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  She could sense the whereabouts of the underground populace. She knew Librettowit was leading them to an uninhabited region.

  “Wizard Fenworth, can you do something to get us out of here safely?”

  “You know, dear girl, you have a mind like your mother’s.”

  She held her breath, hoping the old man would say more.

  He took a deep breath, coughed a little, and squeezed her shoulder.

  “The cape did not mend the items you put in the hollow.”

  “It didn’t?”

  “Not by itself.”

  She puzzled over the statement. “I didn’t do anything, sir. At least, I don’t think I did.”

  “No?”

  She tried to remember what she was thinking at the time. Something about doing something useful instead of sitting around in a daze. “I don’t think I did anything.”

  “You didn’t happen to be wearing my hat?”

  Oh no! I was! I wonder if it’s a great crime to put a wizard’s hat on your head. I mean, if you aren’t a wizard. If you’re just a slave girl. I mean, a servant.

  There’s no use trying to keep it a secret.

  “Yes sir. I believe I did. Just to have my hands free to sort through the debris and pick things up. I didn’t mean any disrespect, Wizard Fenworth.”

  “The combination of the hat and the cape and your talents as an Allerion mended the broken items you put in the hollow.” He patted her shoulder. “I shall enjoy having you as an apprentice, I think. That is, if we get out of this mountain alive.”

  “About whirling, sir?”

  “No, Kale.”

  48

  MOVING HEAVEN AND EARTH

  With each tunnel they turned into, the questing party moved farther away from the underground populace. No bisonbeck guards challenged them after they entered a natural cavern deep in the mountain. The ceiling here vaulted high above their heads. The scattered tiny lightrocks looked like stars in the night sky. A trickle of water ran in a meandering stream across the footpath. The travelers had to cross and recross as they followed Librettowit.

  “Clever, very clever,” muttered Fenworth under his breath at regular intervals.

  “What’s he done?” asked Kale, looking ahead at the tumanhofer librarian as he trod purposefully forward.

  “Not, he. Me.” Fenworth leaned heavily on Kale’s shoulder as they walked. “Bringing a plumber would have been a total waste of time. Librarians are handy. Tumanhofer librarians, when you are under a tumanhofer mountain, are especially useful.”

  “Where is he taking us?”

  “Who?”

  “Librettowit.”

  “Out of the mountain.”

  “He knows the way? He’s been here before?”

  “Librettowit is a history buff. Knows about old mines. This one probably hasn’t seen a tumanhofer pick in over a thousand years. Thing is, Wit knew it was here, and he knows where the gate is.”

  Kale’s shoulders straightened. “A gate out of the mountain?”

  “Tumanhofers like gates. And onions. And cheese. Books, of course. And mechanical things. Handy in an agricultural way, as well.”

  Kale spoke quickly, trying to stop the wizard’s flow of conversation before he got completely off track. “Will there be tumanhofers at the gate?”

  “Wouldn’t think so.”

  They moved on, watching their footing on a particularly rough patch.

  Fenworth coughed, having some trouble clearing his throat. “Do hope the gate’s open. Likely to be shut, though. Tumanhofers like things closed up and tidy. Old gate. Might not open if it’s shut. Might not close if it’s open.” Fenworth had another fit of coughing.

  “We’ll stop here to rest.” Lee Ark gestured to a grouping of flat rocks that looked as if they might have been placed for people to relax and converse. It had the feel of the common room in Fenworth’s castle.

  Kale sat next to the wizard and removed the sling from her back. The meech egg thrummed steadily. She rested her arm over the bulky package of her cape and contents. The minor dragons climbed out of their pocket-dens and blinked at the surroundings. Once they saw the others in the party resting, they darted off to look for food.

  “A cup of tea would be nice,” Dar said as he eased himself onto a rock and stretched out on his back, his hands cupped behind his neck. Black grime dimmed the bright yellow of the doneel’s clothing. His brocade jacket had a rip in the arm seam. Stains spattered his ragged pants, and scuff marks obliterated the high shine of his boots.

  Lee Ark and Brunstetter took out their weapons and began sharpening the blades. Kale shivered at the sight and looked over her shoulder. She could not sense anything lurking in the shadows. It had been quite awhile since she had noticed the presence of any bisonbecks either near or far.

  Leetu sat down and pulled out an arrow. She fiddled with its feathers and then changed it for another. Kale wondered what she was doing.

  The emerlindian looked up at her. “Kale, look in the things Granny Noon gave you. See if you can find moerston bark. We can chew on that.”

  Kale remembered the bumpy bark and Granny Noon’s advice to use it when hungry. “It has some nutritional qualities,” the old emerlindian had told her. “But for the heart, it is much more helpful. The little bit of food you get from it will seem like much more, because it tastes good and refreshes your mouth.”

  Kale dug in her cape and pulled out the packet. She got to her feet to pass the contents around. She put the last piece in her mouth and bit down. It tasted like a tea Mistress Meiger brewed and then chilled to serve in the tavern on summer days.

  The cramp in Kale’s stomach eased. She longed for the peaceful days of a slave when she was often tired, often lonely, but never hungry. For a moment Kale wondered if she would see the old emerlindian Granny Noon or Mistress Meiger ever again.

  That’s not very profitable thinking. She chastised herself and went to sit with the librarian.

  “Can you tell me if the gate was left open or shut?” she asked him.

  He had taken off his shoes and rubbed his feet with his broad-fingered hands. “It was left closed, but reports through the years indicate that the mechanism that triggers the opening and shutting has become unreliable. Tumanhofer gates are elaborate. The gate at the entrance of Dael is an example. Looks simple, but it requires a trained man like my cousin Bumby Bumbocore to open and close it after it has been set for the night.”

  “I remember the door in the gate made a lot of noise before it opened.”

  “Yes, well.” Librettowit looked down, embarrassed. “Could have used some adjustments. All that racket wasn’t strictly necessary, but I think it makes the gatekeepers feel important, shows what a lot is going on while they’re working to open the door. People standing outside are impressed rather than impatient if they think the gatekeeper is struggling with quite a few gears to allow their admittance.”

  Kale nodded. “How is this gate made? Will we be able to open it if it’s shut?”

  Librettowit stared off in the distance for a moment before he answered. “Yes, I’m hoping so. Tumanhofers study the great gates in school as youngsters. The lever for this gate to the old mine is in the center of a tunnel-like structure. When the gate closes, the middle of this corridor squeezes shut so that the gate looks like an hourglass on its side. The lever itself is not complicated, but the walls that move and twist in on the tunnel are intricate.”

  A soft note from Dar’s flute echoed through the large chamber, bouncing off rock walls ninety to a hundred feet high.

  He played a restful tune first. Metta flew to perch on his knee and joined him. They chose a rousing marching song next. When they were finished, Lee Ark smiled at them and ordered everyone to get ready to move on. Librettowit couldn’t get his shoes back on his swollen feet. Gymn came and, with Kale, healed the ache and the swelling.

  “Sorry for the delay,” the tumanhofer said. “Librarians aren’t used to being on the march, you know.
”

  “Don’t worry about it, friend,” said their marione commander. “I’m not used to traveling with a healing dragon. It seems prudent for us to take a few more minutes here and allow Kale and her small friend to minister to us all.”

  In a half an hour, while Metta and Dar provided music, Kale and Gymn refreshed all the members of the party, except Shimeran and Seezle, with a brief healing.

  The party fell in behind the tumanhofer again, and they headed out. The minor dragons ran back and forth across Kale’s shoulders in a game of tag, until she caught each one and put them inside the cape at her waist. She felt them burrow through the cloth folds to their pocket-dens.

  “How much farther?” Leetu asked Librettowit.

  “Two more vaulted chambers, a twisty tunnel, and the main cavern.”

  In the twisty tunnel, Kale’s nerves began to zing. She caught up to Leetu. “I feel something.”

  The emerlindian nodded. “Something is following us.”

  They walked on a few more minutes, Kale looking twice at all the shadows and over her shoulder repeatedly.

  “Leetu, I think there are hundreds of them, whatever they are.”

  “Yes, they follow Risto’s command to stop us before we leave the mountain.”

  “Shouldn’t we tell Lee Ark?”

  “I already have.”

  “Oh.” Kale looked at Lee Ark. He walked with every nerve on alert. Towering next to him, the urohm moved his head from side to side in constant vigil. “Brunstetter?”

  Leetu nodded. “And the kimens, and Dar.”

  “What is it out there?”

  “Schoergs.”

  Kale closed her eyes for a moment. I’m not going to be surprised. After all this, I should have known that schoergs weren’t made up to scare little children into being good. I wonder if they look anything like how the old fairy tales describe them. She shuddered and opened her eyes.

  Now she watched the shadows for something as tall as she was, wiry, covered with black fur, having a thick body, skinny arms and legs, huge yellow teeth, and small beady eyes. They could crawl up and down walls like huge spiders. They could flatten themselves and slip through small holes.

  The questing party came out of the twisty tunnel and into a huge cavern. Across the expansive floor a smaller tunnel led straight out of the mountain. Kale could see the round arch of daylight from where she stood. She could also feel the anticipation of a thousand fierce schoergs waiting to attack.

  “Run!” Lee Ark’s command came a second before a screech cut through the cavern. In one moment, every surface of the wall behind them and to the left swarmed with rapidly moving dark, shaggy bodies. Brunstetter scooped Wizard Fenworth over his shoulder and took off across the open space. The meech egg bounced against Kale’s back as she ran, almost as if it wanted to push her forward with its own panic.

  Lee Ark, Dar, and Leetu reached the entry to the gate tunnel a moment after the kimens. They all turned to face the enemy with their weapons ready. Brunstetter set Fenworth down and joined the line. Librettowit and Kale arrived last.

  Lee Ark’s stern face turned to the o’rant girl. “Go through the tunnel, Kale. We’ll hold them here. You will see the o’rant town of Kringlen. Go there if we don’t follow.”

  Librettowit and the wizard had their heads together, arguing about the fireball spell.

  “Necessary,” shouted Fenworth.

  “Unreliable,” the librarian countered in a voice twice as loud.

  Kale ducked into the tunnel and ran. Five yards ahead, the sun gleamed on new-fallen snow. She looked back over her shoulder and saw Brunstetter’s legs with the back of Leetu on one side and Dar on the other. The howls of the frenzied schoergs followed Kale, sounding like a steady roar in the tunnel.

  Her toe caught on an almost covered rod in the flooring, and she pitched sideways, slamming against the wall and a vertical metal bar. She fell flat on her face. Scrambling to her knees, she looked behind her at the floor.

  The lever! I knocked the lever down. She looked at the walls around her. Nothing’s happening. It doesn’t work anymore.

  Then the floor shuddered. The walls shivered. A shrill scraping noise filled the air around her.

  She sprang to her feet and bumped her head on the ceiling as it lowered and twisted. Her legs buckled under her as the ground also moved, rising and twisting.

  Running, crouching, falling, crawling, Kale made it out and fell into a snowbank. She flipped around and stared down the tunnel to a six-inch opening in the middle. The lever lay across the small hole on this side of the gate.

  They’re trapped!

  Kale started back into the tunnel to lift the lever. The meech egg on her back hit the top of the shrunken tunnel. She backed up, ducked out of the cape sling, and left the egg and dragons in a bundle beside the entrance. She crawled into the tunnel. In a matter of a few feet, she had to lie on her stomach and wiggle closer to the lever. Through the small opening, she heard the clamor of battle.

  She came to a place too narrow for her shoulders, and she still couldn’t reach the lever. She stretched one arm out ahead of her and wiggled just one inch closer. Her fingertips were two inches away from her goal.

  She pushed with her feet, her knees. She squirmed and gained an inch.

  “I’ve got to reach it. They can’t get out.”

  She strained, scraping her shoulders against the rock.

  “I have to move it. I have to—”

  The lever jumped toward her. She clamped her fingers around it and pulled. It didn’t give. She pushed. Nothing. She shook it back and forth, and the bar slid an inch to her right. She tried again and it slid further into the wall. The ground rumbled under her. The floor shifted to the side. Kale rolled. The gate began to open.

  As the circle widened, Kale saw the furious fight for survival playing out at the cavern end of the tunnel. Flashes of light attested to the kimens’ activity. Or was the wizard using the fireball spell? Kale heard swords cutting through the air with a whoosh and then thudding against tough schoerg bodies.

  “Leetu! Dar! The gate is open. Hurry!” Her scream barely rose above a second rumbling of the rocks surrounding her. The stone wall next to her shattered and came down in a thick mass of gravel, sand, and fist-sized rocks. The floor beneath her heaved upward. She slid back toward the outside of the mountain.

  “Dar! Fenworth!”

  A boulder crashed next to her and pinned her pant leg. Kale tugged frantically, tore the material, and clambered out of the tunnel. She tried to stand, but the rolling ground threw her back down on her hands and knees. With the dirt-encrusted sleeve of her blouse, she attempted to wipe dust from around her eyes. She turned and saw a fissure opening up behind her. The white snow tumbled into the expanding rocky breach.

  The cape bundle slipped away from Kale and toward the crevice.

  “No!” Kale dove for the moonbeam cape and missed.

  Gymn! Metta! Fly to me! The eggs!

  Kale struggled through the snow, trying to catch up to the cape as it skidded toward the black gap. The mountain continued to stretch and break its boundaries. The ground underneath Kale gave way. She fell downward with snow cascading on top of her, burying her. As soon as her feet touched something solid, she fought her way upward. When she surfaced, the cape and its contents had slid into a bush. The bare branches quivered with vibrations from the earth beneath it. Kale scrabbled toward it, determined to snatch the prize from its limbs.

  The mountain quieted. The ground grew still. Kale hauled herself to her feet and plunged through the shifted snow. She stumbled but fell forward, and her hand caught the smooth moonbeam fabric. Crawling forward, she pulled with all the strength she had left. The tangle of winter branches held on like bony fingers.

  A shriek reverberated through the rocks beneath her, like the death wail of some hideous monster. The earth surged beneath her one more time, a rift opening right at her feet. The momentum of the mountain pitched her backward, wrestin
g the cape from her hands. Cape and bush flew through the air in the opposite direction.

  Kale lay on her back, staring at the brilliant blue sky. A lone white cloud peacefully floated above the tortured mountain.

  Turning away from the mockingly tranquil sky, the o’rant girl sat up and crawled to the edge of the newly formed chasm. She reached with her mind to Gymn and Metta.

  Emptiness.

  She tried to connect to the meech egg.

  A void.

  Tears streamed down her face. Voices brought her head around to stare at the misshapen entrance to the old tumanhofer mine. Dar and Leetu sat with a singed Fenworth propped between them. Librettowit lay stretched out with Brunstetter kneeling over him. Curls of smoke rose from his charred clothing. His fancy mustache and beard were stubble. The kimens examined the librarian with their usual speed and efficiency. Lee Ark, bloodied and weary, limped toward Kale.

  “You saved our lives, o’rant girl.”

  “I lost the cape.” She looked away from him and down the jagged sides of the gorge.

  Lee Ark did not respond. She couldn’t say she had lost the minor dragons, the meech egg. The words stuck in her throat behind a lump that cut off her breathing as well as her voice.

  A sob broke the stranglehold. She bent forward, weeping.

  The marione’s calm voice washed over her. “We will build two litters for the wizard and the tumanhofer. Aid will come from the o’rant valley soon. They will have noted the disturbance and sent help.”

  He left her and went back to take care of practical matters. Kale saw him leave through a blur of tears.

  They should go on without me. I don’t want to go any farther. I don’t want anything. I failed. Oh, Gymn and Metta, I failed you. Paladin, I’m sorry.

  49

  HOME

  O’rant hands lifted Kale out of the snow. Someone wrapped an o’rant robe of fleecy wool around her bruised body. More o’rant hands passed her with tender care onto the back of a blue and gold dragon. O’rant arms carried her in the flight down the mountain into the valley.