Amber and Blood - Margaret Weis [98]
“The dwarves call this place Gamashinoch,” Galdar said. “It means ‘Song of Death’. Guess they don’t call it that now, ’cause the singing’s stopped, Sargas be praised,” he added.
He talked to the only person with him—Valthonis—and Galdar wasn’t talking to Valthonis because he enjoyed conversing with the elf. The racial hatred between minotaur and elves went back centuries, and Galdar saw no reason why the hatred shouldn’t last a few more. As for this elf being the ‘Walking God’, Galdar had himself been witness to the transformation so he knew the tale was true. What he didn’t understand was why everyone was making such a fuss over him. So he’d once been a god? What of it? He was a man now and had to take a crap in the woods like everyone else.
Galdar was mainly talking because he had to talk or else listen to the eerie silence that blanketed the valley. At that, Galdar had to admit the silence was better than that horrible singing they’d heard when he’d last been here. The lamenting souls of the dead had finally departed.
Galdar and Valthonis entered the valley alone; Galdar having ordered his men to stay on the ridge. His soldiers protested the decision. They even dared to argue with him, and no minotaur ever argued with his commanding officer. If Galdar insisted upon entering this accursed valley, his men wanted to come with him.
The minotaur soldiers admired Galdar. He was plain-speaking and blunt, and they liked that in a commander. He shared their hardships, and he made no secret of the fact that he didn’t like this assignment any better than they did, especially coming to the accursed valley of Neraka.
Takhisis had been Sargas’s consort, but there had been no love lost between them. Her favored race, the ogres, had long been enemies of the minotaur, at one time enslaving and brutalizing them. Sargas had pleaded their cause, but she had laughed at him and mocked him and his minotaur race. She was now dead and gone, or so people claimed. The minotaurs did not trust Takhisis, however. She’d been banished once by Huma Dragonbane and she’d come back. She might rise again, and no one wanted to walk the dark valley where she had once reigned.
“If you’re not back by noon, we’re coming in to get you, sir,” stated his second-in-command, and the other minotaurs raised their voices in agreement.
“No, you won’t,” Galdar said, glaring around at them. “If I’m not back by sunset, return to Jarek. Make your report to the priests of Sargas.”
“And what do we say, sir?” his second demanded.
“That I did as Sargas commanded,” Galdar answered proudly.
His men understood him, and though they did not like it, they no longer argued. They left the ridge and returned to the foothills, to while away the time with a game of bones, in which none took much pleasure.
Galdar and the elf continued making their way down what was left of a road. Galdar wondered if it was the road he’d walked that night, the night of the storm, the night of Mina. He didn’t recognize it, but that wasn’t surprising. He’d gone out of his way to try to forget that nightmarish march.
“I first came here with a patrol the night of the great storm,” Galdar explained as they left the road and entered the valley. “We didn’t know it at the time, but the storm was Takhisis, announcing to the world that the One God was back and this time she meant to have it all. We were under the command of Talon Leader Maggit, a bully and a coward, the sort of commander that would always run from a battle, only to pull some stupid stunt to try prove how brave he was and get half his men killed in the process.”
Talon Leader Magitt dismounted his horse. “We will set up camp here. Pitch my command tent near the tallest of those monoliths. Galdar, you’re in charge of setting up camp.