Chapter 8

The Colonel had been right. He got his orders the next day, losing no time, he detached a unit to take his guests to Lakhar.

"You must excuse my hospitality, Sires." He said to Avery and D'am. "The high Lord seems to be in a hurry."

Avery nodded. "Well, colonel, so far we have nothing to complain about. We too would like to see him."

D'am's eyes seemed to pierce the colonel's suave appearance, as he muttered. "So, colonel, can I take it as we are allowed our arms again, then?"

"Ah, yes, your arms. Naturally, my lord."

"Good."

They left soon after their breakfast, riding with the troop. The morning was quite cold with a promise of snow lingering in the air. D'am and Avery were riding together discussing what they could expect.

"Wonder if that old reprobate is there." Said D'am.

"Reprobate?"

"Yes, Mountie. You know, Winds over mountain."

Avery wondered too. Mountie would be a good help, but as he had understood it the Avian had gone to Trellheim first. 'There had been some business with Roland that he had set out to solve, wasn't it?' He looked thoughtfully up at the blue clear sky.

"A nice day D'am, wasn't there something Mountie wanted to check on before coming to Lokgard. Something with Roland, was it?"

"Yes, lad, there was. But after all, he's an Avian. I'm sure he will show up. That old miscreant wouldn't want to miss this."

The journey took them most of three days, and it wasn't until at early noon the third day they came up from the valley to get their first look at Lakhar perched on a cliff. It was a nothing Avery had seen before. The castle looked impossibly slim from the distance. The spires, you couldn't call it towers, as they were so thin, stretched up forever, almost touching the very clouds. It wasn't until they had ridden a bit further Avery realized how vast the castle was in reality.

"I wish Mari was here to see it." He said wistfully. "She would have loved it."

"How old is it?" Asked F'am, looking at the corporal leading their little expedition.

"It's old." Answered the corporal. "It was here a long time before we Avians came to rule. It is said to be magically preserved, and made of all kind of strange and wondrous metals. I don't know, it is true that it seems to change very slowly, no matter the years passing."

"Incredible." Said D'am enthusiastically. "A true dwarfen treasure. It will keep us dwarves happy for a long time. I'm already looking forward to examining it."

As they at last arrived, the castle had grown to immense proportions, dwarfing them in its combination of dull grey massiveness, and slender pillars and spires stretching weightlessly for the sky. As they rode in through its massive portal, finding themselves under an array of arches or bridges, possibly Avery had to admit to finally finding something contending the grandeur of his Emperors palace.

As Mari woke up, she found herself under some sort of green and black fabric shielding her from the sun, with two men lying snoring beside her. As she tried to move she found herself restricted by some strange material that they had used to bind her arms and legs with. She tried to talk, but could only make some groaning sounds, but it was enough to bring in another man, obviously a soldier of some kind, with strange markings all over his face. He said something to her, but as she didn't understand he just lifted a bottle, and helping her up he released her arms to let her drink.

"I'm sorry, sweetie, we don't know who you are." He said, as he reattached her restraints after she had drunk. She had been worried that they would take liberties with her, but these was highly trained men, of high morals and with other objectives. In fact they had almost left her to her fate, first, but somehow they hadn't had the heart to do so. But they couldn't break their mission just because of her appearing.

As the days passed, she started to get to know them some, and with the help of the little bag of herbs she always carried with her, she soon found herself on the mend from her dehydration and sunburns. As they saw her fixing with them, one of the men became very interested.

"Hey, I think we got herself a new medic. And a sweeter one than Rolf, too."

"Tell it to Rolf, Andy. He will be pleased having someone else treating your sorry ass."

They were an attachment of eight originally, but had split up in two four man patrols to cover a larger area in their reconnaissance of the enemy. And they had strict order to get as close to their goal as possible, and then stay there directing air strikes and land forces.

"She's really something else, ain't she. If I wasn't married..."

"Yeah, just wish we could talk with her. She's not from here, anyway."

They took turns teaching her their language, and for once Mari found herself unable to speed up her learning magically. The herbs worked as always, but when it came to magic it was as if there was nothing there, a total absence of anything magical. The men were civil and gave her the privacy she needed, but she still worried, both her clothes and herself needed a good wash by now, and they kept her under a very strict surveillance. On the other hand, she would already have been dead but for their timely interference.

"Well, Andy, at least we will have a little surprise when we meet up, won't we."

"Yeah."

Andy smiled as he watched the gracious young prisoner. Well, not prisoner, it was hard to define exactly what she was, their guest perhaps? At least she acted as if she was, almost regally at times. He was pretty sure she wasn't involved in the war. In fact, she seemed to be almost unaware of there being a war at all, the way she acted. She seemed to understand their need for stealth, though. It was as if she recognised it from before. And Rolf would be interested.

The next day they got new orders through the aerial, and packing up they started to move to their new destination, a valley to the south of them. They were going to meet up with the rest of the men there, and wait for the air strikes. The base they were going to bomb was mostly hidden under rock, and they were needed to guide the missiles to where the openings were hidden.