Dragonspell - Donita K. Paul [118]
After a rest, Kale again began her hunt through the maze of tunnels.
“We are so close this time.” She sat beside another dead end.
Leetu?
“I know. You can’t be more then a few feet away. Let me ask Brunstetter if he can move these boulders from this side. Perhaps we can break through.”
In a few moments, Kale heard stone scraping against stone. The wall of rocks making up the blockage trembled. With a surge of hope, she picked up smaller stones and moved them away. In a matter of minutes a slanted hole appeared, and Kale looked into Brunstetter’s smiling eyes.
“Welcome back, little stray,” he said and winked. Kale laughed.
The urohm’s huge face disappeared, and Leetu’s popped into view. She, too, smiled and laughed. “Haven’t you had a minute to wash your face, o’rant girl? You look like a thousand-year-old emerlindian.”
Librettowit showed his face next, and when Kale saw the bloody bandage on his head, she gasped.
“Here, take Gymn. He can start the healing while we make the hole bigger for me to get through.”
The librarian shook his head gingerly. “No, Kale, his power only works with you nearby, best if you can actually make the circle of healing by touching.”
“Move aside, tumanhofer.” Brunstetter ordered good-naturedly, his deep voice rumbling in a way that comforted Kale’s raw emotions.
She leaned toward the opening to see if she could spot Fenworth, Dar, and the kimens. Dar and the kimens sat around Fenworth’s still form. As Kale watched, their heads snapped up, their attention riveted by something out of Kale’s line of vision.
Dar jumped up and pulled his sword from its scabbard. Kale heard the battle cry of a bisonbeck. Brunstetter dropped the rock in his hands and ran toward the camp. Leetu raced after him.
A swarm of soldiers descended on her friends before they had a chance to defend themselves. Shimeran and Seezle jumped in the air, but a net shot over them and captured the kimens as it fell. Dar didn’t have a chance to duck into his shell. He moved slowly, and Kale knew Leetu was right, his injuries must be worse than just bruises.
What can I do? An explosion of light? Move mounds of dirt?…I don’t know how!
She watched in helpless horror as Lee Ark and Brunstetter fell under the assault of dozens of bisonbeck warriors. When the fighting stopped, each of her comrades had been captured. Chains bound Leetu, Lee Ark, Brunstetter, Dar, and Librettowit to each other at the ankle and around the neck. A net entangled the kimens so tightly that they lay in a huddled heap. Four guards stood around Wizard Fenworth as if the old man would arise and smite them all. Kale cringed at the pointed spears inches away from the ancient and vulnerable wizard.
Not one of her comrades glanced toward the small opening where Kale’s eyes peered through, watching as the bisonbecks destroyed the tents and scattered their belongings.
Leetu, what should I do?
“Stay out of sight.”
Yes, but I can do something, can’t I? To help you get free?
“Find the meech egg, o’rant girl. And get out of this mountain.”
But—
“Follow orders, Kale. And don’t play with your talents. Treat them with respect, or more disaster will fall upon your head.”
The bisonbeck commander roared. His troops fell into military formation. A soldier roughly lifted the old wizard and slung him over his shoulder. Her friends began the march out of The Cavern of Rainbows.
Kale ground her teeth. “My talents. I don’t help anyone with my talents. I cause disaster. Why? Why give a stupid o’rant slave talents?”
44
IN THE STRONGHOLD
As soon as the last soldier marched through the exiting tunnel, Kale began to claw away loose stones around the small opening. Minutes later she crammed her body into the narrow hole and pushed and wiggled and squirmed until she fell out the other side. She tumbled and slid before coming to rest against a boulder covered with black dirt. Metta and Gymn flew through the shallow slit she’d made and landed beside