Peet couldn't move his arms or legs. The troll tromped southward, dragging Peet with a length of rope like an ox with a plow. Peet, wrapped tight from head to toe in chains, was jarred and battered by every root, stone, and pothole in the road. He drifted in and out of consciousness, and every time he woke, he saw Zouzab and another ridgerunner perched on the troll's shoulders, watching him with wicked pleasure.
He remembered the gargan rockroach's terrible clacking the day before. Just as General Khrak had ordered the troll to retreat from the gully, Peet caught a glimpse of the Igibys, Elisheva and Oskar fleeing north. Though he had screeched and thrashed, the troll held him fast, so tight that his vision blurred and everything went black. When he awoke it was night, and he was wrapped in chains like a moth in a spider web.
"You'll be glad to know that both your precious jewels and the pretty Key have escaped once more," Zouzab had said. He sat cross-legged by a fire and shoveled a handful of sugarberries into his mouth, then passed the basket to the other ridgerunner. The red stains around their mouths looked like blood.
Peet had stared at the ridgerunners without speaking, partly because the chain wrapped around his face made it hard to breathe, and partly because he couldn't figure out whom the ridgerunner was talking about.
His mind was a muddled mess. 'Jewels? I love the jewels, the Key is nice, but what—I remember! The children! The foreign girl that gave him food and sang to him! Who escaped? The children, yes. Good. What were their names again? I can't remember their names. The girl, what's she called? Hungry and thirsty. Arms hurt. I shouldn't have left him. I didn't mean to. I didn't want to, but I left him. Oh, Maker! What have I done?'
Peet's mind filled with shadows and feathers and a wail that echoed through dank corridors. He was dimly aware of the ridgerunners watching him from the fire as he thrashed and whimpered in his chains, but they seemed a world away. Now it was a new day and his mind Was clearer. He knew his name, the Wingfeather children's names, and where they were taking him. The road rose and fell over gradual hills and was well worn by Fangs.
The light in the east told him he was heading south. To Fort Lamendron. He screamed. The ridgerunners laughed.
That evening as the sun set on Skree, the troll flung Peet to the floor of the great hall at Fort Lamendron. Torches flickered on the walls. The Fangs at the perimeter of the room hissed at the chained figure writhing on the floor in front of the throne.
Peet lay on his back and stared at the high ceiling. For the moment, his mind worked properly, and he remembered everything. The troll had dragged him for a night and a day from the forest, through the Glipwood Township, and down the long road to Fort Lamendron. Peet ached from every jarring inch of the journey.
He found some satisfaction in the fear in the Fangs' eyes when they looked at him. They had good reason to be afraid. If he were free of his chains, he could put an end to every beast in the room. Just to be sure, Peet flexed his muscles. The Fangs sank back, but the chains held fast.
Khrak's face was unreadable. Peet grinned. Zouzab glanced at the rafters of the hall and the high windows, probably in case he needed to make a quick getaway. Khrak had a reputation for being more ruthless than the average Fang, which was saying something.
"I could tell you all the details about how your Commander Higgk's incompetence led to their escape," Zouzab continued, "but the important thing is not that they escaped."
"And what is the important thing?" asked the general in a menacing voice.
"The important thing, General Khrak, other than the capture of the Throne Warden, is that we listened as the mother and grandfather planned and discussed, and we know where they're going."
"Ah. And where isss that?"
"The Ice Prairies."
"Kimera?" Khrak asked.
"Yes, my lord. They know of the force gathered there, and the leader, a man named Gammon. They know that the Fangs, mighty though you be, cannot endure the harsh cold, so they believe it is safe there."
"Safe, eh?" said Khrak to a nearby Fang.
The Fangs in the hall burst into laughter. Peet broke into a sweat. Had Gnag figured out a way to protect the Fangs from the cold? He had to find a way to tell the children! He strained and twisted, sensing Khrak's eyes on him, and then his mind grew muddy, and he forgot where he was, who he was, who the children were. He became little more than a chained animal. When the laughter died away, the Fang on the throne stepped down from the dais and stood over Peet. Its tongue flitted out and tickled the air only inches from Peet's face.
"I know exactly what to do with you, Artham Wingfeather," said the Fang, and at his name, Peet's mind cleared a little.
"D-don't send me back," Peet stammered. "P-please..."
"Back to Throg?" Khrak said with a wicked grin. "You don't want to go back to the Deeps of Throg? Why, I'm sure Gnag the Nameless could find you a place in the dungeon. Your old cell, perhaps? The one with the excellent view, as I remember."
A couple of Fangs than walked into the room, "Milord, the Stonekeeper has arrived from the Phoob islands."
Peet had looked worried and thought but at the mention of the Stonekeeper, he became frantic. "Stonekeeper! No keeper! No!" And he was picked up by each arm and dragged away.
Khrak sneered and took ahold of one of Peet's arms, looking at the talons, "Such lovely accessories... so, wasted." Then he released Peet's arms so that the other Fangs could take him away. "But she will remedy that."
By nightfall, a barge stopped at the docks of Torroboro. And at the same time, Peet was gagged and in chains dragged on the pier towards it.
The other Fangs glowered at him as those dragging Peet dropped him upon the floor. But a familiar unpleasant face languidly approached.
It as the very same woman in black, who'd brought news to General Khrak months ago. She was called the Stone keeper. "Arthram Wingfeather." She smiled coldly.
Peet tried to pull away but the two Fangs picked him up and dragged him onto the boat despite his muffled protests.
"Let's see what I can make of you." The Stonekeeper mused.
Back in Dugtown, it was morning. Podo and Oskar left to speak with Oskar's friend, Ronchy McHiggins in the Roundish widow, while the others waited in the abandoned house. As they waited, Nia had the children do their T.H.A.G.S. Elisheva sat with them, aiding them in remembering what they missed about their home.
Janner recalled what the sea dragon told him at the cliffs and comes to the conclusion that if Podo was wrong and the dragon was telling the truth, it couldn't have been referring to Gnag the Nameless.
Yet he intended to ask Elisheva more on her family background.
As hours go by, they all repack their supplies and waited. When Podo and Oskar at last returned, the children rushed forward and assaulted them with hugs.
"Ronchy's going to make the necessary arrangements this evening," Oskar said once he and Podo had eaten a few bites. "He said we should return at midnight and the guide would be waiting in the alley behind the Roundish Widow. He said if we had come three days sooner, Gammon himself could have smuggled us north. He was in Dugtown to meet with other members of his force."
"You're sure you can trust him?" Nia asked.
"My lady, I find it hard to believe that a man capable of making such delectable sailor's pie would be of much danger. Oh, the pie!" Oskar patted his squishy belly.
"I don't see what choice we have, lass," Podo said.
"What do you think, young Wingfeathers?" Oskar asked.
Janner and Tink were taken aback. Did Oskar really want to know what they thought? The way Nia, Oskar, and even Podo looked at the three of them told Janner they did.
"Uh," Tink said.
"Well," Janner said.
"Yes," Leeli said. "Whatever happens, even if Mr. McHiggins isn't trustworthy, we can't stay here and we can't go back." She looked at the adults with her wide, innocent eyes.
"The Song Maiden of Anniera has spoken," Oskar said gravely. And the matter was settled.
And the two old men they tell Nia, Elisheva and the children that Ronchy wants them to meet up at midnight.
So the youngsters had to get an early sleep that afternoon to be ready. Elisheva was able to sleep for a few hours before awakening to hear Oskar speaking with Nia.
The old scholar tells Nia of what he'd uncovered in the first book thanks to his translations.
"Quieter, Oskar I want them to sleep while they can. "
Oskar apologized, "The point is this is ancient and forgotten history, it tells of the fall of the first kingdom, ages before Anniera. Yet, if I'm translating it correctly, it also says Anniera was later built on that same ground."
"Our kingdom was built over the ruins of the first kingdom?" Nia questioned.
"Listen, the power to protect Anyara..."
"Anyara? That sounds like Anniera!"
"Indeed, the power to protect Anyara lies in the Fane of Fire."
Something about it intrigued Elisheva, and she listened in.
Oskar explained how the book said Anyara had some type of power 'beneath the stones' that protected it, and he theorizes that Castle Rysen may have a chamber beneath it that holds that very same power, and he suggests that that could be the reason why Esben risked his own life to give the book to Janner.
"…There's a secret reference to a secret chamber deep beneath the castle, known only to the High King where some unspeakable treasure is kept."
Nia questioned, "Unspeakable in what way?"
Oskar chuckled softly, "Unspeakable, in the way I can't speak it because it was hard to translate." And he closed the book, "Won't Janner be delighted to ponder these mysteries?"
Podo, who'd been smoking a pipe, criticized, "The only thing Janner ought to be pondering is how to make it alive to the Ice prairies! No silly tales of magic rocks and lost secrets."
"Papa, Esben gave this book to Janner. It's good for him to know about where he came from!" Nia softly rebuked.
"What about where he's going?"
Podo was a little too rational, all he wanted was to find a safe place so that Nia and the children could live out their years in peace.
"And Elisheva… well, there's no guarantee her kin are alive at this point. Even if they find each other, they can't even go back to their homeworld, away from Gnag and the Fangs… they're stuck here wandering aimlessly."
Elisheva listened sulking nearby and moving her makeshift sling around and around. She didn't let them know she was awake just yet.
"Look, Anniera is sacked and gone!" Podo said darkly, "When we escaped the whole island was burning, its dead as dead as dragon skin. Tales like that are what send Fangs to Skree in the first place. It's what got me dear Wendolyn killed... and why we're not happily blowing smoke rings in Shaggy's tavern right now."
Oskar said softly, "I know what its cost us old friend, but I tell you. I'd rather be here dodging capture and hiding in Strander burrows, than blowing smoke rings in Glipwood under the claws of the fangs. Here I sit with the Wingfeathers, and the first new Key in decades, we're at the feet of history. That's the stuff of legends Podo. I will not hide in comfort just so that I can grow old and soft by the fire."
Podo grumbled, "You've already grown old and soft."
Oskar brushed off his comment, "Be that as it may, this old man will gladly face his fate, in the Ice prairies or in the belly of a Gargan rockroach. So long as there's even the tiniest flickering of hope that the flame of Anniera might be rekindled. Young Kalmar here might be the only hope of Anniera of the world for that matter. That boy has a higher calling than he can imagine. And for the record, sir, you have grown undisputably antiquated and rather squishy."
Unbeknowst to them Tink had been listening, full of doubt.
Elisheva didn't say anything, despite her temper flaring. She stubbornly refused to believe her father and her little brother were gone, not without credible proof. And if Podo refused to believe anything else, then that sounded like a him problem.
It was time she made a new plan. Step one she lets the Igiby family continue to the Ice Prairies. Step 2, they go on their separate ways. Step 3, she searches for her father and brother in these two cities by herself.
A bell run outside, signaling the hour.
Podo checked outside, "One hour to midnight, time to move."
To be continued…
Author's note: Shorter than I intended but the next scenes will be just as suspenseful. Don't forget to Read and Review, it helps my morale.