The Lost Runes Saga [Epic Fantasy]

FORTY-FIVE

The citizens of Halmstadt were milling about the street, no one doing much of anything except for a few who were hauling food or water, to bring back to whatever shelter they'd been able to find. In the bright light of day, things looked somewhat normal. A few shops were even open, though their prices were inflated to the point of absurdity. Vidar caught people talking about heading to the church or leaving Halmstadt altogether. Once or twice, he spotted a few shields and pieces of wood with the styrka-algiz runes burned into them. Those attracted others, and clumps of people formed around them, with people touching the styrka rune before pulling away, either with looks of horror on their faces or with laughter rising over the crowd. Word was spreading. Good.

Linus was a quick one and darted between people, going from street to street with his head on a swivel, like he was trying to take every sight in all at once.

"Is there still fighting?" Vidar asked, huffing next to the lad.

"Nothing yet. It's brewing, but even thieves are afraid of dragons."

"That's a good thing."

"It's just up here," Linus said, turning into another street.

They made it to a wide two-story building, one floor made of stone and the second from timber. It had a small courtyard, most of which was taken over by a large painted circle with an algiz rune in the middle. Several smaller circles surrounded it, a styrka rune in each of them. Men, and a couple of girls, sat or stood hunched around the styrka runes, touching them.

Vidar had conjured such a firm image of it in his mind when he came up with the idea together with Alvarn, but seeing it come to life was something else.

"Beautiful, just beautiful."

"Will it protect us?" Linus asked.

"I think it will," Vidar said.

Linus gestured to the front door. "Through there."

They entered the building and then took a right into a spacious room with a brown carpeted floor, low turned kenaz runes on the walls, set in metal plates, and several sowilo runes giving warmth to the place. Someone of means lived in this building, or used to, at least.

Ida, Fjodor, and a few others occupied the room. A large map of Halmstadt covered most of one wall, circles painted in white over the gray background of streets, buildings, and other landmarks in quite a few locations. A handful had a poor representation of the algiz rune in them.

Vidar turned to the others. "You're doing great, but the dragons will soon be here. We need to do more."

"We're going as fast as we can," Ida said. "Now that we have additional rune scribes, things will speed up."

"So you did kidnap rune scribes?" Vidar asked.

"He did," Ida said.

"For the cause," Fjodor said. "We will release them after they've done their part. I will not hold them as slaves."

"It's what they deserve," Ida spat.

Vidar walked up close to Ida, next to the map.

She looked up at him, a burning intensity in her eye. "Did you see Siv?"

"They didn't treat her well," Vidar said.

"If I get my hands on that woman," she said, making a strangling gesture.

"It's already taken care of. She won't hurt anyone ever again."

Ida gave him a look and brushed her shoulder-length hair out of her face, scratching a little at her eye patch. "Good, Vidar. You did well."

"Where is she?" Vidar asked.

"Siv is taking charge of making these huge runes. A few students and the scribes are with her. Don't worry. They have a lot of guards with them, and Siv can take care of herself. The other students who came with her are near the gates, using those tools."

"Great," Vidar said.

Ida sighed. "I just want this to be over, so I can go back to sleeping and doing some honest thieving."

Vidar glanced over at Fjodor. "Has he spoken to you?"

She looked away and nodded. "He has."

"What will you do?"

"I don't know," Ida said. "First, we have to get through this thing. Then we'll see."

Fjodor was glancing their way, so Vidar addressed him. "Do we know where the refugees and others leaving Halmstadt are going?"

"We do. It seems you made an impression on the villagers outside. They are spreading the word of a shelter up in the woods. I believe some are up there, digging it out as we speak, with many making their way over, but people are frightened of monsters."

"They should be," Vidar said, wondering how Leio was doing. Hopefully, she and their father were strong enough to make it to the shelter.

"What's your part?" Ida asked.

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"My part is simple," Vidar said. "I'm going to fly and see if I can talk the dragons into not killing us all."

Laughter broke out, and Vidar joined them, knowing full well how demented his and Alvarn's plan sounded. From his limited experience, using stakra runes to take to the air was not a simple task.

"Have the other factions made any trouble?"

"There are no longer any other guild factions," Fjodor said. "Some opposed me out in the open. I've dealt with them, but there are some who operate in a more covert manner, taking my men and making them disappear. Before dawn broke, several more people went missing. Even with the sun up, some have just up and vanished. I'm not sure if there's a group out there killing them and perhaps disposing of the bodies into the sewers, or if I have a problem with men defecting."

A big figure filled the doorway. Harald, one of Vidar's students from back when Yallander still drew breath. He nodded to everyone with a look of shyness about him as he went over to the map and filled in a few circles with algiz runes.

Vidar gave him a look and raised an eyebrow. Harald's face brightened a little, and he gave a sly smile. "I practice it a little by myself, with the algiz rune, I mean. And then that mute girl taught me styrka."

"In this short time?" Vidar asked.

"Turns out I'm a natural. Who would have thought it?" Harald straightened, then deflated again, a look of concern on his face.

"What's wrong?" Vidar asked.

"The talk among people out there. Many have lost loved ones, and not to the fires."

"The steward has men distributing bread and water," Fjodor said.

Harald shook his head, tousled hair jumping this way and that. "Not from hunger either. Well, some, I suppose, but they're frightened, whispering of shadows taking folks."

"Superstition," Fjodor said.

"No," Vidar said. "The shadows are real. I've seen them. Don't know what they are or what they want, but they are not mere superstition. Keep your eyes open and your wits about you. We'll deal with shadows after the more imminent threat. If everything goes according to plan, the dragons won't be our foes for much longer."

"You want the dragons to be our friends?" Ida asked. It was obvious what she thought of that idea by the look on her face. She did not like it, and he didn't blame her. Not after one of them burned down almost a fifth of Halmstadt.

"There are five of them," Vidar said. "I don't know much about math, but I know our city won't be left standing for long if they attack, even with the algiz runes. Let's just start with maybe having them back off and not burn us all and see where we go from there."

"Dragons!" someone out front shouted.

They all stared at each other.

Vidar knew they were coming, but knowing that and having it actually happen were two very different things. They all ran outside to join a large gathering of people staring up at the sky with hands shielding their eyes from the glaring sun.

"There!" Linus said, pointing.

At first, the clear blue skies were empty, but then Vidar saw them too. Dots in the far distance.

"Could be birds," someone mumbled.

"Don't be an arse, Stygge," Harald said.

Nervous laughter broke out, but died away just as fast, and Fjodor stepped up in front of the group. "You all know what is expected of you. Keep your barrier runes near at hand at all times and make sure the citizens of Halmstadt are as safe as possible. Because you know what happens if they all die?"

"No one to steal from!" the group shouted in a chorus of voices.

Vidar shook his head and turned to Ida. "I need to go."

She didn't take her eyes off the dots as they grew bigger by the moment. "Be safe."

"Be safe," Vidar said, handing over a key to the underground. "If too many things up here start burning, take Siv, your girls, and the rune scribe students down."

Ida looked down at him then, pursed her lips, and grabbed the key with a small measure of hesitation. "Thank you."

Vidar left the others and ran up the street, heading west toward the rune shop. It wasn't a long distance, but he kept throwing glances up over his shoulder, seeing the dots grow larger and larger. There were five distinct shapes now, and before he turned into the street where Runes Aplenty was located, he could see the beating of their wings as they approached.

People screamed in terror and ran, some looking like they had a clear destination, while others fled without plan or reason.

As he arrived, Vidar didn't bother going into the house. Instead, he continued around to the back, where Alvarn moved this way and that, making minor adjustments.

"Is it done?" Vidar asked.

Rend sat atop the cart, looking up at the sky, and Vidar saw him tremble. From fear or excitement, he didn't know, but that was neither here nor there at that moment. The three of them had a job to do, and they were the only ones who were able and willing.

"It is done," Alvarn said. "Just about. But you will need to rejuvenate these four runes," he indicated the corners of the cart, pointing underneath the carriage. "It will need dragon's essence to lift and stay airborne with so much weight."

Vidar nodded and rejuvenated the runes as instructed and followed Alvarn's finger as his friend explained. "I have extended the circles, as you can see here, here, here, and here. Rend helped me with adding leather straps on the floor here for you to hold on to."

"Wait a moment," Vidar said. "Why are you explaining this to me? You are coming with us, are you not?"

"I can't."

"I'm sure you have done an excellent job building this beautiful thing," Vidar said. "You don't have to be afraid."

Alvarn let out a pained chuckle. "Of course, anyone sitting upon this should be afraid. It has never been done before, and it is most certainly a terrible idea. But that isn't it. It's an issue of weight. It cannot take all three of us, and I weigh as much as you two put together. Stakra runes are not optimal for a slow release of the thrust, so you must be careful to use as little as possible so you can stay airborne until the dragons detect you, so Rend can communicate with them."

Rend nodded. "I speak."

Vidar tapped a metal contraption and nodded to himself. "Of course. I understand. Will you be down here for when we descend?"

"Yes," Alvarn said, walking up to Vidar, nodding to the metal contraption. "This is a horn, and I have rigged it with another stakra rune. This one is rejuvenated with my essence. I've only tested it once, but when you trigger the stakra rune inside through the back here," he showed Vidar, "it should be difficult for dragons to ignore you. Also, there's a logiz rune on the side here, also meant for drawing attention."

"You have thought of everything," Vidar said.

"Doubtful," Alvarn said, looking up. "They're coming."

Vidar jumped a little and looked up. The magnificence of Alvarn's invention was enough to make him forget about the threat for the briefest moment. But he looked up now and saw that his friend was indeed correct. They would be upon Halmstadt in minutes.

Vidar climbed up on the cart, and his weight made the whole thing shift this way and that. The wood creaked, which instilled little confidence in its robustness. This was it. Now or never.

"Ready?" he asked Rend, who nodded.

Vidar looked over at Alvarn and pointed to the cart's floor. "So I just trigger these four?"

"That's correct," Alvarn said. "Those four are the main sources of thrust that will lift the cart. I have joined them together with other stakra runes, which should help with stabilization."

Vidar nodded and grinned. "It only goes up and down?"

"Yes, that's right," Alvarn said.

"For the next version, you should add runes to make it go forward as well."

Alvarn let out a strained chuckle. "Well, my stakra runes from before, when it was just meant to be a cart without a need for oxen or human strength to pull it, are still there. But please don't use them. The cart is not calibrated to move in three-dimensional space like that. It will tip you over."

"I'll try my best to remember that," Vidar said, nodding before he looked over at Rend again. "Let's go meet your friends."