thunked into place.
This was either a tunnel into the mountain as Victoria had promised, or their tomb.
@>-/----
They held on the stairs, Liva holding her breath and listening for pursuit. Antaryon set about using a flint to light his mining lantern. The thing was a small metal plate that had been hammered into a curve and bent closed at the top, which fitted over a candle on a matching wooden base. The whole was held together by leather straps, and took some fiddling but worked well once adjusted just right, throwing soft yellow-white light before them. Once their eyes had adjusted, with a soft "go" from Liva they crept down, shadows leaping about them as they went.
Angelica relaxed a little as the narrow stairs opened out into a room full of ornate junk, but with the large doors to the tunnels that Victoria had described. As befitted the ruins they were in, they were barred from inside the cathedral. Liva and Angelica promptly remedied that, the wood so old and dry it began to crumble as they pulled it clear.
"Now this should get interesting." Angelica said, with smile that surprised even herself. Her books always promised such amazing adventures; she had at least seen knights.
Together they pried the door ajar, and with faces more befitting stealing cake in the middle of the night from the castle kitchens than facing dire unknown, they squeezed through, pulling the door closed behind them.
@>-/----
Antaryon lifted his lantern high at Liva's request as the corridor opened out ahead of them into a wide room with no obvious purpose.
"Oh my" Liva gasped, her marvelling immediately echoed by the others.
The far wall was entirely covered from floor to high ceiling, wall to wall, with an intricate scene of a Mann holding a bird. Upon one low bank of a gentle stream, the Mann stood facing to the left of the picture. The stream itself had been cleverly placed, sparkling from a natural seam of silvery minerals running through the rippled grey-white rock. Across the gentle stream on the opposite bank were rushes, with trees carved into the background. In the distance to the right of the picture was a city, with soaring spires speckled with silver and gold, silver waterfalls tumbling down towards the plain they were on. Above the tableaux another mineral seam had been deliberately revealed, large flecks of gold leading to a nugget comet sweeping across the sky.
Angelica could not resist and after letting the whole settle into her mind went up to it, removing her glove to feel the exquisite detail beneath the lightest touch of her fingers. The carving had been scratched and cut into the raw stone of the mountain.
Individual feathers on the bird had been carved, with the cuts artfully angled to catch the lantern to show the bird's light and shadowed camouflaged plumage. The bird was in the hands of a hunter ... his clothes were utterly unfamiliar, although obviously practical. Yet the very weave of the cloth had been scratched on top of deeper cuts that, like the bird, used light and shadow to lend vivid depth to the scene.
"What bird is that?" Angelica asked softly, not wishing to disturb the serenity conveyed.
"It's a snipe" Antaryon replied, catching himself before he added "M'Lady". Especially here, they needed to stick to the plan. "They are clever little things, hard to see and fast on the wing. To take one without harming it and by hand ..."
"A timeless masterpiece for a master." Angelica replied, her head tilted as she continued to be delightedly lost in the picture. The more she looked, the more she saw, right down to the insect burrows on the mud at the edge of a river.
"Here!" Liva said in quiet delight, pointing out a softly etched snipe hiding on a nest behind more heavily carved reeds. She placed her hand on Antaryon's, moving the lantern slowly back and forward. As the light changed, the etched snipe vanished, only to reappear as the lantern moved enough for the soft shadows it was drawn with to return.
"It must have taken years?" Angelica pondered.
"Longer" Liva replied with wonder. "Decades". She traced her fingers over the wall "Even these flowers are perfect. I recognise them, they have a sweet honey fragrance in the morning."
“No, no no.” Antaryon whispered, his voice a mix of awe and fear. “This stone is a Gneiss. It’s hard, and resists scratches. It chips unevenly, you can see the gentle wavy lines of light and darker rock, from the soft rocks that long ago were crushed together to make this type. This did not take decades.” He drew his breath, reeling at the implications. “This took lifetimes.”
“Actually…” Angelica said softly, then continued at Liva’s expectant breath. “Actually that isn’t a hunter, the bird is too calm. I think this is Kernos, Qin of Nature, adding snipes to Elyria.”
The light wobbled as Antaryon made a gesture of reverence to the Qin.
Liva nodded slowly, and with a glance to Angelica said as quietly as she could “we’ll be off now.”
It was all Angelica could do to drag her eyes away from the intricate carving and follow as Antaryon lowered the lantern, letting the hunter return to his rest in the shadows as they went deeper, under the mountain.
