Obsidian Ridge - Jess Lebow [21]
One hand slipped behind her head, and the other held a piece of cloth to her face. There was something caustic on the cloth. The smell of it burned Mariko's eyes and made her gag. She struggled, but the robed figure was just too strong, and the smell of the fabric made her woozy. The bricks on the far wall began to shimmer and move. They grew and shrank, coming up close to her face then slipping away. Her body grew weak. She was tired, and her eyes rolled back into her head.
Finally, she surrendered. Unable to struggle further, she felt her body go limp, then the light went out.
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Jallal Tasca led his men out of the slaughterhouse. They moved swiftly through the quiet streets. The sun would be rising soon, and the docks would grow thick with workers and traders. Many would turn a blind eye to armed men carrying the tied-up, limp body of Princess Mariko. But most people followed a simple unspoken rule here on the wharf-if they didn't see it, then it wasn't wrong. Jallal preferred to keep to that rule, especially given his new appearance.
"Hurry," he urged, picking up the pace.
The man marching in the front of the column stopped suddenly, and Jallal nearly ran right into his back.
"What is it?" barked Tasca the elder. The guard was squinting at something in the distance, and he shook his head.
"Well?" said Jallal. "Speak up."
The guard lifted his arm, and pointed to the horizon. "What… what in the Nine Hells is that?"
Jallal followed the man's outstretched finger, looking up into the sky.
Overhead, a gargantuan black mountain had appeared. Rising from a base of jagged black stone, it came to a sharp ridge at the top. If it weren't for the battlements that decorated its sides, it would have looked like a volcano, ripped from the ground to hover over Llorbauth like an executioner's axe.
The men gasped as each of them followed Jallal's gaze into the sky.
"Holy gods…" said one. He dropped his weapon and let it clatter to the ground. "We're doomed." Without another word, he turned and bolted into the darkness, running as if he were being chased by a lion.
Seeing him take off in fright, two other men lost their nerve and went running off as well.
"Stop, you cowards!" shouted Jallal. "No one leaves unless I say so, or I will kill you myself!"
The two men froze in their tracks. The third was already too far away to hear the threat.
Jallal growled, then looked up at the structure looming in the sky. "Let's get her royal highness to the Matron and out from under that thing. Whatever it's going to do, I don't want to be out here when it happens."
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High above, Arch Magus Xeries looked down from his floating citadel onto the sleeping kingdom of Erlkazar. He'd been waiting to return here for almost two hundred years.
Last time, he wanted something very different. Sadly, it had eluded him.
Taking a sip from his goblet of blood-red wine, he waved his hand. His conjured image of this soon-to-be-conquered kingdom winked out of existence.
This time, he would get what he wanted.
Chapter Seven
"Call Captain Kaden!" shouted King Korox. "And Senator Divian too!"
Whitman and Quinn, the only two others in the room, bowed and took off to find the king's advisors. Korox stood at the edge of his balcony, looking down onto the valley, the water, and the sprawling city of Llorbauth.
"For all that is holy," he whispered. "What is that thing?"
Right in the middle of his view hung a mountain. The morning sun had risen, but the shadow of the floating fortress left most of the city still in the dark.
"You called, my lord?" Captain Kaden arrived out of breath, having run all the way in his heavy plate mail.
"Have you seen this?" asked the king.
"Yes, my lord. I think everyone in the barony has seen it."
The king nodded. "Yes, I suppose it is hard to miss." "I've already put the Magistrates on notice." The king paced back to the other side of the room. "Does