Chapter Nineteen
Idon’t know what I expected. Ghosts? Giants?
But no. We get both—ghostly giants at least twenty feet tall.
“I am not having a good time,” I shout, because anger is safer than fear.
I can still function with anger, but terror makes me want to freeze in my tracks.
The twenty-paces-high, restless giant spirits are stomping across the cave floor toward us, bellowing roars like mountains crashing into each other.
“Don’t see that every day,” Kaelen says, and I look at him in disbelief.
He’s smiling.
Suddenly, the old scrolls with their tales of Valourian berserkers don’t seem as far-fetched.
“Stay with me, Soli. I don’t know if my sword can even touch them, but if we have to face danger, let’s do it together.”
“Kaelen,” I begin, with no idea of what I want to say next.
He flashes a wicked grin and grabs my arm to pull me toward him. Then he presses a quick, hard kiss on my lips and releases me. “If we’re going to die, I wanted to do that one last time.”
Amid all that chaos, I stare at him, touching my fingers to my lips, then return his grin. “Well, forget that. We’re not dying now!”
With that, he races toward the draugrs, shouting a war cry. “A Valourian, A Valour!”
I throw all sense to the wind and follow him, dagger in hand, but Andras cuts between me and Kaelen, shoves me back, and runs toward the draugrs. There are three of them; no, four—one is smaller, maybe only twelve feet tall.
I’m now somehow holding the reins for Cloud, River, and Andras’s horse, none of whom show the slightest inclination to follow the men toward the draugrs. Maybe horses really are smarter than humans.
When the prince suddenly swerves to the left, the Sylvan swerves to the right, as if they’ve fought together in a dozen wars, a hundred, both of them yelling and making so much noise that it confuses the draugrs, who swing their huge heads back and forth and stumble to a stop.
I watch, waiting for my chance to do … something.
Until an opportunity presents itself, I study these mythical creatures, which I didn’t completely believe in until this moment.
They’re enormous, the size of a two-story house, except for the smaller one, who is only as big as a large outbuilding.
They don’t wear clothes, but a mossy green covering rises from their giant stone feet to their shoulders.
If these are truly the draugrs and not simply remnants of the giants, they don’t seem all that restless, necessarily.
More … angry.
Really, really angry.
They look like stone statues come to life, if the statues were carved by a sculptor who’d never seen the human form.
Their heads are shaped like enormous square blocks, completely oversize and disproportionate to their bodies, which are easily half as wide as they are tall.
There’s no way we can get past them, even if that is a tunnel on the other side of the cave.
Their eyes are slashes like fissures in the stone of their faces, and an eerie red light burns deep inside where a pupil would be on a person.
Their mouths are open in vicious stone snarls, and their roars thunder through the cave, bouncing off walls and smashing into my ears.
“Try singing, Andras!”
The Sylvan shoots a disbelieving look at me. “Really?”
“I don’t know! Don’t listen to me! What do I know?” I shout, horrified that my sketchy memory of something I read a long time ago could get us all killed.
“Who else would we listen to?” Andras calls out, then lowers his sword and begins to sing in Sylvan.
I don’t know what the song means, but his voice and the tune are so beautiful I can’t help but get caught up in the song until Chitai shouts, “Watch out, watch out, watch out!” and snaps me out of my trance.
The first three draugrs all sway back and forth, as captivated by Andras’s song as I was, but the smaller one—the one in the back—runs right at the Sylvan lord and crashes into him.
The singing stops.
When the draugr roars out his triumph, waving one shadowy fist in the air, I see Andras, unmoving, on the floor of the cave.
He might be dead because I said we should sing.
Sing.
What kind of fool am I that I think random stories in old books and scrolls can have anything to offer in real life? I could have gotten Kaelen killed, and Andras may be dead, and Elianna’s magic doesn’t work, and I don’t know what to do.
I don’t know what to do.
I don’t—
I clench my hands so hard I feel my fingernails dig into my palms, but the physical pain stops the crushing wave of doubt.
No.
No.
I do know what to do. Because if I stop believing in my hard-earned knowledge now, all my hope for the rest of this journey will drain away like the water in the palace baths.
I’m not a nobody.
“I’m sorry for this,” I whisper. “I know my voice is terrible.”
But it’s too late to worry about trivial details like that. I throw back my head, take a huge breath, and belt out the first line of the only lullaby I know.
Little one, little one, you must wait for the sun.
And then, when all four draugrs turn their attention to me, I keep going.
Why the crying? Why the sadness?
What has made your peace undone?
Little one, little one, you’re the light of my eye.
May you settle into slumber
Until the sun is in the sky.
I sing as loudly as I can, as in tune as I can, picturing my mother singing this song to me when I was tiny, safe, and warm in my blankets next to her.
I try to infuse the words with all the love and sincerity she sang with, and desperately hope that my heart is pure enough and my song true enough that whatever magic a simple lullaby carries will spread over the draugrs and soothe their spirits.
Soothe their restlessness.
Let them lie in peace.
Miraculously—unbelievably—it’s working.
It’s working.
In shock, I fumble the words but pick the song back up as smoothly as I can after I see the largest draugr’s eyes squint into angry lines.
May you settle into slumber
Until the sun is in the sky.
“Soli. You’re doing it,” Kaelen says, his voice so quiet I almost don’t hear him. He slowly and silently walks over to crouch next to Andras. I’m afraid to watch—afraid to see that the Sylvan lord is dead.
But Kaelen puts an arm around Andras’s shoulders and helps him to stand. The two of them make their way to the wagon, Kaelen bearing much of the other man’s weight, both walking slowly and never taking their eyes off the draugrs.
I’m still singing, afraid to stop. By the fifth time I repeat the verse, the draugrs sink to the floor, first sitting, watching me, and then lying down, their eyes fluttering closed, then open, then closed again.
It’s working, but I don’t know how long it will last.
Kaelen hands Andras up to Trick on the wagon seat and tells him something my friend clearly doesn’t like. Trick scowls but protects the Sylvan, sword in one hand and dagger in the other. Kaelen runs back to me and puts his arms around me to pull me back against his chest.
I keep singing but lean into Kaelen’s strength, bolstered by his support.
“Your voice is beautiful,” the prince murmurs. “Why did you say—Never mind. We can talk about it later. Just keep singing, because I see the key.”
“Where—” I break off and launch back into the song, wishing I knew more of the verses, but the draugrs don’t seem to be music critics or easily bored, because they’re now all lying huddled together like a litter of puppies asleep in a basket.
Kaelen moves to stand next to me and points up at the ceiling. Directly over the somnolent draugrs, in the highest part of the cave, a group of large, sparkling jewels forms a ring studded into the ceiling.
Exactly in the middle of that ring, an ornate golden key hangs from a hook.
Chitai and Elianna slowly and cautiously make their way over to us.
“That’s got to be it,” the sorcerer whispers.
“If this is what Artemisen meant by ‘unspeakable evil,’ I think we’re going to manage this quest just fine,” Chitai says, pointing at the draugrs. “Bested by a simple song for children? Not exactly ‘impossible to retrieve,’ either.”
“We still have to figure out a way to get to a key that’s a good twenty-five feet off the ground, directly over a group of sleeping draugrs,” Kaelen says dryly. “That ought to be enough excitement for even a warrior of the Dawn.”
We all look at Elianna, who scowls at us. “Sorry. I don’t have any ‘make the magic key fly down to me’ tricks.”
Seems like an Air Touched sorcerer should be able to do something with air, I want to say, but instead I keep singing. My voice is getting hoarse, so I hope they figure this out quickly.
What has made your peace undone?
Little one, little one, you’re the light of my eye.
I glance over at Andras, who’s barely able to sit upright on the seat of the wagon, and worry about just how badly he must be hurt.
The wagon.
The wagon.
I put a hand on Kaelen’s arm, but instead of looking at me, he pats my hand and keeps talking to Elianna and Chitai in a low voice.
So I poke him, hard, with my finger. This time, he turns to me, one eyebrow raised.
“You have an idea?”
I point at the wagon, at him, and then at Chitai.
Then, while still singing, I do my best to act out my idea of Kaelen standing on the wagon and lifting Chitai to his shoulders, so she can leap up and grab the key.
After she showed her skill at standing on the back of a cantering horse, this semi-acrobatic feat should be easy enough for her.
Or at least not completely impossible.
Artemisen did say almost impossible to retrieve.
At first, they look at me like I’m having a seizure or something, instead of acting out my idea as clearly as I can manage while still singing the song I’m starting to really, really dislike. Elianna gets it first—I can tell the moment realization hits her golden eyes.
“Kaelen will stand on the wagon and launch Chitai into the air, over the top of the draugrs, to get the key?”
I nod and sigh with relief.
Kaelen and Chitai look at each other and grin. Because of course this dangerous plan makes their inner berserkers happy.
“Except there’s one problem,” Elianna says, folding her arms across her chest. “This plan will cause Chitai to land on top of the draugrs.”
Oh. Yeah. That’s a big problem.
I smack myself on the forehead but keep singing.
Chitai shakes her head. “No. If the prince throws me and I leap, I can grab the key, somersault in midair, and land on the other side of the creatures.”
We all study the pile of draugrs.
“Sure, no problem,” Kaelen says.
“Not a chance,” Elianna says.
“Of course I can,” Chitai says.
I just keep singing but shake my head vehemently. Bad idea, bad idea, bad idea, even though I’m the one who thought of it.
“Anyway, they’re all asleep.” Chitai shrugs. “Even if I land on them, we can escape through that back tunnel before they wake up enough to come after us.”
“This is a terrible idea,” I hiss, before I start singing again.
“It’s the only idea,” Kaelen says.
Before I can lodge a formal protest, whatever that might look like, they’re putting the plan into motion. Chitai leaps up on the wagon. Trick guides it closer to the draugrs, while Kaelen walks by the horses’ heads and soothes them into moving closer to large, scary monsters.
I shrug out of the bandolier and mime for Elianna to put it in the wagon, so the vials don’t clink when I run. She takes that and our horses’ reins from me and leads them, slow step by slow step, around the draugrs to the far side of the cave.
I’m so busy singing and trying to watch everyone at once that I almost don’t notice Sergeant Neville and Bern enter the cave, leading their own horses. When I see the amazement on their faces, I hold a finger to my lips and keep singing, hoping they’ll get my meaning.
Not only do they quickly figure out what’s happening, Bern gives his reins to Neville and jumps onto the wagon to help.
He and Kaelen stand next to each other, and Chitai leaps up and lands lightly, one foot in each man’s cradled hands.
The prince and Bern tense, preparing to hurl Chitai at the key, just when it occurs to me that maybe this key is exactly the same as the amulet and might set fire to any person who touches it.
I frantically wave my arms in the air, trying to get their attention. When I do, I yank the amulet out from beneath my shirt and hold it out with one hand, pointing to the key with the other.
I can see by his expression that Kaelen instantly understands what I’m trying to convey. He says something to Chitai, who grins and shrugs, then responds.
Then Kaelen and Bern bend their knees slightly, tense, and throw Chitai into the air toward the key. When they move, she moves, using her legs as pistons to soar high toward the ceiling of the cave.
My singing falters when she reaches out and grasps the key … and she has it!
And she’s not on fire!
She performs her somersault perfectly, just as she planned, and lands on the other side of the sleeping draugrs.
That’s when a huge rumbling sounds from the ceiling and I watch in horror as every single gem embedded in the stone—and there must be thousands of them—comes crashing down to the ground.
Onto the draugrs.
Who wake up.
And attack.