The Village
“What is it?”Treylen cracked the door and put an eye to the opening.His cousin Laureth pressed near to the door, a dark shawl covering her hair, her face unpainted.“Lord Cren’pin, can we talk?” “I don’t know, can we?”Treylen pulled the door open and scanned the hall. The guard assigned to his room stood to the left, feigning disinterest. To the right was Oakwren— the hunter who’d accompanied him into the Dragon Lands with Jargus and Remin. She seemed to be accompanying Laureth.“I had thought we might walk. You had expressed an interest in touring the old tower, had you not?”Had he? Treylen nodded anyhow.“Just a moment.” He shut the door in her face and raced to the bed.Rime, I’m leaving you here. He pulled the daggers from their hiding place and strapped them on beneath his shirt. As dangerous as it was to
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Land of Dragon 26
The Reunion Treylen peered into the shadows as the steady click of metal onstone drew closer. From a tunnel opposite where they’d entered came a monstrous lowsater. His cloven hooves were shod like an oxen and his frame towered over the doorways of the empty village. Uberetus was tall enough to make the Lowsater he had seen in the mine look small. Treylen had to wonder how a man his size could even manage in the tight tunnels and lifts of the mines.Though his star-speckled coat was more patchy than it had been, and his vest and skirt more threadbare, he still carried himself with the patronly bearing of an elder regent. Perhaps he was once a great leader of his people.“You can come out, Lomish man. I see you perfectly well there in the dark.” His voice was loud but welcoming, deep but silken, and drawled with the cadence of one whose patience knew no end.Uberetus stopped jus
Land of Dragon 27
The HandbagOAKWREN WAS A WOMAN OF FEW WORDS. IT MADE THE WALK BACK EASIER,as Treylen only had one set of incessant questions to answer. Laureth wanted to know everything about his time in Lome and the night he had rescued the Lowsater. From training with Marziel, he’d learned enough to answer most of them without giving any real information. It was bad enough that they knew his purpose here.Instead, he shifted the focus to what Marziel had told him of the lowsater, how they were not the founders of the Stone Kingdom but inherited it from the dwarves long ago. A kind people, they had welcomed humans into their mountain home and together, they had carved grand cities on the slopes.When the Jaul conquered the Stone Kingdom, it was the humans who’d caused their downfall, and the Lowsater—a peaceful people—had fled rather than allow themselves to be drafted into the armies of the Jaul. Some fled overland, others undergroun
Land of Dragon 28
"You look well,” Treylen’s father said, rolling his eyes. "What are you doing here?” Treylen asked.“Your mother thought that you would be glad to see us. Aren't you?” “I’m sure that I would be, but I'm working. How did you even get aninvitation?”“Your aunt has a friend in Count Warren. Oh, my son, you are so important now.” It was dripping with sarcasm, but there was a grain of envy in the words. “What is it you're up to anyway?”“Just admiring the design work here. I’m a bit surprised you built it. This lodge is not your style.”“It's how they wanted it,” his father sighed. “I told them it didn't match the tower. Anyway, Owen Priscus did the drafting and the oversight. He has a protégé of his own now. Less work for me. You could have done the same, but then I suppose that's not quite as grand as being a lord.”“I’m not a lord,” Treylen whispered, looking around. “I serve a higher power. Besides, I wouldn't have built it like
Land of Dragon 29
The Gathering It had taken half the night to coerce Rime into staying in Treylen’sroom and not his mother’s. Not only had she fed and lavished attention on him, but Rime was angry at Treylen on his mother's behalf.Treylen had reminded Rime that they were serving a higher power than his mother. He was playing as Cren’pin: a murder suspect who had no business mingling with dinner guests he didn't know.At last Rime had slipped in through his balcony door and scowled at him from the top of the wardrobe. A visit with Treylen's mother always left the dragon like that, but he couldn't fault him. Sometimes he felt the same way toward himself.He couldn't sleep.He lay awake and stared at the ceiling, thinking of what the caverns below might hold and wondering just how foolish it was to disappear now when the pieces were just starting to fall into
Land of Dragon 30
The Watergate “The glyphs tell us we must first cross the water then travel underit. This would concern me, for the dwarves who first mapped these passages could go far longer than your kind on a breath, but my father suggests it may not be necessary. The paths often change over the years.”Brome held a torch aloft for the humans as they walked around the rim of the underground lake. The hooves of the Lowsater twins crunched on dark sand. On the right, softly rippling black water stretched off into the distance. On the left the collection of old stone buildings grew larger and grander.At last they reach the heart of what had once been a proud city. Most of the buildings here were of cut black stone. It was roughly-hewn and not in any style that he recognized. Treylen had to wonder how a place so grand could fade from history—for despite the crudeness of the cuts, the scale of it all an
Land of Dragon 31
The Waystone The following day, after some debate, they chose a passage thatHalfindle and the Lowsater agreed upon. The clan woman’s time exploring the caves around Wetherdin seemed to have lent her an understanding of the minds of the old tunnel builders.Rime confirmed that the tunnel chosen was leading them deeper into the Dragon Lands. Even underground the dragon had some innate sense of direction.By Halfindle’s guess they had passed the first range of mountains and were walking below lands that no hunters from Wetherdin dared to venture over.Treylen wondered if it wouldn't have been faster and easier to simply go over them. But he alone was a strong enough climber to make the journey. Now that they were dry again, they walked in relative comfort. The torches wouldn't last, so at intervals when the way was straight and unobstructed, they let them die. Then he, Rim
Land of Dragon 32
The Dwarven Gate It took more coaching than anticipated to get Treylen’s cousin downthe cliff into the pit of spines then up the cavern wall to the passage the lights indicated. But when it came time to do it all again at the next cave, there was no need to teach her again. She sped down the rope more quickly than Oakwren or the twins could manage.There were three more junctions, each separated by an hours-long trek. Sometimes it was a walk, others a crawl, and the junctions themselves were wildly different. The third junction was a circular chamber—small, and symmetrical with a murky pool at its center, that none dared fill their waterskin from. At each intersection the lowsater took out a hammer and chisel to mark the path they had taken.The fourth junction was a vast open plain with a ceiling so low that even Treylen had to hunch over as he walked, but wh
Land of Dragon 33
The Shell Once they entered the hellcaves it was clear why the twins had beenso nervous even before they’d seen the dwarven gate. The chambers above had closely resembled these. Wide and winding, they had the feel of the sprawling understory of the forests of Lome. But in place of brush and trees there were fallen boulders, jagged crystals, and dripping columns of dark stone. The sound of running water echoed from far off and the heat and mugginess grew the farther they walked. Scattered about the caves were thick patches of oozing fungus, glowing toadstools and long, stringy slime that seemed to move ever-so-slightly if watched close enough.Along with thoughts of Lome came his memory of the otters there— beasts the size of men who dwelled in the river and stalked their prey in packs.At least here he and Rime weren’t alone.Brome and Noulea continued to lead albeit more