The Road To Kalbakar, Wyrms of Pasandir #1

CHAPTER 15 - KALBAKAR KEEP (Part 1)

The shield covering Kalbakar Keep was enormous. To Naudin's knowing eye it shimmered before them, mocking them with its impregnability, and he cursed softly.

'It's bi-ig,' Eskandar said. He stood in the road, his hands clenched to his broomstick and his head in his neck as he inspected the force field. 'How do you create a shield that size?'

'No idea,' Kellie said. 'I'm a trained fighter, not a clever mage like my little cousin here.'

Naudin yelped and jumped aside to avoid her hard elbow in his side. 'Don't!' he said. 'Remember, I'm a mindmage, School of Mentalism. Shielding is part of Conjuration; I never studied more than the basics of the other schools and I forgot most of it. Let me think on it.'

'All right,' Eskandar said. 'I'm sure the knowledge is not among the stuff Teodar gave me.'

'Why not?' Kellie said. 'Couldn't it be hidden in your mind somewhere?'

'No; Teodar showed me all he knew about shielding, but he explained it as a gift from the gods.' Eskandar thought awhile. 'He didn't know about the broom spell either. I always believed him all-knowing, but apparently he isn't.'

Amaj stood back and stared at the stronghold with thinned lips and an angry light in his eyes.

Kellani watched him. 'You don't look happy,' she said.

'I ain't happy,' he snapped. 'There is Kalbakar Keep, our proud family home. My father departed this stupid place without even a token resistance. He ran away. Even being here makes me feel ashamed.'

'Don't judge him on what one man said,' Kellie said dryly. 'That monastery fellow spoke as if he disliked your father. I wouldn't be too quick to trust his opinion.'

Amaj snorted, but he didn't say anything.

'What's that banner on the towers?' Naudin said, shading his eyes with a hand above his glasses. 'Would they be yours, Amaj?'

'They're ours,' Jem said softly. 'It's the Standard of Kings; Grandfather's colors.' She let her hand hover over Amaj's arm. 'You can take it down; burn it. That flag shouldn't be there and I hate it!'

'I'll take it down,' the young lord said stoutly. 'But I won't burn it. They're your colors now. Your grandfather died, so you are king now.'

'Queen,' Kellie said firmly. 'Amaj's right, girl. Dead is dead; you're the queen of Nanstalgarod.'

'We never had a queen regnant,' Jem said, looking unhappy. 'And a queen without a people isn't much.'

'We'll ask Mother,' Kellie said. 'First we must take the keep.'

'I need to see it from above,' Eskandar said suddenly and Naudin grinned. The guy hadn't heard a word of queens and banners.

'Wyrm Height,' Amaj said. 'That's where the keep's wyrms are said to live.'

'Do you know where it is?' Eskandar said

'Think so.' The young lord looked around and pointed. 'The stories tell Kambish stood every day on the top of his tower staring at the Height, trying to make contact with the wyrms nesting there. But the wyrms had forgotten him and they never answered his calls.'

'They had forgotten,' Eskandar said slowly. 'Like that old woman in Seatome Harbor.' His face flushed darkly as if the young lord's chance remark had triggered something.

'What old woman?' Naudin said.

'I've seen her often,' Eskandar said. 'Every day from dawn to dusk, this old woman sat in the same place, staring out over the sea. People said her mind had gone with age an' she waited without knowing for what or whom. That's the wyrms.'