The Lost Runes Saga [Epic Fantasy]

TWENTY-SIX

The next morning, Rend looked a little better. Vidar made sure his patient's heartwell still held a reserve dragon's essence, then headed downstairs, where he caught Alvarn down in the shop, staring through the window.

It was already light out, so neither of them could have slept more than a few hours. Erik was gone.

"What are you looking at?" Vidar asked.

Alvarn pointed, and Vidar squinted, barely able to make out a group of guardsmen heading down the street. He groaned, recognizing the one at the front.

Guard Captain Anderson knocked on their door a minute later. Vidar considered dashing out the back door, but figured the captain would have someone stationed there. Besides, the soldiers already spotted them through the window.

"What do you want?" Vidar asked after unlocking the door and opening a crack. "You're not here to arrest me, are you?"

Anderson cleared his throat, stood at attention, and spoke in a clear voice. "The steward of Halmstadt requests your presence."

"The steward?" Vidar asked. "What does that bastard want?"

Anderson's face darkened. "Why don't you ask him that when you see him?"

"I will. Just me, or my friend here too?"

Alvarn's eyes widened in astonishment at hearing the steward wanted one of them, and he breathed a sigh of relief when Anderson shook his head.

"Only you, Vidar."

"Better get to it then," Vidar said, turning to Alvarn before leaving. "That problem I asked you about yesterday⁠—"

"I'll think of something," Alvarn promised. "Just don't get thrown into jail."

"I'm not fond of that place. There is no way I'm going back."

As he joined the small troop of soldiers, he noticed a red blotch of snow further down the street. It looked like blood, but there was no body to go with it. In the other direction down the street, Linus peeked out from behind a corner. He gave Anderson a quick look, then disappeared. By the time Vidar and his escort arrived, the young thief was already gone.

The sun was out in force, and the snow was melting. Spring was coming. They walked in silence, and the crowd parted for them. A few cried out for bread and help, but most knew the guardsmen were no help. Quite a few looked at Vidar when the group passed, but it was clear most thought him a common criminal being hauled away to rot in a cell.

As they neared Nordstan, screams sounded from one street over. It cut off with a grunt, and Anderson sent two of the guardsmen to investigate. They caught back up a little while later, whispering into the guard captain's ear.

Anderson sighed. "Another one? What's got them so riled up?"

"What's happening?" Vidar asked.

"That is none of your concern."

Vidar just looked at the man and shook his head. "Fine, then. Keep your secrets. Tell me at least why I have been summoned. What reason could the steward have for wanting to see me?"

"Oh, I wonder," Anderson said with ill-concealed sarcasm as he scratched at the side of his mustache.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Anderson scoffed. "How many things in your life could possibly warrant the attention of Halmstadt's ruler?"

Vidar didn't have to think on that question for long. "Dragons."

Anderson gave him a look that confirmed the answer. Nothing more needed to be said, and soon they were at the keep.

"Does this mean my ban from entering Nordstan has been lifted?"

"Not as far as I have been made aware," Anderson said, turning to the left, heading for the side entrance.

Vidar noticed a group of workers by the plaza, where they'd made their first attempt at slaying the dragon. The failed attempt, when its massive legs destroyed the hatch down to the underground. The people stood right around that spot, holding shovels.

"What are they doing?" Vidar asked, not wanting to come off like he knew about the hatch. "Restoring the plaza?"

"That is no concern to you," Anderson said with a tone of finality.

Vidar would get nothing more out of the lumbering captain. They walked the rest of the way in silence, up only a few flights of stairs and then into a corridor filled with servants going this way and that. Servants, guardsmen, soldiers, and men and women with a scholarly air about them, most carrying books or rolled-up pieces of parchment, roamed the halls.

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They paused at a small door in an unassuming part of the keep.

"They're waiting for you in here," Anderson said.

Vidar pointed at the door. "In there? Don't you have an audience hall or something? Something a little more grand?"

"Grandness is for grand people," Anderson said, raising his finger in warning. "Be on your best behavior in there, Vidar. I know of your dealings with Jarl, and you should take heed. The steward is not as lax in his requirements of honorifics and shows of respect. Insult him, and you will end up back in that jail cell. And this time, there will be no escaping."

The captain knew what had happened last time, and he was not thrilled that Vidar slipped through the cracks.

"I will be courteous," Vidar promised, as they ushered him inside.

The room was small and nondescript, with a desk at the wall opposite the door. It faced the room where a wide rectangular table took center stage, with a map pinned to it. At a glance, Vidar noted how it depicted Halmstadt. The steward sat behind the desk as Jarl hunched over the map. Two strangers stood on either side of the steward. The woman to the right and the man to the left were of an age with Jarl, but looked younger because of their dispositions. Their eyes twinkled, and both smiled. Honest smiles. They were excited, in stark contrast to the steward himself.

"About time," the steward barked.

Vidar stepped into the room and up to the table next to Jarl.

"The escort arrived just as I woke up."

"The folly of youth," the steward harrumphed. "Sleeping through the day, not knowing when to be courteous."

Jarl gave Vidar a warning look, and Vidar inclined his head. "I mean no disrespect. How can I help?"

"You say dragons are coming. Not only that, but you seem to have made the guildmistress of the rune scribes' guild a believer in your wild assertions. Tell me, Vidar, son of a scribe, on what grounds do you make these claims?"

Vidar knew this question was coming, but he'd been unable to prepare any better argument than the one he presented to Victoria. "I can feel them."

Jarl let out an almost inaudible sigh. He shook his head.

"Feel them how?" the man next to the steward asked. He wore robes reminiscent of the rune scribes' guild, the same sort of gray and brown coloring, but with differing details.

"Who are you?" Vidar asked.

The man answered in a low, pleasant voice. "I am Fredrik of the rune scribes' guild in Stalheim, the capital. My colleague Freja and I traveled across all of Sveland to reach Halmstadt once we learned of the developments here. The algiz rune and the stakra rune. They are your discoveries. Are they not?"

"They are," Vidar said, mind racing.

"Where did you find them?"

"What does it matter?" the steward spat. "That's not what we're here to discuss. You say you can feel the dragons?"

Vidar did his utmost to radiate earnestness and trustworthiness. "That's right."

"How?" the steward asked, his voice dripping skepticism.

"I was the one who killed the first dragon," Vidar said. "It was my arrow. And it was I who stood next to its corpse as its final breath escaped the beast. As it did so, it imparted something to me. A sort of kinship, if you will. I can feel them, hear them, almost."

The steward's disposition changed as Vidar talked, and at the end, he was paying rapt attention. The man believed, Vidar realized.

"And what do they say?" the steward asked, his voice low, excited.

"Not words," Vidar said. "Emotion. Anger fills them from the loss of their kin. They felt the arrow as it struck down one of their own. They're coming for vengeance. And they're coming soon. That's why I sent word. So you could prepare and protect Halmstadt."

"When will they arrive?" Jarl asked.

Vidar turned and looked at the man responsible for the actual protecting. "I don't know. Soon."

A glance at Jarl's face told Vidar this man did not believe, not like the steward. But it also told him Jarl would prepare nonetheless.

Jarl nodded. "I feared more might be coming. And we have been preparing. The corpse of the first dragon has been put to use. We have many bolts for our ballistae, and we are designing different weaponry to more easily aim into the sky."

"Do you know Alvarn?" Freja asked. "I've been told you are friends."

"The best of friends," Vidar said, without hesitation.

"His use of the stakra runes for the ballista was masterful. Or so I've been told. I wish I'd been there."

Vidar was about to reply, but the steward interjected with another question. "Why did the dragon come here in the first place?"

"I don't know," Vidar said.

"Can't you ask them?"

"I'm afraid it's one-way communication only," Vidar said. "They cannot hear me."

"Convenient," Jarl said.

"Will you help protect the city with algiz runes like I asked?" Vidar asked.

"We have tasked the rune scribes' guild with that," Jarl said. "They will make sure the keep and Nordstan are well protected, then spread their efforts south and east."

"What of the rest of the city? What of Andersburg?"

"Freja and I will help and ensure it is a speedy process," Fredrik said with a bow.

"We were hoping to talk with you a little more," Freja said.

"In a minute," Jarl said, his voice hard. "First, Vidar, there is information we need from you."

"Oh?"

"Where did you find the dragon bones?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Vidar said, looking away from Jarl to the rune scribes from Stalheim.

Jarl scratched the stubble on his chin. The man needed a shave. "I don't care about why you hid the location, but we know it's down in the sewer system somewhere. We have administrators overseeing the underground part of Halmstadt looking into where it might be, and we have people down there already searching, but it would be easier if you just told us. Is it coin you're after, Vidar?"

"I do need coin, but I don't have the information you want."

"We need the bones for more bolts to protect this city. You don't want it burned down, do you?"

"There is no skeleton," Vidar said. "I found a pack down there when clearing corpses. I didn't even know they were dragon bones. They might not be. I just know they worked. Maybe you don't even need them. The styrka rune could be enough."

Jarl kept his steady gaze on him, not breaking contact or even blinking. "I don't believe you," he said. "But if that's the way you want it, their lives will be on your shoulders. Not mine."

"We could throw him into a cell," the steward suggested.

"No," Jarl said. "We will be lawful."

"If you say so," the steward scoffed, turning to Vidar. "You've got quite the spine, and I can appreciate that. But know this will not stand forever. There will be a reckoning, and if no dragons show on the horizon, I will have your head, no matter what Jarl thinks on the matter."

"They'll come," Vidar said. "I know they will."