Obsidian Ridge - Jess Lebow [104]
Quinn obliged, slipping out of the tube and into the open chamber.
The room was quite warm, and he could feel the vibrations chatter through his ribcage and shake his chest. It was a strange sensation, the beats of his heart moving at odds with the vibrations of the gemstones.
Once he was out of the tube, Xeries's assassins continued on, passing around the floating rubies and steering clear of the magical bolts of energy emanating from them. At the other side of the room, the creatures began to climb the wall, slipping into another passage near the ceiling.
Quinn followed, not sure where all of this was taking him. Scaling the wall with ease, he continued on, deep into another passage-this one headed straight up toward the top of the Obsidian Ridge.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Korox sat in the saddle of his night-black war steed in the easternmost courtyard, looking at the dead, wilted cherry blossoms. It was the beginning of spring, and the warmth had just returned to Llorbauth. The flowers and trees had just staffing to bloom-but they were never given a chance.
The shrubs, grass, and trees had all curled up and died. The water had dried up. The dirt had turned to sand, and the sun beat down on the city as if it were a desert, desolate and wasted.
All of this had gone terribly, terribly wrong. The land as far as the eye could see was wilted and withered, and a new army of Xeries's beasts had mustered under the Obsidian Ridge. More poured out of the sides of the floating mountain every moment, and that could mean only one thing-Quinn and Mariko had failed, and Llorbauth was about to be attacked by the arch magus's forces.
Korox tried to tell himself that Xeries would have dried up the water, withered the crops, and taken his kingdom even if Mariko had been turned over without incident. But even if that were true, it didn't make him feel any better.
"Can you ever really trust a man who makes his home inside a burnt-out volcano?" he said to Captain Kaden.
"No, my lord, you cannot," replied the head of the Magistrates.
The king had ordered all of his remaining troops to muster in front of Klarsamryn. If Xeries's beasts were going to attack, then by Helm, Llotbauth was going to defend itself. While the regular army, Watchers, and Magistrates were preparing for battle, Korox had decided to ride through the courtyard one last time. Captain Kaden had insisted on coming along, and the king had agreed, if only for the company.
King Korox stepped down from his horse and crouched near the ground at the base of the queen's statue, touching the dried, brown grass. Brittle and stiff, it crumbled in his hand. He remembered taking walks here with his wife, when she was still alive. It had been the perfect place for a bit of privacy. The smell of the cherry blossoms made even the largest problems seem insignificant.
All of that was gone now.
Erlkazar was less than two decades old. He'd been its king for less than a year, and already it was on the brink of destruction.
"My lord," said Captain Kaden, "we should return."
King Korox nodded. "I know, Kaden. I just wanted to see this place again. Over the past year I have spent too much time inside my audience chamber and not enough out here." He looked up at the carving of his deceased wife. "I fear I have missed out on what may have been the last days of spring in Erlkazar."
With one final look he turned and led his steed back toward the front of Klarsamryn. His Magistrate escorts marched along side as they moved slowly from the courtyard, past the empty diplomatic buildings and into the field beyond. It too was brown and dry, like all the other places in the kingdom.
It was not far to the drawbridge, but from here, even the dead leaves on the trees obscured their view of the mustering troops. To the north, they could see the huge squirming mass of Xeries's army gathered under the floating mountain.
The flow of beasts out of the citadel had stopped. Their shimmering blackness seemed a giant bottomless