Dragon Wing by Margaret Weis

Author:Margaret Weis [Weis, Margaret]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Epic, Fantasy, General, Fiction
ISBN: 9780606311267
Publisher: Demco Media
Published: 2004-08-29T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 31

WOMBE, DREVLIN, LOW REALM

“ALFRED.”

“Sir?”

“Do you understand what they're saying?”

Hugh motioned to Bane, chatting with the Geg, the two of them scrambling across the coralite. Storm clouds gathered at their backs and the wind was rising and keened eerily among the bits and pieces of lightning-blasted coralite. Ahead of them was the city Bane had seen. Or rather, not a city but a machine. Or perhaps a machine that was a city.

“No, sir,” said Alfred, looking directly at Bane's back and speaking more loudly than was usual for him. “I do not speak the language of these people. I do not believe that there are many of our race, or the elves either, for that matter, who do.”

“A few of the elves speak it—those who captain the waterships. But if you don't speak it, and I assume that Stephen didn't, then where did His Highness learn it?”

“How can you ask, sir?” said Alfred, glancing significantly toward the heavens.

He wasn't referring to the storm clouds. Up there, far above the Maelstrom, was the High Realm, where dwelt the mysteriarchs in their self-imposed exile, living in a world said by legend to be wealthy beyond the dreams of the greediest man and beautiful beyond the imagining of the most fanciful.

“Understanding the language of a different race or culture is one of the simpler of the magical spells. I wouldn't be surprised if that amulet he wears— Oh!”

Alfred's feet decided to take a side trip down a hole and took the rest of Alfred with them. The Geg stopped and looked around in alarm at the man's cry. Bane said something, laughing, and he and the Geg continued on their way. Hugh extricated Alfred and, keeping his hand on his arm, guided him rapidly over the rough ground. The first raindrops were falling out of the sky, hitting the coralite with loud splatters.

Alfred cast an uneasy sidelong glance at Hugh, and the Hand read the unspoken appeal to keep his mouth shut. In that appeal, Hugh had his answer, and it wasn't the one Alfred had given for Bane's benefit. Of course Alfred spoke the Gegs’ language. No one listened intently to a conversation he couldn't understand. And Alfred had been listening intently to Bane and the Geg. What was more interesting—to Hugh's mind—was that Alfred was keeping his knowledge secret from the prince.

Hugh thoroughly approved spying on His Highness, but that opened the other nagging question. Where—and why—had a chamberlain learned to speak Geg? Who—or what—was Alfred Montbank?

The storm broke in all its deadly fury and the humans and the Gegs made for the city of Wombe at a dead run. Rain fell in a gray wall in front of them, partially obscuring their vision. But the noise made by the machine was, fortunately, so loud that they could hear it over the storm, feel its vibrations underfoot, and knew they were headed in the right direction.

A crowd of Gegs were waiting by an open doorway for them and hustled them all inside the machine.

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