At last he came to the edge of the meadow and a small hollow just short of the tree line and the ever watchful crystal Sentinel totems. A campfire burned in the center of a circle of stones, illuminating the small group gathered around it.
“Well, it’s going to be a while, my brothers Sha-Timuran,” Drakis said as he approached.
“Why?” Belag asked, straightening up from tending the blaze. “What is it this time?”
“Would you be surprised to hear I found someone incompetent in charge?”
Belag laughed deeply. “Among the Legions of the Emperor? I’d have been surprised if you hadn’t!”
Drakis smiled back at the manticore. “The field marshal has gone off to find one of the Myrdin-dai to ask about our special arrangement-and he’s the second one today to do that. With four more folds ahead of us, I don’t know how long this is going to take. It might have been faster just to come back with the rest of the Centurai.”
“Maybe they’ll pass us on their way home?” Belag shrugged.
Drakis nodded with a laugh and then turned toward the chimera. Both were leaning comfortably against small stacks of their field packs. Drakis pointed toward the dwarf sitting between them on the ground. “Uh, don’t you think that’s a bit much?”
Thuri and Ethis each held separate ropes around the bound hands and feet of the dwarf. A gag was tied tightly over his mouth.
Ethis considered the prisoner for a moment before replying. “No, it seems a reasonable precaution.”
“Why? What did he do?” Drakis said.
The chimera looked at each other, their blank faces considering for a moment.
“He kept promising not to escape,” Thuri answered at last.
“He promised not to escape,” Drakis asked, his brow furrowed with the puzzle, “and so you tied him up?”
“He wouldn’t shut up about it,” Ethis replied, his large eyes blinking indignantly. “He kept going on and on about how we could trust him and how he had nowhere to run and how he was glad it was us who took him as a slave captive of the war.”
“It was unnerving,” Thuri finished.
Drakis shook his head. “Fine, keep his hands and feet bound if you must but we’ve got to feed him. We need him alive-if only to explain to Lord Timuran why the prize we sent to him is a valuable treasure.”
Thuri shrugged and reached over with his second right hand to tug at the knot. After a few moments struggle-the knot had been tied rather tightly-it gave way. Thuri yanked the gag clear.
“Oh, thank you, Master Drakis. .”
“No master,” Drakis replied flatly. “Just Drakis. We’re all slaves here-and you had best remember that includes you.”
“Of course, forgive me,” Jugar nodded vigorously. “Brothers together, bound in war and circumstance-slaves are we all to the fates. Jolnar himself looks down upon us, does he not. . an omen of our merging destinies?”
Belag and the chimera all glanced up into the deepening blue of the sky, the wandering star shining above the darkened silhouette of the treetops.
Drakis did not look up, but considered the dwarf. “You know of the gods?”
“Oh, I know much of the gods,” Jugar smiled, his eyes shining. “We are on good terms; all fools are watched over by the gods. Jolnar, Tsajera, Mnera. . even Rhon himself look favorably upon fools. But most of all Qin.”
“The Wise One?” Ethis scoffed. “Why would Qin favor a fool?”
“Oh, Qin values fools most of all,” Jugar said, tilting his head to one side as he spoke. “He trusts the fools to live and learn. In them he holds his trust to remember the things that were forgotten. Of the time when the plains of all Chaenandria shook beneath the mighty armies of the manticores, the armor of their fathers and their father’s fathers shining in the bright sun as they ran to war, singing to the spirits that ran with them and made their armor bright and their weapons keen. Their manes were long, flying behind them, and they ran into glory in defense of their clan-prides. Their might was great and the prides were free to make war as they saw it. Their ships sailed the Sea of Benis and their justice was feared. This was long ago-long before the Rhonas elves came to Palandria and made it their own.”
Belag snorted. “You are a fool; Rhonas conquered Chaenandria to civilize the manticores. We were a backward, violent race, destroying everything we touched. Becoming a part of the greater Rhonas Imperium brought justice to my race.”
Jugar considered the manticore before he spoke. “Of course, so say the Rhonas, and thus it must be so. I am only a fool telling the tales of a fool, but that is how the gods have made me and so I must be. Qin himself would tell you of an ancient time-long before the elves had formed more than tribes-when manticores, chimera, and dwarves. .”
“Dwarves?!” Thuri laughed in surprise.
“Yes, and dwarves,” Jugar nodded earnestly as he continued. “Together they built a great civilization of their own. Its name is difficult for us to pronounce and lost to the knowledge of the Rhonas, but its name meant ‘the peace of reasoned thought,’ and it ruled in glory for nearly three hundred years. The Rhonas have torn down its towers and walls until all evidence of its existence has vanished from its conquered lands, but in the wild lands beyond the Rhonas Imperium its glories are said to be found still!”
“An ancient lost empire of invisible buildings?” Ethis scoffed, poking at the fire with a long stick. “How convenient.”
“Yet that was nothing compared to the humans,” Jugar said in hushed tones, leaning forward toward the fire, its light playing on his ancient, craggy face. “It was the humans who created the greatest empire ever seen on the face of the world. It was they who fought the dragons of the north and won their respect. They alone stood up against the expansion of Rhonas, for their empire was mightier than the dwarves, manticores, and chimera combined!”
Jugar paused for effect, taking in a deep breath.
The silence was broken suddenly by outraged laughter.
“Humans? A great empire?” Belag roared, his large hands grasping at his belly as he laughed uncontrollably.
“Ooh! Fear the terrible two-armed beast!” Ethis hooted, throwing his four arms up in mock alarm. “The brittle-boned warrior in his might!”
“Hey, stop it,” Thuri said through an irrepressible grin that broke into laughter as well. “It’s not. . it’s not that funny.”
“Their empire is probably invisible, too,” Belag snorted loudly, his side beginning to hurt. “The gods know their hordes of humans are not to be seen!”
“No, you don’t understand,” Jugar shouted into the hilarity that swirled around him. “I can prove it to you! I can show you. .”
“Show us your invisible kingdom?” Ethis nearly choked.
“We’re probably in it right now, eh, Thuri?” Belag shook with laughter. “What a fool!”
Jugar sighed and caught sight of Drakis.
The human was not laughing, but rather staring angrily back at the dwarf.
“I can show you,” Jugar said emphatically to Drakis, his words nearly buried by the laugher that still rang around him. “Believe me, I can show you!”
But Drakis just turned and walked into the complete darkness that had finally fallen over the meadow.
CHAPTER 9
The lightning edges of the fold flashed as Drakis stepped through onto the floor of the small temple. It was a minor community fold that served the local Houses of the Icaran Frontier-the farthest reaches of the Imperial Western Provinces. Three weeks and a lifetime ago, Drakis had marched into this same fold with over eighty of the House Timuran Centurai.
Now he stepped down the wide treads again onto the same tall grasses and low undulating hills. The gentle, early morning breeze drifted across the slopes, rustling the young wheat in the fields that surrounded him. Drakis drew in a deep breath, taking in the familiar smells of the dewy earth and the faint tang of the seashore to the south that lingered in the air. His field pack was suddenly lighter.