The Fortress of Glass by Drake David

Author:Drake, David [Drake, David]
Language: eng
Format: MOBI, epub, mobi
Tags: Speculative Fiction
ISBN: 9780765351166
Publisher: Tor
Published: 2006-01-01T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

"Oh Chalcus!" Merota cried. "It's all right! Ilna's here!"

It certainly isn't all right, Ilna thought. Merota hugged her and she patted the girl's shoulder, but she was ready to act if there was need.

Which there didn't seem to be. She'd stepped from the wizard's chamber into a maze with broad aisles. The hedges, twice her height, were holly, but trees and fruiting bushes grew among the interwoven, spiky branches.

Underfoot the grass was soft and curly. The ends were pointed so it hadn't been cropped, but the blades were only high enough to brush Ilna's ankles.

Chalcus was a double pace away, as close as he could be to Merota and still have room to swing his curved sword with reflexive speed. He didn't have his back to a hedge, either, which surprised Ilna till she noticed faint rustlings and the way leaves occasionally quivered in the still air.

That might be ground squirrels, of course. It might also be a viper hunting ground squirrels, and it wasn't hard to imagine worse things than vipers here.

"I heard the child call," Chalcus said. His mouth smiled but his cheeks were set in hard planes and his eyes went every direction in quick jumps like a bird hunting. "I tried to follow her, but I got dizzy. Do you know where it is we are, dearest?"

"We're in the tapestry Double set you to look at," Ilna said. "It's a trap, or at least Double used it as one. The pattern the hedges make draws you into it if you concentrate. Which of course you did."

Poking through the holly beside her was what looked like blackberry canes with the usual mix of purple, red, and pink fruit on them. She picked a ripe one and tasted it. It was an ordinary blackberry, tart and tasty.

She looked at her companions. "It was my fault," she said. She stood as straight as she'd have done if she was about to be hanged. She'd rather be hanged than to have made the mistake she had. "I should've looked at the tapestry myself. I would've known."

"Dear one," said Chalcus with real affection, though his eyes continued to search. Under other circumstances he'd have touched her cheek with the back of his hand, but now each held a naked blade. "When I think I need you to scout before I look at a wall or a field or it may be a stretch of sea, I'll drown myself. I'll have lived too long to be a man."

He stepped toward the next angle of the maze; the path branched left and right. "What I don't see...," he said, looking down both paths. "Is why Double would want to catch me that way. I wasn't a particular friend to him, but I wasn't his enemy either. Not then."

He glanced back and gave the women a hard grin. "That will change when we return," he added.

"He didn't care about us, Chalcus," Merota said. She wasn't looking at the ground or the hedges either, it seemed to Ilna.

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