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"N-No! Y-Yes! N-\fes! I did wants梬ant梚n! And you heard m-me! You're a guardian troll, aren't you? And this is a gate to Faerie梩o Faerie!" Now the sprite opened his eyes wide-He wanted to leap up and hug the troll, but common sense suggested this might be a bad idea.
"Bright fella, ain'tcha now? 'Course this is Faerie! An' I'm a troll, ain't I? An' I'm guardin' the gate, ain't I? Whaddya think?"
Bolder now, Yazilliclick looked around at the 'gate.' It wasn't much, really. It passed right through this troll's earthen lair, but the sprite couldn't even locate the exact spot he had entered. Of course, his eyes had been squeezed tightly shut, but it seemed he had been pulled through a tangle of roots growing from the dirt wall on the far side of the lair. Elsewhere, he saw a crude stone fireplace where a succulent piece of meat sizzled on a stick. A few clean-picked bones lay in a heap in one corner, and a heavy oaken door stood in the wall opposite the tangle of roots. He noticed a collection of jugs and kettles, all covered with filth and dirt, scattered around the room. Then he remembered the troll's question.
"What do I th-think? I think I'm h-home! I桰 just wanted to come home so bad梥o bad! And you must have h-heard me think about it. That's it梩hat's it! I didn't even know there was a g-gate here!"
"Didn't know! Is you blind?"
"B-BIind? I am not blind!" Yazilliclick became indignant. "It's j-just that everything has changed so much out there that none of the gates even Hook like gates anymore! You should Make a look at what you're g-guarding sometime, then you'd s-see!" He gasped for air, unaccustomed to such long speeches.
The troll chuckled. "You been gone a long time, not to see gate!"
"Oh, I have桰 have! And I'm never going away again?again! N-Now that I'm home, I'm going to stay r-right here!" And then Yazilliclick paused. For the first time since he had sensed his impending death, he thought of his friends. How were they faring in the desolate wasteland of the vale? The
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sprite knew that he couldn't abandon them.
"Kwitcher yakkin'," groused the troll. "I is thirsty. Give me rotgut." He pointed to a filthy jug of unknown origin and equally unknown contents.
Now Yazilliclick's terror had passed, and he knew he had to do something to help his friends. He began to develop an idea for doing so.
"How'd you like some real g-good wine?"
"You gots wine?" The troll was all ears.
The sprite nodded solemnly. "A whole bottle, and I'll g-give it to you梩o you, for a small f-favor!"
"What favor?" The troll's eyes squinted even smaller. "Maybe I just take wine!"
The sprite felt a flash of panic." Y-You can't! You're a guardian troll梱ou told me梩old me! And you're sworn to help and p-protect those who come through your g-gate!" He hoped the troll had some sort of respect for the laws of Faerie.
"Hmph!" But the troll made no move toward him. "What favor?"
" W-Well, you must know where the gates are here in Faerie. Lot's of 'em go to the vale梩he vale! Can you take me to the others and help me find my f-friends?"
The troll considered the offer, and soon his black tongue extended, licking his lips. "Okay. First wine, then gates!"
The sprite's elation caused his hands to tremble as he reached into his pouch and pulled forth the bottle. He felt very proud of himself.
"First w-wine, then g-gates!" Yazilliclick repeated. "I don't m-mind if I have a little drink m-myself梞yself!"
Roll pushed on the great bronze door, half afraid he would find it locked. The other half of him feared what he would find inside. He still carried Gwen, who lay motionless in his arms, her eyes closed.
But the massive portal swung silently open, revealing a huge hall lined with gleaming granite columns. Every surface was wet and gleaming. An array of windows circled
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the hall near the ceiling, their colorful panes of glass filtering the gray light of the outside world into a rainbow assortment of cheery hues.
"By all the gods!" he whispered. "It's a miracle!" He didn't try to hide the sense of awe and wonder that held him rooted to the spot.
"Hmmm?" Gwen's eyelids fluttered open. "What is this place?" She twisted to see, and he set her down, supporting her with one of his arms as she stood weakly and looked around.
"It could be that we've died," Koli said.
She shook her head with sudden vehemence. "No. We're alive. And like you told me before, this place is real!"
"Look . . . through that hall. You see the glow?"
She followed his pointing finger and saw a rosy light flickering down one of the hallways leading from this vast chamber. "Let's see what it is!"
"No! Wait, there might be danger!" Roll's heart pounded and sweat soaked his palms. He loathed the fear within him, but he could not banish it.
"Nonsense! It seems perfectly cheery to me!" Gwen smiled, nodding at the warm light. "Let's see what it is?please?"
The woman led the way now, taking Kail's hand and starting down the corridor. The passage was short and opened into a small room. They saw several bearskin rugs on the floor and assorted furniture梐 couch, several wooden chairs, and a gleaming table梟one of which appeared to have been disturbed by the presence of seawater in the room.
But the most amazing feature of the chamber was the cheery blaze that greeted them from a huge fireplace. Several massive logs, carefully arranged, burned smoothly and evenly, showing no trace of the steam that should have hissed from wet wood.
They sat on one of the rugs, soaking in the welcome warmth of the blaze. Already their clothes had begun to dry, and lifegiving heat once again seeped into their flesh and bones.
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"I give up trying to explain it," muttered Roll. "Maybe this whole place will vanish in two minutes and plop us back into the ocean."
"No," said Gwen firmly.
"I hope you're right. Even if you aren't, I want you to know that, well, I'm sorry I've gotten you into this."
"You saved my life. You have nothing to be sorry about."
"If we are about to die, at least I have the comfort of spending my last moments with you."
Gwen smiled and leaned over to kiss him affectionately. Then the young woman shook her head. "I'm sure we have been saved for a reason梐nd not just to dunk us back into the sea! I don't know who saved us or why, but I suspect we'll find out soon."
And then they both froze in shock. The feeling beneath them was unmistakable, and yet it seemed to defy explanation even more than the appearance of this citadel before them.
For now the castle had begun to move!
"The flock's on our trail. I don't think they've seen us yet, but it's only a matter of time." Robyn balanced upon a limb of a desolate oak tree, looking back along their trail.
"That's all we need!" Tristan turned to look at the gorge, but he was fresh out of ideas. They could leap or climb down into the rocky gulch, of course, but they would be easily trapped when the deathbirds reached them. The terrain on the far side of the barrier offered no hope of concealment, either. They seemed to be trapped no matter what they did.
"This was once a river not so very long ago," said the druid, climbing down to stand beside him.
"Too bad it isn't anymore. Then all we'd need is a boat. We could float down the gorge a lot faster than we can walk through this stuff."
"I've got a boat!" Tavish offered. "Remember?"
Tristan looked at her in surprise, then in remembrance as she pulled a narrow wooden box from her pack. "All I've got
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to do is say the word, and it'll fold into as pretty a craft as you could wish."
"I do remember. I owe my life to you, and that boat, when you fished Daryth and me out of the Strait of Alaron." Pawldo and Robyn nodded as well, for they had both heard the tale of Tavish's marvelous folding boat. It was good-sized and a most seaworthy vessel that, upon the speaking of her word of command, folded into the compact box she now showed them.
"It still doesn't offer much help, with no water to put it in," remarked Pawldo sourly.
"I wonder..." Robyn paused, looking at the riverbed curiously. Impulsively she reached for the ivory scroll tube and removed the top. She pulled out a sheet of parchment, looked at it, and then pulled out another. Satisfied, she returned the first one to the tube and resealed it.
"The Scroll of Arcanus that offers mastery of water" she said quietly. "It might be the solution to our problem."
"Well, let's find out in a hurry. Those birdies are getting closer," announced Pawldo. They could all see a score or more of the soaring creatures, wheeling gracefully over the fens several miles away. But the size of the flock was growing, and their meandering course undeniably brought them ever nearer to the companions.
Robyn stepped to the edge of the gorge, unrolling the sheet of parchment and holding it open before her with both hands. Slowly, deliberately, she began to read.
The words were strange to Tristan and the others, and it seemed they were strange to Robyn as well. More than once she paused, pronouncing a long word very slowly and carefully, but she never misspoke nor repeated a phrase.
The king stood protectively beside her and noticed a strange phenomenon as she read. One by one, the runes upon the scroll disappeared from the parchment, apparently in time with her reading. As she finished and lowered the page, he saw that the entire surface was blank!
He forgot the parchment as he heard a splashing sound. As one person, they looked down into the gorge and watched the snow melt along the bottom, carried away by a shal-
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low streamlet of ciear water. It originated, apparently, from the stones themseives, for there was more of it than could possibly have been created by the melting of the snow, but the trickle remained far too shallow to offer any hope of floating a boat.
As they watched, however, the water slowly grew deeper, and deeper still. Soon it babbled along like a mountain stream some three or four feet deep. And still it continued to rise.
"How deep will it get?" Tristan asked, disbelieving the evidence of his eyes and ears.
"Who knows?" whispered Robyn, staring intently at the steadily increasing flow. Unconsciously she placed her hand around the rose-in-sun medallion she wore around her neck.
For a full minute, the water level rose, storming up the sides of the gorge, filling the narrow passage with its clean, frothing mass, and rushing ever downward toward Myrloch. Finally the current slowed to a forceful, steadily rolling pace, still racing down the riverbed but deep enough to bury most rocks and obstacles in the gorge. Like a smooth green carpet, it lay before them, a few feet below on the only possible route to safety.
"If I live to be a hundred, I'll never ask to see anything like this again," said lavish, awestruck.
"I'm older than that, and I've never even heard of anything like this before!" whispered Pawldo. Even Newt sat quietly for once, gazing at the miraculous flow.
"No time to lose now!" lavish shook off her reverie and placed the folding boat on the rim of the gorge. "Everybody get ready to jump in. Once it unfolds, its own weight will topple it into the water, and we won't get a second chance. You, too. Yak!" She gestured at the box and the water, though the firbolg managed to look more confused than ever
"Garanday!" she cried. The box immediately flipped open, doubling its size. But it didn't stop there. The sides flopped down, unfolding again and again until the rough outline of a boat took shape. Then the keel stretched forth from the bot-
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torn of the box, and the whole craft tilted crazily, barely balanced on the rim of the gorge.
"Get in!" shouted the bard, diving toward the tiller and seizing the shaft in her hands. The other companions leaped in a similar chaotic fashion, and even Yak and Can-thus tumbled into the boat as it slipped off the rocks and splashed into the water. A cascade of icy spray soaked them, but then the bard steadied the helm.
The current swept them along, rolling down the gorge with startling speed, lavish hauled on the tiller with all her strength, narrowly missing a huge outcrop of rock, and then they slid wildly around a corner. Their launching place, and the end of their visible trail, quickly disappeared behind them.
With a sharp cry, Kamerynn reared. He sighted on the creature's flat skull and brought his front hooves down to crush it. Then he lurched to the ground in surprise as his attack met no resistance, for the thing was not where it appeared to be!
The unicorn felt raking claws dig into his flank, and he whirled in desperation, flailing at the air with his sharp horn. He felt the horn meet resistance and drove it forcefully against the invisible form there. Kamerynn was rewarded by a shrill cry of pain and rage.
Then one of the monster's horny tentacles wrapped around the unicorn's throat, and he felt once more the raking claws across his breast. Kamerynn reared and kicked with his powerful forehooves. For a moment, the monster twisted, impaled on the horn. Kamerynn looked at the snarling, hateful face below him and tried to guess at the monster's actual position.
He ducked his head and kicked forward into the air to the left of the creature's apparent location. But he was terribly, fate fully wrong.
Once again his attack met no resistance, and this time, he felt an awful weight land upon his back, twisting his heck backward as the creature remained impaled. Claws sank
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deep into Kamerynn's Hanks, and the creature's tentacles lashed his neck again and again. The unicorn reared backward, but he could not dislodge the supernatural predator.
He bucked and kicked, tossing the beast around and trying to drive his horn ever deeper into the twisting body. But then, with a sharp snap, the horn of the unicorn cracked and broke off. It remained stuck in the monster, but it no longer held it away from the unicorn.
