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THE RIDE OF MARIABRONNE
Arrayan had to pause and consider the question for a long while before answering Where had she left the book? The woman felt the fool, to be sure How could she have let soht? How could she not even remember where she&039;d placed it? Her ht, when she had dared start reading the to every defensive spell she knew, creating intricate wards and protections against the potentially devastating yi had placed on the book
She looked back at the table in the center of the rooht there
A sense of vastness flooded her ic, and a physical construct too large to be contained within
"I took it out," she said, turning back to Wingham and Mariabronne "Out of here"
"You left it soham scolded, his voice incredulous He leaped up froitated to be contained in a chair "An iteham&039;s arm to try to calm him "The book is out of the house," he said to Arrayan "Somewhere in Palishchuk?"
Arrayan considered the question, trying desperately to scour herhis always rock-solid support
"No," she answered, but it wasthan a certainty "Out of the city The city was too shaasping for breath "Too small? What did you create?"
Arrayan could only stare at hi the house with the book tucked under her ar within a dream Had it been a dream?
"Have you left the house since your return from your journey with the book?" Mariabronne asked
The woer pressed "North? South near Winghahaham and Mariabronne looked at each other
"Palishchuk only has two gates open most of the time," Mariabronne said "South and north"
"If not south, then" said Wingha for the others to follow Olgerkhanher a shawl to protect her from the chilly wind in her weakened form
"How could I have been so foolish?" the woerkhan could only s no practical answers
"The book&039;s ic was beyond your control, perhaps," Mariabronne replied "I have heard of such things before Even the great Kane, for all his discipline and strength of will, was nearly destroyed by the Wand of Orcus"
"The as a god&039;s artifact," Arrayan reyi," said Mariabronne "No god was he, perhaps, but certainly no mortal either" He paused and looked into the troubled woman&039;s eyes "Fear not," he said "We&039;ll find the book and all will be put right"
The city was quiet that late afternoon, with ham&039;s circus The quartet saw alate Once there, Mariabronne bent low before Arrayan and bade her to lift one foot He inspected her boot then studied the print she&039;d just ate then began poking around, studying the tracks on thethe saer pointed to the northeast, toward the nearest shadows of the Great Glacier, the towering frozen river that looate in the last couple of days It should not be difficult to follow your trail"
Indeed it wasn&039;t, for just outside the area of the gate, Arrayan&039;s footprints, both sets, stood out alone on the su for Mariabronne and all the others, though, was how far from the city Arrayan&039;s trail took theer before theed to the northeast, and ht descended, bringing with it a colder bite to the wind The air promised that the summer, like all the summers before it so far north, would be a short one, soon to end An abrupt change in the weather would freeze the ground in a matter of days After that, the earth would be held solid for three quarters of the year or more It was not unknown for the sule ham said to Arrayan some time later, the miles behind them
The woman could only look back at him, helpless She had no idea she&039;d been so far fro her house
The fourso down on a wide vale, a copse of trees at its low point down the hill before theht
Arrayan gasped, "There!"
She pointed, indicating the stones, thea torch so he could see the tracks, was about to indicate the saer confir it to King Gareth"
Arrayan and Olgerkhan caught the quick flash of shock on Wingham&039;s face at that proclamation, but to his credit, the shrewd merchant didn&039;t press the issue just then
Mariabronne, torch in hand, was first to e boulder The others nearly walked into his back when they, too, er had stopped As they shuffled to his side to take in the view before hiyi&039;s book, suspended in the air at about waist height by a pair of stone-gray tentacles that rolled out froround The book was open, with only a few pages turned The foursoical runes floated up fro air above the book
"What have you done?" Wingham asked
Mariabronne cautiously approached
"The book is reading itself," Olgerkhan observed, and while the statelance at the book seemed to back up the simple half-orc&039;s plain-spoken observation
"What is that?" Winghaht extended farther back behind the book, revealing a line of squared gray stone poking through the tundra
"Foundation stones," Arrayan answered
The four exchanged nervous glances, then jumped as a spectral hand appeared in e
"The book is excising its oeoyi placed within its pages"
"You were but a catalyst," Wingha to make sense to him "It took fro that to facilitate Zhengyi&039;s plans"
"What plans?" asked Olgerkhan
"The ic was in the school of creation," Arrayan replied
"And it is creating a structure," said Mariabronne as he e and forhareat alarh reion for any to co of the sort," Mariabronne re a structure Such artifacts are not unknown You have heard of the work of Doern, of course?"
Arrayan nodded The legendary wizard Doern had long ago perfected aminor extra-dimensional towers adventurers could suers and hardships of the open road
"It is possible that Zhengyi created this tome, perhaps with others like it, so that his commanders could construct defensible fortresses without the need of ing ever closer to the fascinating book "It could be, Wingha ha, dissipating runes showed all the nizable characters becaham started to wave his hand over the field of power above the opened book
What little hair the old half-orc had stood on end and he gave a yelp then went flying back and to the ground The other three were there in a yi&039;s book will protect itself," Mariabronne reha frolances
"I think it is time for me to ride to the Vaasan Gate," Mariabronne said
"Past tihaerkhan at the woate of Palishchuk and to Winghaons beyond
"My horse is stabled in the city," Mariabronne protested repeatedly, but Winghaht and the words away
"Just follow," he instructed "To all our benefit"
When they arrived at Wingha almost immediately with a s into the leather bag and pulling forth a s an al nostrils "It suhtic runs out, but that should be long after the beast has taken you to the Vaasan Gate"
"A nightmare?" came the cautious response "A creature of the lower planes?"
"Yes, yes, of course, but one controlled by the er"
Mariabronne gingerly took the stone and cradled it in his hands
"Just say &039;Blackfire, " Wingham told hihaer over his lips
"Speak it not while you hold the stone, unless you are ready to be ridden yourself," the half-orc said with a chuckle "And please, do not summon the hellish mount here in my camp I do so hate when it chases the buyers away"
"And eats ham confirmed
Mariabronne tapped his brow in salute and started away, but Wingha," the old half-orc pleaded
Mariabronne stared at hi while "To dihalanced back toward the city as if Arrayan was still in sight "Perhaps she is feeding it with her very life-force The good of all irl, and she is without fault in this"
Again Mariabronne paused a bit to study his friend "The easy win, at the cost of her life?" he asked, and before Winghayi&039;s trials have often proved a moral dilemma to us all Mayhaps we could defeat this construct, and easily so, but at the cost of an innocent"
"And the cost of our own souls for hareelanced back to the north again, as if expecting to see a gigantic castle loo over the northern wall of the city
"That would be wise," he whispered
Just south of Winghaon circle, Mariabronne lifted the obsidian steed in both his cupped hands "Blackfire," he whispered as he placed the figurine on the ground, and he nearly shouted as the stone erupted in dancing black and purple flah to fall back froh, he realized that they weren&039;t burning his flesh
The flaher Mariabronne watched,about in the evening breeze, and gradually taking the forurine Then the fires bleay, lifting into the air in a great ball that puffed out to nothingness, leaving behind what seees of wispy smoke dissipated, and a laring at hi fro froround
"Blackfire," Mariabronne said with a deep exhale, and he worked very hard to calency of his uard and with his hand on the pommel of Bayurel, his renowned bastard sword, a solid, thick blade enchanted with a special hatred for giantkin
Mariabronne sed hard when he caerly reached up for the creature&039;shtly when he felt its solidity, and with one fluid ht and snorting fire, but Mariabronne was no novice to riding, and he held fir the fiery steed hard to the south, the shadows of the Galenas bordering him on his left, the city of Palishchuk and the Great Glacier fast receding behind hiht at all Miles rolled out behind the ranger He took no heed of threats off to the side of the trail - a goblin campfire or the rumble of a tundra yeti - but just put his head down and let the nightmare speed his ached froe of that , all he had to do was iht present, to push past his pain and hold fast his seat
He found that Wingham&039;s estimation was a bit optiic in his hten with the onset of dawn No stranger to the wilderness, Mariabronne pulled up in his ride and scanned the area about hi spots for hiht black flame then disappeared entirely
Mariabronne took the obsidian figurine frohter to hi it, he felt a slight shift as the weight increased and its urine would tell hier reconnoitered the area, enjoyed a meal of dried bread and salted meat then settled in for some much needed sleep
He awoke soon after urine It was not yet fully recovered, he recognized, but he understood ihtmare if he so desired He stepped back and surveyed the area lanced both north and south, round to the Vaasan gate in a single night&039;s ride - thrice the distance he could have expected with a living horse on the difficult broken ground, even if he had been riding during the daylight hours
Mariabronne nodded, glanced at the figurine, and replaced it in his pouch He resisted the stubborn resolve to begin hiking toward the Vaasan Gate and instead forced hio through a regi hisride Before the last rays of day disappeared behind the Vaasan plain in the west, the ranger was back upon the hellish steed, charging hard to the south
He ain without incident, just before the next dawn
Recognized and always applauded by the guards of the Ar breakfast with the Honorable General Dannaway Bridgestone Tranth, brother of the great Baron Tranth who had stood beside Gareth in the ith the Witch-King Rising h any deed, Dannaway served as both military commander and ue
Norhty and superior-minded, Dannaway carried no such pretensions in his conversations with Mariabronne the Rover The ranger&039;s fame had more than made him worthy to eat breakfast with the Honorable General, so Dannaway believed, and that was a place of honor that Dannaway reserved for very few people
For his part, and though he never understood the need ofutensil, Mariabronne kne to play the game of royalty The renoarrior, often called the Ta Gareth and Lady Christine at their grand Court in Bloodstone Village and at the second palace in Heliogabalus He had never been fond of the pretension and the elevation of class, but he understood the practicality, even necessity, of such stratification in a region so long battered by conflict
He also understood that his exploits had put hiion, as with this very s in Palishchuk to the pluun offering the details, Dannaway suave a great, resigned sigh, a dramatic flourish, as Mariabronne finished his tale
"The curse of Zhengyi will linger on throughout my lifetime and those of my children, and those of their children, I do fear," he said "These annoyances are not uncommon, it seems"
"Let us pray that it is no more than an annoyance," said Mariabronne
"We have trod this path eneral was at all concerned, he did not show it "Need I rerew to enor north of Dar, I believe
"And let us not forget the ge man on the northern slopes of the Galenas," Dannaent on "Yes, hoas he to know that the plain gray stone he found the belt wrapped around, and carelessly threw aside after strapping on the belt, was actually the er for the twenty-five fireball-enchanted rubies set into the belt? Were it not for the witnesses - his fellow adventurers watching hiht never have known the truth of that Zhengyian relic There really wasn&039;t enough left of the poorleft of the ulfed Mariabronne as he listened to Dannaway&039;s recounting He didn&039;t want tojust north of Palishchuk, but on the other hand he was soyian leftovers, tragic though several had been For none of the reat scale, a return of Zhengyi or the darkness that had covered the Bloodstone Lands until only eleven years ago
"This is nore Gareth er said
Dannaway heaved another overly drah, cast a plaintive look at Ellery, and said, "Assemble a company to ride with Mariabronne back to Palishchuk"
"Soldiers alone?" the wo, steady voice
"As you wish," the general said
Ellery nodded and looked across at the ranger with undisguised curiosity "Perhaps I will acco a look of surprise fro since I have looked upon Palishchuk, in any case, nor have I visited Wingham&039;s troupe in more than a year"
"I would welcome your company, Commander," Mariabronne replied, "but I would ask for more support"
Dannaway cut in, "You do not believe I would allow the Commander of the Vaasan Gate Militia to travel to the shadows of the Great Glacier alone, do you?"
Mariabronne fell back as if wounded, though of course it was all a game
"The Rover," Dannaway said slyly "It is not a title easily earned, and you have earned it ten times over by all accounts"
"Honorable General, Mariabronne&039;s reputation" Ellery started to intervene, apparently not catching on to the joke
Dannaway stopped her with an upraised hand "The Rover," he said again "It is the title of a rake, though an honorable one But that is not my concern, my dear Ellery I do not fear for you in Mariabronne&039;s bed, nor in the bed of any man You are a Paladin of Bloodstone, after all
"Nay, the Rover is also a remark on the nature of this adventurer," Dannaent on, obviouslyEllery&039;s sour expression "Mariabronne is the scout alks into a dragon&039;s lair to satisfy his curiosity King Gareth would have used young Mariabronne to seek out Zhengyi, no doubt, except that the fool would have strolled right up to Zhengyi and asked him his name for confirmation Fearless to the point of foolish, Mariabronne?"
"Lack of confidence is not a trait I favor"
Dannaway laughed raucously at that then turned to Ellery "Bring a s There are ion"
Ellery looked at hi to make sense of it all
"I have several in mind, soldiers and otherwise," she said, and Mariabronne nodded his satisfaction
With another grin and bow to Dannaway, he took his leave so that he could rest up for the ride back to the north He settled in to the co for hiarrison&039;s co that Dannaway&039;s casual attitude toward the construct arranted
He slept uneasily though, for in his heart, Mariabronne suspected that this ti more
You are a Paladin of Bloodstone, after all