Guilt then, that I could so easily overlook my good true comrade: I nodded, and we went to Kathanria, where Bellek was already loosing Urt from his fastenings.
He was not yet quite conscious. I was not certain whether from my grip on his nerves, or desire to refuse his situation. I helped him down and held him as he tottered, eyes peering slowly about, at first hooded, but then opening wide in naked wonder. I felt him shudder and held him tighter. He said, “Where are we?”
I looked to Bellek for the answer I thought I knew.
Bellek said, “In Tartarus. In the last Dragoncastle.”
I stared about, amazed, on sights so antique they were forgotten by even the greatest Mnemonikos. For all that had transpired this wild, incredible night, still I could scarce believe the evidence of my own eyes. It was as though that flight had carried me back in time, to a past long lost.
We stood atop a mountain. Not the highest-vaster summits loomed all about-but still so great, it seemed we stood atop the world itself, the valley below dwindling insignificant, like a child’s gouging from this wild landscape. As I’ve said, the yard was vast, in keeping with the size of the dragons that perched on the ledges raised up all around-and those not so large as the beasts that came down now. Their calling filled the morning. It sounded to me like the shouting of soldiers after battle, boasting of victory.
Bellek said, “Those are the bulls. They’ll not be ridden, but they fight hard for their broods.” He looked at us, his pale eyes intense, and added, “Steer clear of them until you know this place and your mounts better. The males are jealous of their status, and not always predictable.”
Rwyan laughed. “Much as with men, eh?”
I looked to where the males landed. They were twice the size of the females and colored brighter, all reds and yellows, greens and blues, and though they were fewer in number than the females, they dominated with their sheer bulk. I saw one enormous creature come striding down the ram-parts to where Deburah perched. He craned out his neck, rubbing his cheek against hers, and she ceased her preening to rub back. I felt a stab of jealousy.
And then found his enormous eyes locked on mine, lips drawing back from fangs that might have skewered me as he hissed.
Quite unthinking, I ducked my head in apology and said aloud, “Forgive me.”
The lips closed slowly over the teeth and he returned his attention to Deburah. I felt dismissed; and very small.
Rwyan laughed and took my hand, and asked me, “Have I a rival?”
I shook my head and forced a nervous chuckle. “You understand?”
She gave me back, “How could I not? By the God, I felt”-she turned her face about, encompassing our surroundings, the vast shapes that stood there-“like a god.”
Bellek smiled. “You bond. Your feet are on the road. Soon you’ll be Dragonmasters.”
In a small voice, Urt said, “I? A Dragonmaster?”
And Bellek clapped him on the shoulder with a force that belied the silver of his hair and the wrinkles on his face, and said, “Aye, my friend. You, too. The dreams don’t lie.”
I said, “Shall you tell us of these dreams? Shall you tell us how”-I gestured around-“all this? Why you saved us?”
“Of course.” Bellek’s teeth shone white in the early sun. “All of it, in time. There’s no great mystery to it.”
No great mystery? I stared at him; my jaw hung open, my eyes gaped wide. He laughed at me, and beckoned that we follow him across the yard.
Squadrons of cavalry might have exercised there, with room along the ramparts for archers and war engines. They were lit now by the rising sun, and I saw better than before that they were built on a monumental scale. It seemed to me we traversed a melding of natural stone and man-built structure, the two contiguous. I’d have remained, marveling, had Rwyan not tugged me after our rescuer host.
We passed beneath an arch clad thick in moss, into a wide corridor that dripped moisture from its roof to run along the edges and pool, in places, over the floor. I felt suddenly cold and grew aware how thin the air tasted. I shivered. I heard Rwyan’s teeth begin to chatter.
Over his shoulder, Bellek called back, “Away from the dragons, you’ll feel the cold. But there’s a fire lit, and food.”
I asked, “How’s that? How can the dragons warm us?”
The Dragonmaster only laughed. “In time, Storyman. All in time.”
We went on. What illumination there was came from slits cut deep through the rock, slanting the dawn light in narrow bands across our way, so that we walked from light to shadow and back again. Water splashed under my boots. I saw rats scurry in advance of our passage; the tunnel smelled of mold and decay and age.
We emerged into an atrium that had once been very grand. Now ivy and the roots of hardy trees wound around the colonnades. Creepers and boughs filled the space above, patterning the air as if we traversed a bower. Across the floor, stone was disrupted, divided and broken by the roots that drove down remorseless between the flags. Birds had nested here: I saw their droppings white on the floor, and the remnants of ancient nests overhead. I looked up and saw the circle where the sky should have shown clear all filled with entwining limbs, a tracery against the burgeoning blue. I looked at Rwyan, and she frowned her lack of understanding. I watched Bellek pause at a doorway and wondered if I understood better.
There had been doors hung here once. Magnificent doors, to judge by the remnants that lay scattered and rotting across the floor. From the jambs there still protruded hinges of long-blackened metal, distorted by the weight they had once supported, even as it fell down, decaying.
I suppose Bellek saw my expression, because he smiled, and shrugged, and said, “It was finer, once. A long time ago.”
Beyond that rotten doorway, steps descended. They were worn away in smooth curves that spoke of many feet, much use. What light there was-there were no windows, not even those narrow embrasures I’d seen above-came from the moss and fungi that grew in fulgent clumps down the walls and roof. The air was damp and tasted of decay; more rats scurried away, at sound of our footsteps. Which were not loud, given the coating of the floor. I saw large beetles scuttle before us; and more crawling overhead. I wondered at the decrepitude of this Dragoncastle.
The stairs ended at another arch, beyond it another court, where rotten wood and winding roots wove a foot-tricking maze across the stone. This place seemed to occupy the mountain, but I could not imagine what hands had carved it out. A corridor then, brighter for the embrasures that let in the sun; worse for what the light revealed. Then a last descent down time-worn stairs to doors.
I found myself surprised to see them: I had begun to assume that no wood existed any longer in this decaying place, save what nature wound into the stone. But these were firm and black, banded with solid hinges of dark metal. And Bellek flung them open like some proud aeldor inviting guests into his sanctum.
Which I suppose he was and we were.
I could not help but gape: after what we’d passed through, this was magnificent.
It was a hall such as I’d not seen. Not in any place I’d been, not even Durbrecht. I thought not even Gahan-now his son and the ill-met regent-in Kherbryn could boast such a hall. As the yard where the dragons landed had been great, so was this chamber; and more.
It was vaulted high, with beams of stone like the ribs of some creature even larger than the dragons. My feet tapped out small steps on the floorstones, lost in the fading echoes of the far walls, which rose up tall as those beeches in Trebizar’s gardens, as high and wide and overwhelming. The floor was marble, pure white under the thick dust. My boots left tracks there. The walls were black as darkest night, save for where the rising ribs of floor lofted white beneath their layering of cobwebs, as if all this chamber were fashioned of a single thing, mingling. It was as though we stepped into the belly of a beast entrapped in the stone of the mountain. High windows like dragons’ eyes cut through on three sides, and as the sun rose higher, so light spread brilliant through the chamber, sparkling off the dust that filled the air. I went to one of those windows and looked out (what kept the glass so clean?) and gasped at what I saw. This chamber was cut from within some bulge of stone, jutting out over the panorama below so that I felt I hung suspended in the morning. I moved back to join the others, who followed Bellek across this wondrous hall.
I saw hearths filled with dead and ancient wood; and tables of carved oak set around with high-backed chairs of intricate design. Spiders’ webs strung their backs, and dust lay thick over the surfaces of the tables. From the vaulted roof hung chandeliers that were likely gold beneath the verdigris that dulled their luster. It was not easy to tell, for webs spun them around, and fat spiders dangled, horrid in the light.
I felt Rwyan tighten her grip on my hand. I saw Tezdal frown, disgust naked on his face. Only Urt seemed undisturbed, and I thought that was likely because he felt himself safe underground, away from the dragons.
Bellek followed an old trail through the dust to the far side of the chamber.
He’d not lied about the fire: it burned in the hearth there. Smoldering down now into sparking embers, but lit up quick enough when he tossed on fresh logs from the stack beside. There was a table there, before the hearth, of some dark wood; round and set with five chairs, as if we were expected. Bellek ushered Rwyan to a somewhat dusty seat, and I helped Tezdal lower Urt to another. We took places either side. Only Rwyan seemed at ease.
I was pleased to see the table clean and that the chandelier above was empty of spiders. (I’ve no liking for spiders.) So I watched as Bellek filled five golden goblets from a decanter of matching gold and wondered if the tarnish would taint the taste.
He said, “Drink, and welcome to the Dragoncastle. I’ll find you food.”
He went out through a door beside the hearth, and I looked at my companions. They looked at me: none of us had answers to the questions our eyes asked. I sipped the wine and said, “It’s good.”
Tezdal said, “What is this place?”
Rwyan said, “A Dragoncastle, as Bellek told us.”
I said, “It’s old. I never thought to see a place so old as this.”
Urt only sat silent and still, his body rigid; as if locked to the dusty chair. I should have comforted him or tried to, but I was caught up in such wonder at all I saw that I am ashamed to say I overlooked his predicament.
Bellek came back, laden with a platter of meat that he set down before us. He smiled and went away, returning with vegetables and bread; then brought us plates and knives. “Eat,” he said. Suddenly I found myself mightily hungry.