Lost City Page 28

“We’ve been at it for hours,” Tristofer complained. “All these mountains look the same. How are we supposed to find a single tree amidst so many?”

  “Have you decided where you want to look next?” Rhamalli’s voice called down to them. “I have not seen any trees that match the picture on the boy’s back.”

  “Neither have we,” Breslin admitted. He frowned at the map he was holding. “Can anyone follow this? Does anyone recognize any of these landmarks?”

  “No one can,” Venk told him. “We’ve all tried. No one can make heads or tails of it. Look at this. What is this supposed to depict? Either a group of five enormous trees growing in a circle or else it could be a family of trolls relieving themselves.”

  “And for the record, we haven’t seen either,” Breslin added.

  “Why would Prixus give us a difficult map to follow?” Athos gripped the walls of the basket tightly as Rhamalli banked right. “To purposely keep us aloft in this infernal basket?”

  Venk twirled the tip of his beard around his finger before poking it back into his belt. “That’s an interesting idea.”

  Tristofer looked up. “What is? That they purposely gave us an incorrect map?”

  Breslin shook his head no. “I didn’t sense any malicious intentions coming from Prixus.”

  “Maybe you weren’t as convincing as you thought you were?” Athos suggested.

  “Who do you think made the map?” Venk wondered aloud. “We know it wasn’t Prixus. He said he’d have his staff take care of it. What if someone is trying to lead us astray? What if... what if this is just a prank?”

  “It’s not very funny,” Tristofer grumbled. He, too, along with the others didn’t care for flying and would just as soon be back on the ground.

  “So what do we do now?” Venk wanted to know. “If this map is inaccurate, we should pay it no heed. Do we explore on our own?”

  “Then my original argument comes back into play,” Rhamalli’s voice reminded them. “I do not think I would be of much help without knowing where to focus our attention.”

  “Don’t fly over the mountains,” a soft, quiet voice said. “Fly next to them instead.”

  Rhamalli’s long neck stretched down so that he could peer under his own belly at the basket he was holding.

  “What did you say, young Master Lukas?”

  Lukas flushed. He had directed his comment to his father but apparently the dragon had taken it to be directed towards him. Lukas looked up at his father for guidance but Venk was curious as well.

  “Speak up, boy,” his father gently prodded. “What did you say?”

  Lukas cleared his throat and found his mouth completely dry. “Rhamalli, you’ve said you can’t see the tree as you pass overhead, right? Not unless you slow down?”

  Rhamalli’s great head nodded.

  “Then don’t,” Lukas told him. “Fly next to the mountains, but not over them. That way we can look for the tree from the sides. It’ll be easier to see.”

  Surprised, Breslin glanced at the dragon. Rhamalli cocked his head as if surprised he hadn’t thought of that simple idea.

  “Nice,” Venk told his son.

  “Prixus told us the tree was on a mountainside,” Tristofer reminded him. “Think he was telling the truth?”

  Breslin nodded. “Aye. We just have to find the right mountain.”

  “If we are to assume what Prixus told us about his youth is correct,” Tristofer began, “and we are to assume this map is wrong, then all we need to know is what’s the most direct route from Bykram to the sea? Rhamalli, do you think you can spot the route a dwarf would travel starting back at Bykram?”

  Rhamalli angled his head down to study the passing landscape.

  “I believe so.”

  “How many mountains do you think might contain the tree?”

  The dragon’s enhanced vision located the stump that was Bykram’s main entrance and followed it northeast towards the sea.

  “At least a dozen.”

  “Circle around,” Breslin told him. “Start at the stump that serves as their main entrance and head towards the sea. We’ll have to inspect each mountain from here to there.”

  Hour after hour they searched, endlessly circling around the numerous mountains and hills that lay towards the sea from Bykram’s location in the southern Selekai mountains. On numerous occasions did they spot trees with the potential to be what they were searching for, but upon closer inspection, however, every single tree they encountered had only a single trunk. Nowhere could they find a tree comprised of two smaller trees merged together.

  With sunset only an hour or two away, and after circling endlessly around the first six mountains which lay in their path, Rhamalli spotted a tree high up a steep rocky mountainside on the seventh that showed the most promise yet. Vigorously beating his wings to gain more altitude, Rhamalli flew as close as he dared to the mountainside so that everyone could see what he had noticed, namely a tree with two distinct root systems perched precariously on the tiniest of ledges. Three other straggly trees were situated nearby, also clinging unsteadily to the rocky cliff.

  “That’s it!” Breslin said excitedly. “Look! That’s clearly two trees! You can see two separate root systems!”

  Rhamalli circled around for another pass.

  “Are you sure?” Venk asked as he squinted at the distant tree. “Looks like just one to me.”

  “It’s the right one,” Breslin assured them. “You can see the roots of each stretching off in opposite directions.”

  “The tree does match the illustration on young Lukas’ back,” Rhamalli agreed. “Note the foliage. The northern half of the tree has leaves that have turned bright red while the southern half has leaves that remain brown.”

  “We need to get down there!” Tristofer said excitedly. “That tree should be the last piece of the hammer’s final resting place! It must be there. We have to find it!”

  Breslin and Venk eyed each other as they observed the steep slope, the tiny outcropping of rock the tree was clinging to, and the overall lack of ground on which a person could stand upright on.

  “How exactly do you propose to do that?” Venk asked as he and his brother turned to stare at the scholar. He hooked a thumb back towards the tree and frowned. “There’s no place to stand. How are we going to inspect the tree when we can’t even move around?”

  “Take us back to the ground,” Breslin told the dragon. “We need to figure this out.”

  The long scaly neck slowly bent down until the dragon’s enormous head was looking straight at the basket. Two slitted eyes focused on the dwarf.

  “Please.”

  Satisfied that the dwarf had turned the sharply worded command into a request, Rhamalli gently glided to the base of the mountain and set the basket down upon a small grassy knoll.

  “Now what?” Athos inquired as he craned his head to look back up at the distant tree. The tree alone had to be at least a thousand feet off the ground.

  “We brainstorm,” Breslin answered. “We need some ideas. Let’s hear it. Anything, no matter how preposterous. How do we scale a mountain without tools or rope?”

  “Get what we need from Bykram,” Venk suggested.

  Tristofer automatically shook his head no. Breslin agreed.

  “We can’t return to Bykram for supplies without making it blatantly obvious that we found something. The Kla Rehn are out. No offense, Tristofer.”

  “None taken, I assure you.”

  Lukas turned to look up at the dragon’s towering form before facing the mountain and slowly raised his gaze until it fell upon the distant tree.

  “It’s just a tree up on a mountain. I say we climb it.”

  Venk shook his head. “Without a safety harness? Without rope? I think not.”

  “We used to climb all the time when we were underlings,” Athos told his brother. “Over much worse terrain than that, I might add. Climbin
g a tree shouldn’t be a bother. I’ll do it.”

  “We’re not talking about a simple tree,” Venk pointed out. “Don’t forget about the mountain that the tree is growing on. I don’t want to climb that far up without the proper gear.”

  “How do we even know the handle is up there?” Breslin wanted to know. He turned to Lukas. “Could you sense its presence when we flew by it?”

  Lukas shook his head. “I forgot to try. I’m sorry.”

  Venk studied the distant tree for a few moments longer before steering his son back towards the basket.

  “Only one way to find out. Rhamalli, if you’d be so kind as to take us back up to the tree. Son, just like you did at the waterfall, see if your back starts to tingle. We’ll figure out what to do next only if we know we’re at the right tree.”

  Athos hopped into the basket and then leaned over to pull his nephew in. Venk climbed in moments later.

  “Wait here,” he told Breslin and Tristofer. “We’ll be right back.”

  Ten minutes later they were back on the ground.

  “Well?” Breslin demanded. “Is it there?”

  Venk turned to look down at his son. He gently prodded his shoulder. Lukas smiled at Breslin and nodded his head.

  “Aye. My back began to tingle the moment we got close to that tree!”

  Breslin nodded. “Alright, the handle’s presence is confirmed. Master Athos, are you still willing to risk exploring the tree?”

  Athos nodded. “I am.”

  Venk raised an arm. “I’m going, too. My brother will not go alone.”

  Athos nodded in appreciation.

  “I’m going too, father!”

  One look from his father had Lukas wordlessly dropping his arm back onto his lap. The underling sighed. It wasn’t fair! This was his quest! He should be the one allowed to go!

  “Don’t argue with me, boy,” Venk warned, sensing his son was preparing to resist. “Trust me, if it’s up there, we’ll find it.”

  Strapping daggers, chisels, hammers, and various other tools to both their belts and their baldrics, the two brothers retrieved the final addition to their gear: their primary battle axes. With a gentle clink as both brothers knocked their blades together, they strapped their axes to their baldrics so that the axe was fastened securely across their backs. Venk elected to leave his crossbow behind as he didn’t think he’d need it. Together they turned to face the prone form of the dragon.

  Athos approached the basket and made to jump in. Rhamalli finally stirred. A dark red foreleg snatched the basket off the ground just before Athos could hoist himself up.

  “May I make a suggestion, master dwarf?”

  Thrown off balance by the sudden disappearance of the basket, Athos spun around and lost his balance, plopping unceremoniously down on his butt. A small hammer and a chisel went flying off his belt in the process.

  “What the ruddy hell did you do that for?” Athos demanded as he rose to his feet amongst a series of clinks and clangs his gear made when he rocked to his feet.

  “You won’t be needing the basket,” Rhamalli told him.

  “Why not?”

  “Did you see anywhere the basket could be set down?”

  Surprised, Athos shook his head as he realized he hadn’t.

  “Er, no. What are you going to do? Let us ride on your back?”

  Rhamalli’s neck jerked straight up and his nose lifted.

  “Absolutely not. I will carry the two of you in my right claw.”

  “Carry us?” Venk asked, hoping the queasiness he was feeling didn’t come through with the tone of his voice. “I don’t know if my stomach can handle that again.”

  “Lukas handled it perfectly,” Rhamalli reminded him. “There’s no chance of harm befalling you.”

  Venk scowled. “Great. Let’s get this over with before I lose my nerve.”

  Bidding the others farewell, Venk and Athos climbed into Rhamalli’s open right claw. Cringing nervously as the massive claw began to close, both dwarves eyed the two foot long talons as they edged ever nearer. Fortunately, with his claw partially closed, the brothers felt fairly secure as they were carried up the mountain.

  “If a month ago you would have told me that I’d be willingly riding in the claws of a dragon up a mountain,” Athos mumbled uneasily, “I’d have labeled you insane. What the blazes are we doing up in the air like this?”

  Venk smiled amidst his own queasiness.

  “You’re a good uncle. I appreciate what you’re doing for Lukas.”

  “Don’t you ever forget it.”

  “This isn’t going to be easy,” Venk warned, as they both eyed the tree as it loomed closer with every passing second.

  “If it was, then I’d say we have the wrong tree,” Athos replied. “Nothing about this quest has been easy so far.”

  “Be ready,” Rhamalli told them as the wind from his flapping wings bent several of the double tree’s branches back to almost the breaking point. “I cannot approach any closer. I’ll put you down on the ledge on the northern side of the trunk.”

  Venk eyed the tiny ledge from the safety of Rhamalli’s claw.

  “Ledge? You call that a ledge?? That’s no bigger than a stair!”

  Athos slid one of his hammers across his belt so that it was within easy reach for his right hand. If he had to make a quick handhold on the mountain’s rocky surface, he’d need easy access to his best rock cutter.

  Rhamalli deposited the two of them upon the tiny ledge then retreated to a safe distance of about twenty feet away. He had located a suitable place to wait for the dwarves and was now clinging precariously on the side of the mountain by gripping a circular ridge that looked as though it wound its way all around the mountain as though someone had dropped a large ring down onto a cone.

  Both dwarves had lunged forward the moment their feet hit the ledge. Both had leapt for the low lying branches and had wrapped their arms around sections of the trunk and held on as though their life depended on it, which unfortunately in this case, it did.

  “How long can you hold on like that?” Venk called out to the dragon.

  “As long as is needed,” Rhamalli answered. “The rock is bearing my weight. I’m not fatigued. And you?”

  “We just have to get up the nerve to move,” Venk told him, “which is easier said than done at the moment.”

  “Several feet to your left and just over your shoulder is another branch similar in girth to the one you’re holding. Once there you’ll be within reach of a branch just off your left shoulder and slightly above your head. Make your way there. Numerous other branches will be within reach that lead all over that half of the tree.”

  Without releasing his death grip of the branch he and his brother were clinging to, Venk angled his head up and turned to look to his left. Sure enough, there was the branch the dragon wanted him to take. Inching forward at a pace less than that with which his beard grew, Venk finally convinced his left hand to unclasp the branch it was holding and reach for the one just above his head.

  “I’ve seen grandfathers centuries older than you move faster than you are now,” Athos told him. “Get a move on!”

  Scowling at his brother, Venk pulled himself to the higher branch and waited for his brother to follow suit. Under Rhamalli’s careful instructions, the two dwarves slowly explored the left-hand side of the Dual Tree, as they had started referring to it. They crawled up as high as they could go without finding anything remarkable.

  After an hour of climbing all over every inch of the Dual Tree, both brothers decided to take a moment or two for themselves to rest. Sitting in the fork of several large branches a fair distance from the tree’s base, Venk leaned forward to inspect the trunk up close.

  Reddish-brown and fibrous, the northern half of Dual Tree was at least seventy feet tall. It had thick, sharp, spreading, needle-like leaves that varied from two to three inches long. Venk gently s
niffed. He detected a light, fragrant smell emanating from the wood.

  “What are you doing?” Athos asked him from his perch several feet away. “Would you like a moment alone?”

  Venk scowled at his brother. “I’m trying to learn as much as I can about this tree, alright?”

  “And what have you learned so far?”

  “Well, that this is no different than any other cedar that I have ever encountered. Do you know how many times I’ve seen groups of cedars growing together? Many times. Have I ever seen two growing like this? No. I’ve seen two trees sprouting from the same hole, but each grew in the opposite direction. What’s so special about these two? Why are they growing together?”

  “No clue,” Athos told him.

  “We’ve checked both the red half and the brown half. The only area we really haven’t checked that well is Dual Tree’s canopy,” Venk told him, glancing up at the gently swaying treetops.

  Athos shook his head. If he hadn’t been tightly clutching the branch he was sitting on, he would have crossed his arms over his chest. “You want to check that up there, you go right ahead.”

  “Is there a problem?”

  “Look how small those branches are. They won’t hold our weight.” Athos slowly shook his head. “Besides, if there was something up there then we would have seen it. I’m more inclined to think if there is an axe handle hidden in this tree, then it’d be somewhere around the trunk.”

  “How do we know that the handle wasn’t hidden here when the tree was much smaller?” Venk argued. “I would think that it would have been carried upwards as the tree grew taller.”

  “Possible, but unlikely.”

  Venk studied his brother. “Alright, if you’re so smart, where would you have hidden it?”

  “Let’s work this out. We know these types of trees don’t grow together naturally, even when given the perfect opportunity to do so. You’ve said so yourself, am I right?”

  Venk shrugged and nodded.

  “Here we have two trees growing in close proximity, almost as if they were pushed together and forced to grow that way. Why would someone do that? Perhaps to conceal something?”

  Venk froze. “You’re telling me you think these trees were made to grow together in order to hide something?”

  Athos nodded. “It’s a hunch. I’ll bet if we check the point in which the two trees come together we’ll find what we’re looking for.”

  “Couldn’t hurt to try. I thought I saw a small opening at the junction of the trees when we first arrived but figured it was just a trick my eyes were playing on me.”

  Athos swung his leg over and started sliding down the branch he had been sitting on, intent on bringing himself to a stop just before reaching the main trunk. However, a gust of wind suddenly appeared and blew Athos off balance. Flailing his arms, Athos toppled over back first and with a terrified look on his face, fell towards the ground many hundreds of feet below. Venk lunged forward to try and grab his brother’s hand as he fell past, but he wasn’t fast enough.

  “Athos!!”

  Before Athos could fall more than twenty feet, a red leathery surface suddenly snapped out beneath him and caught him much like a safety net would have done. Athos bounced on the wing much like an underling would have bounced on his bed at bedtime. The dragon stretched his wing out and then up to the tree. Rhamalli held it there while Athos clambered back into the safety of the tree’s branches. Athos turned to stare at the giant red dragon still clinging precariously to the rocky wall.

  “I will forever be in your debt. Never will I speak ill of a wyverian again. Any wyverian.”

  Rhamalli folded his wing back against his side and re-hooked his wing talon to the lip of the rock outcropping he had been gripping. He nodded solemnly to the dwarf, as if rescuing falling dwarves were a daily occurrence. Narrowing his eyes until they were back to being slits, Rhamalli returned to his meditation, although this time he devoted a little more of his attention to keeping an eye on the dwarves. The last thing he wanted to do was send a report back to the dragon lord that one of the dwarfs had been lost under his care.

  “Well, I’m awake now,” Athos told his brother.

  “I’ll bet.” Venk punched his brother hard on the arm. “Don’t do that again. You scared me.”

  Athos hooked his right arm behind his brother’s neck and pulled him close until they were practically nose to nose. He cocked his head back and butted Venk’s head with his own, creating a loud clunk as their two helmets collided.

  “Sorry. You are right, though.”

  “About what?”

  “About seeing something under the base of the trunk. I saw it as Rhamalli raised me back up.”

  Venk turned to look down at the “ground” nearly thirty feet below them. Carefully, and making sure his handholds were firm, Venk lowered himself down to the tiny ledge. There! He had been right! The small rocky ledge the tree was growing on looked as though it had been methodically chipped away so that someone could get under the tree. How long it had been there they didn’t know, but one thing was for sure: someone had made the tiny hole. Luckily the small hole was just barely large enough to pass a dwarf.

  Tucking most of their gear safely into a hollow formed by three massive branches forking off in different directions, Venk dropped to his belly and wriggled his way into the small opening. Athos was right on his heels.

  The cave they found themselves in was much larger than either of them would have thought possible. Both of them were able to stand up and their heads were still nowhere close to hitting the top of the merging trunks. Both dwarves craned their necks to look up; the roof of the cave was at least another four feet higher than their heads.

  “Did you suspect this was here?” Athos asked as he glanced at the natural cavern formed by the intersection of the two trunks.

  “Nope.”

  “What are we looking for?”

  “You’re seriously asking me that? A handle.”

  “You know what I mean,” Athos replied crossly. “They wouldn’t have left it out in the open. Someone else might have come in here at some point.”

  Venk pointed south. “You check that half and I’ll check this one. Meet back here in an hour.”

  After crawling about on the floor for close to a half hour, both dwarves rose painfully to their feet. Venk silently studied the chisel marks near the entrance to the cave while Athos pulled his small hammer from his belt and began to tap various discolored spots on the inside of the trunk. Both trunks.

  “Any luck?” Rhamalli’s strong deep voice asked from outside.

  “Nothing yet,” Venk called back. “We’re still looking. How’s it hanging out there?”

  They heard Rhamalli give an indifferent grunt.

  “We’re going as fast as we can,” Venk assured the dragon. “Hang in there!”

  They heard Rhamalli let out a “Hmmph”. Had the dwarves been closer they would have felt the deep rumblings of the dragon’s laughter.

  “What’s that?” Athos asked, pointing up at the tree’s junction above their heads.

  “What’s what?” Venk inquired, looking up.

  “I see several frayed pieces of string.”

  “You do? Where?”

  Athos kept his finger trained at the exact point where the two trees had merged together.

  “My eyes haven’t adjusted yet,” Venk told him. “I can’t see a thing.”

  “Of course you don’t. You can’t see ten feet in front of you sometimes.”

  Venk shot his brother a nasty glare before returning his gaze to the undersides of the dual trunks. They were still too dark for him to see whatever it was his brother had spotted. Athos suddenly gripped his shoulders and spun him about until he was facing west, towards the opening of the cave.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Hold still. I want a closer look.”

  “And how do you plan on do
ing that when... oomph!!”

  Athos had silenced Venk’s objections the moment he took a running leap and climbed up his brother until he was standing unsteadily on Venk’s shoulders.

  “There had better be something up there,” Venk growled as he tightly gripped his brother’s feet.

  “Hah! Did I not tell you? I see string!”

  “String? What the blazes is string doing in a tree?”

  Athos gently swayed left and right as he stared at the junction of the trees. What was a piece of string doing there, anyway? A second string caught his eye. Then a third. They varied in length, from a fraction of an inch to no more than two. Athos counted seven frayed pieces of string poking out of the wood.

  “There must be something embedded in the wood,” Athos decided, eliciting a grunt from his brother. “If it’s the handle, maybe it was wrapped in something?”

  “How do you embed something in a tree?” Venk huffed out. His shoulders were throbbing and it was becoming increasingly difficult to stand motionless.

  “Could a tree be made to grow around an object?”

  Beads of perspiration trickled down Venk’s back.

  “Theorize later. What are you going to do about that string?”

  Athos pulled the only other tool he had left on his belt: a small axe. However, even standing on his brother’s shoulders, along with his foot long axe handle he was holding, he still wasn’t tall enough to reach the Dual Tree’s junction point. Just then the Dual Tree rocked, as though buffeted by a strong wind.

  “What was that?” Venk asked, momentarily forgetting the pain radiating down his shoulders and back.

  Athos lowered his axe and looked around.

  “I’m not sure. Maybe it’s getting windy outside.”

  The sounds of creaking wood ceased.

  Satisfied the tree had return to its normal quiescent state, Athos let his axe slide through his fingers until he was only gripping the very tip of the handle, thus giving his swing an extra three inches. He cocked his arm and prepared to swing.

  The tree groaned again. Once more it felt like strong winds were trying to push the tree off the ledge.

  “Hold up,” Venk called up to his brother. “Get off my shoulders.”

  “Why? We won’t be able to reach it if I get down, and even then I can’t quite reach.”

  Venk’s voice turned sharp and authoritative.

  “Athos, lower your axe and get on the ground. Now.”

  Surprised, and a little annoyed, Athos hopped down from Venk’s shoulders and speculatively eyed his brother.

  “What’s the problem?”

  “Every time you raised your axe, the tree groaned.”

  “Trees don’t react to people,” Athos argued. “Just a coincidence.”

  “I was watching you. Trust me. You prepared to swing and the tree made noise.”

  Athos sighed. “You’re suggesting this tree is self-aware. Prove it.”

  Venk nodded. “Very well. Have you noticed the Dual Tree has fallen quiet since you got down?”

  “Coincidental.”

  Venk squinted up at the dangling frayed ends of the strings.

  “How many strings did you see before?”

  “Seven.”

  “Now there are four.”

  “What?!”

  “The tree must have pulled the object farther in to get it away from you.”

  “Impossible.”

  “If you don’t believe me, trust your own eyes. Look!”

  Athos looked up at the dangling strings and cursed silently. Venk was right. Only four strings could now be seen. Had the tree really pulled the object farther up itself? Was it really reacting to them?

  Thinking along the same lines, Venk nodded towards Athos’ axe. “Pretend you’re going to hack into the tree. Let’s see what it does.”

  “Gladly.”

  Athos pulled his axe back from his belt, strode over to the nearest wall, and made a few practice swings.

  It felt as though the strongest hurricane imaginable just attacked the tree. The Dual Tree was shaking itself, as if an irksome insect had landed and it wished to rid itself of the pest. Mollified, Athos lowered his axe. Within moments, the tree had quieted down.

  “Satisfied?” Venk whispered. “Dual Tree is already on shaky ground as far as I can tell. We don’t need it to jar itself loose from the mountain and end up destroying itself. Keep your axe sheathed.”

  Ashen, Athos nodded. He slipped his axe back into its sheath and buckled it closed.

  “I think you should apologize to the tree,” Venk told him while managing to keep the smile from appearing on his face.

  “Apologize? To a tree? That’s not going to happen.”

  They both heard the rustling of leaves high up in the tree branches. Was it a coincidence?

  “Fine. Tree, I’m sorry.”

  The rustlings continued.

  “Now say it like you mean it,” Venk told him.

  Athos shot his brother a dirty look and tried again.

  “Tree, I’m very sorry. Can we let this go now?”

  The rustlings stopped.

  “Now aren’t you glad you listened to me?” Venk asked, unable to hide the huge grin on his face.

  Athos ignored him.

  Venk paused. An idea had occurred.

  “Tree, there’s something up your trunk, and it –”

  Athos snickered.

  “There’s something embedded in your trunk,” Venk hastily amended. “I don’t think it’s supposed to be there. If you’ll permit me, I’ll remove it and then we can be on our merry way and leave you in peace. What say you?”

  Dual Tree gently swayed back and forth. Venk eyed his brother. Was the tree considering? The tree stopped rocking and fell silent.

  “What happened?” Athos demanded. “Will it give us the handle?”

  Venk looked up at the strings. He still counted only four. Apparently the tree wasn’t ready to part with its treasure.

  “What about wyverian immunity?” Venk suggested. “We’ll see if we can get the dragons to consider this mountain off limits to any type of wyverian activity. How’s that?”

  “You cannot guarantee that,” Rhamalli informed them from outside. “You cannot speak for Rinbok Intherer.”

  “I know!” Venk hissed at the hole leading outside. “But I’m sure you could persuade him.”

  “Unlikely,” Rhamalli muttered.

  The tree continued to remain motionless and quiet.

  “Ah! I have it! Athos here will personally plant a dozen saplings in our valley in your honor. He’ll personally water them every day until they’ve grown strong.”

  Shocked, Athos smacked his brother on the arm. “What are you doing? I don’t want to plant and water any trees. If you want trees to be planted, why don’t you agree to do it?”

  The telltale creak of wood assailed their ears. The tree was swaying again, only this time it was barely perceptible. Did it find the agreement acceptable?

  “Give us that thing you’ve probably been holding onto for a very long time and Athos will uphold his end of the agreement. Do we have an accord?”

  “No, we sure as hell don’t!” Athos hissed with frustration. “Me? Planting trees? It’ll be a cold day in...”

  Venk elbowed his ranting brother in the gut.

  “Agree to the damn accord, you fool!”

  Athos glared at the tree and was silent.

  Venk elbowed him again.

  “Agree to it!”

  “You’d better be willing to help me plant these trees. If I have to suffer through this, so should you.”

  “Fine, I will. Lukas, too. Now agree to the accord!”

  “Harrumph. Very well. Tree, if you give us whatever it is you’re holding there, I will agree to plant a dozen trees in Raehón valley. I’ll also make sure the saplings receive all the water they need to reach maturity.”


  Athos turned to his brother and held up his hands, as if to say satisfied?

  Apparently the Dual Tree was. They both heard a series of tremendous creaks and snapping wood as the tree shifted its position. Slowly, ever so slowly, the two trunks parted, revealing more of the strings. As the trunks slowly peeled away from each other, it was revealed that the strings were actually the fraying ends of what was once a burlap sack. Whatever it was concealing started to become visible as the trunks slowly inched apart. After about five minutes of painstakingly slow progress on the tree’s part, a foot and a half long bundle wrapped in a decaying sack fell into Athos’ hands.

  Dual Tree’s creaking and rustling abruptly stopped. After a few moments of silence the trunks began to press themselves back together as they slowly reversed the separation they had just undertaken.

  Athos wordlessly unwrapped the burlap coverings, allowing the torn pieces to fall to the ground. After the last piece of cloth had fallen away, the two brothers stared at the object before them. Twenty inches long and covered with carvings, runes, and unknown symbols, the dark oak handle gleamed as though it had been polished the day before.

  Athos looked down at the carved piece of wood and nodded.

  “Think that’s what we’re looking for?”

  “Without a doubt,” Venk agreed.

  “Want to get off this infernal mountain?”

  “Like you wouldn’t believe.”

  Chapter 10 – Armin’ the Hammer!